How to use wifi for a specific app and celluar data for the rest? I have a wifi rear view camera in my car. That camera creates a WIFI hotspot for my phone to connect with. If I put my car in reverse the app gets notified and switches to the app to show the camera view. But if i'm connected to the hotspot my phones internet doesn't work (duh) because the camera doesn't have any internet access.

I only want wifi for that specific app and my phone should use my 4g data, but I don't know how or if it is even possible.

My phone has android 9 and is rooted. Is this even possible? Because I read that on IOS this works by setting a custom dns (or something)...

You can try to automate the process. The following is accomplished using Automate. There are other apps you can use to get the same results.

Create a new flow.
On the Apps category (on the drawer), select App in foreground?. Set Proceed section to When changed. On the package section, select your app. Save it. Connect it to Flow beginning block.
On the Connectivity category, select Wi-Fi set state. Save it. Set it to On'. Connect itsOKto theYes` of Step 2.
On the Connectivity category, select Wi-Fi set state. Save it. Set it to `Off'.
On the Connectivity category, select Mobile data set state. Save it. Set it to On'. Connect it to theOKof step 4 and to theIn` of Step 2.
Save the flow by pressing the back button. Give it the necessary privileges. Click on Start.

Your flow will look like the image below. When you app is in the foreground, Wi-Fi will be enabled. When your app is the background, Wi-Fi will be disabled and mobile data enabled.

Disclaimer: I am just a user of the app.


How to change message vibration type on s2? How can I change message vibration type on galaxy s2? After jb update it vibrates the same (basic call). In settings I changed for example into heartbeat, but it doesnt vibrate this type when I receiving message. And in message settings is only enable or disablle vibration... Thanks.

On my Galaxy S III at least, you can only change settings for call vibration. However, I believe if you use a 3rd party SMS program (eg: Handcent SMS, or any other (mostly free) apps on the market), then you are usually able to set custom vibration themes.


how to determine which number a text came from when the contact has multiple numbers I received a text from a contact that has multiple numbers.  I'd like to reply, but I don't know which number to reply to.

I can't simply reply normally because the text was sent to several people and I'd like to only reply to the sender.

I'm on a Samsung S4.

My specific question: how can I see which actual number a text was sent from, not just the contact it came from?

When you reply in the same conversation, that reply should go to the same number. Is it not?  Check that number shown on the very top of the conversation. It is the number you are currently replying. If you click that number the contact (or popup) will open showing all the numbers attached to that particular contact.

You should be able to choose a different number to message with this option.


How do I keep my Android 4.0.3 phone awake when USB connected? On my old Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) phone there was an option to keep my phone awake when the USB cable was connected. But on my Samsung Galaxy S II, (4.0.3) I can not find it. Does the option still exist?

EDIT: If I go to settings > Developer options, then my options are:

USB debugging
Allow mock locations
Desktop backup password
strict mode enabled
pointer location
show touches
show screen updates
show CPU usage
Force GPU rendering
Window animation scale
Transition animation scale
don't keep activities
Background process limit
Show all ANR's

... and nothing else.

I just went to software update > check for updates, and was told "no update available".

I have checked on my two Ice Cream Sandwich Devices (Stock Xoom and Droid 3 running CM9 Beta). I have, under Settings > Developer Options a Stay Awake option. Which keeps your device awake when charging.

This will work if your device charges over USB (my Xoom does not, for instance).

However, should this option not be there, we can turn to apps for help!

StayAwake looks like it could be a solution to your problem.

WakeLocker for Galaxy S also looks to be a solution.


Is it worth uninstalling apps with background processes? I visited Apps -> Running and uninstalled the apps there that I don't use. I then installed OS Monitor and realised that a huge amount of apps run in the background with 0% CPU Usage (I have 36 processes). Many of them I don't actually use very regularly. Would it improve my system performance to uninstall them or does 0% CPU usage mean that it wouldn't? Is there a way to stop these processes automatically starting up?

When you finish using an app, Android doesn't kill the process right away. It simply stops it running, and leaves it alive as a cached background process. This way, when it needs to start the same app again, it's already present in memory, so Android doesn't have to spend time and energy on loading the app from storage again. The effect is to make apps start faster and reduce battery use. Android will only kill these cached background processes when necessary to free up memory for apps that are actually running. There's no time limit: even if it turns out you don't use the app again for another week, it still might be present in memory.

If you want to uninstall all apps with cached background processes, you'd have to uninstall every app on the device. Every app can be cached this way, even if it never does anything in the background.


How do I make older images in my /sdcard/DCIM folder show up in Gallery? I've tried a few builds of Android Jelly Bean coming from Android Ice Cream Sandwich, and one common thing that happens is that Gallery will only show pictures taken after the ROM installation. The images themselves are still in the /sdcard/DCIM folder, but they are just not showing up in Gallery.

My phone is a Verizon Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

This behaviour is not uncommon, sadly.

I use SDrescan to fix it usually.

Here are some other questions targeting the same underlying problem:

The music player keeps displaying deleted songs. How do I remove them or refresh the library?
Picture Gallery Slow & Won't Refresh on HTC G2 w Android 2.3 Gingerbread


Gboard's autocorrect is not available in German I recently switched to Gboard because of its multilanguage support, etc.

Now I've run into the problem that for some reason, German autocorrection/prediction and the swipe-type feature are missing. Only when I swap to the English keyboard do I get predictions.

Maybe some kind of dictionary is missing?

I am using an updated Samsung Galaxy S7. Primary system language is set to English with German lower on the priority list.

When adding a new language to Gboard for the first time, it may show a notification "Updating your typing experience", possibly for downloading/updating the relevant dictionary.

If it didn't happen, try removing and re-adding the problematic language's keyboards.

In the worst case, you may need to reset Gboard's data by clearing their app's data (generally from the phone's Settings - Apps)


Date of ROM installation Is there any way to know when I flashed my last custom ROM?

Atleast a smart way to find the approximate date/time using some logs deep down in my android would be good.

Try the following in Terminal Emulator or ADB shell:

su
ls -l /system/

The date stamps on the read-only files/directories are the time they were created, i.e. approximately when the ROM was installed.


Using whatsapp on two devices One device has my Sim card, the other one only the internet connection. Both devices have already been verified by my number. Will I get incoming messagges in both devices?

You're not allowed to do this, From whatsapp FAQ:

  Using one WhatsApp account on multiple phones, or with multiple phone numbers
  Your WhatsApp account can only be verified with one number on one device. If you have a dual SIM phone, please note that you still must choose one number to verify with WhatsApp. There is no option to have a WhatsApp account with two phone numbers.

  If you attempt to frequently switch your WhatsApp account between different devices, at a certain point, you may be blocked from re-verifying your account. Please don't repeatedly switch between different devices and numbers.


Security patch no longer supported android phone I have a nextbit robin. Unfortunately they are no longer pushing out updates for them. Is there a way I can manually patch or am I better off installing a different ROM like cyanogenmod?

If nextbit has open sourced it then you can build it and it will work. But this is an overkill for this purpose as in order to install you have to unlock bootloader and install a custom recovery.

So installing a custom rom look a better option.


Nexus S 'flashes' screen when locking When I lock my Nexus S, the screen flashes once:

It turns black, then the home screen appears again very shortly, then it's black again.

Do you have this aswell with a Nexus S on ICS 4.0.3? Is there a fix?

It's a software issue with Ice Cream Sandwich as far as I know, so no fix. It may only be present on certain models however, I only have anecdotal evidence for this but I have the issue on my Nexus S model IML74K but know someone with a different model of Nexus S and they don't seem to have the issue...


Interpretting the output of dumpsys telephony.registry So when I run the command

dumpsys telephony.registry | grep -i signalstrength

I get the following output:

mSignalStrength=SignalStrength: 99 0 -120 -160 -120 -1 -1 25 -93 -12 300 2147483647 gsm|lte

I'm assuming the -93 is the dB value but I'm not sure. And for the other values I have no idea. I tried searching for a table to map each value but I couldn't find anything. I would really appreciate it if someone can let me know what each value means.

From the sources, it looks like it's printing out the contents of the SignalStrength object:

private SignalStrength mSignalStrength = new SignalStrength();

...

        pw.println("last known state:");
        ...
        pw.println("  mSignalStrength=" + mSignalStrength);
        ...

This object is described in detail on the Android Developers reference here.  The string representation of the SignalStrength class is defined here (search for "toString" function):

public String toString() {
    return ("SignalStrength:"
            + " " + mGsmSignalStrength
            + " " + mGsmBitErrorRate
            + " " + mCdmaDbm
            + " " + mCdmaEcio
            + " " + mEvdoDbm
            + " " + mEvdoEcio
            + " " + mEvdoSnr
            + " " + mLteSignalStrength
            + " " + mLteRsrp
            + " " + mLteRsrq
            + " " + mLteRssnr
            + " " + mLteCqi
            + " " + (isGsm ? "gsm|lte" : "cdma"));
}

This basically tells you the columns in the dumpsys output.


How to force a time/date update in my phone? I recently changed the battery of my phone, but in doing so, kept it without battery for some time. After placing the new battery, I discovered that the date and time had gone back to default.

I tried to set them both to update from the network but neither is updating. I tried turning the option off and on again but nothing happens.

I can, of course, set the date manually, but I am wondering why it's not updating by itself. The time zone is correct.

I'm using a Samsung Galaxy Pocket, Android 2.3 (Gingerbread).

try this:

uncheck "update from network"
set it to a wrong time (something that's clearly not right)
close settings (not sure if this is actually needed)
check "update from network" again (which should correct the time)


Android 5.0.2 hide navigation bar on Lenovo Tab 2 A8-50 I have issues when run shell commands that require root privilege on Lenovo Tab 2 A8-50 (rooted)

1- I'm trying to hide the navigation bar on using adb shell command

I have to restart the device to get the effect but I get a black screen after restarting so I have to enable systemui to make the device run normally again "pm enable com.android.systemui".

2- Also shell command for screen capture get the "device launching image only" not the device screen "su -c /system/bin/screencap -p /sdcard/img.png"
The same commands run properly on different devices. Is there any kind of protection on this device that prevent shell commands run normally? What do I have to do?

The first thing you do literally disables SystemUI, including lock screen, status bar and navigation bar, hence you get black screen on reboot. Whoever told you to do that... deal with him.

Simply use the old build.prop trick (qemu.hw.mainkeys=1) or apps like GMD Hide Soft Keys.


Nexus 7 keeps disconnecting from wi-fi My Nexus 7(android 6.0.1) constanly drops wi-fi connection(connects and disconnects immediately), presumably due to bad connection, while Nexus 5x lying next to it is staying connected just fine.
I got logs using adb and i think the cuprit is

04-30 11:15:38.013   594  7142 D NetworkMonitor/NetworkAgentInfo [WIFI () - 133]: Forcing reevaluation for UID 10022
04-30 11:15:38.018   594  7142 D NetworkMonitor/NetworkAgentInfo [WIFI () - 133]: Probably not a portal: exception java.net.UnknownHostException: Unable to resolve host "connectivitycheck.gstatic.com": No address associated with hostname
04-30 11:15:38.019   594   663 D ConnectivityService: NetworkAgentInfo [WIFI () - 133] validation failed
04-30 11:15:38.019   594   663 D ConnectivityService: notifyType CAP_CHANGED for NetworkAgentInfo [WIFI () - 133]
04-30 11:15:38.027   594   663 D ConnectivityService: sendStickyBroadcast: action=android.net.conn.INET_CONDITION_ACTION
04-30 11:15:38.079   594   663 D ConnectivityService: NetworkAgentInfo [WIFI () - 133] EVENT_NETWORK_INFO_CHANGED, going from CONNECTED to DISCONNECTED

I've checked from PC connectivitycheck.gstatic.com can be reached from my network, both dnslookup and ping work on it
There is no option in wi-fi setting to disable avoid bad wi-fi connection.
What can be done?
EDIT:
Rebooting router and rebooting device did not help. I've also checked the router logs and settings, the device is not blacklisted, and router logs look just fine consistant with the behaviour - device connected, some negotiations, device disconnected.

As i didn't find any solution neither on the internet nor here, i've desided to just flash my tablet using image from google, it helped.
Edit: Factory images for all nexus devices can be found  at this page, it contains simple to follow instructions on how to flash your device as well as images. Take care though failure during flash can brick your device


Will the Android M developer preview get an OTA update to the stable release version? If I install the Dev Preview 3 on my Nexus 5 right now, will I get an OTA to the stable build or will I have to flash it as well?

No, you need to flash it since Google only provides the stable release as downloadable image on Factory Images for Nexus Devices.

From Official Android Developer site,

  Note: Developer Preview 3 includes final APIs and near-final system images available by both download and OTA. At the full public release of Android M later in Q3, final system images will be available by download only, so you'll need to flash manually to your test devices.


Why am I not able to select VLC player from inside the BubbleUPnP app? I noticed after the updated of my Nexus 7 from Android 5 to 6.0.1, that my DLNA app BubbleUPnP (Version 2.5.5.1) stopped detecting video players. I am trying to view a video from my library with VLC Player Version 1.7.2., but I just cannot select it. Before with Android 5, the player could be selected, but I don't know for sure, if it changed because of updating android or the app. I also tried another player. Not selectable, either. From within other apps, e.g. Total Commander, I can select every intalled video player.

I have an other device, too, with Android 4.3. BubbleUPnP and VLC are the same versions and there it all works fine.

I already asked the bubblesoft support, but unfortunately they don't have an idea, either... They claim that they tried it on a Nexus 5 running the same Android and app versions, and everything works fine.

How can I fix it?

If the issue is not fixed yet, try installing "App Picker Classic" and click on Clear defaults in the app menu. It should fix the issue. At least It worked for me.

A


Decryption Unsuccessful after data wipe and format P9 Lite, everything was fine until this evening when I updated from Magisk 18 to 19.1

Got Decryption unsuccessful error, flashed magisk uninstaller, wiped data + cache + dalvik and tried data format from TWRP. Nothing worked.

I'm going on a trip tomorrow so I need to be able to use the phone asap.

I had the exact same issue when I did an internal upgrade from 18 to 19.1 last night on my Huawei Mediapad M3. I wiped the data as was recommended but it keep rebooting into the unable to decrypt storage.

The easy fix is to boot into fastboot and flash your original, non-magisk boot image. I wish I had tried that before actually going through with the data wipe, as I'm fairly sure that was unnecessary.

If you still have your lower version magisk modified boot image, that will work too, although mine was so old I had to use an older version of magisk manager.


apps fail to access orientation & magnetic sensors I've just started using a Doogee Nova Y100X Android-based phone (it's android 5.0).

It seems that my apps can only access some of the phone's sensors: accelerometer seems to work, proximity and illumination as well - but not orientation and magnetometer. I tested using an app named Compass v0.1 and then with S Tools+.

Is this a hardware issue? A fundamental software issue due to the phone manufacturer? Or (hopefully) something I can fix with some kind of configuration?

Indeed, as @AndrewT suggested, the device does not seem to have the extra sensors, physically.


How can a bookmarklet be ADDED on mobile Chrome without copying and pasting? On my Android phone, how can a user add a bookmarklet to my Chrome bookmarks, without needing to use another device, and without copying and pasting?
I have a bookmarklet on my website that I want other people to add to their bookmarks, so I'm looking for a straightforward method.

Bookmarklets are bookmarks, but of which contain Javascript code instead of a regular web link.

Bookmarklets can be added to Chrome on the PC very easily in many ways.

However, on Android, if the bookmarklet is displayed as a link on a
page, it cannot be "dragged to the bookmark bar" as with a PC.
If I try to open it in a new tab, the address bar will not contain the
Javascript, so the user can't use the bookmark button.
Tapping the link to the bookmarklet will not put the code in the address bar either.
The only way I've been able to add a bookmarklet on my
phone has been to tap and hold on the link, then tap "Copy link
address", then edit a pre-existing bookmark's link and pasting in
the bookmarklet code, then renaming said bookmark. But that's a pain, and trying to explain it to non tech savy folks isn't happening.

Is there a more simple method?

Note that I have a particular bookmarklet that even when added on my PC, does NOT sync to my Phone's bookmarks. I believe it may be due to the length (It's over 9000 characters!). This is why I need an easy method for users to save this bookmarklet.

You can add (and execute) bookmarklets entirely in Android Chrome.

The caveat: it takes more work than just drag-and-drop in the desktop counterpart.

Save a bookmarklet (Android Chrome)

Long tap the desired bookmarklet
Select Copy link address
Go to Menu (three dots) and tap the Star (bookmark)
BEFORE IT DISAPPEARS, tap EDIT! (at the bottom)
Erase everything in the URL field, and type javascript:

Side note: If the url of the page is really, really long, you might want to long tap the url contents: the keyboard will appear, and then start typing immediately.

Long tap at the right of the javascript: and then tap PASTE
If you did it right, the begginning of URL should look somewhat like:

  javascript:(function(){lots-of-code-here...

  (The : is still in javascript:)

Change the Name to something useful (you'll use it later, see below)
Optional: Pick the destination Folder where you want your bookmarklet stored.
When done, press the back button.
You might want to test the bookmarklet. Read below:

Execute a bookmarklet (Android Chrome)

From How-To Geek (the link you sent):

  In mobile Chrome, you’ll need to launch the bookmarklet from the location [address] bar. Open the web page you want to run the bookmarklet on, tap your location bar, and start searching for the name of the bookmarklet. Tap the bookmarklet’s name to run it on the current page.


Offline Italian translate - error message "no connection for speech input (E4)" I've downloaded the italian translate package for android, the voice recognition does not work offline.
i get the error message "no connection for speech input (E4)"

the following work-around does not work
Open Google Translate > Settings > Speech Input Italian would be set to Default Dialect. Just set it to Italian (Italy)

there is no option for italian dialect in the menu.

The setting is available in Google Translate app: Open Google Translate > Settings > Speech Input Italian would be set to Default Dialect. Just set it to Italian (Italy) (or the corresponding option) and re-check.


My OS Loads, but no Recovery Handset: Huawei Honor Holly
Root: Yes

I am trying to install CWM recovery on this phone. I tried it using Flashify after reading guidelines from a website. Now, my stock recovery is gone. Also, fastboot commands wont work.

fastboot erase recovery
erasing 'recovery'... // And stops here. No progress for hours

When I try adb reboot recovery, my phone restarts again after displaying a black screen.

How do I install CWM, or TWRP, or get back to Stock Recovery?

Try to flash twrp or CWM via fastboot without the use of the fastboot erase recovery as that got rid of it. Fastboot should just overwrite it anyway. Download links are in the blog post :
CWM/TWRP Recovery Club

but instead just use fastboot flash recovery <your_recovery_image_file_here> and it should work.

Edit: A nice guide is up on the XDA Forums and tells you all the tools you need


Can't connect to Windows 7 "hostednetwork" I have been trying and failing to connect my phone (Samsung GT-I8150, running CM10.2) to my Lenovo T420 laptop via Windows 7's "hostednetwork" facility.

The hostednetwork's SSID is visible in my phone, but after I fill in the password, it goes "Connecting" for several seconds, then back to "Saved". No error, no nothing.

I know hostednetwork works because I borrowed a colleague's phone, and his phone has no problem Connecting-Authenticating-Obtaining_IP.

Interestingly, I have no problems connecting my phone to a wifi router in a cafe, or in my home.

What could possibly be the problem between my phone and Windows 7's hostednetwork service?

.

Edit: To make things clear:

hostednetwork is Windows 7 facility to turn a laptop's wifi into an Access Point (Infrastructure mode)
My colleague's phone is an Alcatel D662 (running stock Android GB)

Well, after tearing my hair out and feeling my hair became lighter, I gave up. But then, the wifi of the laptop became even flakier: It can no longer connect to the Office WiFi.

So, I did some drastic measures:

Uninstall all ThinkPad utilities that manage the wifi
Uninstall the wifi drivers
Reboot
Reinstall just the wifi drivers

Afterwards, I can connect to the office wifi... and hostednetwork works! Go figure :-/


MS-Exchange contacts are not synching even though mail and calendar syncs fine For a while now my contacts quit synching on Android with an Exchange 2010 server. Calendar and Mail syncing still works, both directions. This problem is described elsewhere ( e.g. here ) and I tried all the proposed fixes:

Click "sync now" in accounts, deactivate contacts, click again, re-activate contacts, click again
Check that the account is really a "Microsoft Exchange" (i.e. active sync) account, not IMAP, etc
Create a new dummy contact on phone or Outlook and sync again...
Use the Dev Tools Sync Tester on Android (always returned empty stats=[], no errors...) :-(

Versions:

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 14.3.158.4001
Android 4.3 (Cyanogen 10.2 on Motorola Defy+)

It turned out to be a sync error for some contacts with malformed birthday field created on Android which causes exchange to silently fail.

You can debug it, by getting the Exchange server-side logs, by going to your Exchange Webmail (Outlook Web Access, OWA):

Login in to webmail.yourdomain.com
go to: Options -> All options -> Phone
mark your current device and click -> "Start Logging"
Start sync on the phone
in webmail click "Stop Logging" and look at the new mail create in your inbox

In the log I got three of these errors:

X-MS-ASError: Message = The 'Contacts::Birthday' element is invalid - The value '1979-11-24' is invalid according to its datatype 'http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema:dateTime' - The string '1979-11-24' is not a valid XsdDateTime value.; Severity = Error

... which causes the whole sync and all subsequent contact syncing to silently do nothing. I had to remove the birthday field from these contacts on Android.

I hope this helps someone!

Here is some more information on the various date formats created on Android devices: http://dmfs.org/carddav/?date_format


HTC Desire S - Number Unknown Is Shown? My question is similar to this one, however what would be appropriate solution for HTC Desire S device because it does not allow you to change your phone number on SIM card like Samsung Galaxy does? Here is what it looks like on my phone (sorry for bad focus):

Here are other topics with same problem:

http://miuiandroid.com/community/threads/desirehd-my-phone-number-unknown-please-read.6002/

http://www.htcsensationforum.com/troubleshooting-htc-sensation-4g/phone-number-unknown/

http://androidcommunity.com/forums/f8/my-phone-number-39390/

The bad news is that some phones (like yours) don't support setting your own phone number. The good news is that this information is not stored on your phone but on your sim card.

So if you put your sim in another device and set your number there than you can put it back to your phone and voila, your number will show.

Some devices that support setting your phone number:

Apple iPhone (Be aware that newer versions have microSIM slots!)
Samsung Galaxy series (Read here on how to do it)
All ICS devices (Info)
Some custom roms (Including CyanogenMod)
Some Sony Ericsson dumbphones (e.g: C902, K550i)

If you don't have access to any of the above you can ask your carrier to do it. It is possible that they can do it OTA.


"User 0" message displayed on notification bar of android KitKat I recently upgraded my Lenovo P780 to kitkat and yesterday applied an update from Lenovo "P780_ROW_8G_S222_140817". After applying this update, I have started seeing text "User 0" in the notification bar (next to the setting icons on right top corner) and additionally, U0 text is displayed in the notification area below the icons.
I am not able to cppture screen for the notification area hence unableto attach the screenshot.
Does anyone have any idea on how to remove this text or is this a bug with the new update?

This is a "feature" on the update for the Lenovo P780 I'm afraid. Other users are reporting the same issue (amongst others) with the device.

User 0 is the "first" user on the device, i.e. the "administrator" profile. You could then add subsequent profiles (1, 2, 3) etc for other users of the device. This information is not usually displayed.

You can read the  support thread here  on Lenovo's support forum.

Example:

Post from Kannanovo (user on Lenovo forum)

  I have "User 0" and "U0" in the notification bar i don't know whether this is an issue,

And there are others there.

The reply from Lenovo, last dated the 22th August 2014 (which is the date I'm writing this) follows (from  page 7 )

  Hello there,

  Thank you for all your information.
  We are analysising all the issues received, some of you might have received separate email or message for further information. Please do help us to collect the details, that is very important for us to root cause your issues and provide correct fix in further update.
  please drop you issues here or email me. We will work hard and try our best to give our customer best experience.
  Thank you for your patience and cooperation.

  Wang

As Dan mentioned  another user posted a similar question  without enough detail so I would imagine this new 'feature' is common enough.


Why are all contacts grayed out in Google Talk? I have just noticed that all my contacts in Google Talk are grayed out. I can't chat, see their online status or otherwise use the app. What happened? Any suggestions on how to troubleshoot or fix this?

I have a Nexus S. I don't use Google Talk often, so this is the first time I have noticed the issue. There were a couple of recent events that may be related. A few days ago I received the official Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean OTA update from my carrier (I previously had 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich). Also, there was a major Google Talk outage that affected most desktop and mobile users.

I searched around and found possibly related reports, but with a few differences. For example, I don't have settings for turning off data usage. Also, I can correctly use Play Store and other Google apps. I cleared the Google Talk cache but nothing changed.

I did some tests, and turns out that the contacts are grayed when your phone's APP isn't able to communicate with Google Talk servers.

This is also the behavior when using Google talk on other systems, or even from Google web pages, like Google+.

You didn't noticed this before, most likely because you never had a communication issue with their server, witch is good. I have my grayed contacts all the time :(


How to unlock my HTC desire 816 w after too many pattern attempts? I got my phone locked after too many pattern attempts. Now it is asking me to enter my Gmail credentials. I tried that too but nothing is happening.

I have active data service but it is not enabled in my phone.

I tried to hard reset my phone, but when I tried to enter into Recovery mode by pressing Power button + volume down key, nothing happened.  Fastboot is enabled.

How can I unlock or reset my phone?

It depends on which OS you are using.  It is my understanding that phones with newer OS cannot be unlocked/reset if the device password is not known.

This is an attempt to make it more difficult for people to reset stolen phones.

Bottom line, depending on your specific device OS - you may need the password to unlock it.


Can Llama events call other events? I find that I have a number of different "trigger situations", or sets of conditions that trigger an event. So I have an event for each one. But I also find that many of these events have basically the same actions, so I'm looking for a way to separate conditions from actions.

1) I have an idea to set up trigger events that only have one action each:, which is to set a Llama variable to a specific value. And then I'll set up action events that each have one of those values as their only condition, and put all the actual actions in there.

2) There are also the OR/AND conditions, where I could build something like:

OR
( AND
  ( actual_condition_1
  , actual_condition_2
  )
, AND
  ( actual_condition_3
  , actual_condition_4
  )
)

... but that gets ugly fast, and hard to maintain.

Is there a more elegant method that I've missed?

Create an Application Shortcut Action, then select Llama as the application.

This gives a list of all the Llama Events, Actions and Profiles and allows you to determine which one to run.


How to fix the unable to mount SD card problem in my brand new Android phone? I had just recently bought Asus Zenfone 4 and until yesterday it was just working fine. All of a sudden on yesterday the phone started to behave weirdly and settings was not at all opening. I thought may be a reboot would do. Hence I tried to reboot and since then I had been stuck at the Boot screen only.
I tried to pull out the battery several times but apparently that did not work out.
Then I decided to to hard reset and tried to go to the boot menu using Power Button + Volume Up combination and did it twice consecutively . But that too did not solve the problem.
At last I opted for SD Download(I do not have a SD card) and encountered this problem.
it also said unable to open debricking.

I badly stuck . Please tell me and explain me what to do.
Any help will be much appreciated.

standard stuck, just download your stock rom whose extension is tar.md5 flash it with odin to your phone when your phone is in download mode (volume down + home + power)
if you can enter the recovery mode just try to factory reset which mostly solves bootloop


Today, my phone out of nowhere started opening random spam/scam sites. What can I do to make it stop I have an Huawei mate 10 lite, and today it started randomly opening my browser and showing me scam sites. I have tried some anti-virus apps, but after a full scan they didn't find anything. I also looked at my apps, to see if anything suspicious app was there, but I didn't find any blank app/unknown app. The only thing I don't want to do is to factory reset my phone. Can you help me with my problem?

This thread had the answer for me.  It turned out to be the latest QR code scanner.  It said it had ads but did not say it opened them in the default browser randomly.


Where is the code for the Bootloader stored in an Android phone? Where is the bootloader program on an Android phone stored ?

The boot-loader code is stored within the /boot partition. Majority of Android handsets uses the Qualcomm's Boot Loader, called LK (Little Kernel), barring Samsung, which uses their own form of boot-code.

LK has the following:

Variety of nand devices for bootup
USB driver to enable upgrading images over usb during development
Keypad driver to enable developers enter ‘fastboot’ mode for image upgrades
Display driver for debugging and splash screen
Enable Android recovery image and image upgrades

This applies to only, Qualcomm chipsets hence the exemption of Samsung based handsets

There is a website blog that cites this from source

The actual source code, if anyone is curious enough, can be found on CodeAurora site. This is known as CAF, in which a lot of Qualcomm specific code for kernels can be found in.

As a side-note: Google releases source to AOSP, CAF, pulls from them, modifies it to make it fit within Qualcomm chipsets, then the Manufacturers pull those down and add their own bits, it is that for the reason there's, AOSP, CAF and CyanogenMod that are the main three flavours of Android.

The actual source code to the boot-loader can be found on CAF's git repository, and has not changed much, it can also be found in CyanogenMod's source, specifically in, /bootable/bootloader also.


Free up phone memory taken up by thumbnails I have a 16 GB Samsung Galaxy S3 phone - 5.05GB of which is being taken up by thumbnails! Can I move these to my 32GB SD card?

I have tried DMR (duplicate media remover) and that has detected duplicate pics and videos but stops when I try to delete them.

You can try using an app like Es File Explorer

It has a SD Card Analyze tool, which will help you analyze the total space used and give you options to clear some space by deleting unused files, temp file etc.

For the issue with thumbnails, take a backup of all your photos on Google Photos.. then delete all the thumbnails.. deleting thumbnails will not delete the images.. Even if it does delete, you will still have the backup in Google Photos.


How can I access android log files on my Nexus 7 without root access? Since aLogcat now no longer works with Jelly Bean, how can I access the system log files on my device without either root access or attaching it to a computer?

I have tried using adb logcat from my PC and that worked fine, so I know that plenty of messages are being logged.

Using logcat from Android Terminal Emulator on my Nexus 7 shows almost no output though and adb logcat from Android Terminal Emulator, starts the daemon but then just says - waiting for device - and nothing more appears.

So, is it possible to access android log files on my Nexus 7 without root access?

No, for security reasons it is not possible to access android log files on the Nexus 7 (or any other device running Jelly Bean or higher) without root access. Google changed that with Jelly Bean.

I'd suggest you wait until logcat readers like aLogCat and such get fixed (i.e. they will require root access to show all logs then).

From AISEC-TR-2012-001-Android-OS-Security.pdf - 3.3 Android Permission Model:

  The READ_LOGS permission can substitute the following on many devices,
  depending on the Android version and thus the standard apps’ versions
  installed:

  READ_CONTACTS
  GET_TASKS – every started Activity is listed in the system’s logs
  READ_HISTORY_BOOKMARKS – opening new web pages is a browser Activity and thus logged
  READ_SMS

All solutions below require root access:

You need to either run logcat as root in a shell or manually grant it via the shell pm command (root required) works also (see XDA, exchange org.jtb.alogcat.donate with the app's pkg name):

pm grant org.jtb.alogcat.donate android.permission.READ_LOGS

This is for the lazy ones and not suggested:
If you're desperate, careless and lazy, you can fix it by giving every app the READ_LOGS permission by applying this ugly and insecure hack (Chainfire via twitter):

chmod 04755 /system/bin/logcat

To quote CyanogenMod developer Koushik Dutta's G+ post:

  Did the Android Log permissions/behavior change in JellyBean?

  It seems that if an application runs "logcat" now, it can see only the log entries created by its UID. Log lines from other UIDs are not shown. Basically, it seems to be filtered now.

  I have the same permissions as usual. Also confirmed the same thing is happening in other log collector apps.


Outgoing Voice problem I have bought Micromax AI few days back. my voice to the caller is not heard. it happened initially and it was ok after I turned off the phone, now same problem has come up, I did all switch off change sim but of no help.

The usual list of suspect could be:

The microphone on your phone;
Carrier signal quality and finally
The phone's software.

Hence first rule out the problem in that order and isolate the issue.  For ruling out the first microphone issue, you could try a hands free kit (either wired or a Bluetooth one). For the second, from a fixed position you can call and try with some other operator's SIM and try receiving a call and check and try the same from a different area. With these combinations, enable only 3G mode and try all these again.

It would be a very very rare phenomenon for a phone's software to be an issue. In that case you'd not be alone. If you are a person who can mend with patching software components of your phone you can search Internet for patching radio related files. Else, best option would be to either return it or visit the service centre.


How to activate car mode with a magnet? The Google Nexus 7 tablet has lots of reed relays and magnets.

Some toggle the screen, others activate the wireless charging dock. I suppose there is a position for activating car mode (never putting screen to sleep). I'd like to put a magnet (or several if necessary) into my car dock, so I can trigger car mode, whenever I put the tablet in there.

Unfortunatelly, I couldn't find a page, that will describe the various positions of the reed relays inside the device.

the best way is NFC Trigger.. there is an app (nfc trigger) that can activate car mode automatically when the tag is close to the tablet


Does using Android Instant Apps count as installation on Play store? As I saw yesterday, Google I/O 2016 Keynotes with an awesome release of many new features.

One of the best feature which I like most as an Android Developer that is Android Instant Apps.

  The new Android Instant apps lets you access apps from anywhere without installing. It will let you run Android apps as seamlessly as loading a web page. And, it is compatible all the way back to Jelly Bean.

I have a question in my mind that, if it will be accessed without installing then will it be counted as installation on Play Store? And if it won't, then what is the meaning to use it from the developer side. What will be the benefit to the developer?

P.S. I don't oppose this feature, just want to know how it will work.

Quoting from XDA (emphasis supplied)

  Android Instant Apps is an evolution to the way Android has done applications traditionally. Rather than downloading a full-blown application, Instant Apps allows users to “stream” apps to try it out (in reality, it’s a partial code download), without going through the hassle of downloading and installing it

So, if it is a partial download for users to try it out, it logically won't count as installation

  If Play store will not count then what is the meaning to use it from developer side. What will be benefit to the developer?

This allows app developers to reach out to an even wider audience, as they can now project a native Android app experience to the end user with something as simple as a URL: click and you’re in the app
What makes Instant Apps good for the developer outside of the increase in app range is that they don’t need to build a whole different app. Devs do need to update their existing Android apps in order to get the advantage of the Instant Apps functionality....
Android Instant Apps extends all the way back to Android Jellybean, so you aren’t restricted to only a handful of users on the latest Android version.

From a developer perspective, I suppose that Firebase Analytics also announced yesterday, will be integrated with this. Other features of Firebase Analytics:

Instead of focusing on page views, impressions or sessions, developers can see what users are doing inside the app, how paid advertising campaigns are performing with cross-network attribution and where users are coming from
Defining audiences
Better crash reporting
Notifications and Dynamic Links to to help developers grow and re-engage app user bases
Storage- Google’s cloud-to-device push messaging service Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) is being integrated into Firebase’ s backend and has been renamed as Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM)
Monetization- AdMob has been integrated into Firebase


How to hide my Android WiFi hotspot from being detected? I have a Samsung Galaxy Young phone and a 3G connection. I use my phone as a wireless modem, but I don't want other devices to find my WiFi hotspot when they search for WiFi.
How can I stop other devices from seeing my hotspot?

Don't waste your time trying to hide your hot spot - you can't really.

What you CAN do however is to require a password to allow a connection TO your hot spot.

In some cases, not sure here as I do not have your device, it is possible to lock the hot spot and only allow connections from one (or more, if there are others who also need to connect) specified MAC addresses only.


S5 Not Getting Detected On Laptop so I just got my phone today and had it unlocked. So- it got rooted. I don't think that's the problem though. Anyway I tried to connect it to my laptop and HAZZAH- Nothing happened. It didn't get detected. For a second it was installing the driver then after that nothing happened. All I've been doing for the past 2 hours was uninstall drivers and reinstall them and nothing even happened. Right now I'm just using AirDroid, but since sometimes I don't have WiFi I really need the USB Cable thing to work. No idea what to do anymore. I also tried Kies, and it wasn't detected. Apparently my phone was incompatible. I checked and it was. So that really confused me.

For some reason, when I go to storage, it doesn't allow me to go any "menu", since the menu button has now been replaced with a recents tab.

By the way, it shows up in Devices and and Printers as an unspecified device and is named SAMSUNG_Android. If that is any sort of relevance.

Just to clarify, I've done the following:
1. Restarted my phone AND laptop
2. Uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers
3. Changed which USB port it was in
4. Unchecked tethering
5. Enabled USB debugging

If you are to help me and have any knowledge on what to do, or feel like I did it wrong, please let me know how to do so with step by step instructions. Thank you and have a good day everyone!

I think it is driver problem.

Download latest Google USB driver click here.
For install driver follow this steps Installing driver

I hope this help you


Where are "Auto backup" photos stored? I have a S4 (4.3, verizon) and want to download the photos I have in "Auto backup" in my gallery. It has a picassa web albums logo (this thing) on it, but I can't find it on:

My phone, when connected via MTP (I tried searching for a specific image as well)
Google+ images
Picasa web albums

I want to somehow download it, how can I do this?

For Auto Backup access there are several options open to you.

Phone: Select the Gallery app which should bring up a listing of your Albums. One of your albums will be titled Auto Backup (assuming you have photos/videos in the album - otherwise the album will not appear).
Website: Google+ Auto Backup
Website: Picasa Web


Why are USB cables of two different OEM's different The USB has various purposes for data transfer, movement of input and output signals for hardware like connecting an Android device to another Display screen (USB on the go), charging the device etc.(during a device charge the voltage drawn from the USB is same irrespective of the device or OEM then Why are two USB Cables different ?

A USB of one manufacturer may not be supporting another manufacturer. We get problems if we do connect them like

Why does the screen flicker when connecting to a third party wall mounted USB charger

or

Why does my phone have erroneous input when connected to a non-OEM power source?

The two questions you link to are to do with different chargers, not the cables. If two cables both adhere to the USB standard, they're interchangeable. You can tell if a cable adheres to the standard, as it will have the USB logo on one or both of the plugs. It's not allowed to display the logo if it doesn't meet the spec. There are two cases where you might have a "USB cable" that really isn't (and thus doesn't have the logo):-

I've seen cheap cables that don't have the D+ and D- lines wired correctly. They ought to be a twisted pair, as USB uses differential signalling to make it more resistant to noise. But the cheapest cables save money by having a single line that's only wired to the D+ pin. These cables will be unreliable and might not work with some devices.
Some devices use a USB port to charge but not to transfer data (i.e. they're not USB devices). Examples include Bluetooth headsets and game controllers. These devices sometimes come with a cable that looks like a USB cable but only has the power pins wired: the data pins aren't connected to anything. Such a cable can only be used for charging.

Apart from these exceptions, the cable itself makes no difference (as long as it's not physically damaged). What makes a difference is the charger: the thing you plug the cable into, that also plugs into the mains. For faster charging from mains power, manufacturers get around the limit on how much voltage and current USB is specified for by introducing their own extra modifications to USB.

These allow the manufacturer's charger to charge compatible devices faster. However, so that the charger still meets the USB standard, and won't fry a standard USB device, it can only supply the extra voltage or current if it detects that the device is compatible, using extra pins, or by having the pins wired together in a special way. Devices that don't have the manufacturer's modification will only charge using standard USB current, so will charge more slowly.

Because there's been such a need for high-powered charging, recent revisions of the USB standard have added more support for chargers and have increased the current limit, but the manufacturers still use their own extensions (to make sure chargers from the same manufacturer are interchangeable).


How to know if the GPS signal has fixed my position on Lollipop? On Jellybean when the phone was trying to find my GPS location there was a flashing indicator in the status bar and a static one when the location was found.

On lollipop the indicator doesn't flash, so how do I know if the phone has a GPS fix or not?

Try this app: GPS Status It will show a hollow notification icon when an app requests location, and the icon gets filled in when the GPS fix is acquired.


What does a solid blue LED light mean on my Nexus 4 phone? Similar to this question except my LED light is solid blue.

I've googled the subject but the only thing that came up associated with the blue light was the Facebook app, which I don't even have installed. I can't say I remember ever seeing it before.

The battery was not low. The phone was unresponsive and, though off, the screen felt unusually hot. So I pulled the battery out and let it cool down. The battery's back in but it still won't power on.

Update

I googled "nexus 4 hot", as my phone continues to be very warm (despite remaining, to all other appearances, utterly dead), and ended up on a Google support page, where I was able to chat with a live human being, who emailed me some troubleshooting steps, which were very basic and not at all helpful.

The email included a phone number, 1-855-83-NEXUS, where I talked to another human being, who again wasn't able to help, but was very pleasant.

No one has yet been able to explain the mysterious blue light.

This post MAY assist you (similar symptoms  but no Blue light... worth a try):

http://forums.androidcentral.com/google-nexus-4/312151-solved-nexus-4-wont-turn-charge.html

Basically it states to try to get your phone into "recovery mode" and then select "Start"... See if this at least wakes up your phone.

It includes a link to this YouTube video with step-by-step instructions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=e0FVHFg6t2I#t=159


What happens if i flash a custom ROM on locked bootloader? i want to know if i can flash a custom ROM without unlocking the bootloader if this impossible then what happens to the phone if i do that? Thanks.

Generally speaking, you can't.  A locked bootloader prevents flashing.

On some devices you might be able to gain root temporarily while the device is running, and could "live" flash a ROM.  Some bootloaders will refuse to boot the device at all at that point, whereas others will let you proceed after trying and failing to restore the original.  (Or, if you didn't remove the backup image, the restore will succeed.)

The best advice is to avoid attempting any of this with a locked bootloader, unless you want an expensive paperweight.


Help with intents: MacroDroid Further to this Problem with intents :MacroDroid, the solution in the accepted answer works but sadly only for the first time (app error) . I have reported this to the developer
Meanwhile, I thought of trying to see if a broadcast intent would solve the problem. Lacking understanding of how intents work, I tried this and other combinations (ON in square bracket, Action same as class) , but couldn't get it to work.

Here is the Tasker intent that works

Request help in constructing broadcast intent.
NOTE:Please don't edit to make the images smaller for the sake of readability, let them be

This works. No idea for the logic behind it. Any body knows why, please edit to explain or answer


Music Players with Equalizer Almost Killing Battery on nubia It's a nubia Z9 max Elite (NX518J) equipped with Qualcomm's Burndragon 810 SoC running nubia's stock ROM.

I just installed and tried out Poweramp and it's amazing. However my phone got hot considerably quickly. After unplugging it from wired power, it drained 1% battery in less than even 1 minute. I then got rid of Poweramp without killing other backgrounds, my phone managed to survive for more than 7 minutes with 1%.

Later I installed Poweramp back and turned off equlizer, and the battery consumption fell to a reasonable speed. So it's surely equalizer's fault.

Ah, yes. I can remember that Musixmatch had the same issue if equalizer was turned on. So there's nothing to do with Poweramp.

Can anyone help explain this phenomenon? Quite a bunch of music players have this issue. It's confusing.

It's the manufacturer, nubia's fault.

nubia pretty makes a lot of non-regular functions in their ROMs, namely nubia UI. It implements its own fingerprint API (which is not compatible with any existing ones), its own charging detection and its own immersive status bar. This time it's nubia's own music effects API.

Both Poweramp and Musixmatch calls AOSP's MusicFX API for equalizers, but on nubia this does not exist. So everything that should have been done by DAC is done by CPU instead. Adding that Snapdragon 810 is a burny stuff, the phone gets hot very quickly.


How to make sure that screen lock really locks and doesn't allow to do anything? I've recently switched from Lenovo A328 (Android 4.4) to Samsung SM-A320F (Android 8.0, not rooted). On Lenovo I had screen lock set to "pattern", and that let me get rid of the misfeature of opening global menu dropdown (don't know what it's called) which allows to do almost anything.

After switch to Samsung I discovered that "pattern" locker no longer protects from this gesture. After pulling down the global menu I can, for instance, turn on WiFi, toggle flash light, change brightness settings, even change sound mode. There are some things I can't do from there, but this doesn't help much: I can even reboot the phone* trying to extract it from my pocket!

I've managed to remove the Phone and Camera shortcuts from the lower left&right corners, but I still can do any other harmful things while lock is on.

So, how can I make sure that screen lock really locks the screen and keys until I trigger its unlocking? Only emergency calls should be possible while locked.

* or whatever it was: holding volUp+volDown+power pressed for several seconds resulted in some sort of restart

The soft reset by key combination is an important requirement for modern smartphones. Most phones now ship with inbuilt batteries. So, the key combination which stimulate a battery pull is definitely needed. I don't see any reason for it to be disabled. Rather you should be more careful and not press those keys for too long.

As for the access to quick toggles from lockscreen, yes that's a problem for some. Android developers just went with a setup which works for most people. Most would want to turn on the flashlight, WiFi, change sound profile; etc without having to unlock the phone first. The flashlight toggle for example is very handy when you need it suddenly.

I don't know of any way to disable access to toggles. Also, so far I haven't had a wrong press on toggles because the phones come with a "Pocket mode" something which blocks the touch functionality when most part of the screen is covered. That said, I do wish that they bring in an option to disable access to all toggles and leave it to the will of the user. It can be useful for some.


Android does not detect a captive portal I have an access point hosting a login page (which doesn't have actual internet access) and I'm using dnsmasq to answer all DNS requests with the IP address of this page. If an Android device connects, I want it to know that it's connected to a captive portal and show the "Sign-in to wifi network" prompt but this doesn't happen (the device just silently connects to the AP), although Wireshark shows that the HTTP GET requests for /generate_204 are properly responded with HTTP/1.1 200 OK.

Any suggestions why this could be happening? Could there be something other than the response for /generate_204 that Android checks? I'm guessing that the detection fails if the device finds out that there's no internet access.

I have this exact same setup and was having the same problem. I solved this by having the web server return some content as well as the status code. In my case, I had the web server respond with the index page for any requests not found on the web server.

Note that this is being done by an access point that does have internet access.


Installing original OS on Samsung s3 Is it possible to install Google's original OS without all the manufacturer-added bloatware that comes with the device?

Is there a chance that I would ruin the phone and/or not be able to get it to work as it used to if I don't like it for some reason?

Are there any important features that I would miss out if I had to do so?

You can have some custom ROMs, but if you want just to remove the bloatware, I would just root my device, uninstall those bloatwares and if possible unroot again.

Some rooting methods does permit to unroot and some do not.  Even in latter case all that has happened is just you had rooted your device and still have your original ROM.


Why is Google Calendar reminding me it's "Easter Sunday" on 19 Jan 2016? A recent update to the Google Calendar app on Android enabled Google Keep reminders to be displayed on the calendar - which is what this looks like. However, I have no such reminder set!? It appears on both the Google calendar widget and inside the app itself.

If I tap-through on the event it does confirm that it is linked to my primary Google account. Whilst I do use Google Keep on this account and do in fact have two reminders set (which do appear on the calendar), there is no such "Easter Sunday" reminder (checked Android, Web Interface and iOS app).

This "reminder" only appears on the Google Calendar Android app. It does not appear on the Google Calendar iOS app, which also shows reminders (the other two reminders are shown correctly). It does not show on the web calendar - but this doesn't appear to have the option to show Google Keep reminders.

I've tried a manual refresh/resync, but this makes no difference.

Searching for "easter" or "sunday" within Google Keep on Android (or Web interface / iOS) does not return any results.

If I hide "Reminders" (uncheck the option in calendar settings) for this Google account then this erroneous reminder does indeed disappear from the calendar.

Latest Calendar app - version 5.3.1-109151569-release. Nexus 4, Android 5.1.1

Seems a bit weird.

Any ideas?

I appear to have at least discovered where this reminder has originated from: in the Google app (formerly "Google Now"), under "Reminders", there is a "Past" reminder for "Easter Sunday (Apr 05 2015)".

Past reminder

However, there is no "Upcoming" (current) reminder listed here for "Easter Sunday" - so nothing should be appearing in the calendar. The two (recurring) Google Keep reminders (mentioned above) are the only two reminders listed under "Upcoming". So, it's still a mystery why this "Easter Sunday" reminder appears to have suddenly recurred after an unusual time period.

Partial solution:

Tapping this "Past" entry simply gives the option to delete it. Which I have, and now it's gone from the Google Calendar! It's just a puzzle as to why (and how) it happened?


Android Tethering Turns off straight away From time to time, the tethering on my Nexus 6P, running Android 7.1.1, turns itself off for no reason. It can then take 5 or 6 attempts for it to turn back on.

Trying to turn it on, results in the tethering turning on and then straight back off again.

I managed to capture an adb logcat while this was happening, which can be found here

http://pastebin.com/eykDitb3

Keep Wifi on during sleep is set to Always

My provider is Three in the UK

I'm wondering if this is an issue with android, or my provider.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

If your Nexus 6P is rooted:

Install Build Prop Editor app from the Play Store and launch it.
Change net.tethering.noprovisioning=true
Install Terminal Emulator app from the Play Store and launch it.
In Terminal Emulator, enter the following code sequentially:

su
settings put global tether_dun_required 0
exit
reboot


After RCA Voyager Factory Reset, It fails to connect to the internet My phone says it's connected to Wi-Fi, but when I push next it says it couldn'
t connect to the internet.

Look up at the status bar. Does it have the Wi-Fi icon? If so, your connected. If not, finish up the setup and try going into Settings > Wifi and try again. Still no luck? Make sure your internet does not require a sign-in, and that the password is correct. Sometimes Android has little glitches like that.


Samsung Galaxy S7: dark photos with sunlight I recently bought a Samsung Galaxy S7.
The camera is really great at night, but at daytime the photos are turning out way too dark. I tried tweaking the settings, also in manual mode but didn't help.
Any ideas how to improve my daytime photos?
2nd question: is there a good hdr app (real hdr, not just an image filter).

Samsung's camera app may have developed more options since mine, an S3, but the settings allow configuration of 'Effects' and 'Scene'.

'Effects' controls color and warmness, and specific washouts or enhanced colors, while,

'Scene' implies filtering based on the usage of the device in conjunction to surroundings. It takes into consideration emphasized lighting (outdoor, dawn, sunset), light dispersion conditions (beach, snow), diminished lighting (night, fireworks), focal lighting (candlelight, backlight), need for speed during exposure (i.e. sport events).

Used separately or in conjunction, they could resolve your issues.


How do I transfer contacts from a Nokia 3110 to an Android using a Mac? I have about 700 contacts on a Nokia 3110 handset that I want to transfer to my Android phone.

Transferring contacts via my SIM card is a slow process as I can only 200 do at a time. Moreover, I cannot be sure of which contacts have already been transferred.

Is there a faster way this can be achieved with a Mac?

You just need to create a .vcf file on your SD card and copy that to your Android phone

Or

Using your SIM card when you copy contacts select 'move original' to SIM from phone

Or

Connect your handset to your pc via pc suite and sync. Connect your Android phone to your pc and transfer them to it


How to root the Samsung Galaxy 5 Anyone tried to root their Samsung Galaxy 5 (five) device? If so, what is the procedure?

You can root it with Universal Androot.  Install it, run it, follow the instructions.


How to root Alcatel OT-997D? I currently have an Alcatel OT-997D which has the MTK6577 chipset and runs ICS 4.04. I've looked mostly through threads at xda-devs and I've tried various root methods including: "root many android" - I get "mount access denied", "ICS/JB Universal root" - When trying to update in stock recovery the file fails verification, "MTK Droid root" - Reboots phone and backup/restore prompts appear but no results.

Does anyone know any other "universal" rooting methods or ones specific to my device?

Before you begin, I enabled developer mode and I'm not sure if it makes a difference but this is what worked for me so you might as well:

Open settings, click on About phone, scroll down to Build number and tap Build number seven times.

I tried many different methods on a similar alcatel phone with a mtk6582 and I also got error messages from various exploit methods.

However, here are two methods that were successful.

iroot

Root is successful and uses a one click method. However, in order to gain file access, you must install "root file explorer" and which is a paid app. For me, paying for an app is not an option.

kingroot

Download and install kingroot. This one also uses a one click
 method and obtaining root is successful. This is the method I recommend as kingroot will allow you to allocate root permission to individual applications.

After installation and successful root, click the gear icon on the upper right hand corner of the main screen. If you need to, close the app and open it again to view the main screen.

Enable the option Enable Root authorization.

Then, under Root authorization setting, enable the first three options, Smart authorization, Backup Root permission, and Keep the Root upgraded.

For me, I set Authorization count down to 10 seconds and Default timeout to Allow just to get things working. Exit KingRoot.

Next, install ES file explorer and then open KingRoot. Go to Root Authorization and select Allow for ES File Explorer.

Open ES File Explorer and click the menu icon on the upper left hand corner of the screen. Scroll down and expand the Tools section of this menu and toggle the option ON for Root Explorer. Swipe the menu left to close the menu and a few more times to get to the files where you will have full root access to modify these files.

Additionally, KingRoot has the ability to Uninstall default apps and there is also Kingmaster which allows you to manage and restrict apps to obtain full performance of your device.

However, Kingmaster is in Chinese. Most of the app restriction is obvious as red restricts the app and green allows.


How do I restore my old WhatsApp history on another phone? My Samsung Galaxy S3 phone was water-damaged and is not working at all. Unfortunately, I didn't backup my chat history.

I inserted my old SIM card and memory card into my friend's phone and downloaded WhatsApp. I linked it to my old number, but when I opened it, there were no contacts / chat history at all.

Is there any way I could get back my old WhatsApp chat history? There are some important messages there.

The backup is held on your old phone. You would need to be able to switch it on to be able to retrieve it.

If you get it switched on its simply a case of copying the whatsapp folder from the old device to the new one, opening whatsapp and allowing it to restore messages from the backup.


Cannot wipe data/factory reset and also cannot restore backup I recently flashed a new ROM on my Micromax Canvas 2.2 A114.

The problem was the SD card was detected as phone storage and vice versa. Also, SuperSu binary was not detecting.

So, I go to CWM to flash my stock ROM back again. But now there are numerous errors.

When I try to Wipe Cache, it shows 4 errors of the type
Can't recover /cache/recovery/lastlog

If I try to wipe data/factory_reset, it shows error of the type
format_volume: make_extf4fs failed in /dev/block/mmcblk0p03

I forgot to take a nandroid backup. What should I do? I'm really worried.

P.S : All I can do now is enter CWM. That's it. No ROM nothing is present in my phone. Please Help!

Since yesterday I just went into same situation like you had described but then finally able to solve it using so many solutions video watched on Youtube, gone through number of articles and finally solve through XDA-Developers - Ultimate Kitket ROM site.

You can choose any of ROM for your device, I had chosen Ultimate Kitkat.

Also download Recovery file for A114 Canvas 2.2 from Broodle.
If you have external SD Card then copy this recovery.img file into root of your SD Card. Also place that downloaded file from XDA-Developers site into root folder and the follow fastboot from ADB drivers by connecting your mobile device to PC.
Once you have downloaded Ultimate Kitket ROM, .rar or .zip file, then copy it to your SD Card's root directory.
Now in your computer go to the ADB driver's directory (open command prompt as Run as Administrator and go to ADB drivers directory).
Run following command from command prompt

  fastboot flash recovery recovery.img

It will install CWD recovery.img file to Android device and now your task will become much more easier.

Again go for wipe/factory reset option.
Now go for check updates from sd card and then select your .rar or .zip file, it will ask you for confirmation and say Yes... and it will start installation process.
After installation it will again give you prompt to restart, so restart it.
Now you will see a new logo for Canvas Blade and your system is up friend.

So through above steps you can restart you dead mobile.


How to remove unused folders created by apps? When I started with a fresh SD card, there were only very few folders in it. As time passed by when I tried many apps, I could see the folder list in my SD card seems to grow.

It is understandable that while an app is being uninstalled, it leaves behind its folder where it would have kept few files, which may be the settings file or game scores etc.

Is there any way I can remove all those orphaned folders in a batch or short operations? I have seen the question "How do one know which folder is created by which android apps" and can manually do it, but I am interested in kind of automatic solution.

My phone info: LG Optimus One (P500) running stock 2.3.3 V20D (rooted).

Unfortunately, as the comments state, there is currently no way to automate this - and I for one wish there was, as I find myself deleting loads of folders as well.

You should do it manually - but methodically, and it starts to seem to take a lot less time, as you start to think about it.

One thing to look out for is folders for game apps that you installed, as they may contain the downloaded game data - which can be quite large, which you may wish to keep incase you want to install and play the game again.

Like Izzy mentioned, SD Maid finds some of the orphan files for you - but not all.


Connected to wifi, but no internet access first question here. I was using wifi normally on my phone. Then I turned it off and after some time turned it back again. Since then I can not access the internet. It's showing Connected(no internet access).

I tried to set the IP static. It did not work for DNS 192.168.200.1. No matter what IP I set with this DNS it does not work. Then used the 8.8.8.8 as DNS, now it's connected. But it is really slow, and the connection does not seem stable. Every time I have to reload google.com several times just to get the page.

The problem is specific to this device only. Other devices connected to the same network are perfect.

Can someone suggest me what should I do? Is this a router issue? Or is this my device problem?

I'm new in this area. So my knowledge is not so deep and you might have to explain things a bit more in detail for me to grasp the concept.

You can use Airplane Mode to reset DNS.

Put the phone in Airplane mode. Wait about a minute. Power the phone OFF, then start it up, then Remove Airplane Mode and test. It should work.


Force an SMS to use an Area Code My brother's phone number requires an area code to send an SMS.  I keep getting a message back to use an area code, but I can't find any way to force Android to use it.

I'm using 4.2.2

From what I read, there's some caching that makes this difficult, but basically you need to add +1 Area code.  Here's the exact steps I do to make sure this works, it's a pain to do it when you run into a number that's bad, but I'm too lazy to preemptively fix up my address book. But maybe I should.

Delete all messages related to the person, if it was a phone call,
I'd delete the call log as well.
Hit your home key button to get to your home screen
Hold down your home key button to open a list of running Apps (Some carriers
disable this I think)
Close all of your apps dealing with contacts, dialing and messaging.
Go into system Settings > Storage (I get there by hitting the menu key from the home screen)
Clear all of your cached data, there's a button on the storage screen.
Go back in to your contacts and edit the contact you just dialed.
Add +1 Area Code before the number (i.e. +1 555 555 5555)
Go back and try dialing by looking them up in the Address book

This works for me.  There is some caching that happens, which is why I do it in this order.  Hope it helps.


What can happen when you flash a bootlocked device? This will probably not be done in practice, but I like hypotheticals.

I believe that when you flash a custom recovery on a bootlocked device the stock recovery will just be flashed back on reboot. This is because stock ROMs have a backup image of the stock recovery. But what happens when you flash a custom ROM without touching the stock recovery? I doubt it can be flashed back.

I can think of two ways to flash the custom ROM: 1) fastboot 2) boot into a non-flashed custom recovery image (using fastboot), then use that to flash the ROM.
What will happen if either method succeeds in flashing the custom ROM on a device with a locked bootloader?

Yes, with root it is typically possible to edit/remove/replace the image that is restored by the bootloader and thus prevent the ROM/recovery restoration.  Whether that is done with a custom ROM or not isn't actually relevant.  I've done something similar (editing the script that verifies/installs the recovery) on my Dell Streak with stock firmware; check out this answer.

Of course, it's always possible for the bootloader to refuse to boot the phone after you do this, though I don't know offhand of any that are that strict.


Internal storage management of files and folders My Xiaomi phone stores some folders inside internal storage (cannot store app data to external) after installing some apps. And, when that app is uninstalled, these folders remain there. Also, I can see several files ( may be system files) with and without extension other than app folders. Cleaner application also not clearing folders and files.

Why these folders are not automatically get removed, during uninstall?
Whether files,that have no extension and with extension, creates slow down of device?

Without a list of your internal storage content, it's hard to discern useless files from useful ones. Without further info, the only answers I can give you are the following:

When you uninstall an app, the system deletes the trees corresponding to the app's package name under /data/app/ (application executable) and /data/data/ (application's internal data). It should also wipe some folders into your internal and external storages, namely those corresponding to the app's package name, and placed under Android/data/. Any other folder, created by the app in a path different from the abovementioned gets ignored.
It may depend. Generally, those which slow down badly your device are files which are big in size. Since, as already said, they're not cleaned by the system, that's a burden that falls on you, the user.

As a footnote, the files residing in an internal storage are not fundamental (and I remark that I'm talking about files, not folders). Generally, they can be files which are placed there by an app for the purpose of flag, meaning that said app looks if such file is present, and performs something. Else, it does something else.

Finally, if you delete any of these files, they may be regenerated, if the app that created them is still installed.


Is there an Android equivalent of Linux command "xinput --list"? I'd like to disable the physical keyboard and touchpad of my 2-in-1 touchscreen laptop when I use it as a tablet running on Android-x86, and so far I've managed to disable the keyboard by naming it in the file /android-7.1-rc2/system/etc/excluded-input-devices.xml, which is called AT Translated Set 2 keyboard.

But I couldn't properly name the touchpad :-(
I guess I need Android equivalent of Linux command xinput --list (if something like this exists at all).

Any ideas/suggestions please?

Enter the command su root to gain root access.
Enter the command getevent -p to see a list of devices - which will match and even provide more detailed info than the linux command xinput --list


Force app to fit on screen I am trying to use an Android app which is not designed very well. Part of the UI is not visible which prevents it from functioning. Is there a way to force it to fit on screen? Possibly by overriding the display DPI with a developer option?

This is a screenshot of the app:

Screenshot from Google Play Store. Yes, it says iPod. Lol.

On my phone the "pairing" button is not visible as it is off the bottom of the display, and there is no scroll bar:

Screenshot from my phone.

As you can see, the UI is simply too big to fit on the display, so some parts get pushed off. Since the UI does not scroll, they are inaccessible.

After googling for a while I found a solution. Enable adb debugging on the phone and run this command:

adb shell dumpsys display | grep mBaseDisplayInfo

Find the part that says "density". This is the screen DPI. Reducing it will make Android think your screen is bigger, and it will shrink all of the UI respectively. I changed it from 240 to 200 by running this command:

adb shell wm density 200

Now the problem app looks like this, and I can use it:

screenshot showing fixed app

Note that this will affect everything on the phone including the homescreen.

I found this solution here. Contrary to what that page says, I did not need to reboot for the change to take effect.


What is the length and breadth of ONLY the screen in the Nexus 7? I'm not asking the diagonal values, but the length and breadth ones of the Nexus 7. And only of the LCD screen, not the entire hardware.

You can always use some mathematics to obtain screen size:

X = sqrt ( Z^2 / (1 + (VR/HR)^2) )

where:

  sqrt = Square Root √‾‾‾

  X = screen width

  Z = diagonal screen size (7" for Nexus 7)

  VR = vertical resolution

  HR = horizontal resolution

which for Nexus 7, we have:

Z = 7"
VR = 1280
HR = 800

so:

  X = sqrt ( 49 / 3.56)

  X = 3.71 inches ~ 94mm

  Y = (1280/800) * X = 1.6X

  Y = 5.936 inches ~ 151mm

so we have 151mm x 94mm which Peanut has linked to.


What should I do now to move apps to SD in my Samsung Galaxy S Duos (ICS)? I just bought a new Samsung Galaxy S Duos and the Android version does not have a option to move the app to memory card. I also installed the app called "app2sd"and when I open the app it says, The device does not have a real primary external storage or the primary external storage is emulated. Moving app to SD function may not be supported by this device.

What should I do now to move the app to SD.

I have LG P768 Android 4.1.2. I can move apps to SD using Move2SD

some app2sd (that can't work) will show this error "device does not have a real primary external storage or the primary external storage is emulated"


Difference between Doze Mode and Sleep Mode in Android Marshmallow Prior to Android M there was something called sleep mode in Android. With Android M Google introduced the so called Doze Mode.
Can anyone please elaborate the difference between these modes?

Sleep Mode - means CPU will be sleeping and will not accept any command except from RIL(Radio Interface Layer) and alarms. CPU will go to sleep mode with in fraction of seconds after LCD is turned off.

Doze Mode - means that apps on your phone will have no network access, the system will ignore “wakelocks” when apps try to keep the device from going to sleep, and no background tasks will be allowed to run. That certainly makes it sound like your phone won’t do you much good, but there are a few ways Doze preserves functionality. While apps can’t wake the device up to run sync jobs and other background tasks, high-priority push messages will still show up. So for example, a Hangouts message will appear on a device that’s in Doze mode.

App Standby - an app that goes into standby loses all network access and all its background sync jobs are suspended. These restrictions are temporarily lifted when your phone is plugged in and for a few minutes every day or two. This gives suspended apps a chance to run any pending sync jobs, but they won’t be allowed to continue running. A high-priority push notification will also be able to wake an app from standby for a short time.

Read more here


My sense home screen has stopped auto rotating, how do I fix it? I have a desire z (aka tmobile g2). When I fist got it a week ago the home screen used to rotate when the phone was tilted. It has since stopped doing that.

Other things still rotate when the phone is rotated. And the home screen rotates when I extend the keyboard. And menu -> settings -> display -> auto rotate screen is checked.

From everything I've read, it appears that the Desire Z version of Sense only rotates the homescreen when the keyboard is out.

You could try installing a custom ROM like this one at XDA that supports rotation.


Lenovo A916 cannot unlock bootloader My PC OS is Gentoo Linux with Kernel version 4.4.21.
I'm followed these steps:

adb reboot bootloader
fastboot oem unlock

And after this, message pops up "... press Volume+ to continue, and Volume- to cancel", if i press "Volume+" button, nothing happens, and if i press "Volume-" button, operation cancels.

What i should do to fix it?

Or there are another way to unlock bootloader?

Try these commands:

adb reboot bootloader

Wait for your PC to install fastboot drivers for the device then

Check if device is detecting in fastboot mode

fastboot devices
If device is detected use the following command to unlock bootloader:

fastboot oem unlock

Follow the screen instructions and after unlocking reboot the device using the command:

fastboot reboot

Hope It will work for you.

Note: Unlocking bootloader will erase entire data.


Can't log into google apps after sim card change I went to Germany and I had switch my PLAY (PL operator) SIM card with Blau.de SIM card. Everything was good, I had Internet connection and full facebook/twitter/google sync. After return to Poland, I switched to my original SIM card and my android phone failed to log into facebook/twitter/google.

I'm sure I'm using good passwords.
Error message says that phone was unable to establish Internet connection. But Internet is fully working (now I'm using my phone as a modem).
I have correct apn's and I can use for example gmail through default web browser.

I found in Internet that this is common problem with android phones, and it can be repaired after factory reset.

It's very important to me to avoid factory reset. Anyone know other way to log in?

My telephone: Samusng i5500, Android 2.1

Update:
I found that I can't fully use applications such as Waze, Glympse, Opera, basically all applications that use internet - they cannot connect to internet. But, I can use default browser to check gmail, and surf net. It looks like phone has disabled ability co connect to internet for every application except default web browser.

Update2: I can log into google account and fully sync phone when I'm using wifi. After disconnection from wifi everything is stopping despite the fact that I have GSM internet connection working.

Solution: My operator has 3 different APN's, one for WAP, one for MMS and one for internet. First two was automatically configured, third one have to be added manually

First, I'd start by ensuring that the APN settings are correct.  A different SIM card from another carrier could have overwritten them.  You can access these by going to Menu -> Settings -> Wireless & networks -> Mobile networks -> Access Point Names and then tapping on the selected one to edit it.  The correct settings are sometimes listed on your carrier's website.  At worst you may need to call their support line.  While you are there, make sure under "Network Operators" option your provider is selected.  After making the changes toggle the Airplane mode on and off to re-connect to the mobile network.

Try dialing the following number in the Dialer app: *#*#2432546#*#* (spells out "checkin" between the stars and pounds) and see what it comes back with.


Automatically have my frequently-used apps handy I recently wiped and re-installed my phone. In so doing, I lost my home screen layout. In any event, my layout wasn't all that great.

What I'm looking for is an app/other method that would determine which apps I use most frequently and place them on my home screen automatically. I imagine this would need to be either a launcher or a widget. This way, I wouldn't have to spend time scrolling around for my most commonly-used apps.

Does such an app exist?

determine which apps I use most frequently and place them on my home screen automatically.

There is Smart Widget.


The process of Reskining the Apps Want to reskin some apps and want to know from where I learn this method with working on some projects.

You should first make sure that the app you're working with has a licence permitting you to edit it.
You can then use apktool to decompile it's apk and modify its resources.
You should then compile the edited source and sign it before you can install it on your phone.


How to save Whatsapp voicenotes to Computer? I am connecting my Android phone to my computer trying to save Whatsapp voicenotes in my computer. But when I open the folder WhatsApp Voice Notes it is blank. I can see the files (begin with PTT) in my Android but it seems they can't be read on my Computer. Previously they could. Is anyone having the same issues or have some solution for it?

My problem has been solved. I tried this trick and it works.

Open the folder on your mobile. It is WhatsApp/Media/WhatsApp Voice Notes/
Select all files all any files you wanna copy to your computer
Attach them on email and send email to yourself
Now open your email on computer and download the attachments.

Tadaaaaa~~~ Now you have the files on your computer ^_^

NB. The files extension is .optus, if your media cannot play it, I suggest you download a optus-mp3 converter.

Hope this helps. Good luck!


Where is the default ringtone stored? I recently brought a Sony Xperia C. One of my friends like a few default ringtones of the phone. I tried to search in the internal as well as sd card memory but couldn't find the ringtone.

Where exactly they are stored? Can I send it to my friends using another android phone?

Default ringtones are usually stored in /system/media/audio/ringtones. You might be able to access this location using a file manager.

Keep in mind that, residing on /system, this place is read-only at best without root-access: so while you should be able to copy from here, you cannot place any files into this directory. If you want to manually add ringtones to your device, rather create a similar directory on your SDcard (/sdcard/media/audio, with sub-directories for ringtones, alarms, notifications, etc.). This location should be recognized automatically by the Android system.


Why is the transformer Jelly Bean update being staggered geographically? The Transformer TF300's jelly bean update is now available OTA in North America but not in Australia for up to two weeks.

What would be the reason that they would not make it available all at once? Is there some technical reason it can't be done? Like if I was in the US but I bought the tablet in Australia, would it let me update?

So is there any way for me to bypass this restriction and somehow hook into the North American update site (via a proxy or something) in order to get it now?

Each region has its own network-dependent versions (with additional apps / bloatware).

You can use the firmwares from other regions, which you can find in SamFirmware, but you need to have a rooted phone.


Is Android Pie vulnerable to ADB server attack? According to The Hacker News, many Android devices are running insecure remote ADB service:

Thousands of Android Devices Running Insecure Remote ADB Service
Despite warnings about the threat of leaving insecure remote services enabled on Android devices, manufacturers continue to ship devices with open ADB debug port setups that leave Android-based devices exposed to hackers.
Android Debug Bridge (ADB) is a command-line feature that generally uses for diagnostic and debugging purposes by helping app developers communicate with Android devices remotely to execute commands and, if necessary, completely control a device.
Usually, developers connect to ADB service installed on Android devices using a USB cable, but it is also possible to use ADB wirelessly by enabling a daemon server at TCP port 5555 on the device.
If left enabled, unauthorized remote attackers can scan the Internet to find a list of insecure Android devices running ADB debug interface over port 5555, remotely access them with highest "root" privileges, and then silently install malware without any authentication.
Therefore, vendors are recommended to make sure that the ADB interface for their Android devices is disabled before shipping. However, many vendors are failing to do so.
[...]

Is Android Pie vulnerable to the ADB server attack as mentioned above?

The attack is unrelated to a specific Android version (including Pie, Q, and beyond), but to all devices with ADB over network enabled.

[...] it is also possible to use ADB wirelessly by enabling a daemon server at TCP port 5555 on the device.
If left enabled, unauthorized remote attackers can scan the Internet to find a list of insecure Android devices running ADB debug interface over port 5555, remotely access them with highest "root" privileges, and then silently install malware without any authentication.

This is made worse when some manufacturers/vendors ship the device with the setting enabled.

Despite warnings about the threat of leaving insecure remote services enabled on Android devices, manufacturers continue to ship devices with open ADB debug port setups that leave Android-based devices exposed to hackers.
[...]
Therefore, vendors are recommended to make sure that the ADB interface for their Android devices is disabled before shipping. However, many vendors are failing to do so.

For more information: Malware installed with remote debugging

To secure the device, check whether the ADB over network is disabled or not. This setting is available under Developer options, which normally also needs to be enabled first (usually by tapping "Build number" on the Settings 7 times)
To enable Developer options (in general):

Go to Settings - About phone
Tap "Build number" 7 times (or until any notification about developer option already enabled appears)
(If this step doesn't work, check with your device manual or other resources to enable Developer options)

To disable ADB over network:

Go to Settings - Developer options
Check whether the "Developer options" is enabled or not by toggling the switch on the top. If you don't need any features from this setting, disabling it is recommended. However, if you need some features from it but still need to secure the device...
Scroll until the Debugging section, and check whether "Android debugging" and "ADB over network" are enabled or not. Either disable both if you don't need to debug any apps, or just disable "ADB over network" to prevent this attack.
(Otherwise, if you need to use ADB over network, just don't forget to disable it when you end the debugging season)


Install all of google servies alcatel one touch fierce xl I rooted my phone but after a while I realized google play store wasnt there. So I deleted the root app and did a factory reset but it didnt come back. So then I tried getting apks but when ever I tried to download something the app would just crash and when ever Im just using my phone a message would appear saying google play store has crashed. Is there anyway to restore my phone back to its former glory? Any answers please be explained in depth I dont understand some technical lingo

root shouldn't delete the play store !

Did you do anything else ?

was it a dirty root zip
( maybe ported from a new gapps installer as a base ?)
gapps is all i can tink of that would delete your store because it cleans up your old installation first, It sounds like someone made their own root.zip and used the script from gapps, thinking it'd just install root files into the system and not wipe anything...


Update Market Application to Google Play Market Application I have the problem with latest update which re-brands "Market" app
to "Google Play Market" app.

At one moment "Market" icon disappeared from both home screen and applications.
I was seeking for the solution to that, found some (weird at the time) "Play Market" update installed
and have uninstalled it. This brought back "Market" application.

Later I have seen that this was a silent patch which I should not uninstall!

Problem is, that, when I start "Market" app it ONLY displays following page in browser:
https://play.google.com/about/android-developer-policies.html

I am stuck here with this page, and the app is not updating again to "Play Market"

Does anyone know how to resolve this?

Try clearing the data for the Market and rebooting the phone.  Then log in to the Market, wait a minute, then back out and continue using your phone with the internet connection active.  Hopefully the Market should update itself within a few minutes.

Or, you can just download and install the .apk.  I rely on Android Police for the latest version; they've posted 3.9.16 here.


Where does Google Chrome automatically save pages? I opened the following page: https://goughlui.com/2014/10/01/usb-cable-resistance-why-your-phonetablet-might-be-charging-slow/

When disconnecting WiFi and even after rebooting the mobile phone, the page can still be read due to being saved automatically.

Left to the URL bar, an indicator looks like this:

This also shows up when opening manually saved pages, which are saved as MHTML files in the default download folder.

However, an automatically saved page can not be re-downloaded manually to get to the download folder, because the arrow is greyed out.I wish to copy some automatically saved pages into the download folder.

Where are the files of automatically saved pages stored?

This would be in Chrome data, which means you need root and on my device running 8.1 stock this seems to be it

/data/data/com.android.chrome/app_chrome/Default/Offline Pages/archives/ where you have .db (databases)

In one of the databases prefech_store, I could see the information pertaining to off-line pages

This may not help you as HTML/MHTML pages are not available directly for your purpose (searching for those in the app data didn't turn up any which implies they are stored in databases only)


Remove password lock created by Android Device Manager (Galaxy Note 3) I created a password lock on My Galaxy Note 3 with the Android Device Manager web site.

How can I cancel it or administer it?
(I have reduced the hassle a bitb y creating a simple password on the website)

When locking a device using Android Device Manager it replaces the previous "Screen lock" with a password. Once you have entered the password you can follow these steps to remove/replace the screen lock:

Go to Settings > Security > Screen lock
Enter the password you entered via Android Device Manager
Choose your new screen lock method (Pattern, Slide, PIN etc.)

Steps performed on a Nexus 5, they might be slightly different on other devices


Error while installing app Received error of "Your device is rooted, You have been denied access", while installing my co's email software developed for android phone, the same application was working in other phones (Samsung , nexus 4 & 5, HTC etc), can anyone suggest how to resolve this.

Most organizations don't want to allow use of company software on rooted device as it is considered undesirable for following reasons:

Warranty – Some manufacturers assert that rooting voids your device’s warranty. However, rooting will not actually damage your hardware.

Security – There are some security issues, like Google Wallet, in particular, has a vulnerability on rooted devices that could allow other apps to access your PIN and other wallet information.  Google Wallet displays a warning message if you run it on a rooted device.

Bricking – Rooting a device is a very safe process. However, there’s always some danger of “bricking” a device when you go outside the normal parameters and hack around with it — particularly if you’re trying to root a device or operating system version not supported by a tool. “Bricking” refers to breaking the device, making it about as useful as a brick. When you root, jailbreak, or install a custom ROM, or otherwise hack around, you do so at your own risk. It’s a good idea to do a little bit of research first and see if other people report success rooting your device.

AFAIK, you have 2 choices

1.You need non-rooted device to install your company's proprietary software 2. you may reach to IT Dept. of your company and request them to allow installing  company's proprietary software on ROOT-ed device. They need to disable the checking of rooted/non-rooted device while installing the software.


Prevent ANY sound from Android phone I have the Galaxy S4 and would like to be able to ensure that, when on silent/vibrate mode, the phone makes absolutely no noise. I haven't been able to find a way to prevent the alarm from making noise when going off in silent mode, and though I could set the alarm type to vibrate, I'm concerned that if the alarm can go off in silent mode, other things can make noise as well.

Is there a way to ensure the phone makes no noise? Is it really only the alarm that makes noise in silent mode?

Check out Volume Control +. This app lets you control the volume for the following: Media, Ring, Notifications, In-call, alarm, system. Each sound profile (e.g. Silent, Vibrate, General) can be configured.


How do I add an Outlook email signature on new Nokia 8V? Recently upgraded on Verizon to the new Nokia 8V android phone.  I can't find anyway to add/change my Outlook email signature.
Any help is appreciated

To add a signature (text not html) on Outlook, simply go to Settings -> Signature.