What are the alternatives for Xposed framework on Pie? Preferably without triggering Safety Net? Xposed development has been in a limbo with the last update being a beta released a year ago.

Die hard fans of Xposed  hesitate to upgrade Android, in the absence of Xposed support.This is true for the latest Android Pie as well. Magisk is useful but cannot replace Xposed for deep stuff. Yet another concern is Safety Net getting triggered when Xposed framework is installed through Magisk.

What are the alternatives available? Preferably without triggering Safety Net?

Note :

This is a self answered question to share my recent foray into this after upgrading to Pie.
Moderators are welcome to make this a wiki Q and A if it attracts more updates or if deemed fit.

There are significant changes in Magisk /EdXposed drivers which are updated here How to install EdXposed on Android 10 without triggering safety net
Please refer to updated installation instructions.

*Alternatives to Xposed (rovo89) are:

Virtual Xposed - a rootless Xposed and therefore far less capable. I didn't investigate further for this reason but I read that development on this has stopped (unconfirmed).

Tai-Chi Xposed by the same developer of Virtual Xposed and supports Android Pie. Said to be close sourced and likely to be paid module per some reports.

Edxposed. This is the alternative I chose.

Disclaimer: I am not a developer nor am I affiliated to any app or module.
Is it safe?
Yes
For an average user like me, two factors help decide:

Open Source Vs Close Source Edxposed is  Open source. I have no understanding of code and cannot draw any conclusion from looking at code. But yes, being open source means it is subject to scrutiny by knowledgeable folks and therefore safer (Please don't drag me into open source discussion, rather post an alternative answer :).

Provenance or trust attached

The last  Xposed update by rovo89 is also close sourced (as against earlier versions which are open source). This being close source would not have detracted people from using it purely based on developer's reputation.

In the case of Edxposed, my trust lies with Marcel (aka M66B) who has developed several privacy centered modules / apps such as NetGuard, Xprivacy, XprivacyLua and FairEmail. For me, when a staunch privacy advocate like Marcel starts development using EdXposed(edit-completed development), that's pretty much sovereign guarantee despite some warnings about close source (Incidentally, this claim is incorrect and a Reddit user informed XDA portal. To clarify again, it is open source)

Is it as good as Xposed and can I use all Xposed modules?

It is not (yet) as powerful as Xposed because it lacks support at this stage for resource hooks but it may get added hopefully.

It is still in beta stage but a lot of modules work already. See [Updated] List of Xposed modules for Android Pie working with Ed Xposed Framework for a list of working and non-working modules which is being updated. Take this list with a pinch of salt - it may mean anything from doesn't crash and works partially to fully works. See last question below.

For me XPrivacy Lua works and works far better on EdXposed than on the beta version of Xposed on Oreo. Another must module for me is Maxlock which works fine. Only one I want is GravityBox and C3C076 , developer of GravityBox is considering development for EdXposed and it is likely others follow suit.

Does it pass Safety Net?
Yes :)
OK, how do I install it?
Check for updates from corresponding links below as they would change being a beta. Valid as on 12 Feb 19 and will not be updated in this answer. See How to install EdXposed on Android 10 without triggering safety net for a more recent method
Source Android 9.0 uses xposed solutions as updated
Use Magisk order to install these modules in the same order ( You won't find them in the magisk repo. Download them and from Magisk Downloads option click on the + to install and they will appear as Magisk Modules)

Magisk-riru-core-arm-arm64-v10.zip

Magisk-EdXposed-arm-arm64-v x.x_beta-release.zip

Don't reboot yet , install XposedInstaller_by_dvdandroid_19_10_18. apk or from XDA

magisk-EdXposed-v0.2.9.8_beta1-release.zip (check for updates in subsequent releases)

Reboot.

Does it work on modded UI's like that of Samsung , MiUI, Poco etc?
Traditionally XPosed always had a problem with such devices but EdXposed seems to fare better. Issues with some devices are reported so YMMV (check out the linked XDA thread)
List of  modules that are  fully optimized?
Developers would need to upgrade their modules for working with Pie AND EdXposed. As of now, the following modules meet these requirements

XPrivacy Lua

Xposed Edge Pro

Gravity Box Beta released on 08 Mar 19.

Notes

You may need multiple reboots.

Ignore the warning on the installer Xposed not yet compatible ...with SDK 28...or your Android architecture (see pic below).

You may find at times that installer is disabled - reinstall and reboot to fix. For some , soft reboot from installer fixes the problem (root permission needs to be given for installer).

Whenever Installer is upgraded, it is better in my experience to uninstall the earlier installer and install the newer one to prevent instability

Your device may be noticeably slower to respond - that's a price to pay till things stabilize.

Some modules may work with earlier versions of Edxposed and not with later versions or vice-versa.

Pro-tip Just in case you land up installing a module that ends up in a boot loop or creates some other problem , it is handy to have [Tool][2018.8.1] Magisk Manager for Recovery Mode (mm) installed so that you can disable or uninstall the Xposed modules from Magisk.

Screenshots are from my MiA1 (Android one) running stock OS with latest Magisk 18.1

(Click to enlarge)
Happy Xposing !


CyanogenMod: Low volume parts of songs are not played (muted) I have troubles with playing music on Samsung Galaxy S2 with CyanogenMod 10.

When I play music to headphones with low volume, playing music is really influent. It seems like playing is being stopped in quiet parts of song.

I tried a lot of music players and it's always the same. Is there any help? It isn't very much comfortable to listen music in such situation.

Seems to be a common hardware problem on Samsung devices.

Easiest solution is to just install the newest Dorimanx kernel for Samsung Galaxy SII. Works for me now.

Source: This thread here.


What is the safest way to perform backups of my partitions? The partitions on my phone are visible on /dev/mts/mtsX, and I'd like to copy the contents of those files onto my sd card for safe keeping. Is it safe to just say:

cat /dev/mtd/mtd0 > /sdcard/mtd0

Because I'm not so sure if it's safe to use cat on binary files. Maybe there is a port of dd?

cat is a very bad idea here. If you really want to make a backup on partition level, rather take a look at dd. What you probably want to do is something like

dd if=/dev/mtd/mtd0 of=/sdcard/mtd0.image

For more details, you might want to consult the dd Man Page. Remark: I'm not sure whether the dd shipped with Android supports the full list of options, so you might have to try out.


How to make Android use remote DNS servers over VPN? I've set up an L2TP/IPsec PSK VPN between my phone and my home network.  It works, but Android doesn't use my home DNS server, so none of my internal hostnames resolve.  I can access internal servers by IP address, but not by name.  How can I get the phone to use my internal DNS instead of whatever servers it normally uses?

Some background: I'm using a Samsung Epic 4G running Gingerbread.  My VPN server is running xl2tpd and openswan on Linux.  I checked the routing table on my phone, and traffic is correctly being routed through the VPN.  On the server, there are options in the PPP config called "ms-dns-1" and "ms-dns-2" that allows the server to push DNS server IPs to the client.  But apparently those options are only used by Microsoft clients.  I've Googled the issue, and other people have the same problem, but I haven't been able to find a solution.

My phone isn't rooted.  I'm willing to root the phone if I have to, but I'd prefer not to.

Edit, 2 months later

I finally found out what was wrong, and it had nothing to do with DNS.  I'm using my desktop computer as the VPN endpoint, and I had neglected to turn on IP forwarding, so it wasn't forwarding packets.  I could access services on the VPN endpoint itself, but anything that required forwarding packets (including DNS lookups) failed.  The VPN client was correctly picking up DNS information, but it couldn't reach the DNS server because of the forwarding issue.  Once I corrected that, the VPN worked perfectly.  To summarize, I'm an idiot.

You might want to take a look at the DNS Settings app, which claims to be able to do what you want (you just have to switch once to a static IP to change the DNS settings, and then switch back to dynamic IP, according to the description). That's the only non-root app I could find for this issue -- there are two more apps at least, but they require root to work.


Will flashing a custom ROM on my Galaxy Nexus device wipe my data? I'm wondering if I flash a custom ROM onto my Samsung Galaxy Nexus device, will it erase all my data (musics, pictures, etc.) due to its memory singularity?

Flashing a CustomROM (usually any ROM different to the one you're currently running) requires you to do a complete Wipe (well, at least it is strongly recommended for stability reasons) -- so the answer is probably: Yes. Data on an external SD card usually is not affected -- but as far as I remember, the GN has no such thing.

You might wish to consult the following Q&As for more information:

How can I keep settings after flashing a ROM?
Do I need to revert to stock firmware and/or wipe data before installing a custom ROM?
Manually upgrade Galaxy Nexus 4.0.4 (yakjuxw) to 4.1

EDIT:

Just to be more clear: Data on (external|internal) SD-Card (the Nexus uses an internal eMMC instead of the external SD, if I'm correct) -- that is the place where you store your photos, videos, music files, etc. -- are not affected by the wipe. Just all "internal memory" -- i.e. the apps you installed, and all settings plus app data -- will be erased.


screen keeps jerking and there are automatic touches First of Tablet info :

Model number : Micromax P275

Android version : 4.0.4

Baseband version : v3.0

Kernal version : 3.0.8+ linda@SKYWORTHSERVER3 #52
Fri Sep 21 14:00:53 CST 2012

Build number : P275_HW.V0.1_V3.0_20120921

I dont know anything about android

now the issue is that the screen keeps randomly jerking and there are random touches that happen which will open apps and close apps randomly. this happens after few minutes since  Tablet turn on. When these things happen i cannot do anything. even if i try to power down by pressing the power key the dialog box disappears because of this random behavior.

i observer this behavior mainly when i travel in bus. so i'm thinking that the vibrations are affecting the accelerometer and thus causing the random movements. When i'm in a stationary place i rarely see this issue, but it has occured.

now i disabled

1)Auto rotate

2)Disabled all options in Developer options except Force hardware rendering.

the system update will happen and i cant turn it off(atleast i dont know).

my main useage in the Tablet are 1) pdf reading 2)videos 3)small c programmin(using CCtools).

please help me with this issue. its is very very frustrating. last thing,i brought this device 28 days ago. also i would like links on reinstalling android.

From your description, there are two obvious possibilities. The first is that some static electricity or oil on the touch screen is causing it to think you're touching it. Try giving the screen a good wipe. Also, earth yourself by holding a metal water pipe with one hand, and cover the screen with your other hand.

The alternative is a manufacturing defect in the touch screen. Faulty touch screens are quite a common problem with cheaper tablets. If you can manage to do this with all the false touches, try to install a paint program from Google Play and run it on your tablet. Leave the paint program running for a few minutes, and any false touches will paint on the screen. You can see where they are happening. You may see a pattern to them, such as all being in one strip of the screen, or always at one point. That would confirm that it's a fault in the touch screen, in which case you should return your tablet and get it replaced.


Import .vcf files from old Nokia fails I have to transfer 50 contacts from an old Nokia phone to a Motorola running Android 5.
I managed to Export an nbf backup from the Nokia and Export all contacts vcf files from that nbf file.
But now every time I try to import those vcf files from the default contacts App, Theres a notification "will import 1.vcf soon" and then "finished importing 1.vcf".
But the imprted contacts wont show up in the App.
Further more I can only import single contacts as when I select more than one it will say importing but never finish
Thank you for your help :)

Edit: Just tested the import on my note 4 with stock Samsung OS and it worked just fine

Got it to work with the app Tranfer Contacts by Maine Avenue Technologies SL. It's pretty much self-explanatory and easy to use but works only with Bluetooth devices.


Handwrite / draw on a text document Is there an Android app that enables hand-writing / drawing on a word document? I want to draw and write on the text. I don't want to edit the document, but write on the top of it. Instead of typing the letters using the keyboard, I want to draw on the text. Just like writing / drawing on a picture, I would like to draw on a word document.

I have been looking for this everywhere, can anyone suggest me a good app that can do this?

Thanks.

I think what you're looking for is usually called "freehand drawing". I can't find any app that supports free hand drawing on Word document. However, Adobe Reader for Android supports freehand drawing annotation on PDF document. You can convert your word documents to PDF and use Adobe Reader to make your annotations.

Freehand annotation on an editable document like Word generally makes little sense anyway, because it's not always obvious where the annotation should move to when the text is edited.


Does Whatsapp require verification after Factory Reset? I recently had a problem with my Samsung S7 edge. It keeps on restarting and after removing cache, it still restarts after a few minutes. I found out that the most effective way to fix it is a factory reset. The problem is that, I am overseas and I could not receive any calls or text. Hence, I would not be able to verify my Whatsapp number.

Does anyone know whether Whatsapp requires verification after factory reset or does anyone know how to fix the problem?

Thank you!

Yes it will require verification, and you will need to be able to receive a text to verify your number with WhatsApp.  If your device/carrier has the ability to send/receive texts over wifi, that may be an option for you to verify your number.

Per WhatsApp's FAQ Page here:

  Requirements

  You can only verify a phone number you own.
  You must be able to receive phone calls and SMS to the phone number you are  trying to verify.
  You must have any call-blocking settings, apps or task killers disabled.
  You must have a working Internet connection through mobile data or Wi-Fi. If you are roaming or have a bad connection, verification may
  not work. Try opening www.whatsapp.com on your phone’s Internet
  browser to see if you are connected to the Internet.

  If you didn't receive the 6-digit code by SMS

  If the timer runs out before you receive the code, an option will appear to request a phone call. Choose the Call me option to request
  the call. When you answer the call, an automated voice should tell you
  the 6-digit code. Insert that to verify WhatsApp.


How to build LineageOS for a device without official support? I have a Mi 8 Lite (platina), for which there is no official LineageOS support. But LineageOS custom ROM for the device is available on XDA. On further research, I can see that vendor files, device tree and kernel source code is available for my device:

Kernel Source
Device Tree
Vendor Files

How do I build a LineageOS ROM for my device without official support?

Firstly you need to setup the build environment. You should be running Ubuntu 18.04. LineageOS build guide for a random device can be used as a reference. Reproducing the steps here:

Install the build packages:

sudo apt install bc bison build-essential ccache curl flex g++-multilib gcc-multilib git gnupg gperf imagemagick lib32ncurses5-dev lib32readline-dev lib32z1-dev liblz4-tool libncurses5-dev libsdl1.2-dev libssl-dev libwxgtk3.0-dev libxml2 libxml2-utils lzop pngcrush rsync schedtool squashfs-tools xsltproc zip zlib1g-dev adb fastboot

Create the directories:

mkdir -p ~/bin
mkdir -p ~/android/lineage

Install the repo command:

curl https://storage.googleapis.com/git-repo-downloads/repo > ~/bin/repo
chmod a+x ~/bin/repo

Put the ~/bin directory in your path of execution by adding the following to your ~/.profile if it's missing:

# set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists
if [ -d "$HOME/bin" ] ; then
    PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"
fi

Then, run source ~/.profile to update your environment. After that, initialize the LineageOS source repository and start downloading:

cd ~/android/lineage
repo init -u https://github.com/LineageOS/android.git -b lineage-16.0
repo sync

Downloading LineageOS source will take some time. After that we will deviate from the official build guide. Create a local manifest file telling the repo tool where to pick up the kernel source, device tree and vendor files. The corresponding file for platina can be downloaded from here. If you are building for a different device, use this manifest file as a reference and edit it accordingly. Save the file as

.repo/local_manifests/platina.xml

Rerun repo tool to fetch them:

repo sync

Initialise your build environment:

source build/envsetup.sh

Enable caching to speed up the build:

export USE_CCACHE=1

You should add the above line to your .bashrc file. Then set the max cache size:

ccache -M 50G

Configure jack:

export ANDROID_JACK_VM_ARGS="-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 -XX:+TieredCompilation -Xmx4G"

Edit device/xiaomi/platina/BoardConfig.mk and set the parameter TARGET_KERNEL_CONFIG to platina_user_defconfig:

TARGET_KERNEL_SOURCE points to the kernel code that is to be used during the build. TARGET_KERNEL_CONFIG specifies which configuration is to be used. By looking in arch/arm64/configs/ in the kernel source, I set the value to platina_user_defconfig

Finally start the build:

lunch 16
mka bacon -j8

This should lake a few hours to complete. I usually leave it running overnight. Here is where things get challenging. It’s possible that the build can fail due to errors, in which case you will have to fix it. Once the build has completed, you will find the zip file, ready to flash:


Searching for WiFi toggle How do I get the WiFi toggle to show up in the notifications area on the Samsung Galaxy S4 - Verizon - 4.2.2 - Build VRUAME7?

When I click on the pencil icon to edit it takes me here which doesn't scroll or allow me to edit the notifications except move the order around:

You can customise the toggles by clicking the pencil icon in the top right. You should then be able to add a wifi toggle icon.
Edit: Ok. It seems like Verizon have removed that toggle. If you're rooted you can add it back though. See link here (contains screenshots).

You need to download and install SQLite Editor - you need to download and install SQLite Editor

Open up SQLite Editor - Select the Apps tab on top and scroll down until you see Settings Storage and click it.

Click on Settings.db

Click on system

Click on the search icon on top right

Type in the word notification in the Filter Value field and click ok

Once the results load up, tap on notification_panel_active_app_list (should be the bottom result) and click on the pencil icon on top to
edit

In the Value field, you'll see all your toggles listed. All you have to do is add the word Wifi <-- just like that with a semi colon
right after. Make sure there's no space after the semi colon like in
the screenshot below. Once you add Wifi, click the save button.

Close SQLite editor and reboot your phone. Once your phone boots back up, you should now have the Wifi toggle in quick settings!


How to execute “reboot recovery” in recovery mode? I need to run "reboot recovery" while in Android recovery mode without using PC.

My recovery didn't accept recovery parameter "recovery".

adb reboot recovery - reboots recovery to recovery.

rom shell "reboot recovery" - just reboot to system.

Trying to push normal reboot to /tmp and run it, but sh says that it couldn't find /tmp/reboot.

TWRP recovery project make it like below maybe this can help

case rb_recovery:
            check_and_run_script("/sbin/rebootrecovery.sh", "reboot recovery");

Github ref


Can default alarms be accessed as audio files? For a Pixel 2 with Android 11, are the default alarms stored locally as audio files? If yes, can the files be accessed through a file browser?

The default audio files that come with Android are encoded using the OGG Vorbis encoder and therefore you can find them in file-.system as .ogg files.
On Pixel phones the audio files are located in the path /product/media/audio/alarms/ respectively /system/product/media/audio/alarms/ (visible in this path in file manager apps like Cx File Explorer).
Use a file manager app or adb to access those files. the path is a bit different.


Oppo F1 and F1s Case Can anyone tell me if an Oppo F1 case will fit the Oppo F1s?
I think the dimensions are the same, other than the camera shape. However if anyone can confirm for me that would be much appreciated.

Maybe you should look harder...

OPPO F1 is based on the R7 family design, with rougher edges, 5-inch screen and a 2.80x5.65x0.29 inches dimension. F1S on the other hand uses design from the R9 family, with much rounder edges, 5.5-inch screen and a 2.99x6.08x0.29 inches dimension.


How do I convert videos for Samsung GT-i5503? I'm using Samsung GT-i5503 with android version 2.2. I recently updated my Kies application. And after updating when I tried converting videos using Kies Video COnverter from youtube then saved in my phone, it won't play and error message was displayed(Sorry, this video cannot be played.). However, before updating my kies it works perfectly. How can I convert videos now so that can be played in my phone.

I highly recommend Handbrake Video Converter. It can convert all common video formats to mp4,mkv that the samsung video player supports. Choose the iPod Profile which is supported by most phones or you could also create your own profile. I always use Handbrake to convert videos for my Galaxy Ace. The Samsung GT-I5503 shares many similarities with the Galaxy Ace and as Samsung is using the same Layer of Software on top of android (TouchWiz with all the Apps such as Music,Video etc..) the same settings should work for your phone.


Do action when alarm is dismissed I want to set an alarm with a specific label, and when that specific alarm is dismissed, I want it to launch my app. Is there any way to do that?

I'm using Kivy with jnius, so I'd appreciate responses wrt that, but any help is appreciated very much.

Any automation can probably handle such tasks. Try Automate (free) with its Alarm and App start blocks.


AC3 codec for MX Player Since the latest MX Player upgrade, AC3 is not included because of some licensing issues. How can I add a codec to MX player?
I did search the play store, but all codecs seem to be connected to a specific player.

Open mxplayer, and go to the settings-decoder. On the bottom you will see "download user codec" and recomendation "download neon arm7". Then, just follow the instructions.


Configuring ADB for Nexus 4 on Ubuntu 11.10 I'm trying to deploy and test an Android app on my Nexus 4 from my Ubuntu 11.10 computer, but ADB doesn't recognize it. I think I need the Google USB drivers, but I cannot find instructions on how to install them on Ubuntu.

How can I install the drivers on Ubuntu 11.10 so that ADB will recognize my N4?

You don't need any special drivers -- all you need is to make your device known. A few simple steps can accomplish this when your device is connected via USB:

sudo lsusb
[...]
Bus 002 Device 054: ID 18d1:4e22 Google Inc. Nexus S (debug)

See the two hex values separated by a colon: 18d1:4e22 This is the manufacturerID:deviceID you need to tell the system to handle. So as root:

sudo su -
cd /etc/udev/rules.d
vi 51-android.rules

In this file, add a line (you can use the editor of your choice, of course -- my example uses vi)

# MyDeviceName
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="18d1", ATTRS{idProduct}=="4e22", MODE="0666" GROUP="androiddev", SYMLINK+="android%n"

This example uses the values from above lsusb output -- you need to replace them by yours. Now, to let your changes take effect:

sudo service udev reload

Final step: Disconnect your device, and reconnect it. It should be recognized now.


How to pair ICS phone with other device that has no Bluetooth PIN I have a Galaxy S3 i9300 running ICS Cyanogenmod and I am trying to pair it with a Bluetooth device that has no PIN - a Wii Balance board.

The balance board does not have a PIN, however whenever I try to connect to it, my phone prompts for a password. I have tried the default 0000 and 1234 to no avail.

Is it possible to connect to a Bluetooth device without using a PIN?

I don't think it'll work out of the box, you'll need an app that has the required code to work around the default Bluetooth protocol of requiring a PIN for devices to be paired securely.

There is an app called WiiScale which allows a user to link the Wii Balance Board with their Android device, provided they're rooted. The plus point of course is that it's compatible with CM which you're running. :-)

Alternate app: FitScales


Formating and reinstaling OS on Galaxy S4 Someone put CyanogenMod on my T-Mobile Galaxy S4. So I tried to unroot and return to the original by watching this Youtube video and using this method.This is what I have gotten from the phone:

Odin Mode
Product Name: SGH: M919
Current Binary: Custom
System Status: Custom
Knox Kernel Lock: 0X0
Knox Warranty Void: 0X1
Write protection: Enable
eMMC Bust: Mode: Enable
Start [224, 1440]                                           in red
SW REV. CHECK FAIL : fused : 4, Binary: 1 in red.

On the PC screen, in red, it says Fail!

In the message box, the last line read: All threads completed: (succeed 0 /  failed 1).

Now I tried to reboot the phone, I got the same Odin Mode thing plus: CSB-CONFIG-LSB: 0X30 minus the two lines in red.

In the middle of the screen, a phone, a yellow triangle with an ! mark in the center, a PC screen.

Below says: "Firmware upgrade encountered an issue. please select recovery mode in Kies & try again."

I have no phone now. I know I didnt reset binary flash. So people told me to format and reinstall the OS. Please help me to go back to stock version.

There are 2 ways:

Get the stock ROM which works with root from sammobile.com. Make sure that Kies isn't running. Then, flash the ROM with Odin, or,
Unroot using the custom recovery by downloading a completely stock normal ROM from sammobile which should get rid of root.


I moved some apps to SD, why haven't int/ext storage changed? The apps were all user-downloaded. Transfer size should have created generous internal storage "breathing room."

Details:
Samsung Galaxy S5 Android 5.0 Via Android App Manager(AAM) reported completion of each move 64GB Samsung SD Card (presumably undamaged) Internal storage 90-95% capacity. Phone was restarted after all the moves. Cleared each cache before moving.

Referred to the following, but it is dated and from a different platform.

Should apps take up any internal storage when installed to SD?

Editorial: Why, if so little storage is gained with a move, are SD cards so recommended as near-crucial in Android? After 6 months, my "Let the buyer beware" factor is growing with each swipe at each of Android's supposed benefits. Seems I need a PhD to embark on just about any change.

I don't want to sound bad or anything but the above linked question still applies....
Really to save space you move things such as photos, videos, music and films to the SD card (This can be done via in app options normally such as within Google play music settings -> manage downloads -> internal / sdcard).

However some apps do store data on the SD card. One such example is a ringtone app. So when you download the ringtone its saved to the SD card. And some games save stuff to the SD card. So you may end up saving a bit of data here or there.

It really depends on the app as the APK's themselves can be quite large and are stored in the system memory rather than the SD card which also has limited permissions too which is also another reason as to why some apps won't move to the SD card.


Proprietary software distributed along with Linux kernel What is the licensing rationale behind distributing proprietary (copyrighted) software within a common smartphone's Android system? I mean software like device drivers (camera, GSM modules etc.) or closed source apps like Google Apps. I thought proprietary software can not be distributed alongside a GPLv2 Linux kernel which Android runs on top of.

I thought proprietary software can not be distributed alongside a GPLv2 Linux kernel which Android runs on top of.

No, the so-called "viral" nature of GPL doesn't apply to things that are merely distributed together: it only comes into play when statically linking GPL and other code into a single binary. Including non-free kernel modules and non-free APKs in a Linux system such as Android is perfectly fine.

If it weren't OK, this would be a problem for desktop Linux distributions as well, which often rely on non-free drivers for certain hardware (most commonly GPUs), and non-free user-space applications (such as Skype).


Samsung Galaxy S7562 Force application to start on power up? Is there a way to force an application to start automatically on every power up on my Samsung Galaxy S7562?

Thx

There are several apps capable of doing exactly that (adding other apps to the "autostart ramp"). Some of them you can find in my Auto-Start Management listing. I'd recommend you taking a look at Autorun especially for mainly two reasons: 1) it's the best rated I've seen so far, and 2) it's pretty permission-friendly (only requesting 1 permission: to be informed when the device boot completed). Quoting the app description:

  A simple autorun service that allows you to automatically launch selected applications upon your device power up. No more missed messages because you forgot to start your favorite chat client, just setup an autorun and always be online.

For alternatives, please consult the list I've linked above ;)


Backup memos from Samsung Galaxy S and restore it on a Nexus 5 I just bought a Nexus 5 and I'm in the process of backing up and restore all the things I need from my old Galaxy S to my new Nexus 5.
One of the thing I need the most is restoring the hundreds of memos from the memo app in the Galaxy S which I belive was developed by Samsung. There's no such app in the Nexus 5 so I'm looking for a way to restore those memos on the Google Keep app but with no luck.
I backed up my memos using Kies and I got a Memo.smm file.
Is there a way to do restore it on the Nexus 5? Any other way?

If the Galaxy S is rooted, you could use Titanium Backup to back up the app including its data. If the Nexus is rooted as well, you could try restoring this backup there directly; with some luck, the entire app works there as well, and there's nothing else to do.

If not (or the restored app won't work on the Nexus), you could extract the app's database file from the backup, and export your memos to e.g. .csv. With some luck, some other Memo app will be able to import that directly; otherwise this should at least enable you to copy-paste your memos.


Why are there two settings apps, Settings and Settings Storage On my Galaxy Nexus running 4.2.1, I see two Settings apps in Settings > Apps. One is name Settings (28KB) and the other is Settings Storage (520KB). Both have the version 4.2.1-533553. Is the storage one for handling the Settings > Storage screen? If so why is there a separate app for that? If not, what is it for?

Settings Storage, technically speaking, is actually an internal app that manages the content provider framework for Settings itself. It also registers itself upon Android boot-up.

The Settings storage backing data store handler, really, uses an Sqlite database, which is in the public domain and free to use.

This database is required to hold the settings for updating and retrieval via the Setting's internal content provider, which is integrated through-out the ROM in itself, so everything that is seen through Menu > Settings, "talk" to the content provider" and that in itself, handles the backing store.

Also, that Settings own content provider is actually global through-out the ROM, irrespective of Android version, so that the system apps and user apps can use that to check on it by querying it and act accordingly.

Hence the "seeing of two Settings apps"....


What does the "Aggressive Wi-Fi to Cellular handover" option in Developer Settings do? In Android Lollipop 5.0, I noticed that "Developer Options" features a checkbox for "Aggressive Wi-Fi to Cellular handover" that is unchecked by default. Does anybody know what this setting does and why it's disabled by default and hidden under developer options?

The code for shouldSwitchNetwork() best explains what it does.  It just artificially reduces the WiFi RSSI (received signal strength indication) to encourage the WiFi state machine to decide to switch the connection from WiFi to cellular network.  Around line 3559 of WifiStateMachine.java (line 4262 for Android 6.0.1_r10):

int rssi = mWifiInfo.getRssi() - 6 * mAggressiveHandover
        + (homeNetworkBoost ? WifiConfiguration.HOME_NETWORK_RSSI_BOOST : 0);

The variable mAggressiveHandover is an int that is set to 0 or 1 by the Developer Settings:

private void writeWifiAggressiveHandoverOptions() {
    mWifiManager.enableAggressiveHandover(mWifiAggressiveHandover.isChecked() ? 1 : 0);
}

The rssi variable goes on to influence how the connection is classified: isBadRSSI, isLowRSSI, or isHighRSSI.

As to why it's hidden under the developer options, I'd say that is because it seems a little hackish, with a seemingly arbitrary scalar (6) that some dev came up with to nudge the behavior in the desired direction.  Google is probably uncertain about the consequences of this setting and the optimal way to adjust rssi.  If I'm wrong and this is somehow meaningful, I'm happy to admit it and explain here why.

Turning this setting off does NOT turn off cellular handover altogether.  The WiFi connection still gets a score and is disabled if the score is too low.  But hey, the initial score is set arbitrarily too.


No Gallery app on Lenovo K6 Power I bought a Lenovo K6 Power mobile, but it's not showing the gallery in the menu and storage.

I have done all the basic steps, but I don't see the Gallery app.

What can I do to fix this issue?

Recent models of Lenovo K-series are running on PURE UI, which is similar to/the same as stock Android experience, thus Lenovo did not preinstall their own Lenovo Gallery app. Some models have Google Photos preinstalled as their stock gallery app instead. Otherwise, users have to install any compatible 3rd-party Gallery app on their own.

References from Lenovo Forums:

Lenovo Vibe K5 Note: No in-built/(in the phone) gallery app in Lenovo Vibe K5 Note
Lenovo Vibe K5 Note: Gallery app not present in vibe k5 note
Lenovo K6 Power: Lenovo K6 Power Gallery App is Not Showing
Lenovo K6 Note: K6 note has no gallery
Lenovo K8 Note: Lenovo Gallery App Missing
Lenovo K8 Note: Not able to see gallery


Banking app detects previous root I have a Sony xperia Z (C6603). A while back I rooted the device but then later I did a factory reset and unrooted it. Sadly I have forgotten exactly what software I used for rooting/unrooting.

Now the phone works perfectly for everything I do except for my Barclays Bank app which declares "Sorry, the Barclays Mobile Banking app does not support rooted devices".

I have tried mutilple root-detection utilities and they all insist the device is no  longer rooted.

Is there anything I can do to fix this?

If the App is using SafetyNet it also detects that your Bootloader is unlocked. So if your BL is still unlocked you will need to Lock it for the App to work.

I dont have a Xperia Z but this seems to explain how to do that:
Link to xda

Download the latest Flashtool ( found in OG android development forum)
Install the Flashtool drivers found in the drivers folder
Connect phone in Flash-mode (phone shut down, volume down + power)
Press the BLU button
Press the relock option
Put a stock .tft firmware in the Flashtool firmwares folder (this is required!!)
Flash the firmware (this is required!!)
Done


Disable proximity sensor on Nexus 5 My Nexus 5's proximity sensor is broken and I verified the same using the Proximity Sensor Test.

As usual, the screen goes black during the calls and I use the power button to end the call. But the problem is during whatsapp or skype call, power button doesn't help and I need to search for a Bluetooth or ear phones to dial or receive a call.

Kindly help me to disable proximity sensor or any other work arounds

Edit: Unfortunately I am not interested in rooting. So I am looking for some kind of app.

I had the same issue recently, it seems the proximity sensor doesn't work properly and it always see there is something near the phone. During the phone call, this will automatically turn off the screen.

I work around this using the app named "Proximity Screen Off Lite" https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.itsme4ucz.screenoff

I configure the app as below.

Screen On/Off Modes
Check "Cover and hold to turn on Screen"
Timeout: 1 second
Check "Disable Accidentla Lock"
Timeout: 4 seconds
All settings
Check "Disable in Lanscape"
Check "Lock phone on screen ON"
[Advanced] Configure Sensore
Select sensor: Proximity sensor
Value when sensor covered: 0
Value when sensor un-covered: 1

Turn on the service and enjoy your phone calls.

Or

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mobiledirection.proximitysensorreset

This may help too

Hope it help.


Install your own software Possible Duplicate:
  How can I install an app given only its APK file?

I'm thinking abount getting a smartphone, mainly for tinkering with it. On iOS, in order to install your own code, you need to either root the device, or buy into Apple's developer program. What's the current state of things in the Android world? I see the SDK and developer documentation are readily available, but people talk about Kindle's Fire and Google's Nexus as closed systems.

You can give someone the APK generated when you debug your code, and they can insall it provided that they activate the flag "install from untrusted sources" (or something like that... don't know the exact words because I have the italian localization)

BTW: distribution of APK signed with the SDK-generated debug certificate is a bad thing, you have to sign it with your own key


Google Play authentication required error I'm using Android on a Samsung S3. I was initially trying to upgrade WorldMate, but was getting authentication errors. Then I tried to purchase something via Google play, and was given an authentication required error.

I have removed my Google account and re-added it, deleted updates and tried to stop apps being updated automatically but they do no matter what setting I use. I have created a new account and tried via that, but no luck.

How can I stop apps being updated? Is there a service I can stop and put on manual?
Or is there another way to purchase apps/music? All I want  to do is upgrade WorldMate but their support staff have been useless so far...

I think it's better inform it to the Google Play store support.

Go to this page:- https://support.google.com/googleplay/?hl=en
Then click top right "Contact US" button.
Follow its on screen instructions.


App that can import google maps saved route to use as turn-by-turn navigation I built a driving path containing several destination points using google maps and would like to use it in a turn-by-turn GPS navigation app such as iGo.
Any existing app/s that can achieve that?

Thanks.

Osmand Is available on Google Play that allows navigating along a saved GPS log (in .gpx format).

You can export your Google Maps route (from maps.google.com) using http://www.elsewhere.org/journal/gmaptogpx/ to .gpx format. Push the .gpx to your phone (via bluetooth, email or USB) to /sdcard/osmand/tracks/ folder (important! Osmand only searches for .gpx files in this folder).

This is however not very straightforward and requires some steps... but I have used it for preparing motorcycle routes offline in advance for example.

In Osmand then:
Download your desired offline maps (the basic version allows 3 free downloads) and in the map view do: menu button -> navigate -> GPX -> choose your exported .gpx

Osmand is free software it's also possible to get it free of charge from f-droid.org's app store, but please support the author if you like it.


How can I transfer photos on Samsung galaxy note 2 to computer? How can I transfer photos on Samsung galaxy note 2 to computer? I'd like use my new note 2 cell phone to take photos, So I want to backup all the pictures to the computer. I can't do this easily since USB mass storage is not supported natively in the Samsung galaxy note 2.

You can do this easily using an app such as SG USB Mass Storage Enabler. As you already know, your device does not support mass storage facility. So You have to ask help from MTP modes or enable the Mass Storage mode.

The app stated above does the latter. It is easy. But you have to have the root access. If you don't know how, use this guide to know how.


Cameranext not saving pictures I am using a non-rooted Oneplus One (cm12, all patches). I have to admit that I really dont use the camera very often, but on a family trip yesterday i noticed, the pictures i took  were not saved, except for two of them... Since it is impossible to recreate the pictures from our trip I am searching for any other alternative to get them back.

I found a bunch of topics on oneplus' support forums like this: https://forums.oneplus.net/threads/stock-camera-app-not-saving-pictures.286705/

Basically saying its not a bug, its a feature. While I think those answers are disputable at least, my question would be if there is any hope to restore the pictures (or at least parts of the album) from the cameras cache - which is about 60MB as I post this question.

Rooting the phone to get access to those cache files would not be a Problem if needed. Thanks for advice.

If the files got cached on sd card or internal storage, Android 5 + Never delete images fully..
Use a new photo recovery App like DiskDigger .. This will pull your images from any sector of the accessible storage devices without root.


How to set static IP address for wi-fi connection? How can I set manually the IP Address for wifi?

Hit the hard menu button on your phone and then choose Settings.
From there, browse to the Wireless controls section and then choose Wi-Fi Settings
Whilst in the Wi-Fi Settings section, push the hard menu button again and select Advanced.
Press Use static IP to put a check in the box and then enter the network settings as per your own network.

If you’re not sure what your settings are, and assuming you’re using Windows:

Open a command prompt by clicking Start, then Run
Type in cmd and hit Enter
Type the line ipconfig -all and hit Enter, the relevant details should be listed there.

Just make sure you use a different number for IP address on your phone than is shown on your PC!


How to access andriod to my pcs hardrive using wifi I would like to connect my samsung galaxy s4 over wifi with my pcs harddrive. It should be the same way as by the remote desktop apps but indstead of them only to use the pc hardrive. I want to get and send files between my whole 1 TB hardrive therefore I don't want to use cloud services like dropbox. Also I don't need to sync.

AirStream: Stream PC on mobile could help you. There is no root or registration required.


HTC ONE hung and can not restart the phone I have a HTC ONE. While using the phone it got hung. And when i tried to use the power button the Display as well got switched off.

Now When i try to hold the Power button for ten seconds and try to hard restart its of no use. When i connect the phone to a pc via USB i get the device detected sound on windows but HTC One doesnt show its mass storage.

Any way to solve this problem ?

As per XDA here you can perform force restart by doing this.

To reboot the phone without ADB, just hold down the Vol Up and power button for 9 seconds, the phone should shut down.

If this doesn't power down the phone, you can try this. Lot of people has reported success in this method for most of the HTC phones.

Put your phone under a bright light then hold power+volume down.

If both of them fails, you have to wait till the battery die and let it charge and power on the phone normally.

Hope this helps you. Good luck.


SD card not appearing when formatted as internal I'm a user of the Realme C2(android P). I've just formatted my SD card as the internal storage through Powershell since my manufacturer doesn't allow me to do it in the settings. It don't think it worked as now i do not see the SD card in the storage section. It seems to have completely disappeared.These are the commands that I used from this link:

adb shell sm list-disk
adb shell sm list-volumes all
adb shell sm set-force-adoptable true
adb shell sm partition disk:179,64 private
adb shell sm set-force-adoptable false
adb shell sm list-volumes all

I really have no idea if they even worked as I was told that the 4th command would take some time but, it didn't. I'll be more than happy to post screenshots or anything that is required for you to understand the problem. So if there is anything you can do to help me, please do so. This is my last resort.

EDIT:

This is what happened in the Powershell window:

PS C:\Users\Sa**vik\Downloads\platform-tools> .\adb devices
List of devices attached
EUS4***ZPBTWAM79 device
PS C:\Users\Sa**vik\Downloads\platform-tools> .\adb shell sm list-disks
disk:1*9:1*8
PS C:\Users\Sa**vik\Downloads\platform-tools> .\adb shell sm list-volumes all
private mounted null
public:1*9:1*0 mounted 01*7-1*13
emulated mounted null

PS C:\Users\Sa**vik\Downloads\platform-tools> .\adb shell sm set-force-adoptable true
PS C:\Users\Sa**vik\Downloads\platform-tools> .\adb shell sm partition disk:1*9,1*8 private
PS C:\Users\Sa**vik\Downloads\platform-tools> .\adb shell sm partition disk:1*9:1*8 private
PS C:\Users\Sa**vik\Downloads\platform-tools> .\adb shell sm set-force-adoptable false
PS C:\Users\Sa**vik\Downloads\platform-tools> .\adb shell sm list-volumes all
emulated:1*9,1*0 unmounted null
private:1*9,1*0 mounted c5ee2ab2-9**7-468e-8**6-c700ba9**283
private mounted null
emulated mounted null
PS C:\Users\Sa**vik\Downloads\platform-tools>

I'd put in * to keep it anonymous

I'm giving up for now. We'll see what happens in the future

When you format your SD card as internal storage (aka adoptable-storage), it will be encrypted. The key for en/decryption is stored on the device only. Hence all that a PC can see is "there is a partition but I don't know what's on it": as it hasn't access to the key, it cannot decrypt the contents.

For further details, see e.g. our adoptable-storage tag-wiki and follow the links from there.


What is the standard operational battery temperature for the Note 9? Bought the phone a week ago & today it seems to be running slightly warm just surfing sites in Chrome. Downloaded a battery app and see that the battery temp is at 32 degrees Celsius constantly right now for the last 2 hrs. Is this normal?

OEMs hardly provide such data to decide if it is normal or not. Not surprisingly, user manual of your device is quiet on this point.

This post on SE. Electronics (talks of Samsung), puts maximum safe temperature as 45°C.

However, temperature has a bearing on the battery performance. See this for details. At 32°C it results in 80% of optimum battery capacity.

I would consider based on my observations, that this perfectly fine, though Samsung phones have been reported to have  fast charging problems with a low temperature error, which doesn't seem to be your problem.


LTE: Lost/Stolen Phone in another country, didn't receive text/data/voicemails after new SIM? I had an unfortunate situation occur to me where my phone was pick pocketed out of my pocket while on Vacation out of the country. We decided to not cancel the phone line because doing so would disable the find my phone features on the phone. I would have to rely on wifi connection if cellular data was shut off. Anyway, I monitored the phone and my stolen phone number for a week and a half before I was like this phone will never be turned on (essentially radio silence since stolen). I had enough and then I just informed my carrier to blacklist the phone and give me a new SIM card. I was expecting that once I popped in the new SIM card into my old Smart phone I would start receiving all the missed calls and texts on my phone, but none came through. In fact I only received ones that appeared to happen today.

I was wondering what happened. I talked to my family and friends and they all said they were calling/messaging/etc my phone number since it was stolen in order to see if they would get a response. The phone was stolen in Mexico and I was using At&t's international roaming because it was free there. If anyone wanted to get in touch with me in Mexico, I know they were able to because I was communicating with them free of charge out of Mexico no problem with everything as if it was that I was in the states. In any case, is there an explanation what happened here?

Stolen phone:
Galaxy S7
At&T Mexican Free Roaming
Stolen in Mexico

~ 1.5 weeks elasped

New Phone:
Galaxy S5
Started up in USA with my same number
At&T USA service

Anyone have any ideas?

Chances are that no messages were sent to you in the last 72 hours, and they were deleted. At&t will only try delivering the texts for 72 hours and then they delete them from the servers

  All the messages sent are retried for up to 72 hours and any
  undelivered messages get deleted after that
  Source

As for missed calls, you will never receive missed call notification for calls that were made while your phone is off, unless a voicemail was left.

I'm not sure why no voicemails came in. It's possible that it's similar to what I wrote about sms's above, that they get deleted after 72 hours.

Also possible that your phones data was turned off, and therefore you did not see it in Google's device manager. But all texts and calls came to that phone.


How to transfer files from an Android phone to a Ubuntu PC by using a USB cable? Im completely new user and inexpert. I made a video with the phone. How do l transfer it to an ubuntu pc? I plugged in the usb cable but apparenntly my pc does not see the phone. Thanks for help

First of all you don't need any USB cable.
You can transfer files from/to your android device with the Wi-Fi network of your device. Just install airdroid on your android device. Then activate wi-fi hotspot on your android and open the airdroid app. Next connect your pc to that hotspot, open any browser in your pc and enter the url provided by the airdroid app there. It will ask for your permission, click to connect. Done.
   The good news is that this technique works in any Linux distro as well, I tested it on Ubuntu 14.04.1. It just uses your android wi-fi device and there is no issue related to mobile data plan i.e. you can use it without the mobile data.


Cant install a APK of an pre-installed app (Samsung galaxy a5) I'm trying to download a APK for Spotify premium but because of my phone service (fido) Spotify came pre-installed. When I install the APK it trys to update the pre-installed spotify even though it's disabled. How do I install the APK?

The best way is for you to uninstall the pre-installed Spotify first. You will likely need to "root" your phone. This site has some apps that you can use to root the Samsung A5.


Recovery Mode does not find internal nor external storage Before I had CyanogenMod 9 on my Samsung Galaxy S i9000. Then, suddenly it did not boot anymore and I could not boot into recovery mode neither.

So I flashed different kernels with Odin (speedmod, vodoo) to be able to boot into recovery mode - which worked.

Within the recovery mode (ClockworkMod Recovery v5) I can not access neither my internal storage nor my external SD card.
I just see: unknown volume for path [/cache...]

Also tried the vodoo Kernel with ext4 support (as I assumed CM 9 uses ext4).

Which steeps are necessary to get the phone working again? I can not access any storage at all...

I appreciate your help!

You should use Odin or Hiemdall (preferred) to flash a new ROM, and or flash a new partition table.

It sounds like the partition's have been erased, and as such should be remade by flashing a new ROM.


How to fix auto call rejection issue in Android 8.0.0 One of the important number is getting automatically rejected. How can i fix this?
Samsung J7 Duos
Android 8.0.0 version

Check your phone's Blacklist.

Check whether that important number has somehow got inside the blacklist or not. Any number in the blacklist will be automatically rejected without notifying you.


Wipe data on device completely I have a nexus 7 1st gen, which has a cracked screen.
I am planning to repair and got a quote from a local store.
But, before handing over the device to them, I would like to clear my data on the device.
I heard that the data can be recovered even after a factory reset.

Is there an application or a way to remove the data completely, just like zero-fill, so that the data wiped / removed cannot be recovered?

The recommended way is to go into Security -> Encryption. Encrypt your phone, which takes several hours. Then do a factory reset.

Others will have no way of recovering your personal data.

Additional Info:

It works much like BitLocker on Windows. When you start up the phone, you'll be required to enter a password before loading Android OS (or the Recovery Mode). Afterwards, none of the applications running on the OS will even notice the encryption.

What the encryption does is:
1) make it extremely difficult (i.e. for all practical purposes impossible) for other software to recover the /sdcard/ files (e.g. user data) after a factory reset.
2) prevent external applications and operating systems from reading those files without first decrypting it, which requires Android OS to load.


Whatsapp friends profile image not showing It's been a few days now since my friends contact images started to disappear on my Samsung Galaxy Sii. Whatsapp up to date. Android is 4.1.2.

I've already tried:

Turn off/on the phone;
Add/remove the contact from the address book of the phone (my contacts are on the gmail account);
Clear the phone cache (under App Management). Just the cache. I don't want to loose conversations;
Checked whatsapp space usage (under App Managent). It's like 23MBytes total. Some apps use much more;

Some facts:

Some friends (few of them) are still showing the profile images. They are from the same source (Gmail Addr Book);
If I delete/recreate those friends with profile images, their image is re-downloaded correctly. I also deleted the profile image in the "Profile Pictures" folder and whatsapp downloads it again;

My guess: Users that are changing their profile image recently are being set as "no profile photo" (in the server). This propagates to everyone else who refreshes their address book for any reason.

Can somebody check my findings?

From WhatsApp FAQ:

  If you cannot see someone else’s last seen, profile photo, or status, this is likely caused by one of the following:

  This person has changed their privacy settings to “Nobody”.
  This person has changed their privacy settings to “My Contacts” and you are not saved as a contact in their phone. Please make sure your contact has saved your number in their phone book in order to see their information.
  You have changed your last seen privacy settings to “Nobody”.
  You are blocked by this person.
  There is a temporary network issue.
  They do not have a profile photo set.


Is it always possible to reboot the phone without removing the battery? I've had two Android phone up til now (HTC Wildfire and SGS2). Sometimes they crashed and the only way to get them restart was to remove the battery. Now I'm thinking about buying a Sony Z1 Compact. Removing the battery is no longer something you can do without tools, and looking at youtube videos I think I will never do this.

Now I'm wondering - in those cases where a phone does not react anymore, how can you reboot the phone if you cannot remove the battery? Waiting until the batter is dead is one option, but that could take a day or longer, and is no option either. Or was I too impatient and is it just a matter of waiting?

In short: Is it always possible to reboot the phone without removing the battery?

There are many phones out there with a fixed battery, so I'm not the first with this problem. What are your experiences?

As pointed out by my other answer, and confirmed by the OP for the given device with reference to a blog article on the Z1, most devices with non-removable batteries have other means to "disconnect from power", usually "reset buttons" or "reset holes" to be poked with a pen or similar object. This should remedy in situations where the device freezes in a way not even the power button works. But it still leaves the disadvantage of not being able to "switch" the battery to a backup should you e.g. run out of power, of course.


Can my phone be monitored by my family members without them ever accessing it? It is actually for a friend, so less info. But she suspects that one of her family members know what she is watching on youtube and maybe also about Whatsapp messages. Do you think that is possible? The family member has is in a foreign country and has never accessed her phone. And she has not installed any apps that the family member has sent. What do you think?

Only if they have the password to her Google Account or her device is set in the Family Friendly mode (which I find very difficult to happen, otherwise she wouldn't be able to use WhatsApp), tell her to try changing her Google Account password, also, she can install Kaspersky Internet Security (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kms.free) to check if her device contains any Spyware or related software.
I hope this helps her, if you have any doubts or want further information please let me know by commenting.


Moto G won't go th Home Screen when unlocked When I unlock my Moto G, instead of going to the Home Screen, it goes to my Contacts page. I can't see where to change it so that it opens on my home screen. Any ideas?

You're swiping from the bottom left across.  Swipe up from the bottom middle and it will got to the hone page.  This was driving me nuts too.


Why does MTP show wrong directory location? MTP (Miserable Transfer Protocol) failed once again.

After moving a directory to a different path, it is still on the same path as before according to MTP.

I already tried re-plugging the USB port and reading it from a different computer. Same result.

Why is MTP so bogus that it shows a moved folder on its previous path?

What is Content Provider?

It seems to be a problem related to Media Providers. As the name suggests, they provide a database of available media in a more organized way to other apps as the Contacts Storage (com.android.providers.contacts) provides contacts to requesting apps. Purpose is to scan and store media file info for quick access so that individual apps don't have to scan folders manually for an up-to-date library, reducing time and effort.

Android's built-in Media Providers:

Some file explorers, media players and gallery apps depend on the files database (/data/data/com.android.providers.media/databases/external.db) built by Media Storage app for MediaStore content provider from the contents of external storage (/sdcard and external SD card; removable storage like USB isn't indexed). Apps Media Storage (com.android.providers.media under which com.process.media runs), Downloads (com.android.providers.downloads.ui), Download Manager (com.android.providers.downloads) and MTP Host (com.android.mtp) work in collaboration under same UID.

Database is built/updated as MediaScanner (android.process.media) is invoked by some app such as by sending broadcast MEDIA_SCANNER_SCAN_FILE or through scanFile. Broadcast receiver com.android.providers.media.MediaScannerReceiver is launched on boot that listens for android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED, so MediaScannerService will also launch on boot. But restarting phone sometimes doesn't update whole external database (or at least delays). MediaScanner is also triggered when a new storage device is mounted i.e. on MEDIA_MOUNTED which could possibly be manually broadcasted to force updation on pre KitKat versions.
In response, apps are informed of updated databases such as by receiving broadcast MEDIA_SCANNER_FINISHED or through onScanCompleted.

Problem with Media Providers:

MtpService is also a part of Media Storage. Due to some bugs (acknowledged since 2012) in implementation of MTP, database isn't updated or is delayed or isn't properly communicated with the client as the files change, so MTP shows outdated / incomplete contents. The same can happen if an app creating or downloading a new file fails to trigger the MediaScanner or fails to receive back the updated information.

Solution:

In order to force database updation, delete the file and run some media scanner app. Non-root users can delete this file by clearing data of Media Storage app.
But be aware, it'll also clear internal.db which will make ringtones unavailable and a new database will be built from /system/media on next reboot i.e. on BOOT_COMPLETED.

PS: Note that the internal SD card we see is emulated from /data/media/ using sdcardfs (or FUSE in older versions of Android). Actual contents of internal memory can be seen directly from /data/media/ (root required). UMS used to expose the /data block device to PC but was deprecated in favor of MTP. It's a good option when larger size of data is to be transferred at high speeds. It can be enabled by some workaround.
There are also other reasonable alternatives for MTP like FTP, SFTP/SSHFS, adbfs etc.

RESOURCES:

How Android categorizes files based on their extensions
MTP, External Storage, and Your App
Scan Media Files In Android
Broadcasts overview
Android Content Providers


Set Russian language on Alcatel Pop S7 (Android 4.1.2) I am not able to configure the device to Russian language, although assumed that all Android supports it.

Question: What are the chances to enable Russian UI after I root the device? Worth trying or just will not be supported?

Note: I can install Russian language keyboard, but I am looking for Russian UI on the phone itself.

MoreLocale 2 from the Play Store might be worth a shot.

Taken from the app listing:

  You can select more locales via this app.
  If your locale doesn't appear, please use custom locale function in menu.

So if you don't see your preferred language in the app, you might have luck specifying something like ru-RU in the app's custom locale wizard.


How to solve Android 7.1 flash failure with remote data too large? It started when the regular OTA update failed to install and left me with a "no command" screen.
I downloaded a stock ROM from the official developers.google site.
I tried the flash-all script to install the ROM. It gave me the following:

archive does not contain 'boot.sig'
archive does not contain 'recovery.sig'
failed to allocate -1492308812 bytes
error: update package missing system.img

After pasting all the files from the image.zip to the parent folder with the flash-all script in it (that way the system.img is in the same dir as the flash-all script), I received the same error.

After some googling I found some instructions to flash the files manually using fastboot.
All went well and I came to the second last instruction to flash the system.
Then this happend:

>> fastboot flash system system.img
target reported max download size of 536870912 bytes
erasing 'system'...
OKAY [  0.090s]
sending sparse 'system' (520374 KB)...
OKAY [ 20.706s]
writing 'system'...
OKAY [  9.350s]
sending sparse 'system' (515510 KB)...
OKAY [ 22.374s]
writing 'system'...
OKAY [  9.586s]
sending sparse 'system' (479538 KB)...
OKAY [ 20.531s]
writing 'system'...
OKAY [  8.527s]
sending sparse 'system' (514677 KB)...
OKAY [ 21.401s]
writing 'system'...
OKAY [ 11.339s]
sending sparse 'system' (524289 KB)...
FAILED (remote: data too large)
finished. total time: 124.427s

As you can see, fastboot is already sending the data in smaller portions. What do I have to do to fix this?
I searched google but couldn't find any usable fix..

The phone is an rooted Nexus 5x.

Turns out that some old adb tooling was in my PATH variable, so I was using an old version of fastboot..
It all worked well when I used the right version!

Will accept this as an answer in 2 days.


my mobile data is not working after i reseted my sumsung galaxy note 3 I wanted to format and reset my Samsung galaxy note 3 and I did a factory reset but after that my phone is having a hard time to identify the network provider(took a very long time to sign into the network automatically) and the mobile data is not working. I tried making it on airplane mode and then restarting it multiple times but it is still the same. please let me know if you have any suggestions and thanks in advance.

Reset network setting again. Manually enter APN setting. For that
Go to setting / connection  / mobile network / Access point name. Manually enter apn details.
Turn off data saver. Go to setting / connection / data usage / data saver.
Make sure you have good network signal. Other wise reinsert sim.
Update mobile software.
Make sure data roaming is off. setting /connections  mobile network / data roaming.
Temporary remove from network and again reconnect to network.


Bypass Account Security I received four used a6 tablets in a school closing sale.
I want to login but need to verify the account.

I tried rebooting, but still get blocked.

NOT a duplicate of this question. Google has updated so that fix no longer works.

Not familiar with the A6, whatever that may be, but can you not boot into recovery and factory reset it?  Are you trying to get into the gmail account or the device?

EXPERIMENTAL:
I don't know much about Samsung devices, or the A6, but could you load into fastboot, or it's Samsung equivalent, and flash TWRP / CWM, then root the device, do a full system-wide reformat, and install a custom ROM?  Please check before doing this, as I have no idea what I'm talking about in regards to this device.

Cheers,

Neveraht.

P.S. : I want one of those, and they're not supercheap; how much did you get four of them for?


What are the Bluetooth profiles supported by the Nexus 7 (KitKat)? I would think this is a simple question, but I am not finding the answer after searching.

What are the Bluetooth profiles supported by KitKat on the Nexus 7?

The full list of profiles is:

Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP)
Headset Profile (HSP)
Health Device Profile (HDP)
Health Thermometer profile (HTP)
Heart Rate Profile (HRP)
Human Interface Device Profile (HID, InputDevice)
Message Access Profile (MAP)
Personal Area Networking Profile (PAN)
Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP)
Generic Attribute (Gatt, HOGP, BTLE): Bluetooth 4.0 required
Generic Attribute Server (Gatt Server, BTLE): Bluetooth 4.0 required


Permission denied when working with/without "su -c" in /cache I am trying to issue this command

adb shell "su -c echo 'boot-recovery' > /cache/recovery/command"
//OR//
adb shell "echo 'boot-recovery' > /cache/recovery/command"

outputs the same: /system/bin/sh: can't create /cache/recovery/command: Permission denied

I granted root permission for adb and i can run other commands with root normally like touch for example

I tried the command both ways when the file did and did not existed.

I tried checking for the existence of the file:

adb shell "if [ -f /cache/recovery/command ]; then echo "file found"; else echo "error"; fi"

it returned error even though the file does in fact exist

The Goal is to add a few lines to the recovery queue so the run the next time the device boots into recovery

Please correct me, I'm not so good at android command line, do I need to use a different command to achieve this goal?

More info: Android 8.1 (RR oreo) ... Magisk SU ... TWRP 3.2 (But need this to be compatible with as many android versions, recoveries, and su binaries as possbible .... I hope lol)

For me, this worked:

adb shell "su -c 'boot-recovery > /cache/recovery/command'"

You start with a double quote before su -c. Then single quote for the command, a single quote after the command and close with a double quote.


Connect android device to server in emulator Background

I've been search AE, SO and Google for many hours and found many examples of people wanting to connect their PC to the emulator. I've also run across some that wish to connect their device to their server on a PC. I want to connect my device, to an emulator running on a PC. I've tried the examples given in the documentation but I still haven't gotten this to work.

I would like to have my device (real device, Nexus 7) create a Hotspot that my PC is connected to. In the PC, an emulator is running that has a socket open on port 40000. I'm getting ECONNREFUSED errors when trying to connect my device to the emulator. Here's what I'm doing:

Connecting device to emulator (through PC)

Device tries to create a Socket connection to the emulator through the PC. The IP of my PC is 192.168.43.198 so that is what the device use as destination IP. The connection fails however, with an ECONNREFUSED message.

Forwarding using ADB and telnet

On the PC I've tried to forward port 40000 to the emulator using:

adb forward tcp:40000 tcp:40000

and

redir add tcp:40000:40000

over telnet to the emulator.

When running the adb forward command I get a listening port on the PC as such:

TCP    127.0.0.1:40000        0.0.0.0:0              LISTENING.

Notice that the listening IP is 127.0.0.1.

When running the redir command, I can see no listening port using netstat.

Testing connection from device to PC

To test the connection "parts", I've used SocketTest (http://sourceforge.net/projects/sockettest/) on my PC.

If I use it as a server, listening on port 40000. Then my device connects to it just fine using 192.168.43.198:40000.

Testing connection from PC to emulator

When using SocketTest as a client to connect to 127.0.0.1:40000 it also connects fine to the emulator.

However, when using the external IP: 192.168.43.198, SocketTest also gets connection refused!

Possible problems

It seems to me that my PC doesn't realise it should route 192.168.43.198:40000 to 127.0.0.1:40000 although the commands I've entered claim to do so in the docs (http://developer.android.com/tools/devices/emulator.html#redirection and http://developer.android.com/tools/help/adb.html#forwardports)

Firewall is turned off.

The problem here is that ADB forwarding attaches itself to the local loopback interface (127.0.0.1), and you have no forwarding from the LAN interface (192.168.43.198) to the loopback interface. The method you can use to achieve this depends on your platform. I don't know what you could use in Windows, but on Linux you can use rinetd and on OSX you can use ipfw

LINUX:

Add the following lines to your /etc/rinetd.conf:

# bindaddress    bindport  connectaddress  connectport
192.168.43.198   40000     127.0.0.1       40000

Then restart rinetd with service rinetd restart or /etc/init.d/rinetd restart.

OSX:

ipfw add fwd 127.0.0.1,40000 tcp from any to 192.168.43.198 dst-port 40000


Maximize battery life while recording video There are times where I need to record a lot of continuous video. I've found battery life to be insufficient for this. Is there anything I can do to squeeze out every bit of battery efficiency?

The biggest offender is probably the screen. I don't need it to be on, as the phone is usually propped up against something while I do the stuff I'm trying to record (weight lifting in my basement; recording myself to check for correct technique). Codec choice also comes to mind as potentially CPU intensive and thus battery draining.

Any ideas?

Secret Eye can help the drain from screen. It allows to record even after the screen is switched off. There are lots of similar apps. Find the best one.

Inorder to save more battery,

You can root the phone and use an cpu governor to run the processor at lower clock cycle.
Freeze unwanted apps.
Turn off radio


E1001: Failed to update System image latest Onplus 5T and other I downloaded the latest LineageOS for my latest Device, from Dumplings SF.

firmware, recovery, vendor files.

What I get all the time is that error message "E1001: Failed to update system image" and that he can't mount the vendor partition.

Any ideas ? PS: I can't even flash back to latest Oneplus ROM (or even older roms)....

Update:
Meanwhile I use TWRP from "cheeseburgerdumplings" for 8.1 on what lineageOS and the "/vendor" partition is no more tried to be mounted.
What I figure out as well, is that if I go with adbs command to know if the filesystem is encrypted or not:

adb shell getprop ro.crypto.state

tells me "encrypted"

Now the big question, which filesystems are encrypted, all ?
And which partition or FS does not have to be encrpyted?

Here is the "recovery.log":
https://pastebin.com/raw/tKMStdSF

Screenshot:

I faced the same issue and solved it by setting the settings flag Unmount System before installing a ZIP to false. This is not documented or recommended anywhere, however.
For me, it was LineageOS+MicroG image serrano3gxx. If someone else finds this to solve this error, please leave a note so we can report it accordingly.


stay online on whatsapp web and offline in mobile I want to stay online on whatsapp web whenever i want after scanning the qr code but with mobile data being off on mobile. so is it possible? I have search a lot but didn't get a possible solution!! please help if there is!!

Simply it is not possible.

WhatsApp Web is a computer based extension of the WhatsApp account on your phone.

The messages you send and receive are fully synced between your phone and your computer.

The first requirement to being able to use WhatsApp Web is an active WhatsApp account on your smartphone.

If you cannot connect to WhatsApp on your phone to send and receive messages, then you will not be able to use WhatsApp Web.
- According to the WhatsApp FAQ

So basically, it just access your phone to sync data.

And this on Quora discuss the details.


How to disable limit of pattern attempts to unlock Android 2.1 device? My unlock pattern is long and secure.

I don't want to wait for 30 seconds when I try to enter it inaccurately (it is tricky), also I don't want it to be blocked after 20 tries.

How to make it to accept patterns ad infinum? (I have the root access)

Tried NoLock - it disabled the screen completely.
Tried SkipLock - it behaves the same as standard pattern screen.

Are there applications for alternative locking? Mat be there is one where you enter digits instead of patterns (without attempt counter, of course).

Ideal lock screen for me: 16 buttons (plus "Emergency call") which I press without any indication. When the password occurred as substring the device is unlocked. Example: password: "59B13F", I press: "59159595B13F59B13F and it is unlocked. Without even the need for erasing mistyped password, can just type and re-type fast and carelessly.

Depending on your needs, you may consider an AppLock program.  It doesn't lock your phone, but it may provide the same purpose by locking any apps you want.  For the particular app I use, Smart App Protector, (my version is from Amazon) you can configure it to have unlimited retries (which is the default), and you can configure it to use a pattern or pin.  You can configure the relock delays as well, so you aren't entering in a pin or pattern every single time you open a program.


How to add Google Play support in Anbox? Anbox doesn't come with Google Services as Google Services can't be installed on an unregistered device / firmware, but there are ways to achieve that in Custom ROMs or even emulators. If you want to use Android to its fullest then Google Play Services is a must.

What have I tried so far?

I've tried to install Google Play Services x86 apk, which successfully got installed and also appears in Settings -> Apps.

I've also tried to install Google Play Store which also got successfully installed and appears in the App Drawer of Anbox (also in GNOME), but it doesn't work as expected. For example, the YouTube app loads content but can't play videos and Google Play Store doesn't even load content, I think maybe because Google Play Services isn't installed as system app or maybe because there are some other Google apps that these things depend on which I'm missing.

I'm not really sure about Anbox, but I've made and modified several Android distros, that are unregistered, as you had said. What I had done on these devices was:

Either go to Open GApps and then download the app. Then run it, choose the package and wait for it to download. Use a superuser, to grant GApps permission, and allow it to install all Google apps (as per your package selection).
The second thing you can do is, use flashify, to flash a zip that you can download from Open GApps again.


Failed Android 7.1.2 install on LG V500 - stuck on boot screen I had CWM Recovery and an older cyanogenmod rom installed on my LG G Pag 8.3 (V500) and I wanted to upgrade to 7.1.2 from here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/lg-...8-r16-t3476750

I copied the ROM to internal memory, rebooted into recovery, selected the rom file to install. It showed some messages about patching, then in a couple of minuted erred with smth like "Erro loki-ifying because of incompatible aboot image".

I then rebooted and now it boots and shows "ANDROID" and is stuck on it - looks like it partially updated the ROM and failed somewhere.

I am not sure what to do now - I tried to boot into recovery (Power off -> Hold Power + Vol down till menu shows) but it doesnt work - it keeps booting onto this stuck boot.

Is there a way to fix it or have I just finally bricked it?

Solved it by downloading LG Mobile Support Tool, switching the tableto into download mode (Power Off, then press both Up and Down vlume until it shows download mode), then connecting the USB and after the LG Mobile Support tool recognizes the tablet, go to Options -> Upgrade Recovery.
The tool will download and flash the latest stock image.
After that I got stuck on boot loop and performed factory reset:

Press and hold Power Button + Volume Down
When the LG logo shows up, release the power button only
Now press and hold the Power and Volume Up button while keeping your hold on the Volume Down button
When the factory reset screen appears, release your hold on all buttons
Follow On Screen Indications

Now I get a fully stock tablet that I can root, install custom recovery etc


file transfer after encryption I am a new Android user and I am considering encrypting my device for more security. My notebook runs Linux Mint and I have been transferring files to my Android (version 4.4) using the USB cable via Mint's default file manager Nemo. My question is: if I encrypt my device, will I be able to transfer files using the same method? And if I connect my device to other computers using the USB Mass Storage, will I also be able to see/add/remove files?

Absolutely ! As long as you can unlock your device you can transfer files. Encryption works as usual but will encrypt the data but that doesn't mean you can't access it. Go for it ! Hope this helps !


Moto G - Debugging for Android When I open the Android Device chooser it shows a phone. But, instead of the serial number and other details it shows a series of question marks - "????????".

Any suggestions on how I can use the phone for debugging?

The problem was with the selection mode.

Apparently MTP doesn't work too well with Ubuntu. When I switched to PTP the USB debugging started working.


Upgrade Samsung Galaxy S2 to Jelly Bean What is the easiest way to upgrade my Galaxy S2 to Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean? Also, how do I update it?

Here's some ways to update your firmware, from easiest to harder (not necessarily hardest).

OTA (Over the air) update. Trigger it via Settings > About > Software update.
Kies. Install Kies on your PC, run Kies, and connect your mobile phone to your PC using USB cable. There is an update function in the Kies software.
Odin (Windows). This is a 3rd-party tool that you use to flash (or install, in layman's terms) a stock (or default) ROM or custom ROM on your phone. You will need to download Odin and the custom ROM or stock ROM from somewhere. There are several guides on Google on how to flash a stock / custom ROM for Samsung Galaxy S2. For Linux, you can use Heimdall.


What's involved in manually updating my Nexus One? If I wanted to manually update my Nexus One, say to Gingerbread, what's involved in the process?

I'm familiar with this question, Manually Updating your OS?, but unsure if the answer applies to the Nexus One. Do I need to root my phone in order to update it?

There currently is no official update for the N1 to Gingerbread yet.

However, you could root your phone and install CyanogenMod 7 (nightly, it hasn't hit release candidate yet) to get Gingerbread on your phone.  From what I've heard, the nightlies have been pretty stable for the N1.

More details on the CM wiki here.

Basic steps include:

Root your phone
Install ROM Manager
Flash ClockWork Recovery
MAKE A NANDROID BACKUP OF YOUR PHONE
Flash CM7

Note: rooting your phone will void your warranty.  For more info about rooting, see here and here.


Can a Motorola Droid be in Landscape mode on the Home Screen w/out sliding out the keyboard? It's all in the title, but again for clarity: Is there any way to make my Motorola Droid  use Landscape mode on the Home Screen without sliding out the keyboard?

Yes, this is accomplished through the use of 'Home Replacement' or 'Launcher Replacement' apps.

Check out either 'ADW.Launcher' or 'LauncherPro'. Both are fantastic (and free) launcher apps that will not only make your launcher/home screens smoother, but also allow full customization, such as enabling screen rotation without sliding open the keyboard.


Where do I find the latest upgrade options for my phone? So, I got the Huawei Ascend G6 and I haven't been able to upgrade since Jelly Bean. Last month, my sister who bought the exact same phone just a week after I did, came to me complaining how her interface "suddenly" looked totally different. It looked like she updated her phone to Kitkat. She told me, the phone asked her to upgrade and she did.

Now, even when I try, I can't seem to upgrade. When I press "online update", it just says "No updates found". So how do I figure out, what the latest upgrade possibilities are for my phone? Maybe I did get a slightly older model after all, which can't upgrade for some reason?

We both haven't rooted our phone and I'm not planning on doing so.

That could be due to your country or we says (Rom Region).

Sometimes, it is better to download and update that phone with manually installation.

So, the thing is how you can find the latest version?

you just have to check these links for the latest roms:

  http://forum.xda-developers.com/ascend-g6

or go to the official website and search about that phone with typing the exactly name and goto downloads section.for-ex:

  http://consumer.huawei.com/kh/support/products/downloads/ascend-g6-4g-kh.htm

P.s: if you couldn't find any new rom for your phone, another option is using CustomRoms


Remounting system on android emulator lasts about 10 seconds and reverses until reboot Found something odd with the Android 6.0 on x86_64 emulator (and possibly others) system images... is it something I'm doing wrong?

When I remount /system and push stuff to it, it's giving me a chance to push stuff at first but then after about 10 seconds it remounts itself automatically read only and stops me remounting it read/write, and just gives me:

# mount -orw,remount /system
mount: Read-only file system

until a reboot.

What gives? Has anyone come up against this before and solved it?

It doesn't appear to be the wrong error and I'm out of disk space - it looks OK:

/system                  1.2G   783.7M   456.2M   4096

Cheers

I saw the exact same puzzling behavior. To remedy this, use the -writable-system option when you start the Android emulator.

eg:

~/Library/Android/sdk/tools/emulator @<avd_device_name> -writable-system

Issuing adb remount afterward should then allow you to push to /system until you reboot or remount read-only again.


Is there an error display app? Is there an app for android that displays an error when an app or game crashes ? Because in windows, when a program crashes , an error is always displayed revealing a reason for crash. Eg. It says ' * file is missing','incompatible graphics card' etc. But  an android app quits, or fails to install without explanation. So is there an app that displays errors that explain, for example if an app needs a specific android version, what gpu works with it, or it is not an original  etc.

There is no general, automatic way to find out a human-understandable reason why an app failed to install/run/work.  It is definitely not true that Windows apps always fail with a sensible error message.

  if an app needs a specific android version

Apps contain explicit information about what versions of Android they target and support.  This information is displayed in the Play Store and other app stores, or you can find it using one of the tools listed here.

  what gpu works with it

Ideally this would be published by the developer/app store as well.

  it is not an original

Don't pirate apps.

To get other errors/logging or stack traces, you can use the logcat command from ADB or a local shell on your device.  There are also apps like aLogcat to provide a graphical interface.


Where does Google Play Store put downloaded apps? I want to know where Google Play stores downloaded .apk files. I've heard that Google Play doesn't send you an .apk file and installation is completely online. Is it true?

.apk files are downloaded and stored in subfolders under a location on your device called /data.

By default, you do not have permissions to read from that location. In order to read/write in that location, you will need to root your device.


Changing country in Android play store is not working, how can I change it? I have moved from Hong Kong to the UK. I am now physically in the UK connected to the UK network with a UK number and a UK SIM. However, I can't change my Play Store country to the UK.
Initially, in the Play Store app in Android, under country and profiles, there was Hong Kong and it suggested me to change to the UK, listing a few options how I can add a payment method, including adding credit / debit card, Three Pay, etc.
I tapped adding credit / debit card, and it showed a warning saying that I won't be able to use my current balance, and I won't be able to change again for 365 days. I tapped continue, the warning disappeared, and nothing happened.
I then used my computer to signed in Google Pay, created a UK profile, and added a UK debit card to it. Then under country and profiles, both Hong Kong and the UK appeared, with Hong Kong selected.

When I tapped the UK, the same warning appeared, and after I tapped continue, the warning disappeared and nothing happened.

I have two Android phones and they behave the same. I cannot delete my Hong Kong payment profile as I have a Developer account and an AdSense account tied to it. How can I change my Play Store country to the UK?
I have tried deleting storage and cache for my Play Store, and also tried removing the Google account and adding back in, but they didn't help. Initially on the first day I landed the UK a box did appear for me to enter my account details, but I hadn't got my debit card yet at that moment so I didn't continue.

I used a 3rd phone with an older Android version, added my Google account into that phone, and changed using the exact same way in the Play Store.


Unfortunetly google play services has stopped I just recently updated to marshmallow on my Oneplus X, ever since I did that I've been getting notification that "Unfortunately, Google Play Services has stopped." I've done tons of research and tried many things like clearing the cache, force stopping it, uninstalling updates, rebooting my phone, messing with the wifi. Even after all of that it won't go away. The message is popping up every 2-3 seconds and is really making it hard for me to do anything. Is there anything else I can do or should I get help??

You do not need to 'disable' the entire Google+ app. Your Play Services can stop working due to several other reasons.

First - Install the latest Google Play Services .apk file!

Second - If installing that doesn't fix, clear the Google Play Services cache. The Google Play Services app in your phone acts like a framework for all the Google and Google Play apps installed in your phone. You can try cleaning up its cache and see if that would fix the issue. This worked with one of our team members! Read these quick and easy steps :

Go to Settings > Apps.
Scroll to All apps and then scroll down to "Google Play Services"
app.
Open the app details and tap on the "Force stop" button.
Then, tap on the "Clear cache" button.


Phone forgetting networks after turning off wifi Whenever adding a new wireless network, android seems to forget the network after disabling then re-enabling wifi. I am forced to manually connect to the network and enter the password each time. This also happens with open networks. The problem occurs on any wireless network, at home, work, public networks, etc.

Further inspection on the /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf file shows "disabled=1" added to the end of each network.

click image for larger version

This has been going on for weeks. Any help would be much appreciated.

Phone: Nexus 4
Version: 4.4.4

I have had this problem for almost a year now. I have Nexus 5 and all the latest Android OSs. I had the exact problem, and it was really annoying. Whenever I turn of wifi or phone, it keeps forgetting my home wifi and all newly added...

Solution:

Settings > Wifi > Saved Networks

The list showed over 120 remembered networks....
I travel a lot, and it was mostly hotels, bars etc.
So i didn't need them and I have deleted over 100 networks.

Problem was still there. When i turn off wifi again - the same.

I repeated the step 1. There was again list of over 100 saved networks(different ones)...

Repeat step 1 over 5 times!!!
Now I have only 20 saved networks.  And when I add new network - the device remembers it!!!

I guess that the problem was - when you remember new network - it is there in your phone. When you turn off wifi and back on - it tries to overwrite it on your google backup account ...

However - I am happy again! This was really annoying.

Cheers
Marko


How to get "Say Ok!Google" text on google search widget I have a samsung galaxy A5 running android 4.4.4. I've seen many kitkat devices having the text "say ok google" on the google search widget in the home screen. How can I get that? It gives the look of a flagship and is awesome.

I figured out a way. I uninstalled the updates of the google app in my device and re-installed the latest version from the play stoore. Then the text appeared. Once I activate ok google detection form "any screen" the text disappears.


Is the root file different if a custom rom is installed? Do I need a different root file if I have installed a custom rom on Android?
Who creates root files for devices?

basically root method is pretty generic. the leading tools are

Magisk
SuperSU
phh's SuperUser
AddonSU

in that the order, where former one is recommended for all devices and ROMs while the last is ROM specific
However, while the rooting process is nearly the same, every device is different and there is no generic root method. First you need to unlock bootloader. Some vendors (like Huawei) decided to lock devices completely, others (like Samsung, Xiaomi, Lenovo) have there own special protections
Second, you need custom recovery (or at least, modified boot.img) which is definitely device specific and not interchangeable with other device models
Usually every device has it's own section in famous xda forum where developers share custom recovery or custom rom
Always search for root method specific for your device model
(Note: i am aware of exploit based temp root methods but decided that is out of scope and not worth a timeless answer, because development is ongoing and that exploits become outdated)


Lost Phone, I want to locate my phone Can I get the location of my phone it does have WhatsApp on it,
I lost it about 20 hours ago and it was online(life) on WhatsApp 11 hours ago
I tried google-locator but it is out of reach because I switched off background data.

You can try locating your phone using Google's find my device option. Just go to Android.com/devicemanager log in, and it will show you the location of the device. If it doesn't show your location, in that case your location option is probably off, or your phone is off, or it was factory reset.

WhatsApp doesn't have a function to find your phone. So unless you had a different app that does that, you might be out of luck.


Trying installing Lineageos, Reboot my phone but stucked now in the Odinmode I am trying to install LineageOs on my Samsung Galaxy J5. Currently i am trying to to reboot my Phone... I writ this in my command:
adb devices
List of devices attached
1709f084 device emulator-5562 offline

adb reboot bootloader
error: more than one device/emulator

adb devices
List of devices attached
1709f084 device emulator-5562 offline

adb -s 1709f084 reboot bootloader

fastboot flashing unlock < waiting for any device >

Afte writing the command adb -s 1709f084 reboot bootloader i t got in the odin mode. After writing the command fastboot flashing unlock nothing changed...
What am I doing wrong?
Greetings :)

Samsung doesn't have fastboot mode . Use odin to flash your device . If you search online you will find Odin for your computer . Install it . Most likely the Linageos uses custom recovery to flash . If so flash TWRP or any other custom recovery available for your device and flash Linage from there . If you are tring to get out of odin mode . press (power + volume down) to force reboot . if that doesn't work try volume up with power key . Before flasing anything make sure you have activated bootloader unlocking in Devlopers settings :)


Can I remotely unlock my phone after I've remotely locked it? Someone has stolen my phone s4 and is trying to extort me for 100 $.  If I remotely lock my phone can I unlock my phone remotely? to let him know that I'm going to shut it down if he doesn't act.

Just tested this. Locked my phone via desktop. From what I can tell, you can not remotely unlock. Not via device manage anyway. Not sure if there is another way, but I guess that would defeat the purpose.


Applications do not close after exiting I have lately noticed that, after last updates on my Samsung S3 mini (although I am not entirely sure which ones in particular), applications simply do not close after exiting them and keep running in the background. As workaround I have to manually end all the processes from Task Manager.

I have read a couple of similar questions recommending this or that other Application Manager to switch them down but I did not understand whether this is a standard behaviour for Android phones (that I somehow never noticed) or a bug introduced.

Also, why is that so? Exit an application means exiting an application, I see no point is closing them but still keeping them running behind the back: it obviously drains the battery strongly. Is it adjustable?

I would suggest you use the Greenify app. It really shuts down or hibernates an app after you exit it. It doesnt allow the selected process to secretly run in the background.
You can find the app here.
The app works even better if the phone is rooted.


Is it possible to disable the interlocutor's video in BlueJeans Prime? I use BlueJeans Prime for videoconference on Android 10. When in a videoconference, is it possible to disable the interlocutor's video?

The motivation is to reduce the network usage.

For BlueJeans (not Prime), one can swipe up, which will activate the "low bandwidth" mode, and swipe down to go back to the normal mode. That doesn't work for BlueJeans Prime.

BlueJeans' tech support told me it is not possible. They don't have any plan to support the option in the future.


What happens when you connect an Android phone to another Android phone? I've just connected my HTC Butterfly to a Galaxy Note 3 (micro-USB to female USB -> Male USB to micro-USB)...

And nothing really happened. What is supposed to happen? Am I able to view the other phones' storage, and vica versa? It did say something regarding keyboard(s), assuming it thought it was a keyboard?

I've been doing a couple of tests, using file manager, trying to transfer files, play music, etc... But nothing seems to work.

Is it possible to transfer files like that? (Not that it's handy; I just want to know if it's possible.)

Yes, it is possible to transfer using an OTG cable. But you require at least one of the phones to support OTG, and it is better explained here. The phones mentioned in the post are Xperia and Micromax. I am sure it will work with the rest of the OTG-supported phones too.