How to manually transfer entire Whatsapp installation to another device (the hard way) I'm using Whatsapp from a virtual machine since I lost my phone, and now need to transfer it to a new VM.

The easy way would be to use the backup feature native to Whatsapp, but it is disabled since the VM is connected via Ethernet (and Android thinks it's a Mobile connection). In fact the very "local backup" feature is not available. I have a ton of messages which I really wouldn't like to lose.

There's an Xposed module which could possible fake an Wifi connection in the Android VM, but at this point I really want to do the entire transfer locally as my internet is painfully slow right now.

I tried the built-in adb backup feature, only to find out it's disabled for Whatsapp and can't be easily enabled (requires decompiling the apk file).

So, how can I manually transfer Whatspp app data to the new "device"? What folders do I need to copy, and what files must be modified in order for the transfer to work seamlessly?

I do of course have full root access.

[Update] Neither of the following work:

Copying the entire contents of /data/data/com.whatsapp/databases after installing Whatsapp, signing in and closing it. It will crash when opening, without any error message.
Copying the same directory, but without opening Whatsapp and signing in after installation. Same error as above.
Copying /data/data/com/whatsapp/databases/msgstore.db after installing Whatsapp and signing in. An error message is presented: "Something went wrong with your chat history"
Copying the entire /data/data/com.whatsapp directory, after installing and closing it. It will crash when opening, without any error message.

I was encountering the crashing behaviour trying these approaches too, but @DeathMaskSalesman seems to've been on the right track—the crashes are indeed a permissions issue.

If you remove WhatsApp entirely, reinstall it, and copy /data/data/com.whatsapp over and adjust the permissions correctly before launching it the first time, then it should just need to reverify your number to work.  This worked for me.

To adjust permissions, first use ls -la to check the permissions on what's put in the /data/data/com.whatsapp directory upon install, e.g.:

drwxrwx--x   3 u0_a105 u0_a105  4096 2018-07-14 00:55 cache

Then use the username and group (here both u0_a105) to rename the files after you've copied them in:

chown -R u0_a105:u0_a105 /data/data/com.whatsapp/*

Then WhatsApp should launch okay without crashes, and retain settings, messages, and multimedia.


Unable to connect phone to pc. Phone charges only My phone model is Huawei G7-L11. Android version is 6.0
Hey there, I want to connect my phone to PC to be able to unlock its bootloader. When I connect to PC, It charges only and that's it.
What I did:
1: I tried to connect to pc using Huawei HiSuit but that didn't worked. It does not show anything to PC or mobile as well, just charges the phone. I tried to connect another Huawei phone and that succeeded to connect to PC, But my Huawei G7 is not connecting to pc... Yes of course I turned on the USB debugging as well as allow hdb thing, I also disabled it and re-enabled it but that also didn't worked.
2: I tried to use adb to detect my phone... I typed adb devices as well as fastboot devices but that also didn't shown my devices.
Note: yes I know about MTP and other options, But my device is not connecting at all to PC.. It is not showing any option either. Just charges. I Installed the Huawei G7 drivers as well as snapdragon driver + universal ad drivers. I am 100% sure my USB cable is fine and I am not using any USB hub.
Please Help me... I want to unlock bootloader... Help me connect my device to PC.

First of all, start with easy-to-solve debugging:

Have you unlocked your phone while trying to connect to PC or did you connect with the screensaver showing?
After unlocking, you have a tab (in most of the phones its on top) that you can show by sliding down. There, you have a notification about the connection. Have you clicked it and set it to file transfer instead of just charging?
Try changing the USB cable.

Note: I know this could be answered by commenting the question but I haven't got enough reputation in this website.


Google Play Games: how long do XP and achievements last? If a game that uses the Google Play Games service disappears, are the associated XP and achievements removed from the Google Play Games' player profiles?

If by disappering you mean deleted app from playstore, No an app can't be deleted once published in google play store(Ref.). The "Delete" button only works for unpublished version of your app. It shoud instead be unpublished and  wont be displayed in the PlayStore results but the old users will continue using the apps and receive updates. See here

  When you unpublish an app, existing users can still use your app and
  receive app updates. Your app won’t be available for new users to find
  and download on Google Play.

And once an achievement is published it cannot be deleted (Ref.). But you can reset the players achievement's progress in the google play developer console or by using the Management API methods programatically only when the app is published.

  Deleting an achievement

  Once your achievement has been published, it cannot be deleted.

  You can only delete an achievement in a pre-published state by
  clicking the button labeled Delete at the bottom of the form for that
  achievement.

  Resetting an achievement

  You can only reset player progress data for your draft achievements.

  To reset achievements in the Google Play Developer Console, click the
  button labeled Reset achievement progress at the bottom of the form
  for that event. To reset achievement data programmatically, call the
  Management API Achievements methods... Read More

So that means the app won't be listed in the playstore results for new users but the game data will be stored for the users having installed the app before the app is unpublished.


How to sort comments by likes on the facebook app? I just switched to Nexus 5 from iPhone 5.

While I was on the Facebook app on iPhone, the comments was sorted by likes, and on my new Nexus it seems it doesn't work the same.

I can change it somehow? Why does it not have the same behaviour?

I believe the answer is that the order of the comments is post specific and not dependent on the device you're reading the post on.
So while you were on your iPhone you might have seen a post in which the setting was to show the top comments first (sort by activity) and on the Nexus you must have seen a post that had the setting to show the comments in chronological order.
Reference:
http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/facebook-sort-comments/294414


touchwiz launcher bug with logcat inside My problem is that when you try to delete any home page, it gives me force close here is video of my problem http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX4ZDOA3ygE&feature=g-upl here is fragment of logcat: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=33046163&postcount=15 maybe anyone could comment about this issue and it cause :) thx

It looks like a non-trivial issue, I'm afraid.  The logcat output you provided didn't actually  give the cause of the issue.

May I suggest that in the meantime you use another launcher?  Nova Launcher and Apex Launcher are particularly good replacements for you Note 2, or if you want to get fancy then TSF shell is fun.


phone makes touch vibration sounds when on facebook Why my galaxy s3 make a vibration sound like im recieving a notification while I'm on facebook. While this is happening I am not touching my phone, its happening while I am reading something on facebook or a website. Again, I am not touching the screen in any way, just holding my phone while reading something on facebook or a website.

I know this sounds silly, but I think it is likely that your hand is wrapped around the phone and thereby gently touching the screen with the tip of your fingers OR you are touching the volume down key that goes to vibrate mode.

Technical possibilities could be:

-Setting in the Facebook app, maybe it is sending some sort of notification equivalent that just vibrates instead of showing up on your screen.

-It could also be a different application that runs in the background and gives you notification vibrations. To solve that, go to applications manager, and click through applications and disable push notifications until you find the culprit.

Hope that helped.


Does XMod work in Bluestacks? In Bluestacks app when I am installing the XMod, the app says to root device. But how can I root Bluestacks? Please help.

Yes it works and I have been using it for some time now.

Download the XMod APK This is official site
Now you need rooted bluestacks
Here is the link to Rooted Bluestacks I am using
This bluestacks does not require rooting s it is pre-rooted
Install it on PC and open the XMod APK using Bluestacks

And that is basically it. I hope it helps. :)


See caller info without unlocking on Moto G 2nd gen In my Moto G 2nd gen, when a call arrives I can hear the ringtone, but the screen is black. I can't see who's calling. In order to see that I had to unlock my mobile. Is there any fix to this?

If I'm not wrong, it's because you have received an update of Lollipop 5.0.2.

To resolve this issue, go to Settings and change the priority of the "Phone" app to high priority, then go to Notification, and change way of notifying to "Interrupt for anything"


CamScanner A4 vs Letter pdf? After I scan a document with the app CamScanner, how do I export it to a letter-sized pdf? When I share to my dropbox as pdf, it uses A4 dimensions and I can't figure out where the setting for this is.

It's clumsy to find this setting but you need to add a page to the existing document. On the 3 dots menu you will find PDF settings → PDF page size with options as below. These settings are remembered for all documents, so you would need to change it if you want a diffrent size


Google authenticator remove and install back in same phone(time corrention) If i uninstall g.authenticator from my phone and then install it again i lose the tokens for the sites i have?
Can anyone tell me about backup codes?those codes are only to access my google account again right?
How can disable the ayth authentiacation in all the sites ,if cant access google authenticator

If you uninstall your Google Auth you’ll lose all your tokens. Some services offer backup codes and these codes are valid only for this services. For example, Google offers backup codes, so if you lose your token you can use these backup codes to restore an access only to your Google account. If you lose the token and don’t have a backup code you should contact the support team of service you protect with 2FA. They will help you to restore an access to your account.

Tip: in the process of token enrolment save the QR code and keep it in a SAFE place. Then if you lose your phone you’ll be able to restore your token on a new device.

Another solution is a hardware token that can be used as a backup. For example, Protectimus (the company I work for) offers reprogrammable tokens Protectimus Slim NFC. They can be used as backup tokens (1 token can store 1 seed and can be reprogrammed an unlimited number of times).


Why did my phone start ringing when there is no SIM card installed My old samsung jet phone just started ringing from inside the cupboard, & unknown caller was displayed, although the children use it as a play phone sometimes there is no SIM card installed, how can that happen I thought you had to have a sim in to operate a phone except for emergency calls?

That happened to my Samsung Wi-Fi "not smartphone, just touch".

I live in jordan, and I received a call twice from an unknown number. It rang with no sound on the microphone and no SIM card. It is really weird, but I think the most common factor is the Samsung phone. It might be kind of an emergency call, or the company puts kind of tracking system to see if these devices are still in service.


Disabling Chrome tab groups My phone (Samsung S7 running Android 8.0.0) recently updated to Chrome version 85, and with it came tab groups.
I am sure this is a welcome thing for many, but I rarely have more than 8 tabs open at any time. Thus the ability to group tabs makes little sense for me.
Unfortunately, I can't seem to avoid it. When holding on a link, "Open in new tab" has become "Open in new tab in group", and there is no option to open it just as a separate tab.
This makes my regular tab cleaning a lot more cumbersome, as now I suddenly have two or three groups where I want to remove one or two tabs each, rather than just four tabs I want to close.
Is there a way to remove tab grouping, or at least a way to hide it away so that I don't have to bother with it during casual internet browsing? At the very least, I can't find anything even remotely relevant in the settings, and a rudimentary internet search has only provided news of the feature, not any details on removing it.

Paste chrome://flags/#enable-tab-groups in address bar and Tab groups options, choose default and re-launch Chrome by tapping the option at bottom. Tested on Chrome version 85.0.4183.127 (if that doesn't work for you try disable option).
( If you type Chrome://flags, you will get a scary warning, ignore that, changing flag properties is harmless-you can always reset flags, if you wish)


Warning: [Video] Recording Failed I recently got a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, and was using it just fine. I imported all of my previous apps and app data and everything went smoothly.

Then, a few weeks later, I tried to record a video, and received the popup:

Warning: Recording Failed

This only happened with the video, and NOT with regular pictures (I could capture still images)

I've tried:

Taking out the microSD card
Formatting the SD card
Restarting the device
Clearing camera cache and data
Clearing system-wide cache partition
Factory data reset

Option 6) actually solved it, so I think it may be the cause of an app. What's going on?

The culprit is probably an app that accidentally doesn't release a critical lock.

In my case, it was the Cortana app that was causing the issue. It has a setting for the "Hey Cortana" hotword in the app, which requires that the application grab the microphone lock. It seems like the app, when quit, never released the lock, and so the camera couldn't have access to the microphone (and couldn't record)

If you don't have Cortana, try scouring your app list for apps that will obtain a lock for (and have the possibility of keeping it across runs):

Microphone
Camera
Storage

P.S. I've also heard that this issue can be caused by interference from Smart Stay, but I've never had issues with it


Where are the water damage indicators on a G2? I got a G2 from eBay and it looks pretty nice.  I'm just inspecting to make sure everything is good before I start using it.  The battery has a white water damage indicator, which is good, but the battery could have been replaced.  Are there other indicators?  Where?

See the white circle right above the battery contacts? It's in the picture. That is the phone's water damage indicator. How do I know? Because mine is bright red. Trust me, there'd be no doubt...


Google Play updates on mobile connection despite setting Even though I have set the option not to update apps on mobile connection, it still updates them and Google Play app is the number one in my mobile connection usage. How to fix it?

AFAIR that setting is only applied to apps installed thereafter, so you've got to disable it for each app separately in addition. I've made that back then right when the autoupdate feature was introduced, so I don't remember anymore where exactly this has to be done (Playstore app or playstore website).

Doing a little Google Search brings up e.g. this article: How to Disable Automatic App Updates on Android, which in short describes the required procedure as follows:

Globally disable/enable auto-updates (applies as default to apps installed after changing this setting):

Open the Google Playstore app
Head to Menu→Settings
Toogle the Auto-Update Apps setting to the wanted value

Adjust it for apps already installed:

Open the Google Playstore app
Head to the list of your installed apps ("My Apps")
Open each app separately, hit the Menu again, and toggle the Auto-Update checkbox

Restricting Google Play to WiFi: (also see my answer here, with screenshots)

From your homescreen, go to Settings→Data Usage
Enable a "global limit" (can be pretty fake, e.g. "5 TB" – it just needs any value, which one doesn't matter for this case)
In the list of apps below, scroll to the Google Play Store app
Open its entry, scroll to the end of the page
tick the checkbox to "restrict background data"

Above order (1 & 2) applies to "I want auto-updates globally, just not for certain apps". If I understood correctly, the "Auto-Update" checkbox on the apps' pages only becomes visible when auto-updates are enabled globally. So if you want to deactivate that for all apps, you might have to reverse this order:

Enable auto-updates globally
Disable it for each installed app separately
Disable it again in the global settings (so it will automatically be applied to apps you install from now on)

Not very user-friendly, especially with many apps installed – but it at least should work.

Item #3 will stop Google Play Store from working while on mobile data. While usually, this just affects background data, Play Store will most likely refuse to work altogether, as it relies on GCM (Google Cloud Messaging), which relies on background data to receive messages.

More references:

How to stop Google Play Store from auto updating (YouTube video)
How can I turn off the “allow automatic updating” for all apps? (right here on Android.SE)
Is it possible to disable Google Play updates? (specifically for Google Play and Google Play Services, which – according to the answer there – can not be excluded from auto-updates)
How can I turn off the “allow automatic updating” for an app? (again right here on Android.SE)
How to enable Play Store auto-update for just a few apps? (one more here on Android.SE)
Is it possible to selectively limit background data usage?
How does “Restrict background data” work?

There are many more links, not all fitting in this answer :)


Working with Trello offline and synchronization Will the Android app work without internet connectivity and sync with Trello when the internet becomes available?

Can the Android app be controlled as to when to sync with Trello?

We work at sea and would like to use the Android app for storing project data then sync the data with Trello after reviewing/editing project information.

Are we able to store project data offsite from Trello for our own records once a project is complete?

You can add cards and view cards and add comments to existing cards while offline, but you cannot add comments to new cards you create while offline.  You also cannot view comments, descriptions, or checklists while offline.  Changes will be synced when you reconnect to the internet and run Trello.

You can export your Trello board to JSON format, but I'm not sure what can read that format.  Business users can export to CSV.

Based on these limitations, it probably would not work for your purposes.  You might consider Google Drive or something similar that allows you to work offline and sync when you do go online.


Is it possible to change notification bar on Android Pie? Hi. After updating Samsung Galaxy J7 2018 to Android 9.0(Pie), my notification bar changed. So is there any way to change icons order
(justify clock to the other side).

NOTE: My phone is not rooted.

I believe you can do that. Download Good Lock 2019 and install Quickstar. You can move the clock back to right, or even hide it. You also can hide/unhide other icon on the status bar.

If you are unable to use Good Lock, there is alternative. Download an app called "Nice Lock". Then you need to manually download and install "Quickstar apk" from apkmirror. After that, open Nice Lock and from there open Quickstar.


SHELL Command works fine as a standalone command, but fails when put into a shell script? Android 8.1 PIXEL 2 with root access.

I have seen this asked here once before but the only solution didn't help me at all. I am going to try and make this as simple as I can for the example.

If I run the following command in terminal emulator or adb shell:

am force-stop com.myapp.frustrated

It will quit the app just fine. But when I run it in this shell script:

#!/bin/sh
am force-stop com.myapp.frustrated

Nothing happens. It is odd to me that I can do many other commands just fine in a script, but a handful of them do not work.

Any suggestions you have are much appreciated.

Removing #!/bin/sh fixed my issue. Thanks


Where can I find the OTA update file? I'm trying to locate the zip file that contains the OTA update for my Droid Bionic.  Right now, its failing to update, and every time it fails it deletes the file and I need to re-download it (takes a long time).  I was hoping to save off the update so I could try a few things on my phone and try the update.  I read online its somewhere in a /cache directory, however I dont see anything at all when I mount it to the PC and do a search for cache or even "*.zip".  Does anyone know how I can find the zip file?  Maybe I need to change the PC settings or something to search for it (I have changed the folder settings to view hidden files and system files).

Two pieces of ground I want to cover here:

/cache is typically a separate partition on your device, which wouldn't be mountable by a PC via USB, which is why that isn't working. The USB connection generally accesses a directory named "sdcard" (or similar) which is used as an external storage device, although this storage area doesn't have to be physically external to the device (it may just be a partition named /sdcard rather than a physical card).
If the OTA is in /cache then you should be able to find it with a file explorer or shell on your device. Once you've found it, you could simply move the file from /cache to your external storage and then copy it over USB. You'll need root in order to access /cache, though. There are a number of file explorers that support root access, but I personally use ES File Explorer.


Can't root Galaxy 5830i A year ago I bought a Galaxy ACE GT-5830i which came with Gingerbread 2.3.6, recently I wanted to root it, I tried following the instructions in Root,Unroot,CWM,and how to Flash Galaxy Ace S5830i, without success.

I wiped cache, Dalvik cache, rooted again, again and again but did not work.

After the root process I found the Superuser icon on the launcher, I checked for root and even tried to use link2sd and nothing. I tried to update the superuser app from Google play and ... nothing. How to root this device?

If you see the superuser icon then your phone is rooted. See this post to know what to do after root:I've rooted my phone.  Now what?  What do I gain from rooting?


Are launchers as stable and safe to use as stock software? My main concern is that I do not want to modify my Android so that it becomes less stable than it currently is.

If my understanding is correct launchers like Buzz Launcher or GO Launcher significantly change how Android looks, but the changes perhaps do not stop just there.

Also, once a third party launcher has been installed, is there a way to revert the changes? I mean, sure they can probably be uninstalled, but is it going to be a very clean uninstall, or do they typically leave junk behind around the filesystem?

I'd like to try out Buzz Launcher very much, and GO Launcher probably too, but if they're going to render my Android somehow inferior in terms of causing arbitrary type of damage or just clutter the device as a consequence, I'd rather not.

Update

Incidentally, what about keyboards? Same deal?

In Android, a launcher is no different to any other kind of app. The launcher just has an extra intent filter that launches it when you press the home button. If you have more than one launcher app installed, you get a chooser dialog to select one, just like any other time you perform an action that more than one app can handle (such as sharing a photo).

Android packages aren't like packages in GNU/Linux distributions. They have very limited access to the system, and can't leave files behind them after you uninstall them (except on the SD card, if they request the permission needed to access it). Except when allowed with specific permissions (which you should always check before installing), the only real problem they can cause is using the resources of your phone: taking too much power, network, or storage.

In this respect, you don't need to worry about an unstable launcher any more than any other kind of app you install.

  If my understanding is correct launchers like Buzz Launcher or GO Launcher significantly change how Android looks, but the changes perhaps do not stop just there.

I think you are overstating how much a launcher can do. All it changes is how your home screen looks, including the list of apps and widgets you get to from the home screen. A launcher doesn't affect the appearance of any other app, nor does it change how Android works. It's just an app you launch by pressing the home button.


Multiple Google Accounts contacts Syncing I have 2 google accounts lets say 'me@gmail.com' and 'work@gmail.com'

Personal email has 500 contact of my friends and family. Work email has 1100 business contacts.

I share the work emails contact list across 5/6 different people/PC's/mobiles etc. and keep the personal one for my phone only.

Can anybody find a way that my android phone can display/sync me@ contacts whilst JUST displaying work@ contacts?

Whenever I add accounts/sync etc. both lists merge and everybody using the work email suddenly has access to my personal contacts?

Tried quite a few fixes but Android always syncs everything.

I'm not fully understanding the request. You want your phone to display/sync @me contacts, but only display the work@ contacts without syncing them? That's not a distinction that exists. The only way to display them is to sync them to your phone. That's the method by which they reach your phone.

Are you asking for it to not sync changes back from the phone to the work@ account? The only way to ensure that is, simply, not to make any changes to the work@ account contacts. Don't add anything to them, and don't edit them. The only things that sync back up to the cloud are things you change.

Syncing two different accounts (me@ and work@) will not merge the contacts. It will merge your view of those contacts, so that locally on your phone you see only one list of contacts aggregated from both sources, but if you go onto your computer, or work@ Gmail web interface, it will not contain all the contacts you synced to your phone from your me@ account. They're kept entirely walled off from each other. I have easily five or six Google accounts at any one time on my device, some Gmail, some Google Apps, and NONE of the contacts cross-pollinate. In fact I wish there was a way to make them do so, as it would be useful for me to have all of my contacts in a couple of those accounts for various purposes. But the moment I log into the web interface for one of my less common ones, I have zero access to any of the contacts in my primary one, and vice versa. So there should be zero problem here, just possibly the perception of one.

The only way to get the contacts from one into the other would be to manually export them from one account and import them into another. Or, presumably, use some sort of third-party app that might produce the same result.

Assuming my answers above don't clear up the issue, and there's still a problem, can you clarify a couple things for me?

What specific phone do you have?
Are you using the built-in Android function for adding these Google accounts, and not some third-party app to manage them?
Do you have any sort of unusual backup apps you use on the phone for contacts?


Is there a "temporary root" for Samsung phones? I have a Samsung stellar from Verizon.

I want to temporarily root it (I think the iPhone/iPod one is a tethered root).

After I restart my phone, I want it to act like it never was rooted. Ever. If I give it to my carrier, even, and they investigate it, they won't be able to find it.

Is this possible? I don't need a custom ROM or anything, I just want to remove the pre-installed crapware.

As others said, if you remove the crapware, well, that proves the rooting.

Anyway, you can try towelroot in order to gain temporary root permissions.

Open the app and tap three times on welcome to towelroot;
A text box should appear: substitute 1 to the last 0;
Click on make it ra1n.

This should provide you with a temporary root.


What is this HTC notification icon that looks like a pin? What is the icon in between the two red lines on the notification bar? I can't find it in the Android 2.3 user guide!

I think it is by places, the application. Just try closing the application and then trying.


Can a thief unlock my stolen phone that is secured with a pattern? I've lost my phone recently and it's got a pattern lock on it.  I've also reported the phone as stolen, so it's been barred. Would it be possible for a thief to unlock it?

It is very possible for someone to unlock it, especially with the right skills.

Here is what I don't like about pattern unlocks:

I once sat next to someone at school who wiped his 'friends' phone screen off, and then waited for him to unlock it. He then stole it and looked at the smudge on the screen to get the unlock pattern. In my personal experience, number combinations are a lot safer than patterns.

Now lets say that you had a really good unlock pattern that was really long that nobody could just brute force hack. Then your data is still a little bit more protected, but you can still get into it. All somebody has to do to get your data off of your phone is to root it and then they have access to everything.

If I were you I wouldn't be very worried. Your phone doesn't (or at least shouldn't) have credit card info stored on it. If you use a credit card for google play, then it is stored (and encrypted) on a google server. Basically if someone were to 'hack' your phone here is what they could look at:

Text Messages
Emails from accounts synched with phone
Pictures
Videos
Music
Google Calendar
Phone specific settings (IMEI ect.)

Here is what I would do

I would go to my cell phone carrier and tell them to deactivate my sim card and (if possible) deactivate the phone. I know there are some carriers in Europe that can actually wipe the phone completely. See if theft is covered by your carrier's warranty (it usually isn't but its worth a shot). Then get a new Android powered device and move on.

If I were you I wouldn't worry about the data on your phone. I don't think anyone would take the time to go through all of your stuff on your phone because to you it's important but to them it's junk.

You can try some simple Android apps like:

Lost Droid Finder - Apparently you can remote-install this app to your phone and it will help you find it. I've never tried it but maybe its worth a go.

Wheres My Droid - This app is similar to the last one. What I like about this one is it can wipe almost anything on the phone (SMS, Pictures and even the SD card). It can also remotely lock your phone if you didn't already have a password on it.

Both of these apps are free. It's better to prepare for something like this before it happens, so if you are a person who frequently loses their phone, these apps might be something you might want to have just in case.

So to directly answer your question:

  Would it be possible for a thief to unlock [my phone]?

Yes, will they? Probably not. They will probably just factory reset it and just do what they do.

Hope this helped you out!


Are there any alternate mirrors for downloading Android Source Presently I am trying to download the android 4.0 source from

https://android.googlesource.com/platform/manifest -b android-4.0.1_r1

The package and project paths are accessible here https://android.googlesource.com/platform/manifest/+/c4e4db1a85b9bea00b9fe8c6a18f9d3357adab0c/default.xml

Currently I am using ubuntu based curl , gitcore and repo to download the source.

I tried to search but could not find any public HTTP or FTP mirrors that shares the entire source code in a compressed iso or rar file. Is anyone aware of such public mirrors.

Here are the mirrors I know of. GitHub I know is an "up to date" mirror, not sure about the rest.

GitHub
Code Aurora


Google Play Services How to fix? I cant use Google apps because of the Google Play Services. in my notification Google App wont run without Google Play Services, Which are missing from your device. How do i fix this? i cant find my Google Play Services too.but i tried to download it but then browser said that Google Play Services is intalled in my device

the problem is not with the installation of google play services, it's actually with the updation of google play services .
To fix either go to googleplay store and update the services or click on the notif that says "this app won't run unless you update google play services".

hope it works :)


How do I disable Fast boot without the Power option in Settings? I went over some of the old forum posts about this issue and there seems to be a lot of confusion about this. I am planning to root my HTC Desire (GSM) which at the moment is running original UI/ROM and everything on Android 2.2 FroYo.

One of the root guides said that I should disable Fastboot by going to Settings and then Power. But I don't have that option. And apparently I am not the only one.

So what's this all about? And how do you disable something like that when the option is not there? Can this be done from HBoot menu?...

I believe the they didn't make fastboot an option until Gingerbread. It should be off by default so I wouldn't worry about that step. You can check to see if it's on by turning your phone completely off and then turning it on to see how long it takes to boot up. If it only takes 10-15 second fastboot may be enabled.

Also, here is a painless way to root your HTC Desire that doesn't require changing fastboot: How to root HTC Desire (Froyo 2.2) without putting in a custom ROM (flashing)?


How to retrieve Android contacts from Galaxy S3 to Windows 7 on a non rooted phone I am hoping someone can help me with this. My brother passed away yesterday and we both have the same phone a Samsung Galaxy S3 on the Sprint network. I was wondering if there is a simple way with adb or some software on Windows 7 that I can use to get a list of his contacts off of his phone as I need to try to contact all his friends and let them know when his funeral is going to be as I don't have any of his friends phone numbers. I am familiar with rooting phones and installing roms as I have my xoom rooted but I have not rooted my Galaxy S3 or my brothers phone either since we had both just got it and dont want to void the warranty just yet.

Can anyone help me? I am not a programmer and really just want to get a list of his friends to contact to let them know what has happened. Please help me if you can time is of the essence as I am making funeral arrangements today with my mom and would really like to let his friends know that he is no longer with us.

Thank you all and hopefully you can help me!

I had the same problem trying to get contacts off my broken galaxy s3, and the solution was a program called "My Phone Explorer" from http://www.fjsoft.at/en/
I had tried everything, but couldn't find a solution that worked for retrieving contacts AND SMS messages.


How can I access Transport for London from my device? How can I use TFL information on my device?  Is there an application or other good way of accessing TFL?

For those who don't know, TFL == Transport for London, a webpage of London public transport when you can find what is the best way of getting from point A to B at a given time.

This is the highest rated app I found Appbrain: http://www.appbrain.com/app/pubtran-london/cz.fhejl.pubtran.london

Here's the search I used: http://www.appbrain.com/search?q=tfl&sort=highest-rated


Problem with Sync from Andoid Calender I have a google calender that is sync to my Cellphone samsung Galaxy S2.

It does not working when I apply a new appointment time in my google calender in my android. It says that it's syncing but no appointment time will be displayed in the calender, both in android and website.

However it works perfectly when I apply the appointment time in my google calender at "https://www.google.com/calendar". When I apply the new date, I'm enable to sync it and see it in my android.

What should I do?

I found that the calendar sync does not work when the phone is "full", i.e., far over half of available storage is used by all your downloaded apps, and pictures, documents etc. In my case, I don't remember the exact numbers, but with some 90 % usage, but still say half a gigabyte free, this turned out to be not sufficient for Calendar. I removed some unused apps, and Calendar started syncing again.


Turn off phone by holding the power button? I've been having a small case of my screen not turning on at times. It happens on a 1 out of 100 basis. Anyway, I can confirm that the phone did not shut down because I can take screenshots (via power button + volume down key) and hear the screenshot sound. However, the display remains turned off. What I found to be the fix is to remove the battery to force shutdown the phone and re-insert it and open again.

That would have been an OK solution but my phone has 2 layers of battery cover so it's kinda tedious to do when the random screen problem occurs (especially if I'm outside or on the road). What I want to happen is that if I hold down the power button for some time (5 seconds maybe?), it will power off the device thus, saving me the trouble of having to remove and re-insert the battery.

How do I make holding down the power button for some time turn off the phone?

Phone is Sony Xperia Active ST17i, running MiniCMSandwich Lite rom with RaGe kernel.

There were those Secret Codes...

  *#*#7594#*#*: This code can be used to change the "End Call / Power" button action in your phone. Be default, if you long press the button, it shows a screen asking you to select any option from Silent mode, Airplane mode and Power off. You can change this action using this code. You can enable direct power off on this button so you don't need to waste your time in selecting the option.

Hm, guess that's what you were lokking for, right? Wanna more? OK, Here's the source, Luke: Secret Codes of Android Phones. Not sure if it works on all phones, though...


Play Store Android apps are not updating in Android Lollipop (Error code: 495) I have installed the latest factory image for Android Lollipop version from Google site to my Nexus 5 device.

When I am updating apps from Play Store, "Update all" option is not working. Some of individual apps like Maps, Calendar also shows indefinite spinner. Google Fit, Google Keep, Maps and Play Music apps are not updating. Getting error:

  Could not be downloaded due to an error (495)

Try the following...

<<1>>

Go to Settings > Apps > slide to "All" apps.
From the list of apps find Google Play Store > Clear Data and Clear Cache.
From the list of apps find Google Services Framework > Clear Cache.
Now, try to install or update app from Google Play Store.
If it still didn’t work try uninstalling Google Play Store updates.

If the above steps couldn't solve your issue,

<<2>>

Go to Settings > Accounts > Google > Remove your Gmail account.
Again go to Settings > Apps > slide to "All" apps.
Force Stop, Clear Data and Cache for Google Play Store,Google Services Framework and Download Manager.
Now again go to settings > Accounts > Google > Add your Gmail account.
Restart your android and re-run Google Play Store and update/install your apps.


Karbonn Titanium S1 suddenly switches off My Karbonn Titanium S1 smartphone switches off when I open the gallery, play any game, listen to music or do anything with the phone without connecting the charger. The screen starts to shrink and the phone is switched off. After restarting the phone battery is empty.

How can I solve this?

and after restarting the phone battery is empty.

This shows the battery of the phone is dead. You will need to replace the battery to stop the sudden drain like this.


Renamed Google Apps User and Sync. How to reconfigure? Since renaming his Google apps account, one of my employees Droid Razr can't sync. I'm sure it's still pointing to the old user name. He is running 4.0.4 on his Razr.

Can he reconfigure his device without wiping it? if so, how?

Is it a primary google account? - if it is, a factory reset would be needed, meaning a wipe unfortunately...


Is it possible to stop certain apps from updating via Google Play? A friend of mine updated a certain app and I don't like the choices the devs made. I'd rather stay on the current version. I know that I can set Google Play to not update apps automatically.

Thing is, I love being able to press UPDATE ALL to update all my apps with one press. Except for this app...

How can I make sure that this app does not appear in the Google Play updates section anymore?

I am not sure if you don't want auto update or you if you want to remove it from the update all list. All apps will appear in the update all apps list. You can not remove them from that list.

To remove from auto update go to Google Play Store > Find the app you don't want to auto update > Select the 3 dots on the top right of the screen and deselect auto updates.


Backup not listed to restore from on new Android device I have 3 android devices synced to the same Google account:

OnePlus One running Lineage OS 15.1 (up to date, not currently rooted)
NVidia SHIELD Tablet K1
OnePlus 3T - new, in factory reset state

I am trying to move all of my apps and data from the One to the 3T. Google Drive on the One shows under "Backups" (text translated from Spanish w/best guesses from context, etc):

Backup from A0001 - today at 21:49
Backup from NVidia SHIELD Tablet K1 - today at 10:57

However, booting the 3T, setting up the SIM, Wifi, and copying Google account information over using "Set up my device", entering account password, skipping "share my data" questions gets me eventually to the restore screen, which shows only the K1 backup to restore from.

How can I fully restore from my One to the 3T? I estimate reinstalling all of my apps (from 3 sources - Play store, F-Droid, and Humble Bundle) and getting data syncing working and synced for my personal data to take at least 5 hours, and would not include call data, chrome tabs, game saves, etc - so anything faster than that is fair game. I have set up ADB for my One and used it for file transfers a number of times, and can probably set it up for the 3T, so ADB is fair game.

Edit: currently open tabs on this issue (might save some time):

How to manually restore Call Log from adb backup on OnePlus One? (SMS already restored)
Why is my Android not restoring the app data from its Google Drive backup?
Restore apps from backup on Google Drive
https://android.gadgethacks.com/how-to/get-all-your-data-onto-your-new-android-phone-0183525/ (most useful from google search results page 1 for various searches

Summarizing from comments ;

OP has been unsuccessful in restoring from Google Drive trying the solutions linked in the question
Using  titanium-backup is not an option  as bootloader is unlocked on the old device but on the new device Safety Net would be tripped if unlocked and rooted, apart from wiping data
Only option left is to take a back up as explained here (using adb} How to fully backup non-rooted devices?. It has limitations so it's recommended to understand and test it out


Not enough time for GPS lock for geo-tagging when taking a photo I turned on geo-tagging for photos, but the problem is that the GPS locking procedure seems to only start when I open the camera app - but it takes minutes for it to lock on a location and by that time the photo opportunity is gone.

Is there any way to enable GPS lock to be ready even before opening the camera app? For instance some phone settings to toggle it off and on, or some service I can get which continuously runs in the background and maintains a GPS lock?

And if there is, what will be the power implications of maintaining a GPS lock? Does it drain a lot from the battery, or is it relatively benign?

My device is Samsung Galaxy S 2, running Android 2.3.3.

I've found that if I'm using another app in the background that polls for location (e.g. latitude in Maps) I tend to get much more accurate geo-tags in photos. YMMV, but perhaps if you know you're going to be shooting photos you can open up Maps or similar first to start the process going.

WRT your battery life question, leaving maps open tends to destroy my battery in a few (5-7) hours (Dinc 1, known for horrible battery life anyway, even among android phones), especially if I'm shooting a number of photos. When I know I'm going to be using my phone in that manner I typically bring a second battery along, so that when I'm done I can still make calls.


Phone is locked with an impossible to enter password As it appeared, the on-screen keyboard for entering the unlock password is missing English layout, although it for sure was present when the password has been created.
Now the situation appears really bad:

the phone (TP-LINK Neffos C9A, Android 8.1 NFUI 8.0) is locked,
the password is not possible to enter because of missing keyboard layout,
option for adding keyboard languages is not available,
there is no option "Forgotten password" and
Android Device Manager responds "Can't reach device" with either WiFi or 3G connection.

How to unlock the phone in such situation?

In case there is a problem with the on-screen keyboard most devices support to use an USB keyboard connected via USB On-The-Go (OTG) adapter to the phone - if the phone supports USB OTG at all.

The simpler an USB keyboard is the more likely it will work - keyboards with integrated USB hub and/or readers for smartcard or sd-card often cause problems and may not work.

Note that the USB keyboard works like a regular keyboard (not like the on-screen keyboard): key combinations like have be pressed at the same time, not one after another.


Install Custom ROM Samsung S4 SGH-i377 I'm going to make this short and sweet:

I have a Galaxy S4 AT&T on 5.0.1 variant that I want to install Resurrection Remix on. I cannot find any way to do this. This phone has a locked bootloader.

How can I unlock the bootloader, and install a custom recovery as to flash the ROM? [Possible to downgrade to 4.4.2 and then install it??]

First thing to know when you purchase an Android device from AT&T or Verizon: bootloader is locked and not unlockable. Downgrade is also a no-go for Samsung devices.

XDA-Developers is the place to go to if you want any sort of development. There is a way around the locked bootloader (namely, Loki/Safestrap), but it's nowhere as elegant, and since I don't have the phone myself, I don't know whether it applies to your current Android version. Do read carefully and good luck tinkering with your phone.


Nexus S downgrade with Clockwork Mod I have a Sprint Nexus S 4G running ICS Cyanogenmod 9.  I want to run 2.3.6.

In CWR I've backed up, wipe/erased, wiped Calvik cache, but when I go to install my Sojus 2.3.6 file I get Installing update, Installation aborted.

I don't know why and I feel like I'm missing something obvious.

One thing I noticed about the 2.3.6 package sojus-gwk74-factory-4a34b67a.zip is that in it there is image-sojus-gwk74.zip which is the largest file and what I put on the Nexus S' SD card.

There is also radio-crespo4g-d720sprkh1.img and bootloader-crespo4g-d720sprke1.img which I didn't put on the SD card (or maybe I did, but I can't see them from the install from zip section).

Is there something else I am supposed to do with those files? Perhaps I am supposed to run fastboot before I go to recovery mode in CWR?

Model Number:
Nexus S 4G

Android Version:
4.0.4

Baseband version:
D720SPRLC1

Kernel Version:
3.0.31-cyanogenmod-ga64c18e  android@thebeast #1

Build Number:
IMM76I

Mod Version:
Apex v1.1.2

My problem is the exact same as this guy's: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1429669

You have to use fastboot.

That is all.

This is from my command line command history:

532  ./fastboot-mac flash bootloader bootloader-crespo4g-d720sprke1.img

533  ls

534  ./fastboot-mac reboot-bootloader

535  ./fastboot-mac flash radio radio-crespo4g-d720sprkh1.img

536  ./fastboot-mac reboot-bootloader

537  ./fastboot-mac flash recovery recovery.img

538  ./fastboot-mac flash boot boot.img

539  ./fastboot-mac flash system system.img

540  ./fastboot-mac flash userdata userdata.img

541  flashboot erase cache

542  ./fastboot-mac erase cache

543  ./fastboot-mac oem lock`


Android Voicemail Settings Voicemail on my T-Mobile Galaxy Portal/Spica/i5700 doesn't work.  I've set it up via the Tmobile voicemail setup, but if I call my mobile it just rings and rings until I get a message saying 'This number is currently unavailable.'

Is there anything in Android itself that might have borked it?  I'm running an ahem not official Samsung version of Froyo.  In Settings -> Call Settings I can see Voicemail service, from which my only option is My Carrier, and Voicemail Settings, and all that lets me do is pick the voicemail number to call.

Or is it more likely just some error at T-mobile's end?  Thought I'd check before giving them a call.

You have to actually setup your voicemail with TMobile as well as on your phone.

You simply ring 222 from the phone.

Here is a detailed description:

http://forums.t-mobile.co.uk/help-and-support/index?page=home&cat=VOICEMAIL


Phone stucked while booting with moto logo After all for a game, I've done all the stuff that gets it to play the way i love.

I did the following in the order as it is.

Backed up my contents
Unlocked the bootloader
Flashed TWRP recovery
Installed elementalX-G4-1.04
Flashed SuperSU-2.82
Wiped cache partition

Now my phone was rooted and I restored all the contents and data. All of a sudden Pokemon GO is not working and I got to know that it won't work in rooted devices since it's failing Safety Net tests. After going through some threads, I get to see that installing suhide might bring back life into the game.

I downloaded suhide0.54 and booted into recovery mode, flashed suhide0.54 and tried rebooting. Phone got stuck at Moto logo for a long time. I tried wiping cache and rebooted but still the same.

Tried flashing suhide-0.55, wiped cache partition and rebooted system. Still the same condition. Please help me out on how to get out of this situation.

Model : Moto G4 Plus

Version : Android 7.1.1

You need to uninstall suhide. There is an uninstaller.

Check this post:

https://forum.xda-developers.com/apps/supersu/suhide-t3450396

And scroll to the downloads section. Download the file with 'rm' in the name. Transfer it to your phone and flash it in TWRP. Make sure you have the latest version of TWRP. Reboot.

I would suggest buying a cheap phone and experimenting with that. Unroot the G4 plus and do all the stuff with it that you can do unrooted.

In terms of the phone to buy to root etc, I would suggest either a used phone (make sure you can unlock the bootloader before buying) or a new moto e, maybe. If you are in the UK, I would suggest buying a used phone. You can unlock the bootloader on an HTC One M8, which you can pick up for about £90.

https://htc-one.gadgethacks.com/how-to/unlock-bootloader-root-your-htc-one-m8-0154444/

In the US, the new Moto E is $99 on Amazon Prime or $129 normally on Amazon.

Hope this helps!


How to use external OTG webcam for video calls/conference/talks? I am sorry if this is a dumb question. I thought this was an easy task, but either I am searching in the wrong direction or this isn't easy at all.

  I want to make a video call (like Skype, Skype fo Business, Jitsi ... whatever) using a (external) webcam.

Thats it. My phones (I have a few here, all different vendors from Samsung to 3chintsa) all have two cameras (front/back), which are working fine. I can call (video call), switch cams, conference call my cats - everything is perfect.

Additionally I have an external cam, which also works fine by itself. I can use "IP Webcam" apps, take fotos, make videos, use it as remote cam ... works flawless. Except one thing.

I want (reads: need to) use this camera as a ... camera. Within video calls (app doesn't matter, everything would be fine). But almost no app lets me change or chose the camera, except from switching front to back.

Why would I want to do that? We have a (surprisingly well done) "handsfree microscopic magnifier headset" that, so the idea, should be used as a "remote support assistent" helper, to guide people remotely fixing stuff. We (a non profit org) are trying to reduce our carbon footprint by no longer flying around the earth for visual diagnosis on our tech and/or guiding locals to fix things by themselves. Am I to far from reality here?

I couldn't find any app that lets me do that. What am I doing wrong?

I have tried:

Skype
Skype for business
Jitsi (App)
Duo
IMO
JusTalk
KiK
WebRTC
Hubl

I am I missing something important here?

Android 9 has native support for external cameras, but in order for it to work it should be implemented by the manufacturer, which according to anecdotal reports I saw online isn't done by most or even any of them. I just faced the same problem myself.

One solution is to patch the Android kernel on your device to turn on the support for the feature at the Hardware Abstraction Level (HAL). People have done it successfully, but you will lose your warranty and it's not easy to figure out.

Another solution is to take an open-source app and tweak it to support UVC cameras using an appropriate library. I've got an estimate from a highly experienced mobile developer that it'd take 40+ hours. There was a feature request made to add UVC-webcam support into Jitsi Meet for Android. You can follow the link and express that you need this feature too, maybe the maintainers will prioritize it.


How do I recover contact from android phone(one plus one) after touchscreen stopped working? I dropped my phone, and the touch screen stopped working. So, I can't access the phone. The phone is practically useless besides looking at the time. Is there a dongle that I can use to control the phone externally like a pc? Or any other way to recover my contacts from the cellphone, besides actually fixing it?

I want to get a new phone, and don't want to spend money on fixing it.

If only touch stopped working and screen is properly visible then you could try the USB OTG with keyboard and mouse to go to contacts app and export your contact or sync them to google account


When I try to download pictures from phone to computer, "no pictures found on this device" I have an LG-X Power. I have tried to download the pictures from my phone to my computer. When I connect through a USB cord - I receive a message on my computer that reads: "No pictures found on this device". The pictures are on my phone, there are many. I bought a new USB cord, still the same. I have a standard Windows operating system.
I needed a few of the photos so I simply attached to an email, opened email on computer and downloaded that way. I have way too many to do that tedious method repeatedly.
Does anyone have any suggestions?

Make sure you have choose either PTP or MTP connection on phone. If still doesn't work than try this:
Go to settings>apps and find "media storage" and "external storage" (maybe you'll need to check "show system") clear data for both of them, and then reboot. After device boots wait up to 10 minutes for media database to update and connect phone via USB to PC.


Text message is being divided into two messages I use a pre-paid cellular service from T-mobile. Each text message is deducted from my account at a preset rate.

Too often, a text message I receive of 100 or less characters and spaces is broken into two texts, meaning I get hit for 2 texts instead of one. So for example, a 100 character & spaces text will arrive as a 60 character text and a 40 character text.

Is there anything I can do about this and still keep the same service?
Why are texts being divided if they are under the total character & spaces length of 130?

A single SMS can hold up to 160 characters. But that's only for text.
Since smartphones make a lot of use of emojis, the SMS cannot hold 160 characters anymore if you include an emoji. AFAIK, the default emoji (smiley) will take 2 characters, but the one with a custom skin tone can take 4 characters. Similarly, it varies from device to device and what kind of emoji it supports.


How can I emulate ctrl-Z (undo) in Android 4.1.2 on a Galaxy Note 3? Based on this question and this question and this issue, it sounds like Android basically doesn't have undo/redo functionality. (I guess? Correct me if I've misunderstood or if the situation has changed.)

My goal is to use a Galaxy Note 3 with an external keyboard to work on long-form writing projects.

I'd like to have undo/redo functionality.

Is there some way to "bolt it on?"

Like maybe is there a text editor that has undo/redo as a feature, or some app that lets you add it, or a trick you can do an automation utility or something?

(It doesn't actually have to be ctrl-Z. Any reasonably convenient keypress would be fine.)

For anyone who comes across this via a search I found these options...

Polaris Office's word processing program implements undo that works via control-Z on my Galaxy Note 3 using a Bluetooth keyboard.
The JotterPad X text editor implements undo and redo that works fine via on-screen controls.

The JotterPad X app description on the Google Play store claims specifically...

  Compatible with physical and Bluetooth keyboard including shortcut keys (E.g. ctrl + Z for undo)

On my system, JotterPad X's undo didn't work with a Bluetooth keyboard, but maybe it will work on your system or with a different model keyboard.


How can I improve the battery life on my device? Possible Duplicate:
  What can I do to increase battery life on my Android device?

My Desire is absolutely great, but with my usage the battery life is really a big problem.

I have a few apps running and polling in the background, obviously the Google stuff (Gmail, Talk, Maps probably poll because of Latitude). Then I have Twitter running (checks every 5 minutes), Google Listen (checks every hour). Google Market also checks for updates sometimes apparently, don't think I can switch that off.

My usage is pretty heavy, on my bicycle I listen to Spotify or a podcast for 20 minutes, then in the morning train (45 minutes) I will usually read Twitter and Google reader (the web app). Then I get to work and my battery is down to about 75%-70%. I usually charge it but if I don't then I will be out of battery by about 6PM. So thats 9 hours of battery life. The commute back is pretty much the same, battery will be dead before I get home.

I don't want to give up on instant notifications, so the 3G will always be on.

When I went camping for a weekend I turned all of the above polling off and only checked Twitter about 4 times, didn't use the phone for the rest of the day. Battery life improved slightly to about 14 hours. Still not great, I was hoping for at least 24 hours.

WiFi is always off by the way!

I've tried rebooting but the timings are mostly the same. Is it wise to buy a battery that can provide more mAh? Is there any good solutions for backup power when I don't have power available, when camping for example (aside from buying extra batteries)?

Go to StartScreen/Menu Key/Settings/About Phone/Battery/Battery use. It tells you which of your applications are using how much energy. Then you can make a more informed decision about whether certain applications are worth their energy usage.


Can't buy any paid apps on Google Play store, shows "An error occurred. Please try again." On my Nexus 7, I keep getting

  An error occurred. Please try again.

Over and over when attempting to buy any paid apps on the Google Play store. It works fine for free apps, but always returns this same error when I try to buy a paid app. I've "tried again" a dozen times with the same result.

I checked my Google account and the Nexus 7 shows up as properly attached to my account. It also works OK in Mail, Calendar, and the other bundled Google apps on the device.

I don't understand why I'm getting this error, which tells me nothing. I'd like to buy some Android apps for my Nexus 7, but I can't!

Based on one of the comments, I tried buying the same app on the Google Play website, and I get an odd message next to the Nexus 7 (which does show up in the list of devices for me):

  You have not opened the Google Play Store app recently on this device. Please open it and try again.

But, but, but I have the Google Play store open right now on my device!

In order of least to most destructive.

clear data on market app, reboot
remove your google account, reboot, add it again
clear data from google framework services (this is similar to above, in that it will log you out, but I'm not sure what else this clears), reboot, sign back in.

the 3rd one was what finally fixed it for me and I haven't had the issue again.


Can I change how my Gmail account is displayed in the Android Gmail app? In the Android Gmail app, when you have several email accounts configured, you can switch between these in the menu to the left. Any IMAP account you add, you can assign a name to. When you add a google account, it assigns the email address (e.g. me@gmail.com) as the name by default. I'm wondering if I can change that name to e.g. "Personal" or "School", etc.

I just tried it out and it seems like this is not possible.

However, did you know that you can use aliases for your Gmail Account? If your address is for instance "maxmuster@gmail.com", you can also use "maxmuster+school@gmail.com" or "maxmuster+work@gmail.com", and all E-mails will land in the same inbox. Then you can filter them by recipient-address, to gain order.

I can also recommend you the "INBOX" app by google, if you want your inbox to be more structured. Hope it helped you in any way.


Need to reboot Android to see new files After recording with Field Recorder, I connect my Lenovo S6000L via USB to my PC. However, the newly recorded audio files in WAV format are not visible until I reboot the tablet. Android version is 4.2.2.

Is that likely an OS or an app issue? Can I avoid the lengthy reboot?

It's a bug in the app. Android has a thing called the media-scanner, which scans newly added files for metadata, so they can be included in media players, photo albums, etc. It relies on the app that creates the file signalling the media scanner process to scan the new file. If the app doesn't do this, the new file won't be added/visible.

If you look at other questions with the media-scanner tag, you'll see some ways to force a full re-scan, at the cost of draining the battery somewhat.


Can airplane mode turn itself off automatically If I have a phone with airplane mode turned on, can it turn itself off automatically (without user interaction)?

A forced system update, for example, will apparently disable airplane mode.
This can happen without user interaction.
However, such automatic deactivation of Airplane Mode for a system update would generally require the user activating WiFi (after entering Airplane Mode) or some other communication channel that allows the phone to become aware of the requirement for an update.

Also, some apps can activate and deactivate Airplane Mode, if permission is granted.  This is especially true for older (<4.2) versions of Android.


Delete items from playlist in VLC 2.0.x Recently I started using VLC 2.0.X for Android. It mostly works fine, but I don't find a way to delete items from a a playlist.

When I tap on a playlist, it immediately starts playing with the first song. Dragging upwards from the bottom of the screen then expands the playlist and shows all titles. I can then drag an item out of the screen to the right and get a notification that the item was now removed.

However: if I switch to another playlist and then go back to the first one, the item is back unchanged.

I might be misunderstanding the playlists. Any idea how I can get rid of items from a playlist. I would not mind editing a text file, but I am afraid the items are in a DB.

This wasn't the case with the older versions of VLC for Android. Dismissed/removed songs shouldn't appear again in the playlist. I emailed the developer about this issue and they acknowledged this bug. You may check the attached screenshot. I'm sorry if it doesn't answer your question.


To hear voice calls from Bluetooth Speaker I am able to hear MP3 songs from my Android phone using a Philips BT50 Bluetooth Speaker. However, when I make and receive calls from my Android phone the output does not comes from the Bluetooth speaker; it just directly comes from the phone's speakers.

Is there a way to hear voice calls from a Bluetooth speaker?

Yes, you need a Bluetooth router. There are example apps in the play store.
BTMono, or BAR are example options.


How to unbrick Nexus 7 I bought this tablet on Jan 7, 2013, and have allowed it to update whenever it asked, but I can't tell you what version of Android is has now. However, instead of the "X", I see four colored balls that move into the center, become one white one, and then move out...
     I have used it happily since then, until a week ago. I had recently installed an anti malware program, and that may be part of the problem. While I was websurfing, without warning, it went to boot: it went black screen, the four colored balls came in from the edges, and did the usual boot thing. Forever. So, I held down the power button til it shut off (I hadn't powered down in a while...mea culpa), and tried a reboot. Still did te 4-ball X thing forever.
     So, I held the power, up AND down volume, and got the screen with the recovery/start/reboot options that you can scroll thru with the volume buttons. Start and Reboot got me back to forever-booting. So, I tried recovery. I tried deleting cache: it said it did it. I rebooted, still looped. So...I bit the bullet, and did the "factory reset, lose all data" option. It said it did delete everything (so it's talking to me and making sense). So then I rebooted, expecting the welcome screen...IT'S STILL BOOT LOOPED!!

OK, so what can I do next? Is there a solution?

Thanks for ANY help!!

Sounds like your device had a problem with the KitKat OTA.

You can, however, download the correct image for your device here, and manually flash Android onto your Nexus.


Are there any Jabber (XMPP) apps out there that support jabber conferencing? I've tried several, and so far I can't get one that will just work with my work jabber + conferencing (jabber 'rooms').  They all seem mostly clunky.  Does anyone have a rec that has worked well for them for me to try?

I'm using Gibberbot. It is worth taking a look at. Free software, multi-protocol. Active developer community.  Definitely still in beta but that doesn't mean it won't do what you need.


Where can I find the ANDROID_ID on my device? I know that you can find IMEI and MAC address and others by going to Settings -> About phone -> Status. You can also find IMEI by typing *#06# on the keypad. Is there any way to get the ANDROID_ID on the phone itself, as opposed to via this bit of code?

Secure.getString(getApplicationContext().getContentResolver(), Secure.ANDROID_ID);

You can do this via adb. Does not require root, as far as I know (tested on a Galaxy Nexus running 4.2.1 built from AOSP source):

shell@android:/ $ content query --uri content://settings/secure --projection value --where "name='android_id'"
  Row: 0 value=<your ID in hexadecimal>


How to disable speaker independent of volume settings I'm a deaf person with a Nexus 5X.  I almost never want my phone emitting any kind of sound.

When I had a Samsung Galaxy S4, there was a configuration option to mute all sounds independently of the various volume settings.

Since then, Android has released their do-not-disturb mode.  That doesn't really fit in with my usage because that ties in with the whole notification system.  I want my phone to function as if it was not in the DND mode, just without sound.

I looked into key remapping solutions to prevent accidental buttonpresses (phone holder, pants, whatever), but that doesn't prevent applications from changing the volume.  e.g.  Google Duo assumes that all videophone calls users will want audio regardless of the audio settings prior to opening the app.  That absolutely makes complete sense, so that's why I'm asking for a lower-level way to disable the speaker.

I did look at several muting-related questions, but those seem to be more of one-time actions - "I want to turn off sounds right now, but I'll adjust them later"

So, the question is, as the title states, how to selectively stop the speaker from functioning that cannot be overridden by any app.  How would I proceed to go about doing that on a Nexus 5X?

I recently updated and found a similar "mute all" function missing as well, so I feel your pain :/

My recommendation is to use a very powerful app: Automate

Automate allows you to monitor various activities on your phone and then respond to them. The catch-all method to accomplish what you want would be to create a simple loop of: if volume change -> set volume zero

While that sounds easy enough, there are some pitfalls: multiple loops based on ringtone, notification, media, etc., and, depending on how your phone implements it, possible high battery drain.

So on to my actual recommendation (still using Automate): monitor for a specific app, e.g. Google Duo in your example, and automatically set volume to zero when it changes it. This is what I do.

In conjunction with that, to alleviate the issue of accidental button/toggle pressing: you can set default ringtones, notifications, etc. to "silent" (go into sound setting and pick a sound. "Silent" should be first on the list). If that's not satisfactory, Automate can also save the day. It can detect if the phone ever leaves vibrate mode and set it back to vibrate (or silent, etc.).

You've got a few options, but I highly recommend the app. It's a very powerful tool that I believe is fit for just this sort of application. Right tool for the job :) Lemme know if you need any clarifications or extra help getting it set up, and best of luck!


i can't retrieve a wallpaper setting i looked in my gallery but it is not there I selected a picture from the gallery as my wallpaper but replaced it with another picture from my gallery, and i can't find my original picture.  How can i retrieve it?

Android doesn't save a history of old wallpapers. If the old wallpaper is still in your Gallery, just select it the same way you did before. If you've deleted it from wherever it originally came from (e.g. your camera photos or downloads folder), through Gallery or another app, then it's gone.


The camera LED on my OnePlus One is continuously on I recently got a OnePlus One phone (64GB model). I noticed that the LED for the front camera is continuously on. Is there any option to turn it off?

When you say LED for the front camera, do you mean the notification LED? That can be easily disabled in Settings - Display and Lights - Notification and Battery light.
If you're referring to the flash LED of the back camera, you can try taking some pictures with the flash turned off and see whether it works.
If not, try hard reset via recovery.


How can I make my Samsung Galaxy Nexus volume go louder than what stock allows? I find the media volume to not be very loud on my Samsung Galaxy Nexus and would like to somehow "boost" it beyond what stock Android allows. My phone is rooted and is running Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0).

Is there a way that I can "boost" my phone's volume / make it louder that works on Android 4.0?

In particular, I am wanting to do this for media playback than notification sounds, but information on either is beneficial.

I use a program called Volume+ Free.  Works pretty well.  The free one is capped though at +4 db.  If you want to go higher you have to get the paid version.

The full version can be found for free on the developer's website.


Root integrity check on Infocus Epic 1 says "System Check FAIL!!" When I did a root integrity check on my InFocus Epic 1 from recovery mode, it shows too many errors and at the end it says:

Error:found 432 new files.
Error:found 63 lost files.
Error:found 15 modified files.
System check FAIL!!

What should I do now?

My reply is built on my assumption that the OP want to ask about his device's root status, and if it's been altered or not

Check Selinux Status:

Selinux defines which process can access a given resource on your device. AFAIK, all Android device manufacturers companies ship their devices with Selinux Enforcing (Default), in some custom ROMs you may find Selinux Permissive or Selinux Disabled, in those cases system will grant any permission requested by any app.

To verify Selinux status, type the following on your command line:

adb shell getenforce

Possible Output values:

  Enforcing
  Permissive
  Disabled

Default Value (general consumer products):

  Enforcing

Check ROM/Firmware signing keys:

Check if you have a ROM/Firmware signed with release-keys or test-keys.
The main difference is that test-keys are available for Public and everyone know them, but release-keys are kept secret by the person who signed the ROM/Firmware, hence those ROMs signed with release-keys are more secure than ROMs signed with test-keys.

To verify your signature, type the following on your command line:

adb shell getprop ro.build.fingerprint

  test-keys
  release-keys

Default Value (general consumer products):

  release-keys

Example (general consumer products):

  samsung/dreamqltevl/dreamqltecan:9/PPR1.180610.011/G950WVLS6CSG1:user/release-keys

Check ROM/Firmware build type:

Check if you have a Production built ROM (or not: maybe a debugging version)

To verify your build, type the following on your command line:

adb shell getprop ro.build.fingerprint

  user Build:       It has a limited access; no su binary and used for production.
  userdebug Build:  It's similar to user build but it has su binary, thus it's root access and debugging capability; it's used to debug technical issues, and it's a bit slower than user build in performance
  eng Build:        It's a development build with lot of debugging tools, and generally it's the lowest in performance compared to other builds, not used for production.

Default Value (general consumer products):

  user

Example (general consumer products):

  samsung/dreamqltevl/dreamqltecan:9/PPR1.180610.011/G950WVLS6CSG1:user/release-keys

Check if your device is Encrypted:

To verify your device encryption, type the following on your command line:

adb shell getprop ro.crypto.state

Possible Output values:

  Encrypted
  Unencrypted

Default Value (general consumer products):

  Encrypted

Check dm-verity Status:

Verity is used to check the integrity of your device, and device manufacturers using verified boot have a their methods for verifying the integrity of the kernel with an unchangeable key which is burned on the device at factory level.

To verify if you're able to change dm-verity status, type the following on your command line:

adb enable-verity

Possible Output values:

  Enabled
  Disabled

Default Value (general consumer products):

  Enabled

Example (general consumer products):

  enable-verity only works for userdebug builds
  verity cannot be disabled/enabled - USER build

Check Security Level Patch Date:

Security Patch Level is another layer of security, to protect users from latest CVEs and exploits, Google works with partners and the public to provide patches for any Android devices to receive security updates at least once every 90 days.

To verify Security Patch Level date, type the following on your command line:

adb shell getprop ro.build.version.security_patch

You may also check SafetyNet CTS Test, but it may be bypassed by Magisk Systemless root.

If your device has it's default values with a user build signed with release-keys then you should not be worried about root integrity check.


How to fix the infamous Nook Color / Nook Tablet charging USB cable for good? The Barnes&Noble Nook Color / Nook Tablet have a proprietary micro USB charging port which is longer than normal and allows power charging with 2Amps.

The charging/data cable from BN is infamous to break after some time, most probably the cable's primary plastic coating is not very flexible and starts to split at the point where it enters the micro usb connector and leads to a visible secondary shielding. If nothing is done the situation worsens and in the end the internal power cables may short.

I got my used B&N Nook Color with a beginning coating split and cannot get a replacement from B&N because I live outside the US and have no invoice.

Seems like this problem is a common one, there are already discussions about a class action lawsuit.

What can I do besides looking for a replacement?

I fixed the cable early before it was too late.

The problem zone is the hard transition from the connector to the cable. Shear force due to moving/bending the cable is very strong there when the cable is inserted into the Nook. This is the place where it starts to break and that needs to be fixed.

I consider this solution permanent as it hasn't broken in 18 months:

Add another coating to this transition to reduce shear force.

Used components:

superglue
2 pieces of heat shrink tube (different diameter)

Before:

Fixed:


How to disable startup and shutdown sound on Samsung Galaxy S? Is there a way to disable the sounds on phone startup and shutdown? When I had JF3 firmware, there were no sounds, but now on JM1 the sounds are there :(

In System -> Sound and Display -> System volume
you can set it, unfortunately the power on/off sound is also tied to the touch feedback sound (ie you press a button, hear a sound). If that's not a problem, turn it all the way down and problem solved..


Andoird P - How to join mp4 files splitted by the camera I've done multiples videos larger than 4GB with my Pixel 2XL installed with Android P. The camera as splitted my video in 2 files from continuous shooting. In all cases, the first file is readable but, for the second, I can only see the lenght of the video:

Is there a way or a tool to join these files or to repair the second one ?

I've already try a binary copy with "copy \b" and "cat", a join with ffmpeg -f concat and an append with avidemux without success.

Finally I was able to recover my video using "recover_mp4". I lost a bit sound quality, but at least my video is readable.

Morevoer, I've opened a bug report and this trouble should be fixed for the next release. (https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/80199853)


Can't find Google Now in CyanogenMod 10.0 for Galaxy S2 I flashed CM 10.0 (Android 4.1.2) to my Galaxy S2 (i777), and it doesn't seem like Google Now is installed. It doesn't show in the list when I go to Google Play, but I do have Google Search v1.4.1.299849 installed.

Any idea how I can install Google Now?

It seems that you have a version of Google Search that doesn't include Google Now. The easiest way to fix this would be to install a new version of the Google Search app. I have linked to the googlenow apk below so that you can install the version I had on my device.

This should then allow you to access Google Now by pressing the Google Search option in the app drawer, or using the quick search bar on the default launcher.

GoogleNow.apk


Install 4.3 (OTA) on rooted Nexus 4 (CWM + stock rom, kernel) I'm running Android 4.2.2 on my Nexus 4. It is rooted, and I have ClockworkMod recovery installed, but rom and kernel are stock. I received the OTA update to 4.3, and would like to install it, but it failed. (With a message that CWM couldn't verify a signature. I remember that the previous OTA worked, and I think I had to re-root, but that was easy.)

How can I get the stock 4.3 update on my phone, while keeping root and CWM, and especially keeping all my data? Step-by-step instructions would be great.

Also, I'm curious, what is the technical reason that the update doesn't install?

Update: I found some instructions here, however they didn't work for me. I get the following error from CWM while applying update.zip:

Installing: /sdcard/0/update.zip
Finding update package...
Opening update package...
Installing update...

Warning no file_contextsVerifying current system...

assert failed: apply_patch_check("/system/bin/app_process", "76c3a9a7a6d400a9ff3e4db391327daa33aa0663", "2a221441bf06f2618aa6c35ae0cade13bd4f6e1b")
E:Error in /sdcard/0/update.zip
(Status 7)
Installation aborted.

Update 2:
I forgot that I tried out Xposed some time ago. Apparently this modified /system/bin/app_process. I removed it by starting Xposed Installer, and then selecting "Uninstall (restore app_process)" and (probably not neccessary), "Clean up (complete removal of the framework)". I did one complete reboot, and then rebooted into recovery mode to continue the update. But now it hangs because "build.prop" is modified (don't remember changing that). I wonder if there is a way to just flash the new OS files (not patches), overwriting any modifications, but keeping all settings and user files...

It sounds like the "/system/bin/app_process" has been modified and so it doesn't match the signature required. There are 2 ways to fix this, either get a copy of the stock file from another phone/rom or flash the factory image for 4.3
Edit: After reading "update 2" it sounds like you want the factory image option detailed below.
AndroidPolice has a step by step guide here. I've duplicated the steps in case that page dies:

Download the full occam factory image, which includes the full system, bootloader, recovery, kernel (boot.img), and radio. It's a clean slate for these components - they'll flash cleanly over anything you have now.
Instead of using the bundled script called flash-all, you will unpack the tgz (tar/gz) archive, and then the zip contained within as well. This will put all the components into one folder:
Follow the excellent guide over here and make sure to omit step D10, which overwrites userdata. Here are the commands you will be executing, for reference:

adb reboot bootloader
fastboot flash bootloader bootloader*.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot flash radio radio-mako-m9615a-cefwmazm-2.0.1700.84.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot flash system system.img
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot format cache
fastboot reboot

Note: Instead of unpacking the image*.zip and flashing system and boot
manually, you can actually do fastboot update image*.zip - this won't
delete data (you would pass a -w flag if you wanted that to happen),
but it will re-flash recovery back to stock if you were running a
custom one. You can then flash it back, or just use the commands above
instead. Either way, the result will be the same.

You will then need to re-root (there is no way to go from 4.2.2 to 4.3 keeping root at the moment) by following the steps in this thread (I won't link to the file itself as it is being updated as/when issues are found.).


How Do I Silence Bixby Vision? Whenever I use Bixby Vision to scan a QR code or do other things, it makes a loud chime. This occurs even when my phone is in vibrate-only mode, and my media volume is muted.

How do I prevent this from happening?


Why is data usage very high in the Instagram app? Just by opening your instagram app you will be faced with a high volume of internet usage

Why is data usage very high in the Instagram app?

Because on Instagram is a lot of pictures and videos and that uses quite a lot of data. I don't use Instagram a lot but it used about 7GB of data in less then a month (on wifi). However there is "cellular data use" in instagram settings and you have option to set it to use less data, however I don't know how efficient is that.


Is There an iPhone Emulation App On Android? Most apps are made for iPhone but i would like to know if there is still a way to make iPhone apps work on Android? Emulator maybe?

Some Columbia University students have managed to get iOS apps running on Android with their Cider compatibility layer. As far as I can tell this is not something that is available to the public but it shows that there is some development effort into getting iOS apps running on Android.

I wouldn't get too excited yet though as most iOS apps run very very slowly and they also don't have access to most hardware features such as GPS.


Wine 3.2 not working on Android Oreo I downloaded the latest version of Wine from here (ARM version, tried X86 and it wouldn't install) and ran it on Sony Xperia XZ Premium running Android Oreo. Installation was successful but when I open the app it only says "loading Windows environment" and after that nothing happens, screen stays black forever. what's the problem with it and how to solve it?

Try uninstalling it and instead install Wine-3.0-arm.
Wine 3.2 is a "development" version, Wine 3.0 is a "stable" version.


HTC One Mini data recovery after root Last night I wiped and rooted my HTC One Mini and lost a few photos. Is there any way to get them back?

That's one of our more frequent questions, so we've set up some "first-aid-info" in the data-recovery tag-wiki1. Especially take a look at

How can I recover a deleted file on Android?
Data Recovery - How to Restore Deleted / Formatted Files on HD Micro SD Card

Also, the links to details on "File Carving" and specific recovery tools might prove helpful.

1: It's always a good idea to check our tag-wikis, as they often contain such "first aid" or at least useful information/links. You can find them either hovering your mouse over a tag and click the "info" link inside the opening box – or simply click the tag, and select the left-most tab on the new page.


Stock android moving app to SD card force close applications i am using stock android on my Micromax Canvas A1 (Android one) with android 4.4.4, it works pretty well but issue occurs when i move my install application to SD card and clear its data as well catch (tried in either way) then every application which i moved has been crashing on launching and can't use it, if i move them back to phone memory then strangely it works like charm, Other issue i been facing is sometimes i try to make call then contact/people have been force closed? does any one provide me solution? or anyone having information why it happens?

KitKat doesn't allow you to move apps to the SD card, only to "external storage," which is often a separate partition of internal storage. If your specific device doesn't have a separate "external storage" area, then it could actually be using the SD card (which is rare in KitKat), in which case there could be a problem with your SD card.

First off, make sure that the apps you are moving support running from external storage. The Applications Settings panel should be able to tell you this, just in case app2sd is getting it wrong somehow. You should also know that some apps don't work well outside of internal storage even though they've been marked as supporting it.

I'm also assuming here that you're not moving Package Manager or any internal app to the SD card, and that when you "move my install application" really means "move applications that I've installed."

Regarding Contacts stopping unexpectedly, I've experienced that as well. I'm afraid I don't have an answer for that yet.


Android contacts - missing ME contact I'm a new android user. Yesterday I was adding a bunch of contacts to my phone and I could see the ME contact listed on top in the Contacts app. I opened up the contacts app this morning and the ME contact was gone. Can someone tell me why it's missing and how can I add it back (other than recreating it in the form of a new contact named "AAAA")

Thanks in advance!

Found it!

I opened up Contacts, then went into Settings. At the top of this list I have 'My info', which contains the 'Me' contact.

Hope this helps :)


Recovery that does not use touch? I have an HTC M8 One.  The digitiser has failed.  HTC won't accept the repair since I have rooted the phone.  I'd like to unroot and return to stock but all of the recoveries I have found, or, the installers for stock ROMs, use the touch screen somewhere.

Does anyone know of a combination of recovery and stock ROM install that I can use?

ClockworkMod Recovery doesn't use touch interface. If you can flash stock ROM with it.. But you may have problem getting rid of CWM after flashing the ROM. It might be possible - some ROM's do a reflash of recovery partition before every reboot. You can try letting the battery run low to the point where the system shuts down automatically.


Automate Always-On VPN with Tasker I have a VPN server at home which works great with the built in VPN client from Android 5.1. I can also use my VPN server with the Always-On option, so no problems there.

I want Tasker to toggle the Always-On VPN option so that i can disable it when i'm connected to my home wifi network. Is this possible? I have a Nexus 5 with stock rom, no root.

Side-question: How to disable the Always-On notification message?

VPN control isn't yet supported by Tasker, it's part of a todo list as mentioned in this answer.


Copying links off Google Search results directly I Googled for one document, a PDF file. If I navigate to that link using my device browser, the document starts downloading. However, what I actually want is the actual URL to the document copied to my clipboard, not the Google link which redirects.

I have Samsung Galaxy S2, running CM10.1

On my stock Browser, I can long-press a link. A menu opens, and one of the menu items is Copy link URL.


How to check from where FWUpdate will check for updates? I bought a Samsung Note 3 from a non-carrier, and I am using it with a SIM from one of the cheap national carriers. I would like to know from where FWUpdate is checking and downloading updates. Is it getting the information from the carrier? From the default Samsung repo? Possibly from a repo as configured by the store that sold it? How can one check from which repository is the Note checking for and downloading updates?

Note that my goal is not "How can I get the update faster", but rather I'm actually trying to prevent the system from finding and installing the update. After installing Dcentral 1 I see that FWUpdate is trying to update itself at least once per day.

There is no pre-configured repository for the phone to check.

In order to avoid their servers being over-flooded with download requests, Google along with manufacturers and carriers employ what is called a "staged roll-out."  Once they initiate the roll-out for a given region, a specially crafted message that contains the actual download location of the firmware image is sent to the eligible phones.

The carrier, manufacturer, and Google can all initiate such messages. It depends on where you originally purchased the phone who will be responsible for the updates.  This is driven by the phone's model number.  Carrier-branded phones will most likely get the notifications from the carrier, otherwise the manufacturer will handle the upgrade roll-out.  Upgrades for Nexus and Google Play edition lines are handled by Google themselves, usually without manufacturer or carrier intervention (with a rare exception of Verizon Galaxy Nexus model.)

Technically, it's possible to intercept such messages and extract the actual URI of the firmware file for manual download and installation, but you will be dependent on others to do that, if your device has not yet been made eligible for the upgrade.

After a while, when the initial rush of upgrades is over, the manufacturer will usually host the firmware images on their own sites for anyone to download.  It can take a while though.


Soft buttons disappeared At one point screen just become bit higher. Buttons gone, and it's not that funny, as it can seem. Phone become literally single-task and I had to reboot just to switch application. Found some software emulator that helps me to survive at the moment, but question is how to get buttons back? No, reboot obviously didn't help, I also flashed new version of CM just in case (was CM 10.1.3 stable, upgraded to 10.2 M1). Same shit.

Thought about may be I'm darn stupid, and somewhere there is just single option in setting. Either there is no it, or it's name really differs from what I expected (or I'm really darn stupid).

Any clues, guys? Next obvious step is factory reset, but I'm not mentally ready yet.

P.S. Phone is Nexus 4, firmware mentioned earlier.

There is a mode in CyanogenMod and other ROMs called "Expanded Desktop". If your phone is in Expanded Desktop mode, then the navbar will not be visible (The notification bar may also be hidden, depending on your settings).

The easiest way to check if you're in Expanded Desktop is to try toggling it. Simply long-press the power button to get CyanogenMod's expanded power menu, then tap "Expanded Desktop" to toggle it.

If your buttons showed up after doing this, then you're set! If not, it's something else.


Remove Backup and Factory reset option from Settings app I want to remove some features from my settings app (device is rooted)

I used adb shell pm disable 'com.android.settings/.Settings\$SecuritySettingsActivity' to disable security settings and it worked. However, I am unable to find the activity name to disable backup and factory reset option.

Here is the AndroidManifest.xml of the settings.apk (I'm using LineageOS)

So far I have tried

  adb shell pm disable 'com.android.settings/.BackupSettingsActivity'

and

  adb shell pm disable 'com.android.settings/.Settings\$PrivacySettingsActivity'

Both of which did absolutely nothing. I am still able to open backup and reset option from settings.

When I try to launch the said activities

  adb shell am start -n com.android.settings/.BackupSettingsActivity

It errors out at saying BAD COMPONENT

while these two commands open the back and reset activity that I want to disable

  adb shell am start -a android.settings.BACKUP_AND_RESET_SETTINGS

  adb shell am start -S 'com.android.settings/.Settings\$PrivacySettingsActivity'

The name of the activity was SubSettings (how intuitive!)

  adb shell pm disable 'com.android.settings/com.android.settings.SubSettings'

You can find the name of any activity that's onscreen. Use

  adb shell dumpsys window windows | grep 'mCurrentFocus'


Is it possible to write to a device's clipboard using ADB? I am interested in learning how to write to (and if possible, read from) a rooted Android device's clipboard.

I hope to do so using ADB over USB and I am not interested in installing any apps to help me do this, as this is something I plan on rarely doing.

Any suggestions or help guiding me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

Yes, you actually can do this. It's kind of kludgy looking when you inspect the clipboard, but it works just fine.

First off, you can inspect the current clipboard contents with service call clipboard 1 from an adb shell (or, without shelling in first, adb shell service call clipboard 1). It may start out initially blank after a reboot, for example:

# service call clipboard 1
Result: Parcel(
  0x00000000: 00000000 00000001 00000000 00000000 '................'
  0x00000010: 00000000 00000000                   '........        ')
#

You can put text into the clipboard using service call clipboard 2, which basically takes 3 parameters - two ints and the string you want to put on the clipboard:

# service call clipboard 2 i32 1 i32 0 s16 "Hi there"
Result: Parcel(00000000    '....')

To be honest, I'm not sure what the first two parameters are. One answer on Stack Overflow has suggested the first int is "number of items in the parcel" (one in this case) and that the second is the length of the string. However, I've used 0 for the second parameter and it works fine, and I can't find any documentation that matches up with this particular function...so take that for what it's worth.

In any case, it's basically creating a Parcel object with 3 fields, then passing it into the clipboard. The clipboard then unpacks the Parcel and sets the string value passed in as the clipboard's contents. You can see this when you go to retrieve the value afterwards:

# service call clipboard 1
Result: Parcel(
  0x00000000: 00000000 00000001 00000000 00000008 '................'
  0x00000010: 00690048 00740020 00650068 00650072 'H.i. .t.h.e.r.e.'
  0x00000020: 00000000 00000000                   '........        ')
#

Similarly, if you long-press on a text entry field and hit "Paste" after doing this, you will get the text that was set via the call service clipboard 2 line above (and it will look completely normal).

(The above examples come from my HTC EVO, running CyanogenMod 7)