Choosing apps to load and remove from memory when using Android I'm not a programmer. And as far as I know, Android uses as much RAM as possible, loading as many apps as possible, so that launching / opening (or returning to them) is smoother.

My question is:

Is there any way to choose which applications I ALWAYS want to keep in memory, and which ones I NEVER want to have there?

For example:

WhatsApp is a very common app. I would always want it to be there. Google Maps is always open and occupying space. I barely use it, and I don't mind to waiting 5-10secs until it opens. It would be better to use that RAM for other apps, such as my browser.

Thanks in advance.

You can never "choose" per-se an app and dictate that the app will have that guaranteed amount of memory.

Sure, Google Maps consume space, but that's for the actual application, does not mean its hogging up memory, Android is pretty smart when it comes to memory management.

When you long press the home key, it shows the recent apps list, that does not mean they are all loaded at the same time. Android keeps track of which activities was shown and if necessary load them again, and once the pressure of RAM space hits a certain threshold, Android will boot them out to make room for other apps.

You cannot override Android's dictation of how and what application should be in RAM, just by a user's presumption that "this certain app should be there in memory and has guaranteed X amount of RAM, because I want it to"

Android is not Windows, where their Task Manager is available at all times via Ctrl+Alt+Del and zap away processes to "free up memory".. That mantra should be firmly repeated ad-nauseum! :)

As Ryan Conrad's statement in the comment, from the discussion arising out of the likes of RAM Boosters, Task Killers et al, this statement sums up exactly why the apps mentioned can have a negative effect on the battery, not to mention introducing instabilities into the system - It's CPU cycles that you should be more worried about than memory. WORD CPU cycles drains the battery regardless and as the commentator says Free Memory is wasted Memory. Let the OS handle it. It is better at doing it. It knows what memory can be freed safely without causing additional strain and drain on the device

Simples really :)


App with colorful 'C' icon on blue background and a Chinese name -- what is it? I just got a new Samsung Galaxy S3 for a family member (first "smart phone"). I have one myself, but this one has an app on it I can't identify (and isn't on my device), and which claims a LOT of privileges. It makes me nervous. This is what it looks like in the App manager:

(Click image to enlarge)

You can see why I would be mystified. What is this app? Do I want it? I think I don't, but might be convinced otherwise.

Okay, so I traced it back to mygyapp.com

But  your screenshot shows the name:

Well, based on my little search, the app in the screenshot is part of that site. That app or its mother, the site, seems to be some sort of app market. That's my educated guess. I searched the string 应用酷 on that site and came up with this app -- which is what you've in your screenshot:

The translation differs. One translation names it "Application of cool" and the other, "Applications cool". The product page shows:

(See original here; Bing translation)

More info:

App name: 应用酷
Package name: com.mgyapp.android
Permissions:

uses-permission: name='android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.INTERNET'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.ACCESS_WIFI_STATE'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.INSTALL_PACKAGES'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.DELETE_PACKAGES'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.GET_TASKS'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.KILL_BACKGROUND_PROCESSES'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.FORCE_STOP_PACKAGES'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.GET_PACKAGE_SIZE'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.DELETE_CACHE_FILES'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.CLEAR_APP_CACHE'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.READ_LOGS'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.WRITE_SETTINGS'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.READ_OWNER_DATA'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.WRITE_OWNER_DATA'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.ACCESS_CACHE_FILESYSTEM'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.WRITE_CONTACTS'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.READ_CONTACTS'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.READ_SMS'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.WRITE_SMS'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.SEND_SMS'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.WRITE_APN_SETTINGS'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.CHANGE_WIFI_STATE'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.SET_WALLPAPER'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.MOUNT_UNMOUNT_FILESYSTEMS'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.READ_CALL_LOG'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.WRITE_CALL_LOG'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.WAKE_LOCK'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.VIBRATE'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.CAMERA'
uses-permission: name='android.permission.FLASHLIGHT'
uses-permission: name='com.android.launcher.permission.INSTALL_SHORTCUT'
uses-permission: name='com.android.launcher.permission.UNINSTALL_SHORTCUT'
uses-permission: name='com.android.launcher.permission.READ_SETTINGS'

(I used the answer for Obtain package name AND common name of apps via ADB to obtain the aforesaid permissions.)

Simplified permissions:

(Click image to enlarge)

Not important to read.

How did I find all the info?

Fortunately, you provided a screenshot with good resolution so I separately cropped app's icon and name.
I extracted the name from the image using a website featuring online OCR.
I used the raw name into Google/Baidu search and there we go!

Of course, I did too many mistakes here and there.


"Storage Space Running Out" even though plenty of storage remains? I've got a Samsung Galaxy i9000 equiv(T959) that has recently been showing "Storage Space Running Out".  I have been running Cyanogen 10.1 for a couple of years without any problems, until now.  But I have 400M free on my system partition and 3G on my SD partition.

From other posts I have read, options include:

deleting all logs in /data/log
*#9900# and selecting delete dumpstack
using adb shell to delete everything in /data/log
moving apps to the SD partition

However my /data/log foler is empty! (checked with ES file explorer and even Terminal Emulator).  And I have 400M free on the system drive!

With 400M free on my system drive (confirmed both with DataUsage and Storage Use), I do not understand where these messages are coming from!  I've tried wiping davlik cache, but that has not made a difference either.

Everything I have read points to log files being the culprit, but nothing I have run seems to detect any log file taking up room.

In the meantime, I can't seem to use the gmail client/app anymore (unable to sync), so cannot send or receive email.

I know that this may seem like a duplicate question, but I cannot find any postings that deal with this issue when there is actually significant space left on the device (>25%!).

From Terminal:

df:
Filesystem       Size   used    Free
/dev             198.5M  32K    198.5M
/mnt/secure      198.5M  0K     198.5M
/mnt/asec        198.5M  0K     198.5M
/mnt/obb         198.5M  0K     198.5M
/cache           17.5M   2.3M   15.2M
/radio           16M     14.3M  1.7M
/datadata        422M    395.6M 26.4M
/system          393.7M  334.4M 59.3M
/data            1.5G    1.1G   396.9M
/efs             12.5M   5.9M   6.6M
/storage/sdcard0 13G     9.5G   3.5G

There are also some app-specific mount points that I don't believe have value to list here.

As Alexandar already pointed out, there are different partitions involved. The "400MB on your system partition" (actually, there's only ~ 300 MB free) have no effect here at all, as you cannot use them: /system is mounted read-only during normal operation, and mostly reserved for the OS and its core apps.

Let's walk your tree one by one:

/dev, /system, /efs, /cache, /radio: these are "special locations" used by the system, and not available (directly) to your apps and your data.
/mnt/secure, /mnt/asec, /mnt/obb: similarly.
/data and  /storage/sdcard0: your SD cards are not related to that error message.

  /datadata: here we go, this is the troublemaker: just 26.4M are free here. The error you're describing is triggered as soon as free space drops below 25 MB (or below 10% sometimes, which would be ~40 MB). No matter how much space is available elsewhere.

For actions to be taken, take a look at the insufficient-memory tag-wiki, which explains some more background and offers first-aid as well as links to related sources.


Apps do not exist on moving them to SD card on Tab-1030 I have a Tab-1030 Android tablet (Tab-1030) with Android 4.0.4

Whatever apps I move into the SD Card get deleted. The first occurrence happened when for some reason my tablet couldn't connect to the wi-fi and I couldn't access Google Play.

After that I restarted my tablet (it also took longer than usual to start up again) and when I tapped on one of my games, it announced that the app didn't exist. Looking deeper into it, all the apps (5 of them) that I moved into the SD card had no data. They were deleted!

The blank apps showed that they had cached data which was a lifesaver because after I re-downloaded the apps some memory of what I had done was saved.

From there I tried to not move any important apps to the SD card, but a few months later the same thing happened. This time it was because I mounted my phone's microSD card (16 GB). After I unmounted the microSD card, the few apps that I moved to the SD card had again been deleted.

Can someone, anyone help me out and explain to me why this happens?

You pretty much answered yourself: you move your apps to your SD card, then you unmount your SD card.

No SD card -> the apps in it are not there anymore -> Android considers they have been deleted.


Galaxy Nexus NFC Verizon Does the Galaxy Nexus have NFC on Verizon? I remember reading about the phone being delayed because competing carriers wanted to avoid Google Wallet and that some carriers had even disabled the NFC chip to avoid that.

But I don't know about the outcome of that situation.

Do all US versions of the Galaxy Nexus have NFC enabled?

The Verizon GNex has NFC, it just doesn't have Google Wallet pre-installed. It's pretty trivial to sideload it, though, and it's worked just fine the 2 times I used it.

Another thing to note here is that the NFC antenna is actually on the battery, not in the device itself. This means that if you get an extended battery you need to make sure it has an NFC antenna in it as well, otherwise it won't work.

The T-Mobile USA and Sprint versions haven't actually been released yet, so I guess there's no guarantee on those at this point. Sprint supported NFC and Google Wallet for the Nexus S 4G, though, so I can't imagine they'd stiff the GNex. For T-Mobile you could just get the existing GSM version and it should work fine since it's pentaband HSPA+ (it should work on AT&T for the same reason, though you wouldn't get their LTE service).


How use Escape, directional keys on the virtual keyboard? I recently bought Better Terminal Emulator Pro, and I like it, but how do I use the Escape key and directional keys? For instance, I'd like to switch between modes in vi or use the up and down arrows to cycle through my command history.

I have a Samsung Fascinate. No D-pad.

BTEP has a "Using Better Terminal Emulator Pro" page on their wiki which explains most of the special shortcuts and keys. The basic breakdown of what you're looking for is:

For directional input: Either use a keyboard that supports this or use BTEP's virtual direction pad feature. You can access it by tapping the screen when the keyboard is visible, long-pressing the screen when it isn't, or pressing the Search button. The cursor should change to a > character to indicate you're in VDP mode, and you can swipe your directional input (i.e. swipe up for the up key).

For ESC: This is usually mapped by default to the volume up key, but you can remap it to any of the available programmable shortcut keys. You can also press the Search button then press [, since Search is mapped to the control character on devices that lack a trackball or dpad (as well as activating VDP mode) and ^[ (CTRL-[) is the ESC character.


Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830M CyanogenMod 7.2: Google Play gives error 492 after factory reset I have a Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830M from Telcel, Mexico running CyanogenMod 7.2. Per a previous thread I managed to install Google Play from the Google Apps package from the CyanogenMod Wiki for CM 7.2 by explicitly mounting /system from ClockworkMod (since I was wrongfully assuming it mounted automatically) and already added my account to the phone, but now I can't download anything from Google Play due to error 492. I already did a factory reset from ClockworkMod and it didn't work.

This problem can be solved with the 492 Error fixer package from this thread here on XDA Developers. You just put it on the SD Card, reboot to ClockworkMod (which I'll assume you already know how to do), go to Install zip from sdcard, and install the fixer package.

Once you install it, you should be good to go.


Phone is Black After Logging In Late yesterday, my Nexus 6's battery died. When I charged it and turned it back on all seemed to be well. The start-up animation came on and I entered my "swipe code". The screen was black, but I didn't think anything of it until my alarm went off this morning. I was unable to turn it off because the screen was black and unresponsive. I held in the power button and the "Turn Off" Menu showed up so I restarted my phone. It did the same thing - starting animation, entered "swipe code" and then a black screen. I searched Google, and some people had success booting in "Safe Mode". That caused the same result with the exception of he words "Safe Mode" in the bottom left corner. I also tried booting without the SIM in and same result. I have called the phone and it does vibrate, but it is not responsive to answer. Is there some way to recover the phone without a factory reset? Just as an FYI, I am running the newest version of Android Marshmallow available for the Nexus 6 with the March Security patch.

Sounds like a software bug.

No real solution here, but a plan of attack toward discovery of the culprit(s).

Try to pull the battery, and restart. If the battery is non-yankable, it'll have to discharge fully to kill all processes. I usually expedite this by leaving it within reach of my neighbor's WiFi, where it exhausts itself trying to Connect...Connect...Connect.

Charge some, and restart, until the buggy situation becomes clear to you through experimentation, again. I say charge SOME, because if you charge fully, it'll require double patience to discharge again.

Let us know what you find out.
For myself - I believe this occurred when the Amazon Kindle app was trying to download books that I sent to the device via computer. It MAY HAVE STILL BEEN DOING SO WHEN I LEFT THE WIFI AREA (pure supposition). The first time did not occur to me, but the second time it did it (for a trip), and I recalled it happenned roughly similar to the first occurence. From now on, I'm careful to gauge full downloads while the device is awake, and Close the app fully. Hasn't recurred in a few months.


Can I use whatsapp with a number belonging to another phone I currently have a Samsung S5 phone but find it bulky to carry and as I use it mainly for old fashioned calls I was thinking of moving my simcard (and therefore phone number) to my old Motorola Razr.
I understand that the S5 will effectively become like a small tablet and the email will still work on the S5 but will whatsapp if I am using the number on another phone?
Will my whatsapp contacts notice any difference or will it work exactly as it currently does?
Thanks

Answer is 'Yes', you can use it on your S5 seamlessly while using SIM in another device.

• Your Whatsapp contacts doesn't see any change.

• Remember Whatsapp can only be use on single device at a time(not whatsapp web) that means if you try to open it in your Moto device than you Galaxy device 's account will be closed.


unlink () and rmdir() errors when running adb wipe command I'm trying to wipe my device using adb shell su -c wipe all, but when I run it I get the following errors:
unlink() error on '/system/vendor/res/images/dock/dock.png' 'Read-only file system' and
rmdir() error on '/system/vendor/res/images/dock' 'Read-only file system'
except very many of them for varying files and directories. Is there something I should do before running the wipe command?

thanks!

PS. This occurs on a Samsung Galaxy Nexus with a slightly customized 4.3 OS. I don't really have anything else to compare against, but doesn't seem like a hardware issue, therefore no samsung galaxy nexus tag.

As Izzy points out, /system is usually mounted read-only, because it contains the operating system itself. The only reason you're getting these errors is because you specifically asked the command to wipe both /system and /data: that's what the all means. If you actually did that, you'd have to reboot into recovery to reinstall the OS. If that's what you really want, you should first remount /system as read-only by running the following command in a root shell on the device:

mount -ro remount,rw /system

If you just want to wipe user data, to get an effect like a factory-reset for a clean slate for testing, then the command you need is wipe data.


ADB - Android emulator - Unable to record video - screenrecord not found with Android 5.11 I installed android emulator, the SDK Tools v24.1.2, Android v5.1.1.
After all this the emulator is UP and I am able to run my app.

Where I ran into problem was while trying to do a screenrecord using adb. It gives the following error:

$ adb shell screenrecord /sdcard/demo.mp4
/system/bin/sh: screenrecord: not found

I can see screencap under /system/bin but no screenrecord.

I have the below installed:

Android SDK Tools v24.1.2
Android SDK Platform Tools v22
Android SDK Build Tools v22.0.1
Android v5.1.1 SDK Platform
Google APIs Intel x86 System Image

Emulator is running for Nexus One.

I already found this question on SO and verified that I have required Android version.
What am I missing?

Based on the comments from Google in this bugtracker - emulator support of screenrecorder isn't going to happen in the near future due to hardware requirements/limitations.

https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=61682


How to run commands as root in Connectbot? My phone is rooted CM7 and Superuser.apk has Connectbot in the allowed list.  Titanium backup reports that it has root access, to prove that I actually have root working.  I seem to remember being able to run commands in Connectbot as root in the past.

But now, I go into Connectbot → Local, and try to run a command using sudo, and it just says "permission denied".  No pop-up or anything.   Same for the Terminal Emulator app.  How do I run commands as root?

The su binary works just like it does on Linux; it runs all commands that follow as root until you type exit (or terminate the process, etc.). sudo <command> essentially does:

su
<command>
exit

Android doesn't normally include sudo, so If you wish to launch commands like you would with sudo, the syntax is as follows:

su -c "[command_1;command_2;...;command_N]"

For example, to get a list of installed packages in "root" mode, you can either do

$ su
# pm list packages
# ........ <listing of packages scrolls down> ......
# exit

or

$ su -c "pm list packages;exit"


How to hard reset MI tablet when the volume down key and power key combination leads to fastboot screen I want to hard reset my MI tablet as I have forgotten the pattern and the developer options are also not turned on. By try all the key combinations, the fastboot screen comes up and the boot menu doesn't show up. Is there any way through which I could hard reset my tablet?

You can wipe the userdata partition  in Fastboot mode.

Connect the device to an USB cable. Install drivers if needed, you'll have to download them.

Download Minimal ADB and Fastboot (link 2), it a command-line utility. Open it and tape, the following:

fastboot -w (confirm by hitting ENTER)

The device shall reboot and all settings reset.


How do I use only fingerprint to unlock my phone? I got a Moto G4 Plus recently. It has a pretty fast fingerprint sensor. For my own reasons I don't want a secondary/backup(pattern/pin/etc) method to unlock my phone. I want to unlock it solely using my fingerprint. I'm ready to root it if needed. I know this comes with risks of being locked out of my phone or other emergencies, I'm ready for it. Does anyone have a way of achieving this?

That isn't possible.

Android encrypts a lot of your data when the phone turns off so no one can access your files. The key to that encryption, however, is the hard password you don't want to use. A fingerprint cannot be used a an encryption key because it is a system that has an error tolerance, and therefore does not work as an encryption key.

In other words, this is impossible under any circumstance. It's just how Android works.


Can we screen record without any android app in Android version 4.1? I search a lot on Play store but did not find any screen recorder app in play store which compatible on Android version 4.1

No it is not possible because in android 4.1
there is no such facilities have been provided


Connect Android phone to wifly board My team and i are trying to connect an android phone to a wifly board. We are having trouble getting this to connect. Can anyone verify certain phones that do not support this or do support this functionality and what we must do to be able to perform this connection? We have tried a few things and still not working. Please assist! Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated. If you need further information let me know.

Thanks in Advance!

I do not have rep to comment, is wifly a serial interface?

Second, this is a good place to ask that, I understood they were inviting developers here.

 Extra, after comment reply

As far as I have found there is no ability for serial from the android phones.

I have found sources where people mod the OS to support USB on the Go. Then you can be a USB host, which would suffice for me as usb to serial adapters are relatively easy to come by.

I am new to android and spend most my time on the Electronics and Robotics SO site, but I was interested in this feature.

 And More!

From prolink007

  Google is looking into adding this
  feature in a firmware release. For the
  time being we are just looking into
  rooting the phone and adding the
  feature that way. Our goal is to not
  have to root a phone for this feature
  to be enabled. If we can figure a way
  around this i will post here as soon
  as possible. I will keep this updated
  as we progress.


Is there a way to restore my Samsung Galaxy S3 (SCH-i747)? I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 (SCH-I747) that I tried to root using this video

Somehow something went horribly, horrible wrong and now I think I have hard bricked it.

My symptoms:

Phone does not turn on when you hold down the power button
Cannot get into boot loader / download mode (screen is always black)
My phone is now named "QHSUSB_DLOAD" in my explorer window

I obviously used odin to try to flash it and it didn't work. Will a JIG get me into download screen? At this point I just want to be able to restore the original build.

Is there anyway (besides sending it in and paying $60) to fix my phone? I have the file I need to flash a build, can someone please help me get back into boot loader / download mode?

I'm in the same boat man..all my research has led me to needing to jtag.  I ordered the download jig, new battery and charger.  Tried on several systems including xp to no avail.  I'll be sending it into Mobiletechrepairs on account of I'm sending in an old phone to cover the cost so I might be out of pocket for shipping.  Wish I was able to find someone local but most phone repair shops don't know what jtag is!  I'll let you know the turn around time and what condition my phone gets returned in.  Good luck.


Can the Dolphin browser be configured so that the toolbar doesnt scroll along with web pages? Can the Dolphin browser be configured so that the toolbar doesnt scroll along with web pages?

As you scroll down a web page the browser toolbar scrolls off the screen. Is there a means of fixing its position?

I guess the reason why you don't want the toolbar to scroll with the webpage is because you don't want to scroll up when you want to type a new address. I don't use Dolphin so I can't tell by first-hand experience, but according to this, you can double tap anywhere on the page to show the toolbar so you don't need to scroll up to type addresses.


About the android recovery mode Question 1: what's the android recovery mode? Does it run a full linux kernel?
Question 2: where the recovery.img is installed? (/somewhere_in_filesystem)

Recovery mode is used mainly by carriers/manufacturers for replacing bad firmware that causes the phone to be otherwise unbootable.  Users can install signed update.zip packages (such as OTA updates) through it as well.  It does not run a full Linux kernel.  Custom recovery modes such as Clockworkmod exist also, which allow more complex things such as full backup and restore of the device software and data.
I'm not sure where recovery.img is unpacked to, but you can let the system handle that by using the following: adb shell flash_image recovery <path-to-recovery-image>, where the path is normally something like /sdcard/custom_recovery.img (wherever you put the image)


Samsung Galaxy 2 stuck at start up. Can I recovery the phone or at least the data? My Samsung Galaxy 2 stuck every time when start up. It looks ok on the beginning, it shows "Samsung Galaxy S II ..." then change display to Vodafone logo then the shows word "samsung" and stuck here forever. It does not respond to any key after that. To shut it down I need to take the battery off.
My questions are if I can recovery the operational system or at least data from the phone.

I believe I have a similar problem and shall update this answer as I find more information.

What variant of Samsung Galaxy S II do you have?

These steps could help:

Fresh reboot by pulling battery, SIM card and any external SD card out for a while (some sources I have read say to wait over an hour).
Clear the cache partition (this is safe, no data loss):
Hold power, volume up and menu simultaneously to boot the phone into recovery (for Samsung).
Select wipe cache partition using the volume up and volume down keys, then press menu.
The boot-loop tag information contains further instructions.
Otherwise, this answer indicated that it should be possible to root the phone and recover data via the Android Debug Bridge (ADB): these instructions should work for the Samsung Galaxy S II GT-i9100 but I have not yet tried them.


Are there any tools to sandbox a malware application even more than the granted permissions on Android? Suppose I want to run some program which requests too many permissions. For example, record from the microphone or read IMEI of my phone. However, there are no practical explanation why recording from the mic or IMEI number is needed for this particular application, except for data mining.

I want to try this app, but restrict its permissions. For example, if it reads IMEI, it should get random IMEI (but the same every time). If it tries to read the mic, it should get silence.

Some other interesting permissions:

Phonebook read/write access -
returns zero contacts, pretend that
write is OK, but actually do
nothing.
Send SMS - pretend that SMS
is sent, but do nothing.
Get list of
visible Wi-Fi networks - return zero
networks.

Obviously the tool should require a rooted phone. Are there any such tools?

XPrivacyLua is a module for Xposed framework which does exactly what you need. It is free and open source. Works on rooted devices. It's the successor of XPrivacy.

Install Xposed from here:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=3034811

You can then download the XPrivacyLua module from the Xposed repo through the Xposed Manager app, or manually from here:

https://repo.xposed.info/module/eu.faircode.xlua

Source:

https://github.com/M66B/XPrivacyLua

If you're running Android 5 or lower, you can use the legacy XPrivacy module.


Copy/extract text on screen from any app? I'm wanting to be able to copy text from an app that does not support traditional android copy/paste methods. I've tried OCR methods, but the font that is used cannot be read by the OCR.

Obviously the android system understands what characters are typed on the screen, but how can this data be copied or exported?

I understand that this may required a rooted device, which is fine, I'm just curious as to how I would go about doing this.

Android 4.4.2

Thanks!

I've had much success with Google Goggles Android app.

Screenshot the screen, then share it to Google Goggles. You will get the text back.


Battery saving - WhatsApp My WhatsApp messages have been delayed and I believe it is because of the power saving being on. I want to keep it on because my battery drains, but WhatsApp does not seem to be in the unmonitored apps list. Is this normal or how do I resolve? I'm on a Galaxy S6

Go to the Settings app,
Go to Battery,
Tap the ... button in the upper-right corner,
Tap Battery Optimization,
Tap the Not Optimized drop-down and select All Apps.

Disabling battery optimization for a specific app

Locate the app you want to disable battery optimization for.
Tap the app in question.
From the popup, tap Don't optimize.
Tap DONE.

Enabling battery optimization for a specific app

Locate the app you want to enable battery optimization for.
Tap the app in question.
From the popup, tap Optimize.
Tap DONE.

Source: TechRepublic


Is there any way to move whats app from phone memory to sd card? I'm using a Samsung Galaxy fit GTS5670 running on Android 2.3.6. After installing Whatsapp Messenger of 13.36 MB, it was installed to phone memory. I got a total of 180 MB internal storage, and just 3.3 MB left.

Is there any way to move Whatsapp from phone memory to SDCard?

The newer Android versions already support moving the app from internal SD to an external. It should be in Settings->Applications->Manage Applications.


What is the best state to leave an Android device in? I have a Moto E phone. I use it as a tablet to run apps, not as a phone, so I do not always need to leave it on.

Is it more likely that the device will last longer if I shut it off whenever I am not using it? Or is it better for the hardware of a phone to leave it constantly on, in sleep mode?

And is it better to leave it constantly charging, or to only charge it whenever the battery is below 100%?

Looking at it from a battery point of view

Leaving the device in sleep mode is preferred , unless your usage is very infrequent
In addition, you can use Greenify (see greenify wiki) and Wake Lock Detector as explained here for unrooted devices
As far as ideal charging limits are concerned, you can see this and decide what suits you best Ideal charging / discharging percentage for maximum battery life?
Also see Does constant charging harm my Android cellphone?
Switcing off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

Once your battery consumption is taken care off,  there isn't any concern in leaving it switched on in sleep mode


Use bluetooth keyboard with a different layout? I'm Italian, so I use italian language on my tablet (note 10.1), but I have also a bluetooth keyboard with english layout that I use to write little snippets of programmes, the problem is that I don't know how to set english language only for the keyboard. Can someone help me to solve this problem?

You need to install physical keyboard layouts.
One of the best extensions to do that is this:

RS - Hardware Keyboard Layouts

It is free, and does nothing else. You use the standard settings page to select the hardware keyboard layout.

(It is mystery why Google does not provide the layout files by default.)


Samsung Note 1 mystery SMS notification Every time I get a text message, my phone rings an irritating notification that I can't figure out how to disable. It's not the one that I set the notification to in the settings menu. I disabled any secondary SMS apps I downloaded (Go SMS).

Can someone give me any ideas?

Notifications for SMS can be set from two places:

The general configuration from Settings > Sound, where you can set the default notification sound.
From the messaging app itself, Settings > Notification settings, where you can set it to use the default value defined in point 1 or you can define another value.

Check both places to configure the notification you want. Also if you have any third party apps, despite being disabled they might still mess with the notification alerts. I would suggest to uninstall them while you check your notification sound settings and the reinstall them afterwards if you want to use them again.


How to avoid black screen on call? I have an Xiaomi Mi Max which for some reason stopped the proximity sensor at 0 and this means I get black screen on every call (Whatsapp calls in particular) and I cannot do anything but restart. The phone is rooted and I wish to find a way to use my phone otherwise I have to probably throw it away as the sensor itself cannot be found in my country.
Is there any trick or application which can help me disable or otherwise set the proximity sensor to a number that it doesn't bug me?

Download and install xposed framework then download sensor disabler..
Sensor Disabler (previously known as Disable Proximity) allows you to disable and modify the values for all the sensors available in your phone, including the proximity sensor!
Simple as that!!
Hope it helps (^-^)


Why do i get "Insufficient storage" when the so called "usb storage" is almost empty? Samsung Galaxy S2 is the model
I get no free space error msg when i try to install application from Google Play.
So i navigate to Settings->Storage and i see 3 sections:

Device memory - 200MB Free
USB Storage - 11.1GB FREE
SD Card - 413MB FREE

Why cant the phone install it on the usb storage?

External application cant install on usb memory as it is a external memory of your phone so you have to empty your phone memory stuff which may be songs, pics or the items which can store on external memory so that your application will install. or simply unistall the unwanted applications. It will help you to free internal memory


Show Notifications missing in app settings I'm trying to disable app notification for a particular app. The usual method is to go to System > Apps > click on the app > uncheck the "show notifications" checkbox.

The problem is, this checkbox doesn't appear for this app, or for any of the random apps that I sampled which are installed on my phone (eg. GMail).

Am I missing something? I'm running a Samsung Galaxy (SGH-S730M) with Android 4.0.4. I found instructions (with screenshots) that look like they date back to Android OS 2.x or 1.6.

The feature isn't present in Android 4.0.4: it was added in 4.1.


How to change lock screen on a phone like it is on a Kindle Fire? Possible Duplicate:
  How can I get a random image on my lockscreen?

Everytime the user turns on the Kindle Fire, the lockscreen of the device presents a different background. (Of course it cycles trough a list of pictures and later it repeats itself) I'd like to achieve this behaviour on my phone. I'm not interested in the way of the unlock. I just want that custom pictures appear in the background of the lockscreen if I turn on the screen.

You don't need root access to change lock screen of your phone. Kindle Fire's type of lock screen is called Sliding Tab or Slider. I'm not sure if it's possible to use exactly the same lock screen but you can experiment with applications on Play Store.


Minimal Internet usage on an Android phone I am considering buying an Android phone and hence the question about Internet usage. How much Internet bandwidth can I expect to use if I want to enable syncing of contacts, calendar, email, etc. (assume e.g. I receive 10 short textual emails per day) I am going to need?

Is it possible to automatically connect to WPA protected Wifi's, and do all the syncing only when Wifi is available (hence not use 3G internet at all)?

I will use it in a free country (UK atm)

Depends entirely on how many contacts you have, how often they change, how often you set it to sync, etc.  Paying for data as you go is generally a bad idea with an Android phone, they use a lot.

You should be able to shut off 3G though (probably dependent on the phone) and just use WiFi.  Although, it might be more difficult to prevent it from using 2G data.  Some phones let you use WiFi while the phone is in Airplane mode, which would shut off both 3G and 2G.  Android has the ability to store WiFi credentials and connect automatically.


Is there anyway to speed up or replace the Sense UI dialer? I have a droid eris running android 2.1...the dialer for it is awful.  I dont know why they chose to put the end call button and send call button in the exact same area.  It is also very laggy.  Sometimes I will try to call someone and the send button gets hit twice which will initiate the call and then end it immediately.  Is there anyway to speed up or replace the Sense UI dialer?

Note:  I do not wish to completely remove my sense ui...only the dialer.

There are quite a few replacement dialer apps in the market - just search for 'Dialer'.

There are quite a few, both paid and free.  I've only tried one (Dialer One) just to confirm that it can indeed replace the default dialer, but I don't think it's sensible to go into any particular dialer's merits here.


can't find executable installation file in droid explorer folder so how do I install on windows 10 please I am new to droid explorer, I wish to install it on my windows 10 system
I downloaded the software from this link https://github.com/camalot/droidexplorer.
I need a step by step guide on how to install the software itself as I can't find an executable installation file.
Thanks for your help in advance.

GitHub is mainly for developers, therefore the main view shows the source code repository. On GitHub the binary files are usually available in the "releases" section of each project.

https://github.com/camalot/droidexplorer/releases

In this page you can finde the ZIPed version of the DroidExplorer installer.


What do the two different colors mean in the Data Usage graph? The Google Dialer app consumed all my data in the background for reasons unbeknownst to me on my Nexus 5. I restarted my phone in safe mode. When I went to check the app data usage again (just to make sure I wasn't crazy), I saw the following:

Notice the two different colors: one a light green, the other a dark green. Why are there two different colors, and what do the colors mean?

The data usage graphs for other apps also have these different colors, so it's not just this graph that's showing like this. I assume there must be some meaning to the shading.

The dark green is the data used by the specific app you are viewing (in this case, the Dialer). The light green is total data usage within the period, by all apps.

The idea is that it allows you to visualize how much data a given app has used relative to your total usage.


HTC One - keeps shutting down when rooting Im rooting my phone (HTC One Alps) via Kingo Android Root. When i connect my phone to the computer and start rooting then phone shutdown itself.

Is there any partition or disk problem?

If reboot:
This is just part of the process of rooting on some devices and some devices it won't do this.

If shut down:
It means the root is installed on your phone and the rooting process is finished.

Hope this helps


Locating Win10 driver Is it true that "the Google USB Driver is located in android_sdk\extras\google\usb_driver."`

Because I have none and I have installed Android Studio.

Is it true that "the Google USB Driver is located in
  android_sdk\extras\google\usb_driver."

Yes that's the default location where the downloaded google usb drivers are located.

If you can't find them, then it may be that these were not downloaded in the first place. Be sure to download them through the sdk manager interface.

Alternatively you can always download the appropriate OEM driver manually from the website and extract them to the default folder.

Installing the USB driver

Connect your Android-powered device to your computer's USB port.
Press the WIN Key +  X buttons and select device manager
In the Device Manager right pane, locate the device
and right-click the name of the device you connected, and then select Update Driver Software.
In the Hardware Update wizard, select Browse my computer for driver software and click Next.
Click Browse and then locate the USB driver folder. You can also select the option; Let me pick from from a list of device drivers on my computer then browse for the driver. e.g, the Google USB Driver is located in android_sdk\extras\google\usb_driver\.
Click Next to install the driver.


Can I have different default phone numbers for different actions? Take a contact which has several phone numbers... say Home, Mobile and Work. When I click the QuickContact action to text them, it asks me which number... so I select Mobile. Now, I'd like to set this as default... because I always text them on their mobile. Problem is, when I do this, it ALSO sets it as the default phone for ACTION==CALL, which I do NOT want, as I regularly call them on all three numbers.

Is there any way to set a default number for texting while NOT having a default for calling, so that it will still prompt me to pick a number when I click QuickContact.Call?

I don't think you can set separate default numbers.  However what you could do is set a shortcut to message that contact and leave the default number empty so it can prompt you when you call.  To set a message shortcut: long press on the Home-screen, select "Shortcut", then select "Direct Message".  This will launch your default messaging app to send a message to that contact to whichever number you set when you create the shortcut.

Hope this helps


Can someone please help me understand this Linux command? dmsetup create crypt1 --table "0 `blockdev --getsize /dev/sdb2` crypt aes-cbc-essiv:sha256 <Put the 16-byte hex key here> 0 /dev/sdb2 0"

I got it from step 6 of the first answer here.
I am trying to view the files on an android adopted SD card.
The card suddenly stopped working on my phone and I'm now trying to retrieve my files before I press on "forget" to unmount it from my phone and go back to using my phone normally on it's Internal memory.

`blockdev --getsize /dev/sdb2` (in backticks) is a command to get partition size, where /dev/sdb2 is the (encrypted) partition and most likely has a different name on your pc
<Put the 16-byte hex key here> is a placeholder for the real encryption key you have previously extracted from /data/misc/vold
dmsetup create crypt1 is the actually command to decrypt /dev/sdb2
when successfull a new (decrypted) block device /dev/mapper/crypt1 (ext4) will created
Note: root permissions required. open root shell with sudo -i before running this Linux command


Sony Xperia L device memory is being eaten up My phone's /data storage is getting fuller all by itself even though I have not installed much apps. By doing some search on net have found that there are folders under Data folder such as tombstones, thumbnails etc. which are taking up the space but which are not accessible without rooting. I want to clear up this space without rooting the device.

My device is a Sony Xperia L running Android 4.1.3 Jelly Bean)

It needn't necessarily be tombstones and thumbnails that takes up your phone's data storage.

Normal app usage (mostly browser cache, etc.) also consumes space over time.

Have a look at

Settings->App->All apps

then via menu let them Sort by size to see the biggest storage consumers.

E.g. my phone's biggest consumer is Chrome (123MB data, 280MB cache):

.


Why does my phone keep getting stuck when performing a backup? I have rooted my phone and currently have an older version of Cyanogen mod on my Sprint HTC Hero.  When I try to perform a backup using Rom Manager, the phone tries to reboot, but it never finishes booting.  Any ideas what is causing that and how I can back up my phone in order to upgrade to the latest version of Cyanogen?

Go to Rom Manager and flash an older version of clockwork recovery.  Then flash the latest version of it.  Does that help?

Otherwise: do you get any sort of error messages?


How to logout from Skype to relogin under other name? How to logout from Skype to relogin under other name?

I mean skype for pad-sized computers.

If I press avatar, then I have "exit" entry at the bottom. But if I click this entry, then Skype just closes. If I open it again, then it enters under old name again.

I want to logout so that it ask password.

Is it possible?

Click on the avatar button on the top right of the app. Once you click there click on the option menu (three vertical dots) and click on sign out.
It works pretty much the same for every single Skype UI (iOS and Windows client).


Can you use a screenshot of the "export accounts" QR Code of Google Authenticator as a backup? In the Authenticator app you can hit transfer accounts -> Export Accounts. It will present with you a QR Code.
What exactly is this QR Code? Can it be used to backup Google Authenticator?
I am looking to hard reset my phone and I am looking for a way to backup and restore Authenticator.

The QR code contains all your private keys for generating the 2fa login code for each of the accounts you chose to export, so yes you can use it to backup and transfer to a new device. I would test that the screen shot works properly, and be very careful with the screen shot backup.
You can even extract the actual private keys from the QR code, i.e. with this script, https://scito.ch/content/extract-secret-keys-google-authenticator-qr-export


Tab stays on 216mhz instead of Deep Sleep I am using Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and I have installed Cpu SPY. I have noticed that when I leave the tab in the night, WiFi OFF, flight mode on, it does not go to Deep Sleep but stays on 216Mhz.
I guess it is an app or something, however I do not know how to investigate this.

I run 4.0.4 stock, rooted.

What can I do to have the device on Deep Sleep the time that it stays on 216Mhz?

To have your device in Deep Sleep, you need to find out what applications are running and causing a wakelock that doesn't let the CPU go bellow 216MHz, thus preventing the device from entering into Deep Sleep mode.

I can recommend BetterBatteryStats by Sven Knispel available from Google Play Store:

  A high battery drain is often a limiting factor for a great user experience.
  With BetterBatteryStats you can analyse the behavior of your phone, find applications causing the phone to drain battery while it is supposed to be asleep and measure the effect of corrective actions:

  Spot drainers based on detailed information about the root cause
  Use the online Knowledge-Base to find how to reduce or remove the wakelocks
  measure the effect of actions to reduce drain
  detect changes in the awake/sleep profile and quickly find the causes (rogue apps)

  In other words BetterBatteryStats helps you to get the best out of your Android smartphone.

After finding out the applications that are causing your problem. Don't forget to disable BetterBatteryStats.


Smaller "Turn off all sounds" widget My OS version is 4.1.2.

I'm currently using the "Turn off all sound" 2x1 widget on my home screen, but I feel it is too big. I'm looking for a widget that is 1x1 and has the same functionality: mute all (or as many as possible) sounds and leaves vibration notifications on.

You could try Elixir 2. It lets you add different kinds of toggle widgets, including mute widgets.


Twitter widget appears to be broken: "Application not installed" I'm having trouble with the Twitter app on my Samsung Galaxy S4. The widget was misbehaving, so I thought I would remove it from my homescreen and put it back. What has happened instead is that the widget refuses to come back. Whenever I try to place it, it will simply say "Application not installed."

I've tried the following:

Reboot my phone
Reinstall the Twitter app
Clear the app's cache and data
Remove the MicroSD card, reinstall, and attempt to use the widget
Several combinations of the above.

Can someone help me figure out what is going wrong here? I realize this is probably a silly question

I had a similar problem with another app (not Twitter) I went into my app manager and saw that the app was installed on my "External Storage" even if I never moved it there. I moved it back to the Internal Storage and it was fixed. My card was already fine to begin with but for some reason, the widget didn't like it.
Anyway, I never recommend putting apps on the SD card, it slowed my S3 to a crawl. Keep it for media and docs.


"Account unlock" when not connected to internet? I have a Samsung Galaxy Y mobile phone. I see this screen when I press "Forgot Password" in the pattern lock screen that comes by default with the phone:

My Question is: How would my account be unlocked when
(i) "Wifi" is turned off and
(ii) "Packet Data" is disabled?

Search and download Unlocker or Screen Lock Bypass app from internet (which are no longer available in Play Store).
Push it to the system from recovery (with update.zip).
Start the system.


How to transfer huge files between Android phones only with ES File Explorer and Wi-Fi? I have few HD movies each occupying around 1Gb to be transferred from one Android phone to another.  I've read the question How to transfer files over Wi-Fi without a hotspot and its answers. Even before reading the question, I explored transferring one of the above said movie file from my LGP500 to my Nexus 7 (2012) successfully using ES Explorer and Wi-Fi.

Now at my work, I am trying to do the same to my friend's Micromax A110 and all my efforts goes vain. I tired to make Micromax A110 to host a random Wi-Fi network and I join my LGP500 to it before transfer. After selecting the file and choosing Send option, the upcoming UI just shows scanning... and a progress bar goes on and on. There are no visibility settings like Bluetooth in Wi-Fi transfer mode.

I tried the reverse the connection and again it failed.

I am bit puzzled and think I am missing something obvious.  Can someone help by providing a step by step guide to transfer files between two Android devices with ES File explorer using Wi-Fi?

I am sticking with Wi-Fi because the transfer rate was too good. I saw near to 10 MB/s. And I do not want to install other apps as I find ES File explorer available with many of my friends.

Some trivia:

My LG P500 is rooted and runs stock v2.3.3
My Nexus 7 is rooted and runs stock v4.3
My friend's A110 is not rooted and runs stock 4.0.1
Size of the file that I transferred successfully is 600Mb and face
failure on the same file.

If Es File Explorer doesnt work, I suggest that you use SuperBeam: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.majedev.superbeam

It uses Wifi Direct Technology to transfer files at wifi speeds, and the wifi direct connection is initialized by scanning a qr code generated by the app of by touching them together with nfc on.  You can "Share" the file with Superbeam and opening the app starts the reciever end of the communication


How do I get my device detected by ADB on Linux? I just got my shiny new Wileyfox Swift – and before putting it to use I want to oem unlock and root it (as I usually do with new devices ;) Trouble is, though usb-debugging is enabled on the device, and a corresponding line in /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules exists, the device is not seen by adb devices.

I know there are several answers scattered around this site, but they are either hard to find, just cover a specific device, or don't cover all steps I finally needed. So I take this as a chance for a canonical, device-independent question and give it a detailed answer below:

How can I get my Android device seen and used by adb on Linux?

Enable USB debugging on the device

This is done in Settings › Development. If you don't have that entry in your settings menu, go to Settings › About, scroll to the "Build number", and hammer it like a monkey until your device congratulates you having become a developer. Go back to the main page of the Settings menu, and close to the bottom you should see the "Development" (or "Developers") settings now. Enter it, and enable USB Debugging here.

Identify the device

First we need to know how the device identifies on the USB bus. For that, with the Android device NOT connected, grab a shell and run the command lsusb. Then connect the device and run the command again. Spot the new line. For the Wileyfox Swift this is a "nameless device":

Bus 004 Device 003: ID 2970:2282

Setting up the rules for ADB

We now need the numbers at the end of the above line: 2970:2282. These specify the vendor (2970) and the device itself (2282). Having those details, we need a root shell on our Linux machine to edit (or create, if it doesn't yet exist) the /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules file. In there, add a line for your device. Following example line shows how it looks for the Wileyfox Swift:¹

SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="2970", ATTRS{idProduct}=="2282", MODE="0666" GROUP="androiddev", SYMLINK+="android%n"

If you have a different device, replace the vendor and product IDs with what you've found above when running lsusb. A short explanation of the line:

SUBSYSTEMS=="usb": obviously this rule is for USB only ;)
ATTRS{idVendor}=="2970": the vendor ID of the device this rule is for
ATTRS{idProduct}=="2282": the device ID
MODE="0666": permissions the device node shall get. 0666 is quite lax, giving every user on your system read and write permission – so if you're concerned, you might try replacing that with a 0660 (giving only owner and group read-write, and deny everything to others).
GROUP="androiddev": which group the device node should belong to. This should be a group the users intended to work with the device belong to.
SYMLINK+="android%n": just to give the node a nice name, so you can find it easier in /dev (in my case, it later showed up there as /dev/android5)

That rule entered in /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules, we must tell udev to make use of it. Safest way (next to a reboot ;) is restarting the udev service. Depending on your Linux distro, this can be done either via service udev restart or /etc/init.d/udev restart.

Done that, leave the root shell. Disconnect and reconnect your Android device, try adb devices again. Most devices showed up now, but not the Wileyfox Swift – which obviously wants some extra cuddles. If you're in that situation, open (or create if it doesn't exist) the file ~/.android/adb_usb.ini and add a single line to it, naming the vendor you've found out with lsusb above; for the Swift that would be 0x2970 (yupp, here you need to prefix it by 0x to point out it's a hexadecimal number). Then restart the ADB server: adb kill-server && adb start-server. Disconnect and reconnect the device again. Now adb devices should see it.

Connecting the device

You might have noticed adb devices told you something like 0123456789ABCDEF  unauthorized. That's OK and for your (devices) safety: your computer must be authorized first to be able to access the device. So simply issue adb shell now – which will be quit with an error: device unauthorized. Please check the confirmation dialog on your device. Follow that advice (optionally mark the check-box to permanently authorize your computer), and you're done: Now you can use adb to access your device.

Updates:

¹ Note that in later Linux versions, syntax for the UDEV rules has slightly changed, as e.g. jcomeau_ictx pointed out in his comment. For the values we found above that would be:

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="2970", ATTR{idProduct}=="2282", MODE="0666", GROUP="plugdev", SYMLINK+="android%n"

Two differences: it's now SUBSYSTEM (no plural), and the group has changed from androiddev to plugdev (the former does not exist on recent systems, the latter does and usually is assigned at least to the first user).

Additionally, you might need to add the vendorID to your ~/.android/adb_usb.ini (one ID per line, in hex notation):

# ANDROID 3RD PARTY USB VENDOR ID LIST
# 1 USB VENDOR ID PER LINE.
0x2970


Which Android runs which Linux kernel? Is there a list of which kernel version comes in each Android AOSP version?

Or lets say, which version /proc/version would spit out.


How to connect two phones via SSH with a central SSH server? I have two phones A and B which use Mobile Data. I would like to connect from phone A to phone B, the later has an SSH server running on port 8022. The central SSH server is running on AWS and has an Elastic IP.
Phone A can connect to AWS Server directly at port 22, so can phone B.

AWS Server configuration:

GatewayPorts yes
TCP forward yes
Password Authentication Yes

Further I have forwarded port 9099 on AWS SSH server to local port 8022 on phone B:

~$ ssh -NR 9099:localhost:8022 user@Remoteip

By running netstat -tpln on AWS SSH server I can see that 9099 is in listening mode.

But when I ssh from phone A into AWS server at port 9099 it says timed out.

What I have understood from your question:

You have two phones A and B, which are connected to internet through Mobile Data. Phone B has a SSH server running, listening on port 8022. You want to login from phone A to phone B, but since the later doesn't have a public IP, you want to create a reverse SSH tunnel from phone B to another SSH server running on AWS cloud, listening on port 22. In this way you want that all traffic received on port 9099 on AWS SSH server should be forwarded to port 8022 on phone B, so that phone A can access it on internet.

If I understood correctly, the simplest thing you have to do is:

On AWS run a SSH server, which is listening on port 22. Since you are able to login to this server from both phones A and B, I think you have done it correctly. Let's say your login user here is server_user and IP address is server_ip.

You need two additional keywords in /etc/ssh/sshd_config, should look like this exactly (no extra spaces):

# /etc/ssh/sshd_config

AllowTcpForwarding yes
GatewayPorts yes

After changing configuration, don't forget to restart server.

First parameter ensures that port forwarding is allowed i.e. you'll be able to create tunnel.
Second parameter ensures that the reverse tunnel will listen on all network interfaces, and not only the local (loopback) interface on AWS server.

On phone B run a SSH server, which is listening on port 8022, let's say your login userame is phone_user (Termux's SSHD requires no username).

Do test if you can login to this server. For instance create hotspot on phone A or B or connect both to some third WiFi network. Now login from phone A to phone B. If it doesn't work, troubleshoot the problem, most likely with password / key authentication.
On phone B create a reverse tunnel i.e. forward AWS SSH server's port 9099 to phone B's (local) port 8022:

~$ ssh -NR 9099:localhost:8022 server_user@server_ip

This can be done on Termux or use some GUI app like ConnectBot.

To test if the the tunnel works correctly, on AWS server:

~$ ssh phone_user@localhost -p 9099

It should login you to phone B.
On phone A, login to phone B through AWS SSH server:

~$ ssh phone_user@server_ip -p 9099

If it doesn't work, repeat the steps.

RELATED:

How to connect to Android through SSH over 3G/4G public IP?
How to run SSH/SFTP server for multiple user logins with password authentication on Android?


Why is Android rooting not as fragmented as iOS jailbreaking? For Android rooting these days, it appears that Magisk is dominant, though there are some alternatives mostly for older versions of Android, e.g., CF-Auto-Root.
However, in iOS, there appear to be more options, e.g., checkra1n, unc0ver, and Chimera for iOS 12 and up (with specific exclusions), and a number of other jailbreaks for older versions of iOS.
Am wondering why this is the case? It seems that Android rooting is more narrowly focused on providing admin privileges, whereas iOS jailbreaks also bypass locked bootloader (Android phones typically just allow users to unlock the bootloader), and sideload apps, besides the admin privileges. So, one might expect there to be more alternatives for Android?
Or is it because Magisk is so good, that there is less need for alternatives?

Magisk is not comparable to an iOS jailbreak, because Magisk simply relies on an existing possibility to access a device on root level so that it can access and modify the flash memory directly (e.g. on an bootloader unlocked device via custom recovery ROM or an existing su/root access).
Instead iOS jailbreaks first have to execute complicated exploit chain just to get root access. Furthermore current jailbreaks are non-persistent, which means the bootloader and the kernel can't be permanently changed. Therefore an iOS jailbreak requires way more effort for reaching a same "state" at run-time that Magisk provides on Android.
This means in the end the jailbreaks have to be adapted to the iOS version and every jailbreak also has some disadvantages depending on the way the device is exploited.
Such problems are unknown to Magisk and therefore Magisk is way simpler to install.


Can you see the time and/or date a website was visited on the Samsung Browser? Can you see the time and/or date a website was visited on the Samsung Browser?

You definitely can view the history with details about date and time. In the latest version of Samsung Browser, go to Bookmarks tab and then you will see the history section there.
I'm pretty sure in all browsers you can do such a thing.


S5 & S7 that I have doesn't play nice with some iphones About 10% of the time anyone with iPhone texting me results in notification that I have a mms message sent to me but it doesn't download/open. Sometimes it opens minutes/hours later, or not at all! I am using default Messaging. This is BS. 25 years into cell phone technology and iPhone hasn't decided to play nice with androids? I like Samsung and am more inclined to never buy an iPhone because they Could create text operating system that works flawlessly w/ Android, but choose not to.

It's because iPhone uses a different type of SMS, It can check if the SMS has been opened like an MMS Read Report, Android uses the normal SMS rules that don't have read reports, only delivery reports.

When the SMS is successfully received they're seeing that it's been successfully delivered, if you open the message, it'll say that it's been seen, like Facebook messenger in a way.

The OS's use completely different methods of SMS and probably will not become compatible anytime soon unless Android finds a method to handle the changes.


Son erased the play store app My son accidentally erased the play store from his next book tablet. Is there anyway I can get it back? Would resetting the tablet bring it back?

By default NextBook Tablets comes with no PlayStore Application, so you will need to re-download (re-install) the PlayStore Manually

check this link, it may help you
http://www.makeuseof.com/answers/how-can-i-download-google-play-to-my-nextbook-tablet/


Setting a time on Wifi hotspot Does anyone have an approach to automatic disabling the wifi hotspot? I was working at home last night, forgot to switch it off, and ended up downloading 3GB over my 4G connection. Thankfully, I have plenty of spare, but... could have been pricey.

I'm thinking I'll stick with USB for now, but I'm thinking either a timeout on the hotspot (and I don't mind the "annoyance" of having to refresh every half hour), or maybe something that switches it off when I'm at home and connected to my own wifi network (like, something that can say "hey, network xyz is here, so I'll disable hotspot").

You could use Tasker(Paid) or condi(Free) , there is similar question to this one here


Sync 'droid with Outlook I have seen many questions here about users trying other software than Kies for sync'ing data with Outlook and a handset, very mixed reviews with what's good/bad, but not very much mentioned recently on the versions I am using.

I have setup a Samsung GS4 with Kies on a Win7 PC running Outlook 2010, the previous user had a Blackberry and is used to sync'ing his device with his laptop. Email items are sync with a GMail account as we are not running Exchange.

The user has 400+ contacts and quite a lot of e-mail with hundreds of calendar items.

Kies Sync has worked (albeit slowly) for a week, now it stalls/halts (no errors, no timeouts) at 15%.

Any hints or troubleshooting I can do? Sync logs to look for?

If I cannot resolve this I will need a different product to use, so any suggestions are more than welcome!

There is a one-way Google-to-Outlook sync built into Outlook 2010 and 2013, where you generate a link to your calendar via Google Calendar website, and then add the URL to Outlook as an Internet calendar.  This way any changes you make on Google side get synchronized to Outlook.  Step-by-step walk-through instructions are here:

  Log into your Google account, click on the Apps launcher icon Apps launcher icon and select Calendar from the list of apps.
  Hover over the needed calendar in the calendar list and click Calendar settings. This will open the Calendar details page.
  Click the ICAL button and copy the calendar's URL.
  Open your Outlook and switch to Calendar -> Manage Calendars ribbon group.
  Click Open Calendar button and choose "From Internet..." from the drop down list.
  Paste your Google calendar's URL and click OK.

If you are looking to sync the other way, i.e. Outlook-to-Google, your options are much more limited.  Microsoft tells you how to perform a one-time transfer by exporting your Outlook calendar and then importing the data into your Google account.  However, this is not a permanent solution, as it requires you to do this every time you make changes in Outlook.

Google used to have a service called Google Sync which would perform a true two-way sync between your Google account and Outlook via a small application that you would install on your Windows machine.  Unfortunately that service has been discontinued a while ago.  It's still available for paid Google accounts such as Google Apps for Business, but not for free Google accounts.

In terms of 3rd-party applications, since you have already ruled out Kies as unreliable, gSyncit comes highly recommended, but it's not free.  It is a MS Outlook add-in for your PC (no Android app required) that allows a true 2-way sync of e-mail, calendar, contacts and tasks between Outlook and a Google account.


retrieve contacts without Google Account? I had an Iphone with a sim card. Then I bought a new sim card with a new number to put in my Iphone because I was out of the country. Now I've lost the Iphone with the new sim card. I bought an Android phone and inserted my previous card. How can I retrieve my contacts? They're not on Icloud and not on Google.

Would it work if I put my sim card in another Iphone? If not, what other ways are there?

Thank you.

You can simply put your old SIM card to iPhone for a while, then follow
settings > contacts > import from SIM


Sync setup question: will Android, Outlook 2010, Gmail, calendar and contacts sync? my previous phone was a windows mobile 6.5 from HTC. so I had it linked to my computer (windows 7 x64 pro) and it used windows mobility center to sync with outlook 2010. everything was fine. I also added Gmail by IMAP in outlook.

but now I have this awesome brand new HTC Desire with Android 2.2 (Froyo) so it asked for my Google account. Now I ended up with contacts in outlook, phone and Gmail. calendar in outlook and Google Calendar and I have HTC sync and Google Cal sync and I don't know what the best setup is. anybody an idea?

I'd like to have the same in my outlook contacts as in my Gmail, Google Cal, phone etc. so I'd like to sync everything with everything and could use some help. because I have contacts in outlook that are not in Gmail and people on my phone which are not in Gmail etc. and since I am an android n00b it's kinda hard to get myself an ultimate sync setup with outlook 2010 and my phone and Gmail stuff

Edit: as pointed out in the answers, I should NOT sync my phone with outlook, but should sync outlook to Gmail. Google has a calendar sync tool, which is great, but does not sync the contacts. No I've found KiGoo but I don't trust them yet. Does anybody recommend a good preferably free and/or open source application for syncing outlook 2010 with Gmail?

Android syncs to Gmail, Contacts, and Calendar nearly effortlessly. It seems like in your case it's Outlook that is the problem child. Do you need to sync contacts with Outlook too? If not, a one-time export/import from Outlook to Gmail should meet your needs.

I would say have Outlook sync with Google and have the phone sync with Google. Syncing the phone to Outlook too will probably duplicate data and/or leave gaps in your data.


Google Now screen is blank (Nexus 7, Android 4.2) I've got a Nexus 7 upgraded to Android 4.2. When I swipe up from the home button to launch Google Now I just get a blank screen with a search bar at the top. I don't see the "Get Google Now" screen shown here or any options to add new cards.

How can I go about getting the Google Now setup screen?

Invoke Google Now again to be in the same place as is on your snapshot. Just press Back button to hide keyboard and press three dots button bottom right and select Settings. You will get the summary where you can realize that you have Google Now switched Off. Just select this item and continue with the wizard to switch Google Now On.


App can't be moved to SD card There was an app moved to SD card.

I did a factory reset.
Then I reinstalled the app. It was side loaded by Humble Bundle app, it's not from Google Play.

Now the app can't be moved to SD, getting error "Couldn't move app".

I am guessing there is this some type of Android's cache for this app on SD already that prevents it from moving again, but this is just a speculation.

Titanium backup couldn't move it either. Well, it said it did but it's still "on the phone".

Any ideas welcome.

The phone is HTC Sensation.

You most probably left some residuals of the (moved) app on your SD card.

The easiest way to remove that would probably to pull out the SD card and remove the moved app on your computer (it's not accessible on your phone easily).

For example, the full path to the moved tricorder app on my phone is:
/mnt/sdcard/.android_secure/org.hermit.tricorder-1.asec

Just access it on your PC and remove the appropriate .asec file in the .android_secure folder.

Background (why not to do it on the phone):

Moved Apps are located in a cryptoloop mounted container file which is stored at /mnt/sdcard/.android_asec/*. This is however not accessible so that normal apps cannot mess around with moved apps (there's a tmpf mounted over /mnt/sdcard/.android_secure with 0kb space to inhibit access). The original .android_secure is bind mounted to /mnt/asec/secure where the system can access the containers.

app_36@android:/ $ mount
# omitted unecessary stuff, only the sdcard, the bind mount and the tmpfs mount are shown
/dev/block/vold/254:1 /mnt/sdcard vfat [mount-options-omitted] 0 0
/dev/block/vold/254:1 /mnt/secure/asec vfat [mount-options-omitted] 0 0
tmpfs /mnt/sdcard/.android_secure tmpfs [mount-options-omitted] 0 0
# no output, tmpfs still mounted:
app_36@android:/mnt/sdcard/.android_secure # ls
app_36@android:/mnt/secure/asec # umount /mnt/sdcard/.android_secure
# umounted... now there's what we expect:
app_36@android:/mnt/secure/asec # cd /mnt/sdcard/.android_secure
app_36@android:/mnt/sdcard/.android_secure # ls
org.hermit.tricorder-1.asec


How do I download the music from my computer to my samsung moment? Can someone please give me a straight answer im leaving for Costa Rica in the morning and need my music.

There are many ways to (semi-)automate the process. I'm assuming you don't want to use an app to manage this. (There are dozens. I expect some other answers will suggest some.)

I also assume that you know how to connect to your PC and turn on "USB Storage".

Just copy your music files to your SD card. The music player will find the tracks wherever you have them, but you should probably put them in a "Music" subfolder so that you can find them easily.

It's as simple as that.


smartphone as a USB ramdisk Is it possible to use an Android device (like a smartphone) as an USB ramdisk?

Basically i'd like to have the PC accessing a tmpfs on the smartphone as a (virtual) USB mass storage device, so data gets written on the smartphone RAM instead of the flash memory.

This could have many use cases:

emergency swap space for PCs with low RAM
temporary storage for privacy sensitive-data
fast storage for temporary files (alternative to a native ramdisk wasting PC RAM)
PC USB interface benchmarking

USB Share does the trick by creating a virtual usb image in /mnt/secure (which is mounted as tmpfs on my Android 4.2 OS). Then, mount and share the image with RW permissions.

Side note:
i've found my OS also mounts a tmpfs on /sdcard/.android_secure but when connected as USB mass storage the files get written on the flash memory instead of the tmpfs.

If you know a better solution not requiring any commercial app please let me know!


Offline voice recognition Kitkat Got a Moto E recently.

I was checking out the Google voice commands. It works great. But offline commands are not working. As soon as I open the voice search/Google Now offline it gives error saying not connected. I tried downloading offline language and installed the same. But still not working. Anything else am missing here?

I own a Moto X and I know that it has "two modes" of voice recognition: one activated at any time by the command "OK Google now", which appears on a black screen, and the other activated by the voice search button on search/Google now app.

Every voice command recognized on the black screen is done offline, but on the white screen it needs to reach Google to recognize the command. In this case download the offline language pack will save you some data and result in a faster command recognition, but you still need to be connected on the internet in order to do so.


cannot play or copy corrupted video I have a Samsung galaxy S4. I have changed the settings so that the pictures and video taken from the phone camera are saved in a folder on the external memory card.

Usually this works quite well.

I took a quite long video recently (>1 min) resulting in a file of 119MB.

The issue: The file seem corrupted. If I play it with VLC on my phone, it works for the first few seconds, then VLC crashes.
I have tried to copy the file to my PC using Airdroid, but the download fails at some point after 11.3MB (each time exactly at the same point). hence I suspect it is an issue with a bad sector on the memory card (Although I am not a specialist and open to other possibilities)

I have done a few searched on Internet but not found any solution so far.
I tried for instance this tutorial, but this assumes that I can copy the file which I can't.

It is a great video so I really would like to recover it. Help!

Please try the following steps to see if your issue is getting resolved

1) Install web pc suite from play store

2) open the ip address shown on your phone or use scan QR code

3) then try to download your file on your computer

this software is really good, fast and works very well.

second method

1) you can try using OTG cable (on the go cable for S4)

2) connect your pen drive to your phone using OTG cable and then see if you are able to copy the file to your pen drive.

Since you have mentioned airdroid in your question I believe you want to do it this wirelessly so you can try "web pc suite".

There are other ways too but you can try the first method to see if your problem gets resolved.

Sam


Phone is too flat to charge My phone died today, and now it won't charge at all on the charger it came with. I don't think the battery has failed, as it still gives me just as much charge on a full charge as always. The phone is an LG P500 running CM7.

My battery charged perfectly in another model of the same phone. Does this suggest there is an actual problem with my phone?

What can I do to get my phone to start charging?

The phone should always charge, no matter how empty the battery is. You imply that the empty battery is the reason why it wouldn't charge, but I think that this is not true.

It is more likely that you are dealing with a hardware issue here. But first make sure that you connect the charger for at least an hour to your phone, just to make sure that it is really not charging. Even if there is no visual feedback of the charge process, there is still a chance that it does so. You could also try swapping the battery with the one from your brother, to see if the failure is the battery or with the phone.


No auto-brightness option in LG L90 dual My L90 has no auto-brightness option. Could anyone please suggest a way to fix the issue?

The L90 lacks an ambient light sensor, so there is no true auto brightness method.

XDA user gdjindal has a unique tutorial for adding a pseudo-automatic function on the Optimus L9 (it'll most likely work on your phone as well): link


Backup/Restore SMS/MMS via ADB on a non-rooted device? Is there any way to backup/restore SMS and MMS messages using ADB, when the device is not rooted?

adb pull won't work here, as the corresponding database (/data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db) cannot be read by ADB if it's not running in insecure (root) mode
adb shell "cat /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db > /sdcard/mmssms.db doesn't work either without root access
adb backup for some reason doesn't cover this database on the device I've checked with (empty backup – just the 41 bytes of the backup header in the resulting file)

I especially wonder why adb backup doesn't cover this. If it's for "privacy reasons", then the same should apply to the contacts database – which clearly is backed up.

References:

Can adb be used to recover SMS messages while in permanent “Safe Mode”? covers the same topic – but other than there, I'm not restricted to safe-mode
backup full sms/mms contents via adb (on our developers sister-site) is for a "rooted solution" (and, apart from that, a bit of age: question and answers are more than 3 years old)

So: Any solution on a non-rooted device? Note that I'm NOT asking for an app-based solution. I'm fully aware there are several apps available for this. I specifically want a "shell based solution", to be used via ADB.

I especially wonder why adb backup doesn't cover this.

It is not that adb backup doesn't want to cover the app com.android.providers.telephony. This app is not much different from any other system app based on its AndroidManifest.xml. The problem is with the flag its developer has declared in the manifest which as a default mechanism for some reason adb backup is bound to respect.
This flag is none other than android:allowBackup="false". It opts out the app from both ADB backup and restore. Google here has to say:

android:allowBackup
Whether to allow the application to participate in the backup and restore infrastructure. If this attribute is set to false, no backup or restore of the application will ever be performed, even by a full-system backup that would otherwise cause all application data to be saved via adb. The default value of this attribute is true.

(Emphasis mine)
Checkout the AndroidManifest.xml of this app for Lollipop version here, or see this evidence for my Android 4.2.1:

There's more to this app. You can't even Clear Data from Settings → Apps → All apps →<THIS_APP> since android:allowClearUserData="false" is declared too, not something we encounter every now and then.

If it's for "privacy reasons", then the same should apply to the contacts database – which clearly is backed up.

It's bizarre, not that you're able to do it but how is your  system even allowing you to do that just with adb backup!
Contacts storage is handled by "ContactsProvider" app which goes by the pkg_name=com.android.providers.contacts. The flag android:allowBackup="false" is clearly mentioned in its AndroidManifest.xml for Jelly Bean (click here to see for the other versions).
Are you using ICS or any predecessor of JB?
I found that this app doesn't have any declaration of that flag for ICS here. You can actually  clear this mystery, since I can't take backup of this app in my JB 4.2.1 as per the definition of the flag, and always gets that 41 bytes backup file.

As for any other method to take SMS/MMS backup/restore using ADB without root access -- all hands up here.


link headphone volume to master volume I have already asked this question on stack overflow without much luck so far, but i figured it might fair better here.
I have an android TV (Philips 49PUS6401) I want to connect a surround sound system to it which is much better quality than the built in speakers even when only being used in stereo.

however this TV separates the volume control for the master output and the headphone output, the result being that even with the in TV speakers turned off, the volume keys on the remote do not adjust the headphone volume (which i'm using as a line out)

I am planning to write a simple app to adjust the headphone volume whenever the mast volume is changed, but i can't seem to figure out how to get or set the headphone volume, as the audio manager deals with streams rather than outputs, so the only value i can get from it is the master.

How do I go about finding a way to get/set the headphone volume? I have got shell access through adb, but i cannot get root.

for reference the tv is running the latest firmware, which is android 5.1.1

I know that normally android doesn't allow control over individual audio devices, but instead uses streams, and androids hardware abstraction layer (HAL) takes care of the routing, but somehow the manufacturer of this TV has been able to split the audio and feed it out of the headphone socket and a second output simultaneously. this issue has been quite heavily commented on in forums: see here

For the time being I'm just looking for a way to access it over ADB, but long term I'm planning to write a simple app to link the volume of the main output to the volume of the headphones so I don't have to delve into a submenu (which upsets kodi-media player) in order to change the volume.

so either ADB commands or the relevant section of the android API would be welcome, i've already looked at:

AudioManager
AudioSystem
libaudio

and gone digging in the filesystem, i'm guessing that what i want will be hidden in the /dev part of the filesystem which i can't get at without root, but i would be glad to be wrong.

Damn, I'm having the same TV, is there anyway to fix this?
It's really annoying, i can't control my speakers, and the TV's default speakers are horrifically bad.


Can Google Hangouts send out text message under data? I found that on my android, google hangouts seems not able to send out text messages i.e. SMS to a phone number, when it is on data service.

Is it the same for others, or is it just my problem?

Thanks.

You can send text messages through hangouts to phone number. For this You have to go to Settings > Messages > Default messaging app > Hangouts.


How to sync calendar events FROM my phone TO an exchange server? I own a LG P500 which runs Android 2.3. I was able to set up Exchange sync easily, and now I can read/write email from my exchange account and all events registered in Outlook's calendar also appear on my phone's calendar. However when I enter an event on my phone, it does not appear in Outlook as I would like it. Why, and how do I fix this?

Note that I both the calendar and exchange app on my phone are the default stock apps that came with the phone.

When you create a new event, you should be able to select which calendar to add the event to. If you select an Exchange-based calendar, the event will be synced to the server. By default the events are created in the phone's local calendar.


Power button stopped working it fall down I am using Asus ZenFone since 8 months but after fall down the power button stopped working which is actually creating a problem for me. What can I do about it?

1) If you still have warranty then try to repair it for free.

2) You can also try to repair the ZenFone for money. But i think it will be too expensiv.

3) If you doint want to spend money the install an Power-Off-App like
This one.
And for Wakeup you can try to install/enable Double-Tap to Wake.

I hope i could help you:)

P.S If there's an other way then let me know.


How to block certain devices for my hotspot I want to be able to let certain devices use my hotspot, block others. Is this possible? Or is it possible to block certain Mac ID's?

When device connects, in menu where set up hotspot option is there, long press the device and click on: block.
Use the traditional method: set up password


How can I browse old mails in an IMAP folder? Both the build-in mail client (Android 2.1) and K-9 mail, display the most recent n messages received during the last m days, where m and n are configuration items. Messages older than m days are invisible.

It's certainly sensible to hide old mail my by default, but how cannot I lookup an old message in INBOX or another folder? Even if the INBOX folder is huge, retrieving all headers should be an option.

In K-9 Mail, if you scroll down in your inbox, it shows the option "Load up to n more", and by repeating this you can go back further and further.


I deleted Google Settings App I deleted the Google Settings App on my Xperia and now I can't use Play Store anymore. The reason I did this in the first place is that I was trying to update my whatsapp but insufficient storage error kept occurring so I thought I would delete those applications I don't use. Now that I know I shouldn't have deleted this one in particular, how can I get things back to the they they were?

Thanks

Google app is supposed to be built into system/app I wonder how you managed to uninstall it, unless you have root access.  Anyways! What you can do is Download the stock firmware image for your device from the vendor's site and flash it in your device! All the things will be reverted back to default and normal !!
 I don't know which Xperia you're using with Android ICS so I won't be able to provide you with links and tuts. Good Luck!!


How to load URLs in a separate browser from within Samsung Messenger? In Samsung Messenger, if an SMS message includes a URL, clicking on that URL seems to always load the website in Android System WebView.

Is there a way to specify which external browser app to use to load these URLs?

I was also looking for the same but literally there is no such option.
However, what Samsung's Official site suggests to do it, is:

  If you would prefer to use another browser as default from the messaging app - you can try searching the Google Play Store to download another messaging application. The Android Messages app, for example, defaults to open links in the Chrome browser.

Source: https://www.samsung.com/au/support/mobile-devices/about-the-new-in-app-browser/


Use Only Mic in Bluetooth Headset, While Outputing Audio to 3.5mm Jack? Is it possible to use only the microphone in a Bluetooth headset, while letting my Android phone sound through amplified speakers connected via the 3.5mm jack?

More specifically, I am looking to use my Nexus One that way. I have already solved the speakers via 3.5mm jack problem (thanks to @Adrian). I am now trying to see whether I can connect a standard Bluetooth headset and use its microphone.

It's OK if the same audio comes through the earpiece in the Bluetooth headset (i.e. it doesn't have to be disabled). I just want to make sure that if I buy & connect a Bluetooth headset, it will not disable the 3.5mm jack.

Is this doable? Do I need to change something in the setting? (I do have CyanogenMod installed, if this helps).

The term "Bluetooth headset" is very broad. Different headsets support different Bluetooth profiles.

The most common profile is HSP (used mainly for phone calls), which seems to be independent of the headphones jack you are referring to. So pairing your Android device with a cheap headset that supports HSP only (e.g. Plantronics 242) won't affect audio routing to the headphones jack at all. Your Bluetooth headset and your Android device will continue to operate in parallel, but each handling a different audio stream (channel).

If you are looking to disable the microphone only in your Android phone, it seems that only a headset with an A2DP profile could be a possible solution. You may want to read at the following thread: How do I send Bluetooth audio from the Stereo (A2DP) to Headset (HSP) profile?


Remotely brick a stolen phone If my phone is lost or stolen, can I remotely and permanently brick my phone. This way, not only is my data secure, but the resale value of the phone plummets to zero.

Tangential question: can apps like Lookout or Prey be disabled by phone thieves?

It's certainly possible to remote-brick a phone.  In fact, you might be able to use Tasker in conjunction with Mobile Odin or similar to remotely softbrick a Samsung device by flashing bad firmware after a text message, or something.  Of course these devices are also easy to unbrick; to brick them more permanently you'd need to flash a bad bootloader.  Chainfire has said that Mobile Odin can but won't flash bootloaders, so perhaps it could just be modified.

Bad bootloaders can be fixed sometimes if you have the appropriate hardware, but I doubt any petty thief would have it.  Most won't be able to fix a softbrick either.

Any app can be disabled, pretty easily too if you know what you're doing.

Importantly, though, I wouldn't do this.  All it does is guarantee that you can't get the phone back (you can't track it anymore) or that if you get it back, it won't work.  You should just install tracking software instead.  Remote bricking won't deter a thief who doesn't know about it, and while I see the revenge aspect it's not as good as catching them!


Mount /system and /data partition of an android phone in Windows/Linux How can I mount the /system and /data partition of an Android Phone via USB on a computer? It will need to work with Windows and Linux. I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 with CyanogenMod 12 and working ADB.

PS: I want to have it mounted in a file manager and not in the terminal.

There is a method that I'm aware of which uses FTP on Android and a tool/software on Linux/Windows. I recently tested this method and it worked well.

Host an FTP server on your Android phone. (There are answers for it on this site; you may use search option.)
On GNU/Linux, download curlftpfs and issue the command:

curlftpfs ftp_server_url directory_path

where, ftp_server_url -> the URL of your FTP server, directory_path -> the directory in your PC where you want to mount this server
On Windows, I've heard that NetDrive can mount an FTP server on Windows. I haven't used it but got to know this from a ServerFault answer.
For Windows, if FTP doesn't work then host a WebDAV server on Android and mount it on Windows by using Windows native Map network drive feature.

Whether you would be able to write into /system and /data isn't my business here since you've not explicitly mentioned it, but my answer will definitely do the thins you asked in the question. :)

(Kindly let me know any fault in my answer rather than downvoting it, if you may. :) )


How do you adjust notifications on the LG Nexus 4 I use to see notifications for Facebook and Snapchat on my phone but now I don't.  Can you tell me how to get this back.

There are two basic scenario:

You disabled the notification from the app itself.

So open the setting of the app and enable notification there

You removed the notification power of the app from system setting menu

Open settings -> Apps. Click on the name of the required app and make sure "Show notifications" is enabled.


Do all devices (that can connect to PC) power up when connected to PC? I tested with my tablet and my phone and both react the same way:

shut down the device completely.
plug to computer USB.
device powers up (boots into android, not just show charging animations).

Is it an Android feature, or just for some devices?

This must be specific to some devices/kernels as I have just tried this and my Nexus 7 2012 briefly showed a "charging" battery animation before the screen going off - device then stays off. My HTC One X didn't show any charging animation, or power on but is showing the charging LED.


How can I check if busybox is working properly? I have Busybox installed, but I suspect that it does not work properly.
Total Commander ADB plugin invokes busybox mv -f and busybox rm -f commands, but it seems to fail silently.

Is there a reasonable way how to check?

"How do i know if I have busybox?"

  Open Terminal Emulator and type "busybox". If it gives you a giant list of command options, it's installed. If it says "Command not found", it's not.

edit Rather than putting this in the comments: you could also try su to become root followed by busybox, busybox --version, busybox --help or anything that will give you some feedback and some clues as to what's going on.


How to change clocks position in Android 6.0 I have a quite simple problem: my screen is partially broken so I don't see clocks in it's default position, it looks like 13.XX and I don't see XX because screen is just black there.

So I want to change clocks position to be bottom-docked. I recall I did it in android 2.X several years ago, but I wasn't able to find this option in Android 6.0. It only allows me to change clock type, but doesn't have any options to change its position on the lock screen.

Is there any solutions for this?

First you need to unlock your phones bootloader. You can find the full guide in google.(please search "how to unlock bootloader of " and note that, unlocking bootloader will wipe all your data)
Then you need to download a suitable TWRP/Philz custom recovery for your phone. Or you may need to port one yourself.
Now flash the new custom recovery to your phone. You can use a flashing tool or adb to flash it.
Download SuperSU.zip and flash it via your custom recovery.
To check if your phone is successfully rooted, download root checker from play store. And you'll find a new app in your phone named "SuperSU" if your phone is rooted.
Now you can use "Gravity Box" or some "Xposed Framework" to change your clock position.

If you don't understand any point, please tell me your phones full model, I'll try to provide you a full details guide.
And Please don't mind my English. I'm not that good at it.


Are the custom ROMs different for different phones? Are custom ROMs different for different make of handsets? Or is there only one CyanogenMod for, say, Android 2.2?

Can someone please elaborate why a 'ROM' is called as such? I mean has it any similarity to Read-Only Memory?

The simple answer is Yes there are usually multiple versions of each Custom ROM. If not the ROM may be only usable on some devices.

Usually for each device model (or group of very similar devices) there is one custom ROM version. The reason are the different hardware each device is equipped with. Like in your desktop computer each component needs a suitable driver for being used. This starts with the display which sometimes even changes from model revision to revision and ends with WLAN chip used.
As space and memory are significant on a Smartphone a custom ROM only contains the drivers needed.

Another reason for having different custom ROMS are the different cell phone standards. You have devices built for GSM/UMTS and some are designed to work with CDMA. The telephony stack has to be either the one or the other - again a reason for different ROMs.


Why are all apps disabled? All of my apps are gone.  All of the built-in, external storage apps had disappeared.
It happened when my phone's battery was dead, and when I turned it on after charging, everything was gone.  I can see my apps in the application manager but it shows that all of the apps are disabled and I can do nothing.
I cant even add a picture here.
Phone: Samsung Galaxy Grandneo Plus

All I know about "disabled apps" is when the device is booted into Safe Mode.

Maybe your device is on Safe Mode.  This happened, when you "accidentally" pressed a button on your device while booting up.  Try checking, if it has a "Safe Mode" displayed on your screen, usually at the corners.

Rebooting the device normally would surely fix the problem.