Why are some apps on the market incompatible with my device? I own a Motorola Flipout, Android 2.1 stock ROM. According to the market the app "Handyticket Deutschland" is not compatible with my phone. The required Android version is 1.5 or above. How can I tell why the app will not work for me?

The Flipout has a comparably small screen. Is it possible that the publisher just forgot to mark my phone's display resolution as supported?

Note: Users from outside Germany see a different message. I believe, those country-restriction are unrelated.

The Android Market has various filters which are applied to the apk in order to find out if the App will run on your device. The most obviously one is the Android version you are on (also called the SDK level).

But this is not the only criteria. There are others like:

Screen Size
Software libraries

Google API
OpenGL

Particular hardware features that are required

Bluetooth
(front) camera
Vibration

Unfortunately it is not that easy to find out why an App "isn't compatible" with a particular device, even for the developer. There are some tools that an developer can use to find the current filter criteria for an .apk but this will not tell him why the Android market doesn't show an app on a device explicitly.

In your case, the small screen size seems to be the reason. You should e-mail the developer and ask him to fix this, if it isn't intended.


Automatic time on Nexus 5X says it's 2017 already, one day ahead This morning I woke up to my phone, a Nexus 5X, telling me that it was already 2017, by saying the date was 1 January 2017. The time was/is still correct to the second, but it is only one day ahead.

My girlfriend had the same issue on her Nexus 5 this morning. Is there more people with the same problem? Can this be fixed or should it be reported?

EDIT: The problem was automatically resolved when I tried a day later

I was just reading this article:

http://android.wonderhowto.com/how-to/set-your-android-atomic-time-for-perfectly-synced-clock-0170500/

It suggests your phone is using the NITZ service to sync time, which relies on good carrier service.

The article says that if this service is bad, it might take your phone out of properly synced time.

You can try installing the suggested app.

Without root, you won't be able to sync automatically, but you can sync manually every week or so.


How can I force-link a Google contact with a Facebook profile? Back when my HTC Desire had its stock Sense, there was an option to link Facebook accounts to Google contacts, by selecting them from the Facebook friends list.

This created fields for my contacts such as:

<HTCData>
<Facebook>id:02394985720/friendof:2103910923|id:123768123/friendof:09812387</Facebook>
</HTCData>

Now, my phone is on CyanogenMod 7. I've added a Facebook account under Synchronization settings, but it seems it only matches contacts who have the same name as their Facebook counterpart. Those who are matched get a Facebook profile link:

The other ones aren't linked. Therefore: How can I force link a Google contact with a Facebook profile? This would allow me to link contacts even if their names are different.

I'm aware of this question: how to link contact with facebook, gmail etc?, but there is no "Join" option for me, and it isn't really answered as well. I'm also aware of SyncMyPix.

First, in the Facebook app, under its Settings, enable synchronization for all contacts.

Open up your contact list and select the Google contact you would like to merge. Then push the menu button and select "Edit Contact". Then hit the menu button one more time and select "Join".

Choose which contact you would like to merge it with and you should be good to go.


Some apps cannot access the internet After my Android Lollipop upgrade on my HTC M8, some apps are unable to access the internet
such as Twitter, but Facebook works perfectly fine. WhatsApp works fine except that I'm unable to receive Media files as well. This only happens with Wi-Fi.

I tried forgetting the network, rebooting the device, turning Wi-Fi, and even hard reset my phone. I reset the modem and done almost everything. Nothing works though.

None of this happened before the update, one more thing is that it only happens with my Home Wi-Fi, other Wi-Fi networks work perfectly fine.

I tried connecting other phones to my home Wi-Fi, and it works perfectly fine.

How can I solve this?

It's a DNS problem. Try using Google's DNS.

Go into your router's advanced setup and change the primary DNS server to 8.8.8.8.


Call using hangouts from contacts I can select Hangouts to replace SMS from the contacts app, but I don't see the option to use Hangouts instead of the default dialer. Is this option available without root?

This configuration, using the system's default contacts app, is officially unsupported as of now:

  You won't be able to use Hangouts as the default app for calling on your Android device, like when you start calls in Google Contacts. But you can choose to use the Hangouts dialer when you touch a phone number on a website or other apps, like Google Search or Maps.

However, in lieu of rooting, you can instead try a third-party contacts application that broadcasts the proper intent for the Hangouts Dialer. Based on a quick test, it appears that Contacts+ does this, meaning that you can tap a contact and it will allow you to complete the call in Hangouts. Other third-party apps may support this as well.


Why hasn't my Galaxy Nexus received the latest OTA update? I have a Galaxy Nexus and I live in Belgium (so my phone is not locked to a specific carrier). The Android version is still 4.0.4 and when I go the system update menu, it doesn't do anything, no OTA update. I thought the version 4.1 or even 4.1.1 was available. How can I update it 'officially'?

Of course, I already searched but I only found update packages that I'm not sure I can trust.

I have the same problem for about half of a year. I've tried entering "checkin" secret code in phone Dialer many times, many weeks in a row, tried to clear data of Google service framework - no luck.

But yesterday I've finally get updated to Android OS 4.1.1! Here is how I did this:

open phone Dialer, enter *#*#2432546#*#* (numbers is representing word "checkin")
wait for message "checkin succeeded" in status bar (you need active internet connection, WiFi or mobile - doesn't matter)
open system Settings -> Apps -> All -> Google Services Framework
click "Force stop" button, wait few seconds
next click "Clear data" button
when open Settings -> About -> System updates. You should see something like "Last checked for update on 1/1/1970"
click "Check now" button
if you didn't receive update yet, repeat this procedure from first
step few more times (I've succeeded after second attempt). You could also try to replace step 7 by step 1.

All this sounds very strange for me, but I've tried some separate parts of this sequence many times before and it didn't work. Yesterday I've repeat all 8 step exactly as them written above, two time in a row - and I've finally get Jelly Bean on my Galaxy Nexus (I have yakjuxw firmware).


Anyone having the same problem with Facebook/Android not showing photo's uploaded from the phone Has anyone noticed the problem when uploading photo's to Facebook using the Facebook for Android application ?

I uploaded photo's last week , and they displayed ok in FB/Android.

I did the same this weekend (uploading photo's using FB/Android), and now they are not visible in FB/Android (just showing the brown image place holder), although they are uploaded and displaying fine on FB/Windows .

My collegue noticed the same here.

From a couple of days a noticed too, that some pictures from Facebook are not shown. If I login later they will show up, but other pictures will not.

I saw a news that they made some changes to photos infrastructure so it's possible to be a temporary outage until they consolidate the new changes on all servers.


Facebook individual tone Is there a way in Facebook messenger to customize the message tone for individual people? I can change the Default tone for everyone but I want to change for individual people.

If by 'tone' you mean colour, then you sure can: Go to Messages Tab -> (Contact) -> Press the  in the top right corner -> Scroll down until you see 'colour', enjoy the colours.
-Daniel ✓


Xperia Z2 Won't install rom's This is my first time posting here, but I've used this a fair amount on previous phones to get root and rom's on.

I recently bought an Xperia Z2 online. I've spent the last few days trying to install cyanogenmod on the phone to no avail. Currently. So I'll outline the full process I'm using. I initially unlocked the phone using fastboot and sony official unlock method. I don't know fully if that carries over, or if it's problem if not. Then I flash on D6503_17.1.2.A.0.314_UK_Generic.ftf with the flashtools program. Using this video link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEWheFGJRJ0, including all their specified files, I then root the phone, which is all fine. Then using another of his videos, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubwdracEvyc , I install TWRP recovery, however his link is broken and I instead use the most updated zip file in the xzdualrecovery tab of nut.xperia-files.com/ . Downloading the latest xperia z2 nightly build from cyanogenmod website, I then load that onto the sd card, backup my system then do a full reset+wipe. It's here that I run into my erros. After clicking install from zip and selecting the CM12 nightly build, it begins running through the script and will then abort installation with the error

"This build is for D6502, D6503.. Sirius; This phone is "Castor"

Castor being the xperia z2 tablet. Loading on the Castor CM build will soft brick the phone and require a fresh restart from stock rom.

Loading up CM12's script file and removing the checks for phone version, I then get the following script install problem with no error code or message.

Installing update...

E: installation aborted

I've tried this with another rom running into literally the same 2 issues.
Does anyone know what is going on and how I can fix it to install CM?

Alright, so I found the solution and it was all to do with my own incompetence.
I was flashing on the wrong recovery, instead of the recovery for the Xperia z2 I was putting on the Z2 tablet recovery. Hence why the recovery mode was detecting "Castor" instead of "Sirius". Flashing on the right recovery immediately solved my flashing problem and now I'm running CM12.


How do I get the camera of the Lenovo ThinkPad to stop making a sound when I take a picture? Possible Duplicate:
  How do I disable the 'click' sound on the camera app?

I'm not sure if this question is specific to Lenovo ThinkPads or if it is more general to Android 3.1 devices (I haven't upgraded to ICS yet since I don't want to risk losing root right now).

But basically, even when I turn the volume all the way down to 0, my ThinkPad still always makes a sound whenever I take a picture with it.

You're root, you could replace the sound files with silent clips. This is what I've found:

find /system -name '*ogg' | grep cam
/system/media/audio/ui/camera_click.ogg
/system/media/audio/ui/camera_focus.ogg

Audacity is a free and open editor to create an empty or  silent sample and export it as an ogg file.

EDIT: According to this question/answer you can also delete or rename the camera_click.ogg file. Plus: Before you do, you need to

mount -oremount,rw /system
[remove/edit the above ogg files]
mount -oremount,ro /system


How can I make voice search know that a certain first name is always that specific contact? I have a Nexus 5 with the Okay Google search feature. I can theoretically use it to send text messages hands-free.

However, my wife has a common name, and I have several other contacts with the same first name -- and it wouldn't be surprising for me to know someone with the same last name too. And, she has a work phone number instead of mobile. So, instead of being convenient, there's a whole back-and-forth interrogation.

There must be some way to tell it that when I say "text Karen", I always get my Karen. Right? I tried to look for some "remember this decision" setting, or for some way to mark people as special in the People app, but no luck.

I could come up with some silly nickname, I guess, but I don't want to have to do that. I'm hoping there's some real solution.

Would this help? Then you could say "text my wife"...

Add relationships to your contacts


Why does unlocking the bootloader wipe phone? I understand that unlocking the bootloader will wipe my Android phone, but have been looking around for why.  Seems to be by design, but what is the reasoning for that design?  Is it some security concern, some obscure technical reason, or just for lulz?  I'm looking for something solid to chew on here, something more than because "that's how it is".

It's a security concern. The Android documentation doesn't provide a lot of elaboration, stating simply:

  The procedure must be confirmed on-screen, and deletes the user data for privacy reasons.

However, the privacy concern is relatively straightforward to extrapolate. Once the bootloader is unlocked, the device can be flashed with unsigned images. This means that it is relatively trivial to root the device, and there are actually multiple ways it can be done, such as:

Flashing a system image with root tools built in
Flashing a boot image that runs adbd with root by default (an "unsecure" image)
Flashing a recovery image, then using that to overwrite the system or boot partitions with ones that allow root access

Once root is obtained, all of the information on /data essentially becomes accessible. This could be emails, contact information, or many other pieces of personal information that you likely don't want in the wrong hands. Therefore, it makes sense to wipe all of this data during the unlocking procedure to ensure that there is no off-the-shelf "official" way of bypassing the sandboxing restrictions implemented by the Android operating system, which would thereby allow someone to steal personal data.

Of course, there may be ways to root without wiping on some devices, but they rely on exploits rather than official methods like a bootloader unlock, meaning they are basically bugs.


There is an app to send/read SMS from the desktop using the Internet? Possible Duplicate:
  How do I send SMS from PC through Android Phone or to Android Phone?

There are many apps to send/read SMS from the desktop using a Wi-Fi connection, but my cyanogenmod rom doesn't play nice with my Thomson router so I can't use them.

There is an app that uses the 3G internet connection for that?

Better if it's a webapp.

I have used DeskSMS over a Wi-Fi tether, and it works fine.

It is supposed to work over 3G, but I have not tested this.


Will wipe request from Android Device Manager affect replacement device? I had a Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 stolen, so a remote wipe was sent from Android Device Manager. I have a spare tablet of the same model that I need to set up with the same account as the stolen one.  When I sign into the Google account on the new device, will the pending remote wipe command affect it, or is that request somehow tied to the specific device it was originally issued to? I'm only concerned because the device is only identified by model number in ADM, rather than MAC or serial, so I want to be sure ADM won't send that command to the next thing signed in to with that Google account.
Thanks!

Short answer

No.

Some background

As you can have multiple devices associated with the same account (even if they're all of the same brand and model) and still target them separately, there must be an identifier. Logical conclusion is that identifier being the GSF1 android_id. When you register your "replacement", a new android_id will be created for your specific installation2, and stored with the device's configuration. This serves as device identifier for all related operations/interactions between your device and Google services, e.g. for GCM3 and Google Play (apps).

Hence I'd say it's safe to assume the same is used by ADM4, as it's part of Google Services as well. So as long as you don't restore a full backup of your old device, but register e.g. via the setup assistant, your replacement will get a new android_id and thus not receive the "wipe request" addressed at a different android_id.

Another proof to that I've just found on Reddit: Someone had setup multiple devices using the same Nandroid backup taken from a fully configured device, and hence with the same android_id. Result was ADM seeing them all as one device, always "communicating" with the last-used device.5 The issue was solved by resetting the ID.

References for further investigation

XDA: What is the Android Device-ID?
SO: GSF ID KEY (google service framework id) as Android device unique identifier
Reddit: Multiple devices with the same android ID

1: Google Services Framework
2: This is done whenever you register a device, i.e. associate it with your Google account
3: Google Cloud Messaging, e.g. used in the SE app to notify you that you've been mentioned or got an answer to your questions
4: Android Device Manager
5: Quote: it seems like the last device booted is recognized online, the other one isn't


Display Actual Number Notification Dot Non Samsung Devices So on Samsung phones running Oreo active notifications aka notification dots(on other devices) actually displays a number of the active notifications.

Is there a way to get the number(& not just the dot) to display on non Samsung Android Oreo devices?

So after some searching it appears Notifyer actually does work but there is a setting you have to change.  First create the widget of the application and put it on your desktop.  Next open the Notifyer app and go under settings for the specific application.

Lastly you must uncheck use native count.  If you would like you can also check group notifications.


How to Right-click in Chrome Remote Desktop? I want to right-click in host OS Windows 8.1 using Chrome Remote Desktop app. How to do this?

Android platform: Nexus 7 (Android 4.4.2 KitKat) - No OTG Mouse attached

You can right click by using 2 fingers at once. This is the same for Microsoft's RD Client app for Android as well.


Error Installing System Update How can I fix my phone so that it will boot up again like normal?

When it tries to start up, I see the Samsung Galaxy S9 Secured by Knox Powered by android screen. After this screen vibrates, it restarts and returns to the same screen. Here's a picture of the screen.

If I press the volume up, power and button below the volume, then it will show the same Samsung Galaxy S9 Secured by Knox Powered by android screen. After that, it will show a Installing system update screen. Then it will progress to 28% and restart. Here's a picture of the screen below.

While it was trying to install the system update, I was able to push the volume up key and power key at the same time. It gave me the following screenshot.

I went to a uBreakiFix location. They flashed the OS for me for free. This was great since I didn't have to re-setup my phone. They have an agreement with Samsung to help with this. I don't have any affiliation to uBreakiFix other than as a customer.


How can I get cloud integration working again in Android 5.1? When I tap Cloud in system settings, nothing happens. At first I thought it was because my odex file was messed up, but I fixed that and the permissions are set correctly. Cloudhub.apk is also present in /system/app, but I can't find an entry in the dalvik cache. Is there a way I can reinstall this properly?

Solved this myself, I figured out I needed to use the original Cloudhub.apk that came with my stock firmware. I was trying to use one pulled from a G3, and that's a no-go. If anyone runs into this issue, make sure you use an original APK, odex file and dummy library file pulled from the system apps directory of original Stylo firmware. And permissions must be set correctly. That should solve the problem and allow you full access to cloud services in the photo Gallery and elsewhere.


Phone always goes to TWRP recovery when powered on I just recently installed/flashed TWRP Recovery on my rooted Samsung Galaxy S6 running Android 5.1.1 with no custom rom.

TWRP Recovery runs fine I assume (haven't tried any features), although whenever I now boot up my phone it goes straight to TWRP recovery. I definitely do not want this, help?

How I installed TWRP Recovery:

Downloaded and installed Flashify from Play Store
Opened Flashify and selected Install Recovery (or similar) and selected TWRP
Downloaded ..forgot.. It ended with .img
Pressed "Yup!" To flashing it
Pressed "Reboot Now"

I don't really know much about flashing stuff/TWRP and really any advanced root stuff. How do I make my phone not boot into TWRP Recovery every time (I can't access my phone now...)Phone's model number: SM-G920I

DM-Verity

  "This device uses dm-verity!
  This means that swiping to allow system modifications will prevent you from being able to boot if you are using the stock kernel. In order to bypass dm-verity's boot prevention, you will have to install a kernel that has dm-verity disabled in the fstab."

DM-Verity Reference: https://twrp.me/devices/samsunggalaxys6.html

Is most likely the culprit here.  What this does is run a check on boot and if you are using the stock kernel and it sees a different recovery or even ROM than DM-Verity expects it will not allow you to boot the OS and only recovery so that you can put the official OS and recovery back.  The only way to fix this is to use a custom kernel (or custom ROM that includes a custom kernel),

OR of course if you were to do a full factory image flash (using ODiN you visit Samsung site and get the Factory image meant for your device (be sure model matches your phone's before downloading), put device in download mode and run Odin to flash the factory image.  Of course you will lose root and the custom recovery this way, but it should boot.

Since you did not include your actual model number I hesitate to link just any ROM or Kernel as they may be intended for another variety of the S6.  If you would like comment or edit your question and add the SM-blah model number and I can be of more help in linking ROMs/Kernels (not really what this site is for, but if you need those to get your phone basically running I can at least find the most popular variety of what you need which should hopefully get you working again.  Yuo can google SM-blah ROM XDA and that should give you links to the XDA forums for your device.  They are very well know community that does custom Android work of all kinds.  I can't say it enough make sure you verify your phone's SM-blah model number against the developers ROM info page to make sure it is actually meant to be used with the exact version of the S6 you have.

Possibly Flashify (DOUBT IT)
Flashify selected the wrong partition automatically (it does warn you to verify it chose the right partition before flash), so you would need to flash a ROM and start again (Flash ROM, GApps AND Recovery.zip [https://twrp.me/devices/samsunggalaxys6.html])  DO NOT FORGET TO FLASH THE RECOVERY IF IT IS IN WRONG PLACE YOU NEED TO GET IT IN RIGHT PLACE BEFORE RESTARTING AFTER FLASHING THE OS IF NOT YOU MAY LOSE THE RECOVERY.


How to see download count of an Android app on Google Play store? I cannot see the download counts of one app on Google Play.

How can we know that number of one app?

As an end user, there is no way to know the exact number of downloads. But you can see a range if you scroll down the app page and look at the Installs section within Additional Information.


Set transfer encoding in stock email app I use Android's stock email client "com.android.email" version 8.1.0 on Samsung Galaxy J5 running LineageOS.

I noticed that the emails are sent using

Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64

I'd like to change this to something like

Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Going through the email client's options, I couldn't find anything relevant. Is there still a way to change the transfer encoding for the email body?

The AOSP Email client has only support for base64 (text body and attachments). This is hard coded in the source code hence you won't find any UI setting to change it. The source code even contains a comment on this topic:

  Note this always uses base64, even when not required.  Slightly less
  efficient for US-ASCII text, but handles all formats even when non-ascii chars are involved.  A small optimization might be to prescan the string for safety and send raw if possible.

Rfc822Output.java line 354 to line 385 (relevant function for text encoding in the source code)


Is there any way to recover data from 2nd SD partition? From the beginning. I was using Link2SD in order to save up some internal memory, but today I noticed that all apps moved to to second partition (EXT2) magically disappeared. I don't want to repair Link2SD because I'm going to change phone very soon. I want to recover data from /data/sdext2, but i can't mount it. I want to recover this data because I change SDCard too. Link2SD saying something about invalid argument during creating mount script. Is there any way to access this data so far? Or I must say goodbye to them?

PS. First partition is safe and sound. It works great.

To access second partition on SD card if it's not deleted, you may adopt multiple approaches listed below. For deleted partitons or deleted files, you may use tools like testdisk and extundelete which doesn't seem to be the case here.

LINUX / WINDOWS

As mentioned by @iBug, you can remove SD card from phone and insert in a PC with Linux OS like Ubuntu. You will be able to access both partitions there. File browsers like Nautilus and Dolphin by default show all formatted partitions in left panel on newly inserted media.
In order to directly mount a partition from Android device to Linux PC, you can expose it as a USB Mass Storage device. By default UMS is disabled on newer devices but can be enabled by a little hacking.

Windows by default only mounts first accessible partition on SD cards and other removable media. However, if you want to access second partition on Windows, it is possible. You need to make SD card a local hard disk drive using a hacked driver like Cfadisk usb driver. Follow this link for detailed guide.

ACCESS 2nd PARTITION FROM ANDROID

Some custom builds of TWRP auto-mount SD card second partition under something like /sd-ext etc. If not so, you can mount it yourself in Android recovery or ROM, as you seem to have already rooted device.

Reboot in TWRP recovery and use built-in terminal app there. Or if you want to do it from ROM, install terminal emulator app like Terminal Emulator if you don't have one already. Third option is to use adb, in ROM  or in recovery.
Find how kernel names block devices on your phone:

~# ls /dev/block/

You will find a number of devices there. On a typical Qualcomm device, mmcblk0 will be representing internal memory i.e. eMMC and mmcblk1 will be representing external SD card. Though there will be many other internal partitions and loop devices, we are concerned with three entries of external SD card:

mmcblk1    mmcblk1p1    mmcblk1p2

Here mmcblk1p2 is the second partition on SD card.
For confirmation:

~# fdisk /dev/block/mmcblk1p2

This will show details about SD card second partition including size.
Mount partition:

~# mkdir /sd_ext
~# mount -o ro /dev/block/mmcblk1p2 /sd_ext

First command will create a directory sd_ext under your root which you may access from any file explorer or command-line. ro option in second command will mount the partition read-only so that you may not harm any data accidentally. You may eliminate this.
If not successful, you may need to specify filesystem yourself what you used at the time of partitioning:

~# mount -t ext4 -o ro /dev/block/mmcblk1p2 /sd_ext

To know which filesystem a partition has:

~# blkid /dev/block/mmcblk1p2

There are many other tools that can be used for the purpose like parted, fsck and tune2fs etc. but these might not be necessarily available.
Mounted partition will be un-mounted automatically on reboot. You can do this manually:

~# umount /sd_ext

NOTE:

Be cautious not to touch second partition on internal memory which may belong to bootloader. Or you may brick your phone.
All commands used above need root access and binaries are included in TWRP. You may install busybox in ROM if any command not found.

RELATED:

How disk space is partitioned in an Android phone?
Why can't I see Android storage as a partition on PC?
How to mount Internal Storage as USB Mass Storage for recovering data?
How to fix USB Mass Storage not recognized by PC?
How to recover a deleted file from /data partition?
How to take full image backup of eMMC?


google play services do not support your device When I open some application it says Google play services it says "Google play services which some of your applications rely n do not support or device"..what should I do about it?

Following steps helped me. May be you can try.

Go to Settings -> Apps
Find Google play
Click on Uninstall updates
Once Uninstall update is done, Open Google Play several times till it updates to latest version itself.
Open youtube to check if the message is gone and you are able to open youtube.


Recovery from fastboot I have a Sanyo Zio that is completely non-functional but for being able to get into fastboot.

Two questions:

1) I gather that the answer to this problem generally is to install a boot.img from fastboot.  Is this correct?

2) Is there a place where such boot images are archived?  Search as I may, I can't find such a site.

I don't know anything about this phone, but this thread on xda has dump of the stock ROM. I am not sure if it includes the boot.img or not. The dump seems to be android 1.6, the original thread is here and is HUGE.

There is also a 2.2 thread here and it does look like the Zio has its own section on XDA as well. In the Development section, i found this thread. It has the boot.img, but someone posted saying they were unable to use them. I would suggest sending a PM to the person that pulled the boot.img off the device in that thread.

I hope this helps you in some way... I know what it's like to brick a phone, good luck.


Can't use android pay after removing root I had kingroot and I uninstalled it through kingroot uninstall option in the options menu. However, I still can't add a credit card to android pay. It says Google is unable to verify that your device or the software running on it is android compatible. I also tried deleting random folders I found with the name kingroot, I tried using ccleaner, and I tried deleting data from android pay and uninstall/reinstall android pay.

Turned out I had to re-flash firmware for it to work. Instructions for re-flashing firmware for my specific device (lg g3) were incorrect which bricked my device. Luckily I found that clicking the other action mode than the one stated did the trick and my device was un-bricked. Was a scary few hours. At the end though my lg g3 worked and all residue of kingroot was gone!


adb 1.0.31 fails to detect device I noticed a strange behaviour. I am fixing different bug, so I am trying different version of adb one by one on my phone.

I tried 1.0.26, 1.0.29, 1.0.31, 1.0.32, 1.0.36, all except for 1.0.31 are able to detect my device.

my phone is
MI4LTE

Android
6.0.1 MMB29M

and I am using MIUI
MIUI 8.1 | Stable 8.1.3.0(MXDCNDI)

Anyone has an idea what could possibly cuase that?

Problem was caused by phone not set in USB charging mode in settings

Settings > Additional settings > Developer options > Select USB Configurations > Charging only

This made 1.0.31 behave just like remaining versions of ADB mentioned in the question.


After factory reset Market keeps crashing on Galaxy S2 on ICS My phone was stuck in a bootloop, so I had to factory reset it. Now a new problem has arisen, which is that the Play Store is gone, and I am back at Market but it won't open and keeps crashing. Please tell me how to get the update from Android Market to the Google Play Store or at least get Android Market working.

Phone Model: Samsung Galaxy S2  (I9100)
Android version: 4.0.3 (ICS)

Guess what I was running out of time and did factory reset again and din't do any of things told like clearing cache, data for market this time and within 15 minutes market got updated to Play store.
Only change is I connected it over data than over wifi to internet.


Can I collect data from 5 different device with BLE from my Android phone? I have a custom made device something from https://mbientlab.com/ and I want to collect data from 5 of them through Bluetooth through android phone. Is it possible? I would greatly appreciate a link which shows how to do it? IS using PICONET for BLE is the solution? Is such an app already exist?

Since the app would be specific to the protocol the device uses to stream data, you need to talk to the manufacturer about this possibility. Since they advertise an "open source API" for communicating with the devices, it may be that they recommend you develop your own app to do this.

One thing to bear in mind is that the total amount of bandwidth available is not that huge. If you're simply collecting events (such as "the temperature went past a limit"), or if you're sampling data every few seconds, that should be fine (depending on the protocol they've used). If you want to collect (say) accelerometer readings 100 times a second, that might limit you to only one or two devices at a time, depending on what phone you're using to collect the data.


Your battery has been infected with 2 viruses. Click to remove. Phone vibrates like crazy :'( My colleague was surfing the net with my NEW android in my absence. I do not know what he surfed but when I clicked "back" in the browser ..It took me to a website called "cookmobiapps.xyz" and my mobile just started vibrating continuously with a message "your battery is infected with 2 viruses, hit OK to remove. DO NOT LEAVE WEBPAGE" Everything on the screen froze so I clicked OK, then a screen appeared asking me to download an app from googleplay (which I didnt). My phone works fine now and I have not tried hitting the back button again. Why did this happen? What was that message about? Its a new phone and Im very worried :'(

Reposted from comments by user154667:

  I installed 360 Security antivirus for Android, which detected a malware (that I removed). I deleted the history, cookies, cache, etc. I cleared the cache through some app manager, and it worked. I'm not getting those malicious websites now when I hit Back.


Will gingerbread system apk apps upgrade over froyo's? On my froyo , I just found several apk files of gallery, FMradio, etc etc inside "/" directory using filemanager.. I was wondering if gingerbread's system apps can be used to "upgrade" over these froyo system apps.. Would it void my warranty? would it cease OTA upgrades?

If anyone could also give the sources to gingerbread system files apk's it would be good.

It would almost certainly void your warranty, even if you somehow managed to do it without rooting.  They also probably wouldn't work -- 2.3 introduced several features that aren't present in 2.2.  And apart from Google apps, many apps like Gallery/etc. are device specific.


Avoid Security for Outlook app in Android for lock screen I had a concern recently regarding my lock screen privileges.

I recently installed Microsoft Outlook App for Android and with the installation they asked me to encrypt my phone with either pin, pattern or password which was compulsory and without that the outlook can not be started in the phone. After creating a pattern and logging in my credentials, I went to the lock screen menu from settings and what I find out is that I cannot go back to the normal "NONE" option for my screen lock facility.

I have a dead-end showing as:

  Disabled by Administrator, encryption policy, or credential storage.

I am really not a fan of cell phone security and am happy to keep it simple as it looks. Does anyone have a solution for this issue without uninstalling the application?

Depending on your device and version of android you are running. You can goto Settings > Security > Device Administrators. Then uncheck the box for Microsoft Outlook App. That should allow you to go back to "none" for unlocking. Not sure how it would affect the app.


Galaxy J3 Wi-Fi issues (Android 8.0.0) Expected functionality:
Wi-Fi works.

Actual functionality:
Wi-Fi sometimes connects and works fine. Other times, it will say "Internet connection may not be available." Sometimes it will say "Connected." but then the Internet won't actually work. It's not the signal range because there are 3 or 4 bars. My laptop in the same room connects to the Internet via Wi-Fi correctly.

I have tried:
Resetting network settings,
Setting static information and not DHCP.

It's a brand new phone.

Most probably this will be because of service providers issue, not from your phone.

I have seen this kind of behaviour mostly from jio network in India.
And all other network providers also now a days having this network glitches because of many criteria like tight fights in business, many changes in telecom regulations etc.,

Suggestion that I can give is place your phone in some good position where signal is best.
And you can ask your neighbors with same network if they are having internet speed issue.


Why is the com.android.browser process draining my battery? I have a Samsung Galaxy Note with stock 4.0.4 ROM. The battery drains very fast and the phone is often warm. Reboot doesn't help. Settings says that com.android.browser (Internet) uses most of the battery. I never use default browser, I only use Chrome.

I suspect that some background process it creating a heavy load and using the internet connection. I think browser is used by other applications, but I'm not able to figure out which application is related. I suspect maybe ad supported applications are the root of the problem.

Is there any solution or app to figure out the origin of the problem?

The root of the problem is Internet sync related. The system is not able to sync internet settings.

http://blog.abrah.am/2011/12/sync-is-currently-experiencing-problems.html


Is there any way to connect 'Samsung galaxy tab 2 p3100' to a monitor i want to know how to connect the galaxy tab 2 p3100 to my monitor through hdmi or dvi interface. is it possible or not. i tried google but can't find any solution.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 does not support any form of video out.  The necessary hardware was not included in the design for cost-cutting reasons.  Only the 10.1 has MHL capability.

source: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=37032295&postcount=110


Suggestions for syncing data to someone besides Google? Funambol? I've been toying with the idea of getting away from syncing my contacts and calendar with Google. I'd like more control over my data. I've heard that Funambol might be a good solution to this and I'm wondering about other ideas folks might have for syncing and address book and calendar between Anroid and a desktop mail app (Thunderbird, in my case).

I keep the Thunderbird address book on my Ubuntu laptop up to date, so I'd like to be able to synchronize those contacts with my phone and (preferably) have them backed up to a place where I might be able to access them from another location. It would be great to be syncing a calendar as well, though that is less key. Are there ways to do this without backing everything up to Google's hive mind?

You might also want to take a look at ownCloud. It comes with its own Android App. Quoting Wikipedia:

  ownCloud is a software suite that provides a location-independent storage area for data (cloud storage). The project was launched in January 2010 by KDE developer Frank Karlitschek to create a Free software alternative to commercial cloud providers. In contrast to commercial storage services, ownCloud can be installed on a private server at no additional cost.

Which means: You can run it on your own hardware. But there are also some providers offering this service. Or you could have your ownCloud hosted with a provider of your own choice.

ownCloud is under permanent development -- so listing its features here would not be wise, as things might change. If all three links I provided "go dead", the service will probably as well -- so as long as this is not the case, please refer to those links for closer information.


Can I stream video from PC to an android device over USB? I'd like to be able to stream video to my android phone (Samsung Galaxy S rooted 2.2) from a PC running Windows XP (I'm at work!).

There's no wireless network here, VLC and similar marketplace apps seem to only offer this service over wifi/3G; can I over USB?

You could turn on "USB Tethering", then run some media server like VLC carefully configured with RTSP streaming on your local server. Then open up the stock browser on android, type in your local ip (prefixed with rtsp:// protocol instead of http) of the pc followed by the port number as set in VLC or equivalent. The Android media player should launch if all is set and should start to play the video.

The local ip must be the ip of the PC running VLC or equivalent media server. You'll need to find it through right clicking the active LAN connection (of usb tether) > status > "IP address : "..

Do disable firewalls or add exclusions appropriately for this to work, also, set the VLC with proper video transcoding format that your android can play.

Warning: you might want to disable data pack when enabling the usb tether to avoid incurring unwanted costs.


How do I disable Daylight Saving Time (DST)? I have a Samsung Galaxy S6. This year I'm doing an experiment wherein I do not participate in Daylight Saving Time (DST). However, my phone automatically adjusts itself for DST.

How do I disable this? Is there any way too stop my phone's clock from adding or removing an hour twice a year?

Android uses tzdata (IANA Time Zone Database) to store time zone data, and Daylight Saving Time (DST) information is included in it. The data tells if DST is observed from what date/time to what date/time on a given time zone. Thus, you can't really disable the DST if you're using a time zone that observes DST.

Therefore, to "disable" the DST, you have to choose a time zone that doesn't observe DST, and has same offset with your current time zone. (You can try to find it from Wikipedia's List of tz database time zones)

Example:

Brussels, Belgium (GMT+01:00) observes DST, while it's on DST, its offset will be GMT+02:00.
Brazzaville, Congo (GMT+01:00) doesn't observe DST.

You also have to turn off Automatic time zone option to prevent it being changed back to the network provided time zone.


Why Changing Permissions For Some Systems Files is Not Allowed? I have a rooted  tablet and while browsing my files, i came along this folder: (./0/android/data) in the internal storage ... lets say (X-plore file browser) has the folder: (./0/android/data/x-plore).

For some reason, i wanted  to change the permissions for that program, instead of giving it the permissions: (reading, writing, executing) ... it will be (reading & executing).

The problem is it says (process failed, some file systems do not allow changing permissions) using Root browser or ES File Explorer (both with root access).

1- Why it says i can not change permissions although i have the root access already ?

2- Why it refers to a folder of an external application [(./0/android/data/x-plore)] as a system file ?

On more recent phones, internal storage is mounted on a FUSE mount point. Here's the corresponding line from mount executed on my Nexus 6P:

  /dev/fuse on /storage/emulated type fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other)

FUSE only acts as an interface that translates the underneath actual filesystem. In Android's case, it's usually VFAT, exFAT or something similar, to guarantee readability under a variety of host OS. FAT and NTFS filesystems don't support granular file permissions under Linux-based OS - everything is pre-determined by how the drive was mounted, resulting in the default permission you see. This leads to Root Explorer throwing the error in the screenshot.

Note: I'm not exactly good at Linux, and have also learned quite a bit myself as I searched for materials that could answer this question, so feel free to edit and improve this answer with more professional ideas.


What is needed to run ELF binaries compiled from android APKs? (understanding android internals) I'm trying to understand how Android works internally. Before ART, it used Dalvik to run java code. I guess it created a Dalkiv process in 'Linux' kernel which was simply a VM that ran the dex bytecode.

For ART, the dex bytecode is compiled into instructions in the processor's architecture (happens during the installation process). This compiled dex bytecode is stored into an ELF binary. So it's somethig that 'Linux' kernel can understand.

So suppose I wanted to run this ELF binary on Linux. Besides ashmem and binder kernel modules, what more would I need? Which libraries do this ELF binary require? Is this ELF binary simply launched as a linux process?

I tried reading anbox.io source code, but I couldn't understand how it launched an ELF binary from an APK. Maybe understanding what it's required to run it will make me understand anbox.io's source code better.

I also found https://android.googlesource.com/platform/art/+/refs/heads/master/runtime/ but I don't know where to begin. What is /runtime? Is it a program, a library? Is Android Runtime something that is linked together with the ELF binary generated from dex bytecode?

What is needed to run ELF binaries compiled from Android APKs?

A simple hello world app which does nothing except printing Hello World! (no animations, no sounds, no menus), running on Android 9 device:

Opens 30+ files, anonymous inodes and UNIX sockets explicitly.
Shares 500+ memory-mapped files from /data, /system, /vendor and /dev.
Communicates, at least, to Surface Flinger (through Window Manager in system_server) to display something on screen. There can possibly be more IPCs (Binders or others).
Needs Activity Manager, Package Manager and possibly other services running in system_server which manage app's classes related to activity creation and permissions.
Needs zygote process running to fork VMs for system_server and the app itself.

So all of these requirements must be fulfilled to run ELF binary (shared object: /data/app/com.ravipatel.helloworld.test-*/oat/arm64/base.odex) compiled from APK.

As a comparison, a hello world Java program compiled with GCJ dynamically links to less than 5 libraries. While a similar C program (statically linked) has no runtime dependencies except the required architecture.

  I guess it created a Dalkiv process in 'Linux' kernel which was simply a VM that ran the dex bytecode.

No. Dalvik wasn't a Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM; if that's what you mean). Both Dalvik and ART are Process VMs which run in userspace.

  For ART, the dex bytecode is compiled into instructions in the processor's architecture (happens during the installation process).

It's profile-guided, rarely happens during the installation process.

  What is /runtime? Is it a program, a library?

Runtime is an environment in which programs written in a specific language run. ART is a runtime for Java. It mainly consists of native executable binaries / shared libraries (including a VM / interpreter / JIT compiler and OAT compiler) and standard Java class libraries (mostly in the from of .jar files) saved in /system.

Other well-known example is Java Runtime Environment (JRE) by Oracle/Sun which is found on mostly PCs.

  Is Android Runtime something that is linked together with the ELF binary generated from dex bytecode?

Correct.

  Is this ELF binary simply launched as a Linux process?

No. The ELF binary compiled from .dex file in APK is not an executable but a shared object. So it needs to be loaded in memory along with other dependencies by some other process, which is ART (VM).

  So suppose I wanted to run this ELF binary on Linux. Besides ashmem and binder kernel modules, what more would I need? Which libraries do this ELF binary require?

First of all you cannot run the ELF binary on a non-Android Linux system because the binary is not a statically linked executable. But even if it is, there are even bigger constraints, particularly Android's hardware abstraction. binders and ashmem are IPC mechanisms. They make sense only if the processes to whom the app wants to communicate also exist, which is not the case. With Linux based Java SDKs it's relatively easy to achieve.

RELATED:

Android apps for “armeabi-v7a” and “x86” architecture: SoC vs. Processor vs. ABI
AOT Compilation in HotSpot (jaotc)
JIT vs. AOT: Unity And Conflict of Dynamic and Static Compilers


Saving pix from Google camera to SD card I have tried all the suggestions in the forum, but to no avail...

What I have:
Galaxy S4, 8GB internal, 64GB SD card, Omega ROM with Android 4.3 (TouchWiz); has Samsung camera AND Google camera (with Photosphere) which I prefer much more than the Samsung camera.

Samsung camera makes it easy to store pix on ext. SD card. Cannot find any setting or way to do the same with Google camera. Even tried deleting DCIM on internal SD card, hoping I would be asked where I wanted to store pix. But DCIM and subfolders were just recreated on the internal SD card.

With only 8GB internal, I need to clear more space out. That's why this is so important. Any help?

Unfortunately the Google Camera app does not natively support saving pictures/videos/panoramas to SD Card.  I am guessing that this goes with Google's general stance against SD cards in general.  If your device is not rooted, you are stuck with having to manually move the images/videos.

For rooted devices, there is a work-around to this limitation.  Xposed framework allows various modules to override many stock firmware options without using 3rd-party ROMs.  It should also work on custom ROMs, but that isn't "officially" supported by the framework's developer.  You will need the Pictures2SD module, which makes all media from various camera apps (including Google Camera) to be automatically saved to the DCIM folder of the SD Card.

Xposed Installer app is not directly available via the Google Play Store, so after rooting your S4 (looks like you are already rooted, since you're running a custom ROM), you will need to allow side-loading of applications via Settings -> Security -> Unknown sources, download and install the APK from here, and activate it according to these instructions:

  Installation of the framework:

  Download the Xposed Installer APK and install it
  Launch the Xposed Installer, go to the "Framework" section and click on "Install/Update"
  Reboot
  Done!

After that, the installation of modules is pretty straight-forward:

  Installation of any modules:

  Download .apk (e.g. via the
  builtin repository browser) and install it
  Launch the Xposed Installer
  and go to the "Modules" section (you will also get there if you click
  on the notification warning you that the module is not enabled yet)
  Enable the module by checking the checkbox
  Reboot
  Done!


Why doesnt my Phone vibrate for messages Currently, when I put my phone into vibrate mode, it only vibrates for calls. It does nothing for texts or emails, however, so I don't know when I've received one. Does anyone know a way to enable vibrating when a text or an email is received? My phone is a Samsung Galaxy S GT-I9003 superclear LCS.

Go to "Messages", click on the menu button, choose "Settings". Then you can choose whether to vibrate or not in the "Notifications".


Google Play store showing updates after several weeks? Se the screenshot above. When I check for updates, Play store shows some updates that has been available for a few days, or even a few weeks. However when I was checking a few hours/days earlier, it did not show up. This means Play is postponing some updates. Why does this happen? Is there any way I can always get the latest updates as soon as they're published?

When it says under Gboard "Updated 4 weeks ago", it means that the last time you updated the app was 4 weeks ago, and not that a new update was available 4 weeks ago.

My proof?
The Chinese app that appears under Gboard was never updated by you.
It should have also ben said "Updated x days ago".

And look at Google app under that, you updated it 3 min ago and not that Google pushed out an update 3 min ago.


Migrating game data from Windows 8.1 to Android 4.4 I have been playing Asphalt 8: Airborne on Windows 8.1, and now I want to continue playing it on Android without starting over. I read that you cannot save data on cross-platforms.
Can I go into a folder in Windows and copy current data to Android? Otherwise, are there other options?

No, you can't get around it by copying the save data yourself from your PC to your phone. The reason the game doesn't support cross-platform sync isn't just because it doesn't know how to copy the files. (Obviously it does, or you wouldn't be able to sync on the same platform either.) It's because the different versions of the game have different data formats. So even if you did copy the save data, the game on Android wouldn't be able to understand it. It might ignore it completely, or it might crash trying to load it.

It was the developer's choice to do it this way. They obviously didn't think that spending time on making the different versions compatible was worthwhile.


When was my text message delivered? In the text messaging application that came with my Android phone, a checkmark seems to appear next to text messages that have been successfully delivered. How can I find out when a text message was delivered?

Update: The text messaging app might be a custom one. It's the default for Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mini. A couple of screen caps I've found:

As soon as the check mark is appeared on the message text body, it means it delivered the message.

If you want a confirmation then you can use mysms SMS app. This could deliver the status message.

If you want to track the time when the SMS delivered then try SMS Scheduler. It keeps track of all your previous messages also.


Just updated to Android 4.2.2, Facebook Messenger doesn't push notifications now? I just updated my Samsung Galaxy S3 (model SCH-I535) to Android version 4.4.2. It seems fine, except for one bug I've noticed recently.

Facebook messenger will not always give me a notification that a message has been received. I've got it set to flash the light and show the icon on the top task bar only, but here is what I have determined:

If messenger is currently open while the phone is locked or the screen is off, no notification is pushed.
If messenger is off screen but still running while the phone is locked or off, some of the time it pushes a notification, and sometimes it does not.
Mostly I notice a small (1) next to the messenger icon, but no light notification.

Is this just a new feature? I have tried everything I can think of with the settings, uninstalling and reinstalling, clearing the cache and stored data for messenger, and I'm out of ideas.

Does anyone know what this could be?

Seems that Facebook Messenger has updated overnight, and I do not notice this issue anymore. Sorry for jumping the gun!


Locked out of Playstore Play Store locked me out saying "Couldn't log in. This account has been disabled."

This because Play Store required that I create a Gmail account, which I did, but then I was unsuccessful in logging in to the Gmail account.

I have a HUAWEI-M931, Android ver 4.0.4.

I found the solution thanks to 'Related' items which show up in green on the right side of this page, such as "How to change android primary google account", and other related threads. I went to Settings, Accounts and Sync, clicked on the gmail account, Remove Account, then Add Account, at which point I entered my existing gmail account (the one that I know the password for) and when I went to  PlayStore it opened and I am now in.
Thank you.


How can I view title text for a web image (xkcd.com) on an Android based browser? How can I see the title alt text for website images on an HTC Desire?

I'm currently using the Dolphin HD browser but I can't see a way of getting the alt text.

The right answer is to just go to http://m.xkcd.com. There is a link on there to show or hide the alt text.


What are "Manual Updates" in Google Play Store? Possible Duplicate:
  Why do some of my apps show “Update” and some show “Update (manual)”?

I have been using Android for a long time now, updating the apps regularly (but not in the "Allow Automatic Update" mode).

Today, for the first time, I came across this:

So, my question is as to what exactly are these "Manual Updates" and how do they differ from just "Updates"?

It seams that Apps with updates are shown under "Manual Updates" when the update requires more permission that it's previous versions.

A speculative answer to the difference between "Manual Updates" and just "Updates" would be that "Allow Automatic download of updates" does not applies to "Manual Updates".


What lock/unlock button does on recent apps screen? On recent apps screen there is a lock/unlock button on each and every app, I want to know what's it's function. I am attaching screenshot for reference.

If you lock an app in recents and click on tap to clear, it will stay in recents. Apps not locked will be cleared (that kills all the running apps without the need to kill each one separately)


How can data on an unrooted phone be backed up? What methods are available to back up data (both system and application) from a phone which is not rooted and is running stock Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread?

It is my understanding that it is impossible to retrieve application data (not stored on the SD card) on an unrooted phone, except where the application itself offers export. Is this accurate?
Of the system settings and built-in applications, which ones have export facilities I can take advantage of? Which ones notably have no export and have significant amounts of data which I might want to manually transcribe out?

I am already using Missing Sync for Android which takes care of the contacts, calendar, photos, call log, and SMS messages. My phone is a Nexus One.

If a phone is not rooted that means that apps are securely sandboxed. There is no way that one app can access the data held by another app. In the underlying linux filesystem they are actually represented as different users, and do not have permission to access each others' files.

The only things that can backup the files are a) the system itself and b) the app can backup it's own files.

In Froyo (2.2) Google introduced cloud backup, which many app developers have integrated into their apps. This means than some apps will just automatically restore their data as soon as you sign into a new phone with your Google account. However, this will only work for those apps that have implemented this functionality.

You should find that all of the system apps now have full backup, or cloud sync, from Froyo onwards.

From my recent experience upgrading to a Galaxy Nexus - Cloud Sync: GMail, Calendar, Contacts; Cloud Backup: All system settings (I was surprised by some), Email settings. Not backed up: Browser bookmarks (though these are synced in ICS).

There is not default system functionality in Vanilla android that will backup all of your apps, and I'm not aware of any operator/manufacturer customisations which have implemented a system-level backup.

One thing that you can do is to install a new recovery, such as ClockworkMod. This does not require your phone to be 'rooted', however, it does need you to have an unlocked bootloader, which I suspect is what you are trying to avoid, as it is typically reflashing the bootloader where 'bricking' occurs.

You may be able to manually pull all of the files from the /data partition, using adb. You can browse them using 'adb shell', and pull them individually using 'adb pull', but you would need root to be able to restore them. This also requires a certain amount of technical understanding. edit: actually after further testing, even this requires root access.

The suggested MyBackupPro below will not backup all of your apps - only those with exposed contentResolvers (ie SMS, calendar, contacts etc). Those things are automatically backed up in Gingerbread anyway. (I can't comment or vote down)


How do I undo the "enable lock & erase" on android device manager? I clicked the "enable lock & erase" button on my mac because my phone has either been lost or stolen by mistake! I don't know how to undo this action because I already have a password so I don't want my phone wiped because I have all my pictures on there! My important pictures are on the sd card but I read somewhere that it wipes the sd card, too. Please help. This is URGENT! : '(

In your phone, go to the settings, then go to lock screen and security, tap on other security settings, in there you'll find Device administrators, tap on it, then you will find the option "Find My Device" you can turn it off or on.

This settings path may be OEM-specific; other devices may have slightly altered terminology, though Device Administrators is generally well-marked.


How can I play a RealMedia stream? I would like to play the RealMedia streams at http://www.cs.princeton.edu/theory/index.php/Main/AdditiveCombinatoricsMinicourse .

I have installed the RealPlayer beta but all that happens is that the browser saves a .ra file and then RealPlayer says it can't play it.

Interestingly, they work fine in mplayer on linux using mplayer -playlist http://acstream.princeton.edu:8080/ramgen/blackboard/cs/additive_combinatorics/1_luca_trevisan_350k.rm for example.  The stream itself is rtsp://128.112.131.181:554/blackboard/cs/additive_combinatorics/1_luca_trevisan_350k.rm and I thought Android had rtsp support.

Is there any way to play the videos in Android?

Edit: The answer shows how to play the rtsp streams. However, I would really like to be able to play the videos directly from their web page without having to extract each rtsp link manually using a separate computer.

That's weird. I could stream this perfectly on my Android 2.3 stock browser.

For you, I'd suggest you do the following :-

Download MX Video Player FREE (and a suitable codec for your phone)
Enter the URL rtsp://128.112.131.181:554/blackboard/cs/additive_combinatorics/1_luca_trevisan_350k.rm in your stock browser.
You'll see something like :

 The above URL for lazy beans:

Click on the MX Video Player and your video should load properly. duh! :D


onda v989 allwiner a83t octa core 32gb bootloop beacause i installed chainfire 3d :( i cant fix it, please help i have onda v989 allwiner a83t octa core 32gb bootloop beacause i installed chainfire 3d :( i cant fix it, please help please, i need it so much. my FBgmail: huynam371@gmail.com . plese help me!!!! text me some mess or teamviewer for helping !!!! thanks a lots ..... i dont know too much about my tablet. i cant use adb shell, i typed "adb sideload [rom.zip]" and i got at all: e footer is wrong .................

You just need to flash the stock firmware (ROM) for your tablet, this will overwrite all modified system files.
Since it is powered by Allwinner chip, you need a tool called PHOENIXSUIT (in English) or ONDASUIT (in Chinese) to flash the image file. Click this link to get the flash file (ROM image). Don't forget to unzip first.


"Warning: camera failed" after update to marshmallow The update to marshmallow (finally) came through on my Samsung S5 mini yesterday. The update seemed to go smoothly, but now starting the camera app or the torch app immediately gives a "Warning: camera failed", and exits the app.

So far I've tried everything on this list, which is the most comprehensive I could find (short of a factory reset - I'd like to avoid that if possible)

restart camera
restart device
clear camera cache and data
clear gallery cache and data
smart stay was already off
safe mode (same error message)
wipe cache partition

What else could I try?

It may (or may not) be relevant that I took advantage of the major new feature of marshmallow to restrict permissions for many apps, and to disable some of the bloatware. Of course, the camera app still has permission to access the camera. As part of my troubleshooting I have restored full permissions to the camera and gallery apps.

If nothing can be done, is it correct to assume that it's impossible to roll back the update? And that Samsung/Android developers won't release a fix unless there are a large number of people with the problem?

As Murphy would have it, I spend 10 minutes putting together a question and then the next thing I try solves it...

In the end it was fixed by switching off and removing the battery for a while (~30s). This is mentioned in one of the comments in the linked article.


Google Chrome and picture reenabling and reinstalling without authorization or interaction? As somebody really wary of Google in general, the first thing I did on my phone was to disable Chrome and Google Pictures, and replaced them by apps from F-Droid

For a few days now, I've seen them reappear in my app drawer, and with careful observation, the play store seems to be re-enabling and reinstalling them by itself when checking if updates are available.

Uninstalling and disabling them again just kick the can down to the next repository upgrade.

This question talk about google chrome, but do not give an explanation for google pictures.

Auto updates are disabled, android 9.

This was a problem I noticed after updating my OnePlus 6 to Android 10. I didn't get the time to investigate the logs when my Play Store, YouTube, Photos, Play Services and GSF kept re-enabling themselves. One thing I realized was that  if I used a third-party app to disable them they got re-enabled after a while. But if I disabled them using Settings app, they never got re-enabled. This is what I suggest for you.

Also, I keep them blacklisted in my firewall, just to ensure they don't connect to internet even if they manage to re-enable themselves.


How does Samsung's "quick charge" work? How do the batteries work?

Will those batteries have a shorter lifespan? Will the "quick charge quality" get worse over a period of time? And why aren't there other companies using this technology?

As seen on Android Police

You've probably heard of quick charging, turbo charging, adaptive fast charging, rapid charging, and Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 before - or at least one or two of these things. What you may not know is that all of them are actually basically the same thing, based on the same licensed technology from Qualcomm known as Quick Charge.

How does Quick Charge work?
How do the batteries work? Will they have a shorter life span?
Will the Quick Charge quality get worse over a period of time?
It's already explained in depth by @beeshyams. It basically works by drawing more power, safely.

To summarise, normal charging is done at 0.5 to 0.8 C (C is charge rate) and fast charging done at 1 to 3 C. Please note that the exact or indicative charging rate is not revealed in any OEM documentation despite extensive search and it is unlikely that OEMs will reveal such details, deeming it "proprietary"

It affects the battery in two ways:

A common feature while using fast chargers is raise in temperature of battery (since more current is being pumped in and power (read heat) is proportional to square of current) and this is inimical to good health of battery, which is extensively  covered here.

Short Term (Battery capacity after charging) Battery is not really fully charged as it does not undergo charging spending enough time in all stages, compared to conventional charging. In simple words battery may deliver typically 85% of performance compared to regular charging. Details on this are available here
Long Term (Battery life span) Battery life is specified in Cycles or discharge cycles. OEMs/ Battery resellers may specify this number, for example, it is 550 Cycles for Samsung Note 2

Quoting from BU-501: Basics About Discharging

Why aren't there companies using this technology?
There are several smartphone OEMs including ASUS, BlackBerry, Fujitsu, Samsung, HTC, Panasonic, Motorola that borrows this technology from Qualcomm.
What about Apple?
Here's a list of features Apple left out even in their latest iPhone 6S. They don't support Quick Charge yet.
--
See also:
Qualcomm Quick Charge FAQ
,
Samsung Fast Charge FAQ


Stuck at "Installing update..." in recovery mode I am not able to flash my Nexus 4 with Cyanogenmod 11 anymore. The installation does not successfully finish, which is probably why it gets stuck in a boot loop after restarting the phone.

During the initial installation by sideloading the Cyanogenmod 11 zip, the process stops at the step Installing update..

It never says update finished. So I just restarted the phone manually afterwards. But it does not boot Cyanogenmod successfully.

The phone either...

...gets stuck at the Cyanogenmod boot splash indefinetely
...gets stuck at the window Android is upgrading.. / Starting apps.

I have formatted the following partitions beforehand to perform a  clean install: /system, /cache, /data, /persist, /firmware

I had suspected that formatting additional partitions like /firmware and /persist might be somehow related my boot loop - but I have no educated confirmation of this! Any CM aftermarket firmware that I tried would get stuck at the boot though.

The following solved my problem:

Install the (latest) Google Stock Android - this is just as easy as installing Cyanogenmod
Install ClockworkMod Recovery
Install Cyanogenmod Rom


How to encrypt deleted data on Android 10 I'm running a custom ROM (MIUI xiaomi.eu 12.0.2/Android 10QKQ1.90910.002) and my phone is rooted. I want to encrypt my old deleted data (photos and videos) so that they can't ever be recovered after selling my phone because right now I can recover them using apps like diskdigger.

You cannot encrypt data which has been deleted. As Tetsujin mentioned, you are meant to encrypt the data beforehand. You can then discard the encryption key.
What you want to accomplish, then—ensure that cleartext deleted data be unrecoverable—is inherently difficult. It's not trivial to hide these things from experienced forensic laboratories.
That said, unless you are trying to protect your data against an adversary such as a nation state, there are steps you can take. Re-encrypt your phone now and, after ensuring that data encryption is enable, initiate a full wipe. This should render apps like DiskDigger ineffective.


Where does the 'set as wallpaper' feature save your picture in Gingerbread (2.3)? I had an image from a website which I set as my background inside the browser. I am wondering now where I can find the image in the file system, because I can't find it online anymore. I already checked all the obvious folders including Downloads, but did not find it there. In fact there is an answer for a similar question on this forum, but that is for Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) and I am on Gingerbread, which is why that answer did not help me.

/data/data/com.android.settings/files/wallpaper. It's a PNG file and appears to be uncompressed due to the size.


Flashlight comes on for no apparent reason I have a Samsung A5 running Android 8. Every so often when I pull it out of my pocket the flashlight is on.  The screen will be locked due to timeout and there is no indication that I somehow pocket dialled it.  This doesn't happen often but it is totally wierd.

I suspect that this may be caused by inadvertent use of some physical shortcut or hack that turns the flashlight on, but I have searched carefully and have not found it.

Can anyone offer some ideas?

This should fix you up 8 comments as of now.   https://www.reddit.com/r/LineageOS/comments/6qmx3f/flashlight_turns_on_randomly/ its probably flashlight screen lock. In which if there isnt an option normally for your phone then you might have to find a shorcut code like the dialer codes, or look up if there is a mod for the problem of not having the option


HTC WildFire Home Screen Couple of weeks back I purchased HTC-WildFire. I did not find a way to change my default home screen. Is it possible to change my default home screen with my own custom screen. If it is possible I will write my own home screen for wild-fire.

Please suggest any mods, or procedures to change my home screen. Or is it possible with custom ROM's?

On the Home Screen, tap Menu > Personalize Home Screen Tabs.
To move a tab, tap and hold the icon before the tab name, and then drag it up or down the tabs list.
To hide a tab, clear the check box at the right of the tab name.
Tap Done.


Does Google Play have a podcast feature? Just grabbed a phone with 4.1. Most questions talk about the Google Listen app, but I can't find it. Did google remove the "podcasting" feature from their Play suite?

Yes, on August 3rd 2012 Google Listen was discontinued and is no longer available on Google Play. If you already have it, it will continue to work, but on November 1st 2012, the Podcast Search will cease to work.

This project was very limited in functionality anyway. There are other apps out there that are updated and actively worked on. I think the last time Google Listen was updated was a couple months after it came out in 2009.

A lot of the podcast apps out there now can make use of the "Listen Subscriptions" folder that is in Google Reader. This is where Google Listen stored your subscribed podcasts. I continue to use Reader to store my podcasts in this location, then I import it to the player on my phone.


Fastboot is getting stuck while trying to flash CWM onto Nexus 4 After successfully unlocking the bootloader of my new Nexus 4 using adb and fastboot I now want to install ClockworkMod Recovery onto my device.
Sadly it is not working properly.
I am using Gnome Ubuntu 13.04 and installed adb and fastboot with apt.
While in fastboot mode my device is visible when testing with

$ sudo fastboot devices
002847af108bXXXX    fastboot

when I try to flash the ClockworkMod image recovery-clockwork-6.0.3.6-mako.img using

$ sudo fastboot flash recovery recovery-clockwork-6.0.3.6-mako.img
sending 'recovery' (7814 KB)...

it gets stuck. I already waited for 40 minutes to complete but since the size of the image is around 8Mb I suppose it cannot take that much time and something is not working correctly.
Strangely also my USB-connected keyboard and Bluetooth-connected mouse are ignoring my inputs while fastboot is running.

I also tried renaming the .img file to recovery.img with the same result.
Perhaps I am missing something obvious, but I have no idea what the problem could be.

I had the same problem and I could fix it changing the usb port, it works!


Some program is showing ads on my desktop... How can I catch it? Some program keeps showing me ads on the main page every now and then. It's extremely annoying, and I'm unable to catch it. Is there a way I can detect it to remove it?

When the ad shows up, I try to hold the home button to see the app name, but it disappears. Sometimes the ad is a link, so it asks me for the browser to use. My device is rooted.

Finding the Source

For Android >4.1

If your device is running Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean" or higher, you can just press and hold on notifications and your device will tell you who is generating them.

For Android <4.1

Use Airpush Detector. This application has a big list of apps that create banner ads. If it finds an application it knows of, it will tell you and ask you to uninstall.

Stopping the Future Problems

Use an Adblocker to Block Ads:

AdFree (Recommended)
AdBlock Plus
Ad Away


How to choose a firmware before downgrading Andriod version? I have a Note4 which was shipped from the UAE (but I don't live in UAE). The current version of the device is 6.0.1 and I want to downgrade it to 4.4.4 (the stock version). I am having some trouble selecting the right firmware and was hoping if someone could help.

I came across this: http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/database/SM-N910C/XSG/ but I don't know which version to choose. My phone's baseband version (N910CXXU1DPC1) is not listed here.

Can I choose any 4.4.4 version and hope it will work on my phone ?

According to this site, this is for Region XEO, which would be Poland, located here.  You can't just choose any version and have it work, and Samsung is known to not allow you going backwards in firmware versions due to a lock in the bootloader preventing this.  You may be able to go back to 5.1.1, but most likely not 2 Android versions backwards, and even going back to 5.1.1 may not be possible.


Galaxy S3 randomly booted into safe mode. Strange behavior I was using my phone (Galaxy S3 SGH-T999), not doing anything intensive, just web browsing on Chrome, then all of a sudden my phone restarts into Safe Mode.

I opened the app drawer and noticed most (possibly all, not sure) of my downloaded apps were gone.
My notifications bar was informing me that some apps were being re-downloaded.

Not sure of the reason, I just restarted the phone and it booted back up normally.

However strange things have been happening, like:

Apps re-downloading or updating.
Facebook app authorization failing
All my contacts were gone. I use SmoothSync for Cloud Contacts. Opening the app asked me to enter my password. My contacts came back.
My iCloud calendar was gone, again because SmoothSync logged out. Logging back in was no problem.

Nothing really bad has happened, but it just seems strange and random to me.

Why would Safe mode be activated out of nowhere?

This is strange, and is most certainly a software issue.

It could be that, for some reason or another, Chrome (or another background app) took up all the available RAM, which caused the OS to crash - it could be a built in safeguard that the device boots into safe mode when this happens.

As well as this, safe mode (on my old device at least), disables all 3rd-party apps (so you can debug, and see if an app is causing the issue).

I would suggest you check your RAM usage, and maybe do a clean wipe if it happens again.


How can I get the refresh rate via ADB? How can I use ADB to get the refresh rate of a device's screen?

For context: I'm working on a python script that is going to display how many dropped frames occurred while it was measuring. In order to calculate that, I need to know the expected refresh rate of the device's screen.

You can get the refresh rate through this command:

adb shell dumpsys display | grep -i mphys | cut -d ',' -f 2

Note that dumpsys display mentions refresh rate at other places too.

Derived from chr0m4k3y's answer on Stack Overflow.


Device not accerpting APKs from other android device. (through Bluetooth) I am  trying to transfer APKS from my Moto G to Android one through Buetooth (I have unknown sources enabled) but it is not being transferred. What do I do?

You can download ES File Explorer and change the file's extension to txt, like this:

So when the other device gets the file, you remove the ".txt" and it'll be an APK again.


Internal storage insufficient storage problem I have a Lenovo Android phone with 8GB of space, but I can't download, upgrade or even store more apps. It tells me that I have insufficient STORAGE

If it's possible, insert an SD card and move apps to it.

In case you have android marshmallow, you can insert the SD card and set it as your internal storage.

You can also try to clear the cache of your device.

If your device is old enough, you could think about rooting it and uninstalling bloatware apps. You can remove system app without root (with adb), but it works shit.


Unknown Baseband i9300 after flashing CM11? I flashed my rooted i9300 to go from stock to CM 11. I used TWRP twrp-2.8.6.0-i9300
 to flash it. Previously, I did a nandroid backup using CWM but since CWM had problems with flashing GApps, I had to switch to TWRP.

Flash successful. GApps successful. However, I have:

"No Service" problem
"Baseband Unknown" in the "About device" section
I have a non-blank /efs folder. I read that a lot of times people have issues because the folder is empty after flashing.

Having gone over this XDA HOW-TO, I am guessing that I need to flash a modem for my particular phone. I even managed to locate a collection of modems on XDA.

But a couple of questions remain:

What modem do I flash? My stock was 4.2 bought in Saudi Arabia so I am guessing I will need a corresponding modem? but I have moved to India so what modem do I use? I believe the modem suffixes like JV, etc. have importance?
How do I flash that modem?

Official CM uses open source RILs so these Samsung RILs won't be compatible.

Galaxy S3 RIL + Modem CWM Flashable Collection

i can't test this one, but you can.

and also, read :

Do not flash these zips on leaked Android 4.2 Samsung ROMs unless you
delete the System folder inside the zip using a tool such as WinRAR.
Otherwise you will end up with no signal and you may have to re flash
your ROM to get the 4.2 RILs back.
XXEMG4 and later Modems will modify your efs partition(where your phone IMEI info is) making older modems incompatible with your phone.
In order to use older modems again you must restore an old backup of
your efs partition. So make sure to backup your efs partition before
you do anything.

This is for india :
 - DDEMB1

  Android : 4.1.2 Date: 20/02/2013 Carrier-Country-Region: Unbranded -
  India, Sri Lanka, Nepal - South Asia RIL MD5:
  788BBF58812206981E4465966BA45BBD

Download : Mediafire

and as i said, if you have an backup, goto Recovery -> Install from Zip and install latest EFS From last rom.

P.S : Try to flash stock rom.if this problem exist Yet, you need z3x Box for baseband and fix this.

hope this helps.


Samsung Galaxy S3 headphones do not plug in I have a Samsung Galaxy S3, 2 months old, and I have an issue with headphone.
No, not the ' I can not see the headphones icon ' issue rather the headphones do not plug in fully.

I tried pressing them slightly harder but still the white metal portion slightly remains outside the body. At that point, the headphones do get detected but a even a slight touch can make them undetected.

What seems to be the issue here ?

I tested the headphones on my old Nokia and they are detected fine. I am sensing something has to do with them not going in fully ?

Have you tried plugging in another pair of headphones on your phone?
If there's a similar problem with plugging in the jack completely, there might be a problem with the jack (female) on the phone. You might want to get it replaced.


How can I connect a Shure BETA 58A Vocal Microphone with a Samsung Galaxy S4? How can I connect a Shure BETA 58A Vocal Microphone with a Samsung Galaxy S4?

You can use a cable like this to connect the microphone to the 3.5mm jack headphone slot in your smartphone. That one is said to be working with a Galaxy Camera, be sure to check on Google and on users' feedback for the compatibility.

Important: you have to search, in general, for a cable which switches from XLR (the connection present in your microphone) to mini jack or 3.5mm jack (the headphone slot in your phone). The XLR has to be female (holes for the pins), while the jack must be male (the jack pin coming out, to be inserted in a jack hole). Be sure to check five times in the internet for compatibility issues and extra steps needed to make it work.


How to set a solid color wallpaper? My android comes with 3 different solid wallpapers. I have found more in the market but its paid. How to get a black wallpaper for free?

Can you not make your own?

Open up paint or photoshop of some sort and fill an area black. Save the image as a png and then place on your phones memory card. Then on the phone set your wallpaper from the gallery and select the black image.


GS4 not turning on, battery full, no screen activity or rumble (Keyboard finicky, sorry for any errors!)
Alright, so I have this GS4 that I got secondhand. It worked fine for a while, but now there is no activity AT ALL. I have tried Recovery Mode, normal boot, and Odin. I don't even get a RUMBLE. It's fully charged, so that's not the problem...

Most of my personal data is on the phone itself (1 GB MicroSD card... >_>) and most of it is important.

Any help?

I'm not allowed to comment...but I ran into this same problem on my Galaxy Note 2. It was fully charged but I couldn't do anything at all, screen never even pretended to light up. Samsung had a bad batch of hardware causing a "Sudden Death Syndrome" as people were calling it. The one thing I did notice was that if you look at the area where the proximity sensor lies, you can see the little "infrared" light stuck on. Is that the same for you? Here's an XDA article related to the problem:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2294203

If the phone is still under some sort of warranty, you should be able to get a new device.


How do I protect my photos from accidental deletion when giving my phone to my kids? My little kids (less than 3 yo) like to view photos on my Samsung A5 cell phone. That's great, and they are allowed to do so. I can even pin the screen to make sure they can't leave the gallery app and start deleting e-mails, which is good.

Unfortunately, both the built-in Samsung Gallery app as well as the pre-installed Google Photos app allow them to (accidentally) edit and delete images, which is bad.

Can I somehow make those image viewers "child-safe" and turn off all editing features?

I also tried looking for alternatives, but, apparently, all highly-rated gallery apps have lots of "useful" features (like renaming and deleting files). There are also "kids mode" apps available, but they don't give access to all photos taken on the device and would require me to select the ones I want to show my kids (I want them to see them all).

Looking for a gallery app with Trash/Recycle Bin feature I came across Foto Gallery. If you delete a pic using trash icon, the pic is moved into trash (which itself is an album in this app). Within trash album you don't get the trash icon at all.
For your kid to delete a pic permanently, they would have to swipe leftwards from right edge, choose Delete now, and confirm to the dialog. I think that's tedious and provides enough safeguards from accidental deletion.
Furthermore, while the app does provide editing effects, the modifications are saved into the copy of an image, so the original remains intact.
Alternatively
You can continue with your default/favorite Gallery  app as long as your device is running Android 5.1 or above. Simply fire up adb and issue these commands:
adb shell appops set PKG_NAME WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE deny
adb shell am force-stop PKG_NAME

Replace PKG_NAME with package name of your Gallery app. To know how to find out package see View app's full package name?
The first command denies your app the permission to write the external storage (also includes inbuilt internal storage), which means tapping onto the trash icon or using image effects would either do nothing or crash the app, depending upon how the developer programmed the app to handle such a situation. The other command force-stops the app so that new permission set applies afresh.
To reverse the changes, simply replace deny with allow in the first command.


Change UUID of Android Device I'm trying to change bulk devices UUIDs using DroidExplorer I've opened /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db selected android_id from table secure to change the value. I then click Write changes however it's not taking the changes even after the reboot the device still reverts to the old UUID of the device. What am I missing and is there a better solution?

The devices are running on Android Kitkat 4.4.2 and they're Chinese tablets.

I was able to manage that it using SQL command.

Go to /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db
Open the database using SQL Database Editor
Use SQL Command

UPDATE android_id
SET value = REPLACE(value, 'old-id', 'new-id')
WHERE _id <=25
Click File > Write Changes
Exit and Push changes to device

You're done!


Lost internal storage I am using a spice Mi 502 android phone with 4.0.4 ICS. It has a internal storage of 141 MB but 120 MBs is utilized by preinstalled apps and only 21MB free space is available.

I have rooted my device and deleted some unwanted preinstalled apps from my phone using RootAppDelet app. Now, the space utilized by preinstalled apps is 100 MB and the available free space is still showing 21 MB. I wonder where did the 20MB space go?

I am not a pro androider and have learnt only through helpful forums like these.

Please help me get my lost space back.

With this little internal storage maybe it would be better to move /data to your sd-card.
You can accomplish this with a second partition, which is formatted with ext2, ext3 or ext4 file system and a int2ext-script (source), if your ROM is compatible.


How to update Galaxy Nexus from 4.0.2 to 4.2? I had a Galaxy Nexus running Android 4.2.1 and it broke. My insurance replaced it, so I have a new Galaxy Nexus running Android 4.0.2. The new phone doesn't show that any system updates are available. (Well, I think it updated from 4.0.0 to 4.0.2 as soon as I turned it on, but nothing since then.) How do I update it to 4.2?

(Sorry if I'm not giving enough information; I'm new and I'm not sure what's relevant.)

QUESTION RESPONSES:
-I am in Canada and my provider is Mobilicity.
-I have tried going to About Phone -> System Updates and nothing shows up.  When I first got the phone, it updated from like 4.0.0 or 4.0.1 to 4.0.2, but that's all that has showed up.  I also tried clearing the cache and force stopping Google Services Framework, as suggested in another thread.
-I don't really know what it means to install the update manually; I guess I'm willing to, but I feel that something must be wrong because this is the exact same phone (as far as I can tell) I've had for the last year with the exact same provider.  When I got this phone one year ago, it ran Jelly Bean automatically, so I don't get why this one wouldn't do the same automatically.

NEW INFO:
-Sometimes when I click System Updates, after it says there no updates available and shows "Last checked for updates" as the current time, it starts downloading a 41.2 MB "Android System Update".  After it downloads, it restarts and gets that picture of the robot having surgery, but it's still running 4.0.2.

I don't think this question is a duplicate of the one posted, because this is a case where I know there is an official update from the carrier/manufacturer, but my phone isn't seeing it.

I noticed another thing: when it downloads the "Android System Update" and restarts, the picture of the robot starts off as a green guy standing up with a blue thing spinning in his chest, but then it changes to the green guy laying down with a red caution triangle over his chest.  Does that tell me anything?

To update the system software, go to

Settings -> About phone -> Software update -> Check for updates


Can a novice user help to find a bug? I found that my Nexus 5 suddenly rebooted itself. I'm not a programmer so is it possible to set my phone such that it sends automatically sufficient information to the developers why it rebooted itself?

As @Izzy said, Android logs don't persist after a reboot.  So the answer is no.  Especially if your phone is crashing and not going through a proper shutdown.

One (hacky) solution would be to run ADB on your desktop and run logcat in a command window.  After your phone reboots simply cut/paste everything into a file and send it whomever you wish.  This will probably be the easiest solution for you.

The best (or easiest) solution will be to connect to your tablet with ADB adb shell and then run while [1]; do logcat >> /sdcard/logcatData.txt  done;
This will write all logcat data to a file under /sdcard/logcatData.txt and it will be there even after reboot.  You can then pull that file off the tablet after it's rebooted and send it to developers.

It will require ADB to be installed and minor command line use but it shouldn't be overly complicated.


Galaxy S3 is stuck at Samsung logo splash screen and won’t charge A little bit of help would be highly appreciated.

A few days ago, my Samsung Galaxy S3 started freezing randomly. I had to remove the battery in order to restart it. Yesterday the problem got worse: whenever I try to turn the phone on, it freezes in the first splash screen (the “Samsung Galaxy SIII GT-I9300” screen). When I push the power button for a few seconds in order to turn it off, it goes off but then turns on by itself immediately after and freezes again in the first screen. I have to remove the battery in order to turn it off.

When I try to charge the phone with the mains charger or with the USB cable connected to my PC, a gray battery icon with a static circle inside appears and the screen doesn’t change. After several minutes, the phone gets warm, but there’s no evidence that the battery is charging (the icon of the gray battery with a static circle inside is still there).

I took my wife’s S3 battery (50% charged), put into my S3, pushed the power button and the phone froze at the same point (“Galaxy SIII” screen). I’ve also tested my battery on my wife’s S3: it charged normally and her phone worked flawlessly. I guess this means it’s not a battery issue.

I’ve already tried to clear the cache partition or even factory reset my phone (removed the battery for a few seconds, put it back, then pushed Volume Up + Home + Power for a while), but it didn’t work either (the Android System Recovery screen never appeared).

The phone is rooted, but I’ve never installed any custom ROM.

I’ve read many android forums and tried a few workarounds, but nothing seemed to work.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Sounds like it might be the "sudden death syndrome" problem. If so, Samsung should fix/replace your phone for you (even if you've rooted it):

http://androidcommunity.com/samsung-galaxy-s-iii-suffering-from-sudden-death-syndrome-20121221/


How do I get rid of random redirections When browsing, I sometimes get random redirections to websites claiming my device has viruses, and that I need to click a link to get rid of those. They also make my phone vibrate, and the back button gets me nowhere, I am stuck to the page.

Somes sites I get redirected to include :

paly.google.com.store.apps.seebestpossible.com/findvirusfrcdnew
androidmarketstore.co/of/dus.php
yeah.youmadethedeal.com/mobiledirect/?aid=62079&uid=219
...

So my questions are :

What's causing this ?
How do I make it stop ?
What can I do to prevent this from happening again ?

Additional info :

I am using Chrome
The phone is rooted
Using android 5.0.2

I had this headache for long time. But,  then I discovered this app by Adblock. This works on rooted android phone. And blocks all the ads displayed by various applications on your phone.

Be sure to download the adblock app,  not the adblock browser. And yes,  they have a browser for web surfing without ads, also works without rooting the device.


What information can you extract from Wifi networks without connecting? Android newbie here.

I am not talking about eavesdropping wifi traffic, but accessing publicly broadcast information.

When you open the list of available wifi networks, that means Android is constantly capturing some information from all of them. It could be simply the SSID and signal strength. But what other information is broadcast by access points that could be extracted by a smartphone app without actually connecting to the network? Any sample code as a starting point?

On a related note, is it possible to connect to two or more wifi networks at the same time, maybe in a way similar to load balancing?

The following information can be found when  the device is near a Wifi Access Point (AP) even though the device isn't connected:

Apart from ESSID and Signal strength,

MAC (for associated access points)
Bit rate
Channel: the frequency channel
Encryption
RTS ("Request to Send") threshold (generally the lower the threshold, the more stable the Wi-Fi network)
Fragmentation threshold

To manipulate the basic wireless parameters you can use the iwconfig command.

  iwconfig command  is dedicated to the Linux wireless interfaces. It
  is used to manipulate the basic wireless parameters such as ssid,
  mode, channel, bit rates, encryption key, power and much more. To
  display information about wlan0 wireless interface, enter:

iwconfig Interface-Name-Here,

iwconfig wlan0

To determine an interface, run netcfg

Here is the sample code

$ iwconfig wlan0

and gives the output as:

wlan0     Qcom:802.11n  ESSID:off/any
          Mode:Managed  Channel:0  Access Point: Not-Associated
          Bit Rate:0 kb/s   Tx-Power=0 dBm
          RTS thr=2347 B   Fragment thr=8000 B
          Encryption key: Off


How can I make a call to an SIP address from Google Voice number? How can I make a call to an SIP address (e.g. sip:613@fwd.pulver.com) from Google Voice number?
Does Google Hangout support calls to SIP addresses?

Can an SIP address call my Google Voice number?

Thanks.

The answer is no. Google voice is no longer accepting SIP traffic. See here for more info.


Restoring one application data from ClockModRecovery Backup I was using CyanogenMod 4.10.3. Due to slow-downs I decided to downgrade, but took a backup of all available apps using ClockModRecovery including WhatsApp.

In backup/ directory, I see some img files, not individual apps.

Since I changed my number and I would like to use my old number with WhatsApp, I would like to restore WhatsApp backup from this backup. Is it possible?

Yes, it is:

Titanium Backup can restore from nandroid backups (which is what CWM created)
AppExtractor can extract individual apps/data from Nandroid backups
Nandroid Browser lets you... guess what :)
and then there's Nandroid Manager to browse them, restore single items, etc.

Further readings:

the nandroid tag-wiki
Restore only part of nandroid image
Extract App Data from Nandroid / CWM Backup