Android phone has SMS messages not sorted chronologically by date I have an old phone huawei y635 with android 4.4.4 kitkat, the problem is that all sms messages are messed up not following chronologically by date. I tried every thing I read on internet but no success(setting time by carrier, time zone by carrier, restart phone, power off then power on,..). One thing I haven't tried was a factory reset, I would like not to do it. I appreciate some help.
PS: I installed from google store "sms time fix" but no success. thanks Vladi.

Finally, after long research, I found a solution for my issue: I haven't payed attention to one detail of the messages that were out of order, all these messages have a blue mark at the top right corner in shape of a blue triangle, this mean that the messages were PINNED to the top list of SMS messages. The solution is to select these messages then select option to UNPIN them ! Now every thing is in order no need to download any (spyware) app in play store !


How do I transfer files from my Android smartphone to my Windows laptop? How do I transfer files from my android smartphone to windows laptop?
NOTE: Bluetooth is working fine on both the devices and is in ON mode.

There are a lot of different ways to get files to/from computer to Android device. Here I would like to share three methods frequently used:
1. Transfer Files Using USB Cable.
2. Wireless Transfer Using Cloud Storage.
3. Transfer Files via WiFi or Mobile Networks.

The following is the detailed intro of these three ways.

Transfer Files Using USB Cable
The most direct and simplest way to transfer a file from your PC to android phone is using the USB cable. Most of the phones we bought equip with a compatible cable, so there’s no need for you to buy one. Just connect your PC and your Android using the cable, and you will see there’s a message on the phone screen asking what do you want to do.
Choose the option that allows using the phone as a storage device, and you’re good to go. Transferring file is as simple as copying the file from your PC to a USB drive.
Note: The exact format of the message varies, depending on the manufacturer or your telecom carrier of your android phone, but different roads lead to the same destination.

Wireless Transfer Using Cloud Storage
Cloud storage is famous for online collaboration and easily sharing data across multiple devices, like file servers, desktops and mobile devices. So using cloud storage to transfer files is also a convenient way. Most of the big players, such as Dropbox, Google Drive and SkyDrive, provide free spaces to users, which is big enough to transfer your commonly used files.
All you have to do is to register a free account. And install the PC client and app for your android phone. Each app designates a hard drive folder, and anything saved on your PC will be automatically synced to the cloud and other devices.

Transfer Files via WiFi or Mobile Networks
Some people may think connecting Android device to PC with the USB cable is annoying, or using the Cloud Services is not reliable enough, here I will introduce you another method, using WiFi. Most people have WiFi networks at their workplace or home, so it’s really convenient.
There are lots of apps allow you to use the WiFi to transfer files. Let’s take one of them-WiFi File Transfer -for an example. All you have to do is type a specific URL into the web browser of your computer, you can see your device’s internal memory and SD card, from where you can download any files to your computer, or upload files to your phone.

Contrast of the Three Ways
The limit of WiFi File Transfer and Cloud Storage is the size of the file, the free version of these apps limit the file size. You can transfer the music, pictures, movies, word document, etc by above two ways. For files with large size, you can use the USB cable directly.

6 Ways (via Network) are here


How can I make a 3G-324M video call? I tried to place a 3G-324M video call to my Incredible, but the other phone says that mine doesn't support it.

On the web I found someone mentioned that Incredibles do not support video calls in 3G at all. Others mention that this is possible with Skype.

The question is - can I make my phone use 3G video calls without using a mobile Internet (as I think Skype is using Internet rather than native 3G video calls, thus I am paying for mobile Internet with Skype calls and not per rate specified per minute for 3G itself).

Or is Skype the only available option?

As of now I don't know of any Android phone capable of establishing 3G-324M Video calls. Android have some parts of 3G-324M implemented in the communications stack, but is far from being complete.

All the android phones that can make “video calls” use Internet.

Given the fact that carriers charge an “extra” for a video call using 3G-324M and that any internet traffic is probably included in your data plan, Android will probably continue to go the way of internet video calls, not 3G-324M.


Why (bind) mounts in /storage/emulated/0 are not visible in apps? I mounted a directory into another directory with:

mount --bind "/storage/sdcard/dir1" "/storage/sdcard/dir2"

I do this at boot completion with Tasker. I can see the mounted files in adb shell and in Termux, even as non-root user.
But I can not see these files in apps like Total Commander or my Music Player.

I use Lineage 7.1.2.

In this thread, a solution is to switch off "mount namespaces" in SuperSU. Unfortunately, I have the LineageOS default SU app which does not seem to provide such option. Any suggestions?

I have been using bind mounts without disabling mount namespaces on Android for a while - Marshmallow (Android 6) and Nougat (Android 7.1, LineageOS 14.1).

The bind mount is not visible to other apps because /storage/sdcard/ itself is also a layer of indirection. For example, when you run mount, you can see that the emulated "internal" SD card is not located at /storage/emulated, but at /data/media:

/data/media on /mnt/runtime/default/emulated type sdcardfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,uid=1023,gid=1023,multiuser)
/data/media on /storage/emulated type sdcardfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,uid=1023,gid=1023,multiuser)
/data/media on /mnt/runtime/read/emulated type sdcardfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,uid=1023,gid=1023,multiuser)
/data/media on /mnt/runtime/write/emulated type sdcardfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,noatime,uid=1023,gid=1023,multiuser)

These three mountpoints in /mnt/runtime are documented at Storage, Runtime permissions:

  Android 6.0 introduces a new runtime permissions model where apps request capabilities when needed at runtime. Because the new model includes the READ/WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permissions, the platform needs to dynamically grant storage access without killing or restarting already-running apps. It does this by maintaining three distinct views of all mounted storage devices:

  /mnt/runtime/default is shown to apps with no special storage permissions, and to the root namespace where adbd and other system components live.
  /mnt/runtime/read is shown to apps with READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE
  /mnt/runtime/write is shown to apps with WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE

So to make a directory visible to all other apps, you need to create the mounts in these places:

mkdir /mnt/runtime/{default,read,write}/dir2
mount -o bind /mnt/runtime/default/sdcard/dir1 /mnt/runtime/default/sdcard/dir2
mount -o bind /mnt/runtime/read/sdcard/dir1 /mnt/runtime/read/sdcard/dir2
mount -o bind /mnt/runtime/write/sdcard/dir1 /mnt/runtime/write/sdcard/dir2

To unmount:

umount /mnt/runtime/default/dir2
umount /mnt/runtime/read/dir2
umount /mnt/runtime/write/dir2
rmdir /mnt/runtime/{default,read,write}/dir2

In your question, the source and target are at the same filesystem, so the above will probably work as-is and show dir2 to other apps.

You can verify that the bind mounts are "visible" as intended by looking up the process ID of the desired app, and then checking the list of mounts from that app's point of view:

# cat /proc/(process ID here)/mountinfo

Debugging tips

If you cannot access the contents of the bind mount (i.e. "Permission denied" or something similar), then you should check whether the original file has the right UNIX permissions/ownership AND a SELinux label that matches the context. The latter can be debugged by looking for "avc: denied" errors in logcat-color (or just adb logcat). In some cases this can be fixed by using restorecon or chcon.

For example, I used to get the following error when I tried to access /sdcard/DCIM (which is a bind mount to a directory on external SD card).

  avc: denied { write } for comm=... name="Camera" dev="dm-1" ino=3547138 scontext=u:r:priv_app:s0:c512,c768 tcontext=u:object_r:mnt_media_rw_file:s0 tclass=dir permissive=0

And fixed that one by observing that the SELinux label is wrong (the tcontext in the error message already told me so):

# ls -Z /mnt/media_rw/myextcard/my_DCIM_directory
drwxrwx--x  4 media_rw media_rw  u:object_r:mnt_media_rw_file:s0  4096 2018-06-08 12:34 .

and changed that (recursively) to a label which is allowed by the default policy on LineageOS:

# chcon -R u:object_r:media_rw_data_file:s0:c512,c768 /mnt/media_rw/myextcard/my_DCIM_directory

This worked for me, because /sepolicy has a rule that states that priv_app can access media_rw_data_file files. Those who have a different situation/ROM can use setools-android to parse their /sepolicy file to see their options.


Are settings and accounts (like email) removed when changing the SIM card? My android phone was stolen. The SIM-cards PIN must be entered on start and I also had a PIN set for unlocking it. My question now is if the SIM card is changed, will all the settings be reset or could the "new owner" now just read my emails etc...?

EDIT:

As addition to my below comment:

On another Android device it seems that the SIM-card PIN and the unlock PIN must be entered before the phone can be accessed so I guess I'm safe?

Accounts and data are not removed if you switch the SIM.

For obvious reasons:
Travelling abroad when you don't want to roam, or getting a new phone/data plan from a different carrier, etc. You could guess how mad people would get if their device got wiped by a SIM switch.

You're not safe, unless you also have set up a screen lock (or full device encryption).

All common smartphones act similar here (Windows Phone/iOS/Android):

If the SIM is locked with a pin, it must be re-unlocked each boot if it's present
If the device has a screen lock, it must be unlocked each boot and if you switch on the screen

I.e, a SIM lock is only bound to your specific SIM and it only prevents misuse of your number and phone/data plan, not the device and its data stored within. As soon as the SIM is replaced or removed, one doesn't need the SIM-PIN to to access the phone. Only a screen lock PIN (or password, unlock gesture or full device encryption) will do.


Moving App to SD Card in Android 10 (LineageOS 17.1) My phone (a Samsung A3 2016) used to allow me to move some apps to the SD card under its stock ROM (Android 7).

Last year I updated to Android 9 using LineageOS 16.0 and more recently to Android 10 with LineageOS 17.1.

However, ever since I made the switch I've lost the ability to move apps to the SD card. I go into Settings>Apps and notifications>App Info, choose an app that I know can be transferred, and the option is no longer there. I was hoping that the upgrade to Android 10 would fix this but it hasn't.

Does Android 10 no longer support this feature? Is it just the custom ROM I've used? Or is there a way to re-enable this feature. I would really like to get it working again as my phone only has 16GB of internal storage.

As it turns out; reformatting the SD card as internal storage activates this feature.
I can now move some apps to the SD card rather than the phone's internal storage.


How does Google know what apps I've installed if I login to gmail via browser? I logged into gmail using Microsoft Edge and Google immediately sent an email saying that my device doesn't have the latest Google apps.

How did Google come to know which apps I have installed and if they are latest or an older version? It would make sense if i was using the gmail app. But in my case, I logged in using the browser.

Or is it just a generic notification because I am accessing gmail via browser and Google assumes that I don't have the latest apps?

The login to Gmail is the very same you use for Play Store – so in fact Google knows it's you. The browser sends a user-agent string, by default identifying your device (brand and model). The history of your activities in Google Play Store tell which apps you've installed in what versions on this device.

So yes, that would be an easy thing to do for Google. I cannot say if that's really happening (or if your guess of not using the native app triggering such message is what's done) – but it's technically possible.


Prevent incoming phone calls from disconnecting Google Hangouts / Meet If I'm on a Google Hangouts Call or Google Meet call and a phone call comes in, it kicks me off without giving me an option.  Is there a way to control this behavior?

I have found that if you are on a wi-fi network, you can turn on airplaine mode, which disables your calls.  Then re-enable wi-fi and connect to Hangouts Meet.


Playstore stuck on downloading apps, cannot install anything I can't install apps. All my phone does is to show the installation progress-bar, but nothing else: it never does download.

I've already rebooted my phone and took my SD card and my battery out. And it still it doesn't work.

I have 4g/LTE data, the device is an Alcatel one touch pop asrto. How can I fix this issue?

Try downloading the app using Wi-Fi or checking if you have enough storage space for the app.


Local Phone contacts not syncing with google I have a OnePlus one mobile. The contacts that I store are getting stored in the Local Phone  (I am able to see this when I select "Show Contacts from phone alone"). Those new contacts are not visible in my google contacts and these new contacts are also not visible in Whatsapp.

What should I do to resolve this?

Try saving all contacts you want to sync to Google. This should fix the problem. You do this by opening the contact page, tapping edit, and then tapping on the "Location" text box. This will open another window and you should be able to change where the contact is stored. You also need to go to Google Account settings (in the Accounts section of Settings), and ticking Contacts under What to sync.


Nexus 5 crashes, battery down to 0% on Android 5.1.1 I'm currently running Android 5.1.1 (Chroma custom ROM) on my Nexus 5 and recently have been experiencing some weird issues with my battery, which have appeared more frequently in the last few days.

From time to time, when I use my phone (the screen is on), with a battery level of about 50-70% it just crashes (the screen turns black, no shut down notice etc) and when I power it back on, there is only about 0-2% battery left and the phone basically turns itself off again immediately.

After connecting my nexus to a charger and letting it power up again, I look at the battery statistics to find out that something pretty weird is going on:

Click for larger version

This gets really annoying if it happens all the time, as the phone really isn't reliable at all any more.

I don't have any unusual apps installed and this has happened to me on a few Roms so far, so I have gone through some factory resets as well without any success.
Can software discharge a battery in such a small amount of time or is this issue likely to be hardware-related (e.g. battery)?

Thanks in advance for your help!

This issue is widely reported and discussed on Google support forums. I experienced exactly the same thing on my Nexus 5 when running any CPU/GPU intensive apps. In my case running SkyForce game immediately caused the phone to shut down with 100% repeatability. Most of the time after the restart the phone would report significantly reduced battery charge level. Repeating the attempts to run SkyForce resulted in further shutdowns with battery charge quickly dropping to 0%. In some cases the phone refused to turn on after the shutdown unless connected to an external power source.

I attributed this behavior to the battery's inability to sustain the load, i.e old battery. Under small loads the battery behaves as if everything is normal and maintains the voltage. Under elevated loads the battery suddenly gives in and the voltage crashes "through the floor". This is expected behavior for an "expired" LiIon/LiPoly battery. It easily fools battery management subsystem into believing that the battery is at 100% charge, when even a slightly elevated load causes the voltage to "crash".

I bought a new battery and did the replacement, which fixed the issue for good. I have been using my Nexus 5 for a few months now with no anomalies of any kind.

The only thing that is not immediately explainable is why most people report the issue only after the system update. BTW, in my case the problems began after update to 5.1, not 5.1.1. I received the update to 5.1.1 later, after battery replacement, and it was completely uneventful. Yet many people report that in their case it was specifically 5.1.1 that triggered the problem. The only explanation I have is that the updates change something in battery management algorithm that tends to exaggerate old-battery issues.


What is "Android Night Mode", what triggers it, and what are the consequences? I've just been reading in the tasker UserGuide on variables:

  Night Mode
  %NIGHT
  The current Android Night Mode.
  One of on, off or auto.
  If auto, Android will decide whether it should be in Night Mode itself.

Which raised the question: What is "Android Night Mode"? Obviously it is something Android itself implements and decides on whether it is active or not (mode: auto), and that decision can be overruled (mode: on/off). But what exactly does that mean to the user? What triggers it (time? light conditions?), and what are the consequences (mute? dim?)?

I've done a Google search on the terms – but all that came up with were either apps to toggle "night mode", or apps having a "night theme".

I've checked our site for questions on "night mode", but found no complete answer to my question there. Some indicators, though:

How does Google Maps Navigation know you are in a tunnel when it switches to night mode? indicates light conditions might be part of the equation, and the consequences involve adjustments to screen brightness – but I'm not sure whether that's all to it.
Is there an easy way to switch render effects? suggests there's a specific setting for it at least with cyanogenmod: Options › Cyanogen › Interface offers "night mode" and "blue" for "rendering mode" (uh?) at least. But seeing the path, this one is obviously a CM specific thing.
all other questions just had the words "night" and "mode", but were not referencing "night mode" (e.g.: "I have airplane mode enabled at night").

Is there any complete answer to my question?

"Night Mode" is actually pretty intuitive as far as the name goes.

The OS basically attempts to estimate both sunrise and sunset, based on the current date and your latitude relative to the equator. It then determines that it is "night" if the current time falls either before sunrise or after sunset.

You can find the code for this in the base frameworks, specifically in the TwilightCalculator. There is an associated service that attempts to refresh this sunrise/sunset data in the background if you move around, called TwilightService.

In the latter file, you can also see what Android does in the event that it does not have an accurate location (I would assume this occurs if you turn off location access and such):

// In the case there is no location available (e.g. GPS fix or network location
// is not available yet), the longitude of the location is estimated using the timezone,
// latitude and accuracy are set to get a good average.

It later sets the latitude value to 0 for the calculation, which would be the equator.

It also tries to schedule updates so that they only run at day/night boundaries if you're not moving around much. For example, if it's the middle of the day and it's already calculated sunset,  it won't run again until after sunset has passed (and if it's nighttime, it will run after tomorrow's calculated sunrise).

The affects of entering "Night Mode" are entirely app dependent. There is an API that lets apps query this information if they so choose, as well as APIs to instruct the system as to which UI modes they will support. It has no real immediate impact on the system itself, though.


Unable to open HAXM device: ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND I am getting intel haxm error while running emulator. It was working 1 month back but stopped a while back. I tried a temporary solution to disable driver reinforcement which starts the emulator but it doesn't work in big app projects and whole app/emulator starts crashing. I have to disable driver reinforcement with each reboot to make it work. Not GOOD idea :/

Secondly, few guys said to enable vt in bios and I did that too but again same issue. Any suggestions?

Error and PC Info is listed below

Had the same problem in windows 10, which was solved by disabling Hyper-v and reinstalling HAXM via SDK Manager>SDK Tools>Intel x86 Emulator Accelerator


Move all my Authenticator credentials to a new phone I have enabled 2 factor authentication, using Google Authenticator, for 6 services: LastPass, Dropbox, Evernote, Wordpress, Tumblr and Google. How can I transfer them all to my new phone?

I followed the instructions here, but the result of that was only that my Google account authentication was moved to the new phone. So, now I can access one account using my new phone, and need my old one for the other 5.

Surely there is a way to do this in bulk? I don't really need to do something special with each service provider do I?

New phone is Motorola Moto G3, old is Moto G. Both working. Neither rooted.

You should disable and re-enable two-factor authentication for each account. In the process of disabling you will be asked to enter the OTP from your old phone. As soon as you disable it you should enable it and add tokens to the Google Authenticator on your new phone.


Use new hangouts dialer from google search The new hangouts app let's me call out from it and uses VoIP... Nice!

When I google a business in chrome I often get the business card with a button to call... Nice! But... It opens the regular android phone app...

How can I make the new hangouts dialer the default for this?

Not currently.

[Edit]:
Hangouts received an update since this was posted.  It now registers itself as a dialer with the system, and comes up as a choice when phone links are tapped in the browser app like Chrome.  However, it's still not an option when you use built-in People/Contacts apps.

The Hangouts Dialer app does not register itself with the system as an actual dialer.  In fact, it's simply a shortcut to a particular tab within the main Hangouts app.

Right now if you want to make true VoIP calls, you have to open the Hangouts Dialer (or main Hangouts app) manually, and copy/paste the number.  Perhaps such integration will come in a later version of these apps.


please help me in recovering my lost contacts on WhatsApp Please I formatted my phone by mistake and in the process my WhatsApp was uninstalled and some very important contacts deleted please how can I still get the contacts back on WhatsApp please help.

The contacts would be safe if you have saved them either in your SIM or have backed up them in your Google Account. The main thing is whether you have a chat backup or not. If not, then I don't think there's any way you can get the chat back on your phone. If it is there (assuming that you have not deleted that backup) then you will get a prompt to install it when you are again logging in with your number.
A same instance happened with me and luckily I had a backup in My Drive account.


How to remove home-screens on a Vodafone 845? Good day,

after playing around with the Vodafone 845 (Android 2.1) icons positions I ended up with additional empty home-screens (or are they desktops, not sure for the term). What is the proper way to remove those empty screens?

Nicked from here:

  Menu -> Edit. Click the red (-) button in the upper-right corner of the screens you want to delete. Use the [+] button at the bottom to add a new screen.


Are applications from "Unknown Sources" restricted by permissions? I know that Google Play applications cannot do anything that is not spelled out in their AndroidManifest.xml and will be blocked from doing so. I want to know if non-Google Play applications are locked down with the same security measure.

Will Android tell me what permissions they require before installation and block functions that use permissions not noted in the manifest of non-Google Play apps? Because Google says:

  In the event that an application attempts to use a protected feature which has not been declared in the application's manifest, the permission failure will typically result in a security exception being thrown back to the application. Protected API permission checks are enforced at the lowest possible level to prevent circumvention. An example of the user messaging when an application is installed while requesting access to protected APIs is shown in Figure 2.

Does this apply to non-Google Play apps?

Will Android tell me what permissions they require before installation?

In general, yes. In most (if not all) Android devices, there's a system app called "Package installer" which handles the installation/upgrade of an app. When you install an APK file from unknown source, this app will run and show all permissions the app requests, which looks like this:

Package installer on KitKat

  Will Android block functions that use permissions not noted in the manifest of non-Google Play apps?

During installation, Android doesn't check/test if a function requires specific permission to run. In other word, user can still install the app. However, the app will throw SecurityException (that may crash/behave unpredictably/do nothing, depends on how it's handled) when running the function that needs a permission, but is not declared in the manifest file. This applies to all apps, regardless from where it's installed.

Example: doing network operation without declaring <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" /> will crash the app with stack trace:

E/AndroidRuntime(18698): Caused by: java.lang.SecurityException: Permission denied (missing INTERNET permission?)

.


How to enable haptic feedback in Samsung Galaxy Y? Actually I had the haptic feedback option enabled by default when I bought the Samsung Galaxy Y mobile. But it seems that somebody has changed the Settings. So I would like to know how to enable haptic feedback in Samsung Galaxy Y?

But I need it badly. Anybody please help out. Thanks in advance.

As far as I know, SGY has tactile feedback only, but NO haptic feedback. If you require a reference, have a look at this xda thread. But, there are many (almost everything) custom keyboard apps that provide haptics at the Play Store.

If you love your built-in keyboard so much and don't want other keyboards, then you have a choice. Just root your phone. Use a root explorer. Peek into /system/usr/keylayout/qwerty.kl using a text editor (some apps have in-built editors). There is a list of all keys that your keyboard has (including the menu, back, volume, lock & home keys).

Change from "whatever value they are" to WAKE_DROPPED and reboot your phone. That's all. Now, you'll definitely have haptics for every key you've changed.

  Well, If you aren't aware of rooting, please don't do it. It may void your warranty. There are a lot of posts here that may help you with rooting. For instance, check out rooting


Screen Mirroring error : Green screen with audio My device is lyf flame 1 {Ls-4503} android 5.1

There is no wireless display or screen mirroring option in it.However when i use playstore app like miracast or ezmira ,i see this option

Clicking on the device, it gets connected but i see only a green screen on my tv .I can hear the audio,but there is no video only green screen.

In the setting menu,i clicked on the devoloper option and turned on the wireless display certificate

In order to find solution, i rooted my phone to instll a custom rom, but my bad luck!, there is no custom rom available for my phone.I installed Xposed Framework,but i found no module to fix this problem.Also there is no twrp recovery available for my phone,so i can not go for magisk module.

Note: The anycast device is working properly.I connected my laptop and it was working perfectly

Help me to find a solution for the green screen problem.Any suggestions will be highly appreciated

Had the same issue, and tried to reinstall/update the display driver = Intel(R) UHD Graphic 620 at https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/126790/Intel-UHD-Graphics-630.
It's 100% solved. Microsoft issues.


reboot needed to refresh MTP list? using Terminal Emulator I created a file;

cd /storage/emulated/0/Downloaded
echo test > test.txt

Then using Android File Transfer I can see files in the same dir but not the test file. ls -l indicated it's not a chown chmod issue;

-rw-rw---- root    sdcard_r      3323 2016-02-22 15:15 other.txt
-rw-rw---- root    sdcard_r         5 2016-02-22 15:15 test.txt

sync, repluging, killing the client, and changing to PTP then back to MTP did not help but a reboot did so what's up with that?

While I do not have an answer for this strange behaviour (which I'm experiencing as well), I can say that a whole reboot may be skipped. In most cases, in fact, renaming the file you wish to transfer will make it visible on your PC as well. Additionally, if you wish to embark in the journey of installing adb on a Mac, you'll find that:

adb pull "android_file_path" "path_to_copy_the_file_to"

will be able to copy the desired file to your computer, regardless of it being visible on Android File Transfer or not.


Create An Contact Shortcut for Hangouts How can I create a Hangouts contact shortcut for video calling on the desktop for Samsung Galaxy Tab A ( Android 5.0.1) ? I searched it a lot of. But, I cannot find any solution ? Any ideas ?

It is not possible to do something like that.

You have 2 options:

Create a widget that the Hangouts app provides for that
Use a custom launcher, to make a custom shortcut to the specific function/activity

Since the app doesn't provide such a widget and the 2nd option can at best open your contact list from a shortcut (tested it), there is unfortunately no other option to get something like that.


Issues with SD Card "Reinsert SD Card" for Internal Storage (Adoptable Storage) Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) I have HTC One M8 GPE with Andorid 6.0 Marshmallow installed.

I used my Transcend Micro SD Card as Internal Storage / Adoptable Storage.
At morning I got the message "Transcend SD Card Missing. Reinsert This Device".

I took the card out, inserted it for many times.
Turned OFF and ON the device, etc...
Yet it seems the device won't recognize the SD Card.

If I go into Recovery Mode (I have TeamWin 3.0.01 version) in the Storage Options I can see "Transcend SD Card - Adopted Storage".
So it seems the connector, electricity wise, is working.

Now, few questions:

How can I check the SD Card is working without jeopardizing the data in it?
Is there a way to extract the data from the SD Card (A lot of personal data I'd like to extract)? Maybe some way to do so from the recovery menu or FastBoot mode?

All I care about now is to extract the data from my Phone.

Any assistance will be appreciated.

Thank You.

I guess it's either sd card dead or sd card slot faulty. However there is way to decrypt adopted sd card but if you factory reset device and wipe key you are screwed here is how to decrypt
Btw try to put other sd card in your phone and see if phone is recognize it.


phone is stuck on welcome screen (samsung galaxy note 2) when using other battery hi i have a samsung galaxy note 2 n7105 and i have 2 batteries. when i am using battery A, everything boots okay but when i use battery B it is stuck at the samsung logo and will not go on. sometimes it reboots and just end up stuck again at the samsung logo. i just want to know what is the reason for this and hoping that there's some kind of fix for this. your help is greatly appreciated!

When I worked at a cell phone shop as the "tech", I had this exact same thing happen, except with a Samsung Galaxy S3 or 4, I can't remember which. In my case, both batteries were apparently the same official Samsung OEM battery, however upon careful examination side-by-side, there were tiny differences in how the non-working battery looked as compared to every other one that I could find. I finally realized that the non-working battery was NOT an actual OEM battery; it was a knock-off designed to pass as an OEM. So, the non-working battery, in my case, was a counterfeit. Basically, this behavior means that you have a faulty battery, whether it is OEM or fake. I've never had an OEM battery do this but that's not to say that it might not happen with them or with legit, non-OEM batteries as well. The only time it happened to me, though, was with a counterfeit, so...


Is it possible to put a micro sim from an iPhone 4 into the Nexus S? I have an iPhone 4 with micro sim, and am wondering if it is possible to put my micro sim into the unlocked nexus s, to function as my phone (for development purposes). If not, is there an alternative android phone that would work better for this?

The Nexus S uses a traditional SIM card slot, but you should be able to do this provided that you get a proper micro-SIM to SIM adapter. Here's what I got from a quick Google search, and as you can see they are relatively inexpensive.

Also be aware that the Nexus S will not have 3G capability on the AT&T network, as I explained in this question. This may or may not matter to you, of course.


Custom sort the notebooks in Evernote The notebooks in Evernote seem to be arranged in alphabetical order. Is there any way to arrange the notebooks in another order, or maybe custom sort/arrange the notebooks?

Notebooks can only be sorted (in the mobile app, it's the button to the left of the magnifying glass) by:

Title
Note count
User

Maybe you can request for custom sorting from Evernote.


move micro SD card to another phone I have recently moved all my applications from my Samsung ACE 5830 to Micro SD card.
As a next step i am trying to figure out move all my phon esettings to the SD card.
In short, what i am looking at is :

1)I want everything to be stored on the Micro SD card.
2) When i buy a new Samsung or any other Android phone, I just move the Micro SD card to new phone and it should behave like my old phone  with aal its settings and applications intact.

Is this possible?

As far as I know there's no way of doing this directly.  However you have a few options:

Enable Google's backup (Settings -> Privacy). It will sync your settings and app list to the cloud, as well as any app data for apps that support it.
If you're rooted, use Titanium Backup.  It can save all your apps and data, and you could put the backup on your SD card.  You won't want to restore the data for system apps between two different phones though, since they're unlikely to be entirely compatible.


Wi-Fi connection dropping Lately I've been having trouble keeping a connection to Wi-Fi, first at home and now at work.  What happens is that after a while I'll notice that my phone is using 3G.
If I go into my Wi-Fi settings, I'll see a strong signal from my router. When I try to connect manually,  I often get the message,  "Failed to connect to network" with no further details.  (There's a special place in hell for those who write error messages that give no indication of the nature of the problem.) Other times I can connect,  but the signal is reported as weak and drops quickly.
My computers can connect with no problems and report strong wireless signals.  My roommates have no similar problems.
I have a Galaxy Nexus running Jelly Bean.  My roommates have a Galaxy Note and a Galaxy S2, respectively,  both on ICS.
What's wrong with my phone?
Additional details

My phone is rooted but running the stock ROM.
My phone is the international GSM version.
I first noticed this problem while using Tasker to implement a Bluetooth wireless leash. I've stopped using the leash--and Bluetooth entirely--but the problem persists. I'm still using Tasker for other things.
In trying to track down this issue, I disabled "Avoid poor connections" but that change had no effect.
I'm willing to consider flashing stuff to my phone as a last resort, but I strongly prefer alternative solutions. I didn't have problems initially, so I doubt the radio is to blame. Furthermore, I will down vote any answer that provides an incompatible ROM/radio, etc. or that provides it from a non-reputable source.

My solution, which seems to be working so far, is quite related to what was proposed by t0mm13b.

That proposal was to adjust the DHCP settings. However, my router is quite limited in functionality and it's impossible to adjust wifi settings on it. Insane, I know. So, I set my phone to use a static IP address instead of using DHCP. So far, so good.


Unable to unpin an app on my Lenovo tab I am using a Lenovo tab, it is pinned with Ola play app. I tried many times to unpin it by pressing back, multitasking at a time. It is showing unpinned. Again it is automatically pinning to the same app immediately. I am also unable to access Settings > Safe Mode option also.

Please tell me a solution other than factory reset option.

Try to perform a soft reset by holding the power and volume down button until the screen goes blank. If it has a removable battery, take it out and then put it back in. If neither of the above work, google soft reset lenovo tab (model)


Disable or sign out of Google Talk? I have a Sony Xperia X10 Mini. It keeps annoying me with Google Talk notifications, although I already went to "running services" under Settings/Applications and cancelled them. How do I get it to stop?

The easiest way:
If you'd rather not receive notifications, you can disable some or all of them.Here's how:

Click 'Settings' at the top of your Friends list.
Highlight 'Notifications' along the left side of the Settings
window.
Uncheck the boxes next to the notifications you don't wish to
receive, or check the box next to 'Disable all notifications.'
Click 'OK.'

Source: https://support.google.com/talk/answer/24742?hl=en

Alternative methods:

If you're running Jelly Bean, you can go to the app details, disable the app and uncheck the option to show notifications. Click here to see how.

If not, you can do one of the following things:
Root:
Root your phone and install Titanium Backup. You can uninstall Google Talk so it won't bother you again.
Non-Root:
Delete the app by running an update script which removes the app. Click here to view how exactly. You should only delete the /system/app/Talk.APK.


Google Play Store says "No connection" I was using Freedom app and then one day Google Play Store stopped working in my device. It says "No connection" now.

I have done everything I could,

I uninstalled Freedom app
Force stopped Google Play
Cleared data & cache
Factory reset my phone too.

Nothing seems to work. How do I fix this issue?

Since your phone is obviously rooted just install ES File Explorer (maybe you can do it with others but I know for sure you can do it with this). If you can't download it just get the apk and put it on your phone through your computer. If you factory reset your phone you'll probably have to install SuperSU again as well.

Enable root explorer in ES (you can find it in the bottom of the hamburger slide out here):

(Click image to enlarge)

Then go to /system/etc and open the file called hosts here. Just tap it and choose open as Text > ES Note Editor.

Then tap the three dot menu on the right, choose edit, and delete everything except 127.0.0.1 localhost.

Basically make it look like this:

Save, reboot your phone and it should work again.

The hosts file is basically a file that specifies all the addresses that your phone will not connect to at any cost. Freedom adds the addresses for Google Play to this list because it doesn't want your phone to verify your 'purchases' with Google Play. So removing the addresses for Google Play from the hosts file fixes your problem.


Show Fullscreen Portrait Layout with Miracast I'm trying to display my phone's screen on a monitor. Landscape works correctly but when I flip to portrait the screen fills a small portion in the middle of the screen instead of changing orientation. I plan to turn the monitor sideways to display the device screen and lock it in portrait. Has anyone come up with a way to change the orientation? I'm using the netgear ptv3000. I'm considering purchasing the allsharecast hub, but I'm not certain that will work either. Thanks!!

I am sorry to have to tell you this, but this is not possible.

The OS outputs the data to the screen, and the screen follows this. When the device is in portrait mode, that is what the device outputs - as the screen has wide space, it fills it with black bars.

This is the same for the iPad's (I know, I hate them as well) with their screen connectors - if the iPad is in portrait mode, then the screen sits in the middle of the screen.


Downloaded music plays on PC and transfers to phone, but some files don't show up in phone library after transfer My music - which is in MP3 format - plays normally on my PC. When I transfer some of my music to my device, my computer says the transfer was complete, however I cannot see some of the music on my device. Why are some songs not appearing in my phone's music library?

Please reboot your device.

Once you have rebooted, the music will show up in your music app.

When you boot, Android searched all SD Cards for media, and then adds it to the media database, so that media apps can use it.

Please reboot, and the music will then show in your music player.

If you have already rebooted, then please clear the data for the following apps:

Media Storage
Music (or Music Player, or Media Player)

If that still doesn't work, then copy the music direct to the music folder of the SD Card that is in your device.

Final thing - Android doesn't support ALL music formats. If the file is in a format Android doesn't support, then it won't show in the Music app.


How can I restore XT1924-7 MOTO E5 Plus (Hannah) baseband/imei Could this have been caused by flashing a firmware version with RSU (Russian???) found a repository on XDA with the stock("") firmware and restoration guide and made the mistake of not checking the file thoroughly and believe I flashed the right carrier and version but wrong region???  Ive been digging all over XDA and elsewhere and tried using lenovo device repair assistant to no avail.

Also, would flashing the HLOS omg be a possible fix?   From what I've been able to discover on my own it seems that is where the instructions for the radio come from in a firmware?

I know I'm an amateur but any help is much appreciated.

Clint

Did you ever solve your issues?
My backups where faulty(my fault)
I tried the same version OTA I was on from:

https://mirrors.lolinet.com/firmware/moto/hannah/official/Metropcs/

and boot failed.
So I downloaded the newest OTA from same link, that flashes fine. IMEI/bands/all that works fine.

I can not verify authenticity though.

What I did:
1) Download newest OTA from lolinet
2) uncompress ota.zip to a new folder
3) open new folder, open flashfile.xml on part of screen (I just let IE open it, notepad++ would be fine also)
4) open cmd from start/search on another part of desktop screen (command prompt)
5) cd desktop, cd newOTAfolder
6) boot phone into Download mode (power off, hold power/volume down)
7) following the flashfile
fastboot oem fb_mode_set
fastboot flash partition gpt.bin
fastboot flash bootloader bootloader.img
fastboot flash modem NON-HLOS.bin
fastboot flash fsg fsg.mbn
fastboot erase modemst1
fastboot erase modemst2
fastboot flash dsp adspso.bin
fastboot flash logo logo.bin
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot flash system system.img_sparsechunk.0
fastboot flash system system.img_sparsechunk.1
fastboot flash system system.img_sparsechunk.2
fastboot flash system system.img_sparsechunk.3
fastboot flash system system.img_sparsechunk.4
fastboot flash vendor vendor.img
fastboot flash oem oem.img
fastboot erase cache
fastboot erase userdata
fastboot erase DDR
fastboot oem fb_mode_clear
fastboot reboot

This gets you Completely wiped/Stock.
Please follow the flashfile.xml, just use my iteration as a guide to reading it.

I use a adb/fastboot that is system wide, if you just download the self contained adb/fastboot you need to uncompress the OTA.zip from loli into the adb/fastboot folder.

For what it is worth on the METRO/moto e5 plus the best custom rom I have found is AOSPe/AEX. I am currently going back to STOCK and modding that though as all over roms have been faulty in ways that make for not using as daily driver.

Best of luck.


After phone reset - how to download all my apps from google play store? In the web front end all my apps are still there and I added the google account in my phone. Now how do I get the apps down to the phone?

Just press down on the app in your list. It will select, then click on all you want reinstalled.  Then  click install once.

You will have to click accept repeatedly.  It's easy: same spot, just tap tap tap...


Root Motorola Defy XT I am still trying figure out how to root the new Motorola Defy XT. It runs Gingerbread 2.3.5. Can someone help me with this? Last time (many years ago) I rooted a phone using Z4root however, as I read on the net now, Z4root does not support this version (of Gingerbread).

There are a few methods that exist presently;

This website offers a .zip file that contains a "one-click-root" type file, that you simply run while your phone is plugged into the computer to get it rooted. As usual, you will need to make the appropriate backups of your data.

XDA also has a how-to that is a bit more involved and uses some adb commands which will require the SDK. You will have to download the file on the page and then follow their method:

Put the phone in Debug Mode: Go to Settings > Applications > Development and check USB debugging box.
Extract the files from the zip below, connect the phone via USB, and copy them to the phone via ADB like this:

Code:

adb push Superuser.apk /sdcard/Superuser.apk

adb push su /sdcard/su

adb push busybox /sdcard/busybox

adb push exploit.bin /data/local/tmp/exploit.bin

Now we enter the phone's internal shell, also using ADB:

Code:

adb shell
Then we take advantage of the "fake" root exploit:

Code:

cd /data/local/tmp

chmod 0755 exploit.bin

./exploit.bin
Now after that last command you should be back to your normal console, not the phone one, so we need to connect to it again, and doing so we should now see that we have root permissions since the "#" symbol is displayed instead of "$".

Code:

adb shell
Now we mount the /system partition as writable and copy the necessary files there, and set them with the right permissions:

Code:

mount -o rw,remount -t ext3 /dev/block/mmcblk1p21 /system

cp /sdcard/Superuser.apk /system/app/Superuser.apk

cp /sdcard/su /system/bin/su

cp /sdcard/busybox /system/bin/busybox

chmod 4755 /system/bin/su

chmod 4755 /system/bin/busybox

mount -o ro,remount -t ext3 /dev/block/mmcblk1p21 /system

exit
Restart the phone and check if you have ROOT in a terminal by typing the "su" command, or by installing any other app that requires ROOT, and seeing it the SuperUser app pops up.


How to delete some files on unbootable phone with low memory? I had been ignoring low memory on my android phone (Nexus 6P running copperhead OS) for some time.

OS suddenly crashed out of no where and started booting up infinitely. After forcing it to restart and entering the password for decryption, phone never finishes the boot procedure. Seems that due to zero or very less space, some error must be occurring, which doesn't let the OS finish the boot procedure.

It's my assumption that low memory could have been the issue, so trying to find a way to delete files and let OS have some space to boot up.

(1) Bootloader is locked. I can see "Device is LOCKED." at bootloader screen. So, unable to boot latest TWRP via fastboot boot twrp.img. Receiving error FAILED (remote: unlock device to use this command)

(2) ADB sideload option available in copperhead OS recovery doesn't allow any random update.zip. Tried to run an updater script but it fails. It seems that recovery is validating the package. Errors are E: footer is wrong, E: Signature verification failed, E:error: 21 Installation aborted

(3) Tried to find some vulnerabilities which let bypass security features, but didn't find any except this which has been fixed in bootloader angler-03.79 being used.

(4) Phone is running an old android OS : 8.1.0 June 2018 AOSP build, and since then there could be security vulnerabilities being introduced. So are there any vulnerabilities or exploits which can be helpful here?

You can ask the OEM developers if they can help with an official solution. Problem is the 1st Level Support will always deny such requests. You can request the source code instead (in compliance with the GPL) and if you are lucky you will get direct contact (email address) to any developer this way instead.

OEM could easily provide (signed) emergency-update.zip containing following files

  META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script

ifelse(is_mounted("/data"), ui_print("deleting cache files..."), abort("ERROR: Data not mounted"));
package_extract_dir("tmp", "/tmp");
set_perm_recursive(0, 2000, 0755, 0755, "/tmp");
run_program("/tmp/rmcache.sh");
ui_print("done");

  tmp/rmcache.sh

#!/bin/sh
/tmp/busybox find /data/data -type d -iname cache -exec /tmp/busybox find {} -type f -print -delete +

  tmp/busybox

  use the busybox binary (toybox segmentation fault):
  www.busybox.net/downloads/binaries/1.31.0-defconfig-multiarch-musl

this would free up storage space by deleting some unimportant cache files only. this way it will neither harm the device nor create vulnerability for exploits

this emergency-update.zip can be applied via the recovery menu's "Apply update from SD card"

after this you should be able to boot at least once and get the availability to immediately enable airplane mode (prevents data usage), usb-debugging (for adb uninstall in case system_server crashes) and backup/clear your Internal Storage via MTP USB (or adb)


Honor 6 missing OTA upgrade to android 6 I recently bought an Honor 6 (specifically the H60-L04 model) which I took from android 4.4 to 5.1 (firmware H60-L04C900B521) using the updater app, all went smoothly.

However, searching around, It would seem that android 6 update has been released in May as a downloadable firmware, and OTA update should have been out by June; yet, if I open the updater app, it says that my phone is already at last version.

So my question is threefold:

Is this because the OTA update isn't out yet, or because my phone is not compatible?
Is it safe to upgrade using the downloadable firmware? The procedure seems easy enough
Will such an upgrade reset my phone, or will it keep the data?

Is this because the OTA update isn't out yet, or because my phone is not compatible?

Honor 6 user till few months ago. Honor 6 upgrades are a terrible mess:

They are released region specific, example, India, Malaysia, Russia with the Chinese one completely different.
Performance / Stability varies from region to region
AFAIK except for Chinese, they're wasn't an OTA to start with. For Indian market the upgrade was available on their Facebook and then on their website and about two months later, OTA was released and that too had teething problems
Company preferred mode of informing users is on their Facebook page , so you would need to check out there
Downgrading is not straightforward and you have to risk that

So, coming to your specific question, it looks like OTA had not been released .

  Is it safe to upgrade using the downloadable firmware? The procedure seems easy enough

You can use update file but make sure you research user feedback because of downgrade issues. With the Indian version there were issues with battery life, missing functionalities, and random bootloops

  Will such an upgrade reset my phone, or will it keep the data?

If it is not OTA, you lose data


How do I stop PDFs opening in RollerCoaster Tycoon? I have an unusual problem with Chrome when I try to open PDFs. If I have already downloaded a PDF and try to download it again, I can open it by tapping its name; in the screenshot below, I could tap "pdf.pdf" to open the file.

The issue is that tapping this link actually opens RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic! If I choose to download again, Chrome redownloads and opens the PDF correctly, so it's not a huge issue, but still an inconvenience.

In Settings, it says that RollerCoaster Tycoon Classic has no defaults, and I am unable to change the "open supported links" setting.

How do I stop RollerCoaster Tycoon  trying to be a PDF reader?

Suggestion to install better open with app and set the default for opening PDF app worked for OP. Possibly, RCT didn't figure in the options, but setting it to Google Drive fixed the issue


htc u12+ flashing twrp, stuck booting I've been trying to root my HTC U12+, and I've been stuck trying to boot twrp onto my phone through adb commands.
.\fastboot boot twrp.img
Sending 'boot.img' (32424 KB)                      OKAY [  2.006s]
Booting

This is what I'm stuck on, my phone screen says "flash images success 1/1)" When I know it's more than one step.
I've got all the drivers, correct adb files, and correct twrp disc images. I rooted my brother's U11 using the same process, with the U11's files.

My reply from the XDA support thread was already posted here, however I will formally reply now that if you're seeing "flash images success (1/1)", then you're in Download mode. In order for the "fastboot boot" command to work, you have to be in Bootloader. There is an option to "reboot to bootloader" from the main Download mode screen. Choose that option, and then you will be in the correct mode to use the "fastboot boot" command.
You mentioned U11, however the difference with that device is that it has a recovery partition (U12+ does not), and thus the install method for it is to flash the image, not boot it. If you wanted to fastboot boot a recovery image on U11, you likewise would need to be in Bootloader mode.


Set up new device with very long Google password My Google Account password is hundreds of characters long. It's intractable to type. That's normally OK, because I use a password manager, but I recently did a factory reset on a 2012 Nexus 7. Tap & Go from my Nexus 4 phone copies all accounts, but asks for my Google password and I can't figure out a sane way to get my password to the device. Here's what I've tried:

I actually tried typing it in, once. It took about 15 minutes and I got something wrong.
I tried creating an App Password. The Nexus 7 said it was incorrect. I tried this several times, and I'm sure I didn't get the app password wrong, so I can only figure that app passwords can't be used to sign into new devices (?).

I really don't want to change my Google password to something insecure just to get past this step. It shouldn't be necessary. At this point in setup it's too early to install a password manager, and even if I skip sign in now, I can't really install a password manager without access to the Play Store, right?

Is there a way to get my password into this prompt without arduously typing hundreds of complex characters onto a tiny default keyboard? Perhaps a way I can get the password from the Nexus 4 using NFC or any other protocol, or trick the 7 into treating a device plugged into the USB port as a keyboard?

#2 that you tried is if you have 2-step authentication on. The App Passwords are for applications (like some windows apps, for example, that authenticate to google) do not work with 2-step verification. These passwords are meant to be used with those apps. App Passwords will only work if you have 2-step authentication enabled on your Google account.

I would suggest that you change your password to something that you can actually remember, and type in less than 15 minutes, then enable 2-step authentication.

2-step requires you to use an app like Google Authenticator (or SMS)

This app will provide an access token that is only valid for your account, and for like 60 seconds. It is similar to SecurID.

Notice that Google Authenticator will provide me tokens for use with multiple google accounts, and other services as well, and the tokens are different for all of them. The Pie is a countdown, and once it reaches 0, that token is no longer valid and a new token will be displayed.


Delete pre installed apps under oem/apps folder? I have already rooted my android tablet. I am able to access internal system locations e.g. data/data/com.example.src.

However, I am unable to delete aps's under oem/apps folder. I have already tried "RootAppDelete" app to uninstall thses apps, but this app says it has no root access. But the data/data/packagename location only becomes accessable after rooting the device, and as I mentioned above I am able to access this location.

Can someone tell me how to delete apk's under oem/apps folder?

give the root permissions to the RootAppDelete app from the superuser app.

and I would recommend you to use titanium backup to delete pre installed app


HTC Cha Cha hard reset - stored phone numbers My HTC Cha Cha won't turn on, so I want to hard reset it to factory settings. Is there a possibility of losing contacts stored on the phone? (They are very important to me).

You need to differentiate between a "hard reset" (hover the mouse over that tag: a forced reboot/shutdown by removing power (take out the battery, usually)) and a "factory reset" (again, mouse-over: A factory reset results in a full reset of an Android device to the original settings of the currently-installed ROM.).

hard-reset: here it's unlikely (though not absolutely impossible) to lose your stored contacts
factory-reset: here it's very sure they are deleted, as all data and all user-installed apps are deleted from the device

However, you can make a backup of your contacts. In the contacts app itself, when pressing the menu key, you should find a menu item for "export/import". Select to "export", and have it save the data to your SDCard. To be absolutely safe, before doing a factory reset copy all the SDCard's contents to e.g. your PC. After the factory-reset, you can use the very same item in the contacts app to re-import the data.

Btw: contacts export uses a common file format, which is understood by many other programs as well (*.vcf which means VCard File). It can be read e.g. by GMail (even the Web interface) or Outlook as well.

If you have your contacts synced with Google, they should be restored automatically once you configured your Google account on the device after the factory reset.


heimdall libusb error -1 I am trying to flash TWRP on Samsung Galaxy S6 that I inherited from someone else, there was already some custom software on it, but I am not sure what exactly. File transfer to a computer works fine. The computer I am using has ubuntu 16.04 installed and heimdall from the official repositories v1.4.1) and the following works fine on an S4 mini:

$ heimdall print-pit
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...
libusb: error [_get_usbfs_fd] libusb couldn't open USB device /dev/bus/usb/001/018: Input/output error
ERROR: Failed to access device. libusb error: -1

The problem must have been on the side of the s6. I was able to run heimdall print-pit successfully, but only for a moment after entering download mode.


Disable notification spam at end of do not disturb schedule I'm using a Galaxy S7 with Android 8.0.0 and Samsung experience 9.0.

At the end of the do not disturb schedule all my notifications come through at once. All I hear is just the notification sound being spammed repeatedly for every notification that was suppressed while do not distrurb was enabled. This never used to happen, it would just come out of do not disturb mode and no sound would be played for old notifications. This seems like a bug. Is there a way to stop this?

This may be a Galaxy S7 specific question, I can never seem to tell which is a core Android issue and which is Samsung specific. The articles I have seen on do not disturb for Oreo look quite different.

It seems like an Oreo issue as documented here:

https://www.androidpolice.com/2017/09/26/feature-bug-oreo-dnd-turns-off-get-barraged-sounds-vibrations-pending-received-notifications/

It was resolved in 8.1.0, but Samsung hasn't provided this update to its 8.0 phones. So today it is mostly Samsung users that are affected.

https://us.community.samsung.com/t5/Galaxy-S9-Questions-and-Answers/S9-notifications-after-do-not-disturb-goes-off/m-p/371390#M7828


3rd party messaging apps with random silent notifications problem I am having a weird issue. I am on Android 10 on my LG G6 and I haven't installed any doze control app or greenify type apps etc on my phone but whenever I receive any message on 3rd party apps like Whatsapp or Skype etc, many of notifications arrive on time but some of the messages arrive with no vibration and no sound like silent notifications. I haven't set any DND or anything. It's just clean install rom and I have also faced this issue at my official stock ROM Android 9. Same behaviour recorded in that as well. For testing I captured notifications and what I saw is some of the messages comes via silent channelID which is very strange for me as no settings applied. It's all random messages and same behaviour when I am using my phone so I believe it's not doze level thing. I am attaching screenshots of notifications log, please guide me what's wrong going on here. Thanks.

Screenshots: https://postimg.cc/gallery/G3Tbjcg

The same issue on Galaxy Note 9, observed this issue in Nov 2018 but no resolution. The same issue in One Plus also. Very difficult to say whether it is an Android issue or applications issue.

Found this issue in Android Issue Tracker, Google is working on this, although I have observed this issue in Android 8, 9, 10.


Android and antiviruses This is actually three questions:

Are anti-viruses needed for smartphones running Android OS?
Is the Android Market absolutely safe (because all precautions are taken by Google to prevent any problems)?
Which are the big players in the Android Security Software market?

Thank you.

Yes and No.

No because Android's and Linux's security scheme is impenetrable as long as you don't give Root Access or Permissions. Without root, a malicious program cannot take over your system's integrity (there is very little zero day exploit in Linux/Android). And without Permissions, malicious program cannot risk your privacy, e.g. personal data, hardware that can risk your personal data (e.g. camera, mic), location, internet, SD card, etc.

However, Yes because nobody pays attention to those permissions and security warnings. Also, Android can still be a vector for Windows' viruses, even though the Android itself will not be affected by Windows' virus.

The Geinimi trojan that Matt pointed out relies on the program convincing the user to went through the standard install/uninstall prompt without being suspicious.
No, Market is not a safe place. Any developers can upload any program to Market, and Google does not screen those programs. However, Google will and do remove any reported rogue programs quite quickly.
Refer to Matt's answer.


Nexus 4 not getting 4.3 update I have a Nexus 4 Device. I had got 4.3 update in System updates about 15 days ago. But I didn't update that time.And now I want to update it so if I go and check for updates, its showing that your system is up to date, while I have 4.2.2 in my phone. Can you please tell me what should I do to get 4.3 update? please guide me.

Thanks!

You can try clearing the Google Services Framework data. Disconnect from Wifi and mobile data, go to Settings -> Apps -> All Apps -> Google Services Framework and tap Clear data. After this, restore data connections and go to Settings -> About phone -> Software Updates and tap Check for updates, and the update should appear. If not, the update is still in rollout for your region.


How do I restrict uninstall of apps in the play store? I have an android tablet. I also have a kid that doesn't understand enough to actually operate it properly, but more than enough to delete apps through the play store.

Restricting purchases from the play store is easy, but how do i password protect uninstalling apps from the play store?

I have seen a few apps to help me along, but they don't protect from the play store being launched from inside a game through a commercial for example.

How do i password protect either the entire play store, or the removal of apps?

how do i password protect uninstalling apps from the play store?

This isn't possible as of today.

  I have seen a few apps to help me along, but they don't protect from the play store being launched from inside a game through a commercial for example.

Such behavior isn't made explicitly available to third-party apps, the ones that do exist today can only go so far in providing an "app-locker".

  How do i password protect either the entire play store, or the removal of apps?

You can't, at least not in a way that accounts for all scenarios. You may keep searching for "app-locker" apps that attempt to do this and hope you find one that fits your needs. Have you tried Paranoid Android's Lockit

Instead of going down this route, I'd recommend you setup multiple user profiles on the tablet (the assumption here being your tablet is running Android 4.2 or greater). In a multi-user scenario, if one user uninstalls an app, it's only uninstalled within their profile. You may read more about it here


android 2.2 - extending phone storage to SD I heard there is a way to "mount" some of the SD card's space and use it to extend the phone's storage. I need this so I can have space to install apps that only allow to be installed on the phone.

Anyone heard about it?

I'm using Android v2.2, with an HTC Desire.

You can move any apps to sdcard if you are rooted. There are apps on the Market for it Move2SD Enabler and App Swap

Better yet, if you are using custom ROMs (e.g. CyanogenMod), some of them have settings to allow you to migrate any apps. You might want to check those out first if you're using custom ROM.

If you want to do it manually (not recommended for pregnant man, or those currently having a heart attack), then you can use Terminal Emulator or ADB to run a few fairly standard set of Linux/Unix commands. The mount command can rebind any folder in your filesystem another location in the filesystem. Alternatively, you may also create symbolic links using the ln command. See the mount and ln manual for this.


Why am I unable to connect to certain WiFi networks? We have a UniFi WiFi access point at our office, which has both a 2.4 GHz and a 5 GHz network.

I am unable to connect to either network, even though I have no problem connecting to any other WiFi network and other devices can also connect just fine to the UniFi networks.

Why is this and how can I fix it?

To be able to connect to the UniFi networks you need to change your Wi-Fi frequency band from Automatic to either 5 GHz or 2.4 GHz.

As long as the mode is set to automatic, you will not be able to connect to either network. Why that is, is unclear to me. However other users reported similar problems.


Cannot install apps from google play store I am using Samsung Galaxy Y, Android version 2.3.6 only, I rooted it yesterday and now I could not install apps from google play store. And as device memory is small so I think it's better if I download apps straight from websites. Is there any trustworthy and user friendly website for this? Thanks a lot :)

there're manyy third party stores.
Visit http://choilieng.com to get ur apk file . It looks quite simple but this will help you load faster.

Have fun./


SW REV CHECK FAIL : Fused 1 > Binary 0 My mobile was stucked while updating android 7.0 . tried ODIN still it was stucked in bootloop. so i decided to downgrade it into 6.0 but in ODIN i am getting this error... how do i fix this?

I am having s6 Edge Plus SM-G928I

It happens sometimes after an update/update that the phone sticks into a bootloop if the data partition is not formatted.
So to solve this, you simply need to reset your phone from the recovery menu.

Boot in to the recovery then perform a factory reset. The first boot may take some time, just wait.

The error you are getting is because you are trying to downgrade which is not allowed by the bootloader.


Why Taxify install error on Oneplus 3T in PlayStore website command? I have managed to install many other applications in my new phone but not Taxify, here download page, in the PlayStore HTML pages. I get the following error.
The error message is weird because the Google account is associated with the phone, and I also have managed to install other applications such as Skype, WhatsApp, ... on the phone.
I restarted my phone, and the problem persists.
I have a stable internet connection.

Differential solution: install the application directly in the Android phone PlayStore. This indicates that there is some problem with the PlayStore HTML frontend with Oneplus 3T.
After doing the installation this way, you will get Installed sign in the PlayStore website frontend too.

Oneplus support chat proposal

  We can try to perform a clear cache via recovery mode.

Power off your device.
Press the power key + volume down for a few seconds.
Select English.
Look for Wipe data and cache
Please select Wipe Cache only.

So this proposal indicates that there might be a cache problem in the phone.

Phone: Oneplus 3T
OS: Android 7.1.1
Phone: used one but did 2x factory reset before use

This problem is most likely resulting from the system differences between Android and Oneplus.


Copying url file from Windows 10 computer to Samsung Galaxy A5 fails, system sound sounds I have created a .url file using Windows Explorer on a Windows 10 computer. When I try to copy the .url file to my Samsung Galaxy A5 phone the file cannot be copied to my phone. I just hear a strange sound, which is either SystemSound.Asterisk or SystemSound.Exclamation. I cannot tell the difference between these two sounds.
What causes that I am not able to copy the .url file and why does the sound sound (as specified above) instead?

I use URL Opener to open the file in Firefox for Android. It works great. Copying via FTP or WEBDAV works, but not when Windows PC is connected to Android via USB.


How to help Android users with reduced ability to see What can we do in Android phone to help users whose ability to see is reduced?

To be clear they are not blind persons, they are just 55+ years old and with age they have reduced ability to see.

When my father has seen Xperia with 4.0 inch display he thought that his troubles with using the phone were over. Trouble came again when he realized that font size is still small because of large resolution.

Most of them are just simple users and they have needs only for seeing time, date, contacts, missed calls, incoming caller id, and dialer.  They're not even using SMS.

What can I do to increase size of these functions on display, and make it simplified to access as it can be?

Is there any app or theme or something similar already made for helping "older" people using phone?

You could try using LCD Density Changer to decrease the density (effectively increase the size of everything on-screen).  This will probably result in the bottom and right side of screens being cut off, however.

There are also (limited) accessibility options in Settings -> Accessibility.  I think it might be limited to a screen reader.

If the problem is really just things on-screen being too small, may I suggest eyeglasses?


Is there any options in Vivo V5 that in silent mode vibration can also be stop? I have Vivo V5 Android device with Funtouch OS provided by Vivo company.

In this device, when I switch profile mode from General to Silent. It cannot turn off vibration.
I want to turn off vibration also.

Please update with solutions.

Thanks

Go to Settings -> Sounds

Here, turn off the vibrate toggle switch. Hope this helps.


How to move data between 2 Android phones? I'm trying to move data from a Pixel3 to a Pixel1.

Bluetooth

I am able to pair the devices, but for some reason they are disconnected as soon as I switch to another app (to a Files app to copy data). I'm not seeing any errors.

USB

I am able to connect the devices via USB, but only one way! So I can move data from Pixel1 to Pixel3, but I'm not able to move data from Pixel3 to Pixel1. In settings there is a "USB controlled by..." switch, but when I press it, it tries to switch for 10 seconds and then times out. Again, no error message to tell me what went wrong.

Surely there must be a way to move data between 2 Android phones? I don't want to use a computer/cloud as an intermediary step.

For the first question, where you did connect between two devices?
It's highly recommended you to build connection in Service as it can be run in background for long time.
If you're connecting two devices simply in Activity then when it's being paused or destroyed, Your connection will be destroyed either.


Possible to set custom ringtones for Nexus 5 contact groups? I recently acquired my Nexus 5. While I'm absolutely in love with the device, I haven't been able to find a way to set a custom ringtone for specific contact groups.

As a Nexus 5 owner I was not able to do without a specialized 3rd party app (I used Group Ringtone:
http://www.appbrain.com/app/group-ringtones/com.appventive.groupring). This feature seems to be missing in Android.


"share via" doesn't offer me mail as an option in some apps, though it does in others I want to use the (e)mail rather than the gmail app to share things, but in some apps this is not offered as an option. It is in gallery, but not in business calendar. It is in gtasks, but not in signnow. I use my phone mainly for business, so want to send invites to meetings and send signed documents from my work email rather than my private gmail. Is there a way I can add this back in? Have I got a preference wrong? Any help kindly appreciated. Thanks

This comes back to the individual app developer, you'll have to contact the developers of business calendar and signnow to update their share menu to be compatible with the Email app.

On the mean time though, you can use Gmail to send as your work email. Once you do that, then you can share to Gmail, and pick the alternate From address by clicking on the From field on the Gmail app.


Application To Set Default Calendar Reminder We know that Google Calendar application has a way to set reminder / alarm. However, there are times (well, almost every time) when I forgot to set reminder and I missed it :(.

My question is, is there an application (preferably free, as I don't have CC and Google's Android market doesn't support PayPal, yet) that can help me set defult reminder for every event I have? So that if I forgot to set it on calendar application, this application will help me remind events.

I've already test Calendar Snooze. But, it require me to set an alarm first.

I found an app: Business Calendar Beta (free) that support default reminder.


How does Android determine if it has an Internet connection? My Nexus 10 (Android 4.4.2, unrooted) is not playing nice with my wireless network. Although it can connect and I don't have any problems browsing the web, for some reason Android thinks that it doesn't have an internet connection. As a result, the wifi icon in my Quick Settings is dimmed to orange, and, more importantly, apps seem to be unable to check for updates in the background (e.g. I have no problems opening Gmail and manually checking for mail, but Gmail won't give me notifications while running in the background until I'm on a different network).

This issue usually only happens on one particular wireless AP in my house, so I believe the problem lies with that AP rather than with Android itself. But I don't know how Android determines whether or not it has an internet connection, so I can't do much to try to solve the problem. I've heard that Android checks with Google services to test for internet connectivity, but given that I'm not having trouble using Google services otherwise, I don't know what the problem could be (well, the YouTube app seems to take an unusually long time to load video metadata, but that might not be related).

So, exactly what does Android do to determine whether it has internet or not? What might be causing that check to fail while not affecting anything else? Thanks!

When the data indicator is orange (on Kit kat ; grey on older versions), this means that the device is unable to receive a response from GCM (Google Cloud Messaging, the framework that handles push notifications). This traffic is sent through ports 5228, 5229, and 5230. If the AP is blocking or interfering with traffic on those ports, push notifications won't work and the data indicator will be orange. Manual refreshes and other Internet traffic will still work fine if the ports used for those transmissions (80, 443, etc.) are not blocked.


How to port a SIM card to an Android phone The procedure for porting a SIM card from a pay-as-you-go phone to an iPhone 4 is well documented (example 1, example 2, config tool for iOS 5). This is a nice option for people mostly on WiFi who use a small number of minutes (or VoIP), because with AT&T GoPhone plans, you can keep network costs down toward $100/year.

Is there a similar procedure for porting to a high-end Android phone? For example, can you buy a $3 GoPhone from Best Buy, buy an unlocked or AT&T Samsung Galaxy S II off eBay, move the SIM card into the Galaxy, and expect it to work? Other than ensuring the GoPhone plan has a data bundle feature, what other configuration is required?

If you have an unlocked phone, I don't think there should be any problem. The SIM card for GoPhone is apparently just a regular prepaid SIM card and is not tied to the phone it is sold with. If the phone doesn't recognize the APN for 3G, just go to Settings > Wireless and Networks > Mobile Networks > Access point Names and enter the appropriate access point settings manually.


Allow user to install from unknown sources on Android 5.0 I have Nexus 10 and have 2 users on it.
On Android 4.4 both Users could install application from unknown sources.

After upgrade to Android 5.0 admin user has Security-Unknown Sources  flag is "on" but secondary User has this flag greyed and disabled.

How can I switch it on?

It might be possible to do it with a rooted device, but on Android 5.0 only the primary user can install apps from Unknown Sources.


Why is the Verizon Cloud app generating Instabug text files in my File Manager Documents folder every time I start up my phone? I am getting a lot of text files in my File Manager's Documents folder. I used the Properties option on the file to see that it is an Instabug file. The path shows VCast.

After searching for various terms, I discovered that VCast is from Verizon, which is my carrier. But, I cannot find an App on phone for VCast or any information online about it or why I am getting these text files.

Additional information:

After using the online chat option at Verizon I found out this information:

VChat is used in streaming videos and music. I use the Hoopla app to play TV shows. It seems like these text files are generated when I play a TV show.

The Verizon rep I chatted with suggested to scan with an antivirus app. I already use one. I tried another. That didn't work.

Additional information:

There were two more text files in my Documents folder this morning. So, this is not resolved. I didn't run any videos or play any music last night or this morning. The text file's date and time were for last night when I had my phone on briefly and for today with the time I started up my phone.

Well, it appears that the culprit app is the VERIZON CLOUD APP.

I went to the Instabug website. I was thinking of actually sending them a message because the path shows their software name. But, I found this article. It appears that Verizon uses Instabug, and the person interviewed for the article is Mohammad Hariri, DMTS for Verizon’s Communications and Cloud division. So, I thought I would try disabling the Verizon Cloud and and IT WORKED!!! I have turned my phone on and off three times. I don't get the text files!

https://instabug.com/customers/verizon

So, now the question is: How can someone in charge of that Verizon Cloud app look at this issue?

Extra: I reinstalled the Verizon Cloud and instantly got a text message in that Documents folder.


How do I keep my headphone jack from disabling my bluetooth speakerphone in my car? I just upgraded to the Samsung Galaxy S III running Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and I drive a 2009 Mazda 5 with integrated bluetooth speakerphone.

When I'm in my car, I connect the headphone jack to my car stereo Aux input so that I can play music from my phone through my car speakers.  I got a phone call today and I noticed that when I'm connected to the Aux jack, my phone wouldn't connect to the bluetooth speakerphone.  In fact, I couldn't hear the phone call at all, although the person on the other end could hear me.  When I pulled out the cable from my phone's headphone jack, the bluetooth connection to the speakerphone was restored.

I never had this problem with my Bionic.

How do I make my phone connect to the bluetooth speakerphone even when I have a cable in the headphone receptacle?

Note: my car hooks up to the bluetooth speakerphone only -- it doesn't have an option to play music through the car speakers via bluetooth.

UPDATE (JUL 19)

Having thought about the situation some more, here's what I think is happening:

When I make a phone call using my car's integrated bluetooth speakerphone, my car turns off the stereo input to my speakers and replaces it with the phone input.  At the same time, if I have a cable plugged into my headphone jack on my phone, my phone assumes that I want to hear the call through my "headphones" and not any attached bluetooth device, so my phone doesn't transmit the incoming phone audio to the bluetooth antenna -- it sends it to the audio cable plugged into the headphone jack.  Since my car stereo isn't accepting auxiliary input during a phone call, I hear nothing.

So, I really need a way to tell my phone that when I have a bluetooth speakerphone connected and "headphones" connected, I prefer to hear the call through the bluetooth connection (I don't think it's very likely that I'm going to be able to get Mazda to change their stereo firmware :-) ).

UPDATE (JUL 24)

I tried my wife's Razr (running ICS) and didn't have this problem, so it seems to be Samsung Galaxy SIII problem, not an ICS problem.
I've come up with a couple of work-arounds that I'll submit as a separate answer.

From the Samsung tech support, they say that:

  when the AUX cable is plugged in, Blue-tooth audio is dead.

However, from the ICS Options during a call:

  During a call, you can also use buttons near the bottom of the screen to:

  Switch to the dialer, for example to enter a code.
  Controls the audio output as follows:

  If a Bluetooth headset is not connected: Turns the speakerphone on or off.
  If a Bluetooth headset is connected: Functions as a 3-way switch between the built-in earpiece, the speakerphone, and the headset. The icon changes to indicate the current output. Touch & hold to see a 3-way menu.
  If a wired headset is plugged into the phone, it replaces the phone's built-in earpiece.

Note:
The Google Support link refers to the Android 4.0 for Galaxy Nexus (Released 2011, November), but the one you have is newer (Released 2012, May). Since the OS is the same, there's no reason as to not have those options available.

You can try and check if the mentioned option at point 2.2. works, but besides from that, I believe that you're out of luck on this subject.


How to uninstall "not installed" apps I just found out that some apps that I uninstall from my tablet are still listed in "all apps" section by my device, although marked as "not installed":

Apps List (click image for larger variant)

How can I fully remove them? Please note that those are not system apps or pre-installed apps by manufacturer.

Settings -> Apps -> select your app
tap on menu button (3 dots) -> Uninstall for all users


Mounting SD card as USB drive on Windows PC (Marshmallow) Since its beginnings, crappy Android has made it difficult for users to achieve the very basic feature of mounting the SD storage of the phone as a USB drive, when the phone is connected to a PC by cable. You can see the phone and SD under My Computer, but not as a USB drive that apps can access. My workaround to this embarrassing shortcoming has been an app that did just that but that only works on a rooted phone - which my new Marshmallow Android phone is not. Is there any other workaround?

As you said, it's possible only if your device is rooted..
Google no longer supports USB Mass Storage Mode due to several reasons, since JellyBean.

However, there are softwares for PC that virtually shows & provides access to the device (connected in MTP mode) as a Removable Storage USB Drive, like for example, MTPdrive (as @beeshyams commented); no root access required in device. But it's just a virtual round-about connection, hence it'll be slower than UMS & even MTP mode..

Or try WiFi USB Disk - Smart Disk, which also virtually shows your device as a USB Drive (through WiFi). Or you can do that yourself using file servers by mapping a network drive to your device.

To get your device's memory card actually mounted as a real UMS device, the only way is to root your device..

There are many root apps that would help you enable UMS. Some of them are:

Multi Mount SD-Card ( Lite | Pro )
USB Mass Storage Enabler (an app created by me)
USB Sharer ( Free | Full )
SD Card as USB Drive ( Free )

Note: Some apps require you to disable SELinux (that is, setting SELinux mode to 'Permissive' by setenforce 0 command)


Battery Draining Faster than expected Can someone help me take a look at my stats? I was wondering why my phone is draining faster than I thought it would.

As you can see, it's down 98% and Screen is on for just 7M in 23minutes time.

Time in the screenshot is 7:04 and currently it's 7:26AM - I now have 93% of battery.

I noticed these two running as similar as to my battery runtime:
1. No Data Connection
2. No or Unknown Signal

Please help me figure out what's the issue and how to resolve it. Thanks!

BetterBatteryStats
LOGCAT BBS

I won't say this is un-natural. Would suggest you to take a longer time period as test period and see the drain.

Setting the brightness to automatic should help reduce the overall usage somewhat.


Help me save battery, BBS dump included I got fed up with my Android battery life and thought I should use it only when really required. Hence, I installed a minimum number of apps: Runtastic, Runkeeper, GPS Status & Toolbox, Metronomics Beats for tracking my runs, and WhatsApp, which I use from time to time in a day. I also have installed microG Project, UnifiedNlp Location, Nova Launcher, and Titanium Backup.

I froze all the running apps and WhatsApp using Titanium Backup and unfreezing them before use. Using Amplify, I also limited some wake-locks as suggested in other threads on XDA. I also have Naptime, Power Nap for dozing and blocking background activity on screen off. I have Greenify, but not enabled.

I marked a custom reference using BetterBatteryStats last night when going to bed and checked in the morning. The battery level lost is 1.6% in 7 hours 16 minutes. Out of this, my phone was in deep sleep for 7 hours 11 minutes. So, 5 minutes of activity consumed 11% of my battery. I am not sure what is eating my battery.

Could you guys help me figure out and block it? Ideally, since I don't use my phone a lot, I am hoping that the discharge percent is less than 1.

BBS dump: http://pastebin.com/066UsAwp

So, 5 minutes of activity consumed 11% of my battery

You are mistaken in saying this, don't forget that the phone is on all the time , so that too consumes power. But yes, 1.6% is a little on the higher side, but not too much IMO, considering that you have so many apps/services running

Looking at this, wake locks are reasonably under control

  Deep Sleep (): 7 h 11 m 47 s  98.8%

  Awake (Screen Off) (): 2 m 41 s  0.6%

  Screen On (): 2 m 24 s  0.6%

but, you could also try to limit these using Amplify without disrupting, what is essential  to you (do you require GPS to be on?)

  alarm (com.fitnesskeeper.runkeeper.pro.Runkeeper): 31 m 3 s  Count:0 7.1%

  alarm (com.truecaller.phoneapp.Truedialer): 31 m 1 s  Count:0 7.1%

  launch (com.whatsapp.WhatsApp): 31 m 1 s  Count:0 7.1%

  launch (com.eclipsim.gpsstatus2.GPS Status): 31 m 1 s  Count:0 7.1%

So what you need is something that hibernates apps not in use like  Greenify (not task killers), which is missing from your active list- wonder why you didn't enable it? ( Have a look at greenifytag in case you are not familiar with it and in particular Android's native process management vs. Greenify) This should certainly help you in reducing battery consumption

I would also highly recommend you to read this XDA thread ✭[GUIDE][07-02-2016]Extreme Battery Life Thread(Greenify+Amplify+Power Nap)✭ by V7. It gives a very systematic approach starting with battery life saving tips and how to use apps like Greenify and Amplify to reduce battery consumption. The OP is highly responsive and would revert with solutions, once you post your BBS stats as explained in his thread. I have been able to achieve 0.8% per hour consumption following his thread

Edit: Since freezing apps by Titanium didn't help, they appear to be poorly designed- look for alternate apps. see this in the Greenify question linked earlier


Nexus 7 2013 screen won't come on. When to give up? My Nexus 7 2013 is no longer working properly: I cannot get the screen to come on, and I don't see any evidence of back-lighting even in a dark room.  I believe the device starts up and shuts down properly because when it's connected to my computer via USB, I can browse the files on the tablet.

On two occasions, I was able to see the boot screen ("Google" logo with an open padlock at the bottom of the screen). The 2nd time it happened, there was an unusual white horizontal line (typically the background is solid black) crossing the screen. That was two days ago; nothing since.

I suspect it's a hardware issue, but I don't know how to test. So I have two questions:

What can I try to fix the problem? I'm open to using ADB, fastboot etc, but need detailed instructions (am noob).
If the problem can't be fixed, how can I safely clear all my info from the device before I dispose of it?

The Nexus is on Android 5.1.1, and is rooted with an unlocked bootloader. The device is also fully charged.

More info:

When I plug the device to my TV's HDMI, the Nexus outputs the Android UI to the television, and the tablet screen can sense my touch (I can navigate the touchscreen, although nothing is displayed on the tablet itself). So if any diagnostic or fix requires me to see what's on screen, it's doable

This is hardware damage. Your local electronics repair shop can probably replace the screen if you would like. The manufacturer is a possibility too, but it will be expensive.

As for recovering data, most of what you will need to save is stored to the SD card (emulated most of the time), and you said you could view the internal storage. Save whatever you feel you want (always downloads folder and DCIM). Most other data is saved to the cloud by Google and can be automatically imported into a new device.

If you were able to access ADB, you can take a full system backup using the backup command. When it requests access, tap the bottom left corner of the screen after unlocking the screen as if it worked correctly. It's okay if this doesn't work, what you can already access should be sufficient.

You're lucky. Most people cannot access the internal storage when this occurs.

As for wiping the device, you have access to the screen! Navigate to Settings-> Privacy -> Factory Reset. This will delete all data on the phone.


Display full screen screenshot/photo preview? I am looking for a method that can be used to select screenshots, but when displaying them it does in full screen, so we just slide to see the next one.
By "selector" I mean, other app wants some image chosen, and these 3 options below are shown to me.
Currently I have:

gallery (default android) it shows tiny previews and wont help
quickpick it shows tiny previews too
photos, I cant find the latest screenshots at all (but it is tiny previews too).

I need full screen to be SURE I am selecting the correct screenshot...
No search I do on play store will help.
It is a too specific requirement.
So if you know an app or any way that can be used to select photos or screenshots but shows them ON FULL SCREEN or at least half the screen size, it will be much better than other options we have.

I found an app "simple gallery"
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simplemobiletools.gallery
it has an option to lower the number of shown columns, and that will make all screenshots bigger!


Failure to boot after rooting LG Optimus V and installing CM7 I recently bought an LG Optimus V (VirginMobile) to replace my current Samsung Intercept. Upon reciept, I rooted it following the procedure at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1070018. The rooting went fine, and I got to step 10 in flashing the CM7 Rom. What I get after the reboot specified in step 9 is the CyanogenMod animated splashscreen, which animates for a bit, then stops, and thats where the unit stays, for up to an hour. I can get to the installed recovery console, but have no idea what I need to do to fix this. I rooted this unit immediately after getas the main reason for needing a smartphone is the fact I need to have OpenVPN installed on any phone I have. I went crazy getting my previous Samsung Intercept rooted and then getting the tun.ko for the installed kernel. The final fix was to install a 3rd party rom which supplied the kernel module. I did not want to go thru that again on this LG phone. Whats my next step?

As the comments in the other answer(s) state, make sure to wipe both the /cache and /data partitions.

I failed to do this and my Cyanogenmod 7.2 ROM hung on boot. When I wiped both partitions (via the ClockworkMod Recovery console), the phone booted successfully.


Does modifying read cache on my SD card also affect the speed of reading my Ext3 partition? I'm trying to make Link2SD work on my phone so I partitioned my 16gb SD to 4gb for the Ext3 partition and the rest for normal storage.

I'm noticing some slight lag on my usage of the phone and I read on this article that I can in fact, increase the read cache to speed up reading contents on the SD. My question is; does increasing the read cache also affect the speed of reading my Ext3 partition? Or does it only affect the "normal" storage?

As with normal disks, this should apply to the disk and not a specific partition. Some file systems offer additional caching, which then would apply to the specific partition -- but disk cache should always apply to the entire disk.


Galaxy S3 won't boot, gets stuck at the "Samsung Galaxy S3 GT" screen I seem to have the same problem as many other Galaxy users with the Boot Loop. I cannot access my phone:

I am not able to load the Stock ROM or factory reset it, nor erase any data.
It is stuck at the Samsung Galaxy S3 GT screen and then turns off.
If I go to "download" or "volume up mode" (I am sorry I don't know the name) it turns off.

I have already tried:

pulling the battery out
waiting until the battery has no juice
connecting to PC to try to update the firmware

Does anybody know what should be done?

It might be a power button issue. when you take the battery out, and put it back in does the phone automatically turn on by itself? or do you have to press the power button to do that? You should turn it back on with the power button, if it turns back on automatically then it means your power button has gotten stuck. What I did was hold it and kept pressing it a few times in order for it to get unstuck. it'll turn on like normal once it's unstuck


"Save as draft" option missing from the default message app? I have a Samsung galaxy Y mobile phone, and I have just discovered that the option to save messages as draft is completely missing in the app named "Messaging" that I got pre-installed.

I am really shocked, as this is a very basic and common feature in the cheapest phones today.

My Question is: What kind of design/usage philosophy/idea/concept/thought is behind this?
Also, is their any good alternative to this pre-installed app which has the option to save drafts?

The stock messaging app will automatically save a draft message when you tap on the back button while composing the message, but the recipient field has to be filled. Without a recipient it will give a warning that the message will be deleted.

There are a lot of good alternatives. I have no experience with them myself (I'm using the stock app) but a lot of people seem to like Handcent, GO SMS Pro or ChompSMS. Just search the Internet for reviews.


Share Facebook Post via Whatsapp Today I saw an interesting post on Facebook (App). So I decided to share it through Whatsapp with my friends. But I can't find any Whatsapp share button on FB App. There is only Messenger share button. So how I can share it through Whatsapp.

Click the post you want to share, in the top left hand corner there is a down arrow click it for options. You can copy the link and send from WhatsApp or if your keyboard has the option share it from the clipboard.