How to control my mom's Android phone? My mom has an Android phone and I have it too. We both are thousands of miles away.

She is a new smartphone user, and it is hard for her to learn the skills to use it. She needs help to turn off music, for example. She called me but I could not help her with instructions.

Is there a way to remotely operate her phone from mine? I would like to help her with issues and try to make her independent as far as I can.

My dad recently passed away; she is alone so i suggested her YouTube, etc. I want to teach her how to use the apps.

Thanks

Comment Instructions ( Irfan Latif )

Software Link ( Team Viewer - Android )
TeamViewer

Guide for Remote Controlling
GuidingTech.com/control...

Webpage Image for quicker reference of Guide @ https://www.guidingtech.com/32922/control-android-remotely/.


App for reading CSV files? I use the free version of Documents To Go to open Excel and Word files on my phone, but I was disappointed when I tried to open a CSV file.  The only app I have that responds to the Intent for opening a CSV file displays it as plain text.

Does anyone know of a good free app for viewing CSV files in a grid/spreadsheet layout?

Simple Spreadsheet is freeware and lists import/export of CSV as a feature.

Shead Spreet Lite also has similar features.

In the non-freeware category, see CSV Viewer and AndrOffice


Encryption Unsuccessful even after system backup restore The steps I performed:

Flashed TWRP with Odin
Made backup
Flashed LineageOS 14.1 with TWRP
Flashed SuperSU with TWRP
Flashed Open GApps with TWRP
There was a problem, Google Play Services kept crashing, I decided to restore stock ROM
Restored the backup I made in 2 with TWRP
Opened my restored system and decided to encrypt the device
Either the encryption failed itself or I somehow disturbed it
After restart Encryption Unsuccessful keeps appearing
I restored backup from 2 again I still get Encryption Unsuccessful
I flashed LineageOS again - started nicely
Once again I restored backup from 2 again I still get Encryption Unsuccessful

In the meantime I wiped Cache, Dalvik Cache, Data and System numerous times.

So it looks like the stock ROM keeps seeing the information about the failed encryption process even though I wiped the 4 partitions mentioned above. Interesting part is that LineageOS doesn't care.

Any ideas on how to get the stock ROM back on its feet?

EDIT

Flashing the stock rom with Odin didn't help either

Found out the way to fix it:

Download stock firmware (*.tar.md5)
Flash it with Odin (it removes TWRP and replaces it with a standard recovery)
Start Android - still "Unsuccessful encryption" error
Boot into recovery mode (now it's standard recovery instead of TWRP)
Run factory reset
Start Android - now it finally starts - problem solved
Flash again TWRP with Odin
Restore the old good backup with TWRP
Done

So basically the factory reset form the original recovery mode fixes it.

Also I found out why the tablet bricked. When it performs encryption process it looks like it's off (no lights, sounds or anything). Do not disturb it, after 20-30 minutes it finishes the encryption and turns itself on. Just leave it be until the screen turns on.


How to make my Android device forget a PC? I am running Android 10 on Realme 2 Pro.
So, I am having a lot of trouble connecting this device via USB for file transfer.
I don't know what's the problem. I have tried enabling and disabling USB debugging.
One thing I recollect is that one day I connected it to a charging brick which it recognised as a USB connection instead of AC and I clicked on file transfer.
Since then and before, I haven't been able to connect my device via USB. One day it connected to somebody's PC and that gave me the idea if the Android can forget previous PC, it might work. Is there any solution?

There are two possibilities to forget the connection setting:
USB Charging/MTP
You can change the default behavior your phone uses when connected via USB in the Android settings app.
As far as I know by default there is no entry in the settings list to configure the default USB mode, however if you use the settings search field and search for usb you should get an entry named USB settings
Note that this setting is disabled by default unless your device is connected via USB to a second device (PC, power bank, ...).
Android Debug Bridge (USB debugging)
The option to "forget all PCs" that were authorized to use adb is in the Developer Options right below the entry for enabling/disabling adb. It is called
Revoke USB debugging authorizations


How to install android market app manually? I have device with android 2.1 and I want to install android market app manually. Can I do that?

I have download android_app.apk file into my device but while installing getting following error.
Package com.android.market_app requires unavailable shared library com.google.android.datamessaging; failing!
I tried to search datamessaging.jar file but I can not able to find.
Does I need to do something else.

If you have wi-fi or 3G you can install it through AppBrain Andoid market App

In case if you dont have any network connection you have to find the .pkg (compiled android package) for Android market application, then you need to install it via ADB


How can I configure my phone for MMS? I can not send or receive MMS-messages (containing an image) on my Nexus One phone. And I can't find many settings to set for it.

I have set an adress for APN. But there is also an IP-address, a proxieaddress and a port number that I should set.

How do I set up MMS on Nexus One?

You will need your operator's APN details (hint: ask the operator's customer service or search on Google), which you can enter through Settings > Tap "Wireless & network settings" > Tap "Mobile networks" > Tap "Access Point Names" > Press "Menu Button" > Tap "New APN" (eclair/2.1).

Alternatively, many operators can send a special service message that will automatically configure the correct APN settings. You might need to contact your operator's customer service or send an SMS/text message to a special number before they send you the autoconfigure service message.


If I download and install a non-market application and then proceed remove it, does it mitigate any security issues? If I downloaded a non-market application and installed it and discovered it may be malicious, does removing it from the list of applications completely discard it and help mitigate any security issues? If not, does resetting the phone back to its factory settings mitigate any security issues?

I don't know that there's a definite way to answer this. It would be almost entirely dependent on how exactly the app was attempting to infect your phone and how successful its attempts were.

In the simplest case, maybe the app is sniffing data or something of that sort. For that case, uninstalling would basically remove the threat since the app would be gone. Nothing is left behind when you uninstall, including the /data directories for the app.

Slightly more complex would be an app that put a malicious payload somewhere on your system's publicly writeable storage. In that case removing the app would not necessarily be enough, depending on what exactly the payload did and how it was designed. Uninstalling could potentially cause the malicious code to become inert on reboot since the app may need to fire up a service on boot, but that's hard to say. Formatting your SD card and doing a factory reset would probably clean it up in its entirety.

The most nefarious case would be an app that gained elevated privileges on your device, either through an exploit or effective social engineering in which you grant access yourself. In that case a factory reset would not necessarily be enough, since the entirety of the /system partition would be unaffected. If the app were to stick a payload on /system then the only way you could really be sure you're clean is if you completely wiped all of the internal memory of the device and then reinstalled a new ROM, I would say. Even worse would be if it somehow managed to write a malicious bootloader or something of that nature, since in some circumstances it's possible to write to the bootloader partition from userspace (given proper permissions).


I have restricted background data but i am still getting whatsapp and facebook messages,,, am using an android 8.1 oreo I have restricted background data but i am still getting Whatsapp and Facebook messages notifications.

I'm using an android 8.1 Oreo.

Push messages are usually not received by the app itself, but by the Google Push Notification Service (part of the "Google [Play] Services"). This prevents that every app have to built their own notification system which would cost a lot of battery and traffic.


How do I remotely unlock Google Device Manager remote lock when I know the password? Is there an option to remotely unlock the online Android Device Manager's lock feature if I have the password?

I have read "How to unlock Google Device Manager remote lock?" but I do not have my phone, it was stolen. Also, I have the Google Device Manager password I used to lock my Samsung Active S5 after it was stolen.

If anyone wants to help me find it I would be very grateful.
I installed the GDM before it was stolen and did not know about all it's features. I locked it because of the data overages. I wish I had not done because it was being tracked by the google maps Location History feature and was tracking every movement until I locked it and shut off the data via my provider. I turned back on the data but the provider said that the phone would have to be manually restarted for the data to start working. So I am hoping that if I unlock it they will start using it again and I can alert the police or get it myself.

I am trying to track the phone before I goto the police. I read the police very rarely recover a phone and this has my life on it and was not backed up properly I just got it and I traded in my old phone. I am a screwed idiot big time...

There is no method for unlocking in google device manager, but, you could try setting the password to password, and setting the text as, 'the password is password'.

However, if you can't contact the phone, it is probable that they have wiped it an set up their own google account.

There isn't much you can do, except, tell the police your IMEI number, they probably have a database of lost and stolen phones.


On it's own, my Verizon Droid Razr (recently with ICS), went into debug mode. How do I get it out of debug mode? This evening I took my phone out of my pocket and the screen was on and it was in debug mode.  I assume it is debug mode - there is a column of text right justified near the top of the screen that changes with time.  When my finger touches the screen a vertical and horizontal line appear and track my finger movement and there is a trail left showing where I moved my finger. Along the top of the screen there are fields which display info about the finger movement.  I am not a developer, but I assume this is debug mode.

My question is:  How can I get it out of debug mode?  HELP!!!

Do you have "{} Developer options" under Settings menu? If yes, go to Settings->Developer Options and uncheck the boxes under "Input", "Drawing" "Monitoring" sections.

I presume these should be not available with standard ROMs (i.e. produced by carrier/that come with phone).  In that sense, I am bit surprised on why you have it, unless you have CM's or other similar ROM.


"call_state_offhook list.size()==0 number is null" when I call someone with my Samsung Galaxy S9 I see a warning:

  "call_state_offhook list.size()==0 number is null"

whenever I call someone with my Samsung Galaxy S9. What is the issue and how can I stop seeing this warning?

after installing a call recorder, have same message


How do I make sure my notes and highlights from Google Play Books are saved when I factory reset my Android phone? I need to unlock my Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini, Android ver. 4.2.2, and I'm not sure if the notes I took on my books using the Play Books app will still be there after the reset. I need all those notes for school and it would take forever to copy them all down.

You can check from your PC on this address that all your notes and highlights from Google Play Books are saved in the cloud and not in your device:
https://play.google.com/books/


How to restore SMS from sms.vmsg backup? I made a backup of my contacts and SMS on an Android 6 phone with what I think is a stock Backup & Restore app. I ended up with two files: contact.vcf and sms.vmsg.

However, my new phone (Android 7) doesn't have any preloaded Backup & Restore app. I managed to import contact.vcf via the address book, however the messaging app doesn't seem to have any option to import backed up SMS.

What can I do with this sms.vmsg file to resotre my SMS?

I was able to open my backup with this VMG Converter app. The app requires to buy an unlock code if you want to restore more than 200 messages from the backup, so I didn't use it in the end, but it could have been an option if no other backup was available.


Alcatel OT 5020a formatted using pc My phone won't turn on, boot to recovery menu, anything after my brother formatted the phone using our pc. Obviously formatting included the android's system files.

Is there anyway that this can be fixed? Maybe by flashing everything to the unit?

please help me.. :(

You should be able to use Alcatel's "One Touch Upgrade" tool found here to re-flash the phone with its stock firmware.


Rooted Android device and more regular updates? My current Android phone Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-I9506, Android 5.0) has much outdated software and OS. I would like to get much faster update cycle. The current Android and Samsung support cannot provide it. Therefore, I am thinking about rooting my device and possibly this way speeding up the update cycle.

I have installed CyanogenMod in my unrooted device unsuccessfully a few times. I think the failure may be due to the unrooted device. I think you cannot get the full control of the device without the rooting and thus insufficient updates in your device.

Can a rooted Android device have more regular update cycle? However, I am not sure if rooting can make the update cycle worser because of possible loss of the main developers' support in the device and OS.

Generally, if you're talking about updates for any ROM, then you should know that it doesn't matter if you're rooted or not to get regular updates.

Moreover, rooting modifies your /system partition, due to which OTAs (for stock ROM) will fail to install, because nowadays most updates are Block-based OTAs.
So, for successfully installing official OTAs, it's better not to root your phone or use systemless root.

You're not getting regular updates because maybe Samsung hasn't yet released any updates for your device.

But if your phone is rooted and if you have flashed a custom recovery, then, as you said, you can install any custom ROMs with active developers which might be getting regular updates.
As @Tamoghna said, you can install ROMs like CyanogenMod which might provide daily updates.
You can also check for CM daily updates using apps like CyanDelta Updater (as said by @Firelord) which provides delta updates of minimal size.


Failure upgrading a rooted stock Nexus One to Android 2.2.1 I have a root Nexus one, that at one point ran a custom ROM, but now has the stock Android 2.2 release. I just got an update to 2.2.1, and it fails with:

Build : RA-nexus-v1.5.3
Finding update package...
Opening update package...
Verifying update package...
E:No signature (188 files)
E:Verification failed
Installation aborted.

What is the problem? Why does it say 1.5.3 in the build?

Installing the stock Android 2.2 FRF91 or newer unroots the phone. I had this same problem.

You can downgrade and root using the directions here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=717870


Issue with Viewing Netstat Process Info on Android I am unable to view the PIDs or process names associated with network activity on my android device. I was wondering if there is another way to go about doing that, besides netstat? Or if anyone might know what netstat: '234/nvram_agent_binder' > 21 bytes means?

Below I have a copy/paste of the help message of my android device's version of netstat, followed by my attempt to run netstat with the -p flag. This is being performed over adb with root access:

1|root@DEVICE:/proc/234 # netstat -h
netstat -h
usage: netstat [-pWrxwutneal]

Display networking information.

-r  Display routing table.
-a  Display all sockets (Default: Connected).
-l  Display listening server sockets.
-t  Display TCP sockets.
-u  Display UDP sockets.
-w  Display Raw sockets.
-x  Display Unix sockets.
-e  Display other/more information.
-n  Don't resolve names.
-W  Wide Display.
-p  Display PID/Program name for sockets.

netstat: Unknown option h

It doesn't like when I use -p:

1|root@DEVICE:/proc/234 # netstat -tulpn
netstat -tulpn
netstat: '234/nvram_agent_binder' > 21 bytes
1|root@DEVICE:/proc/234 #
1|root@DEVICE:/proc/234 # netstat -p
netstat -p
netstat: '234/nvram_agent_binder' > 21 bytes

Other options appear to work fine:

1|root@DEVICE:/proc/234 # netstat -t
netstat -t
Active Internet connections (w/o servers)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State
tcp        0      0 ::ffff:192.168.1.x:33380 xxxxxxx.net:xxx ESTABLISHED
root@DEVICE:/proc/234 #

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

To anyone who runs into this: I solved the issue by getting the relevant toybox binary from here  https://github.com/landley/toybox and transferring it to my device via adb.

Then using: ./toybox netstat -p

That worked well


Nexus 7 won't boot after installing twrp In How do I root my Nexus 7? step 7, I couldn't figure out what "on-device fastboot controls" meant. Now when I boot the nexus 7, the google logo with an open padlock appears for a second, and then the colorful 4-circles android animation spins, for many hours.

Just once, I saw the Teamwin splash screen, showing the version number 3.1.1-0 matching the twrp.img that I'd downloaded from dl.twrp.me and flashed in step 6.  (Yes, it's the right version, "flo" for nexus-7 2013 wifi.)

adb devices and adb reboot bootloader both report no devices found.

The battery is full, and staying full while the USB cable to the PC is plugged in.

How do I restore the tablet to a state where I can either give it commands from its screen, or from adb over USB from my win7 PC?

Is there some magical button-holding or adb command that can interrupt or prevent its infinite loop?  Holding the power button for 5 seconds returns it to the google logo, but then the dance starts all over again.  (It's fine to wipe the data on it. My eventual goal is to install cyanogenmod CM13.)

Partial answer
On-device fastboot controls means using the hardware buttons as explained in How to enter Google Nexus 7 Fastboot Mode.

Power off the device completely.To enter Fastboot mode, hold down Volume Down and Power.

Release the buttons only after the Fastboot screen appears, which shows the green robot on its back with its cover open.


Where is the notes app on nexus s? Is there a native notes app? I cant find it

There isn't a native notes app for the Nexus S because it doesn't have TouchWiz UI. I'm quite certain the voice action 'Note to self' actually sends an email to yourself (I don't personally use that action, not sure it likes a British accent)

There are loads of third party apps though. For example Scribb.it is full to the bursting with features, AK Notepad is quite a good simple one or Evernote has a strong following and quite a few more features.


How does CF-Autoroot work? What's the theory behind how CF-autoroot is able to root android devices?

I'm wondering on what techniques it used to run su?

Does it use a custom/patched Linux kernel? Or it is based on local root exploit?

I couldn't find CF-Autoroot source code, so I assumed that is a closed-source project.

On Nexus devices, at least:  CF Auto-Root works by unlocking the device's boot loader via fastboot (if it isn't already unlocked), then sending the device a custom boot image (kernel and ramdisk) that it should run instead of booting from the built-in system or recovery partition.  It's analogous to booting your PC from a CD or USB drive instead of from the hard drive.

(This is a supported feature of the fastboot program included in the Android SDK; it doesn't involve any exploits.  If you look at the script that comes in the CF Auto-Root package, you'll see that it really just runs fastboot oem unlock and fastboot boot commands.)

Once the custom boot image is running, it has full access to the device (just like the built-in system software does), so it copies some files (the su program and superuser APK) into the system partition.  On recent Android versions (5.0+), it also makes some changes to the kernel's SELinux configuration that are needed to allow the root account to be functional.  Then it reboots the device so that it'll boot from the (modified) kernel and system partition.


adb shell input text with space not working adb shell input text 'Hindustan%sTrading%sCompany'

Gives Company in Gboard

adb shell input text 'Hindustan%s'

Just gives a space

adb shell input text '%sHindustan' is working fine.

so word before %s is missing

Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.40
Version 28.0.2-5303910

Try separating the input lines like this:

adb shell input text 'Hindustan'
adb shell input text '%s'
adb shell input text 'Trading'
adb shell input text '%s'
adb shell input text 'Company'


How to get alerts about Speed Monitoring Cameras in GPS Maps Application? I am using Here Maps (Here WeGO), but I do not get any warnings about speed monitoring cameras.
I would also like to pay for such a service.
The application well informs already if you drive too fast.

I know there are some GPS devices which can give such alerts.
I think TomTom, at least.

Testing xavier_fakerat's proposal

I see now interaction with CamerAlert but have not tested when driven.
It took some time for the program to relocate to Baltics from London. But

Start here maps. Start then CamerAlert second time. The app crashes. It alerts all the time about unupdated maps although I just updated them.

I will go with Sygic.

OS: Android Oreo 8.0
Phone: OnePlus 3T
Region: Sweden, Finland, Norway, Baltics
Maps: Here We Go Maps, rarely Google Maps (because no easy offline use)

You may need an additional tool for Speed Camera alerts or an alternative navigation tool with built-in speed cam alerts feature.
For the former, there are  some options from playstore but ideally you'd still want to keep Here WeGo so you could go for an application with an overlay support/widget that ensures you use your primary navigation app whilst still getting speed cam alerts in the background.
A few options present:
CamerAlert (from PocketGPSWorld) for a very up-to-date speed camera database; it is updated at least weekly and includes mobile sites. It can be used as an overlay with any navigation app.

CamerAlert is a self-contained Speed and Red Light Camera warning
system using data from the renowned PocketGPSWorld.com Speed Camera
Database.
It provides both audible and visual warnings as you
approach a camera. Uniquely, when you are in a section of SPECs
(Average Speed) cameras, CamerAlert displays your average speed
between each camera in the zone.
CamerAlert also utilises directional
information to reduce the number of "False Alerts", you are only
warned for cameras that monitor your direction of travel.

Costs:

PocketGPSWorld subscribers can use their annual membership to keep the
camera data up to date by linking their member details in the app.
If you are not an existing subscriber you can subscribe in the app to
ensure access the our regular updates. A subscription can be used on
other GPS devices as well as the Android (maximum of three devices,
one of which may be an Android or iPhone SmartPhone).
An annual subscription costs £19.99

Learn more at the official website

Alternatively running other navigation apps' camera alerts application is worth a try, Sygic Speed Cameras & Traffic or TomTom Speed Cameras also serve similar purposes with the latter with overlay support.
Sygic:

offline database of more than 50 000 fixed speed cameras, average
speed checks and red light cameras in your app.

with Speed Camera's Premium, you can see your current speed, speed limits, and warnings also in other apps (Paid feature)

Pricing see here

Tom tom speed cam app, see here to learn more.
Also worth noting is that the regions in question are covered by these tools.


Terminated app install corrupted SD card data I was downloading an app for my LG-90 and it was taking forever. It had been minutes, so i restarted my phone. The phone would not restart; I'd see the T-Mobile logo and LG logo but it would not get as far as the home screen.

I started playing around with it and I found that if I took the SD card out it'd restart fine. I kept a lot of data on that card so I mounted it while the phone was powered on and was able to copy it's contents to my PC. The Lost.DIR seems to be full with all the data I had on the SD card; all photos, videos, etc. But none of them have a file extension so I can't tell what's what. I have to rename things to .png or .mp3 and see it they play or whatever.

I've unmounted and erased the SD card an remounted it, but the phone still seems to think the old data is on there. It says there's not enough space if I try move an app there. Also Photos has never worked right since (black screen when trying to view photos).

Anyone had an issue like this before?
Any suggestions on how to recover this data & get the SD card working again?

So the bad news is the solution to this issue was;

Back up all phone data
Restore factory settings
Get a new sd card

I went with a 16GB SanDisk to replace the 32GB Samsung EVO sd card.
Good news is it only cost $11 and restoring contacts from Google servers is a great feature.


AVD Emulator, "Unfortunately, Browser has stopped" I'm trying to get started with development. I have just installed the SDK (ADT v22.3.0-887826) on Linux Mint 15 x86-64. I haven't made any configuration changes to the default installation of ADT, and I don't think there's anything unusual about my system configuration. Eclipse seems to be working fine.

I created a virtual device with default settings (Nexus 4, Android 4.4 image). It takes about 4 minutes to boot, then the home screen comes up. I can navigate the home screen and settings menus, and it's a bit sluggish but it works. When I attempt to launch the stock browser, the screen goes white for a few seconds, then black for about 45 seconds, then it says "Unfortunately, Browser has stopped." I tried again with a QVGA 240x320 device and get the same results. I have tried different settings for GPU acceleration, RAM and VM Heap. I have rebooted my system and tried again with no other programs running. Nothing has helped. I've got a Core 2 Duo E4500 @ 2.2GHz, with 3GB RAM, which I would think is sufficient, but I haven't found any minimum hardware requirements.

I checked the system requirements on the ADT Bundle download page, and I noticed that I have OpenJDK-7 installed, not JDK-6. Could that be the problem? Is it not backward compatible?

Is there an error console or some other way to get more information to diagnose problems? This generic error message is pretty useless.

UPDATE:

Thanks for the tip on logcat. There were LOTS of errors, warnings and failures in there. So I went ahead and installed Oracle JDK-7 (it is compatible) even though there have been reports of successfully using OpenJDK. I also reinstalled ADT. But I'm still getting the same issue, "Unfortunately, Browser has stopped." I can launch other apps, like Calendar, Calculator, Contacts, Messaging, etc.

...Solved it. See answer below.

Digging through the logcat, immediately after the com.android.browser activity is launched, I found a "Fatal signal 11 (SIGSEGV)" in vold, the volume daemon that handles storage. Lots of other storage related issues in the log too. So I checked the virtual device settings one more time and noticed that the SD Card size was not specified. I had assumed that the default settings should work, but apparently not. I entered 2 GB for the SD Card, restarted the emulator, and the browser works fine now.


Installing/updating apps over mobile data On my LG G2 device running Android 4.2.2, I can't seem to install or update any applications while on the mobile network. I can still access the Play Store but upon tapping "Update", the download progress bar remains at 0% and fails after a while (presumably timing out).

I have only restricted background data on YouTube and Instagram but I don't think this would affect the Play Store.

Is this problem solvable or was this done by design? I am not rooted and do not have intention of rooting the device.

I think I found it, as I had the same problem:

In the Settings go to Mobile Data.
Scroll down to item "Media" and tap it.
Scroll down and see if "Limit background data" is checked. If so, uncheck

This was the cause in my case, because for the Play Store app the same setting was not active. The problem with Android in this situation is, that there is a global setting "Limit background data" and there's a per app setting. Unchecking the global setting does not uncheck the per app setting. Doh!


Can I transfer google play data to another gmail account address? I have been using other people google account for my google play. When I create my own google account, can I transfer every data (example: game account that bind to the google play) from the previous google account to my new google account?

No, you can't. However for games, based on this answer:

  the answer is it depends "on how the game data is saved by the developer"  For most games, no, you can't move their progress from one account to another.  But, some games do have that ability.

  You'll have to check with the developer of each game directly to see if they have coded that ability for their game.  Google doesn't have an overarching way to move data.


Can I remotely launch an app on my android phone? I have an HTC One S but I don't know where it is. I remotely installed 'Find My Phone' on it via Google Play Store. Now I want to remotely launch it. How can I do that?

Although there is not a general solution for remotely launching apps, here is a solution that applies to your situation:

First, install AndroidLost from the online Google Play Store.

this is the app you can use to control/wipe/access info about your lost device, yadayada

Give it a little time to install to your device, then install AndroidLost Jumpstart from the online Google Play Store as well

  This app will wake up the registration process on the androidlost app
  when ever a phone call is made, an SMS received, battery is low, a
  package is added, removed or changed.

So you have to install an arbitrary app from the Play Store as well to activate the service, but you can then go to androidlost.com to access functions to control your lost device! Including ringing an alarm ;)

EDIT 2015-01-29: Jumpstart won't help on a device with Android newer than 2.x, as in the description you can read: "Please note that google has changed the android API so this app only works on android version < 3."
So not possible with a phone with 4.x to register AndroidLost later, without the physical possess of the phone.


How can I read epub or mobi files with Kindle? I have purchased some ebooks which I have received in both EPUB and MOBI format.

Can I read these MOBI or EPUB files with the Kindle application ?

I copied the MOBI files into the kindle folder, but they do not show up in my Kindle main screen.

I will answer my own question in the hope in helps others: I just had to reboot my device, and now when I start Kindle the MOBI files which I had copied to the Kindle folder are present in the main screen.

So obviously the Kindle application must be restarted when you add ebooks to its folder (without downloading them via the Kindle store).

UPDATE

Added the Kindle folder:

/sdcard/kindle

Force closing and/or clearing the data, does not bring up an EPUB file I just copied to the folder. Will let you know after some more testing.

UPDATE 2

For those interested: the Calibre software, can convert any e-book between numerous formats (including EPB and MOBI). So, if the EPUB format is not recognized, just convert it to MOBI and use the converted file.


Google Device Manager on CyanogenMod - How to stop asking me to unlock phone all the time? I was playing around with Google Device Manager and so I decided to lock my phone to see it working.

Now every time I have to use my phone I have to unlock it with the password and after a while. It is annoying.

How can I stop it asking me for the password every time I turn ON the screen?

I'm using CyanogenMod 11 (Android 4.4.4) on a Galaxy S4

PS; I've read this question here on SE but not exactly the same problem as me. I can input the password and unlock it. I want to make it stop asking me to unlock the phone all the time.

I found the way to solve this.

1- Unlock the phone (as usual)
2- Go to settings
3- Go to Device
4 Go to lock screen
5 Select none
6 Press back
7 Turn off your screen, wait 5 seconds, and turn on again and you should have no lock at all.
8- Problem solved.

If you want to add a "normal" lock screen again, repeat steps 2, 3 and 4 and select your lock screen.


How to make Skype Mobile for Android permit PC-to-PC calling? I purchased a Samsung Galaxy Tab from Verizon Wireless without a contract, so no 3G support -- only WiFi. I went to Skype.com/m and installed Skype Mobile for Android. After installation, it lets me only do Skype Chat. If I try to do a Skype Call (PC-to-PC calling), it won't let me -- the call just dies. Does anyone know how to make it permit PC-to-PC calling, even though this "PC" is actually a Galaxy Tab on my end?

I mean, Android is built on Linux, and my Linux PC has a version of Skype that permits PC-to-PC calling, so I don't understand what the issue is here for Skype.com on this.

Skype today released Skype 1.0.2, and mayor change is support for Samsung Galaxy S. Maybe this will affect your phone too. Update and see


How to protect my Google Account? I am very concerned with security of my Google account in case I lose the phone (as in: lose it, have it stolen/robbed, etc.). Right now it seems that whoever grabs my phone will also have full access to mail, calendar etc.

I would be perfectly happy to sync manually and/or have a password prompt every time I try to sync, but I don't see this option.

How can I protect my account? Is screen lock any good? How hard is it to bypass it?

The phone is HTC Desire should it matter.

Instead of entering a password every time you sync or access your mails - which will also be more insecure, because you enter the password often and in public - think about a good screen lock (PIN or Password) and a remote wipe solution.

Changing your Google account password is always a good idea in case of a stolen Android device. According to Oleg Ostroumov comment, the device will stay logged in for ~hour and then request a password.


is CPU virtualization needed to run Android Virtual Device? My Dell Laptop has Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T6400 (2M Cache, 2.00 GHz, 800 MHz FSB) CPU which has no virtualization support.

http://ark.intel.com/products/40479/Intel-Core2-Duo-Processor-T6400-2M-Cache-2_00-GHz-800-MHz-FSB

Above link says :

Intel® Virtualization Technology (VT-x) ‡ no

My basic hello world Android application using eclipse not able to open AVD.
I can not see device window opening.

is that CPU visualization problem ?

Thanks in advance

While running AVD I got the error:

[2015-05-04 23:02:01 - TESTapplication] Launching a new emulator with Virtual Device 'TEST_5.1_5.1.1'
[2015-05-04 23:02:01 - Emulator] emulator: ERROR: x86 emulation currently requires hardware acceleration!
[2015-05-04 23:02:01 - Emulator] Please ensure Intel HAXM is properly installed and usable.
[2015-05-04 23:02:01 - Emulator] CPU acceleration status: HAX kernel module is not installed!

and I got the thread which talk about this error.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/27720064/hax-kernel-module-is-not-installed

so Conclusion is my Intel Core to Duo T6400 CPU do not support hardware virtualization and will not be able to run AVD. I need to get new Laptop to get this CPU function and AVD running.


transfer contacts from sd card to computer via USB Is it possible to transfer my contacts from a TMobile Concord Android sd card to my PC?  I have a USB cord.  I know the way to transfer it to Google, but this is my old phone with no service or connection.  I also have an Alcatel One Touch Fierce 2 that has some of my updated contacts on a SIM card (SIM won't stay in place because the metal piece that holds it broke off)  Again, no internet connection.  My new phone is an Iphone5c and I need to get those in there somehow.

Pretty easy to do, and probably explained in some other answers here already:

Open the Contacts app
Hit the Menu button/key, and chose "Export/Import"
Select "Export to SD card" (creates a file named something like 0001.vcf in the root of your SD card)
Either shutdown your phone and connect the SD card to your computer with a card reader, or connect the phone via USB (storage should show up there then)
copy the 0001.vcf file to your computer

*.vcf is a file in VCard format and can be read by many applications. So you can import it into the software of your choice (or transfer it to your new device to be imported there) and check whether all contacts came along. In case the SIM contacts are missing, you might need to first copy them into your device's own contacts.


How to lower OOM value of an app permanently? I am not challenging Android's memory management technique (like killers do). I just want to give an app higher priority even when it's not in foreground or visible (with notification).

AutoKiller Memory Optimizer is able to do it on rooted device, but the change lasts for few seconds if I multi-task.

I want to do this permanently: perhaps running a background daemon to do change continuously should work. How to do this?

On XDA I found a post discussing how to PIN an app to not get killed by OOM. As your question indicates your device is rooted, this could be useful for you. The principle described there can be applied to your case as well by simply changing the oom_adj value specified (the -17 would permanently PIN it, highest prio -- so use a larger value to "weaken" that).

The script snipped posted there looks like this:

#!/system/bin/sh
sleep 60

PPID=$(pidof com.estrongs.android.safer)
echo "-17" > /proc/$PPID/oom_adj

An anonymous user noted you could also set this file to read-only permissions to prevent Android from updating it, adding chmod 444 /proc/$PPID/oom_adj to the above script (the proposed 444 means nothing but read permission, but doesn't affect the system's ability to remove the file when the process ends). I have not verified that, but this could in fact save you from looping/repeatedly running the script, making the set value permanent for as long as the process lives.

As said, replace the -17 by your chosen value. Also replace the app's package name (com.estrongs.android.safer) by the package name of your target app. You can also lower the sleep value, or even ommit the sleep at all.

Now you need a way to auto-execute this as soon as your app is running. For this part, you could e.g. use Tasker: Context would be "app running" (and your app selected), and the task "run shell", with above script as parameter. Then, as soon as you start your app (and it comes to foreground), Tasker would execute the script -- and the oom_adj value should be applied.


How to lock/unlock recovery? If I lose the phone, someone may find it and try to reset the security pattern via recovery. How can I lock / unlock recovery via terminal?

You cannot lock the recovery. That's not recovery is intended.

The only chance to do so is locking bootloader.

However, if the bootloader on your device is not locked when it's out-of-the-box, then it can't be locked. Factory Reset Protection won't have much effect in this case.


How do I get an iTunes podcast into an Android phone? I want to listen to an iTunes podcast in Podcast Addict app on my Android phone. It doesn't come up in the search engine in the app, and I can't find the link (RSS I guess) on the iTunes site to plug it in manually.

How can I do this?

Podcast Addict v2.3 supports searching and listening to iTunes podcast directly from the app.

You can subscribe to iTunes podcasts (just copy/paste or press on the URL) and you can also browse the iTunes database, so the podcast you're trying to listen will now show up.


Fastboot not working for Kindle Fire HD When ever I try to fastboot my kindle fire HD 7 inch. Running 7.4.3 it does not pick up the device (it is also rooted) when I try the command fastboot -i 0x1949 getvar product.

I connect the kindle and it just reboots as it normally would the command window and it still says waiting for device.

I installed the SDK correctly since it allowed me to root my kindle just fine. Do I need another tool or should my kindle not be rooted?

After some digging, I found a solution that worked for me. I hope this helps you too:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2271909&page=9

In Windows Device Manager, find Tate-PVT-08 in on the list.
Right click, and select Update Driver
Select Browse computer for driver software
Select Choose from a list of device drivers installed on my computer
Find Kindle on the list
Accept ADB composite interface


New emails not showing up in Gmail app I have 2 different Android devices: a Samsung Galaxy Reverb phone and a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 tablet.

On both devices, I have just recently noticed that the official Gmail app is no longer showing new email messages in the list.  When new emails come in, I get Android notifications. If I select the email in the notification bar, then it brings up the new email.

But if I just go to the Gmail app, then I don't see new emails in the list. I have to manually change from Priority Inbox to Normal Inbox (or vice versa) in order for the new emails to show up in my list.

Is this happening for anyone else? Is there a fix for it?

Try opening the Gmail app, go to settings (click the three vertical dots in the top right), click on your email account and select "Default Inbox" as your Inbox type.

I expect this is happening because you've got "Priority Inbox" set as your default and this doesn't show all your messages.


Stock Android on Nexus S - "invalid magic code" I have a Nexus S (2.3.3, GRI54/I9023, bootloader unlocked, clockworkmod recovery installed, rooted) and I'm trying to flash it with a stock system.img that I built myself (no modifications - yet).

To make the stock Android build, I followed the instructions for making a build found at http://source.android.com/source/download.html. The build was successful and the system does work when run on the emulator.

To flash the ROM, I connect the phone, boot with Volume up + Power, connect USB and type

fastboot flash system system.img

The response that is shown on the phone is

Invalid magic code 0x00000003

What does this mean? What's wrong?

I believe you need the stock recovery, based on http://2chnull.info/r/smartphone/1292830738/801-900.  You can get back to stock recovery easily, for example follow this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=884093


how to connect blue yeti mic to galaxy nexus I'd like to use the blue yeti as audio input for recording video on the galaxy nexus. How can I achieve this? I know thus far that I need a USB otg cable, but when I plugged it in it didn't seem to be recognized. I'm running android jelly bean 4.2 and am using stock camera app for video recording.

I think you cannot do it yet because the drivers do not support it.

You can record audio on its own, though. USB Audio Recorder Pro from the Google Play store may work for this purpose. If you search for it, the description contains a link that will allow you to download a demo version for testing.

It definitely works with the Blue Yeti on Nexus 7 as reported by the developer, and a number of other devices.

Note that it has to be USB Audio Recorder Pro by extream software development (to which I am not affiliated), and not USB Audio Recorder which is a different product.

Whereas this is not a full answer to your question, I hope it helps.


How to assign a hardware button to camera I like the functionality of a hardware camera button. On my Lumia 920 I have a dedicated camera button that I can long-press at any time (in other apps or when the phone is locked) to open the camera app in 1-2 seconds.

I also have a Galaxy Note 1 (JB, rooted) without such hardware button. Is there a way to reconfigure one of the existing hardware buttons (e.g. long-press volume up) to always open the camera app even while the screen is locked?

You should be able to achieve what you want to do with the help of Home2 Shortcut. The app is self-explanatory. You can easily use it.

If you have enables S Voice on double-tap, go into the S Voice settings and uncheck the Launch SVoice box. This will keep S Voice from launching when you double tap the home button.

Open Home2 Shortcut and configure it to launch the app of your choosing with a double tap of the home button. When you get to the end, after you tap "close" it will ask you to set as default. Select Home2Launcher as the default.

Read more information here.


adb backup not working for certain app I need to get all files of a certain app (com.valvesoftware.android.steam.community), but adb backup only gives me a 1KB AES encrypted file. upon decrypting it there is nothing inside the tar archive

I tried: adb backup -f steam.ab  -noapk com.valvesoftware.android.steam.community

Upon entering my backup password (not the encryption password!) the steam.ab package is made. My problem is that there is just about 1KB of AES encrypted information in it.

However, it seems I can back up other apps just fine.

What is the cause of this?

Developers can decide to have their apps opt-out of backups (ALLOW_BACKUP=FALSE). If you try to backup such an app via adb backup, the resulting file will contain nothing but the backup header (usually a 41 byte file). Working around that limitation is only possible on rooted devices, e.g. using the XPosed module Backup All Apps.


Titanium backup : restore from Rootbox to a Samsung stock based rom I was using Rootbox(based on AOSP/AOKP/PA) (4.2.2) for some time so i made a backup of all my apps+data (system+user) and now i changed rom and i went to a Samsung stock based rom (4.1.2) .What apps are safe to restore to my new rom because i am very confused?I tried google it and i found that system apps+data must not be restored but i am not sure yet.
and what about user apps , is it safe to restore my user apps + data without having issues ?

thanks in advance!
and sorry for my bad english ...

There are multiple things to be considered.
First, you're absolutely correct: you should avoid restoring system apps. There might be some exceptions (as e.g. SMS, contacts, calendars are maintained by system apps as well), but let's postpone that for now.
Second, user-apps should be safe to restore, including their data.
Third, just to be sure, before restoring anything on a different ROM/device, you should take some pre-cautions: Go to TiBu's settings, watch out for the "Troubleshooting" section, and enable "migration mode" as well as "use system SQLite" (this combination saved my day more than once). While in "normal mode" e.g. SQLite databases would be simply replaced (which might cause the "owning app" to crash if the structure had changed), with "migration mode" TiBu attempts to only merge the data.
Forth, with above precautions taken, you could carefully try to even restore some of the relevant data (SMS, WiFi APs, etc.). To be on the absolutely safe side, a dedicated backup app for SMS etc. would be the better idea; contacts e.g. could be synced via Google or exported to .vcf using the Contacts app itself, similarly calendars (sync or save to .ics using a 3rd party app).
Last, just in case and to be on the sfe side: Restore your apps/data one by one, and check for possible side-effects in between; continue with the resp. "next app" only when you're sure everything is fine. Once running into trouble, remember which app that was; then factory-reset and restore all up to where you got allright (in case it was a system-app) or simply uninstall the troublemaker (in case of an user-app), skip the "trouble app", and continue carefully with the next.

After-thoughts from the comments:

the above applies to system apps and user-apps (the "one-by-one" especially applies to system apps, as you cannot uninstall them it something fails; though in most cases it suffices to "delete data" for the affected app in Settings→Apps – if you still can go there, that is)
the above applies as well when restoring a backup on a different device (as basically, that can be called a "different ROM" as well, right?)
possible side-effects might include force-close-loops of the affected app, even on device start – which again would require a factory-reset if it was a system app (or a user-app which wants to start at boot). With some luck, a start in safe-mode is possible in those cases, and you might be able solving the issue from there.
example case for a failed restore (from my own experience): I once restored the SMS from a different ROM (didn't know about the migration option then). Results were I couldn't open the SMS app at all (force-close). Other apps accessing the same database crashed when trying to do so (e.g. contacts). "Delete data" didn't solve it back then, so I had to factory-reset.
worst cases (at least if you left out system apps themselves; their data is OK) are always solved by a factory-reset. Really worst-case (you restored some system apps and broke it) is solved by re-flashing the ROM.


Fastboot flash bootloader fails I tried to install CM11 on my Nexus 10. But, I wasn't able to install the boot.img with fastboot (Rooted, CM11 flashed with Clockworkmod recovery):

[root@xx temp]# fastboot flash bootloader boot.img
sending 'bootloader' (5100 KB)...
OKAY [  0.708s]
writing 'bootloader'...
FAILED (remote: partition table update fail!)
finished. total time: 0.726s
[root@xx temp]#

The boot.img is from cm-11-20140405-SNAPSHOT-M5-manta.zip.

Any ideas, why this doesn't work?

The partition you want to write to is called boot, not bootloader, so the correct command is

fastboot flash boot boot.img


Using Calendar while calling Can I access the phone calendar whilst on a call on a Samsung GT i8500.  If so, how?

Yes you can.. while the call is active, press the home button. The current call will be minimize on the top notification bar. you can start any other app, while the call is still going on.


How to stop Chrome (on Android) from opening a certain website for joining to Telegram Channels? On my Android on a mobile set, I recently have encountered a problem. I have Chrome and Telegram installed. The Chrome repeatedly and automatically open a link like https://t.me/joinchat/.... which invites a person to join a Telegram Channel. After this page, it automatically switch to Telegram Messenger which pop-up the same message box for joining the channel.

I don't know whether the source of this pop-up is Chrome or Telegram. Anyway I restricted people who can invite me to Channels on Telegram to my contacts and even blocked suspicious contacts, but it doesn't solve the problem. I disabled pop-ups in Chrome setting but it still didn't help.

How can I disable this pop up for this certain website, or any other solution?

The link to open the telegram channel will be there in your incognito windows tabs.
Close that tabes from your incognito window.
Then these telegram channels opening automatically when you open chrome browser will be stopped.


Wheel behaviour for HTC Desire (setting alarm) A couple of days ago I was setting my alarm on my HTC Desire (rooted and flashed with InsertCoin) when I realised a really cool behaviour with the wheel whilst selecting the 'minutes'.

Basically, no matter how quickly I flicked it would stop at 00,15,30,45. ie. it would be scrolling fairly fast, but would jolt to a halt and stop at '15'

Now, I didn't really think about it that much, other than "wow this is cool, don't remember this before"

However, now I can't seem to reproduce the same behaviour - when I flick the wheel it just scrolls and eventually slows to a halt at any old number...

Just wondering, did I somehow do something special to trigger the "smart scroll"? Has anyone else seen similar behaviour with the scrolling wheel?

On my Desire with InsertCoin 1.1.0 (CM7 + Sense) the "smart scroll" feature is only active on the scroller for specifying the appointment time in the calendar.


HTC One X - recording filters high frequencies I've got an HTC One X, on which I'm trying to record uncompressed WAV audio.

In particular, I'm interested in a 13.5 kHz sound. Other Android devices pick up that frequency easily, and so do iOS devices, but the HTC One X doesn't.

For example, the spectrogram below shows the same recording from the HTC One X (top) and an HTC One V (bottom), recorded with the same app (called Hertz, but any will do), with identical settings (mainly 44,100 Hz sampling rate).

Why is the One X not picking up the same?

Is the microphone different?
Is there any low-pass filter applied that I'm not aware of? If so, how can remove it?

Trying with different apps (e.g. Audalyzer) doesn't make any difference.

It doesn't say it on HTC's website under the specs for the One X, but this review points out that the phone has dual-microphones, used for sound cancellation during phone calls. My guess is perhaps your recording app is recording from the wrong microphone? Or using both to cancel out the pitch you're looking for?

I'd look for settings in your recording apps about using the dual-microphones. I don't have a phone with two, so I can't test that for you :/

Good luck though!


Tool for accessing android files on a linux pc over wi-fi What is the best app to browse, explore and access android files on a Linux machine over wifi?

FTPServer is very good, SwiFTP is another option.  I believe they're both in the Market.


Adb push does not work When I run the command

adb push file.txt /flash/Data

it writes this error message

failed to copy 'file.txt' to '/flash/Data': Read-only file system

I tried to solve it according to this page
http://android-tricks.blogspot.com/2009/01/mount-filesystem-read-write.html but with no success.

Could you navigate me and solve the problem? thank you

You have to have root access to mount the drive as that article is describing (calling su == becoming root).

What are you trying to accomplish? Can you push the file to the sdcard instead (if your device has one)?


Help automating Wi-Fi Calling or Airplane mode toggle with Tasker I am absolutely 100% new to Tasker. I have bought and install this app to automate a few things which IFTTT simply can't.

Here is the situation :

My bedroom is in a basement apartment and so I do not get good cell service reception at all while I'm down there, and since it doubles as my office space (on days I work from home) and my gaming area, I tend to spend a decent amount of my time in my room. This being said, I have an LG V30 ThinQ with android 8.x Oreo and my current service provider offers a Wi-Fi Calling service. Naturally, I turned it on and bingo... Calls are now crisp and text messages send without a hitch! Well... that's at home at least. You see, at my work the opposite is true : The Wi-Fi is shit, but the cell service reception is always super strong. Yes, my phone does have a setting to use Wi-Fi calling as a second priority to my cell service (meaning that it will use my cell service before using the Wi-Fi Calling) but instead of switching intelligently based on the strength of the cell service reception strength, it only switches to Wi-Fi Calling once I stop having cell service reception period! Which doesn't work well in the basement, since sometime I get just enough signal to toggle it back to the shitty cell service for calling!

So, I would like to create a task with Tasker that, once connected to/disconnected from my home network, would allow either the Wi-Fi Calling to be toggled ; or for the airplane mode to be toggled. That way, as long as I'm connected to my home network, my phone will be using the Wi-Fi calling capabilities, without having to toggle them on and off again manually.

Problem is, since I'm new to this, I don't know the first thing about programming a task in this version of Tasker. All tutorials I came across were very little helpful.

Could somebody work me though setting up something along those lines?

Thanks,

Nikolas Desforges

Create a profile "Home" with state "Wi-Fi Connected" and SSID set to your home Wi-Fi  network name.

On the profile create a task that

Turns on Airplane Mode
turns on Wi-Fi

This will be triggered when connected to your home network.

On the same profile create an exit task that

Turns off Airplane Mode

This will be triggered when disconnected to your home network.

Finally set your Wi-Fi Calling preference to "Cellular Network Preferred" (or whatever it is on your phone).


Cannot see SSIDs except for mobile hotspots, why? I have no idea why, but I cannot see any of the SSIDs, except for mobile hotspots from phones or laptops. I am from Belgium and am in the USA now, if that matters. Someone told me, it's because I can only see 802.11n networks and they are probably broadcasting 802.11 b/g, not n. Am i really not able to connect? Or can I change my settings somewhere to find those networks. This is really inconvenient :/

Edit: Could it be related to the channel it is sending out? Are they sending over different channels in the USA and Europe?

It seems they were broadcasting in 5GHz only, which my phone cannot receive...


Error when running android apps via bluestacks (Unsupported Device) I run android apps using Bluestacks. I installed Clash of Clans android file and installed it and played it via Bluestacks. There is no problem playing the game. But when I want to sign in to my google account in clash of clans (Setting › sing in to google), this error appears:

  "Google Play services which some of your applications rely on is not
  supported by your device. Please contact the manufacturer of your device".

Although I have Google Play Service installed on Bluestacks, this error appears again. Because I want to safeguard my progress in Clash of Clans, I must find a solution to this problem. I wanted to install Google Play Games, but the same error appeared. Please help me, what should I do?

you need Download Google Play Service Based on your Device DPI,

Supported DPI'S :

Also, you can Install CPU-Z Then, look at this section :
for example, look at the Screen Density on below picture :

as we can see on above picture, this picture have 560DPI.

and then, you need Google Play service For 560DPI.(for Example )


Can 5GHz wi-fi be disabled in Nougat? I have an ASUS Zenpad 10 that I travel with a lot, as in I'm connecting to other people's networks where I have zero control over the router settings.

Since upgrading to Nougat 7.0 the tablet now permanently prefers connecting to the faster, but usually weak and spotty 5 GHz networks instead of the slower but much stronger and much more reliable 2.4 GHz networks. They're still fast enough to stream Netflix so they're fast enough for me.

The tablet won't upgrade beyond 7.0, I assume this is controlled by my carrier, Verizon?

I would love to find a way to convince my Tablet that 5GHz simply doesn't exist. Is there a third party app for this or something?

Following this discussion with Izzy, I think your scenario is the opposite of the described problem in that post, it seems you simply want stick to the 2.4GHz connection because it is associated with better signal strength (although slightly slower when compared to 5GHz).

As such I'd recommend  this tool called, Wifi Band Switcher on this thread. This app has been reverse engineered from the code from that gives advanced wi-fi menu since it essentially uses some standard AOSP hidden APIs. So the developer created an app that uses these same hidden APIs. With this you can force the WLAN band to be always the 2.4GHz.

Note: the app must be installed as system app.

Usage:

Just extract apk and using root explorer paste in system/app set permissions

  rw-r--r-

Not the prettiest interface but could possibly do the job, it is essentially the same implementation found in native android ROMs:

Alternatively you could try using using Wi-fi analyzer by farproc (to analyse the available bands) in conjuction with its open source plug-in Wi-fi Connecter Library to selectively connect to the 2.4Ghz band.

  If you are viewing the AP list of networks in Wi-fi Analyzer which
  shows you both the 5.0Ghz and the 2.4Ghz, with this plugin installed
  you can then tap and connect.

Additionally as suggested by Izzy in that discussion, you could also try
Smart WiFi Selector(trial)


Limited App Storage? I was trying to download a HQ TTS voice and I got the insufficient storage error. I then noticed that only about half my memory is reserved for apps only. I have 3.03GB left while only 288MB for apps? Why is there a difference? And how can I increase or change this limit so I could use more space for my applications?

Edit: when I ran DiskUsage I noticed there was such a thing as App Storage. Why is mine limited to 2 GB? I have 4GB internal and 4 GB SD card btw.

If you've ever partitioned a disk, you might know how one partition can fill up, even though the disk itself has plenty of space. This is one of the drawbacks to partitioning.

Well, Android partitions the disk, and then mounts the data partition onto the filesystem so that it all looks like one disk.  The data partition is usually called, confusingly, "sdcard" (the reason for the name is another story).  This partition is mounted on the directory "/mnt/sdcard".  The size is fixed by the manufacturer, and can't be easily changed.  It would require root access, and a program to resize partitions.

Recent versions of Android allow programs to store parts of themselves on the sdcard (named "extsdcard") if you have one.  I don't know why you can't use the data partition instead, but apparently you can't do it this way.

The result of all this is that without root access and knowledge of disk partitioning and the Android filesystem, there's not much you can do except delete what you don't really need.


Accessing a phone after factory resetting it with adb I have a smartphone running Android 6.0.1. The screen is broken and unresponsive so I control the phone using adb and scrcpy, but to run adb I had to turn on "USB debugging" from "Developer options". I want to know that whether after factory resetting(using adb) will I still be able to access the phone with adb? Since the "USB debugging" option would get turned off after a factory reset, would I still be able to access the phone using adb?

You won't have USB debugguing after a factory reset.
Perhaps you could tweak a custom rom to do so, i never tryed myself, but ie TWRP recovery have adb enabled by default.


Set encryption password for booting on OnePlus 5? How do you set a custom encryption password on the OnePlus 5 and make the system prompt for the password on boot?

The OnePlus One made this easy, but I can't figure out how to do it on the OnePlus 5.

(Otherwise what is the point of encryption if the device automatically decrypts itself?!?!)

I was trying to do this too, but it seems like this is by design as seen at  oneplus forum.

Apparently nothing gets decrypted after boot until you enter your pin/pattern but it's still a bit disappointing if you want the phone to not even boot without authentication.


Installation is getting failed I used whatsapp for past 2 months and it gets uninstall by mistakenly and I tried to install it again but i can't install again it shows that I don't have sufficient storage what should I do please help me I need whatsapp for my study purposes

Check your phone whether having enough space for the app. Normally it requires more space than the size of the app during installation.

If your phone has enough space, try to clear both cache and data for your Google Play in App Manager and perform a restart for your phone after clearing cache and data. It should work afterwards.

Credit to this post. I tried this method and it worked for me

Hope it helps =)


"Format as Internal Storage" option no longer available When I first inserted my SD card, it showed a notification with an "options button." I proceeded to format the card as external, portable storage, although the system storage format option was available (a mistake on my part). I later realized this when there was no option to move apps to SD card, as you can on LG devices. So, I went to storage settings, and pressed format, and it did not show the option to format as internal memory. Could anyone help me set this microSD card as internal storage? ***

  Please note that this is not a previously asked question. I know that
  my phone has the ability to set it as internal storage. I have seen
  the option. Read the entire question.

It seems like manufacturers are removing the "Format as Internal" feature on newer phones. Perhaps because it's in their interest to force us to upgrade our devices after running into memory frustrations.

So after a long and frustrating process, this eventually method worked for me. I had to make two alterations:

I used the MTK ADB driver instead of the one linked in the guide. This depends on your chip type, there's no harm in trying both if you don't know which to pick. Just that your phone might not show up on step 7.
On step 8, the fourth command adb shell sm partition disk:179,64 private might give you a java exception error. I had to use my result from the first command adb shell sm list-disks which was something like disk:179,124. The author neglects to mention that this may vary for your device.

With a bit of patience this should work for you too. If I missed anything, search the comments of the article, another person's experience might give you a clue.


What will happen if I flash a custom rom for GT-I9082 on a GT-I9060c/m/i? I have a Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo Plus/DUOS (GT-I9060C) and I would like to know what will happen if I FLASH A Custom Rom for the Galaxy Grand Neo DUOS (GT-I9082) Onto my phone (GT-I9060C)

Will it be Hard-Bricked,Soft Bricked or will it work fine

Custom ROM description : Lineage OS (Android 7.1)
Linux 3.0
Supports dual sim

Current rom: Rooted Stock rom 4.4.4 kitkat SuperSU  Pro running TWRP 3.0 For GT-I9060I (idk how gt-i9060i twrp recovery worked on the gt-i9060c
With AKAS security software (idk what that is)

Hmm So if i did flashed the rom and its soft bricked (repairable) will i still be able to use DownLoad Mode because i heard some people said that it will hard brick your phone (unrepairable) if you install roms that wasnt met for your phone. Also im on GT-I9060C not on GT-I9060I because i9060i doesnt have a magnetic sensor

Heres some description about my phone:

The similarities of the 2 devices are mostly only in their name. Grand Duos (i9082) is out Jan 2013 and uses a Broadcom BCM28155 SoC, while Grand Neo Plus Duos (i9060i) along with its family are out circa 2015 and use a Broadcom BCM23550 SoC.

Recovery will reject ROMs made for a different device, and even if you manage to flash it in, it won't boot due to the hardware difference (soft-brick in your words).


Android 5.1 on Samsung Galaxy S4 I have upgraded my Samsung Galaxy S4 to Android 5.0.1. It is full of bugs, but I don't wont to downgrade to Kitkat.

I have heard that Android 5.1 is available. Is it possible to get it for my S4?

We are just Android Users, it means, you need to follow the Sites or below link for find any update you need it :

SamMobile - Firmware Search

also, if you need 5.1.0 you can use custom roms if this version availabe for your phone.

good day.


Are there any apps for storing SMS online for latter viewing and searching? I like how Google voice stores all my text messages online so I can search them and store conversations for ever. But I am not a fan of Google voice and want to use my own number etc.

I saw a few apps that upload texts to Gmail but I don't want to clutter my gmail inbox. Any separate apps that are specialized in this?

There are several programs that will allow you to save your texts (among other things) on a computer, like Myphoneexplorer. It depends if you want to be able to access them everywhere, or if having them on one computer is enough for you (you can still do copies/backups of the texts).


how to sync phone memory with pc? Before Jelly Bean forced us to use MTP mode (mass transfer protocol) instead of Mass Storage Device, It was dead simple to backup my phone to my pc, because I only needed to plug it in, and sync the contents of the SD card to my PC.

I used an app called "Free File Sync", which basically just syncs any two folders in windows.

The problem now is, that MTP mode doesn't assign drive letters to the phone's memory (internal and SD), which causes that my syncing program simply doesn't recognize the device.

I have the same problem with other programs that I use to manage my phones SD card, namely "TreeSize free", which analyses any folder or drive and gives you an oversight of the space consumed by folders, etc. Again, since the phone is not assigned a drive letter, the program simply ignores it, as if it wasn't there.

So what are my options? Is there a default way of syncing MTP drives with Windows?

I also have tried to enable Mass Storage in my phone, but it doesn't work (the option is simply no longer there in Jellybean 4.1.2, or at least in my model)

Note, I don't want apps to make backups of my stuff (apps, pictures, etc), I already have them (Titanium Backup, etc), what I want is to be able to SYNC everything in my phone (backups included) to my pc automatically.

I could simply copy ALL files from Windows Explorer every single time, and then manually syncing it to the destination backup folder, but obviously is not convenient and loses the point of SYNCING.

So what can I do? I just want to once in a while sync everything in my phone to my pc as a backup.

Thanks!

The easiest way probably is to turn the mechanism around: instead of letting Windows do the sync, let the Android device take care. From there, you should have full access at least to your SDCard (internal as well as external). So all that's needed is a possibility for the Android device to access your Windows PC.

On your Windows PC, create a "share" (i.e. share a directory to the network)
On your Android device, install an app like e.g. FolderSync
in FolderSync, setup at least one account (in your case, an SMB account pointing to your Windows machine) (thanks to arberg for pointing out this missing step!)
In FolderSync, configure your "folder pairs": which directory on your Android device should get synchronized with which directory on the Windows share.

You can sync manually, or in time intervals. You even can restrict it to WiFi, so it wouldn't eat your data plan (I'm not sure wether you can restrict it to a specific WiFi network, so it would e.g. only sync at home -- but that's possible to do as well at least with some similar sync app).


Will playing a game in a Android phone while charging damage or cause harm to the battery or the phone? Will the following situation damage or cause any harm to the battery or/and the phone:

The phone is being charging (regardless it is using the electrical outlet or via USB) and ..
You are playing a game while the phone is being charging and ..
You will be playing the game for 5 hours or more.

In another word, if you will be playing a android game in a android phone for 5 hours or more while the android phone is being charging, will it cause any damage or harm to the android phone and/or the battery inside the android phone?

Playing while charging does not damage the battery or phone directly.

The only problem is that:

battery gets warmer when is charging, and phone also gets hot when playing. So, when you play while charging, phone gets too hot and we know that battery life would be affected when it works in very hot conditions.

Sources to read more:

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_heat_and_harsh_loading_reduces_battery_life

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries


droid x bluetooth volume too low Does anyone know how I can get under the hood and modify the db output for my bluetooth media levels? I've read numerous posts of people complaining about this problem but am unable to find a solution.  On previous phones, I was able to access the underlying system settings by inputting some lengthy combination of numbers.  I don't know if this sort of hardware access exists on the droid x. I'm not finding anything on-line as to how to do this.
All ideas welcome.

Configurations

For most devices, you can only modify the volume of the earpiece, bluetooth, media volume or call volume if you are currently using that feature.

So, the best is to use your device "menu" button when you are using the bluetooth earpiece and check if said option exists. Alternativly, use the volume up/down from your device while with the bluetooth earpiece in use to try and control its volume.

One user at droidxforums mentioned a working solution for him:

  Turn off the Bluetooth on the Droid X. Place a phone call like normal. Adjust the call volume to the MAX and then hang up. Turn the Bluetooth on the Droid X back on and activate your voice command. It will work. You can adjust volume up or down in that fashion.

Apps

If to no avail, currently, there are a few apps available from Google Play Store to deal with issues like this:

Recommended for custom ROM:

Volume+ FREE and the donate version Volume+ (Volume Boost)

Gives great results in controlling volume settings separably for each sound output available.

Recommended for Stock ROM

Bluetooth Volume

Worked as promised to control the bluetooth sound output, ideal for boosting in call volume.

This are the ones I have used with excellent results, you can find others at Google Play Store.


Can't format SD card as internal storage Today I installed my first custom ROM (Lineage OS 17.1, official page) on my old Motorola phone (Moto G3 Turbo edition, XT1516). Everything great until I wanted to format my SD card as internal storage, you know, that kind of format android uses that doesn't allow you to view its contents if you plug it on a PC. Well... at the moment to configure it, it asks me if I want to format the SD card, if I select format SD card it formats as portable storage as default (screenshots in Spanish).

And to get that menu again I need to remove the SD card from the phone, erase the partition and try again. I can exit that pop up menu touching another part of the screen. This time it shows me two options, first, additional storage (Almacenamiento adicional in Spanish) which is only for apps, etc and to use it only on the phone, the second one is portable storage, the one I don't want. The problem is the first option is disabled!!, what am I doing wrong? If I insert the SD card already formatted as FAT32 the configuration menu doesn't appear and uses it as portable storage.

It seems that they disabled that function for the Motorola phones. But I found a way to force it using ADB commands. Here are two links with instructions to do so if someone faces the same situation as me.
How to turn a portable SD card into internal storage via ADB command?

How to Easily Make MicroSD Card Become Internal Memory Without Root – No More Insufficient Storage


Does using uTorrent for Android wear out the phone's SSD? When you use uTorrent for Android, does it trash the SSD with multiple writes? Since most phones' internal memory and SD cards are flash based, and torrents do multiple writes, are they especially harmful for the lifespan of SSDs?

If so, are there workarounds?

First I'll play dumb.

According to this, a torrent file should have around 1000-1500 pieces. But let's take an especially poorly made torrent; a 4GB file (FAT32's maximum allocateable file size) split into 16kB pieces; that is ~250 000 pieces, so 250 000 write cycles. Common SD cards (and phone internal memories too) endure approximately 100 000 write cycles; so if you calculate this, you'll reach the conclusion that your card will fail before half of this torrent downloads. But this reasoning is wrong.

Each cell in flash memory endures 100 000 write cycles, and different chunks get written to different cells (overwriting the previous chunk with the next would be kind of dumb) - so even by downloading this one torrent, you will only use up 1 write cycle of this 4 GB area. So what counts is not the total number of writes, but the number of times a single cell has been written.

(Also, it can be noted that on most storage devices the computer does not write/read arbitrary lengths of data; it reads/writes a single 512-byte block at a time. So even if you write this file in one single pass, it will get written to the card divided into 512-byte blocks - so that means 500 million writes, but it's spread over 500 million blocks, so the wear is still one write cycle.)

Another thing to take into consideration is that SD cards and most flash controllers often do wear leveling, which means if the controller notices one block to be worn more than another, it swaps them internally to wear them equally, without the host system noticing. Also they include spare blocks to replace worn-out blocks - so even if you single out a block and try to wear it out, you'll find it will endure a lot more write cycles than it should, because halfway into the assault the controller remaps it. The whole card fails only when it runs out of spare blocks.


Why droid explorer show different set of folders than the one on file explorer? This is what droid explorer shows

This is in file explorer

According to file explorer I am at the root. So How can I see what's on file explorer via droidexplorer or via versa?

The former shows the root file system – the latter what MTP provides (usually the internal or external SD card). Different directories/places, hence of course it shows different sets of folders :)


How do I smite this unknown vampire process that is sucking the blood out of my battery? I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 that I upgraded to 4.4 a couple of days ago. Since upgrading, my battery longevity has dropped a crazy amount. Just this morning, it took about four hours to go from full charge all the way down to about 25%, and that's without much use. Previous to upgrading, I could go for about two days while listening to podcasts and writing emails and general normal use.

I looked in the system settings under the battery usage, and discovered that some "unknown" process was responsible for 50% of my battery use:

I clicked on the process to see if I could kill it, but the option to "force stop" was greyed out:

I tried rebooting, but, near as I can tell, it's still there, eating my battery.

How to I put a stake in the heart of this vampire process and make sure it never returns?

Update: More battery madness.

Yesterday, I woke up and my battery was dead, even though it was left in the charger for the night. Took a few rounds of trying to recharge and reboot to get any response, but eventually I got it running again, and this is what I saw in the battery settings:

Looks kind of like Google+ threw a fit and sucked the life out of the battery. Though, actually, I think that's probably a misreporting of events.

Okay, so then, yesterday, I was listening to a podcast, and I hear a pop and then my phone reboots. Again, when it's back on, I check the battery report:

It's pretty normal for the screen to be the biggest battery draw, but I don't see why suddenly the available battery power droped by about half at the time the phone self-booted.

So... I don't really know what to make of any of this. I'm kind of thinking maybe my battery is dying and behaving oddly. But if anyone has any better ideas...?

If you are rooted, I would recommend downloading Better Battery Stats (or Wakelock Detector) from the Google Play Store, and finding the name of the 'mad' processes.

If you aren't rooted, I recommend you root as other apps can't access battery stats as of Android OS version 4.4.


Using software keyboard in AOSP custom build emulator I was finally able to build my own AOSP image, and I want to debug some problem with the software keyboard. However, the default emulator has a physical keyboard emulated, and I don't know how to disable it.

I know that the Android SDK allows disabling the keyboard when creating an AVD, but I was only able to create such AVDs for the platforms that come with the SDK, and not for my own build.

I found a solution. I don't know if it is the best place to do such a modification, but I was able to edit the default emulator skin at

development/tools/emulator/skins/HVGA/hardware.ini

And set hw.keyboard=no there.


Transfer SMS message history, without Google account How can I backup and restore SMS message history, and restore on a later Android version — using only the SD card storage?

I am upgrading from one device to another:

Existing device: Google Nexus One running Android 2.3 Gingerbread (CyanogenMod 7.1).
Destination device: HTC Incredible S running Android 4.4 KitKat (CyanogenMod 11).

Both devices have full root access in the operating system.

I have no Google account, and no non-free software. This means no Google Play, no GMail, etc.

The devices have existing means to transfer data, so Google should not need to be involved in this process at all. I'm looking for a solution that doesn't involve Google Play nor any proprietary services.

Apps which have failed so far:

The built-in Messaging app. There appears to be no “export” and “import” feature. Kind of an obvious omission, a great shame the Android basic apps don't have this.
Slight Backup easily backs up the messages, and I can restore them on CyanogenMod 11. But then the Messaging app shows “No conversations”.
SMS Backup+ has the same problem: it can backup and restore (via my choice of IMAP host), but after restoring all the messages it reports “1 item restored (NNN dups removed)”. The Messaging app shows “No conversations”.

How can I transfer the message history from the old device and have it imported to the new device's message history of conversations?

UPDATE: The new restrictions on SMS data access in Android KitKat is likely a major hurdle to this goal.

How can this be done?

There are several apps supporting to Backup SMS/MMS (and of course also to restore them), running locally in "user-mode" (if you prefer cloud storage, which by the question you do not, there are also ways to Backup SMS into the Cloud).
As your devices have root support, you might consider using Titanium Backup – which allows you a.o. to export your SMS/MMS as XML files (and also to restore that, of course). This solution should definitely work with CyanogenMod (while above mentioned apps should as well).
A note on the "backups via ADB" RossC referred to in his comment on your question:

Can adb be used to recover SMS messages while in permanent “Safe Mode”? deals with backing up the corresponding database file. When chosing that approach, you should make sure to only restore that on the very same device, ROM and Android version (e.g. after a factory-reset, but never after a ROM/Android upgrade or on a different device). Otherwise you might run into trouble (says one who had that issue in the past, so you can believe it ;))
How do I backup data (SMS/contacts) from a device with a broken screen? has answers with the same approach (to which the same warning applies), but some answers also mention tools simply utilizing ADB to access the device. I've never used any of those (as most seem to be Windows-only – like Moborobo, Myphone Explorer (most famous solution for Windows-people, offering a lot more than just SMS), Mobogenie, DroidExplorer (the dev is active here!) – and I'm on Linux – my only windows are for light and fresh air), but I'd assume they do more than simply "copy the database file", so they might fit your requirements. Still, for above reasons, read their instructions carefully.


copy text in froyo from web page including newlines? I have just bought a new HTC Desire HD running Android 2.2 (Froyo).

I am trying to copy text from a rather vast archive of notes which I had built up on my old phone, which was running Symbian. The notes were saved using the ActiveNotes application, which is not available on Android, only on Symbian. ActiveNotes saves the notes as HTML files, which I can easily view on Android using the HTML viewer or web browser, or any other html reader (such as Dolphin).

I have tried to use the built-in copy/paste functionality by touch-and-hold then "select all" and copy. This does not seem to work in HTML viewer, but does work in the browser or Dolphin. However, ActiveNotes stores the newlines in my notes using paragraph tags (HTML <p> tags) and these are not correctly copied by the built-in text copier. Because of this, all the text appears as one long string, without any line breaks, when I paste it into my Android notes application (or indeed any Android notes application such as Messaging). This is very annoying as many of my notes are in excess of 100 lines long.

A number of copy/paste apps seem to be available which use the "Share Page" option on the menu. I use this when accessing my page through a URL through Astro, so the URL looks something like "content://com.metago.astro.filesystem/mnt/sdcard/Activenotes/NoteNameHere.html?text/plain". The two copy/paste apps I tried were "Any Web Copy" and "Copy To Clipboard". The latter seems to always copy just the URL (rather than the page content) to the clipboard. The former copies the web page text to the clipboard for "http://" links but refuses to for these "content://" links. Even when the web page text is copied to the clipboard (e.g. from an internet page), it still seems to be devoid of any newlines for much of the page.

Since the source of these files is actually viewable (e.g. in the plain text editor) there MUST be a way to copy the content of the pages including newlines. I could do this conversion myself on PC manually for every single file, but this would take a very long time and I would much rather be able to convert files on-demand on my phone using the above method. However, I am at a bit of a loss as to how to preserve the newlines. I hope that someone more experienced might be able to help or recommend an application that could help.

While I can't help you with the copy-paste, I do recommend using an automatic solution to convert the files.  Conversion to PDF might help if Adobe Reader for Android will let you copy newlines, or you could have a <br /> tag inserted after every paragraph, etc.


How to move app to sd card when it is not possible? Tap Application Manager. Select an app you want to move to the microSD card. If you don't see a Move to SD Card button, the app cannot be moved.

How to move these types of apps to sd card?

on my Asus Zenfone 2, i formatted the micro sd with one partition adopted and second in fat32 and with Apps2SD or Link2SD i always got error "second partition not found".

I found that with the swiss-knife "Titanium Backup ★ root" it's very easy and it's working:
just keep my finger on the app i'd like to move and select "move to adoptable" et tah-dah: my app is moved on the adopted partition on sd.


Default kernel version of Android-x86 ISO I know that android-x86[...]-k49.iso means it is using kernel version 4.9, but for some ISO like android-x86[...]-r4.iso, the kernel version is not mentioned.
Since 64-bit isn't booting for me, it might have kernel version 4.9+ but not 4.19 since 4.19 is also available for download.
How can I know what is the default kernel version?

How can I know what is the default kernel version?

By reading the release notes. With every new release, the development team publishes the major changes compared to the previous releases. The kernel version is mentioned under the Key Features section.
The Release Note for 8.1-r4 indicates:

Update to LTS kernel 4.19.110.

For 8.1-r5:

Update to LTS kernel 4.19.122.

For 9.0-r2:

Update to LTS kernel 4.19.110.

When the iso file is not for the latest version, then the kernel is also mentioned with the filename.
For example, there are 3 64-bit files for 8.1-r4. The first 2 are for the kernel 4.19.110 (not mentioned on the filename), while the third filename has the kernel mentioned - kernel 4.9.

64-bit ISO:  android-x86_64-8.1-r4.iso
64-bit rpm:  android-x86-8.1-r4.x86_64.rpm
64-bit ISO with kernel 4.9:  android-x86_64-8.1-r4-k49.iso


How can I permanently disable (not uninstall) a stock app? I want to disable some of the stock apps that I don't use (e.g. Drive, Keep). These are stock Android/Google apps, not third-party apps. When I attempt to disable them:

I get a warning that disabling them may break things (I accept)
I get a request asking if I want to install the factory version (I accept, because if I don't, they are not disabled)
they are removed from the apps menu
when I restart the device, the newer version is downloaded and the app is no longer disabled

As a side note, other users on the same device (with their own accounts) may want use some of these apps. Can I disable them for my account only?

If it matters, I'm running KitKat on a Nexus 7 (2012).

Disambiguation: I have not found a duplicate of this question because it is:

a) about stock Android apps, not so-called stock apps from a third-party vendor

b) about disabling these apps, which the system at first permits me to do, not uninstalling them

There is no way to disable an app for some users of a device but not others; it's possible to freeze an app using a third party program (ie, disable it by changing it's permissions so it can't run) but that will disable it for all users.  Android apps and services don't distinguish between physical users of a device - they all run using a single logical device user account.

That being said, depending on what exactly you're looking for it may be sufficient to disable data synchronization for a specific Google account in the settings.  In Android 4.4.0, this would be under Settings->General->Accounts->Google->[account name], which will bring up a checklist of services for which data syncing can be disabled.


GPT utility can brick laptops? Which utility is Android-x86 using for partitions?  Is it gdisk?  The prompt is to use GPT.  What are the risks with regards to formatting a disk with this tool, and installing Android-x86?  Under which circumstances can this result in bricking a laptop?  Deleting partitions will result in bricking the laptop??

GPT seems to operate a bit differently from the last time I formatted a HD by hand, which involved the MBR.  (There's no data on the hdd.)

The official documentation glosses over the install process with sentences like "if you are lucky" so it's a bit unclear.

We all know that the matter concerning bricking a device is complex and often confusing, so let's make some clearance.
Meaning of bricking
Bricking, if considered literally, means "to have a device so unusable it could be a brick". This, on mobile devices, is an umbrella term for two different things:

soft brick: as a result of flashing or alternatively installing incompatible software, your device gets messed up. This can produce behaviours such as bootloops, but can generally be solved by flashing a new firmware, or restoring a working Nandroid backup (if any);

hard brick: this is the "bad" kind of brick. You messed up a component known as the bootloader, and now the device doesn't even know how to turn itself on.

Since all of the partitions on a mobile device are contained within the same physical medium (internal storage), in this case messing up with its partitions can lead to hard bricks.
On PCs and laptops
Those devices are physically different from mobile ones... yes, even inside. Their core software component, which does a job similar to the mobile bootloader, is called the BIOS (on old devices), or the UEFI (on newer devices).
This is what sends the signal that pings all of the hardware connected with a computer, and therefore the most important part. As such, it's contained within a small memory that's entirely dedicated to it. This memory was previously called ROM (Read-Only Memory), even if we now have EEPROMs (Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM). As you may guess, the only way to make a computer totally unusable would be to overwrite the content of this chip, for example when updating the BIOS.

So, can I brick my computer by altering the partition table?
No, you can't. All of your changes only affect the Hard Disk or Solid State Disk in question, so they may mess up your current operating system, but that's nothing that can't be fixed by simply reinstalling it.


Viewing Google back-up How can I tell if I backed up my phone to Google?  I don't know if did, but I sure hope so because I have to reset it - the phone won't turn on.  Thanks for your help.

Go to https://www.google.com/settings/dashboard in a web browser (on any device) and log in with your Google account details. You'll see a section called Android. If you expand it, you'll see a list of all the devices which have backed up data automatically to your Google account, and a list of all the apps with backup data and the time they last backed up.


Whats the difference between cell phone and data radiation Is cell phone and data/WiFi/LTE radiation the same thing?  Or are they entirely different technologies?

Are any of them dangerous? I ask because i use my phone a lot at night in bed and i look at my phone really close to my face when I'm lying down. I don't call but use LTE and WiFi mostly and I'm worried that it might be dangerous.

They are all electromagnetic waves with different wavelengths. There had been no scientific evidence that they're dangerous in the power level used in common appliances, and many researches shows no evidence of danger in the short term studies, however many countries adopts the precautionary approach and advises people to minimize exposure just in case since long term study and study in  children has not been conclusive yet (these kind of studies takes a very long time since they follow their subjects for decades), although preliminary results suggests that long term effect may also be of no danger.

You're probably more likely to be killed in a car accident then getting a cancer due to mobile phone radiation.


"Add a field" to CONTACTS I want to add ADDRESS to one of my contacts.  I can "add a field" and it works fine.  Then I choose another contact, and I can't get that option.  Why is that?

Check, where your contact is stored. If it is stored on your SIM, then you can't add any field. To add a field, you must export this contact to your phone first.


Fastboot on Samsung devices I was trying to do some fastboot commands on my Galaxy devices (Galaxy S4, 9515, 4Tab4), I start with fastboot devices and I am getting nothing (after adb reboot bootloader), is there any problem with samsung devices?

Simple... Samsung devices do not support fastboot, you use Odin or Heimdall to flash what you need.


Nexus 7 can't connect to PC When choosing MTP or PTP, the box is checked, then when I exit the screen and go back to the USB Device Settings screen, my previous choice is not seen, and both boxes are unchecked. It's like the Nexus has forgotten I've made the choice.

Now I can't connect my nexus to PC as the PC won't recognize it!

I recently plugged my Nexus into my LG TV using the USB lead, if that is at all helpful.

Sometimes you need to lock and unlock the tablet to have it connect. If you are running any sort of task manager, disable it. Can you post some screenshots?


Back up sdcard to cloud Problem: I have an internal flash drive (/sdcard) with "stuff I don't like losing". Due to a bug in ClockworkMod Recovery, it got wiped the other day. I had been manually backing up my entire card to my local computer every so often, but it was a manual process.

I have a Box.com account. I have a Dropbox account. I have a Google Drive account. I want to automate uploading everything to one of those services (preferably Box, as I got in on the 50GB promo they did). I'm assuming this exists as a free or one-time purchase app, but all I can find are "back up services" that require a subscription.  I use Titanium Backup to back up my apps, I take full images of my phone via CWM every so often, but I can't pass all that data to the cloud (well, TiBu will upload to Box/Dropbox, but that's not everything).

Dropbox has a built-in image backup that will automatically upload any pictures I take to my account. Google+ can do the same to my G+ account. However, that's still only a portion of what exists on my internal storage.  I want something that will grab everything else. Ideas?

If your device is rooted, you might want to take a look at Titanium Backup, which has built-in support for Dropbox, Box and Google drive.

As for your "special folder", I'd say you will probably like FTPSyncX -- which allows you automatically sync with Dropbox as well as with your local PC via SSH, FTP, and others. The latter can happen automatically all xx Minutes when your Wifi is in reach, or when any Wifi is in reach, or generally... And the App is well supported. Alternatively, there is FolderSync, additionally offering support for SkyDrive, SugarSync, Ubuntu One, Box.net, LiveDrive, Google Drive, Google Docs, HiDrive, NetDocuments, Amazon S3 and WebDAV.

FTPSyncX:

FolderSync: