How can I make a point-to-point VoIP call over Wi-Fi? I am searching for a way to make a point-to-point VoIP call between two Android devices without having any intermediate server (SIP server) or an Internet connection. I just have an access point (or multiple access point connect via LAN) and I want to make VoIP calls over Wi-Fi only. Is this possible?

You can use CSipSimple to add a local SIP account on both phones without having the need for an intermediate SIP proxy (or server).

Add a general 'Local' account. You only have to provide a SIP username for it.

When that is done on both phones you can call the other phone:

You have to know the IP address or dns name of the other phone
You need to know the just set up SIP username of the other phone
Dial 'SIPusername@IP-address' to call the other phone
You need to switch from the initially shown number pad to the extended 'SIP uri' input window

Click on the green marked spot in the left image to navigate to the SIP input activity :


Retrieving an OLD whatsapp back up from google drive phone was stolen and I would like to retrieve an old whatsapp backup from google drive. I do not want the most recent backups offered, as these were since my phone was stolen. I want an old one that is visible in google drive, but when I click it, the only options are to delete it or turn it off. I want to install it! This chat file is not visible in my whatsapp/databases folder.

You can't access raw files of WhatsApp from Google Drive (it is a hidden folder), and you can't choose which version you want to restore from (I cannot even see versions at my account).

But, you can try to restore the last backup from Google Drive, and then manipulate
WhatsApp db files in order to delete some of your messages.
There are plenty of guides out there on how to decrypt WhatsApp db, after you decrypt it, delete the non-relevant messages and put the db back in your sd, Didn't try but it might works.


Are hotspots sold inside phones? My idea is this: It would be really convenient if i could buy a smartphone with an integrated mobile hotspot so i dont have to carry around a separate device. So is this sold? if so, by whom and approximately how expensive can this get? (assume carrier is irrelevant, i can easily switch to another if Verizon doesn't work)

Some SmartPhones like the Samsung Galaxy S2 lets you create a Wi-Fi hotspot. Unfortunately, this would decrease the phone's battery life, which is why having a separate device would be better option.


How to select all and delete in Gmail App I have a Nexus 5, there are a lots of sale emails come to my Gmail account. Right now I can only search in Gmail app, but I wonder how to delete all of results like in desktop version with select all and delete?

It is better to make rules and categorize email base on sender, Subject, and then select them for delete. Currently gmail app not provide select all and delete.


Changing Default Homescreen on MIUI 7 This is for an Mi Pad running MIUI 7. The default home screen is the first one which allows only widgets & not apps. Googling around, several sites say that you can change the def home screen - i.e. make the 2nd or any other screen the home screen by doing the 3 finger swipe and pinch. I even found videos which show this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7QGDQTYbGw

But when I do this, it shows up other options -> Move App, Widgets, Wallpaper, Effects (this is supposed to shown for the 2 finger pinch). For me both 2 finger and 3 finger pinch brings this up.

What am I doing wrong?

I am not experienced in the MIUI device but one alternate method could be to download an android launcher. Launchers like Google now or nova work really well in my opinion. I know this doesn't really fix the issue but, chances are you'll like these launchers better than the default one.


Sending Map from PC to Archos 43 using Chrome to Phone? Has anyone used this feature successfully? (C2DM feature explanation here - warning, it is a technical document)  As a user, how do you do it?

The only app that I can find that looks like it does this is Chrome to Phone.
Given the name, is the phone function crucial to pushing a Map to your Android device?

I'm looking to send directions from my PC to my Archos 43 that is paired up with a Bluetooth GPS.

Thanks!

Chrome to phone is a great app.  It's one of my most used apps.  Install Chrome to Phone from App Brain or the Android market.  Next install the Chrome Extension.  Finally find the directions on Google Maps and click the chrome to phone button.  This will open up either the web page, Google maps, or Google Navigation (can't remember) on your device assuming your device is connected to the internet.

However, since this is not a phone I suspect you won't have an internet connection while you are driving which could be a problem if you are trying to use Google Maps/Navigation.


How to connect 3rd party tcp/ip device to Nexus7 I have a wired tcp/ip based device that I need to access from an android app running on a rooted nexus 7.

There is only one hard-requirement1. The tablet's primary internet connectivity must NOT be affected (3g and wifi).
and a couple of preferences...
 2. Preferably the device would be accessed wirelessly.
3. Preferably this would be accomplished without additional hardware physically attached to the tablet.

The options as I currently see them...

Bluetooth

obviously this would require some sort of ethernet to bluetooth gateway.  I would rather not pay more than the price of the table for an industrial device which has significantly more capability than what I would need. So does a consumer version of this even exist? If it does would the resulting bluetooth connection on the tablet interfere with the 3g/wifi internet connectivity or is that something I can workaround with special routing rules or just coding the app to use bluetooth rather than sockets?
Wifi

Is there a way to accomplish this while still meeting requirement #1?  Maybe attaching a USB dongle via the tablet OTG connection and running two simultaneous wifi connections with special routing rules?
Wired

USB RJ45 dongle via tablet OTG connection?  This is similar and possibly simpler than the wifi option yet has the same potential issues regarding having two network connections active concurrently.

Any thoughts, suggestions, creative solutions?

The obvious solution would be to use a device that has both ethernet and Wi-Fi as a router or a bridge. If it joins the same Wi-Fi network that the Nexus 7 is on, then the Nexus 7 will be able to make a connection through the router/bridge to your mystery device, while also talking to the Internet through the same Wi-Fi network. Alternatively, if the Nexus 7 is on 3G, switch on its Wi-Fi hotspot and have the router/bridge connect to that.

I don't know if any commercially available special-purpose Wi-Fi routers have the ability to act as a client rather than an AP, but this would be easy to rig up with a Raspberry Pi or similar small Linux machine.


What's the purpose of "Emergency Call" button on SIM unlock screen? When SIM is locked with PIN1 or PIN2 and I boot my Android phone, SIM unlock screen appears which contains num key pad and "Emergency Call" button. I have seen this in all Android phones including non-dual SIM phones and those without native VoIP stack (I know VoIP isn't meant for emergency calling, but it can be option if user is in Wi-Fi & VoIP is configured).

What's the purpose of this "Emergency Call" button when you can't really call?

It is required for phones (at least in Europe and US) to allow emergency calls without requiring the user to unlock the phone or the SIM card. You can always make an emergency call when you're in a cell coverage area and the phone has power. It's a safety feature, which guarantees you can use any phone in an emergency to get assistance, regardless of the state the phone is in.

Take this scenario: you're in a car crash and your own phone breaks. An unconscious friend's cell phone is working, but it has a pattern/PIN/password lock on it, or it lost power but boots to the SIM PIN screen. The feature guarantees that you can make the call without knowledge of the correct pattern/PIN/password.

The numbers you can call with this feature are restricted to the most common or regional emergency numbers, and are translated by the carrier to the local emergency numbers if you're roaming.

The exception to this are WiFi-only tablets, which can't make calls at all.

Edit:
If the device's SIM is locked, it detects the networks available and identifies it's own network, but doesn't register the device to the network. In the case of emergency calls, the phone doesn't need to be registered to the network, all calls to emergency numbers are allowed, regardless of the state of the SIM or carrier subscription. Even with no SIM at all, the networks are detected and the carrier with the strongest signal is used.


Disappearing call logs later automatically it can be viewed....! Am using Samsung note 3 neo from few day I am facing a problem in call logs whenever this is a missed call, dialed call or rejected call that will not show in call log for certain period later it will listed and show.. I have cleared all the cached files then also issue is presuming same. Please help !!

Go to settings, then apps, scroll to show all apps, go down until you see a phone icon that says call and message log, force stop it and switch phone off, leave about 2 minutes and restart phone, should all be back in place, hope it helps


A phone as a home 4G modem/router? I live in a rural area where traditional cable, fiber, and even DSL are not a possibility.  I am using a weird wireless system a local ISP set up for this area, but its flaky, slow and expensive.  The only thing it really has going for it is there are no data caps.

I can get 4G signal for T-Mobile, however (and Verizon, but their data caps drove me away), and I'm considering making my home internet connection consist of a dedicated Android phone on a T-Mobile 4G unlimited contract, using its WiFi hotspot.  (I would probably set up another wireless router for the actual LAN so I'd have good coverage of the house, but it would use the phone's network as its uplink.). I would use a phone rather than a USB modem to take advantage of T-Mobile's unlimited data package.

Is this a bad idea?  Would the phone fry if I left it on and broadcasting its WiFi hotspot 24/7?  I have an N5 but I've never used the hotspot for an extended period before - are they flaky?  Would it drop IPs or anything like that and require reboots?  Would T-Mobile decide I'm breaking a rule and throttle me down?

That's not a bad idea at all. I have Verizon Wireless and I do this all the time. That's what tethering is for, and the USB option as well. 4G is fast, and for what it's worth, based on what you've said, it seems like a fantastic idea.

To answer your second question and forward, no - -  your phone wouldn't fry, providing you got a phone with good specs.

As far as I'm concerned, they have been more reliable than regular average routers. It's LTE after all, so it's not a surprise. Can't speak about the throttle, that depends on T-Mobile and their terms. I think they do throttle, but it's not a huge difference.

I'd recommend talking to someone from T-Mobile and asking them what device has best specs and battery power. Also, you can get a data monitor to monitor all traffic and block / allow certain connections via incoming addresses or devices. Those apps are available on Google Play so let me know if you need them.

I have a family member who uses T-Mobile tethering  amongst six devices at home, two of which are a PS3 which plays Netflix and it's not slow at all. Randomly given of course, every server has ups and downs.


Blocking hard and master reset or internet access permanently on Samsung Galaxy phone I have a porn problem and I want to either disable the ability to do hard or master resets on the Samsung Galaxy phone (the only way to get by certain site blockers of which I have setup an undecipherable password), or simply block all internet access on the phone while still allowing calls to be made. How can this be done so that I will never again be tempted to view obscene material?

1.You can install one of parental control apps and ask your friend to set password for you (if you are ashamed you can tell that this is e.g. for your son or sister...).

2.If you have rooted phone that topic is for you ! Made this application as the system app and then unroot your phone.

I think in your case best solution is using both methods above.


Why do get SMS send to the wrong recipient ( HTC Thunderbolt)? My SMS texts on numerous occasions have crossed from one thread of text and gone to a completely different person.  That person usually has recently texted me.  I close out the keyboard and make sure it is going to the right person, hit send, then it ends up going to the wrong thread.

Is there a fix for ?

There are many people facing similar problem here, http://community.htc.com/na/htc-forums/android/f/107/t/12961.aspx?PageIndex=3

The solutions they came up with was:

Use handcent SMS app instead of stock SMS app
Keep low number of messages in inbox
Delete read message
Waiting for Gingerbread update which will fix it

If I were you I'd choose number 1.


DDNS Hostname Address? Probably a dumb question...

I have a ddns that I got through no-ip.com. I have everything all set up in PuTty on my computer using the username.no-ip.org (and the port number in a different spot).

I downloaded Connectbot for Android, and it's asking me for username@hostname:port. I tried username@no-ip.org:1234 (left out real username and port for security reasons). I can't connect. How do I "convert" my ddns address to be in the format as required by Connectbot?

I know I'm missing something simple... a while ago I had this set up and working. But now I'm lost.

Never mind. I just needed it to be root@username.no-ip.org:1234.


adb locat - cannot redirect to textfile - read only filesystem When I trie to show logs of a specific priority in logcat and direct the stream to a textfile I get the following error message:

 1|shell@android:/ $ adb logcat "*:W" > logcat.txt
 /system/bin/sh: can't create logcat.txt: Read-only file system

What has the Read-only file system to do with directing the output to textfile? How do I get around this? probably via

chmod +w <file>

but which folder/file in the linux-filesystem of my android device?

Are there better get-arounds?

I can underline that my device is already rooted.

adb logcat on your phone launches an ADB server on your phone (which is also running on your PC) and connects to itself.

Then you try to write everything to /logcat.txt (/ is the the root of your filesystem; you can't write there).

Try routing your output to something like /sdcard/logcat.txt or run it directly on your PC, where it gets saved in the current working directory of your cmd.exe.


Stop receiving text messages in my Samsung Note 8 that are sent from spammers email address I have been getting unwanted text messages on my Samsung Note 8 coming from a spammers email account.
I have not found a way to block these text messages coming from email accounts.  The feature that I use to block phone numbers is not available.
Any help will be appreciated.

You receive only spam from one account - you are lucky. Typically is an mail account gets older you receive spam from hundred of spammers once your mail address has been recognized by a spammer.
Spam protection typically a job of your mail provider. Often the "SPAM detection report" is hidden in the mail header. On most mail providers you can use the fields in the mail header to move mails to certain sub-folders, e.g. in this case to a "potential spam" folder in your mailbox. Mail provider can reject spam messages so that they never reach you. I would assume that this already happens if you only receive SPAM from one sender.
Additionally you can check if your mail provider allows you to provide new SPAM samples so that they might get recognized in the future. Sometimes there is an e-mail address you can forward SPAM messages (as attachment) to or you can mark message as SPAM in the mail provider web GUI.
Very few mail clients include a client side SPAM protection based on machine learning. Bt typically such systems are more common on desktop PCs (e.g. in Thunderbird). In Android apps such a self-learning SPAM protection is not that common (I don't know any app that would provide such a feature).


mm qcamera daemon draining battery on S5 My s5 phone is facing a problem due to mm qcamera daemon bug since 05 November 2014. How can I fix it?

I have tried restarting and deleting the cache but that did not work.

I have same problem. What you can do is delete all camera using programs and ir games. Ex. Skype, viber, ym. What happens is the auto shut off codeing is not releasing the camera function shut off which is the program called mm-qcamera daemon. Currently there is no fix and no set plans for s5. Googles response has been that its your phones carrier problem until they recieve more issues with this problem. I have turned phone off, restarted,  as well as took battery out. It comes and goes and is a pain to get turned off. My fiancées phone became so hot that she couldnt hold the phone in her hand. Use a task killer to help close all tasks before restarting phone.  Clear your cache, btw didnt work for me...If all this doesnt work, sell your phone to a sucker and by something non android. Just so you know the daemon program is in the andriods operating system. There is no easy way to remove the program from the hardware. A system reset will get rid of it that time but, Ive done it a dozen times or so and the problem still comes back.                    Just a fyi.... nexus phone had same problem. Android had an update, a fix this issue specifically, and it didnt work on all nexus phones. I believe its just a lost cause and shows you what android and Google think about you.   Here.... I found this link.. seems some carriers will replace it.http://m.androidcentral.com/some-users-report-galaxy-s5-camera-failures


Flashed an unsupported recovery to my phone, how can i exit recovery mode and proceed with normal boot? Can someone help me to restore my leeco le s3?
I tried installing the latest TWRP for leeco le 2 on my leeco le s3 (since they are nearly identical). After entering fastboot mode, I ran this command:

fastboot flash recovery recovery.img

It performed operation, and said 'OK'. Then, I rebooted my device by holding volume up + power key. It started a normal boot and booted into android.
I ran command to flash again, then typed

fastboot reboot

My device powered off and did not power on again.
When I connect it to a windows pc via usb, windows keeps playing sound of connecting a device, then a second later - a sound of disconnecting device.
I did not flashed any ROM to my device, my guess is that I installed an unsupported recovery mode. Is there any way I can exit this recovery mode and proceed to the normal boot?
My device has a non-removable battery, Is there a way to power it off completely and boot normally, avoiding recovery menu?

Press and hold all three buttons Volume Up, Volume Down and Power button for 15 seconds. This process Turn off your device after that wait a minute and power on your device by pressing power button only.


Android device doesn't support Google Play Services I'm using Samsung Galaxy Trend 3 SM-G3502U on Android 4.2.2.
Since this is a Chinese device, so it was normal to be shipped without GApps. So, I tried to install the latest version among the versions which are compatible with Android 4.2.2 of the following apps from APKMirror:

Google Play Services
Google Play Services Framework
Google Calendar Sync
Google Contacts Sync
Google Account Manager

Still, no luck, since when I tried logging into Snapchat, a pop-up "popped" out, saying that Google Play Services is not supported by my device.
Also, when I installed and opened the latest version of Play Store among the compatible versions for Android 4.4.2 from APKMirror, it showed "Error retrieving information from server RH-01" which meant that I didn't have the compatible GApps installed.
Having all the apps listed above installed, I installed the "Device ID" app by Evozi. It couldn't show me the GSF. The space for that was left out empty instead.
Now, are there any more ways to try out for me so that my phone supports Google Services Framework, or I am left out with installing a custom ROM?

The apks will not work without system libraries, and other frameworks that cannot be installed without root (or flushing from a recovery).


Why is Music Player deleting my music? I recently installed a new SD card in my phone, so I moved all of my music from my phone to my SD. After I moved my music, I noticed that all of my soundtracks were corrupted. Each of them only had about 5 songs and I couldn't play them. I followed the instructions here, deleted my Music Player's application data, restarted my phone, etc., and then my soundtracks were completely gone.

Alright, something must have happened during the copy right? So I copy my soundtracks back to my phone, try to open them in my file browser, and it says:

Sorry, the player does not support this type of audio file

For mp3s that I was playing just yesterday.

So I restart my phone again, and what happens? My files aren't even there. Soundtrack folder is empty.

Anyone have any thoughts on what's going on?

That sounds like a bad SD Card. Insist doing that over and over again, with sound files and movie files as well.


busybox ip link show doesn't work I can't see the MAC address of my phone when I use command busybox ip link show on my rooted LG phone. Here is screen shot:

Does anyone know what seems to be a problem?

Try just busybox ip link. Also, netcfg is capable of showing your MAC address.


app for better calls when I talk with someone over facebook messenger the voice quality is unbleivable, the other person can hear a mosquito flying

But when I call someone normal over the phone, the voice is very weak

So I know it is not from my phone because I have the problem on 2 different phones from different brands, so is there any app that can manage the calls with a voice quality like facebook messenger

Are they both on the same carrier? If so, it could simply be a bad cellular connection or just a bad network. A different voice app shouldn't fix that, if it is happening on two different phones.

You could try communicating with people using a messaging app, such as calling on Messenger, or if you don't want to do that try a different messaging app that can call such as Viber, WhatsApp, or Signal (which uses E2E encryption, by the way). They are all available in the communication section of Google Play. I would link them, but I just joined the site and don't have enough reputation.

If you want to be able to call real numbers, without the recipient having to download an app, you should be able to try Hangouts Dialer. Hangouts Dialer calls real numbers using the Google Voice telephony system, so you can call your friends through a phone number provided by Google. It should provide decent sound quality, as long as you have a fair network connection.

If you have any more questions, please comment and let me know. I hope this helped!


What is the initial TCP Receive Window size in Android? This may be pretty similar to the question here, however, I think it was either in the wrong place, or it wasn't clear enough, so it hasn't got to the right audience. Thus, I have re-formulated it here:
Intro:
The TCP Receive Window is the size of the buffer on the receiving end of a TCP connection. According to (RFC7323 - Section-1.1) the TCP standard has a 16-bit field to denote the size (2^16 = 65,536 Bytes max). However, this has been seen to limit performance in high latency networks (RFC7323). Thus, a field has been included in the TCP options/extensions called the "Window Scale" (RFC7323 - Section-2) in order to improve performance by increasing the Receive Window size by multiplying it by a scaling factor, thus Scaling Factor = 2 ^ Window Scaling Factor Value. So in essence the TCP Receive Window Size = TCP Receive Window Value * (2 ^ Window Scaling Factor Value) (Haven't fully understood how the scaling factor actually works, so this might not be entirely accurate).
Question:
The essence of this question is, according to RFC7323 - Section 2.1, it seems that the TCP stack implemented in different operating systems has a different default initial value. What is the default initial TCP Receive Window size in Android? Has it changed over the different versions?
References:
RFC 7323 - https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7323

I can answer you about TCP WINDOW SIZE and TCP WINDOWSCALE fields as they appear in the TCP header.

Initial TCP Window Size should be 0x3908 = 14600, at least it is what I found so far using several versions.

(On most Linux distro I've used it is exactly the double 0x7210 = 29200.)

Window Scale has different values depending on the version, older set it to 6, newer set it to 8, at least for what I experienced so far.

You can check both values with this app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=be.ac.ulg.mobiletracebox
It will show you them in the first line

0: youraddress ... TCP::Window (0xXXXX) ... TCP::WindowScale (0xXX)

Values are hexadecimal.

For Window Size use regular Syn probe.

For Window Scale use Window Scale probe.

(If no value is shown for Window, it should be the max (0xffff=65535). If your device is rooted you should set mode to server based.)

PS
I don't know if talking about an app is OK here, if not I'm more than willing to edit my comment.


Cannot load the page when opening YouTube link in HTTPS on stock browser When I try to play YouTube video in Android stock browser, it is showing blank screen.

Log message:

 Blocked URL: [blocked] The page at 'https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ij_0p_6qTss' was loaded over HTTPS, but displayed insecure content from 'http://...`: this content should also be loaded over HTTPS.

If I try to play the same video with HTTP, it is playing fine. It seems like WebView is blocking redirection from HTTPS to HTTP.

can anyone clarify me how to bypass the error?

I am writing this answer because it may help someone.
I solved this by adding

  Settings.setMixedContentMode(WebSettings.MIXED_CONTENT_ALWAYS_ALLOW);


How do I stop the home button from waking my Samsung Galaxy S5? I've only had my Samsung Galaxy S5 for about a week now.  I've been mowing the lawn whilst listening to music.  Every so often, the music would stutter or skip to the next track.  When I took my phone out of my pocket, it was still locked, but awake.  And on the lock screen whilst playing music are controls to pause and skip tracks.  So I'm guessing that the home button is being pressed by my leg and the controls on the screen are being pressed.

Is there some way of making it so that the home button does not wake the device, or at least not when it's in my pocket?!

If you rooted your S5 it is pretty simple (and you don't have to install third party apps):
1) use a file manager and go into root -> system -> usr -> keylayout and find the file  gpio-keys.kl ;
2) Open it with a text editor and find the lines with "WAKE" written in them;
3) Go to the one with "HOME" written in it and just delete this word and all the spaces between the number on the left and "WAKE" on the right;
4) Save the file and you're done;

If you can't do this 30seconds thing because your S5 is not rooted then I'd suggest you to root your phone: a new world opens right in front of you ;)


Booting android using 'fastboot boot' With my android device attached over USB, I entered the following commands:

adb pull /dev/block/by-name/boot ./boot.img
adb reboot bootloader
sudo fastboot boot ./boot.img

and I received this output from fastboot:

downloading 'boot.img'...
OKAY [  0.782s]
booting...

After this, nothing happens. I would expect the stock android system to boot on the device. I don't know where the boot process could have failed, since neither the device, nor fastboot is giving any useful output. My end goal would obviously be to boot modified images, but right now I can't even seem to be able to boot the stock one.

Is this supposed to work generally? If yes, what are some reasons it could have failed? Are there ways to obtain additional useful debugging information?

(My device is a low cost Allwinner A31s based tablet, so I don't expect to find any device specific help on the internet. I can't even find the website of the manufacturer. ro.product.model= Navon_Predator_7, ro.product.device= fiber-wt7028, ro.product.name= fiber_wt7028 [I used getprop in the adb shell to obtain these values.])

The boot image does look like it's in the android mkbootimg format (here are the first few bytes):

00000000: 414e 4452 4f49 4421 a49f 8600 0080 0040  ANDROID!.......@
00000010: 5663 0d00 0000 0041 0000 0000 0000 f040  Vc.....A.......@
00000020: 0001 0040 0008 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ...@............
00000030: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000  ................
00000040: 636f 6e73 6f6c 653d 7474 7953 302c 3131  console=ttyS0,11
00000050: 3532 3030 2072 7720 696e 6974 3d2f 696e  5200 rw init=/in
00000060: 6974 206c 6f67 6c65 7665 6c3d 3420 766d  it loglevel=4 vm
00000070: 616c 6c6f 633d 3338 344d 2069 6f6e 5f72  alloc=384M ion_r
00000080: 6573 6572 7665 3d31 3238 4d00 0000 0000  eserve=128M.....

This does not exactly answer the original question, but since I managed to brick my bootloader in the meantime, this is what I ended up doing, and it might be useful for someone else in the future:

Allwinner SOCs have a built in Boot ROM, and it supports various modes, so these devices are virtually unbrickable. In particular, it supports a so called FEL mode (http://linux-sunxi.org/FEL) which can be used to boot the device over USB. I nice open-source tool has been written that can communicate with the device in this special mode (http://linux-sunxi.org/Sunxi-tools#sunxi-fel). Using this, you can boot your own bootloader. (And with that, you can boot your own kernel, etc.) The linux-sunxi.org website has very  detailed instructions regarding Allwinner SoC devices, so I recommend that you check out their other articles as well.


Restore SMS messages from a rooted phone with a broken screen to an unrooted phone I'm trying to restore my SMS text messages from my rooted Nexus 5 with a broken screen (no display or touch capabilities) to my functioning but unrooted Nexus 5X.

I can turn the rooted phone to recovery mode and run any adb command (I managed to pull the mmssms.db file using adb), however, I naturally can't run adb push mmssms.db /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db to my unrooted phone.

Is there any way to restore the text messages some other way?

Again, I have full root access using adb to my rooted phone.

I managed to restore my text messages using a borrowed 3rd phone that is rooted!

Using:

The rooted phone with the broken screen that you want to restore from (Phone A)
The rooted phone with the intact screen that you borrowed (Phone B)
The unrooted phone that you want to restore to (Phone C)

Do as follows:

On Phone A:

Activate recovery mode and pull the mmssms.db file using adb: adb pull /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db mmssms-phone-A.db

On Phone B:

Activate recovery mode and do the same: adb pull /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db mmssms-phone-B.db (use this later to restore the borrowed phone's text messages. Note the different file name)
While still in recovery mode, push the file you pulled from Phone A to the Phone B: adb push mmssms-phone-A.db /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db
Change the file owner and permission of the mmssms.db file: adb shell then chown radio:radio /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db and chmod 0660 /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db
Restart to regular mode
Install any SMS backup app (I used SMS Backup & Restore but any app would do)
Run the app to backup the text messages
Copy the backup file to some cloud service that you trust or to your desktop/laptop

On Phone C

Copy the backup file from the cloud service or desktop/laptop
Install the same SMS backups app and use its restore function

Don't forget to restore the original mmssms.db to the 3rd party phone!

On Phone B

Restart the phone to recovery mode
Push the mmssms.db file you pulled from Phone B back to it: adb push mmssms-phone-B.db /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db
Change the file owner and permission of the mmssms.db file: adb shell then chown radio:radio /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db and chmod 0660 /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db

Enjoy your restored text messages and return Phone B to the friend you borrowed it from ;)


How can I organize items in a folder? I created a folder for games on my homescreen. I added many apps to it, but now that I need to scroll I'd like to reorder them. Long pressing on an icon closes the folder (so I can drop the icon on my home screen).

Is it possible? Or do I have to remove and re-add them in order.

I have a stock Motorola XT720 running eclair.

Using nothing but your Android options won't do the job straight forward, you need to install an App to do your folders, there are two applications (amongst others of course); one called App Mate, or AppManager-Organize your apps, both are available at the market, and both will require sometime at first to cache your apps and stuff.
I'm caching my handset right now, and will get back to here with what is what.

[Update]
App Mate is no use for you, on the other hand AppManager is way much better, it can even sort your folder applications according to frequency of use but unfortunately the folders it creates on your home-screen is cropped in a strange way, I guess that will be easy for the developer to fix.


Entering very long Google password during setup If I have a new phone how can I enter my Google password in a secure manner during setup without having to type it (it is VERY long at over 30 random alphanumeric characters and a pain to type).

Since the phone it not yet set up I have no way yo send it to myself from another device via encrypted email, messaging, PGP because I have no apps installed yet.

Well technically I don't think you need to actually setup a Google account right away. So what I would recommend is skipping the part of the setup process where you setup a Google account and then use a built in app to retrieve it (SMS, copy a file onto your phone or any method to read text).

Other than that I think the best thing would be to just temporarily change your Google password for a few minutes, than change it back right after (once you have methods to get the new password onto the phone without typing)


YouTube app on Android "signing in" forever I use my Nexus 4 with a Google Apps account outside USA. There's no YouTube option in my GApps dashboard, as confirmed by this support page:

  YouTube is not an available service for Google Apps in countries where YouTube has not yet launched. If you're a domain administrator in one of these countries, you will not see the option to enable YouTube as a service with Google Apps for your domain in your Google Apps Control Panel.
  http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1074205

I can visit YouTube in the web browser and that works fine, although I can't sign in. (I might be able to sign in with a dummy Gmail address but that would defeat having a Google Apps account.)

When I launch YouTube app on my Nexus 4, it promptly shows a banner "signing in..." but for the reason I just mentioned, this never finishes.

Does this mean I will never be able to use the YouTube app?! Does this really cause me to be completely locked out of YouTube on Android? That can't be right!

I recommend you to use a VPN Client to mask your original IP and circumvent lockout from youtube.

VPN clients I personally use are:

HotSpot Shield
Droid VPN
One Click VPN

All of it are Free but with some downsides. Hotspot shield gives you a US IP but will put small ads when you are browsing. DROIDVPN free version is limited to 100MB a day and requires to registration. One click VPN free has no ads and no limit, but you cannot choose your preferred country IP, it will be randomly chosen.


how to view web video in media player instead of browser Playing media inside the browser is terrible. Until recently when I found a video I wanted to watch on a web page, I would send it to the app Downloader by Mirmay, because it would allow me to play it in whatever media player I like (mx, vlc, whatever). Following a recent update, Downloader now forces you to use it's built-in, terrible media player.

What's the best way to get web video into a decent media player?

Just download it with your Downloader and then use a File Explorer and search for that file.
It should be anywhere inside either:

Your usual Movies folder (very unlikely, though) or `Downloads'  folder (also unlikely, but possible)
A unique, created folder by the app itself (many downloaders do that)
The "external data" folder (Android/data/<package name of the app>) on your internal storage
A configured folder (some Downloader apps allow user preferences).

First look inside the settings, then try to find it on your phone's storage.
After that, just tap it and Android will ask you which app you'd like to open it with.


My "Avast: Mobile" security is giving me massive warnings about Trojans such as: "Android:SMSSend-DC[trj]" I got these warnings on my Samsung phone by the "Avast: Mobile" Security application about having malware (mostly trojans). So I scanned my phone and Avast said that i had over 50 applications infected with at least 20 malwares each. Is this a malware of some sort that hit all my applications? Or just hit Avast?

I downloaded Malwarebytes mobile app to search for the viruses, and found nothing.

What should I do?

Lots of users reporting about these Trojan warnings.

It may be Avast Virus Defenition Update issue.

Post From Avast Moderator

Update the VPS to 14010901

Source Forum

From Google+ found this image. I think its a similar issue.


Specific App install from Google Play fails, where to see log? I'm trying to re-install a paid app from the Google Play Store I had previously installed before doing a system update.

The installation fails silently after downloading. (Other installs from the Market work fine.)

Where can I see a log of what went wrong?

My System is a CM10 nightly built, so there might be all kinds of problems.
The app doesn't show up as previously installed in any OS app lists, but turns up as 'not installed, no backups' in the Titanium Backup list, so there must be some residues from the former installation left.

To answer myself:

Downloaded the .apk of the app on a PC with the help of the APK Downloader tool, and put it onto the phones SD card.
Used Terminal application (part of CM10) to switch to root (su),
then tried to install the downloaded .apk file via pm install com.name.apk

Got an error code: INSTALL_FAILED_UID_CHANGED, googled that and found a solution:

Removed /data/data/com.name.apk/ folder completely via terminal
Tried pm install com.name.apk again -> SUCCESS (Would probably also have worked with normal Play Store install.)

Seems that each app gets a unique UID on first install to manage its access rights on files and folders. If the system thinks it's the first install, it assigns a new one, then can't overwrite/delete old settings/data folders previously set with another UID.


Phone is slow to respond after waking up Many times when I unlock my phone to wake it up, there seems to be a lot of lag shortly after.  For instance, simply trying to make a call or opening an app seems to take about 5 to 10 seconds or so.  I can't really look at the memory usage or anything because it is only within the first 10 seconds or so.  For the most part, other than this short time period, operation of the phone seems fine regarding speed.

This behavior seems to occur more frequently when I leave an app open, such as a messaging (Handcent) app or Browser.

Is there a way to identify what is slowing my phone down?

I am running a Gingerbread 2.3.3-based ROM on a Samsung Galaxy S (Captivate).

Edit to add:  Steps I've taken so far:

Removed any widgets
No longer use Live Wallpaper

After updating to a 2.3.4-based ROM that is not 2.3.3, this issue seems to be solved.  See more details in the answer to this question.


Apps not getting downloaded When I am installing my apps from Playstore its not getting installed and the previous apps which are already installed or not getting updated I brought a new mobile from a store recently but I am facing this issue:

Check your network speed, 4g is better option, many times it is observed that on low data connection playstore makes trouble to download apps...
I can help further if you have mentioned your device name and model


Market Application (process com.android.vending) has stopped unexpectedly I have an HTC Android running 2.2. The market application was running perfectly before I  updated it.

It was when the Google changed Market application "Android Market" to "Google Play".
As soon as I pressed the "accept and download updates" button it started getting "process com.android.vending has stopped unexpectedly".

I research a little bit about this problem, I get the answers like

I have to reboot my phone.
I have to uninstall updates.
I have to uninstall the market application and reinstall it.

I want to know how I can fix this problem.

Clearing the cache worked for me. settings / applications / manage applications / google play store and then clear data.


Problem with the emulator on windows 10 When I run the emulator on Windows the following error appears:

1:58 PM Emulator: C:\Users\KotlinPc\AppData\Local\Android\Sdk\emulator\qemu\windows-x86\qemu-system-i386.exe: Could not load library WinHvPlatform.dll.

How can I solve this error?

I think you are using a copy of WinHvPlatform.dll or it is not compatible with the later or earlier versions you are using (binary decoding error may resemble this symptom). Try going to the original git code and download this DLL file.
Hope it helps.
Arie


How do I store pictures on SD card by default? How do I move the photos I have in my gallery to my SD card? Someone told me to download an app that allows you to do this, but it didn't.

Also, is it possible to save them to the SD card by default, rather than the internal memory? Someone told me to open the camera and select settings, but there was no option to change it. I think my phone is an HTC wildfire. It's the smallest white HTC on the market and it has 'with HTC sense' on the back.

I have (or rather had, until a few minutes ago) a Desire C, with SD card, but photos storing on internal Memory. Unfortunatly, the previous suggestion is no option in Desire C, as there is no "storage" option in the camera app. The phone should, but does apparantly not always, default to storing pictures on the SD card.

What I did to try and solve this problem, I connected the phone to my PC as USB storage. (This connection mode is important, otherwise you cannot do the following.)
My pictures where in the \DCIM\100Media folder on the internal storage.
I did the following

Copy the 100Media folder on the internal storage.
Paste it into the dcim folder on the SD card (in my case there was a dcim folder, if not I'd suggest you can just create it. I haven't tried that).
Remove the 100Media folder from the internal storage (and keep it on the desktop, just in case). At this point is no 100Media folder on the internal storage, but there is one on the SD card.
Unplug the phone from the PC, as camera does not work when connected to PC in USB storage mode. Try to make a picture. Actually the phone asked me: Do you want  to switch to SD? Happy to oblige.... It did apparently not create a new 100Media folder in the internal storage, exactly as I had hoped it wouldn't.

After making some test pictures, I checked by connecting to PC again as USB storage, and voilà, the pictures where on the SD card now.

Looking back, I may have had a question on storage when I first inserted the SD card, but I do not remember. I might have, since I got this queston now. If I did I must have answered it incorrectly.


What fastboot erase actually does? I've seem some suggestions on the internet that we can do a factory reset on the Motorola Moto G (2nd gen) by using the following commands:

fastboot erase modemst1
fastboot erase modemst2
fastboot erase cache
fastboot erase userdata

Or another variant with just

fastboot erase cache
fastboot erase userdata

Now, the fastboot CLI provides the following description for "erase":

  Erase a flash partition.

In that case, I'm worried that these commands just erase the partition, instead of reseting to factory state.

What I mean is: what this erase command actually do? It erases the partition leaving nothing there, or it restores it to the factory state?

These commands really do a factory reset through fastboot?

This thread on XDA has a post

  ....what is the aim of the "fastboot erase modemst" command?

Answer

  modemst1 and modemst2 are storage partitions for Radio Firmware .... - and it's obviously a recommended practice to wipe these partitions when flashing a newer Radio Firmware

This XDA thread is all about fastboot commands

fastboot erase system

fastboot erase data

fastboot erase cache

Are explained as

  fastboot allows for about the cleanest of wipes by the way. And each partition can be done separately too.

Elsewhere in same thread

  ... with a lot of new phones userdata = /data + /sdcard (/data/media), so all data, any personally saved files, and system are flushed out permanently with fastboot's erasure. Note that TWRP factory reset would leave /data/media intact

So, putting your list of commands in question, a device is being wiped cleanly of all the partitions mentioned including all data, and thus getting ready to flash a new ROM on the cleanest manner as against dirty flash which has remnants of earlier ROM  affecting performance


How to set in-call volume How can you set the in-call volume to be higher for Android 2.2, please?
In the Settings options there's only these options:

Incoming Call Volume (which I presume is the ringer volume)
Media Volume
System Volume (which would probably increase the in-call volume, but all the others as well)
Notification Volume

Thank you.

During a call press the volume UP (+) button. You're bound by what levels the manufacturer allows for in the phone & any other law needed to be met within your country.

If you're technically inclined,

  Flash your phone with a kernel that
  uses Pershoot audio booster (usually
  OC/UV)


Bluetooth headset profiles I have a JBL E25BT bluetooth headset which supports the following profiles according to specs: HFP v1.6, HSP v1.1, A2DP v1.2, AVRCP v1.5

I've tried to connect with it with my Oneplus One (lineage os, bluetooth 4.1) and Mac Mini 2012 (bluetooth 4.0). The voice quality for calls is always low. So my guess is basic HFP/HSP is used. As I read HFP 1.6 should provide good quality for calls.
Is there any chance to check/set the exact connection setting for bluetooth connection?

HFP/HSP have no good (in traditional meaning) quality at all. Only mono with 8 kHz sample rate (or mono with 16 kHz sample rate for Wide Band Speech mode). Wide Band Speech mode is optional for implementation by the both sides.


Seems like my SD Card just died... can I insert a new one? So today my HTC Desire randomly froze, then started acting strangely - only showed the background image, nothing else. Didn't respond to power-off or anything so I pulled the battery.

After this, it simply would not boot up, just gets stuck on the boot up screen.

The phone is flashed with InsertCoin ROM so I can still get into fastboot but can't make backups - it can't load the SD Card. Error given is: E:Can't Mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 (Invalid Argument)

When I try to mount the SD Card to my computer it fails (ie. computer doesn't recognise it at all). Tried other random SD Cards and they mount no problem (thus shouldn't be a problem with the reader)

Main question... can I insert the original SD Card that came with the phone, and will the phone bootup and be usable? (note: this SD Card would be pretty much 'as-is' since I used a diff SD Card pretty much from day 1)

Sub question... anyone with ideas on if I can salvage what is left of this original SD Card? (can't seem to get anything to recognise it at all...)

Thanks in advance!

There's no reason you can't use the original card.


What kind of account does the Calendar support? I cant add events to the Calendar, nor the default nor aCalendar because I need to have an online account to sync them.
In Settings/Accounts I have the option to add a Corporate Account (Exchange), Facebook and Yahoo. Facebook and Yahoo do not work, Exchange looks like the right option but I dont have Exchange.
I am using Android 4.1 and it doesn't have the Google applications installed.

Is there another alternative like using a webcal or a local calendar?

Try using the Business Calender app, or one of the offline Calendar apps.


Phone number detected by a web page when browsing from chrome for android I recently got subscribed to some alerts by the mobile provider automatically and some amount deducted from my phone balance. I called up the customer care centre and they agreed to refund the amount, and said that it was activated from the internet, by some site which captured my number while browsing. Considering the customer care guy was right, isn't this a big security issue, if any website can access the phone number of their visitor?

It sounds like your customer care centre is telling you a story to get you off the phone. Some mobile phone providers have been caught out in the past passing your phone number in the HTTP request headers when you use their 3G connection from the phone. As you say, it's a huge security problem if they do that, and there's not a lot you can do about it (except change provider and tell them that's why).

You can check if this is happening to you by visiting a website that shows you your HTTP request headers. A quick Google search will find you at least a dozen to choose from. Make sure you use your 3G connection while doing this, because you're trying to see if your 3G provider is adding this data to your request.

It may be that the customer care person was claiming that the website is one you've deliberately told your phone number to, e.g. when shopping online. If they didn't tell you who originated the charge/junk SMS you have no way to verify this claim. Otherwise, most likely they are simply saying the most convenient thing. The entire mechanism of services which bill through your phone provider (via premium SMS, or the like) is horrendously insecure, but the carriers aren't interested in improving it. Any premium SMS company can just say any phone number they like to charge that number, and fraud is mainly detected by auditing afterwards (and when the carrier finds out via complaints like yours).


After every reboot apps can't use the network On a Xiaomi Mi 5. Android version 7.1.2 MIUI Global 8.5.

After every rebook I get the message "Can't use the Network" every time an app starts.

This is how it looks for Telegram:

argh. the UX of this thing sucks.
basically i always clicked on the "allow" because that's the only button in the figure. but if one clicks on the notification dialog, outside of the "allow" button then the corresponding settings page is opened where one can enable the use of Network for all the apps. this is what i ended up doing.  (another bad usability pattern: settings page is unfindable in any other way)


Can't download application with storage full, even after attaching a micro SD card The storage in my phone (it's a Huawei Honor 4C) is already full, so I inserted a micro SD card into it that has 8 GB available space. I tried many times to download applications but it didn't. What is the problem?

Just inserting a SD card didn't mean that you can install apps in a phone which is already occupied a maximum of internal.

You have to change the default install location in settings. Which is not available in many devices.

Go to apps navigate to all apps, click on the app name to access details.

Choose Move to SD card. So the app will be moved to sd.

Likewise, make some space in your internal for the new apps..

Also move files like, songs, videos , etc. To sd.

If your phone has the option enable to install apps on SD card, go for it.


Is com.android.syshandler a malware file on Android 5.x? I saw various unwanted pop up ads on an Android 5.x phone. Then installed the free Sophos Mobile Security on it (from the Play Store) and ran it several times over last few days. Each time it shows some files that it either says are malware, or PUA (Potentially Unwanted Apps). It allows me to delete most of them.

But for two, there are problems. One is called UC News and keeps coming back, even if deleted. Another is com.android.syshandler. For the last one, there is not delete option. It just says that it is PUA: Adware (PUA = Potentially Unwanted App). When I click on it, it says "Potentially unwanted app: Android Ewind (Adware) identified." And goes on to list many more points about it, all negative or indicating potential for harm to the phone.

E.g. the first point says:

"A type of app which may also include third party packages, whose primary purpose is to deliver advertising content in a manner or context that may be unexpected and unwanted by users."

It has a "More Details" link but when I touch that, it opens what seems to be the stock Android browser (instead of Chrome) and that goes to a URL that gives a 404 Page Not Found error. Unable to copy the link to open in it Chrome or to paste it here.

If any more details are needed in order to suggest any steps, please let me know.

Thanks in advance to all who reply.

Edited two days later to add more new info:

More unwanted ads and also apps have been popping up - some even during scans of the phone using anti-malware software - both before and after installing the other two anti-malware software mentioned next. I also installed MalwareBytes's  Anti-Malware (MBAM) as one of the commenters here suggested. It worked to remove some infected files but could not remove two - Activation Tracker (file:  /system/app/ActivationTracker/ActivationTracker.apk - which MBAM reports as being infected by Android/Trojan.Spy.SmsThief.de) and Install Helper (file: /system/app/OLXHelper_v2.5_Lava/OLXHelper_v2.5_Lava.apk - which MBAM also reports as being infected by Android/Trojan.Spy.SmsThief.de). The two infected files it could not remove appear to be in a system partition on the phone. Then also installed Kaspersky anti-malware and ran a scan with it. It also could detect and remove some, but not others. I think the system software in the phone has also been corrupted, because, e.g. Kaspersky or Malwarebytes anti-malware give a security warning about the setting for allowing installation of packages from third-party sites being set to Yes/On. When I change it back to No/Off manually, after some time it goes back to Yes/On on its own - which seems to indicate that malware apps are actively changing it back to that.

Edited again: Also, now, once in a while, apps with names like CrazyRacer2 and Super File Manager (or similar name) are popping up without my installing them.
I am exiting them each time. But they appear again.

Unable to comment because of low reputation: Did malwarebytes indicate which files the malware resides in? (.apk)

And about UC News - those are notifications from the application UC Browser. You should be able to get rid of those by either uninstalling UC Browser or by blocking notifications  for UC browser.


Improve Android battery life by lowering CPU freq I would like to know if it could be possible to use adb (Android Debug Bridge) to tell the phone to lower its CPU max freq.

I'd like to use less battery if possible, and in my use case I don't mind if some tasks are a little slower.

There is a program called SetCPU which will allow you to over/under clock the processor.  The advantage here is the ability to set profiles to have the phone determine when to adjust the processor, such as when the phone is at a certain temprature, or if it's plugged in or not.

I've been using it on my Droid Eris for a while now, and the results have been great.


Orbot transparent proxy requires enabling manually My phone is HTC One M8 on Marshmallow stock ROM, rooted with Magisk.

I've installed Orbot and noticed it doesn't work in transparent proxying mode when proxying all apps. It requires manual proxy settings in Wi-Fi or mobile network.

If I proxy only selected apps, it works.

I suspect it's due to DNS requests being blocked by iptables rules set by Orbot. They're trying to be sent directly, not respecting Orbot's proxy.

How can I verify it and possibly fix it?

I suspect the issue is due to ip tables enforced by Orbot (it tends to use IP tables bundled with the application and not default ip tables)

You can try the following workaround;

Go to Settings menu, check use default iptables and uncheck (or leave unchecked) the option to allowed it for tethering i.e Tor tethering. If the tethering option is off and the use default iptables option is on, it should work.
Make sure to enable Request Root Access, Transparent Proxying and Tor Everything.

  Tor's transparent proxy runs on port 9040 by default and forces apps
  to proxy through it, so you can tell whether or not it is working by
  using Orbot's restrictive hosts policy to allow/deny traffic and see
  how the app behaves.

You also use Orbot's VPN service to bypass filters and firewalls and see if you do "transparent proxy" for all apps:


Email client not showing signed emails (mail is still on server) I'm having trouble reading signed emails (in the mail app, not gmail).

The email client only shows: "mail is still on server" message, not the email content.

As far as I know, this is simply a bug in the HTC email application. You can try using a different client (K9 supports signed messages, I believe), but beyond that you'll have to take it up with HTC and hope that they decide to fix it at some point.

Here's a related XDA thread where someone includes what he says is a response from HTC regarding the issue. There's also a thread on the Android Central forums where someone reports the same bug (and no solution). Those threads are a little on the old side, but I don't believe HTC has fixed this yet.


Two photos disappeared from my Gallery Yesterday I noticed that two specific photos I wanted to preserve disappeared, I remember I didn't delete them because I didn't find them in the trash bin, nor did I delete them from the trash bin itself because it was the first time I checked there.
What is it due to? How can I retrieve them? (Out of 500 photos I have, those two got deleted, arghh)
I'm 100% sure I didn't delete them, furthermore I took these pictures less than 30 days ago, so even if I deleted them, I'd have found them in the trash folder, and I haven't.

You can try using a File Manager app and  look for your photo in one of the following folders:
For photos you took by your phone:
DCIM
For images you received by WhatsApp:
WhatsApp > Media > WhatsApp Images


Is it possible to disable Google Play apps remote installation? I would like to know if it's possible on a given device to disable the Google Play 'feature' to remotely install an app into it, once logged in from a browser.
I'm not interested in workarounds on how to prevent it (like installing a 3rd party app), I'm interested in disabling it, so I want to log into the Google Play in any browser, and either not to find a given device in the list of devices, or not to see the Install button at all.
My concern is about security, and any helpful answer is welcome! I googled already and couldn't find much info.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.domobile.applock&hl=en

Install AppLock,

I've tested. It allows blocking remote installs. Remember to tick disable the application.

I'm not sure if it requires enabling "advanced protection" as well


Google Play Store doesn't auto update apps on my Motorola Moto G I have a German retail Motorola Moto G (2013) running Android 4.4.4 stock, no root. I have the Google Play Store not auto updating my apps despite it being set to do so (over Wifi only). I tried everything I could think of: I re-flashed the stock image, I deleted the Play Store cache and data, I removed my Google account from the phone, I deleted the Google Play Services data and cache and updated it. Nothing. If I boot my phone with the Wifi on sometimes it auto updates apps. If I boot it with the Wifi turned off and I turn it on after say 3 minutes it doesn't ever auto update. It's like some process which exists at the beginning then crashes. Please help.

Sometimes when Google Play Store auto update doesn't work, just running the Play Store once, that should get all pending updates by itself.


What might be the cause of the weird colors and picture mis-alignment? If I connect my Android tablet (A10MID, Android 4.0) to my monitor, and:

the colors on the monitor
the alignment of the picture
the resolution
and the floating "input not support"-ed message

are problematic. It works well otherwise: mouse, keyboard, runs apps, ...

Here is the setup:

tablet miniHDMI -> miniHDMI-HDMI cable -> HDMI_female to DVI_male adapter -> monitor DVI

And this is what I get:

(higher resolution: http://postimage.org/image/5tdvmb5pz/)

Since then I tried that monitor connected to my desktop with DVI-DVI cable that I borrowed, and it works perfectly.

I also went down to the next electronics store to try the tablet with a different display, and my tablet seems to work with one of those fancy new TVs through HDMI.

So both the tablet and the monitor work perfectly. But they cannot be coupled.

Could this be caused by my monitor not supporting HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection)?

If not, than my HDMI-to-DVI adapter is the only thing that can be the cause of this?

Have you tried different resolutions on the Android video source and changing the refresh rate between 50 Hz and 60 Hz. My cheapie tablet offers:
1920 x 1080p 50 Hz
1920 x 1080p 60 Hz
1280 x 720p 50 Hz
1280 x 720p 60 Hz
720 x 576p 50 Hz
720 x 576p 60 Hz
All choices under Settings-->HDMI-->HDMI Resolution.
My guess is that you are sending a higher resolution than the target can handle.


What's the relationship between a custom recovery and rooting? So I want to make sure I understand everything.

If I want a Recovery, I need to root my phone. I have an LG G2. Clockwork is a recovery; If I download ClockworkMod recovery and use Flashify without rooting my phone, will that eventually root my phone through ClockworkMod flashing? Or should I root my phone with ioroot.zip first, and then flash a recovery?

You don't need to root your phone in order to use a custom recovery like TWRP or ClockWorkMod.

It will only root your phone if you use it to...

flash a rooted image
flash a su binary
restore a rooted backup

It is common for recoveries to offer to root when you restart, but you can just say "No" if you don't want to root.


How can I determine the cause of random device reboots? After being annoyed with my previous ROM, I thought I'd install ICS on my SGS2 (until CM9 comes out). But, sadly, it now reboots several times a day without any real reason. The device is just lying there on the table doing nothing and every now and then the screen turns on and I can watch it reboot.

So, how would I start to analyse this issue? Obviously I could try to flash different ROMs like a mad man until the issue resolves itself, but I would prefer a more sensible approach.

I had a similar random-rebooting problem, and after one such reboot, I hooked up the phone to my laptop and ran "adb bugreport" on it.  I got what looked like useful information, and attached it to the bug.  So I think at least some log information survives a reboot.

Here's the bug, btw: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=24118


Is there any way to shoot a full sphere panorama (horizontal + vertical)? I've tried a few apps for shooting panoramas on my Android device (Galaxy S4), but I cannot find one that is able to shoot both horizontally and vertically.

I would like to be able to capture a whole room, to eventually be used as a custom Google Maps Street View panorama on a website.  Is there any way to accomplish this?

You can do this with your native camera app. But you have to have JB 4.2 (Not 4.1.x).

Go to the camera. Tap on the camera icon and pick the item that looks like a small globe with a panorama stretched over it. That's the Photo Sphere mode.
Take a picture as usual.
Keep your camera steady.
You should see a message to align your camera with the blue dot. Tilt your camera up, down, left, or right slowly to match the center of the screen with the blue dot for the next area. The picture will snap automatically when you get there.
Keep going for as long as you wish to take as many images as possible and make your complete Photo Sphere.

Note: this may look a little weird if you try to take pictures of people, since they tend to move between shots. Landscapes and interior shots are your best bets.


What does it mean when a device stops showing up on Android Device Manager? On 2 November I forgot my (brand new) Wifi-only Nexus 7 on the plane. Despite realizing it <30 min after disembarking they didn't recover the device.

I have been regularly monitoring https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager in the hope that it would come online. The device showed up but was 'last seen on 2 November' (the day I lost it). However, when I tried again today to locate my device it no longer shows up in the list. I have checked https://play.google.com/settings and the device is still listed there with visibility 'Show in menus'.

Any idea what could cause the device to suddenly disappear for the device manager? Would that mean that it's re-registered? If so, any way to find out by whom?

Cheers,
Chris.

If the person, who got your device, gives it a reset(hard reset) and signed-in with another account(which is the default account in this case), then you might not be able to look up your device anymore. But if, he had not, then the possibility is that, he lives somewhere, where he does not have any wifi-access. Therefore you could not track him anymore.


Unable to purchase apps I am new to Android but have got a new phone running 5.0.1 using my Gmail account administered by my university in New Zealand. However I am unable to purchase apps in the Google Play store. I am able to download free ones but no any for which I have to pay money. Instead I get an error which says

Error while retrieving information from server[RPC:S-7:AEC-0 ...]
The ... is a 13 letter code in the format XXXX-XXXX-XXXXX which seems to change everytime I try.

I have tried restarting, updateing,  clearing the cache of the play store, Download Manager, Google play services and have added and removed my primary gmail account and done the same. I have done everything suggested here: https://support.google.com/googleplay/troubleshooter/4592924

How can I fix this?

Thank you.

I also posted on the Google play store forum and Byteguy posted suggested that my university was likely blocking purchases. This had not occured to me and sure enough when I set up a new Google account things worked fine.


How to speed up Android during bootup time? I'm looking at the bootup time of Android on my embedded device and I'm trying to get a sense for where I can save some time.

1) What are some things that you've done to really help speed up the bootup time?

So far I looked at the bootup animation time. If I remove the bootup animation all together then I was saving about 6 seconds, which seemed like a lot to me. Then I replaced the bootup animation with just one picture that will be shown for the duration of the bootup animation time and that lost any previous time savings. But the actual bootup animation process was only taking ~1 second to run. (I attached a picture generated with Bootchart. for now just on an emulator)

2) Is it worth looking at the Android bootup animation time? Any clue as to why the bootup animation process affects bootup time so weirdly?

Thank you for your time.

Two steps to speed the Linux kernel boot:

Configure the Linux kernel with a minimal set of device drivers, that is, only the drivers need to boot and load the root filesystem.  Every driver, filesystem, or subsystems that can be built as a module (that you want in the kernel but not used during boot) should be configured as a module rather than statically linked in.
To see how much time is used in loading drivers during boot, you should modify the kernel command line with the option "initcall_debug".  This  will cause timing information to be printed to the console for each initcall. initcalls are used to initialize statically linked kernel drivers and subsystems, and contribute a significant amount of time to the Linux boot process.  Reconfiguring any unneeded drivers to loadable modules will subtract that initcall time from the kernel boot time.

Modify the kernel command line with the option "quiet".  This will disable most of the output of log messages to the console.  Of course this should only be done after you have a stable kernel.

More techniques are here


Samsung Kies fails to restore all my stuff. What other software can I use to complete the process? I spoke with the Samsung Support today, and as part of the troubleshooting process they asked me to do a backup of the phone and then reset it. I followed through and I've done that (the initial problem still remained). What they failed to tell me is that I won't be able to restore all my stuff to the phone. Because apparently, the Samsung Kies (version 2.6.1.13105_7) can only restore some parts of your data from a previous backup.

When you make a backup, it offers to include everything in the backup. Here's a list of the stuff it offers to backup.

 - Contacts
 - S Planner (Calendar)
 - Call log(s)
 - S Health
 - Message(s)
 - Videos
 - Music
 - Photos
 - Miscellaneous content files
 - Ringtone(s)
 - Applications
 - Home screen
 - Wi-Fi
 - Lock screen
 - Email account information
 - Other preferences

(Click on screenshots below for a bigger view.)

This is what it offers to restore after the reset.

 - Contacts
 - S Planner
 - Message
 - Videos
 - Music
 - Photos
 - Miscelaneous content files

Obviously, it offers to restore less than half of the things it had taken a backup of. Why offer to backup something you know you can't restore?... This makes absolutely no sense! It's absolutely insane!!

The options that I can't select for restore are greyed out. There's also a small blue warning triangle icon with exclamation mark on the side of each of these options. If I hover over this icon I get a bubble message explaining the following.

  This item cannot be restored to the connected device.

What the hell is that supposed to mean?... It's still the same bloody "smart" phone! It's not like I have switched to some Samsung Bada phone or something. It's exactly the same phone?... So what the hell!?...

How do I restore the rest of the stuff like apps, app data, messages, account settings, customized settings, widgets and app shortcuts on the home screens?

I can see it has taken a backup of more than it likes to admit! I can see a whole list of APK files in a subfolder of the backup location. I recognize some of them as the apps I had previously installed. So why doesn't it want to restore them then?

File locations...

Everything that has been backed up can be found in this location.

%userprofile%\Documents\samsung\Kies\Backup\GT-I9506\GT-I9506_\GT-I9506_20140108044055

Contacts, logs, messages, calendar events, etc. is stored in

.\Calllog.scl
.\Contacts.spb
.\LockScreen.sls
.\Message.sme
.\SHealth.ssh
.\SPlanner.ssc
.\Wallpaper.swp
.\WIFI.swi

Even the Wifi settings!

Apps are stored in

.\APPLICATION\_SamsungBnR_\Abackup

Some sort of settings are stored in

.\CONFIGURATION\BR\Configuration.bk

Email messages are stored in

.\EMAIL\BR\Email.bk

Music files are stored in

.\Music

App data seems to be stored in a folder named Others
e.g. the backup files from ColorNote are stored in

.\Others\data\colornote\backup

Pictures are stored in

.\Photo

Videos are stored in

.\Video

Photos and videos are stored as actual media files and they can be read without a problem. But all the other files (scl, spb, sls, sme, ssh, ssc, swp, swi, bk) are encoded in a format I can't read, and some might be encrypted. Is there a way I can open and make use of these files and have them imported to the phone? Or is it just garbage now?

I solved the same problem with Samsung Kies (version 2.6.1.13105_7) installing older version 2.6.0.13074_14 downloaded from Samsung pages.

http://www.samsung.com/cz/support/model/GT-I9195ZKAETL-downloads


Samsung Kies: 'This version of the device can not be updated'. Never? I have and Samsung GT-i5500 (aka Galaxy-europe, aka galaxy-5, ...), running Android 2.1

Some months ago I've returned it for repair because of GPS issues.
Ever since, when I connect it to my computer and start Samsung Kies on my computer, the Firmware Information page says:

  This version can not be updated. Current firmware version: PDA:JK3 /
  PHONE:JK3 / CSC:JK3 (CPW)

Does this mean that when (if?) Samsung ever releases Android 2.2 for this model, I will still not be able to update it?
Before the 'repair' it never said that the version could not be updated. It was more along the lines of 'you have the most recent version' or 'no update available' instead of 'this version can not be updated'.

According to this link this message is due to a bad translation from Korean to English (and from that to Dutch, because in Dutch the message has the same meaning).

Original Korean was something like "For this ROM there are not updates available (yet)".


How to spot folder of some application on Android (Galaxy Note 5)? I intend to reset my phone to get rid of bad applications. I will reinstall all applications wanted, but there is the notes application I use that I want to get the data of (no option to back up notes)... how do I get the data?

the application is called Notes by programmer "Office"

The application, Notes by Microsoft, stores your entries on OneDrive, they are not stored locally on your mobile device. This also means that your notes are always backed up.

If you remove the Notes application from your mobile device, you will have to log back into it when after you reinstall.


Can the Nexus 7 LTE connect to 3G networks? Is it possible to connect to 3G networks with the Nexus 7 LTE? Is it possible with an unlocked device or only with limited networks or standards?

I've tried to Google it but no one seems to have ever mentioned it, except maybe a few people asking the exact same thing as I am now...

I've seen this question, but it seems to be highly outdated.

Depends on network provider.

From Nexus 7 2013 LTE Variant Available Now for $349:

  Keep in mind that you won’t be able to fall back to Verizon 3G at any time, but you can fall back to AT&T and T-Mobile HSPA should you choose their service.

From Google's Nexus 7 with 4G is now available in the UK:

  Buying from O2 is a different story, however. The mobile operator is selling the new Nexus 7 for £319.99, complete with a free SIM and 2GB of 3G data.


What is my phone's hostname/network name? This should be really easy to find, but I've done a bunch of google searching and haven't found anything that works.  On Linux, you just type hostname and it tells you, but that doesn't work on my phone.

I know I've changed the hostname in the past (was android-r at one point), but I don't remember how.  All I want to do right now is see what it is, though, so I can connect to it without knowing the dynamic LAN IP address.

There's a way to retrieve your device's hostname, but you'll have to meet one requirement, which is to have a Terminal Emulator installed on your device.

Once you have one, just open an instance of the emulator and issue the following command, followed by Enter:

getprop net.hostname

Your phone will then answer with its hostname.


Turn ringer to loud from vibrate when a particular contact calls What can I do to make my phone ringer switch from vibrate to loud when a particular contact calls?

I tried using Tasker and created a profile for a Phone state, when a contact calls > set ringer volume to max.

It works... like this: when my phone is vibrate, and I get a phone call from the contact, the ringer goes up to high... however the call is still is on vibrate. The new high ringer volume affects only subsequent calls (from any contact).

So it doesn't exactly work as you can see. What can I do?

I use Nexus 6p with Marshmallow.

Try adding a Action -> Media -> Play Ringtone -> Type: Ringer to your Tasker profile, to explicitly play the default ringtone after you set full volume. You can also apply a custom ringtone if you want.

Tested on Galaxy S5.

Hope it works for you!


Mediascanner is not working currently am using a samsung galaxy note-2 with custom rom (slimkat 4.4.2.built 4 official)

from last few days some time my media scanner is not working properly.
sometimes after restarting it work fine.
but not always.

i already tried few media scanner from google play store
but when i run than apps ,they are crashed

It scan only my phone content not my sd-card, while using phone browser

i can acess the card contents . but my galery ,musics players are not able to scan sd card media

can anybody have a solution for that
or else i have to wait for slimkat net update

thanks in advance

This can often be caused by filesystem corruption on the SD card. The SD card might appear to work normally if you don't access the corrupted parts of the filesystem, but since the media scanner reads the whole filesystem, it's much more likely to get stuck on a corrupted file or directory.

Try removing the SD card and using a card reader on your PC to check the filesystem (e.g. with scandisk or fsck).


How to Remove Old Email Accounts So I just bought a new phone last week and I'm in the process of downloading all my apps and setting it up. I was trying to log into the Slack app when this pop-up appeared with a list of all the emails that I've ever used.

Half of them were old email accounts that I haven't used in a while and they ranged from Gmail to Yahoo to Outlook and even my old college email address showed up. Where are these emails stored and how can I remove them from my device?

I've wrecked my brain and could not figure this out. Any help would be appreciated!

From your screenshots, it looks like old logins saved in Chrome. If you've used Chrome to remember your login details for websites, that's what they'll be. They're synced across desktop as well as mobile Chrome installs via your Google account. The UI for selecting which login to use has changed recently, so it's natural that you might be surprised by it.

You can delete old login details from the Chrome settings, on PC or mobile. On Android, the steps are:

In Chrome, click the three dots button in the top-right
Choose Settings from the menu
Choose Passwords
Either turn off Save passwords to disable the feature entirely, or:

Click a site in the list
Click the bin/trashcan icon in the top-right to delete that password
Repeat that for all the old login details you want removed


Which uses more battery? 4G lte internet or Wi-Fi? I usually am within range of my Wi-Fi hotspot, and am using a Samsung Galaxy Note II. I've always wanted to know whether I'd have better battery-life if I was to turn off Wi-Fi? I have unlimited 4G lte from an old Verizon plan, so I don't have to worry about data charges.

By turning on Wi-Fi you get to turn off 4G lte, so I would think it would be a trade-off.

But the cellular connection stays on always, so wouldn't turning on Wi-Fi have a net increase in battery usage?

Also, my phone has the option to disconnect Wi-Fi when I turn it to standby, and reconnect when I turn it back on. I wonder if that makes a difference?

Easy answer

Depends on.

More detailed answer:

This is no easy yes/no question, but has many things to consider. Several factors have to be taken into account. Picking just the easy ones to make it less complicated:

what is the energy consumption in idle mode
how much energy is needed per time unit
how much data is transfered per time unit
how much data do you have to transfer
oh, and what's the signal quality of course

To make a raw calculation, I've collected some hard data on battery consumptions of components a while ago. You will note it lacks LTE/4G specifics, but you can rawly "deduce" those for an estimation. For some "practical examples", take a look at e.g. 2G versus 3G: Does it really save battery?

If you followed this far, you probably reached the same conclusion I came to: There's no "general rule" to give, all depends on "user habits" and "actual situation" (coverage etc.).


How to reach local computer via machine name instead of IP? Developer here prototyping a mobile app, somewhat new to mobile:

I have a simple HTTP service running (currently) on my main laptop with machine name latitude.
Another laptop named vaio sharing the same WiFi network can access that service via http://latitude:8080 -- in other words, it can easily resolve the (current) IP 192.168.x.y (or whatever dynamic IP it has at that moment) of latitude somehow.
Now my HTC Android phones, connected to the same WiFi network, can reach the IP address of latitude so opening in its browser http://192.168.x.y:8080 works.
But I'd like to use the machine name here, too, like when I access the HTTP service from vaio, simply by typing http://latitude:8080 and have the phone resolve the current dynamic IP of latitude. This doesn't work, only get the standard browser error page: "Webpage not available".

Is there some DNS setting in Android I need to tweak? Haven't found anything from playing around with Settings, and a question like this is notoriously hard to google, too...

The One V has Android 4.0, and the One M7 has Android 4.2 in case that makes a difference.

(Note, this should work even when the Android is not USB-connected to my computers and is not acting as a WiFi Hotspot -- obviously, since it's consuming my main WiFi network anyway).

Regardless whether you're connected to your local network via WiFi and DHCP is in use, Android always seems to override its DNS entries using Google's servers. It's somewhat hidden, but easy to change – provided you have your own DNS running (a lot of routers offer that already).

To do so, go to your list of WiFi networks in Settings, long-press your WiFi's entry, select to edit it. Activate Advanced Settings. Now you can edit the DNS entries. Simply replace the first entry with your own DNS server's IP, and leave the second entry (DNS 2) untouched for fall-back.

Now, if your own DNS can resolve your local network's machines, you should be able to use their hostnames to reach out to them. No root and no editing the hosts file necessary (thought that might be an alternative, if you've got no own DNS service running). Works excellent here with me and my network ;)


Downgrade samsung galaxy Note 3 I have samsung galaxy note 3(sm900)
Recently i updated my note 3 from kikat (4.4.2) to lollipop (5.0) via ota
Due to this my phone became very laggy and slow and often app crashes
I wish to downgrade my phone from lollipop to kitkat
How can i downgrade it

Why go back??
Try a factory reset. I have a note 3 Exynos  on lollipop and it works really well.
IMO the mobile is faster than it used to be on kitkat.

However if you want to downgrade, the download the latest version of kitkat and flash it using Odin.

Edit: Take the downgrade as a last resort since there is no sure way of knowing.. Sorry.


How to control how long Google Assistant keeps listening when there is silence? I'm using Google Assistant to take notes on my phone via my bluetooth headset.  However, when I'm taking a note, if I don't talk for about 1.5 seconds, it immediately asks me if I want to save the note using Keep, even though I'm (sometimes) not done with the note yet!

This is unfortunate, because I have time it, and from the point I tap my headset and go through all the (voice) steps to start recording until I can actually start dictating my note a minimum of 13 seconds have passed.  This extra delay means I have to keep in my head exactly what I was going to say for at least that long, while remembering the things to say to get it to start recording.

As a workaround, I tried just continuously talking.  However, after just under a minute of talking (speaking numbers at a rate of about one per second) it stopped automatically to save the note and I found it had transcribed only 55 numbers.

Update: It's okay if Google Assistant stops and saves my current note, as long as it keeps listening for additional commands from Bluetooth.  Currently, it seems like as soon as the note is finished it stops listening and I have to start all over again.

From Google help

  There isn't any way at this time to force the microphone to stay on for Voice Typing. When you pause for several seconds, voice typing assumes you're taking a break. This likely helps to conserve your device's battery as well

I haven't found any workaround on XDA .

So, I guess sending Google feedback is the only way out for now


Does a phone's battery charge when in download mode? I bricked my SM-J500G when trying to root the phone. Now I'm trying to install the stock ROM. The problem is that my phone's battery is low, and I have no way to charge it in another phone. Can I put the phone into download mode and charge the battery? Will that work?

It will charge, but you may not have "charge full" indication , so monitor charging so that you don't end up charging once it is full ( batteries do not charge once full but internal temperature goes up, which is  not good for battery life). Charging for 90 minutes should comfortably see you through flashing activities

To understand more about about charging,see BU 409-Charging Li Ion and other linked sources referred


Lost pin, no Google account, can I factory reset? My friend's daughter can't remember her screen lock PIN.

I googled and found found how to get to the factory reset menu.

BUT, it also says that after factory reset, the phone will ask for a Google account, and she does not have one

Is there any way to totally factory reset without a Google account?

Related, for others with this problem, see this question. Personally, I am am afraid to try it, and it is not a Samsung device anyway, but that might help someone.

I think you misunderstand what it is saying here... It is referring to FRP (Factory Reset Protection) which is a method of protecting the phone from unauthorized access by third parties when it is factory reset by requiring you to log in to the Google account that was setup on the device prior to the factory reset.

Three outcomes are possible here...

There was no Google account setup on the device, a factory reset will clear all data and the phone will startup to the Setup Wizard like normal. FRP will not be a part of this situation. If there was no Google account on the device then you would not have been able to access the Play Store either, if your friend's daughter was able to access the Play Store then she had a Google account on the device.
There was a Google account setup on the device that is not known now and there is no way to recover it. If you factory reset at this time, the FRP will kick in on the first boot as part of the Setup Wizard and you will be required to enter the email address and password of the Google account that is not know. FRP will prevent any access to the device. In 99% of cases there is no way around this situation and the device will be permanently unusable.
There is a Google account setup on the device that is known. If you factory reset at this time, the FRP will kick in on first boot and you will enter the Google email address and password and FRP will be completed and turned off. The Setup Wizard will complete normally.

Unfortunately, we see more and more of #2 recently, and the device is basically a brick after a factory reset. A few specific models have a bypass for FRP, but those a few and far between and often require ADB and/or fastboot access to the device.

If this is an older device, prior to Lollipop (meaning Android 4.4 or older), then FRP is not an issue anyway since it is not incorporated into ROMs that old. Lollipop or higher is required for Google FRP.

Also, this is nothing new, in fact Google has been a bit behind in this are for a while... Apple's iOS and Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating systems have been doing this for some time now.


Does the HTC Desire support 'microSDHC'? The HTC Desire spec states that it supports:

  microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)

I saw on the Secure Digital entry on wikipedia that there are 3 protocols: SDSC, SDHC and SDXC - how can I know which of them my device supports?

the "HC" in every SD-Card name simply means "high capacity" - i.E. every SD card with more than 8GB is a SDHC card. Every "SDHC" Card is SD-Standart 2.0 ("SD 2.0"). Which means your device is compatible with a microSDHC card up to 32 GB.


Add second trusted voice to Google Pixel Is it possible to add a second "trusted voice" to my Google Pixel so that a second person can say "OK Google" to unlock my phone? I would like to do this so that my phone can act like a substitute for Google Home when I'm at home--in order to enable my partner to unlock through "OK Google", but still restrict it to our two voices only.

If it isn't possible to do through a single user, is it possible that setting up a second user will allow this? I'm not familiar with how switching between users works on Android yet.

Unfortunately, this is not possible with a single user. As you predicted, however, it is indeed possible to set up with a second user, as each user is set up almost like its own phone. Just add a new user, set it up, and then set up the voice as you would normally.

Good luck!


2 buttons in android bar Now I would like to have as few buttons in the android bar at the bottom as possible but I'm pretty sure both the back and home buttons are required. I believe this is true.

Could I assign the home button to activate the menu button on double click and just have the home and button button?  I'm rooted on 5.1.

Alternatively can I make Android activate home and back with volume up and down https://www.quora.com/Can-I-make-an-app-which-tracks-the-Android-volume-control-button-and-does-some-tasks-if-I-long-press-say-volume-up

Picture of idea

So I am self answering this can all be done using Lineage OS.  Install Lineage
OS then go under Settings->Buttons->Buttons & Layout.  You then can add and remove buttons to your hearts content.  Once you are done change Home double tap action to activate Recent apps switcher.


Provision/Availability of Android Updates My Nexus 7 receives Android updates directly from Google, regardless of the cellular service provider of the SIM card in the device.

My Galaxy S3, with a SIM card in it, receives updates when my cellular service provider releases them.

I have a Galaxy Note, running Android 4.3, without a SIM card in it. Where/when will it receive updates?

I did recently insert a SIM card into the Note. Will the device now receive updates according to the timetable of the SIM service provider?

Android updates have nothing to do with what network the phone is currently on, or what SIM card is inserted. The updates come from whoever you got your phone from.

If you bought your phone from a carrier, they almost certainly customized the OS to include their special apps (a.k.a. bloatware), and sometimes to limit features like Wi-Fi hotspot. For that reason, the updates have to come from them, and of course this adds some delay to the process: once the manufacturer has the update ready, they supply the new source code to the carrier, who has to update their special features for the new version, and go through another round of tests and QA. Carriers don't have the same software expertise or resources as OEMs, so this takes longer.

If you didn't buy the phone from a carrier, then it'll be running an OS provided by the manufacturer, so updates will come from them directly. For Nexus devices, this means the updates come straight from Google.

In your specific case, if your Galaxy Note came without a SIM card, I guess you didn't get it from a carrier, in which case you'll get the update from Samsung, as soon they make it available for your region. If you did get it from a carrier originally, you'll get the update from your old carrier. Either way, your new carrier has nothing to do with it, because they didn't provide the OS in your phone.


(Samsung) Possibility to check bootloader status using PC Is it possible to check bootloader status using adb of a samsung device back from 2014 or older?
(s5 and below) there's no fastboot, and no "OEM Unlock" in developer options
and since i need to get the info using pc

Do I need to program an android application to go with my desktop one to detect bootloader status?
If so, is it even possible to get bootloader status using an app?

Context:
I'm creating a desktop program which needs to determine bootloader status to do certain tasks. I have searched for ways to do it, i found 3 only, none work in my case

Using dialer to find it, I get no output at all..

Using fastboot, There's no fastboot, only download mode

Using an adb command, it helped but it did not output the bootloader status

On Samsung devices, if there is no OEM unlock in the Developer Settings, then the bootloader is unlocked by default. OEM lock is enabled on carriers models only.

Moreover Samsung devices don't have fastboot, they have a proprietary protocol instead.


Is Galaxy S5 capable to receive IR signals I'm thinking to buy a Galaxy S5, I have a question.

The Galaxy S4 can transmit IR signals, but not receive them.

I want to make my own remotes. Does Galaxy S5 (NOT mini) have an IR blaster (receiver, not transmitter)? I cannot find info, I wait for answers to this.

Maybe this is the answer to your question. I'm not sure but according to this link it can't. http://www.tamatalk.com/IB/topic/190144-a-way-to-get-galaxy-s5-to-send-files-via-ir/


Motorola RAZR D3 power button doesn't (un)lock screen I have Motorola RAZR D3, and when I press the power button, nothing happens:

If the device goes to lock screen (after 5s), I can't unlock it with the power button, and the only way is using the soft reset to restart the phone.
If I press Power + Volume down, the device is restarted after 10s.

Thing I have tried:

Check Settings > Security > Power Button instant lock and it's checked.
Reset the device with Settings > Backup & reset > Factory data reset and I still have the same problem.

This is not the ideal solution, but is still a working solution (bad solution is better than no solution):

Using the reference from TrendBlog.net, I installed Power Button to Volume Button which replaces the power button functionality (un/lock screen) with the volume buttons (up & down).


How to flash a rom to a phone under bootloop I have tried to flash the custom ROM CM 13 to my Lenovo A6000 plus as described in the xda thread. My phone was running on Lollipop and was rooted.  I had twrp in my phone. So I simply copied  [ED300-CM13.0-UNOFFICIAL-wt86518.zip] and [open_gapps-arm-6.0-micro-,,,,,.zip] to my external sd card and tried to flash them using twrp. Installation of ED300-CM13.0-UNOFFICIAL-wt86518.zip was seemed succes but open_gapps-arm-6.0-micro-,,,,,.zip showed an error as zip file corrupted.

I assumed the installation of later was only to include the necessary Google apps. So I thought not to install them assuming that they weren't necessary. I simply reboot the phone. Now my phone is in an infinite bootloop. It just shows the Lenovo logo, stays for 2-3 minutes and again go back to boot.

I tried to enter into twrp but didn't succeed. I can access the bootloader. So I put the phone to bootloader and connected to my laptop. But when I type adb devices it doesn't detect the device.

Did I really brick my device? Is there a way to get back? I just want to flash any compatible ROM so that the phone stays up. Please don't tell me to get back to xda :(

I've read the thread you linked and inspected the TWRP package inside. It looks like flashing for this device is incredibly simple, similar to a Nexus - it just flashes and boots a recovery image from fastboot. Lenovo even included a handy command to reboot straight to recovery from fastboot, which not even Nexus devices have.

Since you've flashed TWRP successfully in the past, I assume proper drivers have been installed, and you still have the whole folder on your PC. So right now what you're gonna do is boot your phone to fastboot, connect it to PC, open a command prompt window on PC then execute...

fastboot oem reboot-recovery

...which should take you to recovery.

If an error pops up then you might need to manually point to the fastboot location (drag the fastboot.exe in tools/ to the command prompt window), so it becomes something like...

C:\TWRP\tools\fastboot.exe oem reboot-recovery

(your path will vary).