Forgotten parental controls password for Fire HD10 We have forgotton the parental control password for our Amazon Fire HD10.  I entered the incorrect parental controls password more than 5 times but was never given any other options to try to reset.  So I went with the option to deregister the device from our Amazon account.  this was successful however the next step was to re sync the device but to do this I need wifi to be on and to turn on I'm still being asked for the parental control password.  I have also tried to reset to factory default settings on the device but that also seems to require the parental controls password. I don't know what to do next, any suggestions?

Hard reset your Fire HD10

Power off
Press vol up and power key at the same time for around 5-6 seconds
Reset it..

Follow this video if you're stuck somewhere.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayvWAyftosw
Comment if you're still stuck


How can I search the SMSs/MMSs using the default search interface? I have an Cyanogenmod 10.1 ROM installed. I love the Google Search interface and can search most of my phone using it but I am unable to find "Messaging" as a searchable item. I've seen a lot of photos showing "Messaging" as a searchable item but it isn't on my phone.

Would any of you know if this possible in JellyBean? Was it a feature that was removed? Do I need to configure something?

Thanks

I dug through the Cyanogenmod source and found that a commit was made that removed this functionality. I haven't been able to understand the reason for this:

https://bitbucket.org/cyanogenmod/android_packages_apps_mms/commits/15290a70177d1cca473fb40e9eee3ed76249926c

I don't know will this help or not, but if you need this option, you can give a try (if you are ready to face the aftermath whatever it is).

First you have to access the system files of your mobile, so you might need
Droid Explorer. You may face an error sometime, while showing the android sdk path if you have already installed it in PC. For that you can simply create a folder named android-7 inside your sdk/platforms folder.

Then connect your phone and open Droid Explorer and try locating the particular searchable.xml file which I have no idea where is.

Open it and try changing the false into true.

Sometimes, it might have triggered some other file to change this particular option. I tried myself for sometime using this and I couldn't figure it out.


Routing ringtone through headset I just bought a Samsung Galaxy S8+. Everything is working great, but there is one little thing I can't seem to figure out and that is the ringtone uses only the speakers.

Can I route the ringtone through a headset when it is connected?

Sadly there's no way to do that presently. There's a very old question here that tried achieving it in Android 2.2. You can try setting up Tasker to do it for you. Android doesn't have anything built in for this as far I know.


Help setting up my phone or tablet as a hotspot Can someone help me on how to use my phone or new tablet as a hotspot, so I can connect my old tablet? (using either my phone, or new tablet) I just found my old Tablet, a Galaxy Tab E.  An old guy would really appreciate it.

Options for mobile hotspot/tethering are usually found under Wireless & Networks section in Settings.

Depending on your target device you may need to navigate to:

Settings → Wireless & Networks → Personal hotspot (or Tethering & portable hotspot)

Alternatively, recent versions of Android allow you to search a particular setting that is "hidden" you can use the keyword "hotspot" or "tethering" to get to the required screen, thereafter simply toggle to activate the hotspot (you may need to configure the hotspot setting first).


Pattern unlock required when starting phone AFAIK on Android 7 Nougat, when you set pattern unlock, the user is not required to enter the pattern to power up the phone. However, on Android 8.1 Oreo (I'm running a Wiko VIEW MAX Android 8.1 phone), you cannot power up the phone unless you enter the pattern. Why was this feature introduced in Oreo?

Why require it? After all, once the bootup is complete you will have to enter the pattern again to unlock the phone.

Thanks.

Simply put...

  Android Oreo - 8.0 uses Forced Encryption

The data is now encrypted for safer usage on Android, older devices had the option to encrypt in security settings.

Nowadays it is a requirement of Android to safely protect your data.

Why is so important ?
Encryption helps to stop personal information theft fron even the most persistent malware and spyware.

If the device was compromised at a kernal level, your sensitive information could be leaked via USB prior to the device ever being started...

Due to significant amounts of custom ROMs with vulnerable kernals and custom recovery programs, most information can be extracted using the recovery program or othe means like pre-boot software and even CPU EMMC Storage access using USB Cables ..

SP Flash Tool's Read Back function is a great example of an extraction method that can access your unencrypted private information without ever needing to even have a battery in the device...

Once the unencrypted DATA partition is extracted your information like the Passcode used for Unlocking can be easily extracted...

Using the annoyiy Double Unlock method seems more of a burden than anything i agree, however it is a much needed level of protection.

Encryption will not help with Online security as some people think, because Android uses the first Unlock screen to Unencrypt the Data partition.. The fact is you still run on an Unencrypted device, however the Data partition is encrypted Prior to Boot.. .

I hope that clears everything up...


View list of registered document providers How do I check in Android which applications have registered their document providers? I hope no code is needed (I need it from user perspective), but if that's the only way then I can attempt that.

I assume were referring to the file types the different apps can open.

On a rooted device you can get the list the following way:

The mime types and the applications for the default user are stored in the file /data/system/users/0/package-restrictions.xml

Therefore you can execute the following PC to get the full list on a smartphone connected via USB (an enabled ADB):

adb shell "su -c 'cat /data/system/users/0/package-restrictions.xml'"


Switch to a new Gmail email address without losing account data? Suppose I have some cheesy gmail address that is inappropriate for putting on resumes and such.  What is the easiest way to change it, while retaining my documents in google docs, as well as photos, google music purchases and playlists, and so on?

Does Google have any provision for this, or are you supposed to start completely from scratch and painfully transfer all the data manually (as well as cancel music subscriptions and restart, etc)?

Your email is the key identity for Google account and you are right about starting all over again, if you delete it. See what happens to my google acct if I delete the gmail service?
If your concern is only to have a respectable mail address for correspondence you can use an email alias,for which you can't use Gmail app but alternative explained here Sending email from an alias using Gmail app


Slow opening of calendar items I've bought an HTC Desire HD yesterday with Android 2.2 Froyo and HTC Sense. So I migrated my calendar items manually and it seemed to pick up some connections from my Facebook and my Twitter, which was nice..

But:

From time to time the calendar app just becomes really really slow for some reason, the sync icon is running, and the items just won't open. When this happens I keep staring at a blank screen for about 20 seconds which is really annoying...

When I check out what he is syncing its always either Facebook, or the Google calendar.

I already tried to switch these things off, but it does not seem to help :( ...

It even goes to the point where the whole calendar app just crashes, or even takes HTC Sense with it..

How can I make the calendar fast?

Thanks in advance!

Settings >> Applications >> Manage applications and selected "Clear cache" and "Clear data" for (where applicable)


Apps unavailable after upgrade to Gingerbread I recently upgraded my HTC Incredible from Froyo to Gingerbread. Everything seems to work fine, except for several apps that had their home screen icons revert to the default Android icon and clicking them does nothing. I believe they are all the apps I had on my SD card before the OS upgrade. If I go to Settings -> Applications and look at the "On SD card" tab, the apps are listed, but if I try to "Move to phone" I get the error:

  Failed to move application. The application does not exist.

In Market, the apps are listed as purchased but not installed. What do I need to do to get my apps back?

Edit: It looks like this is related to the out of memory bugs in the new 2.3 update (see my related question). At one point after trying to clear memory the apps came back, but then I got the memory warnings again and they disappeared again.

I deleted all the apps that couldn't be found. Then you can just install them again, like onik suggested.  Apps that you purchased are linked to your account, so the market keeps track of them, even after deleting them. Purchases that you delete will be organized in the Not Installed section of your My Apps list.


How I enable my Google drive which show disable in my personal mi phone? I update my mi phone yesterday for android 7.0 nougat  version. But I see in my personal phone the google drive is disabled. Now I want to enable my google drive for back up items. How can I do ? Please help me.

Seems like there is an issue with Android Nougat. Some of the discussions in Forums like here suggest the issue would be fixed by September 21. You can also email the Google Team regarding the same. I don't believe hard reset will also help you.


How do I root the Android emulator? How do I root the Android emulator?  I need root to install an .apk file on the emulator.

The Android emulator gives you root access, you don't need to root it.  Check out the emulator section on android.com for details on how to do things as root, for example:

  -shell

  Create a root shell console on the current terminal. It differs from the adb shell command in the following ways:

  It creates a root shell that allows you to modify many parts of the system.
  It works even if the adb daemon in the emulated system is broken.
  Pressing Ctrl+C (⌘C) stops the emulator, instead of the shell.

  For example:

$ emulator @Nexus_5X_API_23 -shell


How to get rid of Google Now? I have a Moto G4 plus, and I don't see a way to Deactivate the Google app in my home screen (far-left screen).

I have the last Android update installed.

Also, it would be great if I also could get rid of the Google search bar (in order to use duck duck go, for example).

That might be apart of your launcher. If it's not you'll have to  be rooted because the app is a system app. But, removing it can cause problems such as bootloops so be very careful.


Are GPS coordinates more accurate if they are fetched at a small interval I've been doing some tests with a self-written application that uses the GPS to report locations and plot them on a map. One of the things I've noticed is that the coordinates seem to be more accurate when the interval at which they are gathered is smaller. In general, when reporting every 10 or 15 seconds the coordinates seem to correlate more with the actual position at that time, whereas when reporting every 30 or 60 seconds they seem to be less accurate.

This is even true for a non-moving phone. If I put it down in my backyard and leave it to gather 10 coordinates, once every 10 seconds, I seem to get coordinates that are less spread out and actually are a pretty good indication of the actual location. When gathering 10 coordinates, once every minute, I get a lot less accurate measurements.

Is there any hard evidence to suggest that gathering coordinates at a small interval is more accurate? Or is what I am seeing just coincidence?

Not really.

It's more accurate the more satellites it's receiving. On a shorter interval, it's most likely that more satellites are received, compared to just restarting every minute.

Also, it depends on your location. On a flat field, you will receive a lot of satellites fast, whereas close to buildings or houses, it will also take longer.

What I measured is that you could check the accuracy of the received location. If it's equal or less then 10m, the location could be used. If it's bigger, then wait until you receive a more accurate location.


Do custom ROMs like CyanogenMod modify your bootloader? Does a custom ROM like CyanogenMod come with their own bootloader or does it just overwrite the /boot  kernel and /system? Does the bootloader take responsibility to lock your SIM card on a carrier?

Basically, I'm interested in SIM unlocking my Huawei U8180, and would like to know if CyanogenMod will unlock the device.

CyanogenMod - in a vanilla or official build - will not typically contain a bootloader. On many devices there is really no good way to even overwrite the bootloader because it is on protected memory (the bootloader is "locked") and cannot be overwritten. It installs a boot image and a system image (i.e. writes to the /boot and /system partitions). I've heard that some builds will also come with a recovery image, but I have never seen one that did this.

Unlocking your SIM is unrelated to your firmware, and CM will not perform a SIM unlock for you. CyanogenMod's wiki itself states:

  CyanogenMod, however, does not "unlock" the device. Most carriers
  "lock" their handsets to prevent customers from buying a handset and
  moving to a different carrier. Carriers depend on these "exclusivity"
  agreements to bolster revenue. For example: if you buy an iPhone in
  the US, you are stuck with AT&T or Verizon, whichever you bought from.
  To use the handset on another carrier's network it would be necessary
  to "unlock" the handset. This is done with a code based on the IMEI of
  the handset that can be provided by your carrier or firms on the
  internet that are slightly more reliable than a Nigerian Prince.

  Unlocking cannot be done by installing CyanogenMod, or any other
  firmware for that matter.

I would further assume that the bootloader on your device does not have any kind of bearing on the SIM lock. HTC allows bootloaders to be unlocked on certain devices, and their website specifically states:

  Please note that unlocking your bootloader does not mean that you will
  be able to unlock the SIM lock. Unlocking your SIM lock is at the
  discretion of your operator/carrier and is not part of the bootloader
  unlocking scope.

I would guess this is likely similar on other devices, though I'm not specifically familiar with Huawei's hardware or software.


Is an antivirus really needed for Android? I use Linux for half a decade now, so I am not used to dealing with viruses anymore. To my surprise, I saw some discussion about antiviruses in Android. I haven't installed any yet, but this bugs me: are they really necessary? Are there (or were) any known viruses in the market? Doesn't Google runs an antivirus before allowing an app to the market?

I haven't had no problem in one year of Android, but my cellphone has a lot of important information, and I wouldn't like to be surprised with some virus cleaning my phone, or making international calls while I sleep, or whatsoever. Should I install an antivirus?

You shouldn't need to worry about running an anti-virus on your phone. I would recommend running one on your PC though and having it set to scan peripheral devices. When you plug in your phone and it gets mounted as a mass storage device the desktop's antivirus will scan the phone for viruses' signatures and you will be doing the minimum to ensure your security.

It is an illusion to believe that just because you are running *nix or OSX you won't benefit from the security afforded by AV software; that said you dont need to spend anything to get a good, lean program especially in Linux.


Limit apps to only work if connected to WiFi My son is exceeding his data limit by downloading files when off the WiFi. I do not want to turn off all mobile data as he still needs to access his email, etc, however, he does not need to be watching YouTube videos and Netflix movies when not connected to the WiFi.

Is there a way for me to restrict data usage for specific apps to WiFi only? For example, if he opens up Google Chrome and is not connected to the WiFi, he cannot use this app. Essentially he gets a "connection not found" message.

Previous posts (Limit YouTube to Wi-Fi only) referred to the apps Onavo Count and Avast Mobile Security but when I checked them out in Google Play neither app mentioned the ability to do this.

I have restricted background data for these apps, but my understanding is that he still can use these apps over a mobile network if he opens them up.

Suggestions anyone? He has a HTC Evo. I own a Note 2.

Check NoRoot Firewall screenshot below in playstore

Screenshot (click to enlarge)

As you can see from the screenshot, you can add custom filters to allow specific websites to work on Mobile data and also to restrict in WiFi too. You can restrict youtube and other data hungry apps not to work under mobile data.


Screenshots often come out corrupted I have a first generation Moto G (XT1033) with Android 5.0.

Often when taking screenshots, it gets stuck at the Screenshot is being saved message - then I have to forcefully close the System UI process if I want it to go away.

And the final file is corrupted (either the PNG file will not open on a PC or, for image viewers that are more tolerant to broken files, it will be black except for a small portion of the image). For an example:

See that the image is correct up to a point. It seems as if the file was closed before the system finished writing to it.

What can be causing this problem?

Well, I gave up and did a reset of the phone. The problem didn't appear anymore.


I factory reset my hudl2, and now it "can't connect to the Internet" I was given an old Tesco Hudl2 recently (Model No. HTFA4B), and the one of the first things I did - perhaps unwisely - was to do a factory reset on it.
Now, after choosing my WiFi connection, it tells me:

Couldn't access internet
An internet connection is needed to setup your hudl.  Please check your WiFi settings or connect to a different network.

This page suggests the update server (rather than the "internet") is probably down.
A packet capture seems to suggest it's connecting to https://device.mobile.tesco.com/, but the certificate there expired on 26 June.
A thread at Modaco may have more information, but the forums have been down for at least the last couple of days.

I've managed to work around this for a Hudl 1 by setting the date to before 26 June.  I had to escape the set-up wizard and then find a way to get into the settings app.  I don't know if a similar set of steps will work for the Hudl 2?
My write up is here


Microphone extremely quiet For some time, my microphone is extremely quiet when doing things like making voice messages on WhatsApp or when calling someone. I searched the internet for a solution, but I couldn't find anything except for some apps which didn't work (or only worked in the app itself but outside did nothing).
Is there a config file with the microphone volume so I can adjust it myself or some script or so?

Wired headset microphone is also extremely quiet.

Information that could be relevant to this problem:

Samsung G900f (S5)

Android 6.0.1 / Cyanogenmod 13

Baseband version G900FXXU1BOD3

I know this is going to sound a little low tech, but have you tried blowing out or using a strong adhesive (like gorilla tape) to clean out the microphone holes? I've personally encountered the same issue caused by months of dust and pocket lint clogging up the microphone holes on a Note 4.


Authentication problem while connecting to WiFi hot spot! I just unboxed my androidOne device (Micromax Canvas A1) and while connnecting to my WiFi hotspot it loops through:

When entered the password, proxy etc: Saved, secured with WPA2
When tapped on connect: Authenticating...
and then: Authentication Problem

Note that my room-mates (and even I, with my other phone,) can use the hot spot.

Is this an indication of problem with device?

I tried:

1. Forgetting access points and resetting passwords.
2. restarting my phone several times
3. restarting my hotspot several times
4. factory resetting the phone once

nothing worked.

I faced a similar problem since months on my Android phone ( Jellybean and Kitkat ). The problem some how used to come and go and recently it was the same again. After spending a couple of hours with many hit and try things with my phone and router I finally found a good article which solved this problem ( at least ) for me.

Solution

  Settings, Apps, All, Clear data in google services framework and restart
  http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/45501-43-wifi-authentication-problem

Read the above article as it has a lot of other methods also but in my case none of the others worked. Check if anyone works in your case.

Before following above steps I would kindly request to go through the article about what things can be impacted when Google Services Framework data is cleared.

http://www.talkandroid.com/185088-google-engineer-explains-why-you-shouldnt-clear-google-services-framework-data/

In my case I have tried almost everything and nothing worked. Clearing the google services framework data was the last option left and I gave it a try. My case - it worked well and I did not even have to restart the phone, I was able to connect the WiFi.

Hope it helps.


How can I decrease the text size or button size in notifications area? How can I decrease the text/button size in the notification area?
As you see on this picture, there is a button "Reply" (Svara) and then a button "Mark as read" (Markera som L...). But the buttons are so large so it causes the third button "Delete" to be hidden to the right, eg after the ... shown.

What you are asking most likely cannot be done (at least easily, anyway). Those buttons might be controlled by the system UI or the app creating the notification. You can try your System Settings > Display > Font size, but this will alter the font size on everything.

Alternatively, here's an easier fix- tilt the phone to landscape to widen the notification window.

After installing the K-9 App for Android, I find that my notifications on my Galaxy S3 are a bit different. Can you confirm that you have the Delete button set to show in the settings?

(Click image to enlarge)


Updating HTC Sensation to Ice Cream Sandwich is stuck in a boot loop I'm trying to update my unbranded HTC Sensation to an Ice Cream Sandwich stock ROM (from here).

I've followed the various instructions where I install the ROM, then flash the phone with the HTC Sensation firmware from here, which matches my phone's CID.

The phone is now stuck in a boot loop, but I can't find any help out there for why it's doing this. Could anyone suggest an answer?

I found the answer quicker than I thought I would, it turns out I was using the wrong firmware version. You need to check the ROM that the firmware is for, and apply it after the ROM is installed.

So my ROM is Sensation_3.32.401.5_deodexed

Which meant I should've chosen (from here):

  Firmware from 3.32.401.x & 3.32.401.10x RUU
  --- MD5 checksum: 74A8E07D40A42DA1B4B56C224C42E692 *PG58IMG.zip ---
  --- Only for 3.32.401.x & 3.32.401.10x based ROMs


"Notification ranker" - what does it do, and what happens if I disable it? After staying for so long on Marshmallow, today I finally made the decision to upgrade one of my secondary devices with Nougat (LineageOS 14.1 to be precise). Everything went smooth and most things stayed familiar... except this weird entry in Settings - Developer options - Running services.

Screenshots (click images for larger variants)

I'd keep the running process list as clean as possible (habit, don't question why), but when I clicked into this "Android Services Library" and tried to stop it, it says it runs a "Notification ranker service" (second screenshot).

Clicking "Settings" there takes me to an app preference screen (third screenshot; likely the same as in Settings - Apps) that contains nothing about the service or the app:

Furthermore, I can't find any reference on how this "notification ranker" mechanism works, or even what it is.

Note that I also flashed stock Nougat on my Nexus 6P before, and from what I remember, that one also has this service running, so it's not specific to LineageOS.

Can anyone with sufficient knowledge tell me what it does, and what will happen if I disable this service via external means, e.g. will notification functions be affected?

From arstechnica:

  GoogleExtServices has an app name of "Android Services Library" and
  does actually contain something: an "Android Notification Ranking
  Service." A "Notification Ranking Service" was added in Lollipop, and
  it sorts notifications by "importance" based on things like freshness,
  app type (IM apps come first), and by contact. This seems to be an
  extension to the system that includes support for Nougat's
  "notification bundling" feature. This is a really minor feature, and
  with only this single chunk of code, GoogleExtServices weighs in at a
  microscopic 10KB.


Should I run a factory reset on my phone to speed it up? Possible Duplicate:
  Factory reset to restore performance? What are the disadvantages?

I have a Motorola Droid 2 Global phone, but it has become somewhat slow. It sometimes takes it a couple seconds to do simple things like calling someone.

Would it speed things up if I did a factory reset on my phone? Is there a simpler way to get everything working quickly?

I am assuming you have had your Droid 2 for a while; and have installed a lot of applications on it. I also assume that it is out-of-warranty.

Performing a factory reset will remove all your apps and data - and without apps to run, yes your system will feel faster.

However, as you add more apps over time, it will slow down again. Some apps like to run in the background, silently using up your devices available RAM.

From a quick search, I found that the Droid 2 comes with standard Motorola Bloatware. This software runs (and uses RAM) even if you have never launched it.

Since you are probably out-of-warranty for your device, you can root your it without fear. Software like Titanium Backup can "Freeze" the applications so that they do not run, allowing more RAM for you and your apps.


"Screen overlay detected" dialog? I have a Nexus 5 phone and ever since I allowed a system update, it won't let me post pictures to Instagram. It keeps talking about turning off a "screen overlay", but then when I try to follow the steps to get to that setting, it just sends me in a loop and doesn't actually let me change anything.

(Click image to enlarge)

Simple Resolution / Answer

I had this same problem with my Nexus 5X, using Android M.  I also went ahead & turned all the permissions off, except for Twilight, the suspected culprit.  I still had the problem.  So I went ahead and also turned over the overlay for Twilight, and I did not have the problem.

So, Twilight is the "problem", in my case and in the case shown above.  (I put problem in quotes because it seems to me like Twilight should not be to blame in this case.  Instead, multiple overlays should be possible.)

Where is This Setting??

For those who had this problem, or want to understand what we're talking about, here are the steps to get to this "hidden" setting, within Android M:

Open settings (the nut / gear).
Scroll down to Apps.
From within the Apps portion of settings, again choose the settings gear / nut.
Choose Draw over other apps.
(Optional) Click on the additional menu (the 3 dots), then choose Show system to get at all of the apps that are asking to draw over others, including system apps like Phone Services.

What's Really Going On?

Last little tidbit:  I am not 100% certain about this, but from what I know of Android, it seems things work as follows in Mashmallow:

Permissions are not asked / required upon app installation, but rather upon when the app needs that permission.  Similarly, some permissions can be granted or rejected... the app will work to the best of its capability, if the permission is rejected.
Since this is the case, any time an app asks for permission to a particular thing, such as drawing over other apps, the user's yes or no response is recorded.

As the user, you can change your response later, which is the essence of what that pop-up window is asking:  the window is saying, "I cannot do what I need to do, unless you change your answer to that earlier problem".  (However, without highlighting which app is the actual problem, the error seems fairly useless, IMHO.)


How can I repeat each song in a playlist n times? I have a playlist with 3 songs: a.mp3, b.mp3 and c.mp3. I want to have it play as follows. When I play the playlist, a.mp3 plays for 4 times. Then it goes to b.mp3 and plays it for 4 times. Lastly, it goes to c.mp3 and plays it for 4 times. When it finishes, it goes to start and play the cycle again.

Is there a way to do this, either by setting up the stock player appropriately, or by installing some third-party app which supports repeat counts?

You may have found this answer or another one by now but a simple way to achieve this (as long as you don't want to use the shuffle function) is to manually create a playlist and add each song multiple times.

Example (.m3u playlist in same directory as music):

#EXTM3U
a.mp3
a.mp3
a.mp3
a.mp3
b.mp3
b.mp3
b.mp3
b.mp3
c.mp3
c.mp3
c.mp3
c.mp3


DD fails beyond 2GB seek When I try to use dd to flash images I see some issues when the seek value exceeds 2GB.(i.e. bs * seek >= 2GB).

dd bs=512 count=8 if=sample.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0 seek=4194304
dd: /dev/block/mmcblk0: Invalid argument

When I try with a value (2GB-1), the dd command succeeds. Can anyone point out why exactly the 2GB limit for the seek value exists? Is it related to filesystem (FAT limit?)? Is there any easy workaround to get dd work past the seek limit?

dd bs=512 count=8 if=sample.img  of=/dev/block/mmcblk0 seek=4194303                         <
8+0 records in
8+0 records out
4096 bytes transferred in 0.001 secs (4096000 bytes/sec)

Apparently, the issue is seen only for seek values in the range (2GB-4GB). The dd succeeds beyond 4GB - very strange.

Don't use busybox dd (compiled with bionic libc). Instead you may use static dd binary from gnu coreutils compiled with glibc or musl. On my device all binaries work well; Android's toolbox dd, meefik's busybox dd and statically built dd.

Bionic is confirmed to be buggy with large files.

PS: Playing with eMMC is dangerous, particularly when testing buggy dd. dd is a killer, in my opinion. You can accidentally overwrite initial few bytes of mmcblk0 rendering your device useless.


Heimdall Error Protocol initialisation failed! on Ubuntu I want to install CyanogenMod on my Samsung Galaxy S5. I'd downloaded the version and did the excact steps from the wiki. But when I try to flash with Heimdall I get this error:

Ubuntu-Laptop:~/Downloads/cm-12.1-20151007-SNAPSHOT-YOG4PAO333-klte$ sudo heimdall flash --RECOVERY boot.img --no-reboot
Heimdall v1.4.1

Copyright (c) 2010-2014 Benjamin Dobell, Glass Echidna
http://www.glassechidna.com.au/

This software is provided free of charge. Copying and redistribution is
encouraged.

If you appreciate this software and you would like to support future
development please consider donating:
http://www.glassechidna.com.au/donate/

Initialising connection...
Detecting device...
Claiming interface...
Setting up interface...

Initialising protocol...
ERROR: Protocol initialisation failed!

Releasing device interface...

I didn't find anything with Google. Please help.

Thanks.

I was experiencing the same problem, and I found a solution that worked for me in a comment on Heimdall issue #228.

The problem for me was that udev was reserving the phone as a modem when I plugged it in.  If you run dmesg and see a line that says "This device cannot do calls on its own. It is not a modem.", then this could work for you.

As root, create a file named /etc/udev/rules.d/79-samsung.rules with the following content:

ATTRS{idVendor}=="04e8", ENV{ID_MM_DEVICE_IGNORE}="1"

Then restart udev with "sudo service udev restart", and unplug/replug the device, and you can try to install again.

If that doesn't work or if it's a different problem, you can edit your question to add the output of these commands:

heimdall detect --verbose --usb-log-level debug
sudo heimdall print-pit --verbose --no-reboot


How much RAM should I allow an app to use, and how much should I always leave free? I have a chess app on my 2012 Nexus 7 (running stock Android 4.3, with a few small background services) that allows me to set the size of an internal hash table used by the chess engine.  Larger hash tables increase the performance of the chess engine, but it is ultimately limited by the RAM available on the tablet.  Typically, the Settings app indicates that around 450-500 MB of RAM is free.

How much memory should I allow the app to use, and how much should I leave free for the system?  As I don't want to change this setting too often, can I rely on this amount of memory being available every time I use the app?  (Note that the amount of memory used must always be a power of 2.)

The other questions and answers I've read haven't really answered this question, so I don't believe this is a duplicate.

If you've read around, then you'll already have read that the idea of "free RAM" is a bit of a nonsense for Android. PC operating systems take an app out of RAM as soon as you quit it, which leaves empty space that the PC probably has to spend power on filling again afterwards - probably with the same app next time you run it. Android tries to avoid this waste by leaving apps in memory after you stop using them or after they finish running, so that they're ready to run again next time. If it needs more RAM for an app, only then does it get rid of these cached processes.

Android will first get rid of cached processes, based on how soon it thinks it's going to need them again. If it still needs more RAM for the foreground activity, it'll get rid of background services (which sync your email etc. but aren't directly visible). If it still needs more RAM, it'll get rid of activities that are directly accessible but aren't currently visible, such as the launcher, the activity you'll go back to when you press back (maybe even in the same app as the activity that's running), or the greyed-out activity that's partly visible behind a dialog. This way, even if you have no free RAM, Android can free up quite a lot of RAM for the foreground activity: all the RAM on the device, except that needed by Android itself.

I suggest to work out the best setting using trial and error. Without more knowledge of the app, I can't predict the effect of having the setting too low: perhaps the AI will make worse moves, or take longer to decide. If the setting is too high, you'll notice that when you leave the chess game you have to wait for the previous app to launch: this is particularly noticeable when it's the launcher, and you get a spinning progress indicator instead of the list of apps.

If this were one of my apps, I'd consider this a bug. It's bad form to give the user a setting with no way to know what value to set. The app has more information about how much RAM the device has and can make available than you do: it should decide itself.


How to redirect local hotspot traffic to webserver I want to redirect all incoming traffic in my android shared hotspot to my local webserver (192.168.43.1:8080), so if anybody connected to me put any url like "www.google.com" will automatically be redirect to "192.168.43.1:8080", I do have root access, what should I do to accomplish this?

What you are talking about is called captive portal. On android this can be done by loading our own configuration file for dnsmasq. I made an a minimal UI app for this purpose. You can find it on XDA : https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/general/guide-setup-fake-captive-portal-android-t4011689
If you are android developer, please help us to improve the app.
And also this app requires root permission.


WiFi proxy config not working PREAMBLE:
I had a weird proxy server config issue that I have now resolved but the answer to which does not seem to be covered anywhere as far as I can tell - so I'm describing the issue then will answer my own question. If you have a similar problem it's just another thing to check off.

MY PROBLEM:
I've configured my WiFi to use a proxy server via Settings, WiFi, then long press on Network Name. I have a local Squid proxy server running on 192.168.0.60:3128 (Internet gateway is on 192.168.0.1), so that is the setting I use. However when I run Chrome, it is not connecting to the Internet via the proxy server.

MY DIAGNOSTIC AID:
The WiFi server I'm connecting to (192.168.1.1, I'm 192.168.1.xx) is also running an internal VPN so by using an IP Geo-locator (http://www.iplocation.net), I know if I'm connecting to my local proxy server or getting tunnelled thru the VPN to a remote geo-location. (The VPN server does not tunnel local IP addresses and the proxy server is local.) This aspect is not relevant to the actual issue of not connecting to the proxy server. It's a diagnostic aid.

In Chrome Settings there is an Advanced option Reduce Data Usage. It causes Chrome to connect to Google servers to deliver compressed pages.

When this option is ON my proxy settings are ignored.

When this option is OFF my proxy settings work.


How can I customize the list of services that pops up when I choose to "share" something in an app? Many apps give you the option to "Share" whatever it is you are looking at (or watching or listening to).  This usually manifests in the form of a popup list of services that include: Gmail, Facebook, Twitter...)  The list seems to be the same from app to app.  How can I change what services are listed on this popup screen?  Is there any way to change, add, remove, append this list?

I'm running Android 2.2 on a Moto Droid 1.

The items in the list are determined by which installed apps support the ACTION_SEND intent.  Any app that supports that intent will be included in the list.  I don't think there is a way for users to modify the list other than installing/uninstalling applications.


listen to radio on xperia ray with wireless headset Does anyone know how I can still listen to the radio on my Xperia ray even with my Novero Rockaway Stereo Bluetooth Headset. I tried inserting a handsfree while connected to the bluetooth headset but it ignores the bluetooth handset alltogether and if there is no wired headset the radio won't start.
I know I can listen to online radio but I don't want that I want FM.

Thank you.

Most of phones (including Xperia series) does not have an internal FM radio antenna, so they need a wired headset to be inserted, in order to use its wire as antenna.

You cannot use FM radio until you plug a wired headset to the phone.


How does an app such as "Plants vs. Zombies Great Wall Edition" get downloaded or purchased on Android? Possible Duplicate:
  Why are some apps on the market incompatible with my device?

I read that Plants vs. Zombies Great Wall Edition is available on May 18, 2012, but on an ASUS Transformer T300, searching on Google Play, Amazon App Store, or QQ game install app, all gave nothing.

Does someone know how to purchase or download it?

The related news is:

http://www.techinasia.com/pvz-great-wall-edition-and-kingdoms/

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/weekly/2012-05/11/content_15265342.htm

Apparently it is not compatible with Asus Transformer after ICS update. Source:

Amazon page for the game
XDA thread about this problem
Wikipedia page for Transformer Prime

Plants vs. Zombies is listed as incompatible for my Transformer too (on Google Play).


How do I force the ICS browser to finish syncing bookmarks? I have a brand new Acer A200, and I upgraded it to ICS (4.0.3). I set up sync with my Chrome bookmarks, but it's been a few hours now and it doesn't seem to be finishing the sync - I've got the complete folder structure of the bookmarks on my PCs, but most of the folders are empty. Is there anything that I can do to force it to finish the job?

Well, for the moment I'm not coming up with any solution, so I've up and bought ChromeMarks. I went for the pay version because I REALLY wanted to manipulate the bookmarks on the device. If you just need to see them on the device, then the free version (ChromeMarks Lite) does a fine job.

I have no idea what the real problem was, but it was worth $1.99 to me to have it solved immediately (especially since the Browser's built-in bookmarks can't be viewed in any kind of list mode - just the icon view).


Android Corrupting my SdCard FILES Sorry but i need help :)

looks like my phone corrupting files in my sdcard everything i copy to my sdcard is gone when i instert it to my android. i have format it,chksdk, even buy the new one but yeah my android keep making my files in sdcard become corrupted and useless.For example i copy this film and all the film is good to go but when i insert it to my phone most of the film cant play the files and then when i instert it again to my pc. second picture is happen i have tried all method but nothing is works. Sorry for my bad english or i use bad word :).

@And yeah i already relfash my phone to new condition and its not solve the problem

[

This thing happened to me, try formatting the drive in the phone itself. Then it should be good to go.


Is there a way I can get a Windows 7 Phone  UI on my Android device? Is there an App/Widget/Custom Rom that gives you a Windows 7 Phone-like User Interface?

Of course I don't need the Microsoft-specific stuff such as XBox Live, etc.
But instead of app icons for phone/msg/settings/etc, you have the nice big ... windows... that you can slide around instead.

I hope its not too subjective. Basically I want the Windows 7 UI on my Android phone (even just in the home screen).

There is an alternative launcher that purports to give the look-and-feel of Windows Phone 7. I can't imagine it's more than "skin-deep", however.

Some information (and a video) here: http://phandroid.com/2010/12/09/turn-your-android-phone-into-a-windows-phone-7-with-this-metro-ui-launcher/


From Visual Studio/Eclipse/IntelliJ to my Android phone - when is the build done? Is there maybe an easy way to have my Visual Studio/Eclipse/IntelliJ "Build Successful" console output trigger a push notification to my Android phone?

Sometimes it fails in less than a minute, sometimes it requires around 15 minutes to build everything, so I'd be pretty relaxed to know I can rely on a notification instead of checking every now and again.

Thanks in advance

This can be done in two ways:

Application Suggestion

There are applications that will show a notification on your computer from your phone, for example, Pushbullet and Desktop Notification from hciLab

To obtain a notification, you may use an Antivirus or Cleaning/Maintanence Applications which gives a notification about scanning the app once it is installed.

Configuring Pushbullet on your PC along with the device you are testing it on will give you a notification every time when the build completes and application is installed.

Programmatic Solution

A script can be written to read either the ADB Console or ADB log. The Script should look for  "Build Successful" or similar string.

I will try to write a script to do just that. Maybe try the Application way till then.
If anyone goes on to write a script for that, feel free to edit the answer.


Access Android device's file system over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi I'm looking for a way to access the file system of an Android device (Nexus S) wirelessly, as its USB port has become unfit for anything but charging. Ideally, I'd like the same functionality as offered by connecting the phone to a PC with a USB cable.

Over Wi-Fi
Install a small app SwiFTP FTP Server. (original link 'dead' - 2012-09-22, see 'http://ppareit.github.com/swiftp/' instead ) Just, setup username & password. After tapping Start button, your device will become FTP server & the app will give you URL (handy if you don't know device IP & FTP URL format). On PC, you can use any FTP client software to access file system of device. Windows Explorer works, too. You can also create a network drive in computer. For example, you can visit this in address bar of Windows Explorer:

ftp://192.168.1.10:2121/

Here, 192.168.1.10 is IP of Android device & 2121 is port on which FTP server is working (you can configure port in app, too). Visiting it will ask you username & password. Enter what you specified in app. Done!

The app will not give you URL if device is not connected to PC using external Wi-Fi router, but it works in those situation too. If you've made device Wi-fi Hotspot & connected PC with Ad-hoc network, then you'll have to find device IP by yourself (ipconfig /all command is fine with Windows). It really works as long as you've IP of device (I've tested it by myself). Just, use this IP in FTP URL & visit it.

The Interesting Thing: As FTP is universal standard, this method will work with any PC, Mac. That's not true for Samba file share, AirDroid etc.

Over Bluetooth
There's no need of external app. If Bluetooth software on PC supports OBEX FTP, you can do this directly. If you've issues with stock bluetooth services, install Bluetooth File Transfer app. It supports both OBEX FTP and OPP. Means, you can do both-side file system access: device to PC & PC to device!


What does the green/amber/red light next to the time remaining in navigation mean? I think it's something to do with how fast/slow you're going, but some clarification would be nice.

Google Maps Navigation also provides Live Traffic Information along your route, updated every few minutes. A red/amber/green light in the corner shows if there are any traffic problems anticipated along your route. If there are, you can see where the holdups are and have the option to press to re-route which will find a route avoiding the traffic holdups.

Source: http://mobile.jack-frost.co.uk/google_maps_navigation_review_uk.php
Also: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/android/thread?tid=4f7b34dd18f74b75&hl=en
(Via: Google Search For "google navigation amber green light")


how to install custom recovery without pc I want to install custom recovery in intex aqua y2 pro  without pc to avoid accidents. i have downloaded the cwm (touch)custom recovery.img(4mb) and the stock recovery (6mb) can i flash it through mobile uncle tools without bricking it
Please Answer

It is possible, but doing so could be even more dangerous than doing the traditional PC flashing way. Flashing it through ADB is much easier and way less dangerous. If you have not already tried flashing the phone, try using ADB. Also, avoid apps like Kingoroot or Kingroot, they are proven as spyware by the community. Have fun flashing your phone!  It's way easier than you thinkGood Luck, Joe.


How to check if bootloader is open? 1) How can I check if the bootloader of a Nexus 5x is open? (GSM Code? App? ADB?)

2) Is it still correct that only the manufacturer can close the bootloader once it has been opened? Or is it already possible to close it by yourself?

Hint: I bought a used Nexus 5x and I want to check if the bootloader is actually closed, so there hasn't been any changes to the ROM.

Boot into fastboot mode by holding VOL- then POWER until the screen lights up with an interface like this:

The last line will indicate lock status: "locked" or "unlocked".

Anyone can easily issue a relock of the bootloader by executing fastboot oem lock. This had been the case from nearly the very beginning - not sure where you got the impression that only manufacturers can do it.

Although the relock command triggers a factory reset, if the ROM itself was modified (modified /system, plus a custom kernel that turns off dm-verity), relocking will not prevent the OS from booting up afterwards, therefore it's not an optimal way to make sure the phone hasn't been tampered with. If you absolutely want to stay clean, unlock the bootloader and flash a factory image.

Lastly, an additional suggestion: if you like to play around with the phone (root, etc.), keep your bootloader unlocked so that you wouldn't end up with a brick when things go wrong.


How to send .apk file over mobile Gmail? Since .apk is a regular executable file, I was more than sure that I will be able to trick mobile Gmail in the same way as I was able to trick PC version of Gmail years ago to force it to send a PC executable (.exe) which it prevented as well. Turned out, I was wrong.
Usually changing file extension to .dat or some other or compressing it with password (encrypting  file) was enough for PC version of Gmail.
However, for mobile version, everything that I have ready at a hand and tried failed as well:

sending as plain file (obviously),

changing .apk extension to .dat or some other,

compressing with ZIP with no password,

compressing with ZIP (ultra compression) and encrypting archive with a password,

compressing with 7ZIP (ultra compression) and encrypting archive with a password,

using an 7 years old idea of double compression:

compress .apk file into .zip file without password,
compress resulting .zip file again into another .zip file with password / encryption.

If mobile Gmail is able to detect that I am sending .apk executable file even in 7zip compressed file with password (or it can prevent me from sending such file for any other reasons) do I have any option left? Is there any way to send .apk file over mobile Gmail (attach them to message composed in mobile Gmail)?

Blocking .apk files and encrypted archives as email attachments is clearly mentioned in GMail policy:

To protect you against potential viruses and harmful software, Gmail doesn't allow you to attach certain types of files, including:
...

Password protected archives whose content is an archive

To protect your account, Gmail doesn't allow you to attach certain types of files...:
.ade, .adp, .apk, ...

So no one can help with that except Google. You can go with file sharing as suggested by others here, and Google as well:

If you're sure the file is safe, you can ask the sender to upload the file to Google Drive. Then send it as a Drive attachment.

Source: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6590
But if email attachment is the only option you want to go with, use GPG/PGP encryption which is very commonly used in emails, even to encrypt whole emails including subject and body. Many e-mail clients provide OpenPGP-compliant email security. On Android you can use Termux or OpenKeychain for GPG file encryption. Both are open-source and free (I've no affiliation with either).


How to upgrade to ice-cream sandwish Can i upgrade my gingerbread android (v 2.3.6) to icecream sandwish android (v 4.0)

It depends on the device if you want the official install but with a lot of devices you will be able to install a custom ROM running ICS.

To check for the official upgrade go to settings -> about phone (or something similar) -> phone update/update software (or something similar).

For a custom ROM have a look on XDA developers, I would give more information if I knew which device you were speaking of.


Floating controls for audio player Is there any way, or any audio player software that has the feature, to play/pause an audio file without opening the player app, e.g. via a floating button (like softkey) or a hard button? I am learning to speak a language. The text is in a PDF file, the audio is in MP3 files. I need to read the PDF (in Adobe reader, ezPDF, etc) while playing the audio, and need to play/pause the audio without having to close the PDF viewer, open the player, then go back.

I'm using a tablet. Its headset doesn't have any button (play/pause, volume control). The tablet only has 2 volume buttons, 1 home button, and 1 power/sleep button.

Thanks!

The (Samsung modified) default Music Player app on the Galaxy S puts the player controls in the Notification Shade (the pull-down part of the Notification bar) while the Music Player is playing in the background. This lets you Play, Pause, Next Track, Previous Track while you're in another app. Doesn't the default Android player do this?

Screenshot of the player controls with the notification bar pulled down:


How can I find why I'm using so much data on mobile network? According to my provider, I've used 6.8MB of data within 3 days.

The thing is, I don't know how. I've installed DroidWall and WiSync and only used Waze (a navigation app). I installed Traffic Monitor which shows Waze using less than 800KB and other apps even less (some of them used traffic before I setup DroidWall)

Any clues as to what is using 6MB??

My Data Manager is a free app available in the android market which will aid you in catering your needs. It will give you a detailed statistics of which app/service used how much data.
Edit : did not notice this was answered in the comments already.


Is it possible to get bbciplayer working on an arm v6 device? Have been playing about flashing modded firmware to an older android device which has an arm v6 processor and have been disappointed in not being able to view any media through bbciplayer either through the app or online.

Checking out the bbc help pages regarding this is confusing as they confirm bbciplayer should run on android 2.1 and up.  The fairly recent addition of needing the bbcmediaplayer installed to play any bbc media through either the bbciplayer app or their website means that this device appears to be unable to play bbciplayer media at all.  After researching on bbc's help pages this is due to bbciplayer using adobe air 3 for which demands arm v7 minimum specification.

Is it possible to run adobe air 3 on an arm v6 device?

Highly doubt it can be done, since Adobe Air v3 targets ARMv7 instruction set, its like comparing chalk and cheese in regards to both ARMv7 and ARMv6 instruction set.

So the chances of back-porting to the older instruction set is difficult to say the least, not alone that, it is a proprietary software so no going in there.

The trend is there and is to stay this way with the advent of increased hardware, supply/demand which dictates support ARMv7 and let ARMv6 die off.


how to fix extreme slowness of android 8.1.0 on "twist mini s431" hardware? I have a twist mini s431 (512MB RAM, MediaTek MT6580 1.3GHz Quadcore) running Android 8.1. It seems this model is only sold on Brazil.
I was extremely unsatisfied because of it's slowness.
I read a lot of complaints about it but no solution.
I found a generic way that I will answer here.
Pt-br Keywords to help ppl here find this post: lento, trava, demora muito (other suggestions?)

(I must say that this below is not a perfect solution yet, as one or more of the disabled apps below made "goggle play store" stop working but I still have no idea which ones, therefore I ended unable to update apps... and had to reset them all... I will re-do disable slower to know what needs to remain enabled)
The answer is: you have to disable as many bundled applications as possible, including system applications.
This can be done by any user but WITH CAUTION!
As I understand it, you cant disable system applications related to the hardware like managing the sdcard, or related to the carrier, or things like bluetooth or wifi etc. I don't know tho if there are other special system applications that should be kept enabled (even if it is allowed to disable them). If you can give some more advisement about this, I appreciate it.
If anyone is interested on what I disabled, I will try to connect on it with adb shell to list all disabled applications, or at least specify what you shall never disable.
So my "twist mini s431" is not fast, but is finally usable now!
PS.: I would like to write all this also in portuguese and paste here as alternative reading, but I think it is not allowed, so use google translator if needed!

The list of packages I disabled (adb shell command), but I haven't booted it yet (I can't boot it w/o being sure it won't fail), so I am not sure this list is boot safe:
$ pm list packages -d
package:com.android.providers.calendar
package:com.google.android.onetimeinitializer
package:com.google.android.apps.mapslite
package:com.android.protips
package:com.android.htmlviewer
package:br.com.positivo.appstore
package:com.netflix.partner.activation
package:com.mediatek.omacp
package:com.android.vending
package:com.google.android.marvin.talkback
package:com.android.statementservice
package:com.vantera.cbwidget
package:com.google.android.apps.tachyon
package:com.google.android.apps.searchlite
package:com.google.android.apps.nbu.files
package:com.android.musicfx
package:com.android.chrome
package:com.google.android.gsf
package:com.google.android.ims
package:com.google.android.tts
package:com.android.calllogbackup
package:com.google.android.partnersetup
package:com.netflix.mediaclient
package:com.google.android.feedback
package:com.google.android.printservice.recommendation
package:com.google.android.apps.photos
package:com.google.android.calendar
package:com.mediatek.calendarimporter
package:com.mediatek.webview
package:com.google.android.apps.speechservices
package:com.google.android.apps.photosgo
package:com.google.android.apps.assistant
package:com.android.providers.userdictionary
package:com.google.android.apps.youtube.mango
package:com.google.android.inputmethod.latin

to see memory usage: adb shell dumpsys meminfo


Is there a way to see why an App is incompatible with your phone? Currently trying to install Animal Crossing, and on the store page it blocks me.

Incompatible with your device it says. I check, it needs at least android 4.3, I've got 6.0.1, so I should be good.

But it is incompatible. So is there a way to see what exactly is the trouble making the app unavailable for me? Like a checklist that you should have A, B and C running to be compatible, but you don't have B.

Is there a way to have more information, instead of this generic error message?

I think root is a problem here, especially if you're using root app.
It's a bit irony google try to limit the users


How to replace Android's Download Manager by an other default app? I got enough of the poor functionality of com.android.providers.downloads

So I decided for a better alternative download manger.

But how can I choose the alternative as preferred download manager? My alternative download manager is listening to my clipboard. But this does not help me, because not all addresses to online files can be easily copied into Android's clipboard.

If you happen to have Android version above 5.1 and familiar with command line interfaces, then you could use termux. It has a built in binary wget to basically download anything. Just put wget https://whateverlink.exe and it will start downloading it. All you'll be needing is the link to download the file you want to download. The built in download manager being a system app, is actually a system wide download manager for all the gui interfaces on the device. If you happen to have root privilege, and try doing pm -k uninstall 0 com.android.providers.download and pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.android.providers.download.ui(you can also do this with adb). What this will do is, uninstall download manager, but will be availbale like before if phone is disabled, (also if you like to play it safe and have root, better to perform pm disable com.android.providers.download, in this way you can enable it anytime with pm enable com.android.providers.download).Now with uninstalled/disabled, if you try downloading something on your browser, you'll see that download fails. Even with a third party download manager, because everything downloadable on gui apps uses the built in Download manager. However, termux uses binaries wget to download stuffs, hence doesn't need a download manager becuase it has its own libraries and binaries writen to download. Yep, there you go. You can find termux on Google Play Store. To download wget, just type in pkg install wget on the command line, and it'll download wget for you. From then on you could use wget https://pastelinktodownload to download. Although termux is way more than just a simple download manager. Enjoy! Hope this helps (:


Uninstall the dangerous ImeMess app from my tablet I have the ImeMess app warning keeping popping up even after I have done the unistall instructions. Where is it located? How do I permanently unistall it?

If this app is inbuilt in your phone, then there is only way to uninstall it i.e., root your phone and uninstall this app from your phone.

imeMess has been posted as Malware by Avast, I found that by using junior gates debloater I could block Fotaprovider, this stopped the adware. The malware is in two parts imeMess goes to a server and loads the adware this is stored in a folder called Juice on my device.
Been running Android 5.1 and this runaround seems to work.


Hi all. I am unable to connect my Nexus 4 to my personal PC with MTP I am unable to connect my Nexus 4 to my personal PC with MTP, but able to connect Nexus4 to my office PC via MTP and able to transfer data. Can anyone suggest what would be the problem why my Nexus4 is not connected to my personal PC via MTP. Phone is connecting via Camera mode to personal PC also.

My office PC is Windows7 and my personal PC is Windows8. Do I need to do something in Windows8 to connect my mobile to personal PC. Please suggest.

This seems to a problem with missing MTP drivers or which have not been installed properly.

Try this to resolve the problem:

Press Windows key + X and go device manager ,
Check if your device is visible
Locate your android device, right click it and choose Update driver software .

Alternatively

reboot PC
enable USB debugging  change from Camera mode to MTP then plug USB cable
Now plug in USB cable, wait for MTP drivers to be installed (Don't cancel the windows which says "Device driver is installing, please wait...." )

After successful install you can now access files in MTP mode


Improve Android Emulator Performance on Windows 7 x64 I'm running Eclipse Helios on Windows 7 x64. I have a Core 2 Duo 2.0 Ghz with 4.0 GB which I think should be enough, since I've never have any performance problems with other developing tools.

When I run my first app on the Android Emulator (both 2.3.3 and 3.0) it took at least 5 minutes to load the OS and at first it didn't even run the HelloAndroid app. Even when I managed to run the application, the performance was unbearable.

I've tried various things to improve the performance, but no major improvement is shown. I think I'm missing something.

Things I have tried:

On AVD Manager

Device RAM size to 512.
Resolution to 640 x 480.
Snapshot enabled.

On Project preferences\Android

\Launch\ -cpu-delay 0 -no-boot-anim -cache ./cache -avd Android3

Things I can't tried:
- Deploying on a device (don't have any).

By the way, I've had the same problem on a MAC Mini 2.66 GHz 2 GB but these settings made the difference.

Anyone can give any tips to improve this lame performance?.

The emulator is slow because it's an qemu that emulates a whole different CPU architecture as it's used by consumer PCs: ARM (vs. x86(_64) on your PC)

This means that every CPU instruction on the emulator's ARM CPU has to be emulated, which is per se slow. Also the emulator is AFAIK single-threaded. This means that speed-up can only be achieved by fast CPUs cores - multi-cores won't help here - and a reasonable amount of RAM.


How do I import a KML route into OsmAnd? I created a route using Google Maps and exported it as a KML file. I would like to import now this KML file into OsmAnd so I could check where I am.

So far I found out that it is possible to create a map from a KML file with theOsmAndMapTileCreator program. However, I cannot find one, all I have is OsmAndMapCreator -- and this program does not allow me to import KML in the first place (at least I don't see such option at all). Thus, I cannot prepare a map for OsmAnd (from KML; in general I prepared regular OSM map for OsmAnd using this program).

Since I didn't find any working solution with true off-line KML route imported, I use Google Maps with a pre-loaded route. There is a catch though - if I forget it is cached, and I switch anything in Google Maps I will lose this route when biking. So it is not reliable enough -- just workaround.

The bottom line is -- I have KML file, I have OsmAnd, I would like to import the former into the latter. How do I do it?

I almost forgot about my own question, meanwhile I found perfectly working solution -- simply converting KML into GPX with GPSBabel: http://www.gpsbabel.org/

It is open source, which is great plus for me.


How can I use one Android device as mouse and keyboard input for another Android device via bluetooth? I've already seen lots of ways to do this for Windows PCs, but is there a way I can do the same thing but for another Android device?

Android Mouse and Keyboard might be able to do what you want. Install it on one device, use it in bluetooth mode, and then sync that device's virtual bluetooth keyboard and mouse to the other device just as you would a real bluetooth keyboard or mouse.


Does factory reset on one device affect the same accounts on another device? I have an LG Rebel 4 and its been having problems so I feel I should factory reset it, but im concerned that it may effect the accounts (which are the exact same as on my phone) on my Tablet, as I really dont wanna lose them.

A factory reset just deletes all your user data locally on your phone.
Data stored in the cloud and synchronized to other devices linked via an account and are not affected.
Even if you don't trust these information you can make sure no remote account is affected:
Before performing the factory reset from within Android settings activate the Air-plane mode. Now there is no chance that any account can communicate with a cloud server to tell the server that you are resetting your device.
And after the factory reset all user data has been deleted therefore all information about accounts and other saved data is gone, hence after the factory reset when you re-establish connection to the Internet there is no information available what accounts were present before you performed the factory reset. SO the device can tell nobody that you performed a factory reset.
From the perspective of the cloud services/accounts your device simply went offline and did not came back online.


How to repair-unbrick-solve my Galaxy Tab 3 10.1" after rooting I was trying to root my device, but I think something went wrong. I may have bricked my Galaxy Tab 3 10.1.

When I noticed that the device was in loop, I tried to root with the CF-Auto-Root file a few times with Odin3-v3.07

The tablet doesn't start up. The only way to turn it on is to plug the USB cable in, then it starts and doesn't pass through Loading Screen where it says 'Samsung Galaxy Tab 3' something like that.

And when I connect into my PC, it starts up but keeps itself in a loop.

By loop i mean -> Turn on, Show Galaxy Tab 3, restart and show again...and again...and again...

Now i think i could get him to charge his battery..i hope at least, cause when he was in a loop i think he didn't charge as well as it should...

I try to go Recovery mode, to try to wipe those sys folders that we know can help in this loop scenario, but it just won't start recover mode, i think it did just now, but battery was low so to avoid further problems, he just says battery low or voltage low...something like that...too fast to read...And then he just turn off...

I do have TWRP to recover, i did a sys bkp before, is on my ExtSdCard, but i took it off from the slot for now...When i first saw on web that if not enough free space is available it can get to startup loop, but as i choose my ExtSdCard to save my Sys BKP i don't think that is the problem...Should i put it back in?

Sorry

Can someone give some hint, anything really?

Oh and i downloaded the ZTO version of firmware already to try out later...if i can't get it to at least work for boot...if...just if...
But i saw here that some have been able to unbrick so i'll die trying :D
I hope not literally..haha

Firmware that I downloaded is
ZTO-P5200UBUAMF6-20130801180132.zip ~1.1Gb

There are a few different types of bricked devices: hard brick, soft brick or coma brick. Which one applies to my situation?

I live in Brazil, so English is not my native language, sorry for any mistakes I might have made.

If you have access to a custom recovery, just flash any ROM for Galaxy Tab 3 10.1

If your phone doesn't even boot, try flashing the stock image using ODIN.
This might help: [HOW-TO] Unbrick Galaxy Tab 3 10.1


How do I make multiple output connections in Automate? I'm using the Automate app to adjust my screen brightness when the phone is charged as well as alert me when the battery is full.

From the above screenshot, I want to connect the YES from When power source plugged in to the IN of When battery level >= 100. But when I try to do it, the line that connects When power source plugged in to the IN of Is screen brightness gets broken. I can only connect either Is screen brightness or When battery level >= 100.

How do I solve this?

You can use the Fork block.

Connect YES of your when power source plugged in to IN at the fork block. Then connect Is screen brightness to OUT and When battery level >= 100 to NEW and it should work.


Is a rooted phone safe for phone banking? My phone (Android 7) has been rooted for years. That means it hasn't updated in years. I'm wondering if it's safe to do financial transactions on it...like download my banks app and a bitcoin e-wallet.
If not, then how can I make it safe while maintaining root?

Stock roms are really unsafe with root because they are not made and optimized to be used with root access. Therefore it's always recommended to flash a secure custom rom. You can try lineage OS.. regarded as very secure.
I believe that custom open source Android ROMs like Lineage OS are secure just because of the fact that their full source code is open source.
And the professionals and hobbyists out there definitely would check and ensure that it has no secret bugs.
The developers would also not like to damage their reputations by open sourcing a software with spywares that everyone including the topmost brains in the world can scrutinize.


Galaxy s2 stuck on samsung logo after installing an app I installed a game on my Samsung galaxy s2 using an .apk file.
I was playing a while, and after a couple of minutes my phone rebooted and got bootlooped.
Now there is no boot-loop anymore, but it stucks on Samsung logo.

I can get into Recovery mode/Download mode.
My phone has a "PhilZ Touch 5" recovery.

How can I revive my phone?

The usual way of fixing bootloops is doing a Factory Reset (via Recovery mode). Of course, you will lose your data.

But seeing that you have a custom recovery, do you also have a custom ROM installed? If yes, try (dirty) flashing the custom ROM via custom recovery. Don't forget to wipe cache and Dalvik cache.


Disconnected WhatsApp, can't reconnect! my wife moved back to Android on a Galaxy S9+ from IOS and wanted her WhatsApp messages transferred. Its not straightforward, but followed an article that setout the process and managed it in the end but but had to do two key things that I'm struggling to reverse.

Disconnect WhatsApp from Google Drive. This is done in Google Drive
settings/Manage Apps.
Install an older version of WhatsApp. Apparently the latest version
of WhatsApp will not automatically pickup a local backup.

Consequences now are:-

That WhatsApp on her phone will no longer auto update. Trying to
update manually in Playstore says its already installed.
WhatsApp will only backup locally and won't back to Google Drive
I can't reconnect WhatsApp to Google Drive - its isn't in the list in Google Drive / Settings / Manage Apps.

The article I followed just said that WhatsApp can be reconnected to Google Drive later, but didn't say how.

Anyone any suggestions on how to resolve this please?

I had the same issue and have now found the answer! The answer is that the version of Whatsapp which you used for restoring chats is not automatically reconnecting nor updating from the play store.

First of all, make sure you have made an internal backup of your chats, easy because backup to Google Drive no longer works.

Now uninstall Whatsapp - no worries, your content is backed up on the device.

Go to the Play Store and select Whatsapp. Install it.

Whatsapp will go through all the motions and find the local backup. It will ask to import it - allow that.

As a last step, the new Whatsapp will ask to connect to Google Drive for periodical backups - just answer what you prefere here.

Go have a look in Google Drive and see Whatsapp now appears once again in the list of connected apps.

All done!


Google keyboard (gboard) keeps crashing, won't go away After a recent Android update, about a month ago, "gboard", the built-in Google keyboard on my Nexus started crashing.  This made the phone completely unusable, of course.  With some effort, I managed to install an alternate keyboard -- Swiftkey -- and this made most of the gboard crashing go away.

But not all of it.  Every hour or so, I still get an "Unfortunately, gboard has stopped" dialog box that locks my phone until I ack it.   This is rather problematic if I'm using the phone for something else, and (for example) will cause my alarm clock app to not go off.

So, question:

How do I stop the "Unfortunately, gboard has stopped" dialog from ever happening again, short of a factory reset?

Can I reinstall or uninstall gboard?  How?  Can I surpress the error dialogs?  Is there some other solution to this?

(Note: "wait for some update to fix the problem" is not an answer; I have no reason to believe that this is a general enough issue that Google will ever fix it)

It's very easy - just follow the instructions below:

Open Settings/App Management/Gboard/Storage;

Then clear up the cache and you are good to go! If it does not work even after this step, you have to follow the exact same instructions but instead of clearing cache you clear data. That is a sure shot method to get it to work, but I do not recommend it before you clear cache as when you clear data your preferences are reset.


K9 suddenly wants to encrypt all mail, and won't send any Obviously, I have inadvertently changed some setting, but can’t figure out what.

I use K9 with 6 accounts, none of which have previously used encryption (I would prefer to – my correspondents wouldn’t). Suddenly all of them, when I try to compose an email have a red padlock at the top right and a tooltip appears at the bottom saying

  “Cannot connect to crypto provider; check your settings or click crypto icon to retry”.

On the individual account settings, and also on global settings, the Cryptography tab shows :

OpenPGP App - None
Show unencrypted signatures – unchecked
Autocryptography Mutual Mode – unchecked.

I cannot find any other cryptography options and do not remember changing any. What might have caused it (a very slim chance, but I can think of nothing else) is that it first occurred when I used FireFox Focus, which is privacy oriented and always runs in private mode, to share a link to a web page. Perhaps that changed some setting?

Well, it doesn’t really matter how it happened, but now I cannot send any mail without this error  message.

How can I disable cryptography in K9?

This is a bug reported four months ago and unresolved as you can see here. The context is different but the error message is the same. One solution that worked for somebody is

  Workaround is to manually start the cryptoprovider (OpenKeyChain), then reopen k9 and tap on the lock sign, then sending works for me...
  The problem is the operating system preventing openkeychain to start automatically or being started by k9

This happened to me too recently (and I didn't know this was a bug). I backed up K9 and Open Keychain using Titanium Backup, uninstalled both, restored only K9 and it worked. Much latter, restored Open Keychain and set it up globally and per account and all fine

If either of these solutions don't work, you may well add your experience in the bug tracker and post resolution or what worked for you

OP has resolved the problem as per comments and requested this to be added to help others

  I just exported all settings, uninstalled & re-imported....exporting settings & unchecking global settings when importing did the trick (I will have to go over those manually now)


How do I use my phone as a WiFi hotspot without using my data connection? I know it sounds strange, but what I want to do is use my phone as a WiFi router to create a private LAN that doesn't use my data connection.  Basically, I'm at a hotel and need to do some testing using a HHC that is designed to connect to a LAN and talk to a database over that LAN; I'm hosting SQL Server on my laptop, but I'm not comfortable connecting my customer's HHC to the hotel's network in such a way that I can test.  I know that I can create and host a wireless LAN from my phone, but the option is disabled when I have data turned off.

I'm using a Galaxy Note 3 with Android 5.0

Turn off your mobile data. 2. Turn on your mobile hotspot.


Deleted Google Play app by accident My friend accidentally deleted his Google Play Store app. It is a Samsung phone. I don't know much about android because I use apple.

I clicked on settings --> app manager. It shows that Google Play Services is still running.

Does this mean the phone is jailbroken? How can someone delete a system app?
How can I get this app back?

first of all not jailbroken the word is used for Apple. for android, we use Root

The device is rooted I think. Otherwise, the system app cannot be deleted.

This google search will give you a lot of result. Download and install a playstore from it.

google play store apk download


Dropbox: How do I open a file without extension as a text file? I have 1000+ text files without extension in my DropBox folder.

While looking the list of them by the DropBox app for Android, I touched one of them to see and edit but the app just said I should download any app to open the file and does not open it.

How do I open the files have no extension as a text file?

One way is to use another app to manage your dropbox that enables this functionality. I use Astro File Manager to generally manage the files on my device and this can also link directly to your Dropbox, Google Drive, SkyDrive, etc.

Astro gives you the additional option to "Open As", from which you can choose Text, Audio, Image or Video. Select "Text" and you get the usual list of apps that can open text files, including the DB Text Editor.

UPDATE: Unfortunately there appears to be a limit to how many files Astro FM is able to retrieve from a Dropbox folder. Somewhere between 1,000 and 1,100 files I get a "Connection Failed - Could not establish a connection to Dropbox" message when trying to browse the folder. 1,000 files (exactly) seems to be OK. There is no such limit with ordinary folders on the device.


Disable web search in Microsoft Launcher Recently, Microsoft launcher has started to give web search suggestions when I click on my home button and search for an app.
I only want to find apps, but in addition to installed app results the launcher now also gives internet search suggestions.
I want to disable that because I do not use it for that functionality. I guess this is MS's way of pushing Bing, but I still would like to disable it. Is that possible?

It's Microsoft pushing ads for its apps, yet again

Microsoft did this in July last year. See this XDA blog Microsoft is abusing Android’s share sheet by inserting ads for its apps with reddit
and Android Police
links.

Microsoft is back to it's dirty tricks again, this time by inserting  “Bing Search” option in the long-press context menu as reported in XDA in July, this year (annual schedule?) Microsoft Outlook is inserting Bing Search into Android's long-press menu. Also by Android Police

Solutions

Find another launcher and uninstall Microsoft Launcher. Or change search engine in settings, if you want to continue using the launcher.

Uninstall Microsoft Edge. XDA blog says that launcher triggers these ads only when Edge is installed (but some users have reported in comments that they don't have Edge installed but get this Bing search).

Report to Play Store - use Report Inappropriate Apps. Play Store has a very aggressive policy wherein developers are not allowed to even link their own apps.This may cause app to be removed from Play Store

Related (app violations)

Is Android showing app ads in share menu now?

Is it allowed to offer incentives for 5 star ratings on the Google Play app store?


How to troubleshoot wifi connection problem? Like some other people, I am plagued by the issue with gray wifi bars with a tablet running 4.2.2. I tried all recommended solutions: disabling power saving, switching between AES/TKIP on the router, making sure the clock was set correctly, etc. As you can well guess, nothing works

When I connect to the router, the bars are usually grey and I cannot connect to the Internet OR any local machine, including the router's web interface. After several minutes, the bars sometimes go blue, and sometimes don't. After they go blue, they can also go back to grey from time to time.

Obviously, this has something to do with the router because if I reset it, I can usually connect without a problem. But after a while, the bars go to gray again. The router has no filtering configured and all other devices (including several Android phones) have no problems connecting to and accessing the network.

The question is not about solving this problem, but rather about any ways of troubleshooting this issue. Is there a simple way I can get a shell, try pinging some hosts, get a look at ifconfig, anything? Are there some system logs that could show what is happening?

Thanks!

I would use a linux system on a pc or laptop to troubleshoot this wifi connection, using ifconfig, ping, iwconfig. There are also nice dhcp tools on linux.

When I had wifi connection problems on an Android phone, with a linux system I found the error in the dhcp server setup. After fixing this, the Android phone connected effortless.


Tasker App Factory Generated app - Not reacting to variable set %CLIP So, I created a tasker profile that monitors the %CLIP variable with the "Variable set" event, and if it's contents contain what I'm looking for, it puts up a notification. It all works in tasker, but when I export the App Factory Generated app, it doesn't provide realtime monitoring. If I launch the App Factory Generated a from the app drawer it will check the current contents of the clipboard and if it's meets the requirements it will post the notification, but it fails to monitor the clipboard and react to changes in realtime.

Do I need some sort of UI or permission for the the App Factory Generated app to run in the background? Are "Variable set" profiles not functional for App Factory Generated apps?

Instead of reacting to an event go for the state. Event → Variables → Variable Value → fill it.

I was not given an option to export the profile as an app so I moved the profile into a new project and exported the whole project. I disabled my profile, installed the app and whenever the clipboard contained the desired value, the app triggered the task.

Note that the app must be launched at least once to monitor the changes in that variable. Also, if you launch the app, it would execute the task regardless of the conditions put in place for profile.


SMS delivery on 4.4 kitkat If I delete a message with a single tick, does it just get deleted from my local device, or does it stop the message from being delivered to the recipient?

I posted a message in a group and it just shows a single tick. I don't want a particular person in that group to see the message.

If the message has a single tick it means the message is sent and it's waiting to be seen by the user.

When the message has been seen by the user, the message will show a double tick.

For example : WhatsApp & Viber


How do I download app's APK file from Market to my desktop computer? Possible Duplicate:
  How can I download an APK file from the Play Store?

Is there any working tool I could use to download app's APK file from Market to my desktop computer?

I know there was a Chrome extension but it no longer works.

As far as I know, it is against terms and conditions to do so.  But if you would still like to do so, a work around is to use an emulator and connect to market.  This site explains how it can be done.

Once such emulator is working you can use applications like app extractor to extract the APK to emulator's file system (sd card). Then you can use adb pull command to take it out.


My whatsapp says im offline, and will not let me access it I have gone on to my Whatsapp but all of a sudden my chats and messages are not showing up. I looked in settings and tapped on all the options, i went on privacy settings and it says 'you can not change privacy settings when you are offline' how do i get back online? Thank you in advanced :) (I've rebooted my phone multiple times)

Check whether your internet connection is working. If it's okay then try to Reset the Whatsapp app like this -

  Menu>Application Manager>Downloaded apps>Whatsapp>Clear data (Clear
  cache)

.
Now you've to reactivate your Whatsapp account which takes not more than a minute. This should work for sure. Comment if problem persists.


Why does my battery show more charge before restarting than after? My battery shows that it's at 50% and after restarting my phone it shows 30%. Another time it was at 40% and after the restart it became 5%.

The device is a Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo, not rooted and with stock firmware.

Does anyone know the reason why it's doing this?

When you restart your Android phone, it uses more energy than when it's idle because it has to load up the JVM, the services, apps etc yet again.

I'm not sure why you saw an 80% battery decrease, but it might be due to the phone losing energy by heat when you're charging, and the phone somehow registering the real battery value on a clean restart.


Adware keeps installing itself I have somehow got my phone infected with an adware by the name 'Android Communication Sync' ('com.foreign.provider').

It isn't visible in the apps browser (doesn't have any icon) and causes ads to occassionally display out of nowhere.

I have tried to uninstall it multiple times, but everytime I find it installed on my phone after a few days (it appears in Settings -> Apps -> Downloaded).

My current solution is to disable (freeze) it, so that it atleast doesn't disturb with me ads.

How can I remove it and prevent it from getting installed again?

My phone is a rooted Micromax Unite 2 (Micromax A106) running Android 4.4.2. As far as I remember, I haven't installed any app outside of Google Play Store except Adaway.

Here is its apk I exported using Link2SD.

It is possible for adware, as well as other "viruses" to be installed on the sd card. Thus even doing a factory reset can reinstall the "virus". If you have access to a pc with virus protection on it. You can mount the phone as a USB storage and scan it from there. Besides wiping both the phone and the sd card. There may not be a permanent fix. But if you are able to locate the file and delete it from there. That may fix it.


How do I mount my Samsung galaxy s4 on ubuntu? I'm running ubuntu 12.04 and have a rooted samsung galaxy s4.  The s4 is still 2 software versions back since I need to unroot to update and just havent had the time or energy to do all of the work to get back to where I'm setup.  I think it is 4.2.something.

So when I plug my S4 into ubuntu via usb I get an error message

"Unable to mount SAMSUNG_Android
Error initializing camera:-60: could not lock the device"

With my rooted kindle I run gMTP and that gets me access so I tried it with the S4 and it says nothing is available to connect.

With my old evo I had no trouble.  Even when it wasn't rooted I had access to the sd card just like any other drive being mounted.  What's the deal with this s4?

I do have usb debugging enabled.

Open a terminal in ubuntu(ctrl+alt+t) and type this commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:langdalepl/gvfs-mtp
sudo apt-get update

Then, launch Software Updater (previously known as Update Manager) and install the available updates.
Afther you pdate everything restart pc.

if you want to revert back before making any changes:

sudo ppa-purge ppa:langdalepl/gvfs-mtp

Next time, I think you should ask this is askubuntu.com since it is more of a linux specific problem then android.


Adblock plus not working I installed Adblock Plus on my Galaxy Tab 3 and it doesn't work. It keeps saying "Waiting for traffic on port 2020". I tried following these instructions and setting up the internet connection to use proxy local host and port 2020. My device is rooted. By the way, is there a simple website I can use to test to see if Adblock plus is working?

I had the same "waiting for traffic" problem when I rebooted (worked perfectly before reboot). Simple solution is to manually force close ABP via settings, open ABP and it will function properly again


Power Saving Option in Samsung Galaxy S3 I see there is a Power Saving switch in the Galaxy S3.

What makes the Galaxy S3 save power when it is turned on?

Is there a difference this and using JuiceDefender?

Can using JuiceDefender and turning on the Power Saving switch help or hinder performance?

Well, Samsung's Power Saving Mode consists of 4 features:

CPU Power Saving: Limits the maximum performance of the processor (may also disable some cores).

Screen Power Saving: Uses a low power level for the screen.

Background Color: Uses a dark background color for some apps, which might reduce power consumption on some screens (see here).

Turn off haptic feedback: It's the vibrating if you use the hardware keys or type something on the virtual keyboard.

JuiceDefender consists of several other features which might save some battery, if correctly configured:

It lets you control when to use WLAN/2G/3G connection, so you don't need to change them manually (It can be configured to disable all 3G and WLAN at night for example).

It has location aware WLAN control, so it can automatically enable/disable WLAN when it's available in this location.

It can also do CPU-Scaling, limiting your CPU power when your phone is in idle state.
* Some features might not work because they need a specific ROM.

So JuiceDefender can save a lot of battery life if properly configured and will only slow down your phone when it's not in use (only if configured properly). (CPU) Power Saving will definitely reduce your performance.


Can't delete photos from my LG X Power Updated with more information -- please see below

I have an unrooted LG X Power running Android 6.0.1.  I have recently gone through Google Photos (using a desktop web browser) and deleted a bunch of videos, but even though Photos tells me that they will be removed from my devices, they remain on my phone, and I can't seem to get rid of them.  When I try to delete them using the Photos app on the phone, I get the error message:

  Can't delete [x] items

  Photos doesn't have access to delete items on your SD card. Go to the Gallery app to continue deleting.

But I don't even have a Gallery app on my phone! Moreover, when I use a file browser to see what's on my SD card, there is no trace of them; they do not appear in the DCIM > Camera directory (although my photos do).

Where are these videos hiding?  I suspect they are hidden somewhere in my internal storage, as I am rapidly running out of storage space, but the DCIM > Camera directory in my internal storage is completely empty, and I can't seem to find any other large directory.  Why doesn't deleting them from Google Photos remove them from my phone?  And why does Photos keep telling me to use a nonexistent Gallery app to delete them?

Edited to add: As far as I can tell, Photos does have permission to access the SD card; it says so in Preferences, and is able to save photos and videos there with no problem. It only throws up an error message when I try to delete. Furthermore, the error seems to affect photos and videos taken recently; older photos and videos (which were all taken on a different phone) can be deleted with no difficulty.

Further updates: Well, I found them!  The files are not on my SD card, but rather are in my internal storage.  But the plot thickens:

Using the DiskUsage app by Ivan Volosyuk I was able to find the files hidden in my DCIM folder on my internal storage (which is odd, because Photos keeps telling me that it can't delete them because it doesn't have access privileges for my SD card...  which it does...  but anyway...).  The folder, according to this app, contains about 5.9 GB of media.  (There's also a Podcasts folder with 1.33 GB that I'd like to get rid of, also...)  See screenshot below, then keep reading for more of the mystery!

When I try to delete the files (whether one at a time, or the whole folder at once) I get an error message:  "Error: file wasn't deleted."  No additional information about why the file wasn't deleted is provided.  See screenshots 2 and 3 below, then keep reading for more info!

To further compound my frustrations, the files (and folders) in question don't show up when I use other file browsers.  Here, for example, is what I see in Android File Transfer (see my last screenshot below). Notice that the DCIM folder exists, but is essentially empty, except for a few thumbnails; the Podcasts folder isn't shown at all.  I get similar results when I use the stock File Manager app on my phone, and when I use this other File Manager app, and when I use Files By Google: none of these apps show the existence of the files in question at all.  And yet they're there, taking up space, visible in DiskUsage.

I'm hoping that with this additional information, someone can help me figure out how to finally delete these damn files.  I could really use that 7 GB of space back.

Using SD Maid - system cleaning tool (free version) to clean the device and delete those files using built-in file explorer solved the problem for OP. From app description

Nobody is perfect and neither is Android.
Apps you have already removed leave something behind.
Logs, crash reports and other files you don't really want are constantly being created.
Your storage is collecting files and directories you don't recognize.

That said, I have no clue of what exactly caused the problem and why other apps couldn't delete the files. Or how this app fixed the underlying issue.
I am not affiliated with the app. I've been happily using the pro version for years with scheduled operations to keep the device clean.


Notification remain on home screen I am using GFive Presdent Tango 7. Its showing notifications Like "Viber is denied to read sms" and "android.google.setting denied to read location".These notification appear on screen one by one .. and not disappear.

This is because you have enabled App Permissions in Security Settings of your phone.

So for making it dissappear.Just go to Settings>Security and disable App Permissions.

And one more those notifications where shown because your have denied accessing specific permission requested by the app before sometimes.

This is a security feature.If you want to enable it and still wanna get rid of it.Jz goto App permissions and select specific application for which you want to grant access specific permission.

Hope it answered the question.


Phone not booting after OEM lock Device: Yu Yunique

I flashed stock fastboot ROM (YU OS) and it booted. After that, I did fastboot oem lock and the phone not booting. Fastboot doesn't allowing me to flash another ROM too.

I googled about this and it says I need to enabled USB debugging from developer tools. But since the phone is not booting, I am not able to do this.

Can anyone help please?

The mistake was to leave "USB debugging" and "Allow OEM unlock" options unchecked. Just make sure both are ticked when phone is on or you have to visit service center. Sadly, no other solution is there.


Android stopped informing me about app permissions. Why? Since I upgraded to Marshmallow (Verizon LG-G4), I never get the little dialog that asks me to approve new permissions for applications I'm installing/updating, nor even the "no new permissions needed" notice.

Is this a Marshmallow issue? Did I accidentally do something to turn those off? If so, how do I turn them back on? I can't find any settings that govern this.

Marshmallow comes with a new feature that asks for app permissions when opening the app. It has the new apple-esque asking for permissions feature. You can choose if an app can use these permissions or not.

If you want to change the permissions later, go to settings and search "Permissions"

If the app requires no permissions, it will not inform you of that.
However, if it requested access to something, it will tell you.
For example, if I just installed Skype and started using the microphone, it will ask if the app can use the microphone. You can decline it or accept it.


How to get an apk file onto the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 I'm on a mac, and I have an apk file. When I connect the Tablet to the mac via USB, it does not show up in Finder. How can I get the apk transfered to the device?

I have installed Astro File Manager on the device, but that doesn't help me until I can get the apk file onto the device.

You can also use Dropbox to move a file onto the device.  This will require minimal setup and provide an easy way to push future files to the Tab