Is it reasonably safe to use PIN code for encryption? On the Android 4.0 (Samsung Galaxy Nexus) there is a posibilty to encrypt the phone.
I found this about the encryption on Android 3.0, is the same algorithms used in Android 4? http://source.android.com/tech/encryption/android_crypto_implementation.html

My main question concerns the use of a PIN code to decrypt your phone.
Why am I forced to use the same password to unlock my screen and to decrypt my phone?
This restriction will only allow me to use a password of low complexity (like a PIN number) since it would be to hard to write in i.e. 17 characters to unlock my phone for a simple phone call.

Brute force attempts against the screen unlock could be prevented i.e. by a force reboot every 5 tries. So there is not any need for a very strong password there, a PIN might be good enough.
This type of protection can not be used on the disc, thus there is a greater need for stronger passwords here.
(It doesn't help much that the entropi of passwords have increased since there will be very few users with a complex password, so an attacker could simply try most passwords with low complexity).
What is the reasoning behind being forced to use the same password for both features?

I think I have found the solution. Check this link. It's a hack and it requires a phone to be rooted, but it does allow you to use alphanumeric password for encryption and PIN for screen unlock.


How to change DHCP config? I am trying to access an ims core from the ims client in my Android device, however I need to modify the dhcp client to add the ip of the core as one of the DNS. In case of a Linux OS the following would do the job::

cd /etc/dhcp3/ ; vi dhclient.conf ; /* add the line:: prepend domain-name-servers 152.xx.xx.xx(ip of ims core) / sudo dhclient ; / to restart*/

Now the issue is how do I achieve the same in my Android?

This doesn't really address your DHCP question (not sure what sysprop that would be), but it will fix your DNS issues. You can make an ASE script for it if you don't want to have to do it every time your DNS is changed by the provider.

Also, depending on how your DNS server is setup you may want to change the INT at the end of line one to "2" or "3" and add some other DNS servers for the rest of the internet (openDNS, google DNS, etc).

Open an adb shell or Terminal Emulator and type:

setprop ro.kernel.android.ndns 1
setprop net.eth0.dns1 152.xxx.xxx.xxx

Alternatively, just throw the server(s) you want to resolve into /system/etc/hosts, like you would in a normal linux system.


Can't mount my sdcard rw I really messed up my HTC Desire today. I need to copy some files to the sdcard, but my Android phone won't let me mount the SD card with write access.

Here's what I've done in short:

(boot to recovery, phone rooted)

$ sudo -i
#./adb root
adbd is already running as root
./adb shell
~ # mount -o rw /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 /sdcard/
~ # cd sdcard/
/sdcard # ls
ls: ./internal: I/O error
/sdcard # touch test.txt
touch: test.txt: Read-only file system
/sdcard #

/sdcard/internal is a folder I created and copied some files to before the sdcard ceased to be writteable.

From now on I can't do anything, my system is down, It won't boot, and I can't copy a ROM to the SD-Card.

I tried to format /sdcard/ via the recovery, but it would do nothing, contrary to what it logs.

So finally i've formatted it via newfs_msdos (/system/ needs to be mounted, the command is located at /system/bin/newfs_msdos ) :

/system/bin # ./newfs_msdos -F 32 /dev/block/mmcblk0p1
./newfs_msdos: warning, /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 is not a character device
./newfs_msdos: Skipping mount checks
/dev/block/mmcblk0p1: 5992960 sectors in 93640 FAT32 clusters (32768 bytes/cluster)
bps=512 spc=64 res=32 nft=2 mid=0xf0 spt=16 hds=4 hid=0 bsec=5994496 bspf=732 rdcl=2 infs=1 bkbs=2
/system/bin # ./newfs_msdos -F 32 /dev/block/mmcblk0p1
./newfs_msdos: warning, /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 is not a character device
./newfs_msdos: Skipping mount checks
/dev/block/mmcblk0p1: 5992960 sectors in 93640 FAT32 clusters (32768 bytes/cluster)
bps=512 spc=64 res=32 nft=2 mid=0xf0 spt=16 hds=4 hid=0 bsec=5994496 bspf=732 rdcl=2 infs=1 bkbs=2

and then my sdcard was fine, I could write on it and use it via USB. I guess it was somewhat corrupted.


What is the play sound item is touched setting? I was looking in settings, and I saw a weird setting option. In "sounds and vibrations " under settings there something know as

  Play a sound when certain items are touched on the screen

Now my question is, how is this useful, what is this, and what items triger this sound?

Im using a Samsung J3 2016 with android 7.1.1

Sorry if I have mistakes, im using mobile.

This option serves as sound feedback when tapping on your screen, for instance on your keyboard, or (usually) when navigating menus/options in the Settings app.

(My opinion : while useful, be wary of not activating that option in public places/transports, as it's usually very irritating for other people to hear your tapping feedback)


How to set personal interval to check data usage? On my Nexus 4 with stock Lollipop, I can check the usage data month by month, but my subscription is every 30 days (around the 15th).

New contracts last 28 days, so there is more difference between real interval and a month.

Is it possible to set a personal interval (the start and the during) to check it?

Unfortunately I don't have enough reputation in this sub-stackexchange, so I will answer instead of commenting.

This options is not available in Android (up to this date), but there is an issue (which you can star*), which has unfortunately been marked obsolete with no reason whatsoever. Maybe it can be rediscovered if enough people star it.

P.s.: Here is a similar issue which has not been marked obsolete (yet).

Edit: Another trick (which does not really give you the desired effect) might be to use an app from your provider (these often show you how much data you have left).

*Makes it more likely that it might be implemented at some point.


Am I able to add a data-only sim-card to my dual-sim smartphone? I've a OnePlus 3 which has dual sim functionality. Of course I've also a single common smartphone sim which provides me with a telephone number and internet access.

Since there are pretty cheap data-only sim cards (they are commonly used for laptops, tablets etc.) I wondered if my smartphone is able to handle such. It would increase my speed, coverage and data volume for just little money. Also I don't have to deal with two telephone numbers.

Does this actually work? Is it a good idea?

Data SIMs are no different from regular SIMs regarding data connection. As long as your phone supports the configuration you want (e.g. many phones only supports Slot1 4G + Slot2 2G configuration - confirm whether you still need 3G/4G on the call SIM and place in slot accordingly), you can just pop one in and enjoy.


Would updating my rooted Sony Xperia Z brick it? I updated my phone, rooted it and then realized the current version isn't the latest, so I would like to update it. Is there any chance my Xperia Z would brick? Or do I have to unroot it first?

No.

Instead you may lose your root access in turn, because some system settings go back to default when updating a device, which will probably include your superuser.

Your personal data and installed apps will not be affected.


Insufficient memory with sandisk 32GB micro SD card while having 20GB free space I have a 32GB micro SD card and I've been downloading my music onto it and I've used 8GB on the card so far. Then I was downloading a song and it said insufficient memory. On my phone the songs automatically go to SD card. So I went to storage and it reads the card and says 20GB free space but any app or music or anything cannot be downloaded due to the supposed insufficient space though I know that it's just not true. If anybody else has had this problem please let me know. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Try downloading SD formatter. it will format the sd card but it will also fix the partition table. maybe your partition table is all messed up


Gmail app - cancel notification but see number of unread I have two problems with the Gmail app:

I'm using LauncherPro and have the Gmail app icon in the down task-bar, but I don't see the unread mail count. How can I make the unread number appear there?
I've found out that the fact that every incoming new mail appears in my notification screen makes me lose concentration with what I'm doing and answer without thinking properly.

How can I stop the notifications about new mail?

For #1, it appears that Google changed the API for the Gmail app, and Frederico has disabled that functionality as a result.

For #2, go to the Settings in the Gmail app and select the account you're using, then uncheck "Email notifications".


How to map hard key combinations to keys in Motorola Photon Q XT897? I have a rooted XT897 (Motorola Photon Q) running Android 4.1.2, although this should apply to any phone with a physical keyboard. The keyboard on the phone is sorely lacking keys such as <,>,{,},,[,],`,\,|, and ~. It does have a "sym" button that sometimes pulls up a little window in which I can select which symbol not on the keyboard that I would like to type.

Most of the time, it does absolutely nothing. I am aware of Android's key layout files, and I have already modified mine such that the useless  Caps Lock key  to be a CTRL key instead. However, these do not allow for mapping combinations of keys to other, single keys (as far as I can tell). What I'd like is something like xmodmap, where I could map SYM + P to ] and do that for all the keys.

Is there any way I can do this? The page on the key layout files mentions that it maps linux keycodes to Android keycodes, perhaps I can edit the linux key mapping file. Where would that be? Would that even work?

There are two "layers" in the hardware keypress -> character to insert in textbox. The layer after key layout files is Key Character Map Files. They take the key (such as "A") and dictate what should result from various combinations of keys. For example:

key A {
  label: "A" # What to 'name' the key
  base: "a" # pressing this key with no modifiers
  shift, capslock: "A" # if either shift or capslock is on, do a capital a instead
  ctrl, alt, meta: none # do nothing if any other combinations are pressed
}

Backup, then edit the .kcm file corresponding to the hardware keyboard. You will need root.

If your file has any syntax errors then it will simply revert to the default keyboard mapping which is mostly but not fully correct. The only way to check for syntax errors besides putting the file in and rebooting the device is to compile the entirety of the android source code.


Change sort order of contacts I have a HTC Legend with Android 2.2. My contacts usually have first name and last name filled in. The ordering and display consists of <first name> <last name>. Since I know most of my clients by last name primarily, that doesn't really help.

I know of the combobox when editing a contact name where I can switch that. However, the last time I received an update of Android that was changed back to <first name> <last name> for all contacts. Obviously I want to avoid that.

Is there a way to change the display and hopefully the sorting order to <last name> <first name> that survives updates and whatnot?

In the Contacts app (or Phone app if you don't have a direct link in the launcher) press the 'Menu' button then select 'Display Options'.

You should find two categories to choose from, 'Sort list by' and 'View contact names by'.


How to install Cyanogenmod on Huawei IDEOS U8150? I am installing a custom rom for the very first time and I simply don't want to brick my phone (Huawei U8150).

I downloaded and installed Rom Manager
I downloaded Cyanogen 7 (update-cm-7.2.0-RC0-U8150-KANG-signed-dec5.zip) for my U8150 and stored it on SD card.
I started Rom Manager > Flash ClockMod Recovery > shows a list of supported phones. It does not have U8150 in the list. I wonder how others have made it work!
From ROM Manager I chosen the Rom file manually with "Install ROM from SD Card" option, it restarts and gives only for options a. reboot, b. apply update.zip c & d. wipe

What to do next? The rom file is in .zip, while I downloaded another .img file (clockworkmod_5.0.2.7_u8150.img). What does it exactly do?

I think i must first create backup of current rom and then install cyanogen.

Install ClockworkMod Recovery using any of the given methods here:

  Install Terminal Emulator from the market.
  Install Root Explorer from the market.
  Download the recovery of your choice and copy the recovery.img to your sd card. (if its not named recovery.img rename it)
  With Root Explorer, navigate to where the recovery is and copy it to /system/bin/ (remember to select mount as R/W first in order for it to copy.)
  Open Terminal Emulator and enter the command "su" (without the quotes)
  After that enter the command "flash_image recovery /system/bin/recovery.img" (again without the quotes)
  That's it, the recovery has been flashed. Reboot in recovery to confirm.
  Once you've confirmed the recovery flashed properly remember to delete the recovery.img from /system/bin/ (using root explorer, and mount as R/W)

Then follow the instructions of using ClockworkMod given here


Could not enable mobile hotspot function on HTC One X I am using HTC One X and I was trying to enable mobile hotspot function, so I could enjoy internet from my PC adhoc wireless network but it says :

 There is a temporary network problem that prevents the
 enablement of the Mobile Hotspot function.
 Please retry later.

Looks like you've messed up some terms:

  I was trying to enable mobile hotspot function, so I could enjoy internet from my PC adhoc wireless network

First: the mobile hotspot function is to share your Android device's mobile Internet connection to other devices not having Internet on their own, e.g. a tablet or laptop, via WiFi.

Second: only few Android devices support ad-hoc networks. There are solutions, but all of them require your device to be rooted.

Third: if you wanted to use your PC's Internet connection on your Android device, that would be reverse-tether, and again require root to be established.


Can I download large downloads on the PC? I just got my new Nexus 7 and found out that most big Android games download their data over WiFi. This is problematic for me as I don't have a good WiFi connection and most downloads freeze halfway. Can I download the extra data on my wired connection on my computer?

It depends on game. Some games allow you to download the data off phone and extract it to your SD card at the said location of the game instruction. I remember doing so for few games myself.

If the game instruction doesn't have anything like that then you've to manually find out what file it downloads from where and put it in relevant place in SD card.


Launcher disappeared, how do I restore it? I mistakenly dragged an icon on the home screen (Nexus One) to the bottom area ("Main dock") that contains 3 main icons (phone, launcher, browser).

That icon replaced the launcher and now I can't access any of my other apps.

(My launcher is the ADWLauncher, that comes with CyganogenMod).

What do I do now?

How do I revert this back?

(I tried "Restore ADW settings" but unfortunately there was nothing in the backup location).

Is there a way to "restore it to factory settings"?

You should be able to go to Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications, find the launcher, and Clear Data for it.  Hopefully that will restore it to default.


Does google do anything to stop an app developer from just posting lots of 5 star reviews for themselves? Anyone can set up a gmail account and anyone logged into gmail account with their android phone or tablet can leave google play app ratings (with android 4.2 I can even have multiple google accounts for the same tablet)

So is there anything preventing someone from just creating lots of gmail accounts, then logging into their android device, leaving a 5 star rating for their app?

Short answer: No.

There is nothing that prevent developer from making lots of additional Google Accounts to provide 5 star ratings. Google recently made a change that require a Google+ enabled account to post reviews/star ratings on Google Play (at least using the on-device Play-app on certain phones) which is a small improvement from the past where a simple Gmail account would be enough.


Motorola Defy + Keeps Rebooting I bought another Defy + for my daughter. I also have one which is fine.

Hers keeps shutting down and rebooting, especially when it's away from the WiFi. It also has the latest system update. We tried switching batteries, but hers kept rebooting so it's not a battery issue.

Any help out there?

Its a faulty phone. Take it back and get a new one.

But you can turn off mobile data and it will stop rebooting.

or search google for "Motorola Defy+ Rebooting" for other opinons


Clone the Andriod version from Samsung to Lenovo? I bought this Lenovo K10a40, and I bought just problems.
This will be a number 2 phone if I can get it work in a reliable state.

I have been looking a little around and if I could downgrade it to clone of the Android 4.2.2 on an old simple Samsung GT-S7580 it would really work as an upgrade. If that is impossible any change to the better would be OK to test. Else the phone is just garbage, I cant trust it.

I am totally green on this, and do not even know how to root a phone. Among the problems with the Lenovo, I got MMS problems, Bluetooth problems, and I miss the native android sip client.

As you understand  I need a detailed description of every steps I have to do.

Thank you
dsk

Android version are always device specific. Therefore you can't use Android from device X and copy/clone it to a different device Y.

The main reason for this is that each Android version contains a number a device drivers for all the different components (graphics chip, GPS, camera, sensors, hardware keys, main CPU). Each driver has to be the correct driver in the correct version configured in a correct way. Otherwise nothing will work

If you have problems with a new Android device there is only one way: Check on https://lineageos.org if there is a custom ROM version for your device. With a little bit of luck such a version exists and there is a way to install it on your devices. Note that installing a custom ROM results in loosing the warranty for your device. If something goes wrong with the installation of the custom ROM there is always the chance to brick the device.


How can I choose between Shazam and SoundHound? I want a Music ID app, I have tried both Shazam and SoundHound which were good. They both have a limit of 5 songs, and cost $5 to upgrade to unlimited. Before purchasing one of them, I want to make sure I'm making the right choice. What are the advantages/disadvantages of each one?

Are there any other competing apps I should consider?

Update: I used SoundHound's old name, Midomi, accidentally.

I would pick a handful of songs that are of the type of music you like and see how each one does at identifying them.  Also consider how long it takes each one to get you your results.  Also if you buy music through a particular service, consider the app's ability to interface easily with that service.  The other big thing to consider would be startup time of the app, since you want to be able to tag a song before it ends!


Turn Android TV Device into Public Media Player I've got an Android TV device here and we want to use it in a public media display. We've got a few problems to solve:

1) Have the device turn on when it received power:
Looks like this would be a firmware thing and we're not going to solve it.

2) Load tons of media:
Solved: Device works great with a USB hard drive.

3) Have a Media Player app start on power up:
Solved: Using the Auto Start App

4) Find a media player that will:
a) Begin automatic playback of random media when started (no having to press play).
b) Allow really easy navigation of the USB Drive folders as albums when the only interface is a remote control.

Would really appreciate some help with finding the right media player app.

Closest thing I've been able to find is:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.burningthumb.premiervideokiosk&hl=en

Video Kiosk
Display a folder of videos, continuously and robustly in a loop.

Video Kiosk was designed with Android TV Sticks in mind (tested on MK808 and MK812) but also works with any Android device that you want to use to display a continuous series of looping videos.

Video Kiosk can used to run the big screen at a gym, shop, or anywhere where you need to run an unattended display, so you can be sure it will work simply and easily. The only thing other people need to know how to do is turn the TV on and off - Video Kiosk takes care of the rest.

Simply put your video files in a folder, launch Video Kiosk and pick the folder that contains the video. Optionally enable the launch at startup option so that when the device is (re)started, Video Kiosk automatically launches and starts playing video.


HTC Desire 816 -How to use a particular sim for data usage and restrict the other? I have got an HTC Desire 816 phone. I am not able to restrict the data usage to only one sim. If i enable the data usage for the Slot1 sim, the Slot2 sim also gets enabled for data usage. Any idea how to restrict this?

In the dual network manager, you can specify which sim to use for data network connection.
In Settings > dual network manager > Preferred data network > select either slot 1 or slot 2.


Le eco le 2 Android 6.0 : How to share my computer internet on my android with USB? Having troubles sharing my internet connection from my desktop computer to my LE ECO LE 2 compact phone. I went to Settings -> Network connections -> USB connection. From this post (a bit old, it's meant for KitKat and not Marshmallow), I expected to view an option like USB internet. But there is only an option called Software install that I checked. But what software is this option about and how to install it, I don't get it.

I tried to connect my phone to my Windows 10 computer after checking the option, nothing special comes, no software install. I can choose several options :

charging only
transfer files (MTP)
mass storage (MSC)
MIDI
Choosing MTP, I can move files from my computer to my phone. But unlike what is presented in this post, no additional network connection do appear on my computer. I tried to share my connection (because my computer have two Ethernet ports, I can activate it anyway), but that does not work. No internet on my phone.

Sorry if the menus or options from this post are not strictly the same in the english version, my phone is in another language. Anyway, What I describe should be clear enough (otherwise just say, I'll explain more deeply).

Can anyone help ? I guess it's something special to Sony phones, or maybe it did change from Android 4 to Android 6, but I'm a little confused...

As far as I know, only a few manufacturers include the USB Internet option in the menu.

I was looking for a way to reverse tether my Android devices some time ago as well and eventually developed my own solution. The result is an app that works on devices running Android 4.0 or higher on client side, and all major desktop OSs on the host side.

The app is available on Google Play: ReverseTethering NoRoot


How did my niece's face end up on my daughter's body after being backed up to Google photos? We took family pictures with my S3 which came out fine.  After checked the backed up photos in Google photo I notice that my niece's face had been transposed onto my daughter so that it looks line my niece is sitting next to an identical twin. It really freaked me out. The picture is fine in my phone's photo gallery.

This sounds like Google+'s Auto-Awesome smile feature. If you took multiple similar photos then Auto-Awesome will attempt to create a composite picture with the best smiles. Unfortunately in your case it appears to have thought that your niece and daughter were sufficiently similar that it put your daughters smile onto your niece.

You can see more information (and an example) on this site


Is it possible to use an AT&T phone for android development without rooting? This question seems to say that it's necessary to root an at&t phone (like the samsung captivate) in order to install apps from unofficial sources.

My question is a bit more focused: if I'm working on my own android app, will I be able to load it on my at&t phone for testing (via the android SDK, etc.) without first rooting the phone?

This question seems to say that it's necessary to root an at&t phone (like the samsung captivate) in order to install apps from unofficial sources.

That is not true. While you cannot download apps from the Web, you can install apps through the development tools, or things based on the development tools (like the Sideloader Wonder Machine).

  My question is a bit more focused: if I'm working on my own android app, will I be able to load it on my at&t phone for testing (via the android SDK, etc.) without first rooting the phone?

Yes.


My phone storage is empty when connected to pc I need to back up all data and media on my phone but every time i connect it to pc everything is fine and my pc recongize the phone but not every time i need to plug and unplug phone several times to make pc recognize it .what ever when i open my phone storage it say folder is empty iam sure that using MTP not PTP my phone storage working on all computers except mine and all phones storages appear on my pc except my phone i have checked drivers and all working properaly .
any help ?

SD card not showing files when connected to pc the first answer fixed my problem, just clear media storage and external storage, and boom, it shows all files in internal storage.


How to set bash as default shell? When I adb into a device with Cyanogenmod, I'm presented with a nice bash shell, color prompt, and bashrc.  I don't see a symlink from /system/xbin/bash to /system/bin/sh.  How do they set the default shell to bash instead of sh?  I looked through rc files, but didn't find anything.  I'd like to do the same on my Android build, which isn't Cyanogenmod.

Update

After re-installing from scratch with CM7, I'm taken to sh instead of bash.  Now the question is how to set bash as default.

When adb shell is executed, the Android side also launches adb which then executes /system/bin/sh -. This path is hard-coded in system/core/adb/services.c:

347 #if ADB_HOST
348 #define SHELL_COMMAND "/bin/sh"
349 #define ALTERNATE_SHELL_COMMAND ""
350 #else
351 #define SHELL_COMMAND "/system/bin/sh"
352 #define ALTERNATE_SHELL_COMMAND "/sbin/sh"
353 #endif

If you want to change this to bash, you will have to recompile it.

It is possible to execute some commands from file when running the interactive shell. As written in system/core/sh/main.c, sh - (note the - for interactive mode) reads from the following files (in this order):

/etc/profile
.profile (relative to current directory, this is /.profile for adb shell
$ENV (environment variable ENV should point to a file)

As /etc/ and / are read-only, the only way to get something loaded was by setting ENV. You can probably create a symlink from /etc/profile to /data/profile by mounting / read-write (exercise for the reader).


How can one access hidden apps on the Samsung Galaxy Tab2 7.0? There are many apps loaded on the Samsung Galaxy Tab2 7.0 that do not appear on the applications icons page.  Phase Beam 1.0 is an example.  It is not a "Samsung App".  How do we find and load these hidden apps?

These apps are not hidden. They were not meant to be launched.
The example you mention - Phase Beam - is a live wallpaper. To use it long-press on your homescreen and select live wallpaper.
There're many others that can't be accessed by the end user. They're meant to be used by another. Usually to provide a feature in a plugin form.


Is it possible to free up phone storage while keeping HTC Sense? I recently factory-reset my HTC Desire to free up space for apps, because it was suffering from constant 'low space' warnings, and it wasn't possible to free up space.

(Initially I installed Cyanogenmod, but didn't like various things about it, so returned to the HTC Sense UI).

However I can see the phone storage problem is going to come back soon - after moving 4 apps off the phone and onto SD card (the only 4 that supported this) I ended up with 10MB LESS space on the phone!

So I am wondering if there's a way to get more stuff off the phone and onto the SD card while keeping the HTC Sense UI. I have heard of 'A2SD+' for example. Can I use that while retaining HTC Sense?

(My phone is rooted and has S-OFF).

I also have the safe device and had faced the same problem. I have two wonderful solutions:

1) Use link2sd. This app moves your app's apk, lib and dex file to second partition of you SD card. It will leave only the data files in the internal memory. So you can install nearly five times the more apps. I have a blog post if you want to try it out.

2) Use sueprnova ROM. This ROM is the stock ROM with data2sd support. So you can even use 2GB of SD space as internal memory.

Both of this solution requires you to have a better class of SD Card.


Constant app crashes + google play error 960 I recently got a new Nexus 5 and I have a lot of issues with the software.

Basically I have 2 major issues which I guess are likely related:

Google play store very often gives me an error Unknown error code during application install: "960"
Many applications often crash with the error message Unfortunately application <insert-app -here> has stopped working. I'm under the impression these are mainly stock apps but I'm not 100% sure.

Next I also see some side issues in google chrome, which I suspect have the same reason:

Sometimes while browsing the whole phone crashes, I haven't pinned this down to a single action, but it only happens while using chrome, not with any other app or while idling.
I often get an error stating "this page cannot be loaded, please reload", after 5-6 times reloading it finally works (or the phone crashes...).

To me it looks like there is some error with a basic android support app (maybe services) that messes everything up but I really can't figure out what it is. I have tried already:

Factory reset several times, including using recovery mode
Adding/removing my google account
Clearing app caches of several apps like google chrome and google play services
Clearing the cache partition using recovery mode
Rebooting in safe mode

Found this page while trying to solve the same problem on my Nexus 5. Here is the succinct answer that worked for me: You need root and to install an app called SD Maid (Play Store Link), run it's "CorpseFinder" function, remove the corpses, and reboot. Force closes and 960 errors stopped for me after doing this. I elaborate more here on this thread on AndroidForums.com. Hope this helps!


What are trust agents and why should I trust "Profiles trust provider"? I don't know if this is a new thing in Android 7, or if I've just never came across it before.  I suspsect this is a new thing.  I am using OctOS M, which is based on LegacyOS, the new name of CyanogenMOD.

In figuring out how to turn off Smart Lock, some new whiz bang thing that reduces your phone security in the name of conveinance, I came across another trust agent called "Profiles Trust Provider". Searching the web gives me a couple of Android dev pages, which are never helpful to explain anything (They restate the obvious ususally. It's pretty bad when you don't know anything and the man page only restates the obvious [to someone who doesn't know anything]).

Does anyone know what this is, why I should trust it, what the feature does and if it does what it claims?

I'm wondering the same thing, but found only this German discussion:
https://www.android-hilfe.de/forum/android-sicherheit-antivirus-firewalls-datenschutz-verschluesselung.910/cm13-was-ist-trusted-agents-anbieter-fuer-vertrauenswuerdige-profile.802610.html
It's pretty readable when translated.


How to fix media volume stuck on zero? Today I tried to play a video but my media volume was on zero.

I used the volume button on my phone but it did not increase the media volume. I then went to the settings --> sound --> media but I could not change the media volume from zero.

The reason i could not change the media volume was because media volume slider was grayed out... So I could touch or change it in any way.

It's a very unintuitive problem and many others seem to have it if you Google.

Mine wasnt caused by an app.  My Do Not Disturb was accidentally set to do not disturb for anything.  Changing the settings worked.


Galaxy Tab 3: How to get it to make use of the MicroSD card? I'm kind of a noob when it comes to Android tablets. Anyway, I have a Galaxy Tab 3 with only 16GB built it, and of course I've hit the point where I'm running out of space. So I bought a 32GB MicroSD card, and assumed that would solve the problem. However, the tablet doesn't seem to want to make use of it, especially when it comes to moving over apps and data that are already on the device. And I'm totally lost as to how to make it move at least some of that stuff over, as well as when it comes to setting it to use the card as the main storage on anything new from this point forward.

Can anyone explain to me just what I need to do to make this silly thing start using the card? I've totally hit the limit of the built-in 16GB, and don't even have enough room left to save new photos, much less update apps or install new ones. No matter what I try to adjust in the settings, it just won't make the switch, and I'm totally lost at this point.

Thanks...

There are multiple things for you to check out:

our insufficient-memory tag-wiki gives you some general information, background, and first aid on the storage problem
our app2sd tag-wiki will let you know about moving apps to your shiny new SD card
your camera app will certainly have an option to tell it where to save new photos/videos – set that to your new card. If it does not, there are plenty of alternatives available. For some specific recommendations, see Camera software for Android on our sister site.


One Plus One Boot Loop - Marshmallow Update today I updated my OnePlus One to Android 6.0.1 Cyanogenmod. It is now stuck in a boot loop, it turns on, runs for approximately two minutes, freezes, then restarts.

My phone is not rooted.

Here are my phones details.

Model: A0001

6.0.1

Cyanogen Version: 13.0-ZNH0EAS2JK

Cyanogen API: Dragon Fruit (4)

Kernel: 3.4.110

Thanks in advance.


Use cellular when connected to wifi Is there a possibility to force an android phone to use cellular data when connected to wifi. For iOS I've found this https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/173894/can-i-connect-to-wifi-but-still-use-cellular

Regards,
Nils

I'm pretty sure you cannot do that as the phone needs to connect to one protocol at a time.  I have a Wi-Fi hard-drive and the manufacturer of the device states that once you connect to the device you will need to either turn the device off to get cellular signal again or disconnect from it.


How to run a notifier if connected to specific Wi-Fi? Is there any way to run a notifier if I get connected to specified Wi-Fi? and, then get turn the notifier service off when disconnected?

cyanogenmod 7 + HTC Desire

You'll need apps like Tasker or Locale to perform the sort of action you want.


Can I install Google Play and run Android apps on my iPhone or iPad? I have an iPod Touch 4G (this is where you all start screaming at me). But I like the apps on Google Play. So if I downloaded a Google Play app on my computer and sent it to my iPod, would it work?

iOS and Android are two different systems. The only way to run Android Apps on iOS would be with an emulator.

There exists a project called iphodroid. It has a Google Code project page. The last update from the homepage is from May 2011 and given the rapid development regarding Android and iOS I doubt that this is still functional. You can try it, but at your own risk! I have never tested it.


How to make 3G Video Calls? Possible Duplicate:
  How can I make a 3G-324M video call?

Before people start telling me to use Skype or GTalk, let me make it clear: 3G Video Call is a native value-added-service for video calls based on minutes rather than data plan. It is provided by operators in many countries (except US). Even many Samsung phones do have the 3G Video call option in their "custom" ROM in my country. But I am on a Nexus S and there is currently no built-in way I can use my video "minutes".  Is there any way to do this?

There is currently no way to do this, unless the device manufacturer has added this into their ROM's.

This isn't available in any custom ROM, and the implementation of it in Android is somewhat limited, and far from complete.

I believe that Google decided that as they are using an Android, they would have large internet bundles, and therefore it would be cheaper to use internet video calling, so they haven't been implementing 3G video calling (at least not at any great speed).


"Restrict background data" keeps turning off after a while I have Android 6.0.1, original Samsung version on my Galaxy S5 Neo. Since I'm not on any mobile data plan and have to pay every MB I use, I'd like to restrict background data - once and forever! However, it keeps turning itself off after a while. (I don't know after what time - I often only notice it a few hours later.) So quite often, I don't notice that it's disabled again, then go online, and tons of stuff are downloaded, every single bit of which I have to pay...

What might be the cause of this? (It's not rebooting - it happens without any reboots in between.) How can I make sure background data is simply always disabled?

(I know there are some firewall apps that might help, but they either need the phone to be rooted, or they route your data through some VPN. I don't like either solution.)

I have the same problem but I know what causes it. When I display current active tasks I accidentally touch "Background data restricted" which causes it to be cancelled - but I don't notice I have done it at the time.


Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync - Contacts Storage I use a Microsoft Exchange account for my business and use a Samsung Galaxy S3.

If I sync my contacts to the phone from the exchange account, are they actually stored on my phone or SD card or are the actually just in the cloud?

I want to have access to all the people, but don't want it to take up memory.  I have over 1,000 contacts and it grows.

The contacts themselves are synced to your phone's internal memory, so they do take up space. The contacts are then updated every time the phone syncs with the server.

If they were only in the cloud you wouldn't be able to access them if you happen to lose the network connection, and contact lookup would be noticeably slower. Also, some mobile network technologies can't maintain a voice call and data connection simultaneously, so you wouldn't be able to match incoming calls to contacts, because the data connection would temporarily be disconnected.


Are there any video players with variable speed playback? I am looking for a video player that can play videos on my SD card with variable speed playback

Related Questions

https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/2840/comparision-of-video-players-for-android

Mmmm. No. At least not that i know of.

I tried VPlayer, Rockplayer, the stock player, iMplayer. None of that has control over the play speed.

If i find out I get back to you.


adb shell returns with error: closed I somehow bricked my oneplus one phone badly.

It only loads directly to the recovery. Pressing vol up + power button or rebooting it with adb reboot bootloader doesn't get me to the bootloader.
I think I erased the bootloader partition or deleted my bootloader.

Here comes the tricky part. I can't even sideload any file or access my internal sdcard because then i get the (with sideload e:footer is wrong, e: siganture verification failed or error opening /data/media).

Right now I can either flash the OnePlusRestoreTool(64GB) recovery or the colorOS recovery tool (both can't access the internal storage - button is not clickable).
I thought I just have to mount my sdcard new, but I can't enter a shell command and most badly, I can't enter bootloader.

Please help me guys! :)

Since you can boot into recovery reflash your ROM - make a clean flash (wipe cache , dalvick cache , system and data .

If you can’t flash through twrp , then you have to use the flashtool ...


remount file system with "adb remount" in production builds Marshmallow 6.0 Before Marshmallow the solution of adbd insecure from Chainfire was working great on rooted Lollipop and previous builds.

But now, with Android 6.0 the adbd insecure apk doesn't work.

Question: is there another similar solution to adbd insecure, rather than mounting the file system with :

mount -o rw,remount /your_path

Regards

Why would you want to do this?
Anyway,

adb root
adb remount

This should work. Works for me on my OnePlus 2.


/data/system/packages.xml does not update after install/uninstall of apps. Is that expected? I am using a android board with a custom ROM based on Android 4.4.2. I was trying to override a /system/priv-app/ app by installing an updated version in normal partition.

While testing I realised that the override only stays till reboot.So I started digging into AOSP source which is when I came across the call to disableSystemPackageLPw which in turn calls writeLPr.

If writeLPr goes through I expect to see my package listed in the "/data/system/packages.xml" file. However that is not the case here and hence I suspect that to be the root cause.

It would be great to know view on expected usage of packages.xml from the community users to confirm the same.

As per stock android code. (AOSP) packages.xml needs to have the entry for installed packages for retaining any fancy priv-app kind of configuration/overrides/updates that we do.


Set no wallpaper, but single color background I was trying to find the setting to disable the wallpaper on my Android phone.
I've found some suggestion which suggest to make a fake black png or something like that, but it's going around the problem instead of solving it. Technically, it's still a wallpaper, and I don't want to have any...

How to set not to use wallpaper on Android? There must be some way, even on Windows it's possible...

I'm using Samsung Galaxy S4

I found the easiest way to do this was with the application Color Wallpaper. All the possible colors selectable from a menu, and i haven't changed the color in months. You can set it and forget it. Even uninstall after setting, if that is your wish.

Disclaimer: I am not the developer of this application, just a satified user - for years.


How to delete whatsapp without a SD card or a SIM card installed? I have taken out my SIM card and SD card as I have a new phone, how do I delete whatsapp, as messages are still being received to my old phone?

Uninstall Whatsapp from Google Play or from the phone's Application Manager (In the Samsung Galaxy S4, Settings > More > Application Manager).

If it's a pre-installed app and cannot be uninstalled by regular means, clear its data via Application Manager. In the Application Manager, click Whatsapp and you might see buttons like Clear data and Clear cache.


Unable to modify build.prop I'm using a stock Nexus 5X. I tried to edit build.prop the following way:

I unlocked the bootloader and booted into TWRP (not flashed)
I mounted system
I then adb pulled build.prop, edited it, then pushed it back

On reboot the changes are reverted. Write protection is not on (that I know of), what should I do?

I am not rooted.

Making permanent changes to /system required me to be rooted.


Charging issues for Samsung Galaxy S2 Just wanted to see if anyone knows what is going on with my Samsung Galaxy S2.

The problem is that when I fully charge the phone normally at night I have sometimes turned the phone off after it is charged but then in the morning it is close to completely drained.

Does anyone know what is going on with it?

I am using Samsung galaxy S2 and was facing the same issue. And, If you are using Internet package to your phone and not logged off from any of the social network apps and also gtalk, facebook, gmail, e-mail etc the battery will be low even after you have completely charged your phone. And, of course if your phone is almost 3 year old you will face such problems.

I would suggest you to kindly disable the data network mode when not in use and this will increase the battery life.... :-)

I know this is not the permanent solution, but you can avoid your phone turned off when not in use.


How do you input Cantonese characters in Android? I am able to use handwriting to input Chinese characters.
However, I would like to input Cantonese characters
(which are slightly different from Chinese characters).
How do I do this?

Use Cantonese Input. Install the keyboard and add it as an input method. You can then use any of the following to input characters:

  Pinyin (Yale, Jyutping and Cantonese Pinyin standards)
  Cangjie
  Handwriting
  Voice
  Stroke


How to switch off HDMI I have an android box with a HDMI port. Im connecting it to a projector. To the same projector Im also connecting a PC via VGA cable. Now I want to give my box a command to switch off the HDMI port, so that I can see the image of my PC.

Is there some shell command way to do this? Via ADB? Or any other suggestion?

Thanks!

Turn off the Android HDMI port in Settings. It is likely either:

Settings -> HDMI -> Off, or
Settings -> Display -> HDMI -> Off


How to make lock and home screen backgrounds separate I have a Moto G 2014, and it's running 4.4.4. I cannot seem to find away to get my lock screen and home screen wallpapers different from each other. How can I go about doing this? I haven't rooted yet.

By default there is no setting to change lock screen wallpaper. One way is to have a lock screen app like Go Locker which will allow to set lock screen wallpaper different than the home screen wallpaper. Another is to install a custom ROM like Cyanogenmod 11 which gives much more features over stock OS.


Google cache links in search results When searching for something while the target is offline its most convenient to click on Google's cache link for that certain target or search result. But I don't see such link on my android phone using the default browser. Is it related to mobile Google search? I wonder if I could reenable this. I use Android 2.3.3 with Samsung Galaxy S i9000.

If you go to the bottom of the search results page, you will see something like (View Google in: Mobile | Classic), you can click on "Classic" to view the current search result in desktop version of Google, which of course have the 'cached' link.


How do you unlock bootloader How do you unlock the bootloader of the huawei y5ii because I would like to flash TWRP

It looks like you need an unlock code from Huawei from them here, then unlock the bootloader with the code they provide using the fastboot command fastboot oem unlock XXXX, where XXXX is the code they provided.

Then using fastboot and the TWRP recovery for your device, flash it using:  fastboot flash recovery nameofTWRPfile.img

That is the basics taken from XDA here.


How do I set up OpenVPN on CyanogenMod 7? I want to route all my network traffic through my home's ISP connection when I'm out in Internet cafes so I can't be eavesdropped/firesheeped.

I have an HTC G2 with CyanogenMod 7, which has OpenVPN client support built-in:

At home, I have a router with TomatoVPN on it, which includes an OpenVPN server:

Now, how do I get the phone client to connect to the router server?  I can Google and find a set of seemingly relevant instructions, but they aren't very helpful:

  You need to pack your cert and keys and put it in SD card

Where do I get those?

  Copy client.p12 to sdcard root directory

Where do I get that?

  add your certificates, and set the interface type and the protocol accordingly.

How, specifically?  Which settings should be what?  Using settings that don't protect me is worse than no protection at all due to the false sense of security.

I'm looking for step-by-step instructions for a "roadwarrior" setup that routes all traffic through the VPN.

Where do I get keys?  Do I need to use additional username/password authentication? What DNS search domains? What settings should I use in CM7's OpenVPN Advanced menu?  "Redirect gateway" needs to be set to route all traffic, for instance, right?  Which settings for Basic and Advanced in TomatoVPN?  "Direct clients to redirect Internet traffic"? "Respond to DNS"?

Update:

I've given it yet another try on my own, and was again unsuccessful.  I don't think there's any way to generate keys on either the router or the phone, so I tried to generate them in Ubuntu.  I tried to follow these directions to generate keys, but they aren't correct.  (The folder is /usr/share/doc/openvpn/examples/easy-rsa/2.0 instead of /usr/share/doc/openvpn-2.0/easy-rsa, for instance, and there's a vars, but no init-config script.)  I found these directions, which are more helpful, and generated a number of files:

01.pem
02.pem
ca.crt
ca.key
dh1024.pem
htc_g2.crt
htc_g2.csr
htc_g2.key
server.crt
server.csr
server.key
ta.key

The files I copied to the router are

ca.crt
server.crt
server.key
dh1024.pem

first stripping everything before -----BEGIN, according to these instructions.  The router server starts now and says

  Name  Value
  Max bcast/mcast queue length  0

under Status.  So I guess the server is working?

Then I copied these files to the phone:

ca.crt
htc_g2.crt
htc_g2.key
server.crt
ta.key

Different directions disagree on which files to copy.  Then I went to Settings → Location & security → Install from SD card, and was able to install the CA certificate, added a password, etc.  Trying to add the htc_g2 or server certificates did not work, saying "no certificate to install".  I edited the files and removed everything before -----BEGIN, and then they installed.  In "Add OpenVPN VPN", I selected the "ca" certificate for "Set CA certificate", and the htc_g2 certificate for "Set user certificate".  When I try to connect, it says "Unable to connect to network".  Same if I try the server certificate for the user certificate.

First of all, check the Keys tab in TomatoVPN to see if you already have some default keys defined. If not, check out the OpenVPN HOWTO for info on how to generate the keys. Next, copy the first two keys (CA and Server certificate) from the text areas to a text editor and save them with .cer suffix and transfer them to your phone. CM7 should be able to import .cer certificates directly but older versions may need to use .p12 files (see this link for info on how to convert .crt -> .pem ->.p12). After this, go to Settings -> Security -> Install from SD Card to load the certificates to the phone.


Google settings permanent uninstall Is it possible to permanently uninstall the Google Settings application?

update
Thanks for reply!
My device is LG Optimus Me, Android version 2.2.2, rooted

My problem has 2 aspects:
1. Simple technical. Due to quite low internal memory of device I had memory low message after automatically installing Google settings. I solve this problem by moving applications to SD card. I did it before manually, but after installing app2sd I found that I miss some movable applications.
2. Vague psychological. I know, it's quite stupid, but I feel that my device is out of control in some way. Someone can decide what apps to install on my device and I can do nothing with it. I understand that it's part of (eco)system, but I don't feel that I need that settings. Also it's not very lightweight in terms of size. Maybe I'm too paranoid?..

It's a system service, not a standalone application. It is "Google Play Services". Can't uninstall system services without root privileges. If you do so with root privileges it may cause problems with Google Play.

Settings > Apps > All > click on Google Play Services and uninstall updates will work, but it will uninstall only updates. It will update automatically again by Google.


Light sensor values differes from device to device - are the readings reliable? I have launched an onboard sensors reading application on 2 phones: HTC M8 (Android 6) and Motorola Moto G (Android 5).

Those phones lays on my desk one just next to the other. And light sensor's readings are completely different: HTC shows 150 luxes and Moto shows 365 luxes.

This is a nonsense to use those sensors if readings are so different. Can those readings be treated as reliable? Can we do something about that issue?

Light sensor is sensitive to angle from light source too.
Make sure that your two phones have same angle from the light source.


can I enable android on my device which is of Samsung Rex s3802? I am trying to enable this on my device for an hour but nothing's working!

Very unlikely. The Samsung Rex 70 S3802 is a feature-phone with just 10 MB internal storage (even Android versions before 4.x required more than 200 MB just for the system stuff).

For reference, the same question was asked back in 2013 when this phone debuted: Can I make a Samsung Rex 70 an Android phone? – where all answerers came to the same result. I also very much doubt someone has written a ROM for it (hard to do due to the mass of proprietary hardware elements of the device, including its CPU), provided this background – so no ROM, no install.


How to grant certain apps root permission through ADB? I have an Android TV box (4.4.2, armv7), and I can login the device as root by ADB (local network). What I want to do is to give certain apps root permission. How can I do it?

You don't give certain apps root permission, but certain apps ask for root permission by executing su binary. It's the developer of the app who decides if the app would perform some tasks with root privileges or not. In order to let apps request root privileges, you need to root your device using e.g. Magisk, SuperSU etc. (whatever works on your device).

When you get root privileges on adb (e.g. by executing adb root or adb shell su) it runs adbd process on device as root (UID 0) user. So all commands which you run through adb have root privileges. To grant root access to apps you need a special su binary which is not shipped with Android.

The usual su binary (like on any UNIX-like OS) makes a transition to UID 0 by making setuid syscall to kernel. This is not possible on Android due to certain restrictions. The special su binary (the one provided by rooting solutions like Magisk) connects to a background daemon to get a root shell for the requesting app, where the app can execute commands with root privileges. However the app itself is still running with its own UID (assigned at the time of installation).

For more details see:

What special privileges “/system/xbin/su” does have w.r.t. root access?
How Magisk works?
How to manually root a phone?


Get ADB to trust all computers Is there something I can do to make my phone trust all computers to use ADB on my phone? I have root, Resurrection Remix on Android 7.1.1, and I am open to editing some files. I will only be plugging my phone into computers that I already trust, so I'm not worried about security.

The reason I want this is because I use a different school computer every day, and I don't like the pop-up. I trust those computers and don't need the prompt.

Can somebody please get an answer? YES, I ONLY PLUG MY PHONE INTO A USB PORT I TRUST!!!

Huh, It turns out you can

It turns out you can disable the verication check to bypass the ask for authorization.

On a authorised computer:

Firstly, run adb version and check its at least 1.0.32

Give adb root permissions, adb root

Then, connect and run adb disable-verity

Then it should be fine!

Source: https://stackoverflow.com/a/37624959/4992064


How can I insert a customized emoticon in SMS? Galaxy S2 Just wondering if is it possible to insert a customized emoticon in SMS.
I get only those :-) default ones. I'd like to use smth like :) or :-x or 8-)

Depending on the keyboard you are using, the SMS emoticons will show up in the bottom right (where the enter key usually is). If you long press on the key, you will get a pop-up of other emoticons you can use. Using :) is the same as :-) so they wont show that one.

You can send any emoticon you want, but if who you send it to doesn't "change it" to an image, they will only see the normal "8-)" version.


Google Calendar gone nuts since DST has ended Ever since the 28th of October when DST has ended all of my events in my Google Calendar has moved one hour earlier. The web calendar shows currect dates and times but the one on my Nexus 4 is one hour early.

I tried using 'Home time' in the calendar settings without success.

Any ideas?

Have you tried setting Automatic date & time and Automatic time zone?

Source: Daylight Saving Time and Android: Sit back and relax


How to remove adware popups from notifications in S8? So I visited a torrent site (not sure if it's the cause 100% though) on my S8 last night & since then have been getting the popups shown in the screenshot. I downloaded & ran Malwarebytes, firewall & antivirus after the popup situation but all 3 apps say my phone is fine with nothing showing in the scan results.

How do I remove the notification ads in the S8? Also, my Chrome browser freezes a lot now too.

It appears that you enabled notifications for the website tx8t.invictioner.club.

To turn these off, open Chrome > Site settings > Notifications. Tap tx8t.invictioner.club, tap the bell icon, and choose Block (if similar sites under the filter *.invictioner.club have notification access, block them too).

SOURCE: Turn off notification from websites in Chrome on Android - CNET


Difference between su vs root SSH login for mounting? I have a bash script luks that I use in Android for mounting/umounting encrypted devices, that can be called in a terminal emulator with

 su -c "luks ..."

The script works ok for the first part, except at the mounting time, that in the script I do with:

 busybox mount /dev/mapper/${vol_arg} ${mount_path}

Despite the fact that I get exitcode 0 from this command, the device is not mounted. The command line

 su -c "mount /dev/mapper/${vol_arg} ${mount_path}"

does not work either in the terminal emulator yet it shows no error (df does not shows the device). When I try to execute it agan, I get mounting failed: device or resource busy. If I then try

 su -c "umount ${mount_path}"

I also get cant't umount...: device or resource busy. What's happening?

However, the REALLY strange point here is that, if I SSH to the tablet as root with the same terminal emulator, the command

 mount /dev/mapper/${vol_arg} ${mount_path}

mounts the device normally (??!!). In addition, if I execute the command

 'luks ...'

as SSHd root, it also works perfectly, even mounting the device.

Why does mounting is working if run as SSH root, and not through su -c?

Even more strange is the fact that the su -c thing works fine in Samsung Android 4.1.2, but not in Cyanogenmod 11 (4.4.2)...

Maybe the cyanogenmod people introduced some ugly bug?

Clues?

Thanks!!

L.

I upgraded to CYM 11 M10, and now su works fine. No doubt it was a bug. So now I can mount/umount encrypted stuff as I was always able to do.

It seems the problem is solved in the M10 build.


Is it possible for the stock Downloads app to detect externally added/modified/deleted files? Assume I add (or delete, rename) a file, with a file explorer, to the download folder where the stock Android Downloads app is looking. Is there some way to have the Downloads app refresh and notice the new file, or is the app unable to detect changes to the download folder?

Stock download app is unable to detect changes to download folder. It will keep only a list that it is given for download.


How to keep audio players from starting automatically upon reconnecting to a bluetooth device? Galaxy S4, 5.0.1

How is the system determining which audio app to use when reconnecting to a bluetooth device? Is there a way to change it?

I downloaded some MP3s that won't work in the Google Play Music App, nor Amazon Music app for whatever reason. So I gave up, and decided to play a podcast using a podcast app. Then I connected to my car's bluetooth stereo, and even though the podcast app was open and playing, it tries to use Amazon Music to play the last unplayable MP3 I tried in it. It fails, giving me an annoying notification.

This happens even if I close Amazon Music from the task manager. It still keeps opening back up and trying to play music when connecting via bluetooth, it's like my phone does not have my podcast app recognized as a playback app if Amazon Music (or Google Play Music) apps have been opened since the last phone boot. They seem to have priority over it.

Is there anyway to change how this 'last music app' is triggered or configured?

Due to poor development with some phones, most music apps will still be running in a background process even after you close it.

My advice is to use an app called "Purify". Unlike most task managers, this app keeps app processes closed after you close the app.

But be aware that Purify can temper with many of your social media apps and you may not be able to receive notifications from Facebook or Instagram after you close the apps.

Purify SHOULD be able to prevent your audio player from automatically opening when connecting bluetooth.

Also, it works BEST on a ROOTED device.

If it doesn't work, let me know!


How can I install google talk with video call support on CM7.1? I I just installed CM7.1 on my SGS.  To my surprise, the google apps that I installed did not include the version of google talk with video chat.  The ROM I used to have was based on Samsung's stock Android (2.3.5), and did have this version of google talk.

How can I get this version on my phone?

Is it safe to install google talk from a backup created in my previous version onto CM7.1?

This version of google talk can be downloaded from http://goo-inside.me/gapps/.

The current version is gapps-gb-20110828-newtalk-signed.zip.

Details can be found in Rootzwiki at http://wiki.rootzwiki.com/index.php/Google_Apps#Google_Talk_with_Video.2FVoice_Chat


How can I send an SMS message to a group? I want to send an SMS message to a group of people either in a contact group or maybe selected from a list of contacts.

How can I do that?

Since things vary slightly from UI to UI, this may depend on which phone you have.  For instance, on Stock Droid X (Motoblur) I believe that if you are composing a message, hitting the Menu key will provide the "Add recipient" option.  On Liberty ROM 2 on Droid X, using the stock messaging client, you can simply add users in a message "To" field by separating them with commas.


Having serious technical problems / crashing on my Samsung i9300 I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 (i9300) that I've been using for slightly over a year. I am a rather heavy-duty user of the phone, and have used in intensively for that time. I do take care of the phone though, so I doubt if physical damage was a cause of my problems.

A few months ago, I moved from Cyanogenmod 11 Nightlies to CM11 Snapshot releases. When I updated to CM11 M6 a few weeks ago, I started noticing dramatically reduced battery life. Not immediately, but in the days following the update I noticed my battery would drain from full to emtpy in about 5 hours, even if I left the phone unused. I turned off all non-essential features on Android, don't run apps in the background, et cetera.

A week or so ago, I started noticing strange behavior. The phone would freeze up, and then spontaneously turn off. If I rebooted, it would sometimes reboot successfully, other times it would freeze during boot. I did a wipe and reinstall of CM11 M6, but the problem persisted. I noticed, though, that whenever the phone did this and I did manage to restart, the battery would be about 30% lower than it was before the crash. I also noticed that a few seconds before every crash, my screen would start to flicker, as if certain horizontal lines suddenly had their brightness levels fluctuated. However, if the phone did refuse to boot up and froze during boot, if connected to a power source by the charging cable, would be fine. I've also never had the phone freeze while charging.

I suspect that my phone's battery might be going. Am I right in this suspicion, or am I missing something?

Since the issue started when you first flashed CM11 M6, and you have stated that you have performed a wipe and re-install of CM11 M6, have you tried wiping and reverting back to an older version of CM from before you started having issues?


Exclude an Android/data folder from cache cleanup I have a game which downloads all of it's data and contents in a folder in Android/data . The size is over 400MB and device is not rooted. Every time I do a cache and junk cleanup, All files of this game in Android/data get deleted. Is there an option or trick or even an app to exclude a folder from getting scanned and deleted by cleanup apps? Is the problem related to permissions of folder?

There is not an Android built-in feature to exclude a folder from scan. Hiding a folder may be useful but in this case the folder will be created again. So using an app called Clean master lite you can exclude an app from scans. Go to Settings->ignorelist


I just updated the software of my S4 Active, and now my mobile data doesn't work I've tried turning my data and wifi on and off, played with airplane mode, restarted my phone a few times, and left the battery out for nearly 15 minutes, but my mobile data still isn't working after this software update. Any tips on how to get it running again? I'm not good with tech, and I'm thinking about just going into a tech guy before work tomorrow and having them look at it, but I'd rather save the trouble if I can.

You can try these solutions. But first, take backup of your device.

Try factory reset. It is possible that previous config files/residual files maybe causing the conflicts.
Flash the latest radio image or just flash latest image of ROM.


Google Messenger - Cannot search thread My Google Messenger app will no longer let me search threads. One of the suggestions I found was to reinstall the app, but then I will lose the messages that I wanted to search.

Any recommendations?

I finally figured this out. Tldr: turn on permissions for services and google app.

Had to enable permission to contacts and sms for google services. Also would not work unless Google App had sms permission, but could turn this off after.


After "legitimately" rooting an HTC phone, how do I get SuperUser to work? I went through HTC's official rooting steps which I've discovered is unusual because it means I didn't instantly start with a special rom that has SuperUser installed by default.  I installed Superuser from the Play store, but when I run something like SetCPU, I just get "SetCPU can't get root permission.  Make sure to set it in superuser."  I don't get the promised sudden prompt from SuperUser.  Is there a special way to install SuperUser that I should be using?

An unlocked bootloader is the precondition to mod a phone. It's not the same as having root; it just allows you to install a custom recovery and a different boot.img. You need to flash a CWM recovery and a compatible gain-root.zip or just start all over and install a real ROM like CyanogenMod (hope your model's supported)

What you gain from having an unlocked bootloader: fastboot access.
These are the most important commands ('boot' may be missing though):

fastboot boot boot.img (boot to boot.img without flashing)
fastboot flash recovery CWM.img (install a custom recovery)

What you have to do to gain root:
If your HTC supports the fastboot boot 'foo.img' command, use this to launch a temporary ClockworkMod recovery from here or find a suitable CWM in your phone's XDA forum. If your model only supports the fastboot flash 'recovery.img', you have to install the recovery permanently to the phone's recovery partition. After that you have to install SuperSU (see this thread on XDA, search for CWM installable ZIP: CWM-SuperSU-v0.98.zip) via the recovery's install zip from sdcard or adb sideload feature. This pushes both the su binary and the Superuser.apk to your phone. After that you have root and can enjoy all those cool root apps.


How long does it usually take to erase cache? While in bootloader, I connected a USB cacble and ran this command to erase cache:

#> fastboot flash cache cache.img
target reported max download size of 1073741824 bytes
erasing 'cache'...

PROBLEM: It has been running for 10 minutes already. The phone's screen still says erasing....
The cache.img is 14 MB, downloaded from Google.

Should I give up?
About how long does it usually take? A few seconds, a few minutes, a few hours?

Why flash cache? Just erase or format would be enough.

Comment made me curious - care to share for what reason erase is unusable?

Either way it should only take a few seconds. Try flashing some other partitions (ones that won't touch your data, of course) and see if they pass.


Trying to install cyanogenmod on nexus 7 but can't get into Team Win Recovery Project I have followed the steps from How to Install CyanogenMod on the Google Nexus 7 (Wi-Fi, 2012 version) ("grouper")

  If you are not already in recovery, boot to recovery mode now.
  Hold Volume Up, Volume Down, & the Power button. Continue to hold all three until the screen flashes, then release all buttons.
  In Team Win Recovery Project, select menu choices by tapping on the appropriately labelled button.

After #4, you are suddenly supposed to be in team win recovery project. But I'm not. I am in the menu that gives you the options "start, restart bootloader, recovery mode, and power off".  If I choose recovery mode, I see a picture of an android and his chest/belly is open with a red triangle.

How do I get into team win recovery project?

Alternatives are also welcome. Hand holding will be needed though... I'm a noob to mods.

You can try to do it through command line from your PC.

Install adb drivers in PC 15 seconds ADB installer

Download the TWRP img file for Nexus 7 from twrp website TWRP for Nexus 7

Rename the downloaded img file to "recovery.img" and move this to the ADB folder that was downloaded earlier. Make sure you have ADB.exe, fastboot.exe and the recovery.img in the same directory

Enable developer options and USB Debugging in your device

Connect the device to PC. Make sure device is detected if not download the USB drivers.

Once devices is detected, open a command prompt and change location to the ADB directory. Issue the command "adb devices". This should give your device ID as the output.

Executive the following commands carefully:

"adb reboot bootloader" - the device will reboot in fastboot mode
Once device shows up fast boot screen, type " fastboot devices " and make sure device ID is listed
Type "fastboot flash recovery recovery.img" . this installs the TWRP image into the device. If successful you will see an Okay message in command prompt.
Issue command "fastboot reboot" and wait for device to reboot normally. Once this is done you can try the key combination to boot into recovery.  If everything went well you should be greeted with the TWRP recovery instead of the stock Android recovery.

Hope this helps.


Difference between /system/build.prop properties and setprop persist.adb.tcp.port (example) properties? What is the difference between properties manipulated in /system/build.prop file and properties manipulated by setprop, for example setprop persist.adb.tcp.port? Where is the latter property stored? Is there another properties file somewhere?

To answer your 2 last questions, according to several sources (1, 2, 3), thoses are stored in /data/property/. I couldn't find an offical reference about this location though.

For you, that would be in /data/property/persist.adb.tcp.port.


How to mark and delete some or all contacts? I've accidentally "imported contacts from storage" and now all my Gmail contacts I've ever emailed to are in my contacts on my phone! Now I can't find any option to be able to get rid of them, "export from storage" doesn't work as expected. What should I do?

Since it doesn't look like a feature that Android natively supports, you can try Contact Remover; it lets you to mark the contacts you want to delete.


Cross-platform compatible encryption of SD-card for Android How would I go about encrypting my brand new 256GB SD-card, which is meant for my Android phone, considering the following:

Card should be usable across multiple Android devices, and other platforms (Linux..). As a consequence, native Android SD-card encryption is not a solution as the contents are not readable on other platforms, nor recoverable if the phone fails or needs a reset.
Use case is protecting data, mostly pictures, from phone thief/finder, not from a gvt agency or police. My understanding is that most encryption methods are broken on Android for these purposes as the keys are often accessible from memory. In that sense, the phone is considered trusted once unlocked, so encryption should be transparent so that files are accessible via standard phone apps (i.e. pictures show in Gallery).

Ideas:

Full disk encryption methods such as Luks. I found this program : EDS which apparently can mount Luks volume if the phone is rooted. I have no idea how efficient this is performance-wise, or if it is safe for the card.
Commercial programs using their own file-based encryption but available on multiple platforms such as Boxcryptor, or Cryptomator. Their purpose is originally to encrypt files before storing them in the cloud. It doesn't seem that I can access files using regular apps using this solution.
Changing my phone to one on which I can install UbPorts :)
Using Termux and rooting the phone to mount a gocryptfs or other encrypted file system
Using Android default sd card encryption (FDE/FBE), dumping memory to get access to the encryption key and using that from Linux to access files
Other welcome idea !

I cannot find any info about this use case which seems very strange to me..

Thank you very much for any input !

FDE

In previous versions Android's default encryption for /data and Adoptable Storage was Full Disk Encryption (FDE) which is a custom implementation of dm-crypt. userdata partition (on FDE as well as FBE) is hard (or impossible) to decrypt off-the-device because of hardware-backed encryption. In case of Adoptable Storage implemented since Android M, key is saved at /data/misc/vold/expand_*.key, you don't need to dump memory but accessing /data requires root. Key is stored unencrypted because of the assumption:

  Because the contents of an adopted storage device are strongly tied to the Android device that adopted it, the encryption keys should not be extractable from the parent device, and therefore the storage device can't be mounted elsewhere.

But if you are already rooted and once you have the key, it's possible to decrypt the SD Card on a Linux machine using dmsetup. Also note that removing physical SD Card will break your /sdcard and the apps you would have moved.

FBE

Recent versions of Android mostly use File Based Encryption (FBE) which bases on Linux filesystem encryption (for ext4 and f2fs). It doesn't use a single key, instead the master key generates per file (per inode in fact) keys on the go. On Android encrypted master key is saved to /data/misc/vold/user_keys/de/ and /data/misc/vold/user_keys/ce/ along with other related files. Further subdirectories are named after the UserID e.g. 0 for device owner. Here de is for Device Encrypted storage which is entirely hardware-based encrypted and is available at boot without user interaction. ce is Credential Encrypted storage which requires user PIN/password for decryption in addition to hardware-backed key. Different directories on /data partition are (not encrypted or) encrypted with different keys; DE or CE, for user 0 or user 10 and so on.

So each user has 2 encrypted keys - one for CE and the other for DE - just like the encrypted key stored to the footer of userdata partition as in the case of FDE. The keys can't be simply used for decrypting files on PC as opposed to a single key required to decrypt whole block device in case of FDE Adoptable Storage. Also FBE with Adoptable Storage doesn't work on Nougat and Oreo, and doesn't look very stable on Pie. I'm not sure how it's gonna work when things get streamlined. If some implementations store unencrypted (CE/DE) master keys in /data/misc/vold/user_keys/, there would be higher chances for FBE to work across multiple platforms.

OTHER OPTIONS

If you don't want to go with Android's native FDE or FBE, you can manually setup dm-crypt (plain / LUKS), or try FUSE-based solutions first like encfs or gocryptfs; they are relatively simpler. Binaries are available here.

FBE can be manually managed with fscrypt tool but I don't think that would be a very feasible option at the moment. You may give a try though.

ecryptfs is another Linux kernel's native feature. Android by default never used ecryptfs AFAIK, so it depends on ROM builder if they built kernel with CONFIG_ECRYPT_FS=y or not. You might need to rebuild kernel.

All of the above options work well but all need root access and manual configuration on Android e.g. an init.d script, or a third party solution.

Or if you just want to encrypt selected directories and not the whole SD card, give MiXplorer a try. It includes Java port of encfs which doesn't require root. However directory decrypted in MiXplorer won't be accessible to other apps. For Boxcrypter type of use case, I prefer rclone because it's open-source.

RELATED:

Decrypting microSD card on another Android device or desktop computer


How can I factory/hard reset/wipe a Nokia 2.2 (TA-1188) without a (windows) PC? Having looked around hither and thither now for a night as to how to factory reset a Nokia 2.2, I am still a bit confused and unable to do it.
Holding volume-down + power on brings me to a boot screen saying "=> FASTBOOT mode", but no buttons are having effect after that. Apparently the next step is to connect it via usb cable to a Windows computer with some specific tool or another installed on it?
I've seen people in youtube videos apparently using a Windows tool called 'InfinityBox AST' , and I have tried running that in a Windows VM, but for some (in my opinion) suspect reason, 'InfinityBox' decides to detect that's it's being ran under VirtualBox, and instantly refusing to launch with a message specifically stating that it wont run on a Virtual Machine.
(This 'vm detector' behavior is enough of a reason to me being quite reluctant and suspicious to even having attempted to run the utility trough Wine/Proton)

Is there really no way to factory reset a Nokia 2.2 TA-1188 cellphone without requiring an actual physical (Windows) PC in addition to some shady unofficial utility made by neither Google nor Nokia?
If not possible without a PC, is there some Linux software solution able to perform the task?

Having now been in contact with Nokia support; Apparently there is no way, at least with that specific phone in question (or the specific firmware ver.?), to get it unlocked/factory reset, for the common user.

Fortunately, the dude at Nokia support chat checked the IMEI's of it, and it turned out it was still within warranty, by a hair's length. So having contacted the chain that sold it, a second time, it seems the local store will be replacing the phone tomorrow.

As such, and though depending on varying consumer rights in countries; My hindsight tip would be to first press the seller with the fact, rather than immediately "making an appointment" trough Nokia's online warranty form, to send the phone away to Nokia as was suggested by Nokia support; Simply for Nokia to do the "magic" of unlocking your bought and paid for property(!!), and sending it back to you ..Something which no doubt would have added considerably more time than the store simply replacing the device and having to deal with manufacturer warranty themselves.

BTW: If you are indeed able to get to the 'downed droid' splash logo on your Nokia 2.2 (TA-1188) trough any physical button-combo, you just might want to confirm with Nokia support whether your phone might be a counterfeit one or not, or to verity that it's not been flashed with unoriginal and thus possibly tampered-with firmware.. (just push your way trough their silly chat-bot for a few questions, and then an actual human will respond to your inquiry on the other end)

PS: Google did eventually come trough with assistance in recovering my brother's hacked/locked Google account. (takes ~3.5 days).. But seemingly, that process also unlinks it from the/any associated device(s). Which is good, from a security perspective.. ..Though the problem becomes then, that that effectively makes it impossible to reset from online Android Device Manager as shown trough some online how-to's .. Meaning, the phone would've basically be considered as good as destroyed, if it had not been for it still being within warranty timerange... (personally, I'll be looking at Librem phone for myself in the near future, rather than risk experience a similar ordeal and frustration)


No files accessible after upgrade to CM10 I understand that Cyanogenmod 10 is still in early access, but I installed a cm-10-20120910-NIGHTLY-i9100 build to my Samsung Galaxy S 2 anyways. I had a stock 4.0.4 before. I heard that this problem happened with previous CM versions, but couldn't find a fix.

Now, all my files are still on the internal SD card, but built-in apps like Play Music or Gallery can't see them. I can still access these files with PowerAmp or Root File Explorer. Even if I take a picture with the camera, it puts the file in DCIM\Camera where all the other pictures are, but it can only see the picture that I just took. There's no difference in file permission or owners between the files, all of them belong to system and group is sdcard_rw.

If I connect the device in USB storage mode, I can access all the files from my computer. In MTP mode, I can only see new files.

I tried to chmod 777 all files; it didn't work.

Does anyone know what I should do? Is there a way to tell android to see my files?

Happy to help. Here's a link to a solution that worked. Notable is the fact that this works for at least two devices that I have troubleshooted, so there's a high probability that this will work for you. While I didn't have the liberty of connecting my device (a Galaxy Nexus GSM) in the USB mode, I did see all my files in the MTP mode after doing everything exactly as it is detailed. All the best!


How to and from where install ClockworkMod Recovery (CWM) on GT-P1000? Currently I am trying to upgrade my Android OS from 2.3.3 to Cyanogenmod 9 not with "Odin" but via the bootloader and SD-card. Now I had a problem with "Signature verification failed" described here which is highly likely due to the fact that I failed to install a custom bootloader. Now as it is mentioned everywhere as a pre-requisite, I want to install "ClockworkMod Recovery", but I cannot find it anywhere! More so in articles around the www from bloggers and journalists (who actually never tried what they wrote about) it is assumed that you already have installed CWM. It seems to be needed also for other ROM's for the EU Samsung Galaxy Tab 7"inch (GT-P1000), not only the one that I want to install.

The actual problem is:

When I try to install CWM with ROM Manager (5.0.0.6) it only shows the two models "Samsung Epic4G" and "Samsung GalaxyS i9000" in the list and not my model (Galaxy Tab EU) or any other model.

When I researched I only found outdated YouTube videos and XDA-developer threads that don't provide a link to a newer / the most current solution. Most of all, I had a hard time coming up with any Google search results that provide a current solution for my issue.

I am willing to try anything to get CWM up and running, as long as the process is outlined somewhere more or less understandable.

Finally: I am aware that I void the warranty I never had. I did win my Galaxy Tab, thus never paid for it and never got a receipt and now live in another country anyways.

You cannot install CWM recovery onto the Samsung Galaxy Tab P1000 via ROM Manager app.  You will need to flash it via Odin or Heimdal utilities.

XDA-Developers forums are a good start.  I suggest reading up on the Galaxy Tab Android Development section.  This thread seems to have good instructions for flashing ClockWorkMod v3 along with a Euro-specific kernel.  This should be a good start that will allow you to format the Tab to Ext4 file system, and allow for flashing other ROMs such as CM9 alpha/beta.

  What's in the package:

  Galaxy TAB (euro) kernel
  1.4Ghz clockspeed (stock voltage)
  Voodoo Sound patch V6 (search the market for the Voodoo Control App)
  100 % MCR EXT4 compatible & separate Overcome version
  UV control by sysfs or app (thanks to xan)
  Camera/key-backlight working
  UV LCD (3.3v to 2.6v) thanks to koxudaxi
  UV RAM(1.8v to 1.6v) thanks to koxudaxi
  LED Flash for flash light apps thanks to koxudaxi
  Filesystem support - EXT2/EXT3/EXT4
  frequencies 100/200/400/800/1000/1200/1400
  rooted adb shell
  ClockworkMod 3 (thanks to Paul Obrien)

  Always BACKUP your stuff before flashing anything.

  Extract the zip and use Heimdall to flash the zImage (kernel directory).
  Heimdall must be version 1.1.0 or greater.
  You MUST have the libusb drivers WORKING in download mode before you can flash using
  Heimdall.

  Use the command line:
  heimdall flash --kernel zImage
  where zImage is the name of the kernel, full path names are allowed.

  Downloadlink:

  Galaxy Tab 1.4Ghz V16 - MCR version

  If you have a problem with the sensors just push this file to
  /system/lib/hw: http://xda.richardtrip.org/tab/sensors.default.so


Clear popup/push notification of an app without getting it removed from Notification drawer I'm currently using an LG G3 with Lollipop 5.0.1.

The problem I'm having is that when I'm using an app (or just doing something general on my phone) and I receive a text or similar notification a pop-up shows up on my screen explaining what the notification is. For example, the first sentence of a text, or a snippet of a Facebook post. I know this is normal but the issue is that if I'm currently doing something important and I want to clear the pop-up, if I swipe right (or press the "X") to dismiss the notification it clears it entirely i.e. from the Notification drawer too.

See the example of a situation where this happens, in order to clear up any confusion with my issue:

I'm sending an important email to a coworker when my friend texts me. I don't want to read my friend's text right now but the pop-up still blocks a portion of the screen. In such a situation my options are:

Wait about 5 seconds for the pop-up to disappear.
Clear the pop-up so I can resume emailing my coworker (preferred because it allows me to resume typing the email immediately).

The problem with option 2 is that if I clear the pop-up notification all other indications that I received a text are also cleared (meaning the top bar notification & the little red "1" on the messaging app). So if I happened to send a really long email to my coworker, there's a chance I'll completely forget to respond to my friend once I'm done.

So, is there a way to clear a pop-up notification without clearing all other signs of the notification?

Unfortunately, in Android 5.0.1 any action done to the notification that isn't opening it will dismiss it. If you can, upgrade to 5.1. In this version, swiping up on the notification will hide it but keep it in the notification panel.


Google Play does not recognise updated firmware I have updated the firmware on my Samsung GT-s5570 to Android 2.3.4. Google Play does not recognise that I have upgraded and will not install apps that are for 2.3 or higher. Still thinks phone is on 2.2.

HELP PLEASE

I have the same phone and the same problem, running android 4.2 (flash), so google play does not watch your Firmware level, but your phone's name.
Just try to find your apps on the internet or try other markets (like GetJar).

Just now I was trying to find a solution for the problem :)


Looking for option for 3-way file sync I want to be able to have a 3-way sync for some files between home and work PCs and my Android (HTC Sensation, 2.3).  I want to sync a few documents and Keepass password database.

What options are there for this?  I found SMEStorage which looks very good, but I can't really see a good sync provider that does everything I need:

Windows Live Mesh: good for transparent sync on the PC, but I did read somewhere that docs synced from here would be read-only on Android (this doesn't apply to Skydrive, but can you sync to that like you can with Live Mesh?)
DropBox - hmm, I really don't want all my files publicly readable thank you...
FTP - I'd have to have a separate sync solution on my PCs
Google docs - not good on PC as I want a physical copy synced one each one.

Is there some other simple method I'm missing?  If there was a way of getting it to work with Live Mesh then that would be ideal.

EDIT:
  Looks like Live Mesh also syncs to Sky Drive, so Android clients that have read/write sync to Sky Drive may work, such as Sorami or SMEStorage may work

I use SMEStorage. I actually use 2 Storage Clouds on it. My home WebDav Server and SkyDrive.

My files physically reside on my home WebDAV server and on SkyDrive. I have a phone to SkyDrive folder sync setup through the SMEStorage App for some docs/files.

SMEStorage has the ability to encrypt files uploaded to it and then decrypt on the fly from the  Client, which suits me. It uses AES-256 and does not store the private key so if you lose the key your stuffed but again this approach suits me.


Seeing nested folders from a dlna server? I am running Gerbera as a dnla media server on my Linux box. I have 100s of files, both music and video organized in nested folders.

I recently acquired an Android box, X88 Max+

I connect through my home network and can select music or video. I see the entire libraries but there is no structure. Just everything presented in alphabetical order.

I do see music albums, and then I can select and see the individual tracks. But I do not have a higher folder grouping all my, for example, Beatles albums together.

When I connect my blu-ray player to the dlna server, I do see the structure.

Is there a way to see the structure on the android box?

I checked with an app called BubblePnP on my android tablet, and it retains the structure.

I will try to install on my android box.

And help is most welcome.

I managed to register my Google account in this box. It was difficult with the very limited remote.

I installed BubblePnp from Playstore. I could not get it to play my media because the remote is so limited in function.

I have ordered a keyboard/mouse USB wireless to use. That should solve the issue.

But to my surprise, and delight, the standard media player now shows one level of folders. Not a complete solution but a big improvement.


How do I change the order of my contacts on the frequent contact toolbar? I have a Droid 4. How do I change the order of my contacts on the frequent contact toolbar on my main screen?

I am pretty sure that the order it determined by the frequency you call or receives calls from these contacts (maybe SMS messages are also counted). There is IIRC no manual way to fix the order.


How to hard brick an android phone (Galaxy Nexus)? I'm trying to figure out whether or not I managed to brick my android phone, a Galaxy Nexus*.

Using ClockworkMod Recovery, I pretty much erased everything I could find (/data, /cache, /factory, /system, /boot, /sbl, /xloader). If I reboot now, will I still be able to boot into ClockworkMod? Specifically, /recovery is not on said list.

I am trying to find information on how the boot process works, but it is very hard to discover around the web among all the end-user specific noise. As far as I understand it, there is a stage-one bootloader in an actual ROM (emphasis on read-only), but I do not know whether the fastboot-functionality is contained in it.

Hypothetically speaking, if I were (able) to zero every block of the internal SD-card sans the read-only ROM, would that brick the device?

To my knowledge, as long as I can still get into fastboot, the device is not bricked? If all this fails, can I use special hardware to restore it?

*: I should note it is currently powered on and has loaded the ClockworkMod Recovery. I believe I could get it back to working order, but I really want to find the minimum amount of software I can get away with.

As far as I know, your device is not that hard bricked, that you can't boot into the bootloader (fastboot mode). so at every time you should be able to install a custom recovery via fastboot flash recovery recovery.img. if you are in recovery mode with a working recovery, you can do a factory reset (reflash the system, root,... partitions from a protected image) and reboot your device. alternatively you can do a factory reset in fastboot mode.

note: if you erased everything, your recovery will freeze like if you pull off the hard drive from a running Linux. also there are partitions, you are never able to flash, as example the RADIO partition, fastboot or the one, containing the factory reset data. (RADIO partitions contains fine tuned configuration and management of the gprs, lte,... modem)


TWRP restored backup and now "google play services has stopped" pops up every second TL;DR On turning on pops up "google play services has stopped" and on clicking ok it pops up again after 1/2s so i cant do anything then 1click at a time. Also my account isnt in google play- it asks for new account.

Full story

Samsung S3 I9300.

Had Omnirom. With TWRP did a backup 2 months ago. Tried Neatrom and now i wanted back my system with Omnirom with all backup. So i did clean restore of both System and Data. Clean cache and dalvik cache, Restart, 5min loading and then problem.

On turning on pops up "google play services has stopped" and on clicking ok it pops up again after 1/2s so i cant do anything then 1click at a time. Also my account isnt in google play- it asks for new account.

I had a similar problem with my OnePlus.
This helped:

Go to “Settings”
Select “Apps”
Swipe left until you in the ‘All’ column
Click on the 3 dots in top right
Select “Reset app preferences”
Reboot phone
Reselect preferred launcher

via http://blog.forret.com/2015/06/getting-rid-of-google-play-services-has-stopped-on-oneplus/


WhatsApp chat backup in Android backup on Google Drive I recently broke my Google Pixel 3a and now I got a new phone (Samsung Galaxy S9, running on the same Android version, Android 10). Now I would like to restore my WhatsApp chats from my old phone. I could not manage to retrieve the local chat backup from my Pixel phone and I did not store any WhatsApp backups on Google Drive. However, I have a phone backup called 'backup of Pixel 3a' in my Google Drive. I was able to restore that backup on my new phone. As it seems, that backup contains my local settings, call log and which apps I installed on my previous phone. Apparently, some app data is also included in this backup.
Now my question is: Is there any way to retrieve my WhatsApp chats from this phone backup on Google Drive?

Is there any way to retrieve my WhatsApp chats from this phone backup on Google Drive?

I don't quite understand, if you want to backup from Google Drive, if it's been set up, then it should be automatic. Check your google drive, top left menu, backups, if there exists a whatsapp file. If not, you don't have a backup in GD.
What I would probably do is to try and access the phone through ADB (if possible) repair the phone/screen, copy local files over, deactivate google drive backup, and just restore from local backup.


How to erase all data on android tablet? My cousin locked my tablet trying to figure out the passcode and locked me out! Im trying to erase all data. please help.

There are a couple of things you could do.

Boot into recovery mode, and perform a factory reset that way. Google something like "recovery mode " and the volume buttons act as the arrow keys and the power/home button as the back/select button.
Log into your Google account on your computer (if you aren't already logged in) ensuring that it is the same account as the one on your tablet. And go to https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager
From there, if your device is supported, you should be able to wipe your device, or even better, change the device's password so that you can easily unlock it again.


What storage data does keyboard apps on Android accumulate? On my Android phone I have installed the Gboard keyboard. After some small use, I see that it has accumulated 20 MB of data!
Why can a keyboard app accumulate 20MB of data?

Keep in mind that GBoard provides a lot of language specific functionalities like automatic word correction or offline speech recognition.
It seems like GBoard downloads these language specific data on first use. For example the directory com.google.android.inputmethod.latin/files/superpacks/delight seems to contain the offline language specific speech recognition data file(s).
Therefore a user data of 20MB seems to be reasonable even if GBoard has not been used for a long time. Most of this storage space seems to be occupied by language specific downloaded data.