I have broken my Motorola Moto E 1 Screen I was wondering if I could plug my Phone into a Monitor and a mouse I have broken my Motorola Moto E 1 Screen I was wondering if I could plug my Phone into a Monitor and a mouse, so i could use the mouse to put in my passcode.

The bad thing is that my passowrd is a pattern and the screen is unresponsive, i need to backup my stuff and i can only do that when i have unlocked the device.

So if anyone could point me in a way that would make me be able to connect my phone to a screen i would be very happy.

There is a Chrome plugin called Vysor that I have used successfully in the past when my screen was completely broken and I had to extract my data. I believe it needs USB-debugging to be enabled to install on your device, but it's free so you could give it a shot. (In my case, USB-debugging was enabled before it broke because I make apps)

Once the apk is installed, it mirrors your screen on the pc and you are able to control the phone through there (and make the pattern to unlock with your mouse, or even enter the SIM-pin).


How come I can't install Google Maps in Israel? Google Maps doesn't seem to be available in the market when I'm in Israel. When I travel to Europe it appears. How come?
(I'm on CyanogenMod 7, but that shouldn't matter right?)

I have more or less the same problem on my iPhone!

UPDATE:
What I meant was that when in Europe I can install Google Maps and then it works great in Israel. Google Maps covers Israel weather you're there or not, the only hurdle is that within Israel you can't install it.

Google probably disables Google Maps in Israel largely for security reasons.

Google Street View in Israel was enabled only some time in 2012. Older news reports say that Google Maps for Israel was totally blank from some areas (especially areas that may attack Israel).

BTW, I can see Israel in Google Maps from my place (Philippines).

Related information:
Why Google Earth Pixelates Israel


How to disable company starting screen when the phone is switch on I am using a Samsang Galaxy Ace. When I switch my phone on, it takes too much time. The Samsung screen comes for approximately 30 seconds or more before the phone is on and usable.

Can I change this setting so that the home screen will appear directly when the phone is switched on?

You can't change this. Simple solution:
Don't shut down your phone any more (except when it runs out of battery).
If you switch off your screen only, your phone will go to sleep and won't consume much power. If it still eats too much battery, consider disabling wifi, background data, sync or even switching to airplane mode.

As noted in the comments the logo is only shown to beautify the startup of your phone and to not show you ugly boot messages as some linux systems earlier did and still do. Showing a complex animation does require some computing power but won't delay the startup very much.


Can't reinstall Calendar Storage not via phone, adb nor Reflashing NOTE: I tried this, but links are broken and things don't work.. I tried googling those tough.

Phone: Umidigi Crystal (2GB RAM version)

I got an option under the developer options, to root. I checked it. Since I use
Google Calendar, I would get double notification from the android calendar, I accidentally tought Calendar storage was part of Android's too. Turns out Google's needs it. Here are my attempts to restore it:

Trying to restore from unistaller: a)Corrupted b)There already is that package (have searched all / for those names, no result) c)Try again later

Factory Resetting the phone: It didn't come back.

Trying to install a downloaded version of it (via adb and from phone, locally): Something conflicting with signatures I guess:

C:\Users\Laptop>adb install C:\Users\Laptop\Downloads\com.android.providers.calendar.apk
5135 KB/s (441556 bytes in 0.083s)
Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_SHARED_USER_INCOMPATIBLE: Package couldn't be installed in /data/app/com.android.providers.calendar-1: Package com.android.providers.calendar has no signatures that match those in shared user android.uid.calendar; ignoring!]

Trying to reflash: I have did, what I am told from multiple guides, but somehow SP Flash Tool just doesn't do anything.

Feel free to ping me for additional information, I really miss my calendar.
I am all good with backups, so I can freely factory reset it.
Right now I think, that easiest would be to get the flashing thing working.

Well, since this app is a system app, pre-installed by the vendor, there is no way to get it back other than by flashing the ROM file. You can't  install it through ADB since you are not rooted and trying to sideload would end up with errors because your recovery would not permit it.

Now only the flashing option left. Since it is a Mediatek device, flashing should be easy. All you need is SP Flashtool and a compatible ROM file with scatter, this maps your memory and tells the flashing software where each files should go, etc... (generally found at the manufacturer support website).

Also, download Mediatek VCOM drivers this is important to make your decision be detected by the computer.(On Windows 8 and earlier, you need to disable the drivers signature verification otherwise the drivers won't be installed).

Launch SP Flashtool, load the scatter file ( inside the ROM file archive). Now on SP Flashtool, click on Download, connect the phone while switched off. The flashing process should start (Read bar, Purple bar and then Yellow bar which can take some time to finish).
Done (Big green check mark).

Power on your device. Note that the first boot takes several minutes to complete as the system is putting everything in places, just be patient and wait.  Android should now begin installing default apps. And your don. All back to normal.


Will restoring WhatsApp chats from a backup also restore blocked contacts' chats? If I want to restore my conversations on WhatsApp and I'm reinstalling it from the latest backup, will the conversations with the blocked contacts appear? Will the blocked contacts continue to be blocked?

Yes, restoring from backup (like with Titanium Backup) will restore all conversations. App settings will be restored as well, so blocked contacts should stay blocked.


If I rarely turn off my phone, are there any benefits to encryption still? If it becomes the case that my phone is stolen, I would like to make it as difficult as possible, if not impossible, for my data to be accessed without my permission.

I understand that Android has the ability to perform a full disk encryption on my phone. However, I also understand that the disk is decrypted on boot. Which means once the phone has successfully booted, the encryption is no longer applicable.

Personally, I tend to keep my phone booted at all times for convenience reasons. This seems to imply that my phone will therefore be decrypted at all times. Given this situation, are there still any benefits to encrypting my Phone? Additionally, would encryption help me at all in the case of theft? If not, are there any alternatives to protecting my data from theft?

As long as your phone is turned on, no matter if it is locked, in airplane mode, etc., the data partition remains indeed decrypted and therefore, as you say, you do not really take advantage of disk encryption.

Even worse: when I say that the partition is "decrypted", concretely this means that the data encryption key is present somewhere in your phone memory. If the data on your phone is valuable enough (eg. has any value for corporate or governmental adversaries), there are techniques allowing an advanced attacker to dump this memory, get this encryption key, and access your data no matter if your phone was locked in the first place.

The good news is that there are applications allowing you to shutdown or reboot the phone after a few unsuccessful unlock attempts. Concretely, this means that after let's say 5 wrong unlock attempts, the phone will shutdown/reboot, effectively dropping the encryption key from memory, leaving the attacker no way to access your data without finding your encryption key.

Moreover, I attract your attention the fact that Google put an arbitrary limitation in Android requiring the end-users to use the same password for decryption and unlocking. If you have rooted your device, there are ways to use a strong and complex password for disk encryption and a quick to input unlock PIN. Be aware that using short/easy passwords or a PIN for encryption essentially annihilates any advantage brought by encryption since they would be breakable using dictionary or brute-force attacks.


Syncing Facebook contacts to Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean I just upgraded to Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean and I was wondering if syncing my Facebook contacts could mess up my Google Contacts (which are very well organized compared to facebook), or if both services do keep isolated from each other.

No, they are run completely separate and exclusive from each other, not something that'll completely replace the data within your existing contacts... Although they can be merged so that it displays one contact instead of two (again, it still won't physically combine the data). That way, you can have their profile pic as a contact icon and even their birthday, phone number, email in one place if they have it on their profile. It'll try to merge automatically if the name + phone number or email from your Google contact matches what they have in Facebook, but it'll have to be manually merged if it doesn't.


How to disable unread group notifications in Whatsapp? The "mute" option allows you to stop receiving notifications. However, I can still see the number of unread messages for a group that has been previously muted.

In addition, this group keeps coming at the top of the list of groups every time a new message is sent to it.

Is there a way to disable this without having to leave a group?

This issue has been plaguing Whatsapp since its inception. I have had long email conversations with their support team on multiple occasions. Even uploaded a detailed video explaining the bug:
Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bldIuA-OjU
This was their reply after about about 20 emails explaining the issue.

I gave up after that. To anyone reading this, please see the video to understand the problem. If someone influential can publicise it, maybe the will fix it then.


Android Updates: Why Carrier Involvement? Why is it possible that Android users have to wait until their carrier releases an update and iPhone users get their updates directly from Apple?

It has to do with the contracts that carriers have with the manufacturers. They also have to do testing of the deployments, to make sure they "go off without a hitch". If the updates fails for users, the carrier is the one that has to take the service call. They also have to do training for their customer services people on how to handle any update issues.

Besides deployments, they also need to test that the update doesn't compromise the network, or the device.

Let's also not forget about the bloat ware that the carriers add to the releases. These are applications that the carrier may be getting paid to distribute, another way for them to make some money off the device that they are selling at a subsidized price.

If you buy your phones outright, you will pay more up front for the device, but buying subsidized, you pay more for it with the higher contract fees. Non-contract plans are cheaper per month, and every carrier offers them, you just have to ask for it. They don't advertise them because they make more money off the contracts.


Could not see "persist.service.adb.enable" value from default.prop of Android device? I read some guide to get the persist.service.adb.enable value, and it said that it belongs to default.prop file on device. Its content should be:

#
# ADDITIONAL_DEFAULT_PROPERTIES
#
ro.secure=1
ro.debuggable=0
persist.service.adb.enable=0

But when i connect device to PC (Linux), try to pull out this file from device (both emulator and Samsung Galaxy Nexus), the content of default.prop file is only:

#
# ADDITIONAL_DEFAULT_PROPERTIES
#
ro.secure=1
ro.debuggable=0
persist.sys.usb.config=mass_storage

So I could not see persist.service.adb.enable. Could anyone tell me why, and how can i got it?

According to the official android documentation, another way to get this value is to use the getprop command. (Link takes you to search results for getprop.)

I have not tested this.

I'm assuming you want to also set this value, not just get it? You can use the command line on the phone to do so.  (Disclaimer: I've only tried this in Donut, Froyo, and Gingerbread.)

setprop persist.service.adb.enable 1

This is the USB debugging setting; you can also just turn on USB debugging.


Titanium Backup - Restoring manually backed up apps (TB, Google Drive) I recently had to format my OnePlus 2 and backed up a few apps, namely Authenticator and two games. First, I did a normal backup, then I used "send latest backup" in the "special features" tab to put the backup into my Google Drive (I didn't know about the sync feature then). Now, TB won't restore the apps after I 1) manually copied the .TIBKP files from my Google Drive to the detected (!) folder on my OP2's internal storage and 2) linked my Drive and used the Sync button in the schedules list to download all backups. The backups don't show up in "Backup/Restore", it says "no backup yet".

I've tried clearing the App's cache which didn't help unfortunately.

I went through all steps on the technical FAQ site numerous times without success.

I am running Linage OS 14.1 (August 31), rooted using their suaddon. F2FS on data and cache.

These backups are very important to me, I have about a dozen accounts linked with my Authenticator which would all be lost. I greatly appreciate all attempts at helping me.

Titanium Backup would ask you to restore the .tibkp file if you "share" it to it directly. Easiest way to do so is using a file manager and "tap" the *.tibkp – as Titanium Backup is associated with that file extension, you should be offered to share it that way.

As you confirmed, Root Browser is a file manager capable of that. Most others should do as well, though some might be "too restricted" in their functionality as you found out, e.g. the built-in file manager.


Is there any (open) standard for importing/exporting contact from/to any mobile phone? Is there any open format for importing and exporting from/to any mobile phone. It doesn't have to be a smartphone, it could be a basic mobile phone. If any such thing exist, does is also support import/export from/to SIM as well?

Contacts is one feature which is universal in all phones so I am hoping this is some standard/format which could be used for doing this. In smartphone, it could be done by apps but what about the basic phones.

Any help/insight on this would be highly appreciated.

That format most likely is VCard (Versitcard), which even has its own mimetype (text/vcard). According to the linked Wikipedia page, it became a standard around 1996 (and since it was proposed 1995 for the first time, older devices won't know it).

Android's contacts app uses this format when directly exporting your contacts from it. To my knowledge, this format is also used when transferring contacts via Bluetooth (even to/with older devices not necessarily running Android or being "smart phones"). Mail clients support it as well. So if you're looking for any standard here, this most likely is it.


How to remove the contacts My daughter (7 years old) has a tablet. However, Google won't allow her to create an account due to her age. As such, she is using mine.

The issue is, she has access to all my contacts. I would like to only allow her access to the contacts she adds and not the ones I have associated with the account she is using (seems counter intuitive when I write this).

Whilst the obvious answer is create a new account and lie about her age, my question is if I can remove access to the shared contacts and only provide her local contacts. EG, she can't access any contacts under Google Contacts but can from her local device (such as her parents and friends email address).

Yes, it's possible. Probably creating your second email ID or creating her fake email ID will be the easiest solution. But try this -

With each Google account you have privilege to Sync only thing you want. I better recommend you to go to Settings on Android, then tap on Account > select Google and tap on your email ID and turn off Sync Contacts. I read it on Selective Sync Google Account Settings and I believe that should work.


After Firmware update keeps rebooting my galaxy s4 I recently updated my galaxy s4, and since then it keeps randomly rebooting. I have tried google for some solutions. I have tried a number of steps, such as taking battery out, clearing the cache, restarting the phone, deleting some recently downloaded apps but none of these steps have worked?

Does anyone else have any knowledge why this might be occurring? Or what I should do? Thank you.

Update 28/10/2014

After doing a factory reset the issue seems to have gone away, leading me to believe it must have been corrupted at some point downloading files/apps on to my phone.

I would do something else. Chances are high your firmware has an issue. Go to http://samsung-updates.com/, select your device and search for your provider. Download the full firmware (about 1.6 gb) unzip(only once). Get yourself Odin(its for windows only). Its on xda everywhere.

A wipe data and wipe cache from recovery mode would be helpful here.
Hold on power button and volume up fore a while to go there, navigate using volume buttons. hit ok using power button.

Put your phone in download mode. (Turn off, hold down power button and volume down for a while, hit power up when the message appeared).
Connect your phone to the pc. Odin should see it now. In Odin you have a bunch of buttons on the right, select the second from the top on the right there. Navigate to your unzipped firmware image. (A .tar.md5 file) select it. Hit start after the file loaded. Do not touch your setup during flashing.

Good luck!

Do not try to flash firmware that isn't designed for your phone. It can destroy it. (Worst case). You can hit getprop in a shell on the device to get all information about your device. The exact device type, firmware version, provider shortcut and so on.

Another approach is to use Samsung Kies. Kies allows you to do firmware updates and used to flash every system partition on the device, not just the changes as the ota does. If you already are at the newest firmware, it might not work cause there's no update.


How do I get emoticons to show as images rather than text in SMS messages? I've got a Motorola Droid X running Android 2.2 (Froyo), and when sending and receiving SMS/text messages in the default text messaging program, I don't see the Android emoticon images in the message.  I instead only see the text representing that emoticon.  For instance, I only see :-) rather than the smiley emoticon image.

Is there a setting somewhere that turns that feature on or off?

I did some research and was not able to find any way to do this on a stock device. However here is a link for you root users that allows you to remove the stock emoticons and replace them with standard ones, I'm sure it will let you do other emoticons as well.


HTC One M9 won't turn on My HTC One M9 is fully charged, but will not turn on. The red charging light is on, not blinking.

None of the buttons respond.

Many sites say to hold the Volume Down button, then press the Power button. That is not doing anything, even after holding them for a minute.

When plugged into a computer, the computer recognizes that there is a device plugged in.

Turns out that holding Volume Up and the Power button for about 15 seconds forced the phone to turn off.

Then, tapping the Power button turned it on, and it booted up with no problem and seems normal now.


What is com.google.android.gsf.login? Com.google.android.gsf.login. I seen this in my history and am having trouble figuring out what it is. Can you please help me ?

com.google.android.gsf.login
Is part of the Google Services framework and one of the main components of any GApps package. It is basically the account manager for all things needing a login with Google credentials. If you disable or remove this app you will no longer have access to the Play Store nor any other app/service requiring those credentials.


Bluestacks isn't working: Goes to system tray but nothing happens I recently installed Bluestacks (a package to allow running the Android operating system on the desktop). After I start it, a service goes to system tray but nothing happens. I mean my computer doesn't show any gadget or application window. How do I use it?

I had the same problem before, the problem was that the window will open in second screen. So in the project screen settings, hit PC screen only. That should solve the problem.

If you have problem with Bluestacks 2, sometimes it won't install a shortcut. So, just browse the installation folder and put the shortcut of HD start launcher on desktop.


Has TWRP been replaced by another custom recovery image? There are two seemingly identical TWRP websites:

http://teamw.in/project/twrp2/
https://twrp.me/

twrp.me used the be TWRP's homepage. Their Github page now points to http://teamw.in/project/twrp2/ and a new repository has been created to https://github.com/omnirom/android_bootable_recovery/

No, TWRP has not been replaced by another project, the issue you see is references to naming conventions that resolve to the same actual website, different name, same project. The websites are one and the same... Both twrp.me and teamw.in resolve to 198.27.116.169, which is the website host for TeamWin, the development team of TWRP.


Search result scrolling / paging on Android Market? I am confused: if I use search on the Market app on Android 2.2, it tells me often that there are hundreds or even thousands of matches, but shows exactly 10, no more. Is there a way to scroll / page / whatever that I've overlooked? 8-}

When you scroll to thr bottom of the list it should automatically load more results. Mine sometimes gets hung up and shows the "thinking" symbol for a few seconds, but then loads more.


Contact images missing from SMS list in hangouts I have a problem with my Nexus 5 and the new Hangouts app that supports SMS integration.

Only some of my contacts have their contact image next to their name in the main listing. When I click on them to view the SMS conversation their image is displayed correctly, it's just on the main listing that it doesn't appear. People I've 'hung out' with show up fine, it's just the SMS contacts that don't.

Things I've tried:

Editing the contact and applying a completely new image
Changing the contact to use their Google+ image
Changing the contact to use the image I have applied in GMail on the web.

Does anyone know how I can get the missing contact images to show up?

This ended up being an extremely simple fix but took me a long time to do.

Open the hangouts app and go to Settings
Select your Google account
Scroll down and click 'Sign out'
Back in the main listing, click the SMS dropdown
Click on your Google account

And that's it! All my contact images showed up correctly and change when I change their photo via the contacts app.


Cannot connect android phone to pc on both Windows and linux When i connect my android 5.1 phone to pc as mtp device to send and receive files it shows unrecognised device in Windows (tried in win 7and 10) and can not open mtp device on linux (tried in ubuntu 16.04).
I also tried to update mtp drivers on Windows but still it doesn't work.

I have ever had experience the same problem as yours. Mine problem is the cheap USB cable which I use to connect my android phone to pc. Once I replace it with a higher quality USB cable this problem was solved.


Auto correct on ASUS Zenfone I switched from an LG phone to a new ASUS Android phone and I am missing a feature on the ASUS. On my LG I used auto correct on the keyboard in a way that displayed suggestions but did not correct what I typed. If I decided to use the suggested word I only had to touch the suggestion and it replaced the mistyped word. On the ASUS, using the preinstalled ZenUI keyboard, I don't know how only to show the suggested words while typing. Whenever I switch on display of suggested words to be shown, they replace what I type as soon as I press space.

I want suggested words to be shown but not replace what I type unless I select a suggested word. This worked on my LG like a charm.

Now I have the option to switch off auto correction and then I get many mistyped words. If I switch suggested words on it is even worse, because auto correction chooses words I don't want by itself.

I would suggest using the official Google Keyboard since it has the exact feature you mention, where suggested words are shown.  I have all automatic corrections completely turned off in its settings, and it works well without anything unexpected.


Network operator says "Registered on network" but Why can't I connect to the internet? Good afternoon all,

I was originally using a GSM iPhone and I've switched to an android Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830L. I've got some problems connecting to the internet and was wondering if someone could help me resolve the issue.

These are the steps I took from Settings >> Wireless and networks >> Mobile networks >> Network operators:

I've selected SGP-M1-GSM and it says "Registered on network" but I still can't seem to connect to the internet.

What do I have to do to enable internet connection?

I'm currently using v2.3.4 if that matters.

I am not sure if this would work, but worth a try. Some mobile phones and some cell phone service providers require the use of APN. Contact your cell phone service provider for the APN.


How can I allow a second user account to unlock my device after a reboot? I recently damaged the screen on my phone and am sending it in for repair. The repair shop I am using wants to be able to access certain features of the device, like the camera, Wi-Fi, etc, in order to test that they still work properly after the repair is complete. I'd like to give them this option without granting them full access to all the data on my phone, and without having to perform a factory reset, so I created a new user account for the repair shop to use.

Unfortunately, while performing the repair the repair shop will need to power the phone down, and here's where I run into a problem. After rebooting my phone, the lock screen for my main user account appears showing the message "Unlock for all features and data.", and doesn't allow switching to the repair shop's account until after the device is unlocked. You can see the repair shop's user account in the settings pulldown menu, but it is greyed out and tapping it does nothing. This defeats the purpose of having a separate account, as it seems my main account's password is required in order to access the repair shop's account.

I am using a Google Pixel, and disk encryption is enabled. (As it is by default.) Note that the Pixel uses file-based encryption, so in theory it should be possible for different users to use different decryption keys for their files. (Though I have no idea if that's possible in practice, which is why I'm asking this question.)

Is there a way to allow other user accounts to access my device after a reboot?

So I had the same problem with an employee to whom I had given a phone. She kept forgetting to charge the phone, so when it rebooted after charging she had to hand me the phone so I could type in the password and then switch to her secondary account. Tired of this, I read some articles about multiple users. I couldn't find the right answers (or didn't understand them) but here is what I did.

I switched to her user account and protected her user screen with a swipe.
Rebooted
In my admin account, I erased/disabled my screen lock by erasing my admin password.
Rebooted
In my admin account, I enabled the screen lock again by using a password. The phone then prompted me to accept added security by needing a password before startup. This time I chose NO. Then I re-added my old password.
Now after reboot, my employee can swipe the screen down and select the second user herself without having to input the admin password. And if she tries to switch to my admin account, the phone asks for my password.

I really don't know how vulnerable the phone has become after declining the added security, but now I can get back to work faster and have one less thing to worry.

I hope someone still finds this helpful.


Lost root on LG AS855 due to OEM update I lost root privileges on my LG AS855 when I updated it. I used SuperOneClick to root it. Now, it just hangs on step 7.

This is not a very popular phone and information on rooting it is extremely sparce on the internet. Any suggestions on how to go about getting root privileges back would be much appreciated.

The OEM update will have caused by you are to lose root due to the fact that stock ROM's aren't rooted.

This update will have most likely blocked the use of simple rootkit exploits, which is how all of the one click root solutions work.

It your OEM upgrade was to ICS, then Google blocked rootkits in version 4.0 onwards. If it was not an upgrade to ICS or later, then OEM has patched the OS for all of the common exploits.

If this is the case, then the only way to root you device would be to do we fastboot to flash a rooted boot.img file, or the old firmware so you can use a one click here root solution again.

It is generally recommended that once you have rooted, you don't use OEM updates for this reason.


How to disable sound during screenshot in Android 11 on Pixel 3? I've already followed the steps here (although modified a bit, since I think that example wasn't using Android 11) to disable screenshot sound notifications:

But the setting seemed to have no effect.
There is still a sound whenever I take a screenshot by holding the power button and the Volume Down button.
How can I disable the sound?

This is not possible unless 1. you have root access(delete the sound file) or 2. Use a 3rd party trusted screenshot app or 3. Disable system sound(yeah it will disable notifications sounds and all too) I'd recommend you to use a 3rd party app(you can use power and volume button to take screenshots by the app by over-riding system's screenshot system) You can try Screenshot Assistant from fdroid or  Screenshot or Screenshot sharer(super helpful if you don't use google assistant much) from fdroid. fyi fdroid is super trusted.
" The Silence option refers to the notification you see with the preview of the screenshot. Try editing some other options in there (try making it alerting and then enable 'Pop on screen'). You will see what I mean. And yes, you're correct in saying that setting it as Silence or Alerting doesn't actually make a difference to the sound - it doesn't occur anyway.
There is no user facing control to silence the sound emitted while the screenshot is being taken."
Source - https://support.google.com/pixelphone/thread/23068196?hl=en


Screen turns on when I bump phone I have a Moto E 2015 LTE (surnia) running Lineage OS, Android 7.1.1.  Every time I bump the phone the screen turns on to tell me the time.  I can't find a setting to turn this off.  I couldn't find such a setting in the stock Android either.

Does anyone know if there is a hidden setting somewhere to control this?  I'd be willing to build my own Lineage ROMS if that is what it took.  It looks like modifying com.android.systemui will be necessary.  Does anyone know how to download that code, and build that APK (perferably without building an entire ROM?)

EDIT: A friend clued me in to the fact that this is sort of standard behavior for android phones these days (it's been a while since I had one).  But the question still stands.  I would even be ok with some way to disable the accelerometer completely, if that's what it took.

EDIT 2:  I found out that I can disable this behavior by disabling com.android.systemui.  I am afraid that is a bit too drastic, so perhaps I will browse some source code to see if I can modify just that app, instead of the whole Lineage ROM.  The question remains though, in case anybody knows how I would go about finding and building source code for com.android.systemui.

The behaviour sounds a lot like Ambient Display at work. The toggle for it should be in Settings - Display, if it exists.

EDIT the following screenshots are from the OP's phone.  Notice, the "Ambient Display" element does not have a toggle switch in the image below.

The image below is the submenu that appears upon clicking "Ambient Display".


Tablet does not recognize an External SD Card I have an Android tablet (Torque Droidz Duo Slim). It has 2GB of internal memory and a 2GB SD-Card. I also have bought and been using an 8GB SD-Card but the device does not recognize the external SD-Card. It always says "Not enough memory", although I still have 5GB of free space on my external SD-Card.

Why does it still say the phone has insufficient memory?

Ok i used to have a ACER B1-720 and it wouldn't recognise my SD-Card saying SD-Card removed unexpectedly, even though it was never taken out! BUt to solve your problem this is what I would suggest: Go to the settings (Go home, go into app drawer and click on settings)Click on StorageScroll down to the bottom, If it says Unmount SD card then it is low on storage on your SD card, if it says mount SD card press it and if nothing happens, then your device doesnt work with this SD card, so you should take it in to a local electrThis is what it should look like:

 If this answer helped you then please tick it


Dialing keypad sounds like a rubber ducky with each number pressed....yeah Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. Instead of the normal DTMF tones, his phone is squeaking like a rubber duck with each number pressed on the dial key pad. No idea how it got this way or how to fix it. He doesn't want to completely get rid of the tone, just wants the normal one back!!

I resolved it
Settings> Sounds and Vibration> System Sound > Choose "Galaxy"
Mine was set to "Fun"
Thanks.


How to repair an i Robot tablet which won't boot? My I.Robot 7180 ICS OS4.0 tablet was drained, when charged I tried to open it again but it was only stucked loading in the black screen with android logo showing. How to make this work again?

Consider doing a full wipe of your tablet. I had this on a Galaxy Tab. Follow those instructions but remember you will lose all your data.

Instructions:

Turn off your Android Tablet.
Press and hold Volume + and Power button.
Release Volume + and Power button when you see message on screen.
On Android Stomach Repair Logo Screen, press again Volume + and Power   button.
On Hard Reset Menu Screen, use the Volume button to scroll up and down and use the Power button to select (click on).
Scroll down to Wipe Data / Factory Reset and click on it.
Scroll down to Yes – Delete All User Data and click on it.
After Data Wipe Complete click on Reboot System Now.

Source: http://www.askmefast.com/_why_does_my_android_warp__phone__keep_freezing-qna6151757.html#q3381869


How can I get an old version of YouTube application for Samsung Galaxy Tab 2? How can I get an old version of the YouTube application for Samsung Galaxy Tab 2? The new update is slow and poor display.

If the YouTube app came with the phone (ie is a system app), you can uninstall all updates to it. Go to the application settings page for YouTube to find the button to uninstall updates. This will roll back the app to the version that existed when the phone/rom was brand new.

On the other hand, if it isn't a system app, you'll have to go online to find an old version. And you will have to first uninstall the current version, which will remove any preferences or settings you have set.

There is no way in the current Play Store to choose the version of an app you want. The Play Store decides what version you get (usually the most recent, or the most recent available for your device/OS), and you decide if you want to install the update or not.


Calculator WiFi usage on Marshmallow, Nexus 5? What? I have not used the calculator app.  I also don't know why it would be using the wifi or any kind of external data.  Yet behold, below:

I flashed 6.0 recently and restored some apps from an old backup, but nothing that looked like calculator.  Should I be concerned, or is this a known thing?

First off,
   They no longer uses Floating point arithmetic al which I read from a blog.
Second,
    Marshmallow have introduced a lot of new features in its calculator which does uses internet for floating/decimal calculations for user-friendly UI and other touch gizmos. Currently its a kind of prototype, so it'll be downloading a bit for the updates but you can always disable the app from system settings.
You can see the new features from this site - http://www.androidpolice.com/2015/06/12/android-m-feature-spotlight-the-stock-calculator-app-has-been-overhauled-no-longer-uses-floating-point-arithmetic/


Geofenced ring volume app? Is there an app to set a ring volume automatically based on location? What I need is an app to switch to vibrate when I'm at home and turn the volume up when I leave home (ringing phone wakes my sleeping baby and I often forget to silence the phone manually).

I'd suggest you try llama. Why because its free and its awesome. It can not only handle ring volume but WiFi, mobile data, run apps and many more.

The best thing is it works with Cell Mesh, so you don't have to keep GPS on.


How to tame "Phone Idle" battery drain on unrooted device? I use AccuBattery and Kaspersky Battery Life to measure energy consumption. Kaspersky Battery Life shows, that all the tasks use minimal energy. AccuBattery Pro shows, that phone uses 5-10 mAh.
This is a fairly new, 3000 mAh battery. Phone is a THL T9 Pro, Android 6.0 is installed on it.

UPDATE: I deleted all the mentioned applications and installed new one, GSam Battery Monitor to get detailed data:

There is data from the built-in usage chart too. I checked applications under Battery optimization, I found there only one, Google Play Services.

How to nail Phone Idle battery drain is the question,  but being unrooted device, it calls for some efforts. Finding the culprit apps isn't as easy as it is on rooted devices but is possible using adb commands to enable higher privileges 1

(At the time of writing, OP is working on his Linux to detect his device 2. Once done with that, they can follow this answer.)

The primary cause of idle drain is truant wakelock (s) and the answer is around how to detect apps that cause wakelocks that hurt (Wakelocks aren't bad, they are needed but not such ones). It may help to improve doze-mode performance  but more about that later.

All methods below are working on my unrooted device running Oreo 8.0.

Tracking truant apps that cause battery draining wakelocks

Measuring Battery Drain and first level wakelock detection

Battery usage statistics in Android, unfortunately, don't reveal much and are difficult to interpret (not withstanding the improvements in Oreo). GSam Battery Monitor is arguably the best for stock devices. One needs to enable enhanced statistics (Menu → more → Enable more stats) and follow the steps which are

adb -d shell pm grant com.gsamlabs.bbm android.permission.BATTERY_STATSmust read 3

For the PRO version, change 'com.gsamlabs.bbm' to 'com.gsamlabs.bbm.pro' (thanks acejavelin).

The enhanced statistics gives better view of app usage and wakelocks as shown. Long press of held awake (which in OP's case is 77%) shows additional information as shown in the third screenshot.

Second level bad wakelock detection (One can optionally start with this step)

Download Wakelock Detector [LITE] (XDA thread) which works without root (see this slideshare for details). Two ways to run without root

As a Chrome extension or on Chromium. OP had issues with this
A better method is adb again

adb shell pm grant com.uzumapps.wakelockdetector.noroot android.permission.BATTERY_STATS

How to use (from Play Store description)

  Charge your phone above 90% and unplug cable (or just reboot the phone)
  Give it a time (1-2 hours) to accumulate some wakelock usage statistics
  Open Wakelock Detector
  Check the apps on the top, if they show very long wakelock usage time then you found the cause of your battery drain!

While 2 hours is enough to gather the information about top culprits, longer duration obviously leads to more data. During data collection, don't use the device and let it be as you would normally use the phone (with data or WiFi connected as is your normal usage). Screenshots below from my device (not under test but normal usage).

Left to right, they show Screen Wakelock, CPU Wakelock and Wakeup triggers. Check the top contributors to understand what's draining your battery.

Eliminating the bad apps or controlling them

Once you have identified the culprits, you have three choices

Uninstall them
Replace them with a comparable feature app with less power consumption (assumption being they are better designed and wakelocks don't cause havoc). See Is there a searchable app catalog that rank applications by power and network bandwith usage?
If you don't want to uninstall because you need the app, then greenify them!

Taming wakelocks and improving Doze

Greenify is a fantastic app but very powerful so needs to be used carefully. Read the XDA thread and Greenify tag wiki for help.

I will limit to using adb to unleashing a fair part of its power to help rein in wakelocks and enhancing Doze performance.

A word about Doze, which was introduced since Marshmallow. Though it has evolved better, it has some drawbacks from battery saving point of view.

It takes time to kick in, during which apps are active causing drain (even though screen is off)
Doze mode is interrupted when you move the device, for example, when you are moving causing battery drain. Doze kicks in again when you are stationary with a wait period

Greenify tackles these problems with Aggresive Doze and Doze on the go (There are other apps that do this too, like ForceDoze, but Greenify manages both  Wakelocks and Doze).

Instructions for using adb

For different features, you need to run adb commands to grant the corresponding permission:

Accessibility service run-on-demand:

adb -d shell pm grant com.oasisfeng.greenify android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS
Aggressive Doze on Android 7.0+ (non-root):

adb -d shell pm grant com.oasisfeng.greenify android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS
Doze on the Go:

adb -d shell pm grant com.oasisfeng.greenify android.permission.DUMP
Aggressive Doze (on device/ROM with Doze disabled):

adb -d shell pm grant com.oasisfeng.greenify android.permission.DUMP
Wake-up Tracker:

adb -d shell pm grant com.oasisfeng.greenify android.permission.READ_LOGS
Wake-up Cut-off: (Android 4.4~5.x):

adb -d shell pm grant com.oasisfeng.greenify android.permission.READ_LOGS

adb -d shell pm grant com.oasisfeng.greenify android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS

Background-free enforcement on Android 8+ (non-root):

adb -d shell pm grant com.oasisfeng.greenify android.permission.READ_APP_OPS_STATS

I will restrict to snapshots of settings from my device to help set it up faster after running adb commands above. I have pro version so ignore those donation settings

With those settings, even when the device is running, you will see a hibernation alert in your status bar with the app icon and in your notification panel. Clicking on that will force close and hibernate the app

You can also hibernate errant apps from Wakelock Detector by long pressing on the app

Caution: Be very careful with what you want to hibernate. Simple rule - don't hibernate apps that are critical to you. Hibernate you errant apps that are not critical

Edit

BetterBatteryStats  (XDA thread) is a very powerful tool which has been recently (end Feb 18) updated to work with Oreo and sweeter still is that escalated privileges using adb is possible

adb -d shell pm grant com.asksven.betterbatterystats android.permission.BATTERY_STATS

adb -d shell pm grant com.asksven.betterbatterystats android.permission.DUMP

On Lollipop and forward, additionally run:
adb -d shell pm grant com.asksven.betterbatterystats android.permission.PACKAGE_USAGE_STATS

Happy Wakelock hunting!

I've done everything you suggested but it didn't help

It's likely that a system app is causing the Wakelocks for which there isn't much you can do on an unrooted device 4

1 Is there a minimal installation of ADB? and for the latest version refer to Izzy's awesome repo. Also see this XDA guide
2 How do I get my device detected by ADB on Linux?
must read 3:  For all adb permissions to stick,  force stop app to let the granted permission take effect. You can either do it in system "Settings → Apps → App name → Force stop", or execute this command: adb -d shell am force-stop com.<package name of app>
4
How to deal with (orphaned) WakeLocks?


unable to upload doc files in android latest version I am not able to upload  .doc files on my android mobile.I have Kingston software installed so whenever I use the upload button from the webpage it just displays my gallery, camera, voice and video recorder. It does not display the file browser so that I can select the file from my file system.

I don't know the software you're using but I'd recommend looking into Airdroid, it installs a small application on your phone and lets you manage it from a web interface. After starting the service you can copy all data in both directions.


A tool for semi-automatic merging of contacts? An android newbie here --- I've recently got my first Android phone (HTC Desire S) and I'm trying to clean up a mess of my contacts from a sim card (three of them, in fact). For example, a certain Edward Bloggs might have several entries:

Edward Bloggs @london, mob
Eddie B @london, home [it's his nickname, we all call him Eddie B]
Eddie @hawaii [he's got a vacation home in there, and... er... who likes
paying roaming charges anyway]
All these are in the 'first name' field or split randomly by the phone into the first, middle and last names.
there are, of course, google entries from me sending emails to both his work  and personal emails.

Now, the question is --- is there a tool which can aid in merging these contacts? Preferably something where one could select which ones to merge. Anything short of exporting all contacts onto a PC and manually editing the vcf files would be great.

One thing you can do is open the Contacts application then press menu and go to "Import/Export". From there, you import from SIM card and import them to your google account. Once you have imported all the contacts, open the google contacts manager and click on "More", then select "Find & Merge Duplicates".

You may have to go through and edit some manually if they have really different names. But then you can merge again if needed.


It's there a way to get /system partition permanent read/write access even after reboot? I used ADB.exe to get access to my System partition, I linked the dalvik-cache folder there to save space on my data partition, but the problem is I need to convert it read/write everytime I want to install a new app (or even if the old app wants to update), is there a way to make the partition always read/write instead read-only? Thanks!

You don't need to make /system permanently R/W. You just need to mount it as R/W at every boot. So I'm providing you with a few options to mount /system as R/W at boot automatically, but do note that these methods mount /system as R/W in master mount namespace, which means ALL programs can write to it as long as file permission is right. This creates a severely huge security flaw. Do it at your own risk.
The following options are not steps of a single method, but different approaches.

If you can modify your boot image, then editing /init.rc is the best and easiest way.
If you can't modify /boot directly, but init.d is availble, you can write a simple script to mount /system as R/W. As is mentioned in comments, it may not go right through if you try to call su from an init.d script.
If both 1 and 2 is unavailable and you have root (I suppose you do by asking this question), replace a system service (debuggerd is the best choice) binary with a custom shell script. Then run start debuggerd to activate it (effective from next boot).

The script required by method 2 and 3 is very simple, like below.

#!/system/bin/sh
/system/bin/mount -o rw,remount /system

You probably would like to add a sleep loop after it if you use method 3, as whenever debuggerd exits, it will be restarted.

BTW, you can easily add init.d support by yourself with method 3. Just take a glance at this. However in my opinion, re-partitioning is the best way to utilize free space /system, yet it's potentially harmful.


Activate text to speech I want to activate text to speech in Google hangouts in my nexus 5 phone so that messages can be read aloud . I couldn't figure it out. Please guide me.
Can this service be used in Gmail and whatsapp. If yes then how

It sounds like you talking about TalkBack, the accessibility program that comes with a lot of Android devices.

In order to activate TalkBack (assuming it is installed), open your phone settings, then go to the Accessibility section. Select TalkBack and enable it (and accept the warning that TalkBack will be able to see sensitive information).

After it is enabled, you should look through the settings for TalkBack and configure it to your needs.


I think my kid's Eee Pad has malware. How do I get rid of it? As you might expect from a 11 year old, she keeps filling it with games and girly-pop songs. Today, I noticed a strange "pseudo-Market" icon on its home screen:

When you click on it, you get the screen below. Looks like spam to install more games. Lots of these show up in the notification area too, but this "pseudo-Market" icon is a first.

Is there a good scanner to get rid of all this nagware?

Actually there's plenty Android Anti-Malware solutions.

Here's a list ordered by the best results according to AV-TEST - The Independent IT-Security Institute and the latest test results performed during February and March 2012, where were reviewed 41 different solutions.

Detection rates of 90% and above:

avast! Free Mobile Security
Dr.Web anti-virus Light
F-Secure Mobile Security
IKARUS mobile.security LITE
Kaspersky Mobile Security
Lookout Security & Antivirus
McAfee Mobile Security
MYAndroid Protection
NQ Mobile Security
Zoner AntiVirus Free

To quote:

  The best products in our tests (with detection rates of 90% and above) come from the following top 10 companies, listed in alphabetic order: Avast, Dr. Web, F-Secure, Ikarus, Kaspersky, Lookout, McAfee, MYAndroid Protection, NQ Mobile and Zoner. Users of products made by these companies can be assured that they are protected against malware.


Android won't sync contacts no matter what My boss bought an iPhone and asked me to sync his contacts. I went to the iPhone and turned on the contact sync from his Google account and "all" the contacts got there, but when I looked, none of the contacts from his phone were there! Looking at his Android, none of his Gmail contacts were there either, and now I can't get this thing working! I need help!

He has an LG (I don't know which model it is) and Android 4.0.4

First of all, remember that sync works both ways - if you delete contacts on the phone, it will delete them on google.  If this happens, don't despair, as gmail has a nice "way-back" type of restore; you can restore back to any time.  I used this for my wife's iphone when I set it up.

I mainly wanted to post this for the above CYA, as I think it's important.  I don't remember exactly what settings I had to change to get it working, and she's not around now, so I can't look to see.  But knowing about the restore should give you the ability to experiment more.

I may have set up the sync to their icloud, or whatever it's called, but I doubt that this really buys anything.  I believe that once you get it in sync, so to speak, it will work correctly after that.  I think you just need to restore the gmail contacts, and they will then sync to the phone.  It may have tried to sync gmail to the phone before instead of the other way around previously.

Sorry I can't give the exact settings or procedure to use, but I hope it will help.


Manage connectivity of apps to internet of Sim-card vs. wifi I have a Redmi note 8 android smart-phone,
If I use Wifi then all the applications connect to the internet, But in Simcard, some of the applications are not able to connect to the internet.
For instance, in sim-card internet, some apps like Telegram or Whatsapp connect to the internet easily, but my Chrome browser or google map does not connect to the internet and says you are offline and there is no connectivity.
I'm wondering if there is a place in android or specifically in redmi note 8 which manages how application connectivity.
Thanks

Turn off any power saving mode or data saving mode. If u have limited the data per month or per day, then turn that off.
Run an Internet Speedtest from the sim card data. If you are having trouble run Speedtest may be there's an issue, so try that sim on another phone and check.
I think MIUI has an option for turning on/off mobile data used by app. You can find it in App Management (from settings) for a particular app.


Successfully download app 100% but wont install after that I have a rooted mobile device (running Android 4.4). Whenever I download or update any app from Google Play Store it will show the download bar and reach till 100% – but won't install after that.

I have downloaded using WiFi and with enough space. Moreover, I have updated Google Play Services but not Google Play Store. I have tried all the solution like clear cache, force stop blah blah but yet there is a issue.

I've also read Apps won't install (silently fail after 100% downloaded) and checked its offered solutions. However my problem is a bit different that the one described there: After installing neither it throws an error stating "download failed" or "installing failed" nor it installs. Just stuck there for an hour unless and until WiFi gets disconnected. Sometime when it reach 100% it again starts itself to begin from 1% to download and so on.

Are there any other solutions I could try?

I have the same problem. It get stuck at 100% and doesn't give any notifications.
Nexus 6p running Android 7.0 (not rooted).

After the app reaches 100% I close the play store (swipe it away from recent apps) and start it again, it'll install and download the next app and get stuck at 100% of the next app.

I am repeating the process to download the updates but it is by no means a fix to the problem. But atleast your apps will be updated.


Suddenly VOLTE not working on my moto g4 plus I was using VOLTE services (from reliance jio in India) seamlessly since November 2016, but since June 2017 it suddenlt stopped working. I get an error "Unable to place call. Please try another method" while trying to make a call. I am able to access the internet and make/recieve calls from the Jio 4G Voice app.

UPDATES:

I have enabled "enhanced 4G LTE mode"
Did a factory reset
My jio connection is on and working. Also, I can place/receive calls from the Jio4GVioce app which means the service is working fine.

Go to Settings/Wireless and networks/...More/Cellular networks and check whether Enhanced 4G LTE mode is enabled. Somebody (you) might have turned it off accidentally.


Connect to internet via proxy My office network is connected via proxy. While I connect to the internet(via browser) using mobile Wi-Fi, it asks for user name and password. When I enter the user name and password, it connects to the internet.
But when I open Google Play store , I see 'Server error' means it could not connect to the internet. How can I fix the issue ?

if you are rooted,Use proxy droid. Apps use different settings than the ones u provide in the wifi. so not only will your google play not work but also whatsapp and such apps. for that you would need a global proxy. and for that u need to be rooted. You install proxy droid.install iptables. and then ur done


How do I create an archive for easy extraction to /data/local/tmp/ in "adb shell"? Usual shar archives fail to extact in adb shell due to problems with lock directory and temporary files for HERE documents. Zip archives are also not an option.

How do I make an archive that can be easily extracted to /data/local/tmp/ out of the box on unrooted Android without busybox?

You can install busybox pretty easily on an unrooted Android phone.  Steps:

Grab the file busybox-android from the eponymous github project.
Get it onto your device via scp, adb push, Android File Transfer, etc.  Put it somewhere public that you'll have access to from a Terminal Emulator session.  Just call it busybox.
Start a Terminal Emulator session.  Make a directory ~/bin and copy the busybox file from the public place you put it to that new directory.

Since the cp command is not available in a Terminal Emulator session (!) do it this way: cat $PATH_TO_BUSYBOX/busybox > ~/bin/busybox

Now cd ~/bin and create a symbolic link: ln -s busybox tar.

So now create a tarball using tar czv $FILENAME $ROOT_OF_FILES_TO_ARCHIVE, kick it over to your device, and extract using tar xzv $FILENAME.

tar is also available by default to ssh sessions served by SSHDroid (because SSHDroid provides busybox).  You might need to register it?  Don't remember if that stuff works on the free version.


Where is the Developer options in the Settings on the S6? On the S3 it was easy to find. I clicked on everything under Settings.  I can't find it. Where do I access it?

Follow the instructions:

Go to Settings → About device.
Tap Build number 7 times.

After tapping build number two or more times, a toast will be shown on the screen telling you the progress:

  You are now X steps away from being a developer.

After tapping the build number 7 times, you will be notified you are a developer.

Now, Galaxy S6 developer options will be available in the Settings menu.

(Click image to enlarge)

Go to Settings → Developer options.
In the Settings menu, you can find the Developer options right above About device.  Tap Developer options.
Enable Galaxy S6  Developer options.
In Developer options page, drag the switch to right to turn it on. The color should change to green as shown below.
Use Galaxy S6 Developer options.

For example, you want to turn on USB debugging on Galaxy S6. You can tap USB debugging as shown below. This will enable USB debugging for Galaxy S6.

Full list of Galaxy S6 developer options

Take bug report
Set desktop backup password
Stay awake while charging (screen will not sleep)
Bluetooth HCI snoop log
Processes stats (lists the stats of running processes)
USB debugging (you can then run ADB command from PC)
Revoke USB debugging authorizations
Include bug reports in power menu options
Allow mock locations
View attribute inspection
Select app to be debugged
Wait for debugger
Verify apps vis USB
WiFi verbose logging
Aggressive WiFi/cell handover
Allow WiFi roaming scans
Buffer size for logging
Show touches
Show pointer location
Show screen updates
Show layout boundaries
Force RTL layout
Window animation scale
Transition animation scale
Animator duration scale
Simulate secondary displays
Force GPU rendering
Show GPU view updates
Show hardware layers update
Debug GPU overdraw
Show non-rectangular clips
Turn on 4x MSAA
Turn off hardware overlays
Simulate color space
Use NuPlayer (instead of AwesomePlayer)
Prevent USB audio routing
Strict mode
Show CPU usage
GPU rendering profile
Turn on OpenGL traces
Do not keep activities
Limit background processes
Show all ANRs (app not responding)


No service after installing cyanogenmod After I installed CyanogenMod, I noticed I couldn't call anyone, receive calls, or text, and it says I'm roaming. In the status part of settings, it says my phone number is 000-000-xxxx (x's are numbers) but the imei is still the same. I can't find anything online about this problem, please help!

I finally got a solution to "No Service" after installing Cyanogenmod 7 on HTC Incredible 2. The answer is simple and it does not have anything to do with flashing radios, reinstalling ROMs, etc.

Simply turn the phone off and remove the battery to take out your SIM card. Then switch it back on without the SIM in it. After it has finished rebooting,
make sure the network bars are appearing even without any signal (in other words, an "x" on the bars) and also airplane mode is off. Now go to "Mobile Network Settings" and choose "CDMA/GSM (auto)" and not the preferred one.

Now turn off the phone and put the SIM back in. Replace the battery, start the phone, and tadaaa! Your phone will have the most amazing connection!


How many mmcblk devices is normal? Why so many mmcblk devices?

/dev/block/mmcblk0
/dev/block/mmcblk0boot0
/dev/block/mmcblk0boot1
/dev/block/mmcblk0p1
/dev/block/mmcblk0p10
/dev/block/mmcblk0p11
/dev/block/mmcblk0p12
/dev/block/mmcblk0p13
/dev/block/mmcblk0p14
/dev/block/mmcblk0p15
/dev/block/mmcblk0p16
/dev/block/mmcblk0p17
/dev/block/mmcblk0p18
/dev/block/mmcblk0p19
/dev/block/mmcblk0p2
/dev/block/mmcblk0p20
/dev/block/mmcblk0p21
/dev/block/mmcblk0p3
/dev/block/mmcblk0p4
/dev/block/mmcblk0p5
/dev/block/mmcblk0p6
/dev/block/mmcblk0p7
/dev/block/mmcblk0p8
/dev/block/mmcblk0p9
/dev/block/mmcblk0rpmb

What is the normal amount of mmcblk devices? I'm having problems booting and I'm wondering if this kind of formatting is normal or not?

When I boot up under TWRP, and adb in. After I run mount -a, I get

/dev/block/mmcblk0p19 on /cache type ext4 (rw,seclabel,relatime,data=ordered)
/dev/block/mmcblk0p21 on /data type ext4 (rw,seclabel,relatime,data=ordered)
/dev/block/mmcblk0p20 on /system type ext4 (rw,seclabel,relatime)
/dev/block/mmcblk0p16 on /preload type ext4 (rw,seclabel,relatime,data=ordered)

That only explains four of them though.

There is nothing abnormal in this case. They is only one device in the first preformatted text, which is /dev/block/mmcblk0 (just like /dev/sda in Linux distros). The rest are the partitions within that device (akin to /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2 and so on).

There is no normal limit, not that I came across, for how many partitions a device can have. It depends upon how developers want to design and provide a functionality. E.g. earlier, there used to be one system and boot partition. But recent Android versions started a new normal of setting up additional boot and system partitions for fail-safe measures.

Also, mount command only shows the partition which are mounted under /. Some partitions are never needed to be mounted, such as ones concerning bootloader, so you won't see them in mount's output.


Moto G 2014: Maximum upload speed? According to specs the 2nd gen. Moto G has network support for: GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz) UMTS/HSPA+ up to 21 Mbps (850, 1700 (AWS), 1900 MHz)

What's the actual maximum upload speed?

According to Wikipedia: High Speed Packet Access and Evolved HPSA, HSPA+ has a theoretical maximum download of 84 Mbps and an upload of 10.8 Mbps. Using Dual Cell Technology, it can be doubled to 168 Mbps download and 22 Mbps upload.

This suggests that the upload speed will not be anywhere close to the download speed.
Doing a search for HSPA+ 21 Mbps, most results show 3G USB devices with a max upload of about 5.7 Mbps.

GSMArena also lists the Moto G (2014) as having an HSUPA of 5.76 Mbps.


custom arrangement of favorites in default (HTC) browser? can I arrange my favorites in default HTC Desire (2.1) web browser the way I want? Not only by newest, mostly used, alphabetical?

Yes, one solution is the Bookmark Sort & Backup app. Visit here from phone or search for "bookmark sort" on android market. (Pro version comes without ads.) Hope it helps.

EDIT: Bookmark Sort & Backup Free and Bookmark Manager Free on appbrain.com.


Nexus 4 boot loop issue and device ADB not found when phone is on animation screen Yesterday I saw in my nexus 4 all applications were getting crashed, so I tried to restart my phone. When I turned it back on, it got stuck in the boot animation. I cancelled the boot, and tried to boot it from the BootLauncher and in Recovery mode. Nothing worked. I tried booting it up last night and its been doing so since. Over 10 hours! What do I do? What is happening?

Its bootloop issues. I tried to install nexus root tool kit but it says "ADB device was not found". I tried my all ways to install drivers but device not getting detected to Nexus Root Toolkit.

My goal is to configure my device so that adb can communicate with it when its on (with USB debugging enabled) and also so that fastboot can communicate with it when its in bootloader mode.

Any help would be sure appreciated

Thanks!

If you are in a bootloop, it sounds like you need to enter the recovery and clear the user data and cache (factory reset).

The reason you can't find the device with ADB is because the device is not getting far enough in the boot process to actually launch adbd. The device is restarting the boot process before it launches the adbd.


How to import Contacts from old Sony Ericsson C702 to Xperia X10? How can I import contacts from non-android phone?

Are there dedicated applications?

What I want to avoid is doubling contacts when moving them from old phone to SIM card and then to new phone.

Any suggestions?

I have no prior experience with Sony Erricsson software, but I think their PC Suite solution (found here) deals with the syncing of Contacts etc.


how do i turn usb debuging on from fastboot? My touch doesn't work and I accidentally reset my phone from recovery.Now I am stuck on the phone setup phase and cant get anywhere.I am trying to mirror the phone's screen into a pc but says it needs usb debuging enabled in phone.

If the device supports USB host mode you can connect a USB-OTG (USB on the go) cable and connect a USB mouse or a USB keyboard to bypass the broken touchscreen. Then you can navigate to developers options to turn the usb debugging on.
Find out more at : How to turn on USB debugging

Also have a look :XDA Developers: Remotely turn on USB debugging which explains different workaround but it need touchscreen to work.


Lost Storage when install CM 10.1.3 I have problem when install CM 10.1.3 state. It looks like I've lost my storage: In stock ROM it has ~11 GB, but just 1.9 GB in new ROM :(.

Where is it gone to? What can I do to regain it?

I use Galaxy S2

Screenshots (click images for larger variants)

Did you backup your stock ROM prior doing the upgrade?  I had this happen to me where I backed up the current ROM to, what I thought was, the external SD card, but it was infact the built-in SD card.  The naming of endpoint exposed in CLockworkMod Recovery (CWM) led me to believe I was using the SD card.  I backups were not visible in the file explorer, needed to drop back into CWM to delete the bad backup and re-backup on the actual external SD card.


no notification for automatic upload of images and videos in google+ How can I configure my 2.3.5 phone so that I don't get a notification for automatic upload of images and videos in google+?

If you're talking about when your phone uploads to Google+ automatically using the built-in Instant Upload, then you can just switch that off in the Google+ notifications. In fact I think that you must have switched that on at some point because I'm sure it was off by default for me.

Open the Google+ app, press Menu, select Settings, press Notification Settings, and then scroll down to the Photos category and take the tick out of "Photos added from Instant Upload". You'll still get the red notification box at the top inside the Google+ app, but won't get notified in the standard Android notifications bar any more. The other notification settings are there too, if you want to tune any of the others.


What does tether_dun_required do? I see lots of mentions of this option on Android sites, including Android.StackExchange.com, but I don't see any technical exploitation for what it does. What does this option actually do?

Tells telephony manager dial up networking emulation not required, not sure if thats actually required if you use net.tethering.noprovisioning=true in build.prop you can see the telephony and tethering code in the links below

https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/master/telephony/java/android/telephony/TelephonyManager.java

https://github.com/android/platform_frameworks_base/blob/355dbae680994002c48d7a66cb276a65393ecbbb/services/core/java/com/android/server/connectivity/Tethering.java


Howto avoid autostart of an app (non-rooted)? I now and then use an app that is written to autostart on every boot of the device. This is pretty annoying since I don't use it that much. How can I stop it ?

I know there is an "Autorun Manager" app, but it requires a rooted phone. Is there a way to do this on a non-rooted device ?

There are several ways how you could establish that. Though, as you discovered, most really good solutions require your device to be rooted, there are some methods working even without root:

Autorun Manager you've already mentioned -- to my experience, this is the best app in this area. This app also offers a non-root mode you might want to give a try. But like other apps in non-root mode, it can only kill apps after they've started -- while in rooted mode, it can disable the corresponding "Listeners" and thus keeping the app from being started at all. Even if killed right away, many of those apps simply re-start again (which is detected by ARM, and that app then left alone to avoid a kill-start-kill cycle). Moreover, they can only handle the boot_completed event -- but some apps (like e.g. Google Maps) start on so many different occasions (network changed, sdcard mounted...) -- where again the Pro-Version in root-mode can deal with, but the non-root mode can't.

If you've got Android 4.0 or higher, there might be another useful "work-around" -- at least if it's a rarely used app: Go to Settings→Apps→Manage Apps, scroll to the app in question, tap it once, and then tap the "Disable" button. App is gone (disabled) then, no longer shown in the app drawer -- and no longer started automatically or manually, as to the system it is "non existent". If you need it again later, go to the very same place, scroll to the very end of the list (Ah! there the disabled apps have gone to...), tap it again, and tap the "Enable" button -- back it is!

As this is a rather complicated way, it's probably not feasable for apps you need on a daily basis. But if it's an app you need no more often than once a month, it might be worth the effort.

Some related questions go deeper into details, many of them including stuff only relevant for rooted devices. However, they might be worth reading in this context, so I include their links with my answer here:

How to have unused apps not take up resources
Is there any way to let Facebook run only when I want?
Is there a way to permanently turn off Google Maps until needed?
How can I stop applications and services from running?


Accessing environment sensor data from a web page (HTML/JS/PHP) Is it possible to fetch the temperature info on the device from a web page using html/javascript/php?

Or would an app be required to do this?

No, not with HTML/JavaScript/PHP.

HTML is just plain information display. It can't "do" anything by itself.

JavaScript doesn't has access to the device sensors (luckily).

PHP is server side...

You could do it maybe with Flash/Java Plugins but those are unsafe and don't work (as far as I know) on mobile devices.

So yes, it would require an app. What you could do is to try to find the location of the device (thats something you can do with JavaScript/PHP) and look up the temperature of the location returned. But the location requests often don't work completely (e.g. they return very vague locations, or the location of the provider), so I would recommend you to just write an app.


Why Advent Vega keeps losing Wi-Fi? I recently bought a Advent Vega Android tablet and everything is working completely fine, however there is one slight problem with Wi-Fi.

Even though I have full Wi-Fi signal (it is as high as it can be), and it has been happily working for a while, after some time the Wi-Fi disconnects and when I go into the Wi-Fi settings it states that the network is out off range. If I turn off the Wi-Fi and re-enable it, it works fine.

I've tried a couple of different ROMs but they all have the same problem. Does anyone have any clues as to how this can be fixed?

It could possibly be that you have a wifi time out enabled? Check the wifi settings carefully. Also, make sure the wifi sleep setting is diabled.

It could of course be a hardware issue (and probably is if it happens on multiple roms). It could be that the wifi card in the tablet 'Shuts Off' after a certain time, check online as this would happen to all owners of the tablet if this was the case.


This item is not available in your country I am trying to install an app available freely in switzerland (postcard creator).

Use a VPN that connects to switzerland (I actually am in colombia).

I used google wallet with a swiss visa card to buy an item in the play store.

i deleted app data in app settings. I cleared cache.

Still the same problem.

I am running android lollipop

Google Play support says:

You can only change your Play country once per year.

When you change your country, you won’t be able to use your Google Play balance that you have in your old country in your new country.

So, avoid Google Play and use another market app. I suggest either:

APKPure
Aptiode

Both allow auto-updating apps.


How can I hide the most visited sites on New Tap page in Chrome? When I open a new tab in Chrome I get a new tab that shows the google search bar and a list of the most recent visited tabs.

How do I hide all these recent visited sites without having to remove every entry manually?

Enter chrome://flags in the address bar
Scroll down to Show popular sites on the New Tab page
Change the setting from default to Disabled
Relaunch Chrome


How can I mute the YouTube app while playing music on another player? I do love to listen to music while watching text YouTube videos, but I can't because YouTube can't be muted.

I use the respect audio focus in Musicolet Music Player.

I have tried App Volume Control but it did nothing!

You can play video in browser instead of youtube app. In browser you can mute the audio.

If your browser launched youtube app when clicked on video link, you need to copy the url and paste it inside the search box - youtube video will load in browser.


MB Data affect on texting I have a Samsung model SM-S120VL phone that I bought through Tracfone. This may be specific to Tracfone, I'm not sure. The problem is at times I can not view text mesages sent to groups and I can not view images sent to me. If I try and send an image in a text the text will time-out and not send. I have correlated these problems with my Tracfone account showing zero in the MB DATA usage available. My son-in-law who is an Android user tells me that MB Data should not have anything to do with text images or my group text problems, so I'm confused. I am thinking about trading in Tracfone as a provider and going with Mobil, though I don't know if I would have the same problems.

Can someone tell me if this is a Tracfone only problem or specific to Android phones?

MMS uses data
The Multimedia Messaging Service uses data. Without data you can't receive or send MMS's. MMS's include photos, videos, audio, or sometimes group texting.
I am also a Trac phone user.


Samsung J5 stuck in boot loop after factory reset Phone was rooted and working fine
I did a factory reset

Now, it seems to just boot into the Samsung animating logo that does not go away...

I'm able to boot into the recovery mode and view the logs. which has logs of:

couldn't find any tzdata when looking for localtime
...
can't open /dev/tt0: No such file or directory
...
no adf devices

Any chance to salvage this?

flash the same stock boot.img. its in BL_J500xxxxxx.
extract from it or flash the whole BL_J500xxxxx.
for extraction use 7zip,
then right click on the boot.img > add to archive
make boot.tar
flash it in AP, using odin


How to do reset/wipe on galaxy nexus with encrypted data My galaxy nexus, rooted, open bootloader, was running cyanogen mod 10.2 with encrypted data.  I tried to wipe and sideload 11 maguro onto it, and install hung on fixing fs_size in crypto footer.

On rebooting it hung on the cyanogen face.  I wiped a few more things and tried to put 10.2 back on and now the encryption password does not work anymore. So I cant boot the device.

I saw that a total wipe and restart is possible, but Im not sure how.  Sideloading another ROM I am guessing wont help anyway since I cant boot past the encrytion screen as my password is not being accepted.

When I boot into recovery I use clockworkMod Recovery v6.0.4.7

What is the best method to start again with my device, to get some type of OS working on it?

My options from my recovery menu
- reboot
-install zip
- wipe data/factory reset  (next menu only asks to wipe data)
- wipe cache partition
- backup and reestore (all involving the /sdcard which it cant mount)
-mounts and storage (the next menu does allow for format /system & /factory - but not sure what that will do?)
- advanced (reboots and logs)

If you can, boot into fastboot by holding down both volume keys and pressing the power key, then start recovery and do a factory reset.


Which Android handsets support in-line call recording? In-line call recording feature is not something that can be found in the specifications listed by the manufactures or on the websites aggregating such data such as GSM Arena. It is also a source of bad rep given to the developers of call recording apps because the general public does not understand that they own devices which do not support such feature for one reason or another and the app they use have nothing to do with it. A short trip around the Web only confirms that there is a lot of confusion surrounding this subject.

If you own an Android device and are able to verify whether it and its stock  ROM support in-line call recording please post the make and model. I'm not sure if the country of purchase is necessary but I would not be surprised if handsets sold in some countries had this feature enabled while in others disabled (in the same fashion as DVD players supported different regions depending on where they were sold).

The in-line recording should result in a recording where both the caller and the callee can be heard loud, clear and background noise free, just as they can hear each other during the conversation. It should be achievable while having the handset by the ear with the loudspeaker set to off.

Some information on handsets that do not have such feature can be found on the Google Play storefronts. I was initially going to pre-populate the below list with the 'unconfirmed' information from there but I think it will be better if it grows organically :-)

Android phones WITH in-line call recording capability

a
b
c

Android phones WITHOUT in-line call recording capability

HTC Incredible S (possible with custom kernel)
Motorola Atrix 4G MB860 (UK) (an unofficial ROM enabling the feature known to exist)
n

What handset makers say

Motorola UK - "We are sorry to inform you that due to privacy reasons, none of our phones comes with the in-call recording feature. There are some applications in Google Play that may perform this, however we cannot give support for their use. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you."

Acer UK - "In order to use the in line call recording, the unit should have the call recorder application on the unit. You can download the application from google store."

Sony UK - "Sadly we can confirm that no Sony Xperia handset has the ability to record calls as standard. However you may be able to download a third party application to do this but as it would be third party we would not be able to gaurantee it would fully work. We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this."

Samsung UK - "Unfortunately, we don't have a handset on the market that has this as a registered feature. However, there may be some third party applications available for download that may allow you to record telephone conversations. As these are third party and not developed by Samsung, I am unable to recommend any specific application to you."

LG UK - "I am really sorry to advise that we don’t have a handset that will do in-line call recording I would like to apologize for this."


How to know why is my Nook unable to boot into ClockWorkMod? I have a Nook Simple Touch that is already rooted. I've used the Clockworkmod file that I downloaded from the XDA-developers website here.

These are the steps I followed:

I connected my device to my laptop with the micro-usb cable.
I had access to my SD card.
I opened the terminal window and entered this command.

sudo dd if=2gb_clockwork-rc2.img  of=/dev/sdc

I rebooted into bootloader mode and it did not recognize clockworkmod.
I used adb commands to try to boot into the SD card. I was able to connect to my device but I was not able to get clockwork to load.
I used these commands.

adb reboot-bootloader
adb reboot-recovery
adb reboot recovery
adb reboot bootloader|recovery

After more than five failed attempts I have preceded to this question.

Is this all because I was using the micro-usb cable to burn the .img file to the SD card instead of using a SD card writer?

If so how do I get it to boot into clockwork if the method of burning the image is the problem without getting an SD card reader.

Yeah, the DD command to the SD card was probably a mistake. For Android using DD method usually is like example only:

Place recovery.img in the root of your /sdcard folder and rename it to cwm.img.

Run the following commands via ADB Shell or a terminal emulator app:
 su dd if=/sdcard/cwm.img of=/dev/block/platform/omap/omap_hsmmc.1/by-name/recovery

However, according to this guide, it will brick your device if you do it this way because the recovery is on the /boot partition. So not a good thing to try.
This guide was poorly written lacking detailed explanation. As far as the adb reboots stuff it looks like the developer could not get a handle on reboots so it's a bug.
The 2GB image can be used for installing ROMs and making backups. A 2GB image can be flashed on any sized SD card.
This is what I think you are trying to do. Example of using 2GB image SD card method:

Extract the cwm.img (if you can't open the file, use 7zip) and burn to SD card using win32diskimager (free) or winimage (shareware).
For Linux, use Etcher. These apps will need to be "run as administrator". Some internal laptop/desktop readers will not work, so to do this, you may need an external USB reader if you run into problems.

Once the card is done, copy any ROMs, or ZIPs you want to flash over to the card (simple copy and paste job).

Turn your Nook off, insert the card and boot the nook. It should come up with CWM.

If you want to also replace the stock recovery with this developers CWM (personally I would not looks sketchy and cwm has been out of development for a very long time). It's a little unclear but from what I remember it goes like this. If an issue on this last part arise I will revise. I do not think one will though.

Copy this developers install_cwm_recovery_xx.zip from the downloads to the SD card (just a simple copy and paste job).
2.Now, boot into CWM by placing your newly made SD card in the device and turning it on.
Go to and select the option Use the install zip from sdcard to install it (it just replaces uRecRam and URecImg in the /boot partition. You can also do this manually if you want).

Now you should have CWM permanently on the device if you so choose.


How to change the home dock icons on TouchWiz? Similar to How to edit the home dock icons (shortcuts) on TouchWiz 4.0 ICS

I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 GT-I9300 with Android 4.0.4. I can't for the life of me figure out how to edit the home screen dock icons on the default launcher (Touchwiz).

I've tried:

Long pressing on a home dock icon (nothing happens).
Long pressing an app in the home screen to drag onto the home dock. (Home dock icons disappear and are replaced by a Delete bar across the bottom of the screen)
On the home screen, press Menu -> Edit. (Home dock icons disappear and are replaced by 4 icons: Create folder, Create page, App info, Delete).
In the Apps list with a Customizable grid view, press Menu -> Edit. This is the answer to the linked question. (Allows editing of the Apps listing, but doesn't bring the home dock icons onto the screen so I cannot modify them)

Before I updated to 4.0.4 I could change the shortcuts in the home screen dock, and I put Google Chrome there to replace the default browser. After updating I now want to replace it with Firefox.

I am in Australia. I have friends with grey imports of the same phone from Hong Kong that don't exhibit this behaviour on 4.0.4.

The way it works on my SGS2 Android 4.0 is

Click on applications,
Click menu button, select "edit"

Now the screen shows several app icons you can change, but at the bottom are also the home buttons. All home buttons except for the most right one ("start page" or "home page") can be dragged and dropped, and you can move other app icons to the row with the home buttons.

Note that this only works if at step 1 you are in grid view, otherwise change to grid view in the menu first.

If this doesn't work, there may be some additional carrier software that prevents it.


How can I force a media rescan on Lollipop? I would like to force a rescan so that the MTP file listing is correct when I use Android File Transfer on my Mac.

I've tried a half dozen apps but none of them seem to work on Android 5.0.

I have rooted my device.

You can try heading over to the Settings>Apps>All, Look out for Gallery app, tap over it and Clear Data and the Cache Stored.


Any software to block all calls and all SMSes allowing only 3G internet? My dad gave his other dual-sim card to me, which has internet service that he does not need. I do not want to get his calls or SMSes, I only want to use his internet.

I have tried to do this unsuccessfully with Mobile Manager. I selected the option to block all calls and SMSes with the software, but I can see missed call notifications. I do not want to see them at the top bar. The internet connection works nevertheless.

Is there any way to solve this problem?

Wouldn't it be easier to just change the contract on the SIM card to a data-only contract and let the phone company do all the blocking for you? It would also save you paying for services you're not using.


TalkBack: System language is different from TTS language I'm on a Samsung Galaxy SIII Neo with Android 4.4.2 (KitKat), and would like to use TalkBack.

Why are the system language and TTS language separate. What does this separation of tasks achieve? Anyways, I am trying to enable TalkBack. I tend to vary the system (user-interface) language between English (US) and Italian.

So, I'm stuck at the following message, which is preventing me from turning on and experimenting with TTS. Anyone know how I can handle this obstacle.

Here is a screenshot:

Thanks.

Make sure that you select the same language under the following options:

 1. Settings ->  Accessibility -> Text-to-speech output -> ***** Text-to-speech,
    settings button behind it -> Language -> English(United States)

 2. Language and Input -> Language -> English(United States)

You may select any Language, but choose the same language in both of these cases.


Where are my Google Listen podcasts I sometimes want to export a downloaded podcast to my computer, but I've yet to find the location where Google Listen stores them.  Does anyone know?

It downloads them to your SD card.

I don't use Google Listen but I installed it and downloaded a podcast. It put it in:

/sdcard/com.google.android.apps.listen/downloads

The name of the file might be something odd so you might need to rename them but that's where they are all located.


Play music from Android to Airplay receiver Is there a way of playing music on my Android phone to an Airplay receiver (like Airport Express etc)?

The Airsync add-on to the Double Twist player adds this ability. It's not free, but was worth it.


Android O, failed to mount /system, /dev/block/dm-0 is read only I try to mount /system in Android O to RW using the command mount -o rw,remount /system, and i got this feedback on terminal dev/block/dm-0 is read-only
*Already in adb root

Any idea? Thanks

For debug build, user have to disable-verity at first.

adb root
adb disable-verity
adb reboot
adb remount
adb shell
mount -o rw,remount /system

In order to know build type of your android, in adb shell enter the following command

cat /system/build.prop | grep build.type


Whether my apps delete after software update in Sony Xperia tipo in Sony Service centre? My Android deivce is a Sony Xperia Tipo.

Recently, I got my Tipo's System Software Updated from Sony Service Centre.

I also found that sans-update, some (or all) of my installed Apps as absent/uninstalled.

Please help me regarding this.

Thank you in advance.

If you're going to send it in for service, they might decide to make a "clean install". In that case, your apps and data are of course gone. With a "normal update", apps and data might survive.

But it's never a bad idea to make a backup (see also our backup tag-wiki for hints, as well as the links to further information contained there – especially Full Backup of non-rooted devices). This way, even if some or all apps don't survive the update, you can still restore them from your backup.


Grey ticks of whatsapp My friend does conversations with me on whatsapp and respond to each and every message I sent to him yet grey double ticks on my messages do not turn blue. Even in the information pane of message I cannot see the "Read time" of the message. However whenever I asked him to tell me what had I sent to him he replied correctly as if he were reading. How is he able to do that? Is there any trick or my mobile's fault? I have attached an screenshot also

he maybe simply reading them from his notification panel and replying.
This is in case if u guys are having short conversations ... else it might be either  1) he is using lucky patcher.
        2) he has simply unticked the blue ticks in privacy settings.


Chrome - unprompted auto-download of files after opening the browser - bug or something else? Upon opening google chrome on android, it suddenly downloaded (unprompted by me) a jpeg, as well as a "seed" file.
After scanning both files with the mobile version of kaspersky, i opened the jpeg file and noticed that i knew the picture from somewhere.
Upon searching, i found it, along with the seed file in the download folder (from within the chrome app). Both were however said to be downloaded in 2017.
In contrast, in my own download folder inside the file manager the files are said to be downloaded today.

Now, what could have caused said (re-)download? Was this simply a bug, or might there be something else wrong with my phone?

First of all, I would recommend running a scan with Lookout just in case it is a virus that is initiating these downloads (I do see you've used Kaspersky so it should be fine if it didn't sound any alarms). However, it's likely a glitch with the Download Manager; I've been getting random redownloads of files that I've downloaded before through Chrome as well. A reinstall of Chrome and clearing the cache of the Files app may help, as well as a restart of the Android device.

Just the other day my Download Manager decided to "redownload" everything in my Downloads folder, yet it didn't download them in the sense that it retook them from the Internet. I think it was just reloading the files because there were no duplicates. It's likely nothing you need to worry about.


How do I troubleshoot the updgrade process of  my ASUS Transformer to 3.2.1? I just got a new ASUS Eee Transformer TF101.  (Ironically on the day the Prime is officially released/announced.  Oh well).

It came with Android 3.1 per the Settings page.  I tried Settings: About tablet: System Update and am told there are no updates available.

I read that 3.2 is available on these devices.  (I know 4.0/ICS is still a future thing).

How do I get to 3.2 on this device?  No obvious downloads on Asustek web page.

I am on my WiFi at home, checking mail, downloading apps, etc.

So how do I troubleshoot why the Over The Air upgrade did not show an available update, when there has been one available since early 2011 (many moons ago).

I am logged in to my Google Account. (I have my Gmail, Google Voice, and Youtube accounts all connecting ok).

What else can I check or look at, to understand why the OTA upgrade is not being made available.

For a manual approach, I found a download link for the Firmware off the Asus site.

I think my mistake earlier was in the download pages OS selector I looked at WinXP, Win7, never considered (or noticed) that Android was an OS option.

Then you download and unzip the 250 meg file.

Then you copy it to an SD card, with ASUS as the folder at the root.

Pop it into the Tranformer, and you get a notification that it is preparing the SD card, and then that there is a Software Update available.

At that point, you are at the same basic functionality as the Over The Air upgrade path.  Make sure you are plugged in (or do not run out of power).

However, this is a workaround, as opposed to fixing the core issue, of why the OTA upgrade was not available.


Will flashing stock firmware also restore the stock recovery? My phone is Asus Zenfone 2 (ZE551ML, Z00AD).

As described in another question, I was unsuccessfully trying to unlock my bootloader. In the process, I also lost the stock recovery.

I learned how to flash stock recovery to repair it.

My firmware version is WW-2.20.40.198. I haven't been able to find the stock recovery file for that exact firmware version. However, I have been able to get a hold of the WW-2.20.40.196 stock recovery file. I was told on XDA-Developers that this would be fine, so I flashed it via Fastboot.

It seems to be working, although I haven't tried to actually flash firmware through adb yet.

I'm now unsure of which firmware to flash through adb, WW-2.20.40.196 or WW-2.20.40.198.

I have two conflicting ideas.

On the one hand:

Since the recovery file I flashed with fastboot was 196, then perhaps I should also flash the 196 firmware file?

Or maybe:

If I flash the 198 file, perhaps it will also restore the 198 stock recovery? In that case, perhaps I can just flash the 198 firmware?

Flashing: Not the rude one, the android one!

honestly, You should flash the 198,to ensue you get the right files. You might need to unlock the bootloader again, but I doubt it.

Also, to answer the title: Yes, Flashing the Stock OS will Flash stock recovery. Unlike custom ROMS, Stock ROMS Re-flash the RADIO (Also known as /efs in Samsung, is responsible for mobile data, calls, WiFi, etc.) The system, the recovery, kernel, boot image.... And more!


What is a cached background process? What is a cached background process and do they consume memory (RAM)?

When you leave an app that was running in the screen, it stops running, but Android keeps its process in memory. This means that next time you want that app in the foreground, or next time it runs a service in the background (e.g. to check for email), the app can run again without Android having to load it from storage again. This means it starts faster and uses less battery.

Apps that have been kept alive but not running in this way are called cached background processes. They still use some RAM, but Android will automatically remove them from RAM if it needs to free it up for running apps, so they don't affect the amount of RAM available to other apps.


Samsung s4 stuck on logo Yesterday I installed the newest software update for the Samsung galaxy S4(GT-19505). At first, the phone was stuck on a loop of the update 'installing' to 100%, turning on then switching off and repeating. I did a battery pull and removed my SD card. when i went to switch on my phone and it was stuck on 'android is updating. i left it and fell asleep. this morning i switched it on and it started as normal but then froze and got stuck at the glowing 'SAMSUNG' logo. i have tried using the power+up+home to and cleared the cache partition but that did not help. i have also taken out and replaced the battery many times. Samsung Kies also does not recognise my phone. How do I fix this problem? I am a complete newbie when it comes to phones and the technical side of them and would prefer an easy guide as to how to fix my problem/what the problem is.I did a factory reset and wiped all my data with no result.please help.

Hard Reset your phone.. But all your data and apps will be gone..

Turn off the phone. Press and hold at the same time Volume UP,Home and Power keys. When you see Galaxy logo release the Powerstrong text key but continue to hold the Volume Up key and the Home key.

Release them when the Android System Recovery screen appears. Use Volume Up/Down keys for navigation and Power On key for OK. Choose "wipe cache partition", "Yes -- delete all user data", "reboot system now".

And click on Wipe Data/Factory Reset

You are done then.


Google Mail missing in Cyanogenmod (gApps)? I installed Cyanogenmod and noticed that Google Mail is missing. I can't install it form the Market either. Market, Talk and so on are there, just Google Mail is missing.

How can I install Google Mail?

There seems to be a problem with the latest Cyanogenmod 7.1.0 and the german locale. Possible solutions are

Some users report that if you search google on your phone for "gmail market" and open the market:// link with the Market, Gmail will install.
Use the market enabler to change your mobile provider and download the gmail app.
Manually install the .apk from this thread


Change IMEI number to obtain tablet data plan? It looks like T-Mobile offers very cheap data-only plans, but these are only available for tablets. I have read that this is enforced by tracking your IMEI. I was wondering: Is it possible to change your phone's IMEI to a tablet's IMEI, to trick T-Mobile, so that you can get a data-only plan. Nobody really needs talk and text if they have data. Thanks!

This would undoubtedly be a violation of T-Mobile's terms of service.  To do so, though, you would need to create a custom ROM and modify the ro.serialno system property.  Alternatively you could try to modify Build.java and pass in a different value to Build.SERIAL.  It's unclear whether that's how T-Mobile is retrieving the IMEI number though.