Why does android init not die? As I read from the book Embedded Android (Karim Yaghmour), android init does not die. However, Linux init systems usually die. Why doesn't the android init?

And also, why does android not use / need systemd?

Init is one of the first processes that is loaded when the Bootloader starts in Unix.
So, technically init is the first process that starts and all other processes are either children or the grandchildren of init.
Now, when a process say Ystarts execution, it is usually forked from its parent process, say X when X dies(finished executing) the process Y now has no parent, and it becomes an Orphan Process at this time init takes over the ownership of the process and becomes the parent of Y.
Like this, there are so many processes running at a given instant in the OS, everything has to be taken care by init.
Since Android being a flavor of Linux, and Linux being a derivative of Unix, it is for the same reason that init doesn't die,unitll the system shuts down.


What does this icon (screenshot) in status bar mean? (First, yes, I did RTFM and so my homework is done.)

My phone shows this  icon.

I looked into the manual of my phone, it lists about 20 status bar icons, but this one isn't among them.

I found out that the icon represents enabled 'Data Saver', which should also prevent background data transfers.


Swiftkey - How to handle Auto Capitalization with URL and Email Strings I like a lot about Swiftkey. But after a few years of using it, some of the annoyances haven't been fixed and I haven't "eventually got used to" the nuances of it like I thought I might.

This one has me stumped.

Enabling auto-capitalization means typing out a web address, or email (or anything with a period in it for that matter), adds spaces and capitalizations throughout the string. Trying to get it to type out correctly, while the fragmented string is also changed to auto-corrected words is unimaginably infuriating.

So I gave up and turned off auto capitalizations, lowering myself to texting like an imbecile, all in lower case (because who's got time to hit the shift key - am I right?).

Enter a second bug.

Swiftkey, when I can be bothered manually capitalizing a word at the beginning of a sentence, seems to think I want that text saved to the custom dictionary. So, for example, the text: Swiftkey drives me crazy. Absolutely throw my phone against the wall crazy. Will result in the word Absolutely being saved to the dictionary. Next time I go to use absolutely in a sentence it comes in capitalized as Absolutely.

Enter a third bug.

Swiftkey has a neat feature where you can long press on a predicted word, and elect it not to be predicted again. Great, if it worked. Long pressing Absolutely and selecting this, removes the word from the custom dictionary, completely, including the original, correct word. Next time you go to type absolutely and type accidentally type abbsolutely or some other fumble, it is not corrected to absolutely because that word is gone. Instead something else is dropped in. absolute for example, or worse perhaps, your mistake goes in abbsolutely.

Ideally I'd rather use auto caps. And have some way to enter strings with periods better. But with it off there is an unacceptable series of bugs that I think need to be fixed.

Am I doing something wrong?

For typing a web address if you start typing with www (case matters here) and then hit period, the auto-capitalization does not work and you can normally type your URL. For other queries I think posting them at SwiftKey's Support page for Android would give you better responses.


Samsung S7 - Developer options not showing after build number pressed 7 times Developer options not showing after build number pressed 7 times. It even says that the developer is turned on already, but when I search for it under "about phone" on the setting app, it doesn't show up. My purpose is to turn on OEM.

Can someone help? thanks!!

This is called RMM protection and is a security feature of Samsung


Limit on sdcard size in huawei u8160 I have a 16gb sdcard which freezes in my huawei u8160 or vodafone smart after using it for sometime. It works fine in other phones so I am wondering if the phone just cant handle sdcards that big?

16 GB is not "that big". All devices released within the past 2 years (which includes your device) at least support cards up to 32 GB. But every now and then, some incompatibilities are reported: A certain device doesn't like cards from a certain brand (I never remember the combinations causing trouble). It might well be you've hit one of those.

If you have some other card available, try that. If you either wanted to buy a new one, check the brand you're currently using, and buy some other. Good idea is to e.g. buy a 32 GB at Amazon (or some other place known to accept returns), so if it doesn't work out (and also seems to be "incompatible"), you can return it.


How to root the new version of the ONE X How Can i Root my HTC ONE X with android version 4.0.4, HTC sense version 4.0, Software number 2.20.502.7
ATT US edition

Apparently there is a root method for the AT&T One X running 4.0.4.  I've not tested it, but have reproduced the instructions in full from here:

I have successfully rooted the AT&T HTC One X running build 2.20.

In the previous build (1.85), S-ON was only partially enforced, so it was possible to modify the /system partition without having unlocked the bootloader, in order to install su and Superuser.apk. This was changed in build 2.20: full S-ON is now in effect. As a result, it is no longer possible to write to /system even after remounting it as writable, since the S-ON feature has NAND-locked the storage.

In other words, it's impossible have a "permanent root" on 2.20 in the traditional sense without unlocking the bootloader.

I have prepared an exploit that gains temporary root access by leveraging two vulnerabilities and uses these newly gained root privileges to overwrite the CID ("superCID"), so that it's possible to unlock the bootloader via HTC's website. I'm sorry if you'd prefer to not unlock your bootloader this way, but there are no other options for root access available.

===========

DISCLAIMER

This exploit modifies the CID of your device. Doing so likely voids your warranty, and may be in violation of your contract with AT&T (I am not a lawyer). Additionally, while this exploit has been tested and has not been observed to cause any negative side effects in practice, I am in no way responsible if it turns your device into an expensive paperweight.

=============

INSTRUCTIONS

Download the exploit from:
http://vulnfactory.org/public/X_Factor_Windows.zip

Edit: Linux/Mac version available here. Thanks to Jesse Osiecki (@jesseosiecki) for suggesting I support this and providing me with a working version (that I ended up re-writing):
http://vulnfactory.org/public/X_Factor_Linux_OSX.zip
Extract the entire zip file.
Connect your device via USB, ensure you have the latest HTC USB drivers installed (only on Windows), and ensure USB debugging mode is enabled.
Double-click "run.bat", or if running Linux or OSX, open a terminal, change directories to the extracted exploit, and run "./run.sh".
Follow the instructions printed by the exploit. You will need to authorize two backup restorations during the exploit's execution.
If the exploit is successful, it will print "[+] Set CID!". If it does not print this, the exploit has failed, so please do not continue.
The exploit will automatically reboot into bootloader mode. Press enter after bootloader mode is finished booting, and the exploit will print your CID. If the exploit was successful, it should return "11111111" as your CID.
If your CID was successfully set, press enter to generate an unlock token.
Visit htcdev.com, navigate to the "Bootloader unlock" section, choose "All other supported models" from the drop-down menu, and provide the unlock token when asked.
After unlocking the bootloader, you can flash a custom recovery partition via fastboot, boot into recovery mode, and use a recovery ADB shell or install from an update.zip to install Superuser and su (I do not provide support for custom recoveries, but this is a straightforward process that other people can help with).

======

NOTES

I am not affiliated with any Android forum or group, including XDA - this is just where I've chosen to publish this exploit.

Portions of this exploit are similar in concept to the ADB backup/restore exploit published by Bin4ry, but the vulnerability used in this exploit is entirely distinct from Bin4ry's.


How can I run Google's apps without Google play services? Most of the Google apps (nearly all) require Google play services to run, like YouTube.I never liked Google play services and play store but I've to keep them because I can't run gmail and YouTube without it.
Is there any way to run those apps.
 without Google play services.

P.S.- Device is rooted,xposed  enabled, runs on CM12.1

Theirs a WebView Application that Sandboxes all of googles sites into one application called Gapps Browser
but this use the website versions...

Have you tried just saving bookmarks to the websites

I know xposed made a module to disable the google services warning, but it wrecked snap chat on my device !

MODULE LINK ADDED

 MODULE LINK http://dl-xda.xposed.info/modules/xeed.xposed.dngmod_v1_d32fa3.apk

 INFO LINK http://repo.xposed.info/module/xeed.xposed.dngmod


How to Force Stop multiple apps at once? My HTC One X+ with Android 4.2.2 suffers a lag pretty often and I don't like that.
Sometimes I cannot even unlock the phone because screen doesn't come up.

I noticed that when I force stops all other apps (besides the one I am using) when phone lags, it runs smooth.
I have lot of apps installed so going to Apps then selecting the app and then force closing it takes a lot of time.

I am looking for a way where I can force stop multiple apps at once.

Greenify is also an app that can help you in this problem. It is one of the best task killer and battery saver app that I tried.

Greenify's link on Google Play


How to access a linux shell from my phone via bluetooth? Basically I want to send shell commands from my phone to my PC (Ubuntu 11.10) via bluetooth. Why? Because I don't always have WLAN and WLAN on my phone sucks.

All possible solutions are welcome. I know that most solutions will require some kind of daemon running on the linux system. This is no problem.

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: I will not root my phone.

Yes you can, but the steps may be a little bit complicated, see the following blog post about ssh-ing over bluetooth.


Need more memory in micromax Canvas colors 2 I have my one year old model of  micromax Canvas colors 2. As many of you may know, it has limited internal memory, So I cannot install app which are only stores in phone memory. I have to install so limited apps on my phones due to this drawback. Can anyone tell me how can I solve this issue?

Is your device rooted ? If it is you can use link2sd it can increase internal memory by adding an SD card.

If it's not there are many apps that you can move to SD without any program in settings.


Where to get old LineageOS ROMs? I have a few old devices which I want to put on LineageOS. This time it's about a Samsung Galaxy S4 mini (GT-I9195, serranoltexx). But the official LineageOS website shows them as not supported anymore.

You basically are required to build the ROM for yourself, but this is beyond my knowledge and commitment.

I already have flashed successfully exactly such a device with LineageOS in the past, but do not have the ZIP around anymore.

Why does LineageOS not keep the latest versions of their ROM's around for download? Where to get a trustworthy copy?

Note: The same happened with cyanogenmod earlier. The did not store older ROM's too.

Note2: These devices were still on sale on recycling shops recently.

To answer the question (getting old builds) directly - there are people who foresaw the need and stashed some of the builds elsewhere: 1, 2.

As for the reason to it, it's right in their FAQ. The main reason would be to save bandwidth/storage, since the project is a non-profit.


How to perform a full system dump/backup with a broken screen? So, yesterday my phone took a serious tumble.  It is now essentially useless, as the screen either fails to turn on, or when it does, there is nothing useful to see (just lines of primary colors, mostly).

I believe (from the fact that it still chirps at me when emails come in, etc), that the phone is still functional, otherwise.

I would like to perform a full system dump, so that I can get off any files from the phone (a TMobile SGS2 (hercules) running slimrom 4.3 build 1).  The sdcard probably isn't important, as I can just pull it, but the phone's own internal storage I should like to get a copy of.

When I plug the phone into a usb port, it 'mounts' the usb via MTP, and I can see all the files.  Unfortunately, when I do a select all | copy | paste operation, the paste op dies before transferring all files.  I've tried a couple other ADB shell operations, in hope of flipping regular USB mounting on, but nothing has worked.

Any ideas how I can get a full dump of my poor phone's contents?

Edit

Currently running a adb pull /sdcard/ ... Its copying files presently, but its too early to tell if its going to get evertying I'm expecting.

Edit #2

looks like its going to work...its taking a rather long time, but it appears to be grabbing everything I was expecting it to.

Not a full-fledged answer, as even an excerpt would make it a rather long post, but here are some things you could try:

An XDA article describes How To Backup and Restore using tar on adb shell. The article holds complete scripts for both. Still you should not execute them straight ahead as they are, but first use e.g. the mount command (without parameters) to make sure the mount points are correct, as they might differ between devices.
Use AndroidScreencast1 to "transfer the display to your PC". This way you see what you are doing, and might be able to backup using apps like Titanium Backup or Helium Backup
GadgetsDNA has a useful article with 15 Useful Android Terminal (ADB Shell) Commands2, including how to restore a Nandroid backup via fastboot. Unfortunately, nothing to create such.
A German Tutorial at Android-Hilfe.DE (GoogleTranslate Variant) describes a tool named ADBRecovery, including download links. This should enable you to do a Nandroid backup as well as restore.

I hope one of these hints proves helpful to you.

1: original code seems no longer maintained; yankee found this maintained fork working fine
2: links to Archive.ORG as the original page is gone; you can also find it at Slideshare


Whatsapp does not show a contact. Tried "everything" I have an Xperia Z1 with Android 4.2.2 and the latest version of Whatsapp.
There is at least one contact whom I am sure has got Whatsapp but is not shown in Whatsapp contacts.

The contact is in my phone's address book, with country code.
"Show all contacts" is selected, no hidden contact, auto sync is on; I manually synced, refreshed, deleted and reinstalled both contacts and app.

Other ideas?

Some options you could try:

Option 1

Tap on  icon and then go to  Menu > Refresh.

Option 2

Tap on  icon and then go to  Menu > Help. There are some instructions their which you can try and tap on Show invisible contacts.

Option 3

Follow this article from WhatsApp to try to troubleshoot: How do I add contacts to WhatsApp?


How disk space is used on Android device? I have critical low storage level and can't understand what takes much of it and how that's possible that the installed applications can use 7 GB? I only use a few social media clients without any games or soft like Photoshop. Also on the second screenshot it indicates that the apps are using just 1.13 GB and so I can't understand the situation. Also what is the "Other"?

Android's filesystem hierarchy is a bit complex and people often find it difficult to grasp. A major reason for confusion is that Android isn't very expressive in explaining these things and it's not very clear which files Android put in which category. Another reason is that mostly devices are not rooted and users don't have access to filesystems to verify the things themselves. We can try to understand it from root.

VIDEOS, PICTURES, AUDIO AND "OTHER":

Android uses file extensions to decide if a file in Public Shared / External Storage (i.e. /sdcard excluding the private directories of apps) is video, picture or audio. This header file defines a mapping between file extensions and categories. Further details can be found in this answer.

Simply put, we can use file extensions to categorize files and calculate their size:

~$ find /sdcard/ -type f ! -path '/sdcard/Android*' | grep -iE '\.3g2$|\.3gp$|\.3gpp$|\.3gpp2$|\.asf$|\.asx$|\.avi$|\.dif$|\.dl$|\.dv$|\.fli$|\.lsf$|\.lsx$|\.m4v$|\.mkv$|\.mng$|\.mov$|\.movie$|\.mp4$|\.mpe$|\.mpeg$|\.mpg$|\.mxu$|\.qt$|\.ts$|\.vob$|\.webm$|\.wm$|\.wmv$|\.wmx$|\.wrf$|\.wvx$' | xargs -I {} du -b '{}' | sort -n | awk '{sum += $1} {print} END {print sum}'
...
75696063        /sdcard/DCIM/Camera/VID_20190726_190531.mp4
97849262        /sdcard/DCIM/Camera/VID_20190721_142818.mp4
331238039       /sdcard/TIMELAPSE OF THE FUTURE_ A Journey to the End of Time (4K).mp4
1554180683

So I have 1.55 GB of videos on my /sdcard.

~$ find /sdcard/ -type f ! -path '/sdcard/Android*' | grep -iE '\.art$|\.arw$|\.bmp$|\.cr2$|\.dng$|\.gif$|\.jng$|\.jpe$|\.jpeg$|\.jpg$|\.nef$|\.nrw$|\.orf$|\.pbm$|\.pcx$|\.pef$|\.pgm$|\.png$|\.pnm$|\.ppm$|\.psd$|\.ras$|\.rgb$|\.rw2$|\.srw$|\.svg$|\.svgz$|\.tif$|\.tiff$|\.wbmp$|\.webp$|\.xbm$|\.xpm$|\.xwd$' | xargs -I {} du -b '{}' | sort -n | awk '{sum += $1} {print} END {print sum}'
...
31944   /sdcard/.recycle/1565980569828.3/2080952923/Screenshot_20190816-155104_Firefox.png
34099   /sdcard/OLD_sdcard/Download/iptables_overview.jpg
6839118 /sdcard/DCIM/Camera/PANO_20190421_132245.jpg
7726000 /sdcard/DCIM/Camera/IMG_20181123_144811.jpg
669063808

And 669 MB of pictures. Combined with videos it becomes 2.22 GB.

~$ find /sdcard/ -type f ! -path '/sdcard/Android*' | grep -iE '\.aac$|\.aif$|\.aifc$|\.aiff$|\.amr$|\.awb$|\.flac$|\.gsm$|\.m3u$|\.m4a$|\.mka$|\.mp2$|\.mp3$|\.mpega$|\.mpga$|\.oga$|\.ogg$|\.pls$|\.ra$|\.ram$|\.rm$|\.sd2$|\.snd$|\.wav$|\.wax$|\.wma$' | xargs -I {} du -b '{}' | sort -n | awk '{sum += $1} {print} END {print sum}'
...
196556  /sdcard/OLD_sdcard/Alarms/Freedom.ogg
451614  /sdcard/OLD_sdcard/CallRecordings/0507189091_190225_191938461.amr
5652322 /sdcard/.recycle/1564398739475.3/710629278/L'Orfeo(preview).mp3
186868393

And 187 MB of audios. Now total space taken by files:

~$ du -bs --exclude=/sdcard/Android /sdcard/
5330784600      /sdcard/

It's 5.3 GB. Subtracting video, pictures and audio, it's 2.89 GB which is the size of "Other"; shown as "Files" on my device:

Non-root part is over here. Next to explore /data you need root access. First to make clear, throughout the whole life of device, a common user interacts only with one partition labeled userdata. But it's not very uncommon to have 50+ partitions on Android devices. Details can be seen in this thread. So we are talking about the space usage on userdata partition which is mounted at /data. One of its sub-directory /data/media/0 is the one we see in file explorers or at /sdcard or at /storage/emulated/0. See What is /storage/emulated/0? for details.

TOTAL SPACE USAGE:

Now have a look at space usage reported by Android. It says 16.73 GB out of 32 GB are used. Let's analyze.

~# cat /sys/block/mmcblk0/size
61071360
~# df -B1 --output=size /data
  1B-blocks
25762942976

Note: Don't confuse units. 61071360 sectors equal 31268536320 bytes, which equal 31.27 Gigabytes (GB) or 29.12 Gibibyte (GiB).

Total available size of eMMC is 31.27 GB (ignoring e.g. RPMB and provisioned space etc.) and size of /data filesystem is 25.76 GB (See! I thought it would be 32.00 GiB). It means 5.5 GB space was occupied when device was shipped from factory. It's mainly taken by system, vendor and cache, and a small part by other partitions. Partition table takes a few KBs but there are possibly a few MBs left free in between partitions, some space is wasted due to encryption, and so on. Following screenshot shows the complete partition table:

(Click image for enlarged view)

Now coming to used space:

~# df -B1 --output=used /data
       Used
10407436288
~# du -b -d1 /data | sort -n
...
30932548        /data/system
89343105        /data/user_de
252376438       /data/dalvik-cache
1537995332      /data/app
1817762284      /data/data
5460784600      /data/media
9250761612      /data

Space usage reported by filesystem is 10.4 GB, while the apparent size of files is 9.25 GB. This difference of 1.15 GB could be variable and is used by the filesystem. Details can be found in this answer. May be a part of it is being used by f2fs log structure on my device.

So total used space on device is 15.9 GB (5.5 and 10.4) out of 31.27 GB. Note the difference with values in screenshot. The difference in total size could be because of rounding-off the sum of /data and /system to nearest power of 2.

APPS SPACE USAGE:

5.3 GB out of 9.25 GB is used by public files in /sdcard as explained above. Rest of the 3.95 GB space is mainly taken by three categories of files. Keeping things simple, following are the major directories which sum up to total app size (1, 2, 3, 4):

App size    /data/app/<pkg>*
            /data/dalvik-cache/<arch>/<pkg's_dex_odex_vdex_art_oat>
            /storage/emulated/<user_id>/Android/obb/<pkg>
            /data/misc/profiles/ref/<pkg>
Cache       /data/user/<user_id>/<pkg>/*cache
            /data/user_de/<user_id>/<pkg>/*cache
            /storage/emulated/<user_id>/Android/data/<pkg>/*cache
User data   /data/user/<user_id>/<pkg>
            /data/user_de/<user_id>/<pkg>
            /storage/emulated/<user_id>/Android/data/<pkg>
            /storage/emulated/<user_id>/Android/media/<pkg>
            /data/misc/profiles/cur/<user_id>/<pkg>

User data size should exclude Cache size.
For user apps compiled binary files are stored in installation directory (/data/app/<pkg>/oat/<arch>) since Lollipop. But for system apps those are saved to /data/dalvik-cache which is counted for apps size. Actual .apk files of system apps are not counted, except if an app is updated. .odex files for Android's framework apps (.apk/.jar) however might be already stored in /system/framework/ having only symlinks in /data/dalvik-cache/. Things have changed with A/B implementation.
For more details see Where Android apps store data?

Taking sum of all these directories:

~# du -sb /data/app /data/misc/profiles/ /data/dalvik-cache/ /storage/emulated/*/Android/ /data/user/*/ /data/user_de/ |  sort -n | awk '{sum += $1} {printf "%-15s%s\n",$1,$2} END {print sum}'
94152          /storage/emulated/11/Android/
611998         /data/misc/profiles/cur/10/
837897         /storage/emulated/10/Android/
1013850        /data/misc/profiles/cur/0/
1109311        /storage/emulated/0/Android/
1602419        /data/misc/profiles/ref/
3294944        /data/user_de/10/
10283019       /data/user/10/
86048161       /data/user_de/0/
252376438      /data/dalvik-cache/
1537995332     /data/app
1817762284     /data/user/0/
3713029805

It's 3.7 GB, leaving only 250 MB behind, some of which is taken by /sdcard of other two user profiles (/data/media/<user_id>). The rest is used by system logs and configuration files, particularly in /data/system* and /data/misc*. This system usage is shown as "System" which excludes shared storage size (5, 6). Some figures differ from Android but after all we know how the space is actually used, and where it's being wasted.

RELATED:

Android's Storage Journey


Easiest way to add a font so Chrome will recognize it on a Nexus 10? I want Chrome for Android to recognize the Verdana font on a Nexus 10.  That's it.  Currently, it only seems to recognize Arial, Open Sans, Times New Roman, and a couple of fixed width fonts.  All of these fonts are just terrible, and I'm left baffled by why Google would make such a tiny number of fonts available.

Is there a solution to this that does not involve rooting?  I've spent a few hours in the app store and looking it up online and I haven't been able to find anything.

(Ideally, I'd like to be able to also change the default fonts for Chrome for Android; but that's likely more impossible and is far less important to me.)

Verdana is a proprietary font. Although Microsoft once released it as a part of Core fonts for the Web, they didn't allow to repackage it with other products, and then shut the whole project down.

Android has its own Roboto font.


Can I update my Galaxy Nexus manually? I'm having a problem with music playback stutter on my Galaxy Nexus, and after searching about it for a while it seems the problem was fixed on update 4.0.4.

Unfortunately, my phone is still on 4.0.2 and no OTA Update is currently available.

From past experiences with my Milestone, updating or using a ROM that was not originally from my country (Brazil) resulted in various problems, including no 3G connection and very poor GPS signal.

Is it possible to actually update the Galaxy Nexus manually from 4.0.2 to 4.0.4? If yes, is there a way to know which "version" of the system would be compatible with mine?

Here's the "About Phone" tab on settings:
http://i.stack.imgur.com/0VZhk.png

AFAIK, the 4.0.4 is currently only available for the CDMA/LTE, but someone over at Modaco has a modified version of the 4.0.4 working for GSM.

It looks like everything is working on the GSM version with this modified release. I have also read that 4.0.5 will be released next month, so you may want to just wait.


Galaxy S8+ and Apple Music downloads I have a new Galaxy S8+ and Apple Music installed, but I don't have an SD card. Where the heck do the songs go when I click the download button in Apple Music? I'm tyring to get my music onto my (Generation 4) iPod. I have an iCloud account but there is no "Music" folder there.

Apple Music is a streaming music service and can't be downloaded as local files unless you convert the DRM-format songs to MP3 or any other DRM-free format. You can google "Sidify" and the info may help you solve the issue.


Black screen with system information I have Prestigio Multipad WIZE 3047 3G. On Tuesday evening something went wrong and I got black screen with some system checks (see picture). Tablet warmed very fast and didn't respond to pressing power button. Pressing reset button caused rebooting that fixed problem.

What could it be and how prevent such problem?

Android 4.4.2 (manufactor's OS version w/o root, JB or something else)

Click image to enlarge

Something caused a system crash and the tablet rebooted to try and selftest, similar to what happens when windows "Blue Screens".

Without the logs which we don't have now we can't determine why it crashed or how to prevent it. It could be an unreliable memory region, power delivery fault or just simply a bad bit of code.

If it doesnt happen again then don't worry, not a huge deal.


Samsung Galaxy S4 stuck on Samsung logo after booting from Odin After booting from Odin, I can't turn on the screen. It gets stuck on Samsung Galaxy S4 logo. I tried to do a factory reset. It says completed, but then it has a no command error under the Android logo.

Is there any way to fix that?

The good new is your phone is not bricked, so yes, you can still fix it.

Just enter download mode again and flash with odin one more time.

To enter download mode you have to:

Power off your phone
Press and hold Volume Down + Home + Power buttons at the same time.
Press Volume Up button when warning prompt.


"Unfortunately, Clock has stopped" when trying to create or edit alarm Recently I started to face a very weird bug.

Whenever I try to tap on Create alarm button, or on existing alarm

I am getting this "Unfortunately, Clock has stopped"

This is a system app I don't know what to do now.

What it could be?

What I tried:

Delete Data from App Manager
Clear cache
Restart the smartphone

Some info:

default (but upgraded) firmware  - Android 4.1.2
Device Galaxy Note II GT-N7100

I had a similar problem but on another device, though try if it can fix your problem this is the what I did:

I opened the Terminal Emulator and typed:

$ su
# logcat

Then I held 'Volume down' (a.k.a. Ctrl) and 'c' to stop the output. I scrolled a bit up in the output and found a line that said:

E/SQLiteOpenHelper( 5231): Couldn't open alarms.db for writing (will try read-only):
E/SQLiteOpenHelper( 5231): android.database.sqlite.SQLiteException: Can't downgrade database from version 7 to 5

OK, so this is where it's breaking. I wasn't really interested in finding out what should the proper combination of ownership/permissions for the file as I didn't really trust it would end just here, downgrading database version offers a range of situations that can go wrong. And since I don't really care for my past alarm clock times, I got rid of the old database:

# cd /data/data/com.android.deskclock/databases
# mv alarms.db alarms.db.bak

otherwise at the time I looked out for this problem the only other solution I saw was to wipe and restore my phone.
If you do so, don't forget to backup all your data first!

Good luck, I hope it helped you or someone.


Can not use Alt - C in in android phone and mac laptop I bought a Samsung galaxy a71 recently then I installed an app called alt-c in my phone and my MacBook air and it works fine, but the app can not copy text from my own  phone to my mac and a message appears in my phone and it says:

Alt-c could not paste text to pc: make sure you copied the text on your device.

and a notification appears in my mac and it says:

there was no text in the device's clipboard.

so anyone has a solution for that?

Probably this answer is long overdue. But maybe it might help someone else in the future.
Had the same problem and it seems that since Android 10 apps can only access the clipboard if they are in the foreground. So the only way for the copy to work from Phone to Mac is to open the app on your phone after you've copied the text, and then paste on the Mac.


Stock Phone app doesn't work in split-window mode on Android Nougat I have Wiko U Pulse Lite running on Android 7.0 Nougat. I would like to use Google Keep or Google Drive in split-window mode with the Phone application. This is because every time I perform a banking operation, I need to copy numbers and passwords from one window to the other, otherwise I need to recur to open and paper to use as my buffer for storing these data.

Is there a reason why the Phone application with its dialer keypad won't work in split-window mode? Is this fixed in later version of Google's Android OS?

For an app to be allowed to work in split-window mode, there is a certain parameter android:resizeableActivity=["true" | "false"] that has to be set to true.

Since Android 7.0, this is true by default, but it's still possible to be set to false if the developer thinks the app will not behave correctly in split-window.

As @Andrew T. suggested in a comment, all you can do as a user is to find another phone app that allows split-window.


Modern apps to manage app permissions In doing research on app permissions and cool "l33t hax0r" apps to put on a rooted phone, I stumbled across a category of app permission managers.  They seem to be relevant to Android 1.x and 2.x, circa 2010.

The advent of Jelly Bean (Android 4.3) gave us a rudimentary app permission manager within Android, but not everyone got it, Google didn't mean to release it, and it was quickly removed from Android.

Is this category of apps no longer valid?  Or are there just a new bunch of apps and I'm finding stale posts, articles, and information?

I found this article here on Android Stack Exchange, and the answers link to most of the apps that I have come across (modified Google Permission Managers notwithstanding).

The only modern/supported app of similar design is a module for XPosed called  Xprivacy.  However, XPosed is only for Samsung ROMs/devices.  Is there something more generic?

I currently have some Samsung phones, and some of them are rooted, but not all the devices I am tinkering with are Samsung or rooted.

Three possibilities:

Try Advanced Permissions Manager found in the Play Store. But mind you, permissions are not granular. Example, if you deny Location right on an app and it needs some aspect of that right, then the app will not run.
Xposed's Xprivacy is very granular; I can disallow certain aspects of that same app's Location rights, for example. and the app will continue to work.
Xposed is not specific to Samsung; it's running on my rooted LG G3.


Boot from an image in PC using Android device I've a Redmi 1S (Hongmi 1S) running MIUI v5 (Jellybean v4.3). I have a Bitdefender rescue disk ISO file. I want to boot this rescue disk using my Android phone, just like a bootable USB drive.

How can I boot from this file in PC using my Android device. What are the necessary requirements?
Will Android handle this as an ISO file, or will it simply store it as an unknown file type?

I had earlier asked this question on the MIUI forums, but by the next day itself it was stamped irrelevant and was closed/deleted.

As there is no specific date for an upgrade, my device may or may not update to Android 4.4 Kitkat or MIUI v6. So still, will it change with the update?

As USB mass storage is available you can use your external memory card as a pen drive. Use any Windows/Linux/Mac  app like  sardu, YUMI to create bootable USB. Some app may not detect your MMC on phone, then try another boot dirive creater.


Why does my phone sometimes reboot when playing music? My Droid X spontaneously reboots when it's playing music.  I've confirmed this behavior with the native music player, Amazon's MP3 player, and now Spotify (though, with Spotify, it seems to happen less often).

No warning, and no pattern, the phone just goes silent mid-song, then reboots.  Sometimes it does it on consecutive days, sometimes it doesn't do it for a week.

It's perfectly stable at all other times, and has never spontaneously rebooted outside of when I'm playing music.

I think it was a memory issue.  I installed Auto Memory Manager, set it on "mild" and never had the problem again.


How to encrypt android device without screen lock? I want to encrypt my phone to protect sensitive information. But I do not want to enter a password every time I pick up my phone. That seriously hampers the usability. Particularly because the password must be of sufficient complexity for the encryption to be secure.

What I want is a boot time only password.

Most thieves switch off the phone after stealing it. Or remove the battery to change the SIM (so it won't get tracked). When he starts it again it'll be locked. There is a risk that he may mail my sensitive information to himself before switching off the phone but that is a risk I'm willing to live with.

How do I encrypt my phone with only a boot time password?

This is a known defect.

See this bug report. And this discussion here at google groups.


Screen black during phone call and it won't come back during call I have an Xperia XZs with Android 8. Lately I'm having problems while calling. When I start a call, the screen goes black immediately, and won't come back anymore during the call. The result is that when I'm in a menu where I need to chose a number, I can't, because the screen is black. I can't even hang up. Well, I can pull out the sim card, and that will end the call, but that means a restart.

I've installed a new dialer, and that seems to help a little, but the problem is still there.

Is there any way I can get my dialer back to normal? Is this a new bug? I updated recently.

Update and solution

I see this question is one year old. Back then it wasn't a big problem, lately it became so bad that I considered buying a new phone, even though this one is good enough for at least a year, maybe two. So I came to the conclusion that the sensor must be broken, and just when I wanted to contact a repair center, I realised that the screen protector may be the problem.

The screen protector has an opening for the proximity sensor. This opening collects dirt along the edges. I removed the dirt, the problem seems gone. It's maybe to early to be sure, but I've done some testing and all seems to work normally. It also explains why things got worse over the course of a year, as the dirt builds up.

The proximity sensor take charge of your screen when making a call

Factory reset your phone or change to custom rom. If problem still exist, you've to change the proximity sensor on your phone


Factory reset in phones that don't support SD-cards Does factory reset on a phone without SD-card support delete the files stored in the ExternalStorageDirectory?

Explanation : Say I have a device like the Galaxy S or an iPhone(I know, sacrilege) both devices don't support SD-cards(Not sure about Galaxy S, definitely about the iPhone). My question is if such a device which doesn't support SD-cards is factory reset, then do your files and media stored in this device's "External Storage Directory" which actually happens to be on the phone get deleted?

My guess is no, am I right?

You are correct.

The external storage directory is classed as an 'External SDCard'. Anything with SDCard in the title is not wiped during a factory reset.

When you go to factory reset, you will be given the option to wipe your SDCard as well as the internal storage data directory.


blocking individual numbers & text messages for Android phones Possible Duplicate:
  How can I reliably screen or block callers on a number-by-number basis?

Had Easy Filter app and it worked great for a while on my Samsung Galaxy, then it stopped.  Question which phone does the Easy Filter work well with?  Or which Android phones are compatible with which call blocking apps.  Need to block specific numbers from incoming calls and text messages.

Anti SMS Spam works great, also see Mr. Number for good call management.


Can I flash same model but different operator firmware If I flash Telus SM-G920W8 firmware on my Bell SM-G920W8 device would there be any incompatibility issues?

The frequencies are the same from what I just looked up I have put v410 att firmware on my uk410 and it work but I never had mobile data on it so I'm not sure about data but I'm going to say your good to do it just proceed with caution have the correct firmware that's  supposed to be on the phone and if u have a custom recovery make a back up and give it a try I'm not saying it will work but it's a possibility and if other dont work try a custom ROM for the firmware you want to use I tried downloading and installing the stock AT&T firmware online UK 410 and it wouldn't work but cyanogen14 for the v410 flashed just fine to my uk410


B&N Audiobooks on Novel My wife has a Pandigital Novel and would like to be able to listen to audiobooks from Barnes & Noble.  The people at the Barnes & Noble store said this can only be done on a Nook.  However, since we just recently (last Fall) bought the Novel, I'm not much inclined to turn around and buy another tablet/e-reader for her if it can be avoided.

Is there any way the Novel can download/play Barnes & Noble's audiobooks?

After some googling, it appears that B&N audiobooks are in MP3 format with no DRM.  That means they should play on almost everything that can play audio, including the Novel.

Edit: Their FAQ says exactly that, and mentions how to download the files.


Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 port name What is the name of the flat port (that you use for charging) that comes with Samsung Galaxy Tab 2? I bough a USB keyboard and I'm looking forward to buy an adapter for it.

I'll attatch some images of the port I've found on the internet:

If you're looking to buy a cable that you can use to attach a USB keyboard to that connector, then everywhere I've seen calls it something like a "30-pin Samsung socket", and the cables are called something like "30-pin to USB OTG adapter cable" or "USB OTG Adapter Cable for Samsung Galaxy Tab 2", eg examples on Amazon.com, or on eBay.com.

Samsung themselves either seem to avoid naming the port when they're selling their official adapters and cables that plug into it, or just call it a "30 Pin": "Galaxy Tab Adapters" or "Galaxy Tab™ Data Cable (Charging) USB to 30 Pin"


integrate Google Photos with android system I use ios for long time recently switched to android. my whole photo library in google photos but when i need to upload somewhere  i need to download it first to device and proceed to upload its irritating is there any way to link google photos to gallery like ios icloud photos when i use ios i can select icloud photo directly and it download & upload automatically. why google can't do that?

Google Drive was the integrating factor till July this year. It was possible to sync photos with Drive. Drive also works with ios.

Now that it is discontinued, there is no automatic way to upload but from Photos settings you  enable sync to drive (tap on the cloud icon) or using the share option upload to third party cloud/messaging/mail options.


packages.xml is restored after reboot This is my first question here. I hope developers will help me out.

I have XOLO A500 device on which Google Play services is not being installed because of "Using the same shared id" problem. To resolve the problem, I had rooted my phone and taken access of system through ADB. Following procedure I had made.

1) Rooted the phone and installed ADB to access the android system.
2) chmod 666 to packages.xml inside /data/system.
3) Pulled the packages.xml using command adb pull /data/system/packages.xml
4) Edited the packages.xml and removed the sharedUserId attribute for the particular app.
5) Pushed back packages.xml
6) Removed the dalvik cache.
7) Reboot.

All I am doing as su.

The problem here is after reboot, the packages.xml file is again restored as the original one. Please help me regarding this.

Edit 1: I am using ICS

Edit 2: Here is how I have done everything.

Started USB debugging.
Connected the phone and started ADB.
adb pull /data/system/packages.xml
Edited packages.xml and saved the file
adb shell
su
chmod 666 /data/system/packages.xml
exit
exit
adb push packages.xml /data/system
adb shell
su
chmod 664 /data/system/packages.xml
rm /data/dalvik-cache/*
exit
exit
adb reboot

Thanks and Regards

sharedUserId is simply a copy of the parameter of the same name from the Android Manifest file. When you clear the dalvik cache and reboot, the sharedUserId attribute is read from the original apk files and packages.xml is rewritten. You'll probably need to disassemble the apk, edit the manifest, and reassemble the apk using a tool like apktool. Note that the new apk you create will not be signed, so it will not be automatically updated though the Play Store.


My Droid phone won't sync my email subfolders automatically In order to read or even know I have emails in my Outlook subfolders, I have to open each subfolder individually and allow it to sync.  This is very time consuming.  Is there a way to set up the email so it auto synchs my subfolders?  I tried the select all option but it doesn't work.

Auto-Syncing subfolders means additional network traffic, and eats more of your battery -- which is why it's not generally to recommend. But if you insist, for selected folders it might be sometimes useful. What you need for this is an email app supporting the sync of subfolders. One such app is K-9 Mail.

Speaking of "Outlook subfolders": Outlook is a client, not a server -- so it's hard to tell what you're using. Aforementioned K-9 supports IMAP (recommended), POP3 (only if needed), and also Exchange (via WebDAV -- only for those who have no alternative, but that's my personal opinion). Guess one of them should cover your demands.


Can the MK802 III use an ethernet connection instead of wifi? Just got the MK802III and got some Ice Films related apps installed.  A lot of the content is streaming, so I'm wondering if I use an ethernet cable to connect to my router via USB to the 802, if I'll get less lag?

From forums:

  tsuda

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by stevhorn
    I can confirm this works with the MK802II, but I don't know about the MK802III.

  http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Apple...661773412.html
  Yes, it works on the MK802II. The III has the same Ethernet config screen in Settings so it should be the same. I will try it this weekend and let you know.


Can I set a default address in the "To:" header for outgoing mails in the EMail app? On my phone I mostly send emails to myself and I'd like to save the few clicks from selecting a recipient.

Is there a way to prepopulate the "To:" field with my address?
Or any other email client which supports this? It has to support Hotmail.

You could create a shortcut on your home screen to your Contact info.

First make sure you've got an entry for yourself in your Contacts with your email address (not the "Me" Contact, but an extra one).

Then go into your Applications screen, tap the Widgets tab at the top, find either the 4x1 or 1x1 "Contact" widget and add that to an empty spot on your Home screen, when prompted find your Contact in the list.

Now when you want to create a new email just tap your Contact icon on the Home screen, tap the EMail icon and it should open up a new email, with your email pre-populated in the To box.


Show the time an SMS was sent, not received Scenario is as follows-

Switch flight mode on. Go into meeting/go to sleep.
Switch flight mode off. Receive a message.
Timestamp on the message is the time received.

With my old Nokia, under details it would show the time the message was actually sent. Is it possible to show this on Android?

It's a stupid setting of galaxy s sms' app. To resolve this you have to replace the mms.apk into /system/app with that attached in this thread of xda forum
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=891667&highlight=mod+sms
If you look all the thread, you can also find the complete installation guide!


Why is "Force GPU rendering" disabled by default Developer options? Why is this feature disabled? When I turn it on, many apps and become snappy and awesome with smooth graphics. Seems like it'd be nice if it was enabled by default.

The linked article in this question says that hardware acceleration wasn't default up until 4.0.

Is the "Force GPU rendering" option then targeting apps that use API for 3.0 and lower?

When GPU rendering was first added, it was very unreliable. Sometimes it would be slower than software rendering, and there were some kinds of GUIs that it just couldn't work with. For this reason, it was up to the app developer to test their app with GPU rendering, and set an option in the app's manifest (the same place that it declares its permissions) to enable GPU rendering for that app. The option was mainly to make it easier for developers to test the effect of GPU rendering on their app. This makes sense because:

most users don't know or care about what GPU rendering is, and don't know whether it should be on or off for any given app; and
the setting really needs to be per-app, not device-wide, because some apps just wouldn't work with GPU rendering turned on.

After further development, when 4.0 came along, GPU rendering got more reliable, so it became the default for all apps: it's now up to the developer to explicitly disable GPU rendering if it causes a problem in their app. (That's very rare now.) The "Force GPU rendering" option is vestigial and rarely used even by developers now, because it's already the default.


Device encryption fails, but no error I am trying to encrypt my android device (Samsung S3, Modified 4.1.2). I have set a password and made sure my device is plugged in and charged over 80%.

When I select the encryption option, the screen shows a wired-diagram of an Android figure and then restarts after about 10s. There are no errors and I can still use my device, but it clearly has not been encrypted.

I've retried multiple times with the same results. Can anyone help?

Thanks

EDIT (possible explanation)...
My device is currently encrypting. I decided to try with my SIM card removed. I had a SIM lock setup, so I'm wondering if that was interrupting the encryption when the phone restarted.
Although I am curious, I am not going to go as far as unencrypting, removing the SIM lock and trying again, so I can't be certain that was the cause.

There was a similar issue in Android 4.2 whereby encryption failed as described if the phone was plugged into a computer's USB port, but worked if plugged into a charger. I don't know when this bug first appeared or whether it has been fixed in a more recent version, but it's worth trying a plain charger.


Wil my HTC Desire auto-adjust for daylight savings? Daylight savings is about to end, I was just wondering - will my HTC Desire auto-adjust for this?

Thanks!

(Need to set my alarm tomorrow morning and want that extra hour of sleep!)

Go to Settings -> Date and Time and ensure your time zone is properly set.  This should be enough, but you can also check Automatic or Use network time or similar to ensure it picks up the proper time.


TWRP: adb devices works in recovery but fails in sideload mode I want to install a custom rom (LineageOS with microG) on My Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1. I followed every steps detailed in the tutorial (enable debugging, unlock bootloader, run fastboot, flash TWRP, reboot in recovery,  backup then wipe the system with TWRP).

My problem is when I want to sideload the custom rom. So, adb devices works and detects my phone in recovery mode. However, as soon as I lauch the sideload mode in TWRP, adb devices is not able to detect my phone anymore and the command adb sideload xxxxxx.zip fails because it cannot see any device.

I'm running TWRP 3.2.3, my computer runs on GNU/Linux (Xubuntu 18.04), I have the latest version of the Android SDK.

It is the same question as here from 2015: Device disappears from ADB devices when entering sideload but there was no answer.

Thanks in advance

Eventually, I found a workaround (which is not a fix but it allowed me to continue the installation).

Since my device was detected in discovery, I did not used sideload. I just pushed the image to the sdcard with:

adb push xxxxx.zip /sdcard/

and then I installed the image from the sdcard directly in TWRP.


Does rooting a SONY Xperia Z2 remove SONY specific features? Dear Android Enthusiasts,

I'd like to root my new SONY Xperia Z2, but feeling a bit unsure about that I may loose SONY specific features. I'm new to Android (switched from iOS) and don't know how deep the SONY Android UI/Skin is integrated in the system. So I'm talking about noice-cancelling headphones, camera app, Xperia Lounge, ... Am I able to install and use these apps after routing?

In addition I got some other questions dedicated to this topic:

As if rooting does not fulfill my expectations, can I reliably restore a backup somehow without loosing any data/settings/...?
Am I right that rooting a device removes its guarantee? (And is there a way around?)
Is there a good website containing instructions about rooting and downloading sources? (deliberately objective question)
Am I able to install a pure/vanilla/stock android os on my device?

I know that I may find answers to my questions somewhere in the internet (I did search A LOT), but I experienced it's very hard to find reliable answers about the specific device "SONY Xperia Z2".

As I understand it, if you root your Z2 by unlocking the bootloader via Sony's official method, it will permanently blow away the phone's DRM keys. If you root your Z2 via a non-Sony-sanctioned exploit, you can back up the partition with the DRM keys first & can theoretically restore it at some later time (no hard guarantees, but at least it's a possibility instead of eliminated forever as an option).

I know a recent Sony update disabled the exploit that was popular for several months earlier in 2014, but it's possible that there's a new one now.

To wit: it's to your advantage to root the phone via unauthorized exploit, then back up the hidden partition with DRM keys so you can restore it to stock at some later point in time if desired and "have your cake & eat it too" (or if you prefer, avoid burning the bridge behind you).

If you use Sony's official method, you will PERMANENTLY lose any functionality that requires the DRM keys, and Sony won't allow you to get it back, regenerate the keys, or otherwise undo it.

On a related note, the Z3 goes a step further than the Z2, and stores driver libraries used by the camera in protected storage that gets disabled by unlocking as well.


why won't my apps go to sd card I have a tablet that has little memory and I needed an sd card so I got one, but I still have 29 GB on the sd card and when I try to download an app it says insufficient memory because I ran out of room on my internal storage

Hey do you have selected your default write disk to your sd card in settings? If not go to settings>storage and select sd card in menu. Have you got root? If you have root, then you can move every application to sd card. Try titanium backup. And if you are on android 4.0+ then you cant just move all applications to sd card. Some apps are suggested to keep in internal storage for working correctly. Just download app2sd and move the movable apps to SD card.


Reinstall "Google Play services" I have deleted Google Play services on my Android cell phone. While trying to reinstall from google, I have "No Carrier Lenovo 860t) and can not install.
Please can you kindly help me on this, what is "no carrier" means and how to fix it ?
Thank you,

My phone : Lenovo 860t (China made)
Android 4.4.2 Kit Kat

Google Play Services has to be installed as a system application. Assuming you have properly uninstalled that application, you have to copy the .apk file back to where it should be (probably /system/app or /system/priv-app).

To that No Carrier thing: This just means that your device didn't send Google any Information about the carrier that you have and that you should use the normal, non carrier-specific store (There are different stores with some extra applications/different listings for specific countries and even carriers).


Travelhacks pop up ads I keep getting a Travelhacks pop up ad. Chrome just opens and the travelhacks site pops up then I get a video ad thing in my notification bar. Idk where its coming from or how to stop it from continuing. Does anyone have this problem or know how to stop it. I have an Android( marshmallow) lg stylo 2. Oh and lately my phone has been very slow and lagging a ton this all just started recently. Someone help please!!

This sounds like you have installed some AdWare on your phone. The best and easiest thing to get rid of that is factory resetting your phone.


How do I delete podcasts downloaded by podbean? As far as I can tell from looking at the settings, all I can do is listen to the podcasts, and then the program will delete them.  I'd prefer if it didn't download them unless I tell it to, and allow me to delete them when I'm done listening to them.  I have a Lenovo TAB3 with Android 6.0 Marshmallow on it.

I'd prefer if it didn't download them unless I tell it to...

Unless you click on the 3 dots (top right) to download, it won't. And you can remove downloads from same place

  .... allow me to delete them when I'm done listening to them

Settings → Disable Delete Played episodes

For more understanding on how the app works see this YouTube Video


How to color status bar and navigation bar I really like that my status bar and navigation bar have the same colour with a running software without rooting, because I don't like black navigation bar, is there any way? If it's impossible without rooting, how about through accessibility service?
My smartphone: Huawei Ascend G7- L11
Please reply
Yours truly

You can use this app to set the color of status bar through Accessibility Service :Color Status Bar

(Note: This app runs in background to enable the color.
And, this app will work only on devices running Android 5 or above..)

But to change the color of navigation bar, you need root access.

If your device is rooted, do the following to change navbar color:

Install Xposed Framework and Xposed Installer app.
Install "GravityBox" module (varies for different Android versions) and reboot.
Open GravityBox app, goto Navigation Bar Tweaks
Under Colors section, Enable Navbar Colors and set your desired color.


How do I diagnose a WiFi Error when the phone just reports "Unknown"? I have a Motorola Atrix (MB860) running Android 2.3.6.  Just today the Wi-Fi suddenly stopped working; On the Quick Settings display it just shows "Unknown", on the phone's Wi-Fi Settings display it just shows "Error" and Wi-Fi won't turn on.

I've tried turning it off and back on several times, and I've tried pulling the battery twice.  I have installed Log Collector, but looking through the log I can't see anything even remotely relevant.

Talking to AT&T (God love 'em) on a previous Wi-Fi issue several months ago, they just blew me off and said they don't help with Wi-Fi issues, so I am not confident in getting help from that direction. If I have my phone replaced, my company will force me to get an iPhone due to a new Apple-only company policy.  So I am on my own.

How might I go about diagnosing the problem?

Try to search for Google the appropriate Kernel for 2.3.6 (presumably you are running on 4.5.141 firmware). Then flash it. When I say "flash", I mean a flash by CWM. Good luck.


Flickr is always opened after unlocking the screen on Note 4 running Lollipop Recently I have updated my mobile phone to latest firmware (3G Hutchson). All went fine, but there is one annoying thing happens almost every time I'm unlocking my phone. For some reason it's trying to load some Flickr page, every time the same: http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/71393709@N06/7854822950

I'm not sure which application is causing it, but previously everything was fine and I have not installed any new app since update.

Is there a way to find out which app is causing it, as I'm not a Flickr user and not planing to download that app?

I had the same issue, my unlock setup was with the fingerprint reader and the lock screen had live wallpaper of the current weather. At the bottom of that is the "flickr" ad which links to the corresponding photo on Flickr. If you touch that with your finger somehow before swiping your print, it will open when you unlock your phone.

Two choices I found: Stop using the fingerprint reader or change the live wallpaper on the lock screen.


moving a contact to the bottom of the list I have a Galaxy Note 2 with CM 10.2 and gapps installed. I keep my contacts in Google and synchronize them to the phone. This works fine.

I would like to move selected contacts to the bottom of the list (usually service contacts which I want to have handy but "on the side")

In other words in my list of contacts I would like to move from

Adam Green
Bank
Claire Jones

to

Adam Green
Claire Jones
Bank

I tried to prefix Bank (in the example above) with various symbols (_, ~, |) but even though they are before or after normal lettres in ASCII, such entries always end up (grouped) at the top of the list.

Any idea how to move them to the bottom? (short of prefixing them with ZZZ)

I think special characters and numbers are grouped together, and would appear at the top when sorted alphabetically.

The way I'd order special contacts is just like what you suggested, prefixing them with z so they'd move to the bottom.


NTLM authorization proxy on Android Is it possible to run NTLM authorization proxy on Android? It is written in Python, and should provide proxy compatibility.

See also this question:

How to set HTTP proxy and proxy authentication credentials in wifi?

Not an answer to your question exactly, but it solves the main issue. I have coded a solution for this, you can download the apk on http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1083284. It uses a cntlm binary to process the authentication.


How to re-install updates to Google system apps? I have Android 4.2.2 on my phone. A few weeks ago Google Play was acting weird and would not install updates to some of the apps. I tried lots of things but nothings worked. Eventually I uninstalled the updates of Google Play Store (back to 3.10.10) and Google Play Services (to 1.0.15), thinking even if it didn't help I could reinstall the updates later. I was asked "Do you want to uninstall all updates to this android system app?" each time and I continued. Turned out it actually worked and I could install those apps that I could not install before. I decided to leave them as old versions since they seemed to work better.

Fast forward a few weeks, now there are some apps that give me errors when Google Play tries to update them. So I want to update Google Play Store and Google Play Services back to the original (and newer) version but I can't figure out how. Any suggestions as to how I can do this? Thank you.

I'm assuming your phone isn't rooted. If you know exactly what build/version you're after then do a quick Google search for 'Google Play Services XXX.apk' and manually install the later version over the top of your current one, and the same for the next one. They are available on aptoide, blackmart and other alternate stores.

If you get any packages error, or system error, I would suggest just do a reformat and reinstall all your content- it's generally quicker than scowering the net for the cause behind the issue.


Access root directory? Assuming that I am not able to start up my phone due to a file that is missing on the file system. Would it be possible to get to my phone's root directory on my computer and to place the missing file?

Maybe by using fastboot?

No.

If you have a custom recovery that supports adb / root, you can boot into it and use adb to remount /system as read-write and push the missing file over.  But otherwise you don't have access to most of the phone.


How much user-available memory do you need? How much user-available memory is needed in an android phone that runs Gingerbread and is likely to be upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich in order to be able to install and work with a reasonable number of apps.

Of course, the answer might differ depending on the usage profile of the specific user so 2-4 number ranges would be useful (e.g., light, typical, or heavy user).

How much more /data space does ICS need in comparison to GB?

Easy answer: The same.

3rd party installed apps need as much storage on both GB and ICS and maybe ICS' internal apps need a little more storage, but that's negligible. Most often it's just the user apps that grow bigger and bigger by time (with bigger devices. It's the same with bloated websites as connection speeds grow).

I have installed ICS on all of my current devices and can say that it's not a big difference. I typically need 400-800MB with some games (MaxPayne, GTA3, etc.) and consider myself a medium-to-power user (with number of apps installed).

Breakdown for my Nexus S: 650MB used
Internal stuff, summed up: around 100MB (after some usage time)
User installed apps+data: 550MB
Dalvik-Cache: 85MB (15MB for internal apps, 70MB for user apps)
App sizes: 350MB (15MB for internal updated apps, 335MB for user apps)
App data: 190MB (40MB for internal apps, 150MB for user apps)
Remaining: 25MB for the FS journal and misc random stuff

So I guess, you need around 80-100MB for the minimal stuff (maybe less) and on top of this all that you want to install.

I think the comfort zone starts at 250MB if you move apps to the sdcard and 500-750MB if you won't.


How do I keep my wi-fi on in sleep mode When I am downloading large files I need to stop my phone from sleeping , how do I keep my wi-fi on when the phone is in sleep mode.

Go to: Settings > Wireless & networks > Wi-Fi settings.

Hit your Menu button and select Advanced. You should now see an option for changing the Wi-Fi sleep policy.


Low-Level: How to copy appdata from android 4 kitkat to android 6 marshmellow I have android backups from my old (now dead) kitkat phone.
Trying to restore the appdata of two different apps from a backup I cannot run the app with the old database. I copy the files to /data/data/TLD.SOMETHING.APPDIRECORY, but when I open the app it crashes immediately.

At least one of the apps is the exact same version as before, as it has not been updated for years.
The access rights for the files are correct (user and group and -rw-------).
If I generate appdata on android 6 by renaming the old data and starting the app, the app does not crash and the newly generated files have the same access rights as the ones that I restored.

So the only reason I can think of is the format of the database. I think most likely the db format changed between android 4 and 6 and apps do only use an interface to the OS, which handles the actual db-access for the app.
"The OS" might be an OS-bundles SQLite provider or something else.
Is my assumption correct? What is the difference and how can I convert?

thank you!

GiantTree got this thing working. With his comment I found
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?s=08f8d78aabe88fb570ec1e59a37e71a8&p=67319237&postcount=3

Which does the trick. So you need to fix user, group, Unix rights and SELinux Security Context. Thanks for this quick reply!


Is there a facebook app that does not read your location? I've looked at a number of facebook apps, and it seems that they require permission to read my precise location. This includes Stream, Fast, Friendcaster, and the official facebook app. Can anyone recommend a Facebook app that does not require permission to read my location data?

These apps read your location for post location tagging, and there no apps that I no of that do not have the location permissions. There are some workarounds however:

Mobile Site

You could use http://m.facebook.com, which would only be able to gather IP based location, unless you allow it to access your location via the browser (this is easily denied, and an option will be displayed when it first attempts to access location - you can just select deny. This is in the Android browser).

Disable Location Services

Another alternative, is to just disable all location services in your settings menu prior to launching the app - the app can still get your location, but it would be very course (to about town level).

Deny Location Permissions to App(s)

If you're rooted, you can use an app such as permissions denied (paid app) to deny the apps the permission to access your location - be aware that the app may force close if it tries to do something it doesn't have permission to do.


How to get the one-line clock on the lockscreen back on my Xperia running Lollipop? I've just updated my Sony Xperia Z3 Compact to 5.0.2.

The clock on the lockscreen used to be like this:

but now it's stacked like this (two lines):

Is there a way to keep Lollipop but get the old one-line clock on the lockscreen back?

you can try long press clock in lockscreen, and you can choose one line clock and analog clock.


execve permission denied under /data I have met a weird problem on a Samsung Galaxy Note 2, running Android 4.3, with an origin-forgetton rooted rom.

getenforce returns "Permissive", so selinux is Permissive.
cat /proc/self/status returns CapBnd/CapEff/CapPrm ffffffffffffffff after su, so all the capabilities are granted.
su is from chainfire's SuperSU.

The syndrome is, after su any executable under /data calling execve() fails with EACCES.  BUT, execve() under /data is permitted by a normal user.

To demonstrate, all the following experiments are carried out after su. Compile the following program into a static linked binary, say execve.

# gcc -static execve.c -o execve

/* execve.c */

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>

int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  char *newargv[] = { NULL, "hello", "world", NULL };
  char *newenviron[] = { NULL };

  if (argc != 2) {
    fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s <file-to-exec>\n", argv[0]);
    exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
  }

  newargv[0] = argv[1];

  execve(argv[1], newargv, newenviron);
  perror("execve");   /* execve() only returns on error */
  exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}

Running "execve /system/bin/ls" should be equivalent to "ls hello world".

But if execve is put under any subdirectory of /data, "execve /system/bin/ls" results in "Permission Denied".

If execve is put into any of /, /system, /cache, /mnt/obb. execve() works.
Remounting /data with exactly the same mount options as /cache does not help.
Symlinking a subdirectory from /cache into /data containing execve works.

ln -s /cache/test /data/test # /data/test/execve works

And in reverse, execve does not work.

ln -s /cache/test1 /data/test1 # /cache/test1/execve Permission Denied
Bind mount /data to /bind. /bind/execve works, but /data/execve does not.

mount -o bind /data /bind

Conclusion: There is soming preventing any executables under /data from making execve() syscall.  The mechanism has nothing to do with the filesystem attributes, and symlink is dereferenced before the mechanism is applied.

Question: What mechanism in Android could give this strange behavior?

Reference:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=56264859&postcount=414

Samsung has some restrictions hardcoded directly into the kernel. These things differ per device, per kernel/firmware, and are a real drag to work with, or around. Try a different firmware.


Difference between two Rooting methods I bought a new XOLO Q700 last week, with Android jelly bean 4.2.1

I found out two ways to root the phone.

First, as per the instructions given in this website

[ROOT] Xolo Q700 Rooted before it hits the shelves!

  As quoted in the website...

  The process is really simple for rooting the phone:

  First what you need to do is download "MotoChopper" on your PC.
  Extract the .zip file  to a specific folder Install the USB drivers      using PdaNet+
  Enable USB Debugging mode on your device.
  For Windows  users, execute the "run.bat" inside the contents of the    extracted    archive. Be sure to run it as admin.
  For Linux or OS X users, execute “./run.sh” via terminal window.

  And its done! I have tested this method on windows and it is working.
  It will continuously repeat that adb server is outdated and it is
  killing it but don't worry about it, it will still continue...

  Follow the steps carefully in the terminal window. After the window
  closes itself REBOOT YOUR PHONE!!!

  To check if the phone is rooted correctly or not use, Root Checker
  Basic from the playstore, it should do your work

Second, is using the software UnlockRoot

  Though the second method is pretty simple, connect your phone and hit
  ROOT and UNROOT to revert

While the First method is a little more tedious.

So I would like to know what is the difference between  the two methods. Also which would be safer.

Since both sets of instructions you link to consist of running some closed-source software that interacts with your phone through the debug interface, only the authors of those programs can tell you precisely what they do.

As ce4 says in his comment, the one on the XDA-Developers website exploits a vulnerability: that is, a defect in the phone's software. The defect lets a program run as root on the phone, and this software uses that to install a program permanently so that it always runs as root.

The other software could be doing anything. If it works for your phone, it probably exploits the same vulnerability, but only the author can tell you for sure.


WiFi has no internet access...But it does! I'm writing this question while connected to a friend's WiFi, with mobile data turned off. But my phone says "connected, no internet access", and there's a ! by the WiFi indicator on the bar along the top of the screen.

I think android thinking there's no internet is stopping certain apps from working, where as others don't seem to care (and work).

Why is android thinking there's no internet when there is? Can I assure it that there is internet?! I'm on 6.0.1

"Connected, no internet access" means that the test that Android uses to check if there is Internet access is failing. The url or method used to test if Internet is working varies by Android version and on 6.0 it uses connectivitycheck.gstatic.com/generate_204 as the test. - Reference

"Internet" is just a network, if the routing, access, DNS resolution, etc. pieces are all there, the "Internet" is going to work... regardless if the test Android does to see if it is working fails or not, although you may have to specifically tell your device (via a pop-up toast prompt or setting in WiFi - Advanced) to stay connected to that WiFi network.

Why the test fails? Hard to say, but something in your friends network or their ISP is blocking the check your device makes to test if the Internet is working.


Other peoples photos in my camera uploads folder My Samsung Galaxy 3 android phone is linked to my Dropbox account so that photos I take on my phone are automatically uploaded to the Camera Uploads folder. Suddenly lots of strange photos have appeared in this folder and my photos aren't appearing.

These photos look like a family in the Middle East, I am in Europe.
My questions are:

who do I complain to - Dropbox, Samsung or Google/Android?
If I delete these unknown photos will someone else be losing their precious family photos
If I am seeing their photos who is seeing mine!?

Change the password on DropBox straight away.

Then move the photos into a folder in case anyone gets in touch.

Make sure that your new password is a strong one and not easily guessed.

Then let DropBox know what happened and what you've done.


Is there a way to sort apps by popularity (number of 'downloads') in the Google Play Store, or otherwise? Google's Play Store does not sort its 'Top' apps by number of downloads. This prevents you from discovering the true order of which apps people are downloading the most, making you often not know about useful apps whose numbers of downloads speak for themselves - yet are not promoted in the 'Top' lists on the Play Store.

It's as if Google is deliberately not allowing us to see which apps are actually used the most by people.

Is there some way I'm not noticing, nifty trick, or external site - whether on Android or the Desktop - to see rankings of Android apps by sheer download numbers?

There's not, and there are several reasons why this list would be bad for Android users:-

Every new app starts at zero downloads. Focusing on the number of downloads alone would keep old apps at the top of the list, even if they've stopped being updated, while making it much harder for new apps to take off. Even among apps that are all as popular as each other, the older one would always be higher in the list.
If a million people downloaded an app but uninstalled it right away, that means it's less likely to be good, not more likely. Using only number of downloads would give you the wrong information.
Free apps get more downloads than paid apps, because there's less risk: if it doesn't do what you want, or it doesn't work, or you just don't like it, you can uninstall it again. There's already a widespread feeling in the industry that only free apps can survive in the market, for this reason. This is what's led to the growth of apps with ads (and no option to pay to remove them), and microtransaction-based games. Making a list based on only downloads would further depress the sales of paid apps, driving the industry towards making more microtransaction-based games and apps.
Google Play already has a big problem with fake downloads, ratings, and reviews. Unscrupulous developers pay (say) $1 a time for a download with a five-star rating. The download might be performed by a user in an affiliate scheme (so he gets paid, or some other reward, for downloading the app) or using devices with malware. It's an arms race between Google finding these scams, and the unscrupulous agencies performing them. The fact that Google keeps the exact method it uses to decide which apps to show secret is its main tool in making the system hard-to-game. Having a list based on downloads alone would make fake-downloads more effective, which in turn makes the list even less useful, and would increase the value to hackers of compromised Android devices and Google accounts.

It seems you've already realised a little about these differences: in one part of your question, you ask about "number of downloads", then about "which apps people are downloading the most" (i.e. recently, not total number of downloads ever), and then later you want to know "which apps are actually used the most". These are all different quantities.

To come up with the right answer to all your questions, you need a number that's based on the number of downloads over time, weighted to take more recent popularity into account more, along with the "bounce rate" (how many users uninstall the app right away or after a single use), and users' ratings, also considering the statistical difference between free and paid apps. On top of this, it needs to discourage people gaming the system by not giving too much weight to any one parameter.

This is exactly what Google Play already does.


Reset PIN from adb shell I have forgotten the PIN of a device but I do have access to a root shell with adb shell and su

Is there some way I could remove the screen PIN lock or change it?

if your device is not encrypted with login credentials you can delete locksettings.db

adb shell su -c "rm /data/system/locksettings.db*"

However, bear in mind the following files are required for FBE encryption. If you delete these files you won't be able to decrypt userdata partition, all data is lost

/data/system/gatekeeper.password.key
/data/system/gatekeeper.pattern.key
/data/system/locksettings.db
/data/system/locksettings.db-shm
/data/system/locksettings.db-wal


How to use SD card as adoptable on LG K8 Lately I've bought LG K8 but it doesn't have much memory, so after installing few apps and updating stock apps there was about 1.5 GB remaining. Also I have an 16 GB SD card and I found that on android 6.0 SD could be used as adoptable storage so it becomes internal. I have two questions.
First: if I do that will I have more space for installing apps or I could use it just for media?
Second: how to make SD card become adoptable I searched for that option everywhere but couldn't find it, is it possible that I can't do that even I have android 6.0?

If someone wondering how to enable adoptable storage, here is how to CLICK

It says 'for galaxy s7 and s7 edge' but it works for every android 6+ phone


Android Chrome browser - how to make it always open to BLANK page? And new tab open to blank as well? When opening Chrome browser on Android (brand new Pixel 2 XL with no root or customization and with all latest updates), it goes to a cluttered page with the Google logo and a bunch of nonsense I'll never use. How do I get this to be BLANK when I open it, and that goes for new tabs as well?

Doesn't seem to be anyone out there who can answer this, so I'll post my workaround. Make a home screen shortcut to "about:blank". Using the Nova launcher, you can change the name to "Chrome" and the icon to be identical, and just use that to launch the app.

Unfortunately it still doesn't do anything for new tabs though. I mainly use Adblock Plus browser because Chrome is ridiculously notorious for pushing Google content, and will continue to do so until they add more options for control.


Nexus 5 stuck on boot when trying to update to Android 5.0 Lollipop I was trying to update to Android 5 using Nexus Root Toolkit. I clicked the "Start" on my Nexus 5 by mistake. Now, my phone stucks on the Google logo.

I tried to wipe and restore so I can start over, but the same thing happens; it stucks on Google logo. How to fix this?

I had the same issue. It turned out to be an issue with the rooted boot.img.
Try the option to flash stock rom with the 'soft brick/bootloop' option checked.
I now have lollipop working, but no root access yet. But this is better than a bricked phone...


Get new installed app name with Tasker I'm trying to set up the following Tasker project: when a new app is installed on one of my devices, send a notification to all the other devices with the name of the app. Ideally, if I find a functioning API, the task will query the API for the app link on the Play Store using the name.

Anyway, my question is: is it possible to get the new installed app name with Tasker? Or at least the package name.

Yes, of course it is possible. The easiest way is the native way, the way which Android apps use to know which app has been installed in the system. They get to know that information by listening to a  broadcast intent with action android.intent.action.PACKAGE_ADDED. The data it carries has the package name.

Provided that you've adb setup in PC, you can check this info on your own by installing a new app in your system followed by executing

adb shell dumpsys activity

Look for the string android.intent.action.PACKAGE_ADDED under Historical broadcasts [background]. Example:

#7: BroadcastRecord{426162e8 u0 android.intent.action.PACKAGE_ADDED}
    act=android.intent.action.PACKAGE_ADDED dat=package:de.defim.apk.protectedapps flg=0x8000010 (has extras)
    extras: Bundle[{android.intent.extra.UID=10150, android.intent.extra.user_handle=0}]

As for the Tasker, it allows listening to broadcasts as a trigger. Setup Tasker like this:

Profile: Event → System → Intent Received

Action: android.intent.action.PACKAGE_ADDED
Scheme: package
leave the rest untouched

Task: (Actions):

Variables → Variable Split

Name: %intent_data
Splitter: :

The package name would now be saved in the variable %intent_data2 (a local variable). Use it wherever you want.

In order to get the app label, you can either use Tasker's inbuilt functionality or use aapt (requires root access)

App → Test App:

Type: Package Name
Data: %intent_data2
Store Result In: %App_name

The app label can now be retrieved from the variable %App_name.

See Accessing Intent Data for more info on intent handling in Tasker.


ActiveSync/Exchange security policy On my HTC DNA I recently changed from the integrated ActiveSync client to Touchdown.  My corporate IT policy required a PIN to access the device when using the Android client.  Now that I switched to Touchdown, that is set to require a PIN, so I have to enter 2 PINs to read my email.

I removed my account from the Android app, but it seems to have retained the security policies.  Is there a way I can reset the security policies now that the account isn't using the integrated e-mail client?
 - Dave

I believe you want to go to Settings | Security | Device administrators and remove the appropriate entry.


mount: mounting /dev/block/vold/179:98 on /data/sdext2 failed: Device or resource busy When I open Link2SD, it asks to recreate mount scripts: I use ext4. After a reboot, when I open the linked application, it gets stuck and black screen till reboot.

I use ext4 as the 2nd partition, but it shows ext2 in Link2SD, and all my applications are now stuck.

mount: mounting /dev/block/vold/179:98 on /data/sdext2 failed: Device or resource busy

How to fix this?

check with mount the mount points for /dev/block/vold/179:98 . umount the according mount points to free the device. Beware there could be damage if you interrupt a writting process


Lowest Bluetooth audio volume is too loud I recently acquired a pair of Galaxy Buds to use with my Galaxy S10+. I am using them to listen to Spotify at work.  Everything is working fine except the lowest volume setting is a bit too loud. If I were to turn up the volume to 25% then it would be blasting.

I looked around in the system settings and the Galaxy Wear app settings but I don't see any option to adjust this.

Is there a way to decrease the overall Bluetooth audio volume so the lowest notch isn't so loud?

I was able to fix this by using the Samsung SoundAssistant app.

Install app from Google Play.
Go to Individual app volumes.
Add application.
Adjust volume for that app.


Stop using an app during work hours I need to avoid using a personal messaging application in my android phone during work time.
One way is to uninstall the app before work starts, and install again after the work time.
Or use some app blockers ?
Or... what else ?

Depends on your Android version. But go to Settings -->Apps--> Choose App-->Notifications-->And then chose option like Calls, Messages and so on.
I think that this is better than app blocker, becaose most app blockers will completly block apps and messages and this methond will only give you no notification and it takes 15 seconds.


Unbrick pixel device I accidentally flashed a Qualcomm rom to a Pixel device.
After which, neither does my device not boot and nor does power button work. It is most likely hard brick.

Running lsusb shows: "Qualcomm, Inc. Gobi Wireless Modem (QDL mode)"

Is there any solution to fix this issue?
Someone please help me out.

This is the script I ran to flash the rom.
Output printed during flash is available at here.

After some research on internet, I found this tutorial.
Now I am able to put device in EDL mode.
On a Windows machine, I could see device under COMMS as Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader 9008 (COM11).

What should I do next?

Yes. Qualcomm devices come with an Emergency Downloader EDL mode which helps to recover from a hardbrick. You need a Flashtool and Qualcomm EDL drivers. In order to access EDL mode, you need to use an EDL cable or short JTAG pins inside the phone.


Is there an XMPP (Jabber) client for Android that supports video calling? I have searched quite a bit but still javen't manged to find a general Jabber client that supports video calling. There are a few that support sending video files though.

No there is no federated XMPP Client for Android that supports video calling. Federated because there many proprietary XMPP Clients that do so, but they work only within their own network.

The reason because there is no such XMPP client is pretty simple: Jingle (the XEP which is used for XMPP video calling), is pretty new and most XMPP libraries don't support it yet. This is especially true for the most relevant XMPP library Smack (relevant because it's a Java library). Smack has some Jingle components, but the development on them stopped years ago and they don't seem up to date.

Update: Jingle development in Smack gained some traction in the last months.


How to disable mobile data for one of the sim I have a OnePlus 2 and have 2 sims in it. My question is how can I keep Mobile Data for SIM 1 on and off for SIM 2?

I have tried options in SIM and network settings but option to enable/ disable mobile data is in general setting and not in SIM specific settings.

There will be an option in Sim and Network settings mentioning "Default Sim for Internet". Choose the SIM 1


Why would an app ask for location permission when configuring an IP camera? Why would this android phone app for this IP camera need location services to be turned on before it gets set up?
Surely that's a security risk. If the camera company's database is ever hacked, an attacker would have both the exact location of the property and the means to view the property to see who was around!
Is there any technical reason why location is required for an app to set up an IP camera? (Another data point: The Google Home app also requires location permission to set up the Home Hub device).
Is it safe to turn on location services and allow the app to determine my location during setup of the camera?

No, there is no need for geo information to set up or connect to a IP cam. The risk is only in providing data to a company even if it doesn't need it, depending on how they will use it. It depends on the company...


How to create a home screen shortcut for a live streaming URL? Is it possible to create create a launcher icon that will start a certain streaming video URL in an app registered to the specific media type? (or offer the app chooser menu, in case there are multiple apps matching the content filter).

In my case it is a M3U playlist URL pointing to a DASH stream and I would like to open it directly in a default app for the content type (i.e. mxplayer).

I am aware that it is possible to create a launcher shortcut from Chrome or other browser via Add To Desktop option, but in this case tapping the launcher will open the web browser first and then will redirect to whichever app can handle the content type. Can this be done in a way that does not require a web browser?

In broader terms, the question is how to create a launcher to a URL or local file that can be tapped from the desktop and would open in whatever app(s) can handle the content type?

If you have a file manager (I use ES File Manager version 4.1.5.5) that can create shortcuts to the desktop, then it is possible to do what you ask.

From ES File Manager, press the file, select More.

Select Open As. A window appears with options. Choose either Audio or Video

A new window will appear with the options to select the app to open the file with. Select Set as the default app, then select your favorite app for playing the m3u streams. The app will open and play the stream. Close the streaming app.

Select again the file, click More followes by Add to Desktop.
A shortcut will be created; clicking it will open the stream using the app selected during step 3.


Note 2 update problems Hi I got my note 2 from Kuwait. I am currently working in India. The last update I did on my note 2 was android 4.1.2 . Now when I check for OTA updates for my note 2, it shows that latest updates have already been installed. How can I update my phone?  Thanks in advance.

Since you bought your phone from Kuwait, the phone has the Kuwait Galaxy Note 2 Rom, and still now the 4.3 update has not been pushed out in Kuwait or the middle east region for both the note 2 and s3. But for the Indian Rom 4.3 has already been pushed out for both the phones. My brother had the same problem with his s3 and since I have some knowledge in rooting and Rom flashing on an android phone I flashed it with the Indian Rom.

The suggestion I can give to you is wait for the update, when Samsung pushes out the update in Kuwait your phone will get updated.

If you know how to root or flash custom Rom on Android phone you can flash it with the Indian Rom just go and download the Rom from here http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/3/?download=25232
And follow the instructions.
For more information you can look here - http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/update-galaxy-note-2-lte-n7105-official-android-4-3-xxueml3-firmware-how-1429969
Just use the Rom from the sammobile site.

Remember if you don't know what I am talking about please don't try to do this you can brick(destroy) your phone for good.


How do I root Xperia ZQ_6025? How do I root this phone and any risk of losing Ltd for my region?

Check on xda-developers for your device. Search for root in Xperia zL/zQ forum. (Isn't Xperia zQ also known as xperia ZL in other parts?)

Rooting will void your warranty and in very rare cases can also brick your phone. Follow all instruction given very carefully.

Rooting probably will not affect Lte for your region.


what is my personal data storage as opposed to program storage  and how can I reduce it? I am using Android 2.2, samsung galaxy tablet.
When I look at task manager, summary it list 4 types of storage
1. program    mine is 1.1 / 1.5 gb full
2. personal data      59.35 / 81.26 megabytes
3. internal sd storage 10 / 12.8 gb
3. external sd storage 13.7 / 14.83 gb

It is 2. personal data that is giving me trouble. For many weeks it was over 70 Mb / 81.26 mb and I was getting warnings about my database storage being nearly full. At times the phone would slow down or crash, mp3s would not play smoothly and SMS couldn't be received. Clearing phone logs and texts and programs I didn't use much etc only helped for a very short while.

When I look at main menu, applications,  manage applications, running -
it says my calendar storage is 180 kb
contacts storage  0.98 MB
maps 10.49 mb
facebook 5.7 mb
yahoo mail 4 mb   Are these figures relevant?
The big one in this list is
media storage 53.0 mb   (I have much more than that in my internal SD storage in many small files, but deleting 4000 of them didn't change my personal data storage even after a reboot).

For the last few days my personal data storage has stayed just under 60 mb and is not giving problems,  but I'm not sure what is different this week and What does the personal data storage consist of and where is/was the main part of my problem coming from?
I also note that when I reboot the phone the media scanner runs and takes forever and slows the phone.  This last week I have just noticed that when it is nearly finished my personal data storage jumps to over 70 and I get warnings again. But it goes back to about 59/81 after a few minutes.
Is the amount of personal data storage I am using higher than usual ?
Thanks for any help.

Program storage is the amount of space taken up by the actual app, i.e. the APK size, personal data storage is the space taken up by your personal data. I.e. if you have a to-do list program it would likely create a database and all the to-do are added to the database which would take up personal data storage space.

The only way to reduce personal data storage is to clear the app data, but this will delete all your personal data for the app, i.e. settings and based on the example above all of your to-do's.

What I tend to do is go to settings > applications > manage applications and then go to the all tab. Then on the menu go to sort by size and clear some of the apps near the top that take the most amount of size that aren't a big deal if I lose the data. Google Maps is usually one that takes a lot of personal data storage space.

Hope this helps


LG-P990 (optimus 2x) with CyanogenMod 7 turns off suddenly and battery indicator goes straight from 100% to 0% I installed CM7 on my LG P990 five months ago and it worked well. Yesterday, I was watching a video on YouTube and my phone turned off suddenly. It didn't want to turn on, and then my battery dropped to 0%, even though it had been at 100% a minute earlier. I connected my P990 to a charger, and then my battery percentage indicator was at 100% again. Why? I hate when my phone turns off and black screen of death until I plug a charger in! I did a data wipe/hard reset the but problem is still there.

There are 2 possible problems and solutions:

Check and replace your battery. Leaving your phone on charging overnight can sometimes cause this problem.
Install CM7 again. This is the most probable problem/solution. Rooted apps or CM itself sometimes lead to this problem.

XDA also might have some of the solutions that you want.

Best of Luck.

PS: If you think that replacing your battery or installing CM again is too much of an effort, You might want to chuck your phone and buy a new one :-)


Turn on Nexus One without Power button My Google Nexus One has a broken power button. I'm using CyanogenMod-7.2.0-passion on it. I would like to configure trackball to turn on my device (after battery died or after changing the SIM or SD card).

Are there any ways to configure the trackball as the default power switch instead of power switch on top of the phone?

No, this isn't possible. Some CM versions allow you to use the trackball to turn the screen on, but there's no way to turn the device on from cold this way. When the device is off, Android isn't running, so nothing in Android can listen for a button press. The handling of the power button is much lower-level in the device firmware, and isn't available for users to change.


Android Jelly Bean help or user manual Can I get inline help with functionality in my Android device? For example, my good old Nokia had a help feature, with which after selecting an item for a few seconds, it used to display the description and purpose of the selected item.

If this is not possible, where can I find a Jelly Bean user manual or documentation?

When you first activate an Android phone, there is a short tutorial that walks you through the home screen, adding icons/widgets to the home screen, navigating the home screen, etc. On stock android, there is also a helpful widget on the homescreen.

For many phones, there is a small booklet (often called the manual) in the box when you purchase the device. These booklets can also be found online, for example some popular Android 4.0 devices: Galaxy Nexus user guide, or Galaxy S3, or HTC Incredible. You can find manuals for your device by browsing the manufacturer's website or googling for "(device name) manual" or "(device name) user guide".

Manufacturer websites also typically have a Knowledge Base, Support Center, etc. For instance, HTC Support Center for Desire X or Samsung Support for Galaxy Note.

Finally, there are also Android StackExchange and other Android-related forums which contain lots of helpful people willing to answer your questions. If you're still unclear on anything specific, ask away!


why can't we format bootloader code Some phones had locked bootloader.  As far i understand bootloader is a piece of code responsible to load the os. but that is still in the harddisk right?
so why can't we delete that code and put our own.

First, the definition of a bootloader (as described by Technopedia):

  A boot loader primarily manages and executes the boot sequence of a
  computer system. A boot loader program is typically started after the
  computer have finished performing the initial power. It fetches the OS
  kernel from the hard disk or any specified boot device within the boot
  sequence, into the main memory. A boot loader is associated with only
  a single operating system. An operating system can also have multiple
  boot loader programs classified as primary and secondary boot loaders,
  where a secondary boot loader might be larger and more capable than
  the primary boot loader.

On samsung devices you can enter into download mode and plug your phone into a pc and open up Samsung Odin 3 and flash a bootloader by selecting BL and the file

Also flashing bootloaders is EXTREAMLY RISKY. Flashing the worng or incompatable bootloader is worst than flasing a boot.img that wasnt meant for your device. It will result in A hard brick and its very rare to recover from that unless you have a Programmer JIG/JTAG

Also flashing items in a locked bootloader is very dangerous because theres 100% cHance of Bricking your device if you flash a custom item..

And a bootloader is programmed into a ROM chip it cannot be easily changed fomating. Its better for you to not interfare with your bootloader unless you want to unlock it and root or flash things to your device.. Custom roms are made with these 2 CRITICAL IMGs BOOT.IMG SYSTEM.IMG

Also theres no need to make a custom bootloader because almost every device has the same bootloader type but differ from code and compatibility