How often does Android have to decompress an app's APK and OBB files? According to one of great answers to this question, Android has to decompress each application's APK and OBB files before the app can be run.

Is this decompression performed each and every time an app is run, assuming it has been pushed out of Android's process cache?

Yes, and no. Android apps are not decompressed into the file system when it needs to run. Instead, they are selectively decompressed and read into memory/ram by the Dalvik virtual machine. This decompression is a very simple, quick, non-processor-intensive process, so it does not add any real overhead to the system. On first install, there is some optimization by the Dalvik VM, mainly linking to native libraries on the Android system to the internal APK libraries, and this is saved into the Dalvik-cache as an optimized dex file (.odex)

[Side note, this is why the first boot of a phone takes longer, as the system has to create odex files for any app that does not have an odex file. System Apps are typically made to have an odex by the manufacturer]

An APK has a predefined structure, including file lists, resources, assets, libraries, dex (Java Class files converted into Dalvik Executable Format) etc. The system decompresses and reads these files into memory, and follows the code inside. That code tells it when to decompress and load the other files.

It never hits the hard drive, goes right into memory.


Split adopted storage doesn't work I have a HTC One M8 and I split my adopted storage with adb like this:

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.10586]
(c) 2015 Microsoft Corporation. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Minimal ADB and Fastboot>adb shell
shell@htc_m8:/ $ sm set-force-adoptable true
shell@htc_m8:/ $ sm list-disks
disk:179,32
shell@htc_m8:/ $ sm partition disk:179,32 mixed 80
shell@htc_m8:/ $ sm list-disks adoptable
disk:179,32

It seems to work, no error, and the phone shows the SD card as internal and external, but both as "beschädigt" - it doesn't work.

So I have to format one partition with the phone. And the result is, either the whole space of the SD card is internal or external; it depends on which part I choose to format.

Is there any help for this problem?

You are entering the wrong disk. The numbers are wrong and you have a space after the ":".

This is the correct command:

sm partition disk:173,29 mixed 80

Or this (I don't know your disk number..)

sm partition disk:179,32 mixed 80

If both commands don't work, please post a screenshot of the output of this command: sm list-disks.


Add a custom word to Google Japanese keyboard I am wanting to type a word in Japanese that has a unique reading (not the standard onyomi or kunyomi). As such, I'd like to add it to the Google Japanese keyboard so that I can simply type the kana, and the desired kanji will show up. At the moment I have to type out each individual kanji by their standard readings to write the desired word.

How can I add a custom reading to the Google Japanese keyboard?

For clarification, please see Tip #9 on this page for an example of how to do this in Windows:
http://nihonshock.com/2010/04/12-japanese-ime-tips/

Gboard (Google Keyboard) has a very simple way to add new words to it.

Open the Gboard app, go to 'dictionary' > 'personal dictionary' > [Japanese] > plus (+) symbol on the top right. Now, type the desired word, and add a shortcut, that way every time you type the shortcut, it will give you the option to switch to the desired word.

For example, if I want to type the word
Привет in Russian, but I don't want to switch my keyboard from English to Russian just to type that word, so I made a shortcut that every time I write the letter P the word will show up in the suggestion bar. See screenshot below


Copy an entire Android Image to multiple devices First and foremost, let me tell you that I am everything but a professional when it comes to the Android OS. I've just been using it casually up to now, but I do have a rather annoying task at hand right now.

The issueI have is Setting up About 150 Android devices, disabling the Google apps, changing some Settings and installing one app. Obviously that task would take about for ever if I did everything by hand, so my thought was to just set up one and then copy all the properties and stuff to the other ones. Unfortunately I have no idea if that even is possible.

Rooting the devices is not an Option as the warranty should stay intact. The devices are Zebra TC200J with Android 7.1.2

I'd really appreciate any help about the process or any other ways on how to ease the process.

MDM(Mobile Device Management) is a great option when managing multiple devices. Google has their own MDM.

  MDM begins at a centralized location, usually a single workstation or
  computer. From this centralized point, the administrator can use the
  Mobile Device Management software to oversee all the devices in the
  network. This is done by using the software to set up a suite of
  policies so that all devices that have access to the network will
  adhere to enterprise standards.

  Once the policies are set, administrators can then enroll smartphones,
  tablets, laptops, and even desktop computers into the network.
  Depending upon software capabilities and corporate security
  requirements, device enrollment can be accomplished, either by
  physically connecting devices to the workstation, or wirelessly.

  From this point, enrolled devices can be configured to meet enterprise
  needs through a host of options including personalized app catalogs,
  user restrictions, app blacklisting, and so forth. These
  configurations help to ensure that all devices comply to set policies
  while at the same time allowing users the best device experience
  possible. At any time a device is enrolled into the network, MDM
  software allows administrators to make policy changes, push apps,
  install updates, and any other changes that are necessary.
  Administrators can even disenroll and restrict devices whenever
  necessary.

There is an alternative, you could enable developer options and enable USB debugging. Later a simple script that runs adb tcpip 5555 for all devices allowing you to connect them to a network. Now you can perform actions on all phones including keystrokes using keyevent by relaying the devices. Something like adb shell input keyevent KEYCODE.

I would prefer MDM as it is a little hassle-free, but using adb has worked for me


Phone, Contacts, Camera and Messages icons are missing Galaxy J3 - Phone, Contacts, Camera and Messages icons are missing.  I tried following the directions someone else had posted; but, my application manager does not have a GENERAL TAB nor is there a TURNED OFF list.  Thanks!

Try factory reset, it should solve the problem


How do I bypass the Verizon activation on a Samsung Fascinate? I want to use a Samsung Fascinate (model SCH-I500) in WiFi only mode for development and testing purposes. The device has been factory reset and boots to the Verizon activation screen. How do I bypass activation? Do I need to root the device?

After doing some additional research I finally came across a YouTube video on how to bypass a Samsung Galaxy S Continuum activation screen. The steps outlined in the video are very simple:

From the Activation Screen select Emergency call.
Enter the following *#83786633 (*#TESTMODE) which will disappear when you press the last 3
A toast with the text Softkey is enabled will appear
Then press the home button


Is there a way to keep an old Android installation as virtual machine? With PCs I have made good experiences virtualizing the machine when changing to a new system (e.g., buy a new computer, change the operation system). Doing this, you can preserve your old system and restart it virtually if you would like to look up anything about your old system (e.g., a settings within a software tool).

As I have an issue with my not so old smartphone now and probably have to hand it in for repair, I would like to do the same with my Android system. I already did a backup using adb.exe from Android-SDK. Now, I am wondering if these backup-files represent a proper image and if there is a way to initiate these images in a virtual machine!?

On the web I could not find any solution. There are lots of instructions of how to run Android-x86 as virtual machine. But that is not exactly what I am looking for.

ADB backs up Settings + Apps(System + User) + Apps Data + User Data. That's it. The backup made through it doesn't come close to be related to booting it into virtual machine or even a real device. Short story, you have a backup definitely but that's not a system image.

If you want to create a system image, you need to do it through a Nandroid backup or a custom tool. For the former, you require a custom recovery installed. But even that backup cannot be virtualized on a PC, not that I'm aware of any of yet.

However, you can virtualize (running real actually) this Nandroid backup using MultiRom. I did not use MultiRom but I found that folks use it to boot multiple Android OS. I'm yet to be certain whether this backup can be installed in a seconday ROM, I suppose it should be.
Besides, the last time I checked for Android virtualization, I got Android 4.3 as the latest available iso when 5.0 for devices was already launched.

Note: This is an attempt and is far away from a good answer. Nonetheless, it doesn't qualify to be a comment either.


If I hide a contact on the LINE app can they still send me messages? If I hide a contact for LINE can they still send me messages?

Yes, they can. Hiding a contact only removes them from view, but you can still send them messages and they can still contact you.


Phone automatically hangup when the call is picked up by receiver I am having problems when I call people. Every time I try to make a call to someone I can hear the ringback tone, but as soon as someone picks up the phone or their voice mail activates my phone will automatically hang itself up. I'm not sure what  should I do. I thought that factory resetting my phone would work but I don't want to risk losing all of my information that I have stored in my phone.

Is there any possible solution to my problem?

It could be a firmware bug by your manufacturer and a update could be released if you report ASAP. However, if you are using a custom rom, then you should report the problem to the rom developer.


Official firmware for Moto G 2014 XT1069 I've got one Moto G 2014 XT1069 (dual sim) device, that I might need to flash the factory image. The point is that I'm totally new to this, and although I have found many tutorials on the matter, I'm still a little preocupated with the "official firmware".

As I understood this "flash the factory image" process is analogous to picking one bootable media and reinstalling Windows/Linux on a PC.

Now, what makes me more worried is that I've been searching for this official firmware and all the ones I've found are available through non-official sources like Mega.

This makes me worried: isn't there a risk that someone has tempered the image with some spyware-like or virus-like software that might capture data from the device?

Since these images are made available by non-official people, it makes me very worried about the extent to which is safe to use them.

Is it safe to use those images? Can I obtain one from a official source?

Where can I find one image for this device? I accessed XDA and found this one. It is indeed PT-BR language, which is what I'm searching, but I'm in doubt if I can trust this image and if this is the right image.

Is this the right image and can I trust it? If not, how can I obtain the correct image from a trustworthy source?

As I said I'm totally new to this, so sorry if I said something silly.

To obtain original firmware -Sign in on Motorola / Lenovo (Motorola had been taken over by Lenovo) site with device details , creating an account and search for firmware

Edit: OP has confirmed that he is unable to locate on the Motorola forums as older devices firmware is apparently removed. It is suggested that he mail the OEM or in the OEM forums for sha / md5 of the firmware and compare with that of XDA download as explained here Is there a way to verify stock ROMs?

XDA firmwares are generally legitimate, but best of course is to get it from OEM if you don't trust

Firmware is usually downloaded by folks and hosted on file sharing sites like Mega, since

a) They can't or may not be permitted to link to original source always

b) Firmware may not be available on original source as later versions may replace earlier OS versions

c) For easier sharing - practically all sites hosting firmware use such sites

Since you specifically drew attention that you are new to this, downloading correct firmware is the first step and following instructions given by OEM / sites like XDA meticulously


Canceling accuracy setting on android- nubia Z17 when I first used the GPS while driving i accidently checked 'Remember this setting' and consented into the program (high accuracy). I would like to undo this, but i dont know how.
Can someone please help me? i dont want to erase all the data from the device of course...
Nir

Depending on your Android version, this may change a little bit:

Open your app drawer
Click Settings
Click on Location
Click on Mode


No Network, my HTC desire not identifying network operator There is no network in my HTC desire, because airplane mode is switching turned on and off continuously. I have tried with factory reset, it is still in same state.

Power off completely. Remove sim card. Check if the problem recurs. If it does not replace sim card.


Getting Black screen when i play youtube videos in youtube app I've BSNL Penta Tablet with 2.3.7 installed in it. Whenever I tries to watch Video in YouTube Application. It does play the video with audio only. Only Black screen appear in the video tab but never displayed.

What could be the reason for these kinda weird behaviour?

Is the YouTube App have some bug or BSNL Penta tab is have some issues in it?

YouTube is the must app in any Tab as it gives everything you want from big screen.

Can anybody please tell me how to fix these issues?

Yeah that seems odd... I remember having the exact same issue however I figured out that it was the Downloaded FireWall application (great app to control your Data Usage btw) just "DENYING" access to the media component from within YouTube.

See if you got such apps around your system?? (the firewall suggestion is basically for rooted phones)


HTC one X moving to next email In the HTC one X mail client there doesn't seem to be a way to move up and down to the next email from an open email (as i could previously do on my Desire). Is there a way to do this that i haven't spotted?

In the Gmail client, you can go to the next or previous mail by swiping right or left.

In the stock Email client, there is an arrow on the menu bar.


How to transfer file to internal usb storage on Samsung Note? I am trying to install a p12 certificate on my Samsung Note.  From what I've read, this can be accomplished with: menu->settings->Location and Security->Install from USB Storage (or SDCard storage, depending on the phone).

So, how do I transfer a file to the USB storage?

For transfering files thorugh pc to USB:
Goto settings>about phone> and tap build bumber several times until it shows you are now developer.
Now goto settings> developer options> enable debugging mode.
Now try connecting to pc  (Make sure you have USB drivers installed).

For transfering files from phone to USB:*
Make sure you have working otg cable.
Use es explorer(recommended) to copy paste the files from phone to USB.


Samsung Galaxy S3 stock email app - Load more details I use the S3s stock email app for my Hotmail account, but I haven't been able to find a setting to allow the emails to be automatically loaded in HTML view.  For each email I have to scroll to the bottom of the email and select "Load more details", then the email loads in HTML and all the hyperlinks are converted to graphics.

On my old Evo there was a setting where I could choose to receive emails as text or HTML, but I haven't been able to find that setting in the stock email app on the S3.

Does anyone know if this is possible?

There's a "Message format" setting located at Settings > [account] > Sync settings > Message format. The choices available are "HTML" and "Plain text." Not sure whether that will necessarily solve your particular problem, but perhaps try giving that a shot.


Back up phonebook list along with all data I used before factory reset I'm using Karbonn A11 Android phone. One of my friends tried to guess my pattern and unfortunately he locked my phone. I want my phonebook list back before factory restore. Please suggest to me how could I get back my data.

If you have sync enabled in your mobile, then your phone book list will be automatically stored in your Google account. Go to "contacts.google.com" to find your contacts.

Else If you have USB Debugging enabled in your phone, you can follow this link to unlock your phone.


What is this fingerprint bar on my phone? I've had this phone for a few months now.  During normal usage today, this thing suddenly appeared.  Tapping, long-pressing, swiping did nothing.  It persisted above everything, even the keyboard (as seen), until I rebooted.  Checking the running apps didn't show anything weird.

Anyone have any idea what it is or where it came from?

I don't know what it is, but I also just had it pop up an hour ago. As you said, persistent between apps and screens, but goes away on landscape orientation. I am on a Moto X Dev running Eclipse 4.4.2.

Edit: It seems to be a feature added by the latest update from LastPass:
http://blog.lastpass.com/2014/04/lastpass-adds-biometric-security-on.html

Edit 2:I have just been stopping the floating fingerprint overlay service when it appears for now until last pass fixes the issue.


How do I install an app with system-rights on a non-rooted smartphone? I would like to install logcat as system-app on a non-rooted phone.

Is that possible (using adb without root-access)?

No. A system app has to be either installed by root or signed with the same key that signed the ROM image.


Galaxy Nexus 6:30 minutes to copy 128MB over WiFi, is it normal? I use the Galaxy Nexus GT-I9250 and the WiFi is very slow, I copied a video (128MB) from my computer and it completed in 6:30 minutes, is that normal? It seems slower than over 3G.
I used ES File Explorer to copy and I was logged in with the Windows User/pass.

Since you were both uploading and downloading simultaneously and upload speeds are usually much slower (I figured yours must have been around .33 MB/s), then that doesn't seem totally unreasonable depending on other variables.


Pokémon Go without Google at all I bought an android phone recently and tried to use it without any Google account and so far that was alright.
But I wanted to try Pokémon Go today and I cannot play without signing up with a Google account.
I heard that you could create a Pokémon club account instead of Google but I don't even have the option, only the button to sign up with google appears.

Does anybody have a solution for that?

Unfortunately Creating a Google Account is currently your only option, It's not hard to create a new account and it will probably be beneficial for many other applications you might download.  It's annoying to create a whole new account just to keep things separated but it's necessary to gain access to Google's location features on Android.


Unable to copy files to /sdcard Due to a configuration error I made combined with an OTA update (Android 4.1.2), I had to re-unlock my bootloader to regain root on my GSM Galaxy Nexus. This process wipes the entire phone, including /sdcard. When I restored from backup, I discovered that only some of my files had been included in my most recent backup and subsequently restored.
I have a slightly-older complete backup consisting of the individual files copied onto my computer. However, I can't restore them.
I first tried adb push (note that I'm using Linux and do not have access to a Windows box at this time):
$ adb push . /system/sdcard0
push: ./.estrongs/cache/visit_history-journal -> /system/sdcard0/.estrongs/cache/visit_history-journal
failed to copy './.estrongs/cache/visit_history-journal' to '/system/sdcard0/.estrongs/cache/visit_history-journal': No such file or directory

If I delete the file mentioned, I get the same error for the next file. Note that this is a nonsensical error, as the only possible way for the file to even be attempted is for it to exist. It's annoying when error messages are themselves incorrect.
Next, I fired up DropBear SSH on my phone, started up the server and connected via SSH. So far, so good. But when I tried to use scp to copy the files across...
$ scp -r sdcard0/ root@192.168.2.11:/storage/sdcard0
Welcome to DropBear SSH Server!
root@192.168.2.11's password:
sh: scp: No such file or directory
lost connection

Grr.
I tried to use a GUI method and use a file manager to copy the files. If I use the USB computer connection settings, I have two options: MTP or PTP. When I use MTP my file manager (Nautilus) can't even list a directory on my phone. The backend just times out. When I use PTP, I can only see camera-related folders. I can copy individual files, but when I try to copy everything, I get an error stating that there's not enough space and that 5 GB more is required. Obviously there's enough space, because what came off the "sdcard" must be able to fit back on.
What gives? Why is it so difficult to move files from my computer to my phone?
Update
After reading some related questions, I was reminded of FTP. I installed an FTP server on my phone and the files are curently being transferred. Of coures, I never thought of FTP earlier since it's obsolete technology and I haven't had a use for it until now for years.
So, my question changes to this: Why did the other methods, which are superior to FTP, fail?

Originally posted by @ott-- in the comments, this answer did the trick. I'm posting it as an answer since ott-- hasn't.

  Isn't the target named /sdcard or /storage/sdcard and not /system/sdcard?


How to improve camera shooting responsiveness? Is there a camera application (or other solution) that has quick response time between button press and taking the picture?

On HTC Hero, the delay from button press to shutter is painfully long - focusing, etc seem to take a lot of time with the stock camera app.

On HTC EVO with the stock Camera app, distant shots focus and shoot quickly. However, closer shots can take some time focusing.

I think that if you tap on the screen to set a place for the focus, you'll gain some seconds for the effective shoot.

It's also allow you to focus on a special part of the picture.

I hope it's help.


On es file explorer, how can you move files into /mnt/sdcard_ext When I try to move the file it says it only works in internal storage how can I move the file to external storage?

To do that you must have root and root explorer enabled. Just launch es file explorer. Swipe left to right or go to the menu section and just belie enable root explorer. If you don't find it tap on tools. Next just above tap local. Then device. You can then locate the mnt/sdcard path. You can paste whatever you want there and do a reboot


Listing partitions names and mount points I'm trying to get list of partitions and their mount points in terminal, but I'm not so succesfull.

"ls -l /dev/block/platform/mtk-msdc.0/11230000.msdc0/by-name/” (found this path by using "cat /proc/mounts" but it return me a 'permission denied, I guess I need root, but I don't have one.
So how to get partitions names and mount points without root?
Also there is one weird thing: when I go with Total commander in /dev folder there isn't /block folder inside just file named 'block' with size 0 and not readable (becase lack of root). How is that possible?

Type in mount to a terminal emulator, root not required.

Lists all mount points active, note: mine is very long due to many bind mounts.

Imgur: http://imgur.com/a/dzqq6

Or alternatively

Type grep /etc/recovery.fstab


Native SIP client in Samsung Galaxy S2 Android version 4.1.2 I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 which is upgraded to Android 4.1.2. I did not find the SIP settings. Where have they gone to?

Go to phone > menu > call settings > internet call settings > accounts


HTC 626 bricked when trying to root the phone. What to do now? I have bricked my HTC 626. I was trying to root my phone.

I installed a recovery. As you can understand that I flashed recovery after unlocking bootloader. But I have s-on on phone. I then got some file on Google searching it for ways of recovery, super su, and boot.img.

I tried to open the phone in recovery mode but recovery wasn't working.
Then I thought flashing boot.img will work so I flashed it.
On the tutorial I found on the net there was a command for erasing the cache. Now it is not booting up. I tried to switch s-off. Didn't work.

Recovery did not work. I can only go through fastboot mode. ADB commands are working. I found some details that ruu.exe could help. But it is more complicated that I couldn't find proper ruu.

I did download HTCdev source file.

Here is getvar all details version: 0.5

version-bootloader: 3.19.0.0000
version-baseband: 1.0.U20402.1@50313
version-cpld: None
version-microp: None
version-main: 1.10.709.2
version-misc: PVT SHIP S-ON
imei2: Not Support
meid: 00000000000000
product: a32_ul
platform: hTCBmsm8916
modelid: 0PKX21000
cidnum: HTC__621
battery-status: good
battery-voltage: 0mV
partition-layout: Generic
security: on
build-mode: SHIP
boot-mode: FASTBOOT
hbootpreupdate: 11
gencheckpt: 0
mfg-name: 1001

What should I do to unbrick the phone?

If you have access to bootloader (fastboot), do the following:

Unlock the bootloaderGeneral command:fastboot oem unlock (Not sure for your phone)
Flash a custom recovery: CWMUse the command: fastboot flash recovery *recovery_name*.img
Download and Flash this stock ROM from CWM: CWM Backup

(Source: https://www.facebook.com/htc626gplusdev)


Go to recovery mode on device without volume key Is there a universal way to enter recovery mode on an Android device with only one turn on/off button?
I have a tablet (Navon Raptor 7) like this and I can't figure it out. An other problem is that although it can boot and get to the launcher, basically I can't start any application or get to the settings (it says 'xy application stopped' etc.) so I can't even activate debug mode and use adb to achieve this. That's why I want to do a hard reset from recovery...

You can use apps like Quick Boot or Rebooter or some root apps have this feature to go to recovery mode.. Use them


Boot loop after updating HTC One M8 to Android 6.0 Marshmallow Couple of days back, I got the notification to download and install official Android 6.0 (build 6.12.401) in my HTC One M8 (not rooted, was running Android 5.0.2). As I downloaded and installed it, from that point it's gone to boot-loop state and showing only HTC logo.

Now I have tried to do Factory reset that ends in the same loop, recovery mode which does nothing and stays on that screen with exclamation sign, installed ADB on a friend's advice, but the mobile's debugging is not on.

Any advice or explanation of the issue and the fix?

Mine does this occasionally, the temp solution I have found for the time being is to plug it into a charger and then to force a reboot again by holding power and volume up together until it restarts.

This normally gets the phone to boot, no idea why it makes any difference but it seems to work and just went back into the loop each time until I plugged my charger in first.

And no my battery wasn't low, it had 87% when it finally booted up and was at 98% when it decided to go into a loop.

Hope this helps


How to use camera without unlocking phone? (Jelly Bean on S3) I put Jelly Bean on my Verizon Samsung Galaxy SIII using http://www.cyanogenmod.com/blog/cyanogenmod-10-m2.

I know that it should be possible for me to use my camera to take pictures quickly (without unlocking my phone). (See Is it possible to use the camera without unlocking first?)

But I haven't figured out how.

I use a 4x4 pattern lock screen.

WHAT THE MANUAL DOES NOT SAY IS:
Camera Quick Access = On (Might as well switch this off as it cant work out how to get by the Pattern Recognition for the camera to auto start)

WHAT IS DOES SAY IS:
Settings->Scroll down to Personal->Lock screen->Lock screen options->Scroll down to Features->Camera quick access ON

Camera quick access:
While the screen is locked, and help upright tap and hold the screen, and then
rotate the device to the landscape view to launch the camera (when
the camera shortcut is activated).

See p. 152 of the Samsung User Manual from September 2012 Jelly Bean version.


Get Android activities and sub activities path programmatically This is my first question on AE forum, so excuse me for my ignorance.

I'm searching for a method to get the complete path through the system apps like Music, Video, Settings, etc...

The goal is to prepare a checklist for manual testers to browse through the checklist and do sanity/functional tests

Currently, I'm using :

adb logcat | find "ActivityManager"

Then I record the path manually to prepare the script for launching the activity, for example:

adb shell am start -n com.android.settings/.Settings\$WifiSettingsActivity

The problem I can't go through all the forms of the system apps this way because it's time-consuming

Is there any tool, idea to help me automate the process of launching system apps activities one by one to create a full checklist ?

Regards

Based on this question from StackOverflow, you can try the following:

adb shell dumpsys package | grep -i "com." | grep Activity

It will list all activities from packages whose names start with com.. You can apply the same command for packages that start with net. or org. or whatever by substituting com.


How to switch to data transfer from charge only mode (USB) ON MY PC NOT PHONE I dropped my LG G3 and lost most of the responsiveness in the screen. I'm trying to access my files on my PC but I can't change my connection to being able to transfer and view the files on my phone from my PC. The setting can be changed on my phone but I can't do that anymore... Anyone have a solution?

if you have a usb keyboard or mouse, you can use an OTG adapter and you can gain some control. From there you might be able to set a bluetooth mouse on the device, then connect the device to the PC and use the mouse to set the option.


What causes Link2SD to not automatically link apps? When I install an app from the Play Store, Link2SD doesn't automatically link it but if I go to the app manually and press Create Link, it works and the app gets linked. It just won't do it automatically. I already tried recreating the mount scripts multiple times.

Already tried changing the mount script to either Ext2 or Ext4 but they both gave me an error which ascertains that my 2nd partition is in Ext3 format.

There is option in settings ( auto link apps)  check that option. Your apps will be linked automatically after install.


How do I recover my WhatsApp messages after installing CM? Today I unlocked my phone's (Xperia L) bootloader and installed CyanogenMod 11 on it. After I did it, I tried to install WhatsApp, but it couldn't restore my messages. This is what it said after installing WhatsApp and putting my number:

Sorry, couldn't restore messages(not exactly like that, but in Portuguese)

How can I restore my messages? If not possible, just recovering my account would be fine...

Next time use Titanium Backup Pro or Rom Toolbox Pro (especially the last one It's the most powerful app!! and will help you a lot especially if you like changing and trying new Roms) To fully backup the whole whatsapp (with data) and contacts app (to restore data only of this app later) . You can restore all your messages. When installing new Rom restore whatsapp app+data You will find all your messages. If you already installed whatsapp then restore data only Don't forget to restore data of contacts apk so all contacts will appear in whatsapp main screen.
I use this method to run "2lines for wassap" app. On Whatsapp+ :)


Is it possible to recover Google authenticator database I am using 2 factor authentication through google authenticator and forgot to keep backup for one of the websites (cex.io). When I changed to new phone, I uninstalled Google authenticator from the old one. And now I am locked out of my account. I still have access to the phone and I have reinstalled google authenticator.

Now in this situation, is there any possible way to recover the keys for two factor that were saved on my phone? Customer support for cex.io is very slow and I am not sure when they are going to disable two factor so that I can setup for my new phone. If it is relevant, I was using Redmi 1s from Xiomi.

Google Authenticator uses "seed" values which are symmetric keys used to generate OTPs (One Time Passwords). This means there is more than one copy of these keys, one with Google and other with the registered applications. In a sense they are in pair, hence symmetric. When you try to register your new device with authenticator, there are more than two copies of these keys and this causes an authentication problem. If these keys were easy to be backed up and restored, the security might have been at risk. So, all you can do is re-register your new instance of Google Authenticator. For this you need to follow these steps-

Log in to your Google account (Since the Authenticator's key we have wouldn't be useful here, you can choose either Call or Message to get a code on your registered mobile number.)
After logging in, go to My Account > Sign-in & Security. In the password and sign-in method click on 2-step verification (you will be asked to enter your password again).
On the next screen, you will see an option for Authenticator app, click Change phone and select Android or iPhone(accordingly).
On your new phone install Google Authenticator app and open it, go to Set up an account and choose Scan barcode. Delete the previous entry if you have pre-installed the app and have an account registered.
On the next screen, enter the 6-digit key which you get on your app.
Let me know if there's an issue.


Tasker: How to trigger recheck of state context? As I understand it, when I set Tasker to execute a tasks in a profile that has a state context it executes the tasks once - when the state condition becomes true.

Is there a task command to make Tasker re-run the profile (in case the state condition still remains true, of course)?

Background: I'm trying to make Tasker do some actions when net wifi closes, wait a while, then check if net connection is still closed to run the same actions again (effectively creating a loop that only ends when net connection becomes active).

Add a time context to your profile. There is a repeat option (check box).


Install Android-x86 in Virtualbox VM, then root it Problem

I want to install Android in a VM to restore a backup using Titanium Backup. For this to work I need Android to be rooted.

What I tried

I've tried to install Android-X86 4.3 in a Virtualbox VM. The installation seems to work. I made a 8GB partition disk (sda1), made it bootable, and installed Android in it from an ISO file. This all seems to work. Android starts, I can browse the internet, install apps, etc. Then I want to restart the VM, and guess what?! I go back to the installation screen, like starting up from the ISO live image.

For normal stuff I can make a snapshot, start that up, and do anything. My problem is that I need root permission to restore a Titanium Backup in that VM. And I cannot root this VM because the disk is not writeable. With ALT-F1 I become root, and I can use a script to root Android. But my guess is that I'm still on the ISO and that is not writeable.

Update - another try with Android 4.2

As mentioned in the comments, 4.3 would have problems with root access. I tried 4.4, which didn't start at all. Then I tried 4.2, which has the same problem as 4.3 for me. I made a screenshot of what I see when I try to run the rootscript, which is described here.

You can see the errors: rm failed - Read only filesystem

How can I fix this?

My question

How can I install Android permanently on this VM, so it can reboot and then be rooted?

For your reboot problem, it sounds like your boot order is booting off the .iso, i.e., cdrom, before it looks for the disk partition where you installed Android. Shut everything down and disconnect the .iso. You can just delete the CD device under the controller within VirtualBox Settings->Storage. You probably shouldn't just change the boot order or you will have trouble reinstalling if you ever need to. However, if you want to change the order, look under Settings->System->Motherboard.


A fully featured floating video player which can be minimized to an icon? I am looking for a video player which has floating support and can be minimized to a floating icon. Ideally it should also have the option to rotate the video.
Does anyone know of something that might be suitable?
 I should add that I am aware of the video player provided in the floating apps collection. However, this video player is rather basic. (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lwi.android.flappsfull&hl=en)

Try the app Float Tube Video Player or Floating Video Player or GPlayer or FVPlayer-floating video player or any other similar app from Play Store.

(All I did was a simple Google search)


How to root Samsung Galaxy A5? I have Samsung Galaxy A5, SM-A500H running Android 5.0.2, downloaded from here. I want to root it.

The only root available right now AFAIK, is CF-Auto-Root, as described here for example. But this root breaks everything. All the apps stop running when you reboot the phone and you have reinstalled the firmware, it doesn't work.

Is there another way to root my device?

I've recently used Kingroot, installed without computer assistance (downloaded the .apk with the device browser via wifi and installed from the device's internal storage), to root a device so obscure I haven't seen a single reference to any fixes, custom ROM, or even version upgrades: the Visual Land Prestige Elite 10Q tablet.  Kingroot took about ten minutes to run, including rebooting the device, and the only thing I don't like is that I have to hold the tablet in portrait orientation whenever I use any Kingroot function, because it doesn't recognize screen rotation.

Obviously, I haven't tried this software with a Galaxy A5, but it should be fine.


Android 4.4.2 - How to not dismiss notification while checking the detail I recently upgraded my phone to Galaxy S5. This phone has 4.4.2. One big inconvenience I have encountered so far is the way the event and notification work - the system automatically dismisses a notification when I tap on the notification to check the detail. Usually, I can only prioritize what I am doing and the upcoming events after seeing the event detail. But by tapping on the notification, the notification is dismissed and will not show up later, should I decide to ignore the notification for now.

Previously on 4.0, unless I mark a notification and tap on a dismiss button, the notification stays. I would like to keep the old behavior if possible.

It's up to the app (developer) to set when the notification is dismissed (automatically when you touch it, or at some other time), so it sounds like the difference here isn't between the two Android versions, but between the calendar app you were using on your old phone, and the one on your new phone.

Because it's up to the app, it means you just need to find a calendar app where the event notifications behave the way you want (or where there's an option to control it).


Dangers of Apps running in "Hidden mode"? I have downloaded an app to record all my calls. The app is working great but the trouble is that it doesn't shows up under the "Ongoing" in the notification bar nor does it shows up in "active applications" in the task manager also they do not require root access to run. I have tried  many different apps that does the same thing. I have a rooted Samsung Galaxy Y phone running android 2.3.

What bothers me is the thought - "It's possible that the chess playing app(say) that I have in my phone, also records my calls and send it to remote servers - without my knowledge"

There is a posibility of giant security and privacy compramise here.

My question is:
1. Are there any similar loopholes that can be dangerous?
2. What should I do as an android user?
3. What has Google done/planning to do to prevent such apps in Google Play?

1) Are there any similar loopholes that can be dangerous?

They are not actually loopholes. They are ignorance of the user. For any Android app to be able record your calls, needs these permissions: (This is a code snippet from manifest XML file.)

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_CONTACTS" />

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE" />

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECORD_AUDIO"/>

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />

While installing apps you will see something like this on Google Play: Permissions: Read Contacts, Read Phone State, Record Audio, Read and Write to External Storage. (Something like that.)

  2) What should I do as an android user?

So, when you install an App, you need to carefully see what permissions the App is asking for? Is it really needed for what the app is supposed to do? All you need to do is be careful when installing an App, see that you don't grant too many unwanted permissions.

  3) What has Google done/planning to do to prevent such apps in Google
  Play?

They have already created permissions! No app can access things outside of what permissions it has been granted!

Hope this answers your doubts... :)

PS: Here's story related to your questions. There are already things which are recording calls.


How to enter password for decrypt without system keyboard on android I was trying to release some internal memory on my CUBOT GT-99, so I started disabling  some system apps using one rooted app. One of apps I was disabled is system keyboard because I don’t use it beside Swift Keyborad. I was totaly forget that I use system keyboard whan I turn on my phone, becouse I encrypt my phone, so I need system keyboard to enter the password. Now phone ask me for decrypting password but don’t show me the keyboard, so I can’t enter password and can’t system run.

One of my idea is to use Android SDK, if there's some tool or something (?) to use PC Keyboard instead of disabled system keyboard (I don’t know anything about Android SDK).

If there is no other option I'm ready to do hard reset, but I don't know how to do this in this situation.

Please can someone give me any other idea and tutor how to solve this.

I don't think that the above answer is quite correct as when you enter in "recovery mode" (on an encrypted device) the /sbin/sh pm command can no longer be used since the device needs a password for decryption. (I even decrypt my phone and still could not perform the command :(

Also thinking about it more running that command to re enable a package would open up a security hole for encrypted devices so this command would of run useless on an encrypted device (which is not "decrypted" in the first place)

If you have TWRP installed as your recovery they have their own keyboard layout which you can enter in your decrypt password and then use one of your backups to revert back (which I hope you have done) to recover your keyboard layout.

Otherwise you'll need to install/flash back to your stock rom :(


Accidentally sent offline email So on my HTC device whilst offline I jokingly typed an email which if sent will screw me up and then I sent it after by accident. Since then I haven't connected my device to any internet at all as I am to scared to. I sent it using the gmail app on my phone so has the email already been sent or perhaps is it only on my phone(I have unlinked the account from my phone to be safe). If the email ha sent been sent could anyone be kind enough to tell me how to delete the e,ail before it is sent or is it already too late

Check sent items from any other device and UNINSTALL GMAIL ASAP. This may help.
If it is in the sent items then, I'm sorry, it must have arrived.
Also if you removed Google account from settings, then you should have signed it of Gmail instead.
Uninstalling may help.


Backing up contacts, call log, SMS/MMS and gallery via adb? I have an old Nexus 5 running KitKat and I need to back up its contacts, call log, SMS and gallery photos via adb - not through an app. After that I need to upgrade the phone to 7.1.1 and restore these backups. I have no idea how to do this but I understand SMS at least is not covered by adb backup. What do I need to do to change this?

If you have a Google Account connected to your Android Device, then Contacts are automatically backed up. As far as the Call Log, that would be  info that your carrier can provide. The same is for SMS, when you boot your phone, the server normally updates your sms/ call log info, so calling the carrier would be a good idea. There is an App on most Android phones, called Picassa, that comes with the phone. You could try connecting your Google Account to Picassa, and setting the App to  upload your photos to it.
     I'm not a developer, but I own a phone with the same OS, I hope these suggestions help you. :)


LG G3 Resolution messed up - how to stop processes on startup? I'm running CM 12.1 on an LG G3 (VS985) with TWRP recovery.

I used an app called UI Tuner to change my resolution, thinking that it would revert back to normal after 15 seconds.. well it didn't. It crashed? when I did it, and then it started back up? with the super low resolution.

Now I'm stuck with a screen that's like 200x300 and the DPI is wayy off, so I can't really use the screen.

I used TWRP to manually delete the app, but the problem persists. The reason it doesn't just reset my resolution upon startup is because I had it set to change my resolution to 1920x1080 for better performance on startup. Is there a way to stop it from running on startup? I have access to TWRP still, and I can sorta do very limited things within my phone, but it's so small that all I can do is open apps and see the very tops of them.

I tried looking for a way to manually stop apps from running on startup, but all I can find are guides on how to use apps that you install.. which doesn't help at all.
I really would like to keep my current apps and setup and everything. I almost resorted to just flashing a new ROM, but I really don't want to do that.
I tried using ADB, but it says that there's no device found. I'm pretty sure I had USB debugging on, so I don't know why it can't find my phone... although I can't really see it to tell if it's on or not.

have you tried booting into safe mode?  it might boot with normal resolution and then you can try change the resolution settings back to normal.

boot into safe mode LG G3


"mount" on 2.3.4 is Behaving Oddly I'm on Nexus S, 2.3.4, stock and rooted. BusyBox is v1.18.4 (2011-03-20 15:16:04 CDT). When I try to remount ANYTHING it just

$ mount -o remount,rw /system
Usage: mount [-r] [-w] [-o options] [-t type] device directory

Any ideas how to fix that? Is it a BusyBox issue?

You are not specifying the device to mount, only the directory so it is telling you that you are missing one of the required parameters.

I believe that the busybox mount will let you get away with not supplying the device, if it can figure out the device to mount, but the "stock" mount requires that you supply both the directory and the device.

you would have to do the following:

# mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/mtdblock4 /system

or you could try the busybox mount

# busybox mount -o remount,rw /system

but you should always supply the device to mount, so there is no confusion or issue with mounting the wrong device.


Technical problems with Nexus 7 I have a one year old Nexus 7 and recently my tablet acts on its own. It starts to action commands without me doing anything. The only way I manage to recover control is to power it off and on again. This problem has become much more frequent in the past few days.

I've a Kaspersky license and it hasn't brought to my attention any threats.
Prior to having Kaspersky installed, I had McAfee Security, but I was never able to uninstall it because I can't deactivate its device administrator status. I don't understand why.

What can I do to overcome these issues?

You should go to McAfee settings there is an uninstall option somewhere in the settings , on pressing that McAfee will ask you if you would like to remove it from device administrators , continue with the uninstallation from there.

And , for your immediate issue , I think your device has got a serious virus/malware or may even have been hacked , which is causing remote control by someone( I don't know if I am exaggerating a bit).

So firstly try killing all the network connections , manually remove  sim card (if your device has it) and turn off the Wifi router and then observe if those issues persist.

If issues persist factory reset your device , but prior to it take a backup of all data(or I think you should not because it will carry the malware with it so do accordingly).


Is hpns folder in external sd-card safe to delete? I searched on the web and stack exchange forums a lot. But, could not find a solution therefore I am posting a question at last.

I have a Micro max canvas Plus2. My external SD-card is of 3.63 GB capacity but, 2.8 GB of space itself is occupied by a 'hpns' folder. This folder contains a couple of log files, one of them named 'exception'.

This is a huge bugger, since I have only 200 MB of my personally stored files(photos,music etc.) and I am not allowed to store more files because the hpns folder is hogging all the space in external SD-card. Same hpns named folder, by the way, is also present in the internal SD-card also, worth 500 MB.

So, kindly tell me if it is safe to delete this folder from external SD-card?
Also, how to make sure this folder is not created again automatically?

Thank you in advance!

I asked the same question to Micromax support and I got email from them ,

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for your Email, we would like to inform you that HPNS files are the temp file which  will be create on the uses of internet.


What does Odin's T-Flash option do? When I go to flash with Odin, I see an option for "T Flash". What does it do?

Other options include,

Auto Reboot
Re-Partition
F. Reset Time
Device Info
Nand Erase All
Flash Lock
T Flash (this option)
Phone EFS Clear
Phone Bootloader Update

According to this guide it writes the bootloader of a working device onto the SD card. This guide is a bit more detailed and describes it as follows:

  T Flash option in odin is for Samsung boot recovery via sd card. This option is checked when we are going to make Samsung boot able sd card to fix or unbrick Samsung dead boot devices. In this case we must have Samsung original boot recovery.tar file for the exact model witch we are going to unbrick. We must have same and full working phone in hands. This option is used in new Samsung Qualcomm based models that allow boot from external memories. I will explain how to recover Samsung dead boot phones with sd card but in other post i will try to leave a link in this post. So T Flash option is to make a boot able sd card from full working phone to unbrick other Samsung phone.

How that's useful is described in a short guide here (in German). In short: Say you have a device where the bootloader is broken. But you have another device – exact the same model – with the bootloader intact. So you:

put an SD card into the intact device and use Odin's T-Flash option to write (copy) the bootloader to the SD card
put the very same SD card into the broken device, which now can boot from the card

(booting from the card must be supported and sometimes requires specific additional hardware, a so-called USB-JIG-plug).


Default browser / update to support google cloud printing Is the default browser on the android platform Chrome? And if so, does anyone have an idea how to update it or get it to work with the Google Cloud Printing?

In the settings area I am not able to see anything for the Cloud printing options.

If the default browser on a Android phone is not Google Chrome, What is the best way to get Google Chrome installed so I can use the Cloud Printing? And make it the default browser!

It's not Chrome and you can't install Chrome.  Chrome and the Chromium project have been coded for the x86 architecture, i.e. the PC, and all the UI code is specific to either Windows, Linux, or Mac.


How can I unlock the bootloader for my Moto G [Verizon Pre-Paid] I've had this phone for 2 years, the moto g 1st gen with verizon prepaid. ive looked everywhere. theres no way to unlock the bootloader, atleast not that I've found. I've searched everywhere on the XDA forums.

I'm trying to unlock it so that I can downgrade my phone from 5.x to 4.x.

I've tried temp rooting it with kingo root, towelroot, towelpieroot and kingroot, and i guess it doesn't support 5.1..

is there any way to unlock the bootloader? or even temp root so i can downgrade? thanks

Hello Donavon

You need to know that all Moto Gs (GSM) shipped with locked bootloaders, even if you buy one that is factory SIM-Unlocked, but motorolla offers a way to unlock bootloaders on their phone for free after you register it and request an unlock code. Doing this will void your warranty especially in U.S..

So the question isn't whether or not the Verizon model will have a locked bootloader or not. It surely will, as they all do. The question is whether Motorola's on-line bootloader unlocker will work with Verizon-branded CDMA model or not. And at this point, given that it hasn't been released yet and nobody has one, how is anybody supposed to answer that question?

--- >credits Nathan from http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2594691


SM-T320 randomly fatal crashes then bootloops for a bit Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 Wi-Fi (SM-T320 or mondrianwifiue)
Rooted with cf auto root using superSu v2.82
custom recovery TWRP 3.1.1-0
Android version stock 4.4.2
Kernel version 3.4.0-4441590

Within android OS the tablet randomly crashes and then bootloops when disconnected from the charger. Intrestingly though during the bootloop sometimes the screen flickers before shutting down and rebooting.

The bootloop stops after being shutdown for a while or if the charger get's plugged into the tablet.

Oddly however, when booted into the custom recovery TWRP there is no issue. Even if entering TWRP during the bootloop. The bootloop stop until trying to boot back into the system.

I recorded a logcat of an initial crash.
As far as kernel logs here is the Dmesg after the bootloop. The last_kmsg was blank.

I suspect the battery connection is the culprit but I do not know why there is no issues within TWRP.

Does this look like a software issue or a hardware issue?

Thank you

You are right about the battery connection; try this trick: 1. Hold down power button for 10-15 sec while keeping it plugged in 2. When the tablet powers down and shows charging indicator, remove the cable and it should simulate removing the battery.

There was a constant error with sec_fuelgauge which is a process that regulates battery on hardware level. Check to see error at line 955 and so on later.


Send video stream from android device I'm new in android. I was planning to create a Video streaming mobile to mobile in the same wifi connnection but i don't know how to start. I've read about the RTP/RTSP/UDP for streaming video and some sources but I cant follow the process at all. Can someone explain to me how to send or broadcast a video playing in android device then send the data in a server? So that it can be access in like "rtsp//: something like that so that the other device can view it. Sorry for the small info

There are two things involved in this.
 1. Implementation of RTSP
 2. Converting android camera output into RTSP source.

I could not find any open implementation while I was searching for it almost 6 months back. Here is the one which worked for me with little tuning. But you have to clone the repo and work on it directly to get it working
https://github.com/mutaphore/RTSP-Client-Server


In android does my google account saves my custom words from the dictionary of the keyboard? In android does my google account saves my custom words from the dictionary of the keyboard ?

Additionally is there a way to import/export that custom dictionary?

No android doesn't saves your custom words from the dictionary of the keyboard in your Google account .Normally default keyboard doesn't automatically sync your personal(custom) dictionary. But you can email it or make backup of it in sdcard .

Setting -> Keyboard -> Personal Dictionary
OR
Setting -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Type(eg HTC Sence Input) -> Personal Dictionary


Redmi 2 Prime stuck on boot screen I installed SuperSu on my Redmi 2 Prime via Stock recovery mode.
After that ES file manager asked me for root permission, which I accepted. After reboot my phone got stuck on Xiaomi Mi logo boot screen.
I can no longer enter recovery mode. When I try to connect my phone to PC, fastboot command wont detect my phone even though I installed all necessary drivers.
What can I do to repair my phone? Please help me!

If you can't enter recovery mode or fastboot, I'm afraid you've just hard bricked the phone, and there is nothing you can do now.

Time to buy a new phone.


how to enhance the sound quality while recording the sound? I want to enhance the sound quality while recording the sound on the android device, Is there and external device which is used for this. If yes then tell me for this I'll be thankful to you.

You can use any ordinary microphone that uses unbalanced connectors with suitable adaptors like this 3,5mm one. However, the resulting quality will depend on the DACs of the device and the application used, an external mic can only do so much.


Viewing using computer Chrome a HTML page downloaded on Arndroid Chrome I save webpages for offline reading by opening the three-dot menu icon and tapping the download icon up top, which will download a version of the page. I also take regular backups on USB drives.
Now if I wish to view these HTML pages on my computer's Chrome browser, how do I do the same?
These files do not have any file extension. I tried adding .htm to them and then trying to open but was not successful.
All help is sincerely appreciated.
Thanks

Chrome for Android saves a webpage in MHTML format. It doesn't append the extension in the filename though, hence, the problem in opening it in Chrome on PC. Opening such a file in Chrome on PC without correct extension makes Chrome load the content of the webpage in plain text instead.
Appending .mhtml or .mht as extension to the filename and then opening the webpage in Chrome on PC should work.


Failed to mount /cache (Invalid argument) I have a Samsung Galaxy S5 G900H.
It had the stock ROM, and is quite old and slow, so I was asked to put something newer on it, and I got LineageOS.

As my previous experiences with Samsung phones, the usual trouble occurred, with USB communications failing for no reason, getting drivers, messing with ADB, etc.

This time however I got to a stump - it simply won't mount the cache partition. I have installed the TRWP of this phone (k3gxx) with Odin, and even tried 3 different versions.
The cache can never be mounted, not to format it nor to actually install the ROM, and since other things were formatted before the recovery got stuck on the cache, the phone is now bricked, as far as I could tell.

Googling only resulted in answers such as "can't mount cache? go into recovery mode, mount cache, and clear it", but I am not sure I can follow the logic of mounting the cache to fix the problem of not being able to mount the cache.

Fastboot of course cannot help, since this is a Samsung phone.

I can freely get into Download and Recovery modes.

Is there anything actually left to do?

Format the cache partition, that will help you to mount later.

Just go for Wipe menu from TWRP home screen and select cache. It will show same error but format will be completed.
Then select Mount menu from TWRP and select cache. It'll be mounted.


Clock Widget on tapping does not open I currently switched to Samsung Galaxy s3! The first two days I would tap on the digital clock widget on the home screen to access the alarm. However, yesterday the software of the phone updated by itself. And after the update, when i tap on the  digital clock widget on the home screen, nothing happens. I cant access the alarm clock by tapping the clock widget anymore. please suggest.

On my S3, the clock widget no longer launches the clock app or alarm. There is, however, a designated alarm app that may be used. That, or you can use a clock widget from the Play Store, there are quite a number that offer a similar experience to Samsung's default Clock app, that allow you to launch a shortcut when tapped on.


Client-Server Android audio remote I'd like to get a low power pc (arm or atom) running linux and control the music that it plays through an android app, effectively becoming androids version of Logitech's Squeezebox. I'd prefer not to install X Windows on the box. Has anyone heard of such an app?

You could install XBMC on the linux box then use the XBMC Remote app on your Android device to control the media playing through XBMC.


Twitter for HTC Sense claims multiple accounts are not supported I deleted internet data and other data to get more space on my internal memory. Now Twitter for HTC Sense will not work again and keeps telling me "multiple accounts are not supported". I do not have multiple accounts. But I can't get into this app to change anything. What should I do?

You could always clear the data for the app, if the app is simply kicking you out when you open it.

Go to Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications. Select your app, and click Clear Data. This will wipe all data from the app, as if you had uninstalled it and installed it fresh*.

*To be technical, it isn't the same as uninstalling and reinstalling because the dex files in the Dalvik Cache remain unchanged. Installing a fresh copy would regenerate those files. But it really shouldn't matter for non-developers.


LG optimus P-500 firmware update: PC suite for Linux? My phone, a LG Optimus P-500 requested to be connected to the PC suite in order to perform a firmware update (the official one).

I don't have the PC suite and have only access to Linux computers. The PC suite (probably this one?) is only available for Windows. Is there a way to perform the update? Can I run the PC suite in wine?

thank you

Update: Apparently wine cannot handle it.

You may try to run Windows copy in VirtualBox. VB has ability to connect physical USB devices to virtual machine. So Windows will detect your phone.
BUT BEWARE! Using such way for flash your phone may render it unusable (brick your phone, in another words). It is good to make sync between phone and PC.

Also I'd like to see native Linux version of PC Suite too.


I can't enter recovery mode I tried every method I found but nothing worked when I try to enter recovery mode, Sony logo appears one second and the device vibrates at the same time any help? My device stuck at Sony logo and it doesn't boot, so I want to hard reset my phone via recovery

Please use  hard reset key method to go into boot loader option . Some devices have two key method some has three . For sony Xperia device it was camera + volume down + power . Please find what is for your device model.

For Xperia C device:
Xperia C device doesn't allow user to go into bootloader using hardware key for this you have to unlock bootloader first .
But you can use flash mode to flash your rom which are as follows :
1) open adb shell .
2) connect your device by pressing volume down key to  laptop using usb cable.
3) you can now run scripts on adb shell to install custom roms etc.

Update :
Now when you unlocked your boot loader the official website will guide you to download few drivers and software. I will explain you that with details :

Now download android sdk which link are mentioned on website . Link

It is not mandatory to download android studio you can also download SDK without android studio IDE.

SDK : Official Link / filehippo Link
 Now run sdk manager
 Here you will find all the tools mentioned on website to download . Download and install them :

 Now go to the downloaded folder of Google USB driver:
Replace the original android_winusb.inf-file with the downloaded file in the usb_driver. ( which you have downloaded in step a.2 )

 Make sure you have installed ADB driver for your xperia C .
Link

Now proceed further . I hope you will not get any error after this .


App turning my WiFi on? Due to the time it happens, I'm highly suspicious about WhatsApp and the Drive upload function.

I put my phone in Airplane mode before going to sleep, and this is what I see the day after.

Note that my WiFi appears as OFF when I wake up, yet the phone indicates it has been turned on for the whole night...

Battery graph and proof it turns on "ghostly" (click to enlarge)

The Drive backup starts uploading in the morning when I turn WiFi on. But I think it's around 2 AM where you see my WiFi turning on (after WhatsApp backup?)

On your screenshot, you have Wi-Fi enabled, even though you have airplane mode on

If that isn't the cause of your problem, background Wi-Fi scanning might be the cause
You can turn it off by going to Wi-Fi -> Advanced -> Scanning always available
Or for >=6.0 Android versions, it's Location -> Scanning
That feature enables Wi-Fi even if you disable it


Only charges through USB when screen is locked I have a Moto G running 4.4.4.

When it's connected to a PC, it will only charge if the screen is locked: as soon as it's unlocked it will stop charging. In this situation, even if I lock the screen again it will not go back to charging.

When it's connected to the charger, it charges normally regardless of being unlocked or not.

What can be causing this problem and how to solve it?

The most likely cause is that your PC can't supply enough current over the USB connection to charge your phone while it's awake. Smartphones draw a lot of power these days, so their chargers use extensions to the USB standard to supply more power, so they can charge even while the phone is in use. Most PCs don't support these extensions, so they can't.

The solution is to use the charger to charge your phone. You can buy a Y-shaped USB cable which splits the power and data connections, so you can have it plugged into the PC and charger at once if need be. Some docking stations also have this ability.


Does Rooting Exploit a Security Weakness? According to the Wikipedia page for Android rooting,

  The process of rooting varies widely by device, but usually includes exploiting a security weakness in the firmware of the device, and then copying the su binary to a location in the current process's PATH (e.g. /system/xbin/su) and granting it executable permissions with the chmod command. A supervisor application like SuperUser or SuperSU can regulate and log elevated permission requests from other applications. Many guides, tutorials, and automatic processes exist for popular Android devices facilitating a fast and easy rooting process.

Now, I wanted to know what exploits are being used in this process so I started looking around.  I did find a couple references to Android exploits (notably RageAgainstTheCode), but a couple questions on here (this one and How does su regulate app permissions?) give me the impression that no actual exploit is being performed.

From what I have gathered the process works like such:

Unlock bootloader (wipes device for security concerns)
Install custom recovery (will allow flashing arbitrary ZIP files)
Flash SuperUser or SuperSU zip file in custom recovery.

As I understand it, the custom recovery is able to flash the ZIP file because it exists at a lower level (so to speak) than the ROM, and as such, can modify the ROM to install the su binary and SuperUser app.  That is, no real exploit is being used to attain root.

Am I grossly missing something here? Is some exploit being performed implicitly during one of these steps?

As a note, I'm talking about a user rooting a phone, not about a malicious piece of code getting root access.

First, there's nothing like THE rooting process. You partly answered your question yourself: rooting a device can be done in different ways. The two best known methods include:

using an exploit (SuperOneClick & Co do this: You install an app, klick it, and get rooted)
via a custom recovery (which is directly bootable and thus can access the device directly, so you can install any ROM -- which in turn may already be rooted)

So answering your question: Yes and no -- it all depends on how you root your device. Listing up all possible exploits might get a bit lengthy, so better let's skip that part. You might also check the questions in the "related" section of this page for more details (especially What are the steps for rooting an Android device, in general?).


DoubleTwist sync fails after Froyo Update I updated my Galaxy S Captivate on Rogers to Froyo last week. Debating whether the upgrade was worth it or not. There is one thing that's been really irking me since I did the upgrade:
DoubleTwist no longer successfully syncs songs from iTunes onto my Galaxy. On my PC, I set up the playlists I want to sync, and tell it to go, and it only syncs about 1/3 of the songs, telling me that the others failed with unspecified errors, and only 1 of the 5 playlists I selected appears to be able to play.

I've done factory resets of my phone data twice now, and I also tried to format the internal SD card as well (Settings --> SD Card --> Internal SD --> Format SD card). Hasn't helped. I'd switch to WinAmp, but that's having it's own problems (it's not saving when I change the sync options and wants to put all of my library on the phone).

Anyone seen this and/or know how I can fix it. Even a lower level log file so I can get more information rather than some unspecified error would be good.

Thanks

Here are things I would try:

Clear DoubleTwist's cache
Clear DoubleTwist's data
Re-install DoubleTwist


Prevent unauthorized image flashing I wonder whether there is a way to prevent someone to use fastboot to flash an Android device.

Indeed, while one must be able to turn on USB debug in order to run adb, the bootloader does not offer any protection AFAIK.

You may only make oem lock, but if anybody really need to flash something - he can do unlock  again (with removing anything from device).

And one old rule: if anybody has physical access to device - software protection will not help.


Is there a way to auto backup my phone files to my PC via wifi? I am looking for a way to automatically transfer files in my phone to my PC (Win7) if my phone connects to my home wifi network. Thanks

I'm assuming you mean your photos/music etc. that are stored on the 'sdcard' (even though it may not be an actual SD card). If so there are a number of apps that can do this.

I personally use FolderSync (There is a lite version with some limitations)

Another option is SyncMe Wireless but i've not used it so can't comment on how good it is.


Mail Insists on Being "Push" Phone: Sprint Nexus S 4G with the ICS update.

I have email accounts (hosted Exchange) set up and working without issue. Well, one small issue: No matter what "Check Frequency" I choose, they insist on being "push" mode. I have one at 10 minutes, the other at 15 minutes -- but the second an email hits that inbox the phone dings.

Drives me nuts -- and wreaks havoc with playing music...

Is there a setting somewhere else or new in ICS that I need to be looking for? Anyone else having a similar issue?

Contact your hosted Exchange provider to turn the Push off. They are enforcing it.

Another way: Turn your email notification off or set its ringtone 'Silent'. But, its inconvenient.


Switch between normal and split-screen (vr mode) I have a virtual reality (VR) headset:

How can I change the mode of the phone so that I can use the phone and all the normal phone apps while wearing the VR headset?

In other words I need to switch the phone display between splil-screen (oculus mode) and normal mode. In other words, like for 3D, the display should be split into 2 smaller screens (but identical).

Related info for those who are interested:

It seems that there are a few apps available for watching normal videos in VR mode:

Any Youtube video on your device can be switched to VR mode.
Convert normal videos to VR mode by using HMD-Video-Converter.
Play normal videos on the VR headset using:

VR Cinema for Cardboard
CINEVEO - VR Cinema
Side-By-Side Video Player
MO3D for Cardboard VR Cinema (paid)

I don't think that is possible yet, but google is working on DayDream which is gonna do the thing you want soon
If you want to play your normal videos in VR mode, thats possible using this app. (There are quite a lot other apps doing the same thing, but i personally use the one I gave link to)

Heres one more link for 5 Top Videos players to run 360 Videos
Hope this helps :)


Does beep over SSH work when root? I tried running a busybox version of beep over SSH but recieved the following error message:

$ beep
beep: can't open console
$ ls -l /dev/console
crw-------    1 root     root        5,   1 Jun 22 23:32 /dev/console

If I were to invest the time in rooting my device would this work? I imagine that this may not be the only complication...

After a long time of reflection and a good night sleep ,I came back to edit my answer.

Short answer:

beep will not work under Android as Android devices do not have an internal system speaker and no kernel module pcspkr. I tried to beep old school way with the command echo -en "\a" > /dev/tty5, but it will not work since Android doesn't have an internal speaker.

Whenever I run beep with root or without it always return the same error:

   beep : can't open console

After reading the beep documentation I think the problem is not that you don't have permission – but due to beep command not finding the console (for info: beep will use tty0 as default console to beep and not the /dev/console) and that's why it returns "can't open console" and not "permission denied". To fix this you would need to compile beep from busybox source with option to change the default console like in the beep desktop version.

But nothing is impossible you can make your own beep program easily following this steps :

make sure you have the binary aplay on your phone have it under /system/bin it is used by the system to play boot sounds if you don't have it grab the arm version from here and put it under /system/bin on your phone and give it the right permission it have to be executable.
download this beep.wav file from here and put it somewhere on the system partition of the phone or any where else your choice in my exemple it will be /system/beep.wav.
now you can either beep usin this command

aplay /system/beep.wav

or you can make a script file name it beep and put it under /system/xbin or /system/bin you can either over right or rename the old copy since it is just a symlink to the busybox binary. You can always call the original beep by busybox beep command and don't forget to give it the execute permission.

Here is the simple exemple of the script to write:

#!/system/bin/sh
aplay /system/beep.wav

This will beep your device with the current default speaker it can be the phone's speaker, headset or Bluetooth headset, you can change that using the aplay option -Dnameofpcmdevice

This script can only beep once but, I see many possibilities can be added easily, like playing other sounds alarm and adding arguments like frequency – and much more.

externel links reference and assets :

http://linux.die.net/man/1/beep

http://www.soundjay.com/beep-sounds-1.html

http://media.io/ >> great online service to convert sounds to wav format supported by aplay

I hope this will solve your problem or at least give you an alternative


What are these dumpstate logs? So, these files were filling up my /data/logs directory, causing me to run out of storage space rapidly.

What are they, why are there so many and how can I stop them clogging my storage?

Screenshot (click image to enlarge)

I googled the file name and found this post on XDA:

  i'm still having the storage is running out error from 3.8. I found
  out it was caused by the signal lost issue because inside the log
  folder located in data folder, it will generate many dumpstate ril
  reset by........xxx..once my signal is lost. so, i'm wondering what's
  the best worldwide modem for 3.8 or lates nightly that won't cause
  signal lost thus my phone won't generate the dumpstate ril reset error
  and indirectly generating many dumpstate ril reset. I'm using dxlpa
  modem.

Looks like your phone might be affected by a bug in CM. I would switch ROM and see if it goes away, if not, you could try an app like GetRIL to find out what Radio Interface Layer you are using, and if there is another you can use that might help you not lose connection over and over.


How can I make Google Now talk back in other languages than English? My brother is getting gradually blind from diabetes and I want to help him setting up his phone (Samsung S6) with Google Now so he can voice-control it.

Apparently Google Now can only talk back if you set the voice language to English only. In Danish, everything is half-baked. For example, with English as the only language enabled in Now, I can say "What time is it?" and have Now speak the time. If I add Danish, it still understands the command, but it just shows a google search with "What time is it". It doesn't matter if I ask in Danish or English, it just performs the search.

Likewise, with English only, I can say: "Please text Michelle" and it will respond "What's the message?". I then say the message and it will ask if I want to send it now or change it etc. In other words, you can have a dialogue with Google Now.

Not so if I enable Danish. I can still say "Please text Michelle" (or the corresponding phrase in Danish) and it will prepare a message. But I will have to enter it manually and then press send. I cannot continue with voice commands.

My brother has no problems interacting with the phone in English, but without adding Danish to the voice language, he will have to stick to English text messages to all his friends and acquaintances which seems pretty awkward. Also, without Danish, it is almost impossible to ask questions involving Danish place names, like "What's the weather in Århus".

Is there a way I can make Google Now understand Danish without loosing functionality?

Firstly, my best wishes for your brother.

As for your question. My phone is in English. But I set the Google Now to understand both English and Turkish. Please note, Google Now itself is in English. But it understands Turkish commands too. I believe the very same can be done with Danish as well.

At Google Now, go to:

Settings
Voice
Languages

From there, choose Danish.

In my phone it looks like this: Default Primary: English(US) Others: Türkçe(Türkiye)

P.S: Google Now decides what language it should be based on your phones language settings. So in order to make the app in English, your phone too must be in English. Since your brother has no problems with that, I don't think that'd be a problem.


Kiosk App - Auto-Update update on an android device (Samsung Galaxy S2). A I am waiting for the app to download and install. Is there a way I can force this to take place without user interaction.

I was thinking about the following :

Killing the app (from another app)
Reopening the app after 1 hour (from another app)

Is this going to work? Can I garantee that the update will have taken place?

Thanks in advance!

P.S
I have 700 devices so this has to be automated. I have waited overnight for the app to install while the app was running and it didnt happen. I am open to any suggestions.

Is the app on the play store?

If yes, it should push out an update without user intervention provided the setting to 'Auto-update apps' is set, depending on preference of either Wifi or using Mobile data. See below:


How can I allow my partner to find my device? When I lose my device (or think I did) I would like my partner to be able to locate it. However, I cannot find any such setting in the "Find my Device" app.
Is there maybe an alternative application that allows this?

It's a bit of a workaround, but I use the Automate app to turn the ringer volume up to maximum when my phone receives an SMS with a specific text from my partner's phone. Then she can ring my phone and it's easy to find.


Cannot see my device in Dalvik Debug Monitor Possible Duplicate:
  installing USB driver for Micromax A50

I have android gingerbread (2.3.6) . I wanted to take a screen shot so i enabled USB-Debugging,connected the USB,started ddms but couldn't see the the device/phone connected in the Dalvik Debug Monitor.

What could be the reason for this ?

Pdf with photos to what I did and what did i get

Have you installed the USB driver? You need to install the USB driver to use development tools in Windows, they have to be downloaded and installed separately. For your device Micromax A50, try the following guide.


Marketplace offers downloads in notifications but when I tap notification none are available I've seen some other places with this question, but no answers that explain/help with what's going on.

I've got a Droid 3, and about once a day I get a notification that there are updates available for my apps. When I tap the notification to be taken to the market place; however, there are either no apps to update or the wrong number of apps (i.e. notification says 2, only one app is available).

Does anyone know why this is happening or if there's a way to resolve it?

If you have multiple Google accounts setup, click menu, then accounts, to make sure the proper account is selected. Then click menu, then my apps.


How can I transfer all carrier settings from an existing phone to a new phone? I have been provided a device for a telephone carrier that cannot be joined automatically. When the Sim is inserted into another phone, it cannot find/connect to the network. Due to the nature of the network I am on, and given I was supplied the phone from the telephone carrier, I believe its customized in some way.

I want to use this network and sim card, but on a better phone (Razer Phone 2).

Is there some mechanism I can use to transfer all settings from one phone to the other, including whatever secret settings the carrier may have setup prior to handing out the devices?

You should be able to go to settings, find your settings for you sim (APN) settings and from there be able to copy these settings to your new phone.

I am assuming your current device is an android device. On my phone (OPO5T) I can simply go to settings->Wi-Fi & internet->SIM & network->(My sim card)->Access Point Names.


Calling address book contacts in Skype 4 I've just updated to the new Skype 4 on my Nexus 4. I regularly use Skype to call numbers saved  in my phone's address book contacts, but can't find where to do this in the new version.

The previous version of Skype 3.2 had an address book icon at the top right (as seen here) but this is missing in the new Skype 4 (as seen here). Is there no longer a way to call my phone's address book contacts without adding them as a Skype contact as well?

I'd rather not set Skype to sync my contacts as I regularly jump back and forth between personal & work accounts.

Try Sky Dialer for Skype App, It lets you make Skype calls to your android contacts without even going to the Skype app(It requires the Skype app to be installed to work), lets you mark and organize favorites for easy calling too.

Full Disclosure: I am the app's developer


Samsung S3 Cannot Enter Recovery Mode, and Can't Boot Up Either I'm trying to fix a Samsung S3 which has been stuck on the boot logo continously, and cannot boot up. The phone keeps displaying the logo (which says "Samsung" and the phone model) when the power button is pressed, and it will not shut off unless I remove the battery.

My first attempt at fixing this was to enter recovery mode (holding the power button, volume up, and home button at startup), but the diagonistic menu didn't show up. Repeated attempts of removing the SIM and SD cards first also resulted in failure... nothing happened when I held those keys down.

Strangely, download mode (holding the power button, volume down, and home button) worked. The screen lit up with a prompt to enable the mode. However, the phone isn't mine (I'm just helping someone fix it) and they don't want to reflash their firmware if possible. I have done rooting before and understand the process, but since it's not mine the risk is too great.

Will reflashing the firmware fix the problem? Is this a hardware or a software issue? What does it mean if I can't enter recovery mode?

This is most likely a software issue, but you can't be 100% sure until you flash a new ROM and see if it works. If you find a stock ROM, then it won't void the warranty, so it should be safe to try.

You can find a lot of stock ROMs here.


Install DSPManager on a non-CM Rom I would like to install the app DSPManager from Cyanogenmod on my Nexus 4 running ParanoidAndroid.

I grabbed the newest CM and extracted "/system/app/DSPManager.apk" and "/system/lib/soundfx/*" and copied the files onto my phone. I also changed permissions to "rw-r--r--", then I rebooted and could choose the new Equalizer in the Settings (in Sounds).

However changed Settings did just apply for the next song (not the currently playing) until I started DSPManager again...

What is the proper way to install DSPManager on a non-CM Rom, are there other rom-related things I need to change?

How can I get DSPManager to work on my Setup?

PS: I use the Apollo Music Player

PS2: I'm also open to source changes if necessary, but this might not belong on this site!

Wouldn't you have to chmod rwx-rx-rx? (IE: 755, execute permissions for all users) so that Android can actually run the DSPManager APK/app? Or is this not the case on Android?


YouTube app holds a long wakelock. What app settings can I change to keep it from doing this? I am using an HTC Evo 4g with Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread. I'm trying to deal with apps which keep my phone from entering sleep mode, and the YouTube app is a major offender. With downloaded apps, usually the fix is to remove the app and find an alternative app that doesn't suck the battery dry. But I want to keep YouTube enabled so I can watch YouTube videos.

What settings for the YouTube app can I change to get it to not hold a wake lock for hours on end? Are there any device settings that I can change to help?

So far I have disabled "Preload subscriptions", "Preload watch later", "Improve YouTube", and "Notifications" in the YouTube app's settings, but the wake lock still occurs.

You can use Wakelock Detector in combination with Greenify to block wakelocks and save a lot of battery.

Update: Since Gingerbread is not supported by Greenify, you can use Wakelock Terminator to stop the wakelocks if you have root.


X Window with GNURoot I have installed GNURoot (Fedora flavour) on my Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 10.1 (2014 edition). I am trying to get GUI applications to work (gvim, for starters), but I've been unsuccessful so far.

I've tried several X Window apps, but I don't undersand how to connect to their display (all I found were instructions for the applications started on a Linux PC, not locally under GNURoot) and I tried installing XOrg under GNURoot.

I'm an Android beginner (this is my first "smart" device ever), so I might be missing something obvious or I might be searching in the wrong places. Also, because I am a beginner, I prefer to avoid rooting and installing Linux properly (for now).

If you install Pelya’s XSDL Server from Google Play, you can use X11 aplications. In GNURoot type:

apt-get install xfce4

It will install the XFCE4 Desktop Environment and Xorg with some utilities.

And after several minutes of packages downloading and making configurations, start XSDL and set your favorite display resolution and zoom, and then type in GNUroot:

DISPLAY=127.0.0.1:0.0 startxfce4

Switching to XSDL app, the XFCE4 starts and you can now use the graphical interface.

I found this solution at: http://www.r-ohjelmointi.org/?p=1434

Some other things:
* Change font size as in ordinary Gnome.
* Moving a flat finger is same as click and drag, for resizing etc.
* I have to press the back button on the pad to get the screen keyboard displayed. This overlays lower part of X Window though.
* No terminal emulators seem to work properly. However, GNURoot can be used for that.
* Applications like Gnu Planner, gretl and Gnu Cash work without problems.


How to create start up scripts using the init.d folder? In this answer to a question I asked a while ago, he said it's possible to have a script executed every boot.

I created a file (without extension) that contains the following:

#!/system/bin/sh

busybox mount -o bind /emmc/Android/data/com.google.android.music/ /sdcard/Android/data/com.google.android.music/

I made sure the target folder exists and saved the file to /system/etc/init.d, but in fact it looks like the script isn't executed.

P.S. the script file's properties are: -rwxr-xr-x.

In my version of Android (cm11 / LolliKat) there is a 90userinit script in init.d that tries to run a script named /data/local/userinit.sh if it finds it.

I've not tried this, but naming your script /data/local/userinit.sh might do the trick.

[I know it's an old question, but for posterity...]


root chinese tablet Twrp is the only way? Hi everyone I hope you are safe in this time's ! and I'm tring to do root into a chinese tablet

It is a nice piece i can vnc to my pc's or ssh and control by kdeconnect or use yatze etc i like it but i will love it whit cyanogenmod but that it is such a task to get it done just by me I'm starting for get it rooted now i have manage to get the scarttedfile and pull averything from.

there you can see userdata.img system.img etc. The mnt folder i place it, to mount system.img on it like
mount -o loop system.img mnt
And then modify the system and then flash it back again into whit SP_FLASH_TOOL it is almost the same as have root on it but i need place a swap file and made swapon probably I could doit from the file recovery.fstab wich cointain
    # mount point   fstype      device          [device2]

/boot       emmc        boot
/cache      ext4        /dev/block/mmcblk0p4
/data       ext4        /dev/block/mmcblk0p5
/misc       emmc        misc
/recovery   emmc        recovery
/sdcard     vfat        /dev/block/mmcblk0p6
/system     ext4        /dev/block/mmcblk0p3

I'm not sure about i will try but why? i have come here it is to see if some one could help me to either way build twrp for this devices or let me know how to place the magestik app on the system.img to do root hopefully some one here knows how to do so since twrp what it does is that rigth ? Flash the app in to the system i just should place it into the /app folder

I follow the instructions from magisk to patch the boot.img file quite easy as alecxs  suggested and it is done


Android 6.0 -- Bluetooth broken causes audio to not work correctly after connecting to car. How to rollback to previous firmware or fix BT glitches EDIT:
It looks like Android 6.0 is extremely glitchy. This old problem also came back
Very low to no volume after upgrade to 6.0 marshmellow

Is there a way to rollback to a previous version of Android? 6.0 is very glitchy. If I connect to my car using bluetooth it will work the first time. But once I turn the car off, the phone calls won't work, neither will apps like snapchat.

It is like the sound is trying to route through bluetooth despite not being connected to anything. If I disable BT it will work half the time. OTher half I have to reboot the phone.

If I connect to the car a 2nd time without a reboot, I have to disable and renable the BT connection so that it does not sound choppy. If I take a phone call while in the car on BT, the music will come back choppy as well.

I never used to have this problem till the upgrade.

Ideas for solutions or how can I rollback?

This is a Droid Turbo 2

Gave up with debugging this. Fixed by rolling back pre-android 6.x


Is it possible get caller’s cell tower information? I had read somewhere that the caller’s cell tower information is sent to the receiver of the call. Is it true because I can’t find any details regarding this online?  If this is true why are there no apps to show this information on the receiver side of the call?

Edit: For this we can consider that the phone is rooted and the entire ROM is open source including the vendor RIL framework.

No its not.

If i had a penny for every time i'd been asked this question, or answered a similar question i'd be very rich by now :-)

You as a user, CAN get your devices cell tower info, showing which tower id your connected to, but the only people who know that same info of the person placing a call to you are the engineers in the network operations control room and that's only because they have access to the networks MSCs and BSCs allowing them to query for a subscribers IMSI.

Some operators do make this info available via an API or some kind of exclusive network access, but generally only if your a big corporate client who's likely to spend a lot of money with them, and give them a cut of the revenue generated from such access.

For the likes of most folks wanting to write simple apps to show the location of the person calling them, well it's very likely to never happen.

UPDATE

Seems I got a bit of flack from some sources about my abruptness on this answer originally, for those who are wondering I was a Senior Radio Access Networks Engineer for Orange UK for about 5 years, and routinely asisted law enforcment with queries regarding tracking calls, sms, and the location's of mobile handsets.

The amount of access that your engineers in the O&M department of your telco have is quite staggering, during my time in the job, I could at any time of day pull up any SMS, MMS or data packet sent across the company's networks, often without needing any kind of written permission.

I was able to do many things, including track your cell tower usage, but none of it was ever sent to the remote end of a connection, the originator was where that info stayed, well that and the internals of the network.

Now, that said, Iv'e been thinking about this question somewhat, and there is one way that it could be done, BUT... you would have to write your own calling application.

Essentially, what you would need to do, is write an app that intercepted both incoming calls and sms, and replaced the default outgoing calls app on the phone.

When a new call is made, once the number has dialed, you read the calling phones cell tower information, then build an SMS message with that info in.

Once the remote end answers (You can't do it while the phone's ringing as the signalling channel will be in use) send that SMS to the destination handset, and have the app that answered the call, tag that incoming message as belonging to that call.

Timing would be critical however, and it would be quite tricky to get right, with modern methods however, these days, it's kind of doable, but it's NOT an automatic thing.


How to Make Light indicate No-VPN connection Active? I would like to put Red-light on if no VPN connection is active in my phone. I think the problem is not about choosing the best VPN application here to make VPN connection, but about to find an application which finds if VPN connection is active and affects the front-light of the phone.

Phone: Samsung Galaxy S4 gt-i9506
System: CyanogenMod 13, Temasek's unofficial ROM with patches
VPN client: NordVPN

Izzy's idea about using Tasker for the task in chat

  A raw idea (not checked/verified) would be using an automation tool like Tasker and have it shutdown all network interfaces whenever VPN connection "got lost" (of course giving you a "manual backdoor", i.e. if you manually enable networking it shouldn't shut it down immediately again just because no VPN is active ;)

Solution

Create VPN profile in Settings > More > VPN
Attach it to Tasker

Feature-request: enable the front light configuration in the VPN menu


Delete incomplete download from Play Store I was downloading a game from Play Store, but suddenly errors occur when 75% file downloaded. My device storage is limited and now I wanted to delete that useless files.

Where are the files located?

You don't need to delete that. If an error occurs and download is interrupted the Android OS itself deletes that file(It consider it as garbage).


Logging into Google play I have 4 gmail accounts in my phone but when I go to Google play it is trying to use an obsolete account and in Google play there is no drop down box to choose an active account. (Google play was using one of my active gmail accounts but it all of a sudden stopped working and went back to the inactive gmail account. I also cannot delete the obsolete account off my phone because in settings/account preferences it says in gray "not all settings are available" and there is nothing to click. I was trying to delete it so google play would not try and use it for signing into google play)

Open play store and slide from left to right then you can see a drop-down list in the navigation pane. There you can choose the account.

Google play store is inter connected with the Google+ app in your mobile. If you want to remove an account in play store, you can do it by removing that account at google+ app in your mobile. It won't delete your account.


What is this application from the Play Store? When looking to update apps, i noticed this application is claiming to be installed on my device.

What is this application? I did not ever install it myself, and i have not authorized its update yet. Is this a glitch on Samsung's part? It looks like their memo application but i cannot be sure. Is it a virus intended to fool me?

There seems to be a similar thread here, so you aren't entirely alone. Just disable that app for now since it's bloatware anyway!

(Switched comment to an answer as per comments)