Why reading permission to /proc/1/maps is denied and why doesn't the denial appear in logcat? I'm developing a native app for Android, and I'm occasionally confronted with permission denied which doesn't trigger a log in the logcat logs.
For example, trying to run:

shell@kltevzw:/ $ cat /proc/<some-not-shell-pid>/maps
/system/bin/sh: cat: /proc/<some-not-shell-pid>/maps: Permission denied

from the adb shell prompt results in a permission denied message sent to stderr, but nothing appears in the logcat. It's not a unix permissions problem as well, as anyone should be able to read the file. For example:

shell@kltevzw:/ $ ls -lZ /proc/1/maps
-r--r--r-- root     root              u:r:init:s0 maps

It happens in some other situations as well, in which I have less control of the environment.
Is it possible that this is caused by some dontaudit rules in the policy? I ran sesearch --dontaudit /sepolicy but didn't find there any relevant rules.
Does anyone here know why are some denials sent to the log and some don't, and how to debug such cases?

Thanks!

REASON 1:

Apart from traditional Discretionary Access Control (DAC), - that makes use of *NIX owner/group/mode of processes/files to allow/deny access - Android implements several other access control mechanisms of Linux kernel to make itself more secure, such as Seccomp Filter was implemented in Oreo.

REASON 2:

While DAC is allowed by-default, SELinux (a Mandatory Access Control) works in denied by-default mode. Any access attempt that isn't explicitly allowed in an SE Policy rule will be denied. Using same, access to /procfs has been tightened in Android O which won't let a non-privileged process/user read - e.g. - /proc/stat and /proc/filesystem. Same restricts you from reading /proc/1 when running as a non-root user from your app.

If SELinux on your device isn't Enforcing, you should be able to read /proc/1 but there are some other security restrictions which - unlike DAC and MAC - are specific to /proc pseudo filesystem.

REASON 3:

Android by-default mounts /proc with hidepid=2,gid=3009 options, which means a non-privileged user will be able to view only its own processes (running with same UID) (ref). So your app won't be able to see directory /proc/1. The only exception is the processes which are member of group AID_READPROC (GID 3009).

REASON 4:

But still if you (re-)mount /proc without option hidepid, you won't be able to read /proc/1/maps because Linux kernel only permits processes having capability SYS_PTRACE to read the details of currently mapped memory regions.

An example of working non-root process on Android is incidentd that runs with CAP_SYS_PTRACE as well as a member of group READPROC. Also the SE Policy rule like following should be defined to allow access:

allow incidentd init : file { read getattr open }

LOGGING:

As far as logging of permission denials is concerned, logd (the service from which logcat reads) is an Android specific logging daemon which necessarily logs events from within Android's native and Java framework (such as manifest permission denials), but optionally includes kernel events (which we can also see using native command line tool dmesg). SELinux denials are also logged to kernel log:

$ ls /proc/1
ls: cannot access '/proc/1': Permission denied

# dmesg | grep avc
[37914.650314] type=1400 audit(1548757064.171:33323): avc: denied { getattr } for pid=28576 comm="ls" path="/proc/1" dev="proc" ino=803674 scontext=u:r:untrusted_app_27:s0:c512,c768 tcontext=u:r:init:s0 tclass=dir permissive=0

# logcat | grep avc
01-29 14:17:44.171 28576 28576 W ls      : type=1400 audit(0.0:33323): avc: denied { getattr } for path="/proc/1" dev="proc" ino=803674 scontext=u:r:untrusted_app_27:s0:c512,c768 tcontext=u:r:init:s0 tclass=dir permissive=0

However Linux kernel may or may not log all of its internal permission denials depending on multiple build and runtime configurations including printk loglevel, DYNAMIC_DEBUG and/or others I'm not sure of. Therefore such messages may not appear in logs.

If you want to get logs related to security events, you can make use of Linux kernel's Auditing System. For that you need to use auditctl tool for defining rules (root required), and you would get details about the denials in logs through dmesg or logcat. Fo more details on how to define rules, see this answer.

PS:

Another reason of not being able to access a certain PID in procfs is PID namespace that isn't relevant on Android so far but very common for isolation mechanisms like containers. In a new PID namespace, any process from parent namespace isn't visible and a process could have same PID (including PID 1; init) as that of some other process in some other PID namespace.


Where do the exact locations of the phone buttons combinations stored? Where do the exact location of the phone button combinations like power reset while holding Volume down + Power, booting to recovery by holding Volume up + Power + Home (if there is a Home button) is it on the system, system partition, boot partition, any other partition, etc.

It's not stored in the Android system, but somewhere in the phone's firmware that's not modifiable.

Such functionalities like hard poweroff or hard reset is controlled by the underlying hardware directly, not by Android system. Therefore the button combos are stored in the hardware controller and are usually not modifiable by software.


Google Play accidentally uninstalled. How to get it back? I rooted my phone recently. Then my brother came and uninstalled Google play. I factory reset my phone but the app  didn't come back. How do I get it back?

The solution to your problem can be found in this XDA link: Google Play Latest APK
Try pushing it to your system  Give the permissions 644 or rw- r-- r--.


Is there a way to overwrite defaul font for a specific app Android 5.0? An app I ran on Android system before Lollipop (LG G2 phone) where the system font worked inside the app, no longer affects the application (LG G3) in Lollipop. As far as I know, all settings are the same but the font will not affect the app any longer. Is there a way to set default font for inside of the app? I just don't understand because it was working before I upgraded by default to Lollipop but now, the plain boring font is set by default inside apps and seemingly unchangeable. I have not been able to find any information regarding this issue anywhere. Is there a savant out there to help walk me through this process to change it?

From what you're saying, I pressume you're on a 'Nightly' or unstable version of a ROM, or if its an OTA update that took you to Lollipop, there's a bug somewhere. Keep calm and wait for fixes, or if you're impatient, then behold below:

By the way With the right search keywords, I found this called Fonter:

  Instead of only being able to change your entire system's font, Fonter allows you to choose separate fonts for individual apps. And with a huge library of free fonts to choose from, you're bound to find the right look for every app on your phone. - Quote from here

I have in no way tried the Fonter, but I am sure it might be the solution to your problem, for the time being, until the actual issue is fixed

However, since you say that issue of yours wasn't there initially, I will suggest you fix the underlying problem, rather than go around with a 'hack', kinda.


"Device password" required when adding a new profile I'm trying to add a new profile to my Android phone, but during the profile setup I am asked to enter my device password:

  Re-enter your password

  Enter your device password to continue

I don't remember ever setting up a device password, so I have no idea what this password is, and where I can change/set it from the admin account.

It is not the main account's unlock PIN.

I can't continue the profile setup without the device password.

Any help will be appreciated!

EDIT:

Model: OnePlus 5
Android version: 9

Oneplus devices have a bug with device passwords.  There are a number of community threads complaining about Device Passcodes not working
I also experience this on my OnePlus device.  As mentioned in the linked thread, the workaround is to reboot the device any time you are told the device password fails.  I have to do this every other time the phone turns on.  I can't boot the device as the device passcode is constantly rejected as incorrect, and yet rebooting the phone any trying again will work first time.
Sadly this workaround fails for the scenrio you are describing, creating a new user profile will constantly reject the device password, rebooting doesn't resolve this for me in this scenario. What's especially annoying is, when cancelling out of the create new user screen, you are prompted for the device passcode to get back into your own account, and this works.
Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a solution to this other than the reports of factory resetting the phone solving the issue.  I have personally put up with this for too long on multiple OnePlus devices and won't be buying OnePlus again.


Nexus 5 won't connect via bluetooth to my alpine radio in my car I recently bought a nexus 5 phone and tried to connect it via bluetooth to my alpine radio and it won't work.

They are visible to each other and it allows me to try to connect, but then it tells me it failed because the PIN was incorrect.

I don't see how it can be incorrect if 1 - I do not have to type the PIN anywhere and 2 - I verify multiple times before accepting the pair that the password on my phone and my radio are IDENTICAL and it still won't work.

Also, someone mentioned changing my password to 0000 or something easy and similar.. but How do I change 0000 to my default password? It doesn't give me the option to change the password for bluetooth. It generates a new password every time i try to connect

Please HELP!! I need my bluetooth :)

Have you tried to use 0000 for both? It's the most commonly-used password for devices that doesn't ask for password, or also set as the default passwird.


Sahara error while sending programmer to bricked phone I flashed a bad aboot partition on my Idol 3 and I'm now stuck on a black screen. Plugging my phone in gives me a "Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader 9008" on COM11 (rather than the usual COM7 in EDL). I have a backup of the old aboot, but when I try to flash with QFIL, I get the following error:

Download Fail:System.Exception: Unable to download Flash Programmer using Sahara Protocol

   at QC.QMSLPhone.Phone.QPHONEMS_SaharaArmPrgDownload(String sFileName)

   at QC.SwDownloadDLL.SwDownload.QPHONEMSSaharaDownloadArmPrg(UInt64& version, String armPrgPath)
Download Fail:Sahara FailSahara Fail

Using the official Mobile Upgrader Q tool from Alcatel, I get a "read terminal information failed" error message, and the Panasonic Download Tool (which also used to work with Idol 3) gives me "Load NPRG Error. (Error code = 5002)"

What's going on? Why can none of these tools send the programmer?

Edit: A more recent version of QFIL (version 2.7.460) gives a much more detailed error message (SAHARA_NAK_MEMORY_DEBUG_NOT_SUPPORTED): https://pastebin.com/K0FN6nG6

You need the correct programmer to hard unbrick your devices.

  Originally Posted by petrov.0

  Your warranty is void. I'm not responsible if your device is hard
  bricked by using the procedure below. The method described below has
  been tested on 6039Y, 6039S, 6039H (with the archives for 6039Y) and
  6039K (with the 6039S archive) and is confirmed that it works.  What
  to expect on successful completion:
  - you will have access to the fastboot commands (removed by the latest upgrade).
  - you should be able to check for OTA updates and to download them, but you will not be able to install them.

  What's needed:

  I hate when I must say this ... but ... a Windows PC.
  QPST version 2.7.422 (you can find it on the net as 2.7 build 422). This is a link to one such version (found through Google). If there
  are problems with this link please let me know. I will try to find
  another one (you can do it yourself too).
  Drivers in order the device to be recognized when is in Download mode. Install Mobile Upgrade Q 4.8.7 the necessary drivers are
  installed with it. It can be downloaded from here.
  The files from the archives below. Please use the archive which is especially for your device ... in theory if you use the archive for
  different device (e.g. the archive for 6039S on 6039Y (with the
  standard partitions)) you should have a repartitioned device at the
  end, and only the resize2fs command should be enough to start to
  utilize the whole memory chip ... but you will loose the possibility
  to sweat a little bit when do the repartitioning by following the
  guide for it ￼.
  - 6039Y (8GB stock partition sizes) (md5sum: 860789bedb63da5c5976c24825c29d47)
  - 6039Y (repartitioned by following the repartitioning guide) (md5sum: c2f8ff3cfc683e46fbf5d797103de71b)
  - 6039S (md5sum: dfd04067230b5709729c70cac61ffd52)

  How to proceed:

  Install all the necessary software.
  Unpack the downloaded archive for your device.
  Power off the device. Connect it with the USB cable to the PC. Wait the battery symbol to disappear and hold both volume keys and the
  power button. You should see a red screen with a warning sign and a
  scheme. Then hold the volume up button. The display will stay lit but
  nothing will be shown on it from now on until the end of the
  procedure.
  When the device is in Download mode under the windows device manager -> Ports (COM & LPT) you should see Android HS-USB QDLoader
  9008 (COMXX)
  Open the windows explorer and find the installation folder of QPST (mine is under Program Files (x86)\Qualcomm\QPST). From the bin
  sub-directory start QFIL as administrator.
  In QFIL the COM port number as seen under the windows device manager should be selected automatically.
  The rest must be done from QFIL:

  Programmer path: _____ - Click on the Browse button against it and from the extracted archive select prog_emmc_firehose_8916.mbn
  Search Path: _____ - if the path is not selected automatically after the programmer selection click on the Browse button against it and
  select the folder where the archive has been extracted.
  Load XML - click on it and first select rawprogram0.xml from the archive, then the patch0.xml file.
  Click on the Download button. The process should finish quickly (few seconds ... up to a minute). If everything is OK the phone will be
  restarted automatically and the fastboot commands will be available
  again.

Please see the original post for downloading files


Can't write an SMS for some of my contacts I'm using an LGP500 Android Phone (Android 2.2). In the default SMS application, when I select a discussion, I see the previous SMS (both sent and received), and there's a text area at the bottom of the screen to write a new message.

For most of my contacts, this behavior is working correctly, but for a few of them (which I use quite often), the text area is not shown. Those contact have a mobile phone number, and I can send SMS using the long way (create a new sms, search the contact ...).

Does anybody have an idea of the cause or the solution ?

Edit I tried a few things to fix this : clearing the data, deleting any previous sms history, changing the phone number from the local (06xxxxxxxx) to international (+336xxxxxxxx) format (french phone numbers), changing the mobile phone number as default phone for the contact, in vain.

This is a problem i face with few contacts on my P500 too! Try merging contacts with their FB account or twitter account or just create a Buffer account and join them. It works after that. Not a great solution but been working that way now!


xperia SP cant move apps to sd currently i have xperia SP c5303 which is i know an outdated device but cannot change to a new phone at the moment... so the problem here is internal memory is too small and i need to move them to sd card... i've installed appMgr III and it says that the device doesn't enable users moving apps to the sd card. do note that i already root my device... the apps also tells that the manufacture had removed the function of moving apps to sd card... can I overcome this problem and change the manufacture settings? help me please because i've searched the available method but had not found one yet...

It is not possible to move apps to SD Memory card although the device is rooted. There are workarounds for swapping internal memory and external memory but it seems to be temporary (maybe until the next boot up I think). Flashing a custom rom is recommended from my side. Visit xdadevelopers website and find your device thread for more details.


How can I run multiple copies of the same app? On iPhone it's very easy to clone an app (running multiple copies of the app on the same device); e.g.:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4f_aLSRnQ8

Is it possible to do this on Android?

On Android, the package name of the app is what identifies it on the phone: that's what gives it its own space to run in, and it has to be unique in running apps. There are two options to get one app running two instances:

If you're on a Jelly Bean tablet, you can do this with multi-user support. Create two user profiles on the tablet, and you can run the app once in each profile. Each user's instance of the app gets its own storage.
If you have access to the source code of the app, you can create a new app by changing its package name. Then install the new app. What you end up with is actually two apps, each with one instance, but since they both have the same code and resources, it has the effect you're looking for.

These are the only two ways. If your device doesn't have multi-user support, and you don't have access to the app's source code (i.e. you're not the app's developer), then you're out of luck.


Multiple update notifications from Android Market I have recently upgraded my HTC Desire to run CyanogenMod 7.  The main reason I did this was so that I could use a more recent version of the Android Market that supported multiple accounts.  The reason for this was that I have moved my email address from GMail to Google Apps for Your Domain and wanted the main email address on the phone to be the Google Apps one, but the market to keep using the gmail one so that I don't have to buy apps again.

I also have two other gmail/apps accounts configured on the phone (so that I can receive emails sent to these two accounts).

Generally, everything works fine and I'm really happy with CyanogenMod.  However, I have one fairly minor problem with the market.  When new updates are available to the installed apps, I used to get a notification message saying (e.g.)

2 New Updates are available

(I'm paraphrasing as no updates are currently available, so I can't remember the exact wording of the message).  This is quite instructive.  With the new market, I get FOUR notification messages:

2 New Updates are available email@mydomain.com

2 New Updates are available other_email@mydomain.com

2 New Updates are available more_email@gmail.com

2 New Updates are available email@gmail.com

This seems a bit daft as they're all the same updates!  Is there any way to sort this out?  The market is set up to use the email@gmail.com account, but seems to be checking for all of the accounts.  I'd imagine that if there are paid apps that need updating, they'll only be listed for the last account (although that's a guess), but for all the free ones I seem to be stuck with multiple messages.

I guess this is by design as the majority of users don't have 4 accounts on their phone. The whole idea of those messages is to give the user the opportunity to download a new version as soon as it comes out. You may not want to use your mobile data when you don't want it to. Maybe the update automatically tickbox would bypass this message, however it will probably still say that 3 updates have been applied.

So what you maybe looking for is silent updates https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10328471/can-we-do-silent-updation-for-android-application looks like you can do it with a rooted phone.

I too think that Google can handle multiple accounts in a more intuitive ways across their products. Since its out of our control to improve these closed source apps ourselves I will say its better than it used to be. I think the best solution for Google would be to combine these messages into one notification ie "5 apps have been updated".

Make some noise on the Google support pages to improve this UX, this may be a good start http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/label?lid=551c5c4cca827a18&hl=en


How can I exclude an App (camera) from the recent Apps list? How to exclude camera from recent App list? (long-press Home Key in Galaxy S 2)

I don't want it to appear in the Recent app list since it has traces/image of last captured image.

You can remove it from the list by just swiping it off. I don't know how to permanently remove it from the list, though.


Is Google aware of multiple user profiles sharing the same Android device? If I create two user profiles* on my Google Pixel device, is Google (potentially) aware that both of them share the same device--as per privacy policy and/or actual implementation?
If so, is there any way to prevent Google from knowing which user profiles (identified as Android accounts) share a device, except switching to a custom ROM?
[*] As managed in Settings > System > Multiple Users as of Android 11; not to be confused with Settings > Accounts.

If your Internet provider uses IPv6 and your device is using IPv6, and you use any service or web site that uses Google resources/services in any way Google can identify your device by it's IP address if you switch the profiles without rebooting no matter what ROM you have installed.
As modern devices with Google PlayServices + PlayStore installed contact PlayStore for updates even if no Google account has been set-up on one of your profiles.


Root Terminal command to kill or stop a service? The latest LiveView Application for my device keeps appearing on the status bar even if the LiveView device isn't connected. Since I can't find any means to disable this behavior, I want to create a fix for myself via Tasker. I made it so that the LiveView process is killed when the device disconnects. However, although this successfully kills the app, after a few seconds or minutes, it starts up again and sits on the notification bar like before. I suppose this is a countermeasure against Task Killers of sort.

This is the next approach I'm taking, using a terminal command to kill or stop a service fully. I'm going to run this command in Tasker in replacement of the process kill method.

Another thing I found to work is to go to Settings > Apps > LiveView > Force Close. So if Force Close is do-able via terminal, that would be nice too.

This is all on a rooted ST17i, running MiniCMSandwich Lite ROM (ICS).

Your suggested approach would have the same result: a few seconds later, the app would be back. Tasker kills it again. Start at the beginning. This vicious circle will certainly help you drain your battery faster -- but nothing else.

Two possible solutions would include either to uninstrall the app, or to disable the "listener" it established to get started on certain events. The latter can be done by e.g. Autorun Manager PRO (yes, this requires the Pro version):

Though there are similar solutions available, and I tested some of them, AutoRun Manager seemed to be the best: It's faster than most of the others, and finds more intents than many others. But as the app also warns: if you disable too many (or the wrong) listeners, the (disabled) app may start misbehaving. To get around that, a new version of this app (coming soon) will implement profiles to switch between (so you could e.g. have one "disabled" profile, and one "enabled"), and also allows for the third option below. (Before anybody asks: No, I'm not the developer -- I just happened to suggest this feature to him, and he approved it).

A third option, which will soon be available with AutoRun Manager, already is available with Titanium Backup Pro: Freeze the app in question when not needing it, and unfreeze it when you want it. Titanium Backup even offers to create a widget to switch between both states -- but you need one widget per app.


Default storage issue in some android phone Does android jelly bean 4.1.2 not supports to move the apps from internal storage of phone to external micro sd card but android jelly bean 4.2.2 or 4.3 can?

It depends. Some phone manufacturers adds the feature of moving apps to sd card in some of their models but most of them does not have this feature by default. Although you can change that manually by rooting your phone and using an app called 'app2sd ' on any version of Android .


Instagram keeps sending me text messages I turned off all my push notifications, and I still keep getting text from Instagram, e.g. when someone liked my photos or left a message. But I also keep receiving txt messages from Instagram telling me about things like whats new on instagram, or for me to check out a someone i have no interest is doing.

I still have my Instagram and like the service just want Instagram to stop txting my in the middle of the night with things I don't want to be informed with.

How can I stop them from texting me all night long?

Open Instagram... Then go to "Edit Your Profile" and then delete your mobile number from your profile... Hope it helps..


True instant sync via Dropbox I want to have my todo.txt file synchronized on PC and Android via a cloud service in both ways and instantly on change. Let's call this true instant sync. Unfortunately, I have not found a good solution yet and I don't understand why.
My setting: Markor to edit todo.txt on Android, todo-txt script to edit todo.txt on my Linux PC, official Dropbox client on both Android and PC.
In order to get true instant sync, I tried FolderSync and Autosync for Dropbox. However, I think that neither of these apps does what I want flawlessly and their precise function is not really documented. For example, Autosync for Dropbox has the options "autosync", "instant upload", "clever detection of changes" (available in the pro version) and one can also set synchronization in given time intervals, all independently of each other. What do these options do precisely? FolderSync seems to support synchronization in time intervals only, which is not what I want.
I imagine that a true instant sync solution should work as follows:

There is an interrupt whenever something is written in the shared folder .
The interrupt is associated to the sync client, which sends the information about changed files to the sync server immediately.
The sync client pings the sync server whenever its network address changes.
When another sync client uploads something to the sync server, the sync server broadcasts the information about changed files to all sync clients.
There is an interrupt whenever a packet from the sync server is received.
The interrupt is associated to the sync client which updates the local files immediately.

Questions:

How do 1--6 differ from the reality and what are the problems? Aren't the interrupts 1 and 5 already implemented on the system level?
Can I configure Autosync for Dropbox or FolderSync (+ Tasker) so that I get true instant sync which was defined above?
Do you know any other solution for true instant sync?

Thanks!

AFAIK, true instant sync (as in first para of your question) , isn't possible using Dropbox, for reasons mentioned in answer here. If Dropbox itself doesn't permit, you can't force it through either apps you tried (I tried and have the pro version of both these apps).

My need was to have a real time sync across Android and PC (Linux and Windows). The only app I could find was from standard notes. The Android app on Play Store is marked beta but don't let that discourage you. It works perfectly well on Android, Linux and Windows for real time sync.

Only thing left is Dropbox sync - if you go in for pro version of standard notes, you can install an extension, that provides daily updates to Dropbox, and obviously isn't real time. But then your files are synced across platform in real time, so updation in Dropbox may not really matter, unless you have other reasons. I haven't tried this extension because I stopped using Dropbox.

As far as real time sync goes this ticks all the boxes except via Dropbox. You don't need to go in for extended (pro) version, if you decide to cut off Dropbox or use either of the apps you tried for periodic sync.


No more badge notifications on Google Pixel? I just replaced my Verizon Galaxy S4 (Android 5) with a Pixel from the Google Store. On my old phone, Snapchat and Facebook, for example, had badge notifications on their home screen icons.

My Pixel doesn't have that though, it appears that no apps have badge notifications anymore and so if I clear out my notifications from the pull down bar I have to open each app to see if they have new items.

Is there a way to change this? I'm aware gmail never supported badge notifications with the default launcher, but what about the other apps? What happened?

Facebook's options just list vibrate, LED (which LED? On the back?), or sound. Snapchat has similar options.

Or is this just a Android 7 change?

This is a because Pixel (and also Nexus) devices do not support app badges. More specifically the launcher does not. It is the launcher that must support them rather than the app itself. Your Galaxy S4 supported this because Samsung built support for them into their launcher.

You could install a new launcher (Nova launcher supports them via an additional app, and Action Launcher has recently added them).

Chris Lacy (the developer of Action Launcher) has some useful insight into why he resisted adding them for as long as he did:

  Unlike iOS, Android does not have a system wide API to fetch unread badge counts for all apps. In short, unread badges are only ever going to work so well on Android. For example, unread badges can be reliably fetched for SMS messages, but there remains no bulletproof way to fetch the number of unread Hangouts, Allo or Facebook Messenger messages.


How can I use my Xperia X10 mini pro as an external speaker? I have an Xperia X10 mini pro. How can I use it as an external speaker?

I don't know of any way to make your phone a remote speaker alone but there are methods that would achieve basically the same result.  Without knowing your exact goal it's hard to give you a specific recommendation but here is one way to have audio stored on a seperate device play through you phones speaker/headphones:

Setting up a wireless media server will allow you to stream media from your computer to you phone.  So while it's not simply acting as a speaker, you are able to hear media that is stored on your computer on your phone.

There are numerous ways to do this like using DLNA or any of the number of apps that serve media over wifi or 3G.


Only google andriod apps wont connect to internet on my school network First off, im not a student or teacher, i am an IT trainee at a very large school. We have 8 IT personal including myself.

I have asked around but non of the other guys seem to know why it happens my 98% of the time google apps dont work on out network on amdroid devices, id imagine the same goes for chromebooks but im yet to test that.

I cannot use apps such as google now, google play, google+, ect. Is it possible that they use some sort of vpn features because i know that vpns are blocked on our network due to my testing.

Also would anyone have a list of addresses and ports that i could add to our whitelist, if so please share that with me.

Any help would be appreciated reatly. Students are allowed to bring their own devices so it causes issues with the students who have android devices and need to download an app for their class or so,e other task using a google app.

Thatnk you in advance for any help you could offer.

Try Using Google DNS

DNS 1: 8.8.8.8
DNS 2: 8.8.4.4

you can add it to the WIFI AP/Router Config so its used by the DHCP

or you can manually Add it to the device wifi config:

Settings > Wifi > Long Press on Wifi Connection Name > Modify Network/Edit > IP Settings > Note the IP Address> Select Static > Type in the IP and Gateway then enter google dns and save

the setup on device route should be used to test if its the DNS if working setting it up on the Router is the better Soulution.


How to have an individual notification for every message? Similar to the iPhone, is there any way I can get a separate, individual notification for every SMS, update, (any sort of notification)?

This is not specific to SMS, but rather to any app.

Currently, my phone will chunk notifications by the app and once I get 5+ notifications from an individual app, my phone will chunk the notifications together and I can no longer see the notifications unless I deliberately click on the notifications.

Customising android to mimic ios notification style

While android os is still lagging behind ios in terms of personalisation and notfications there are a dozen of applications
that come close to mimicking this behaviour, in my research I managed to grab just a few:

Defumblr Smart Lock

Key Features:

Defumblr highlights your important messages in a unified messaging interface
Launch your most used apps with Quick App Launcher
Sync the Lock screen Calendar and Alarm with your Android system.
Organize critical to-do items right on your lock screen with a customized To-Do List widget
Get glanceable forecasts with the Weather widget
Organize all your important notifications and messages in one place
Personalized configuration options including layout, color schemes and backgrounds
Secure your phone with password or PIN protection
Customize which apps to feature on your lock screen

AcDisplay

AcDisplay
 is a good example that completely replicates Apple’s functionality.

  It uses the sensors on your device to know when to wake up, saving you
  from hitting the home button or power button on your device.  It’s
  also customisable, so you can adjust which notifications you want to
  show up, plus use some power saving settings and dynamic backgrounds.

Screenshots:

SlideLock

  is a simple and clean locker with powerful notification features.

Features :

Simple and clean android locker replacement
Swipe the screen to the right to unlock, swipe it to the left to access the camera
Actionable detailed notifications, double tap to open, swipe to dismiss
PIN and pattern security
Screen wakes up for a short time when receiving a notification, allowing you to perform a quick check without having to touch the device
Custom settings for each app (sound, vibration, ...)
Notification banners when your device is unlocked
Low battery usage

Screenshots:

Hope this helps


Merging multiple SMS databases I have a lot of problems with my phone, and so I have a number of nandroid backups with different sets of overlapping SMS messages saved in them.  I've also made a few copies of the data folder when the thing wouldn't boot.  I like to have all my SMSes backed up to my Gmail for posterity and searchability, using SMS Backup Plus.

What's the easiest way to recover messages (and maybe other data) from my backups?  Is it possible to open or run nandroid backups inside an emulator?  Are they in a format that can be extracted to a filesystem, and then take the database files out and merge them with some kind of database tool and then put the merged file on my phone?  Would it handle duplicates?

I believe /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db is an SQLite DB, so you can use this firefox add-on, SQLite Manager and that should let you merge whatever backups you have lying around rather easily.

After you merge them, you can just replace /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db with the resultant merged file (backup the oringal first).


root-android.org - A scam? I would just like to know whether the website root-android.org and its product is a big scam when it comes to rooting Android devices. If it is, then I advice other would-be rooters to stay away from it if they were to come across it.

According to this ScamWarners post, it may be a SCAM.

  The site Root Android.org supposedly carries out the service of rooting and unrooting mobile phones with a "special" program. Like all scam sites "100% money back guarantee if not satisfied" is a in your face feature, alas nothing is further from the truth.
  After initial email contact regarding technical issues with the downloaded program, there is nothing and certainly no contact when exercising the refund option.
  I have since searched and found that the program Root Android.org uses is a free download from a few specific sites that deal openly with the global community.
  The old warning of buyer be ware rings true, I sincerely would not use this site again and warn anybody who is contemplating mobile phone rooting to steer clear of Root Android.org.


Virtual track pad to control mouse pointer in android I have a nexus 4 phone, which has lost half of the screen's touch capability due to its digitizer capability. I would like to have "TouchMousePointer Windows app" like app in android and place it on the screen where touch works. And thus use the phone inspite of this "nexus 4 soft touch problem".

I see that mouse pointer is by default available in android. Apps are present to use mobile as remote mouse to PC. Fusing these two application should be possible.

Is there any app in market for this requirement. Is there any simple method to overcome this problem?

The "virtual trackball app" that is currently available is too primitive.

Instead of trying to move the cursor to areas where the touch is not working, temporarily moving the screen to the area where touch is working looks like better alternative to this problem.

Niwatori-one-hand-mode app in xposed framework, gives options like that. Using this app along with other Launcher apps like LMT (launch bar) app solves this problem for me.


How accessibility access is secure? My android device is rooted and running Android 4.4.2.

Some apps like App Lock, GO Power Master, Kaspersky Internet Security, All-In-One-Toolbox, MoboClean Auto Installer ask for accessibility access for better performance.

All the above apps assure me that they are not gathering any personal information, but while giving access I see a message saying they observe actions and retrieve window content.

What should I do in this case?

Put simply, it isn't secure.  Do not give any apps extra permissions or increased access that you do not trust them with.  Once you give them access to your data, they have the opportunity to abuse it.


Is there anyway to save my contacts and texts on a Samsung Galaxy Nexus with broken screen? Broke my screen, and it's dead. I searched the forums, and I could not find an answer. I don't care about my media files, but my contacts are really important to me. I already ordered the new Nexus 5, but I need those contacts.

I tried Holo Backup, and it doesn't work. Any Ideas?

I'm missing some information:

Is your phone rooted?
Do you have USB debugging enabled?
Are your contacts synced to your Google account?

Since it isn't clear from the question - have you checked that your contacts aren't already backed up to your Google account? If you had your contacts synced - then they should all be backed up to the cloud / your connected Google account.

If that's not the case, and all you need is to be able to see your screen and control your phone (via the app of your choice) - you can try this kind of solution - an an MHL-enabled USB port.

Also, maybe Airdroid, can help as well.


Why can a new battery suddenly drop its charge? I've been using my Lenovo A328 for less than a year, when its battery started suddenly dropping its charge from ~80% to 15%, then even to 3% and less and the phone switched off. I've now replaced the battery, but after several charge/discharge cycles it started to behave very similarly. Here's its typical charge history:

Click to Enlarge

Since the battery has been replaced very recently, I conclude that it's not the battery's fault. But what else can be the reason? The phone lies in my pocket most of the time, and I occasionally take it to make some calls or use GPS or WiFi. It doesn't seem to be a heavy use, and even if it were, I'd expect battery meter to show a smoother charge curve.

Can it be an OS fault (but I did upgrade firmware to latest version, without any difference)? Or does my device need to be repaired?

There are three things at play :

IC in the battery that communicates battery parameters to the OS - not a culprit since you changed the battery recently
Hardware issue- unlikely, since you report it happening at random battery percentage values
Drivers in the OS, that read the values from the battery and amongst other things, display the battery percentage. This seems to be the culprit as you can see from the complaints in Lenovo forum. First post goes in length and after detailed investigation points the conclusion that the battery is fine but the problem lies with OS - system not showing the real amount of energy the battery still has, the reported values are much lower than actual leading to the device being shut down for prolonging battery life ( deep discharge is bad for Li Ion batteries)

This problem ideally should have been ruled out after firmware upgrade, but if the upgrade did not address the root cause ( as is evident from multiple complaints), firmware upgrade didn't help.

I guess you can complain to the company and add your voice in the forum


IS it OK to flash stock ROM from other country? Is it OK if I flash my phone with a stock ROM from another country? Wouldn't it have a negative effect?

Yes, it's OK to flash stock ROM from another country. BUT, take note that it may have different languages, and a different baseband/modem. Having a different baseband can cause network issues (or a very hot phone), but you can flash a baseband that works for your country.


Galaxy S3 won't complete boot after Cyanogenmod reversion I installed a CGM 10.2 "snapshot" last night that was listed by the updater as a stable build. It started draining my battery immediately, so I tried to revert (using the built-in updater) back to the 10.1.3 stable build I had previously.

After installing 10.1.3, I never get past the spinning "CyanogenMod" screen. Is there a way to transfer the CGM 10.1.x files via Odin to the sd volume on the phone so I can try to boot via recovery, or is Install from SD card via recovery the best way to try and load a build that may work?

Follow-up: I have wiped my cache, the dalvik cache, factory reset my phone, and tried both 10.1.2 and 10.1.3. I can now boot, but can't get the default (and only available) keyboard to work, so I can't even enter my google account to do anything with Android on the phone. Is there a way to directly install an alternative keyboard?

After many failures, I finally figured out what was happening. Cyanogenmod's update utility told me about a new snapshot for 10.2. I was currently on 10.1. When I installed the 10.2 "stable" snapshot, I still had the 10.1 gapps on the phone. Evidently this is what caused the boot to fail. After wiping the caches and doing the "factory reset", installing the 10.2 gapps and the 10.2 CGM snapshot, I was able to get the phone to boot successfully.

I don't know why the 10.1.3 reversion failed when I still had 10.1 gapps on it.

I'll update this answer later if battery life is still an issue, but I believe I should be able to revert to 10.1/10.1 if battery still doesn't behave well in the 10.2 snapshot.

While trying the paths, I also tried the CGM 11 (4.4) beta build. Looks pretty sweet, but I couldn't get wifi to work on it, so I went back to CGM 10.2 snapshot.


ownCloud Alternative on Rooted Samsung Galaxy Note II My question in short:
I want a cloud storage, but on my own servers. I know there's Owncloud for Android, but it's quite limited. Is it possible to get a similar "user experience" like with other cloud services, with your own "cloud resources"? How could that be done?
Please note that the phone is rooted.
Closer explanation:
I have tried searching for an alternative on alternativeTo but didn't find anything particular to my scenario. I'm mainly seeking to find a solution that does not require the installation of an app.
I'd like to be able to:

Instantly sync photos taken by camera to owncloud
Sync latest Titanium Backup files
Selectively sync other files and folders

I realize owncloud's Android app can do all of the above, but I'd like to know if this can be done without an app.
The screenshots below may give you an idea of what I have in mind. Can the function in the first screenshot at the left be replicated in such a way that we can use ownCloud? The other three screenshots show that I can add a server, but not a file sync server - which is what I need - ownCloud in my case.

Combining several apps you most likely find useful for other means as well, this should be accomplishable. So first, let's list the components:

Tasker: the mighty automation tool will trigger several actions for us
FolderSync: will do the real copy/sync jobs
Titanium Backup will do your backups (well, it does already).

No need to elaborate on Titanium Backup, as you already use it. Most likely together with its integrated scheduler, so you have an idea about what time that job has finished.

So the next candidate is FolderSync. It obviously can do with OwnCloud, as described e.g. in Use the Android App FolderSync with ownCloud – using WebDAV, in fact. Which means you've first to setup your OwnCloud account in FolderSync (as described in the linked short-tut), and then define "folder pairs", i.e. which folder on your device should be sync'd with which on the OwnCloud server. Recommendation: configure it for manual sync; as nice as the integrated scheduler might sound, I experienced it woke up the device all 5 minutes 24/7 even with only one daily sync configured. So better leave that integrated scheduler off, we either need something else to trigger your "instant photo upload".

Third candidate: Tasker. You can use this to schedule your regular sync intervals (easy to do, as it's just a time interval as condition, and the FolderSync pair as the task; note this might require the Pro version of FolderSync for Tasker support). But Tasker has also means to detect whether a file/directory has been modified. This is what you can use to trigger your "instant photo upload", by watching your DCIM folder(s) and trigger the corresponding "folder pair" to be sync'd.

I know you prefered "without an app", but I don't know about such an alternative. However, one of the 3 apps involved you're using already, and once you've got used to Tasker you will ask yourself how you could do without. True, it's "payware", but worth every cent. For testing purposes, a 7-day-trial can be obtained on their project site; export all your config from within the app on day 6, uninstall, re-install, and import it again gives you another 7 days (recommendation by the dev himself). FolderSync requires 3 bucks as well; but it supports so many services, and has Tasker integration, I'd say it's worth the investment. So altogether ~7 bucks for a good solution, and other uses reserved.


Would Android 4.3 mount exFAT formatted external SD card automatically without requiring additional software? Would Android 4.3 mount exFAT formatted external SD card automatically without additional software?

exFAT support is kernel based.
open terminal and run

cat /proc/filesystems

if in the subsequent listing you see

.       exfat

your kernel supports exfat file system unless the build is skunky.
if the in the listing you see

nodev     exfat

then you don't have exfat support.
In one instance i've seen, even though the kernel may have exfat support, the rom may not, or it's "broken" in some way. As to the formatting of the card, i believe it needs to be formatted exfat and unaligned.
Else, it should mount like any other external card with one exception, the entry in your fstab for the external card. If the entry for <type>
is vfat, then you may have a problem. The entry should be auto or, if you know how to unpack and edit, then repack and flash your boot.img, you can specify exfat.


Recover corrupted photos from sd card I copied all my photos on a fake sd card I bought on the internet. Now my photos are almost all greyed out. Is it possible to recover them or at leat recover the thumbnails since they are not greyed out?

Unfortunately, no.

Many fake SD cards on the Internet are usually a low-capacity card (for example, 8GB) with modified firmware to say something much higher (like 512GB). When it reaches the actual storage capacity, it always overwrites old data (by repeatedly writing to the last few MB of actual capacity) or stops recording new data.

Because of that, when you exceed the real capacity of the SD card, you risk losing data unrecoverably - even recovery programs like PhotoRec can't recover them.

You can still see the thumbnails correctly because your computer or phone cached the thumbnails before you copied the images.

If you only copied the images (didn't move or cut them), your photos are fine. If you moved (or cut) the images, try:

Moving all the images that aren't corrupt off of the SD card.
Take screenshots of the thumbnails of the ones that became corrupt (it is a very long and tedious process (and the resulting images will have a much lower resolution compared to the originals) but can recover the images.


How do I hide contacts in HTC Sense? How do I hide contacts that I sync from Google Contacts in the Sense? I removed them from My Contacts and filed them under an "Archived" group. I want to keep them, but not show up.

I can go to the second "tab" on the bottom to filter by group, but thats a hassle.

I don't have an HTC phone but on my Samsung Spica running rooted Eclair (2.1), here's how I restrict a particular group of contacts.

Start the CONTACTS app.

Press MENU > DISPLAY OPTIONS

Select "Show only contacts with phones" (personal prefs)

Below that will be a list of Google accounts linked to the device - each one will have system groups like FAMILY / FRIENDS / COWORKERS / MY CONTACTS etc in addition to user created groups such as "Archived" like you've created.

Just select those you wish to display and leave unchecked the groups you wish to ignore.

Hope this helps.


Creating USB connector cable using female-female adapter In order to connect a pen drive to One M8, I tried using a female-female USB adapter with one end connected to my phone via the provided USB cable and a pen drive inserted into the other end.. however this didn't work*.

Can anyone pls provide me the reason for this? Thanks in advance. :)

after referring to Google I came to know that OTG cable is required.. but why is my setup not working like an OTG cable?

In USB, one device acts as the host, and others as peripherals. USB-on-the-go sockets and cables use particular pins wired together to let each device know which rôle it should play. Your home-made cable didn't have this, so the phone was trying to act as a peripheral, not a host. If you'd learned about USB-OTG before trying to make your own cable, and shorted together the correct pins on the host end of the cable, it would have worked fine.


Email client that restricts certain accounts to particular connection types, e.g. company WiFi at work, 3G/GPRS for personal Is there such an email account whereby in the account settings, one can choose which connection types that the account can use?

Would like this feature so that checking personal email goes through mobile/3G but does not go through e.g Wifi company workplace network or public Cafe Wifi, for privacy reasons.

It would be useful if one or more connection types or WiFi accesspoints could be specified for an account, e.g. if at home using home wifi - this would be allowed for personal.

Another option would be to have different email clients for different purposes but that might not be as manageable.

If you have root access then you could use DroidWall to give different apps, including email clients, access to WIFI and or mobile data. This would require you to use a different client for each account and wouldn't automatically differentiate between WIFI at work or at home. :o/

(It's a pretty rough work around but the best I could think of...)


How do I turn off the cellular radio without disabling bluetooth? I have an old Motorola Droid that is no longer subscribed on any Verizon service. I still use it for things like web browsing, ebooks, and along with some wireless stereo headphones, music. I've already turned off 3G data usage (EVDO) by disabling the Enable data option under Mobile network settings. However, when I turn off the cell radio (CDMA), bluetooth is also disabled. I first observed this problem on the stock Android 2.2 firmware. Now my phone is rooted, running on an Android 2.2 based firmware (CyanogenMod 6).

Why disable the cellular radio?

Simply put, I want to turn it off because I don't use it. Moreover, it uses battery life and cpu time (even if relatively small amounts):

I've tried two different methods of disabling the cellular radio, but both ended up doing the same thing:

Turning on Airplane mode, then re-enabling Wi-Fi. This has the expected consequence of also disabling bluetooth.
Using the Phone Info menu by dialing *#*#INFO#*#* (4636) and pressing Turn off radio. This actually just turns on Airplane mode:

As you can see, even though Wi-Fi does stay on, Airplane mode disables bluetooth. The headphones won't sync until I turn off Airplane mode, which of course turns the cell radio back on.

In both cases Airplane mode is enabled, so bluetooth gets disabled. But now that the device is rooted, I should be able to disable the cellular radio without using Airplane mode at all. How can I do that?

Check out this guy's post on XDA: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=11370203&postcount=2

This might be considered a risky solution, but if you aren't using the 3G connection at all and you're careful to simply rename the .apk's he references you might just disable the cell radio without needing to use Airplane Mode.

In case the link doesn't work, he suggests using Root Explorer to rename phone.apk to phone.apk.bak and telephony.apk to telephony.apk.bak thus disabling these two packages.  You have to reboot your phone to finalize the changes.  If it doesn't work, you should remove the .bak from each file name and they should be available again.

At OP's request, a summary of his findings:

  Phone.apk is the Dialer app, which
  is responsible for the cell radio.
  PhoneTelephony.apk turns out to be
  just the Dialer storage, which we
  can kill just to save more memory.
  AndroidOS immediately restarts
  Dialer when it is closed, so
  renaming it will cause problems. But
  after a battery-yank-reboot,
  everything is ok. It also gets rid of
  the annoying Activate your phone
  dialog that comes up on every boot.
  btw, the dialpad still comes up after
  getting rid of Dialer :-)


Share as file on filesystem? Various apps have a "share" functionality which opens up several providers of media/means to share some piece of content (e.g. send over WhatsApp and many others). Is it possible to have a "sharing provider" which simply saves the shared content as a file on the device filesystem?

My main interest is sharing text, but not just that. I don't particularly care about the encoding/structural format - but do say something about that if you can.

Yes, this is definitely possible!
My recommended tool to accomplish this is Solid Explorer File Manager by NeatBytes.
In addition to being a great file manager, it also creates a Share target named "Save to..." for saving any content as a file in your storage.  I've personally used it for this purpose hundreds of times, and it works quite well.
Another tool that may interest you is the wonderful ShareListener by Red Apps LTD.  It's a simple tool without any UI of it's own that is:

A simple app that registers itself as a Browser. When opened, the link is then shared and can be opened with any apps that listen for the share intent.
Useful for apps that don't have a share functionality but allow users to click on links.

Source: Google Play store description.
Since it needs no primary UI of its own, here is how it looks to the user:

Source: Google Play store screenshot.
The magic of ShareListener is that when you try to share a link.  Many apps will only allow you to open a browser.  ShareListener will allow you to share links with non-browser apps, including Solid Explorer!  When used in conjunction with Solid Explorer's Share target, you can quickly save any link to storage instead of opening it in a browser.


How do you load a local ROM with beebdroid? I downloaded beebdroid, the bbc micro emulator and its working great but i cant figure out how to load a rom other than the ones it lists as being online.

You can't, sorry. We open-sourced it so that people would get involved and make these sorts of enhancements. So far, we've had precisely zero contributions back. Wanna be our first? :-)


Regarding adb command: Error while loading shared libraries aneesh@nb-14:~$ adb devices
adb: error while loading shared libraries: libncurses.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

I would like to understand the error above and correct it. This is just one instance, I get the same error on giving any adb command! Be it push, install, etc.

Any help is appreciated!

While dpkg --add-architecture i386 command is not needed in the current version of Ubuntu (13.10), it is required in the current Debian versions (7.x) and it will be required in the future Ubuntu versions as well. So I am going to leave it in. Just ignore it for Ubuntu 13.10.

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt-get -qqy update
sudo apt-get -qqy install libncurses5:i386 libstdc++6:i386 zlib1g:i386

Update: aapt indeed requires zlib so I added it to the list. But you should not be needing any lib32 packages.


Where is the folder that Termux defaults to? The Termux app is a terminal emulator. If I create a file or a folder there, and then use another file explorer app to browse my device, where can I find these files?

You don't need to root your device. All you need to do is run the following command on a non-rooted (or rooted) device to allow termux to access your existing directories, particularly /storage/emulated/0:

termux-setup-storage

this creates a new directory in termux, ~/storage, which contains simlinks to /storage/emulated/0 and can be accessed by a standard gui file manager.

You will need to grant file access to termux when prompted after you run the command.

See here.


"fastboot set-active" command fails I'm trying to flash a custom ROM on my Xiaomi Mi A3. When I flashed the ROM using TWRP and rebooted my phone, it got stuck on fastboot mode, won't even boot to recovery.

I found a friend with a similar problem and he said that all he did was changing his current active slot, so I am now trying that. However, when I try to enter the command fastboot set_active a on my computer, it returns the usage message (the list of commands) and when I try the command fastboot --set-active a, it says unrecognized option.

I am using the platform-tools r29.0.5.

The command shouldn't have any spaces. The correct command will be:

fastboot --set-active=a

Or if you want to write it in short:

fastboot -aa to set the active slot to A.

fastboot -ab to set the active slot to B.


Is there an official Android "Google" ROM? So I have an old unlocked phone and I'd like to load up my own OS.  I've seen some mods out there.  CyanogenMod seems to be the most popular.  However, I was curious if I could just install a pure untouched version of the OS -- as distributed by Google. I seem to remember being able to download a clean compiled version of the Android OS.

Does Google distribute any binaries like this, and if not, is there someone out there that does?

Additionally, is this even worth trying?  These days is it necessary for Android to be packaged with special drivers and such for all of the different hardware out there?

To answer if Google distributes binaries for your device: No, they do not (Unless you have a Nexus device). They do, however, have the full Android source code available so that if you wanted you could compile the source code for your device. However, that leads into your second question about the drivers and such. Yes, you will need to find the drivers and any other proprietary files that your device requires for it to interface with Android. You would have to search about compiling a custom ROM for your device and how to include these files.

Likely, your simplest choice is find an AOSP (Android Open Source Project) ROM that exists for your device and install that. Check the XDA Forums to see if your device is included on their site. IF so, go into the development sub-section for your device to search for ROMs.


Install arbitrary apk from filesystem on Android 10? Looks like in Android 10, "install from unknown sources" was changed from a global setting to a per-app permission. Apparently in order to install APKs now I need to whitelist each app that I'm trying to do this from. However, none of the apps I actually need to do this from (default system "Files" browser and Root Browser) even have this setting. Root Browser has a context menu to open with Package Installer but it doesn't work?

Do I need to get another third-party app just to install APKs from the filesystem? This is so lame. Thanks.

Edit: I am on a Pixel 3 running stock Android 10.0.

To disable /enable this permission :

Settings → notifications→ Special app access→
 Install unknown apps →your app

AFAIR, this change came about from Oreo (Android 8)

Solid explorer and Mixplorer are the one's I use and they both install apk's (OnePlus 7, Android 10)

(From Mixplorer - click to enlarge)


How Do I Know Which Google Account is Used for the Market? So far I've never purchased anything from the Market but just installed free apps. Now, I'd like to purchase an app and I want to make sure the Market is using the correct Google account, since I have two (one personal @gmail.com and one from a Google Apps account for work). How can I do that? Do I just assume the first account in the list is the one used in the market? Keep in mind that I don't really remember which account I added first.

The Google Play Store allows use of multiple accounts.  In the app, press the "hamburger" menu button in the top-left corner (on the search bar) to select an account to use:

When you buy or install an app, you can expand the dialog to see the email address being used during the payment selection step (after being shown the required permissions).  You can still back out at that point.


Google Play Services High Internet Consumption I've been using CyanogenMod (version 12.1-20150901) on my Nexus 5 for around a year and things were running perfectly until last month, when my data plan had been completely used up after a couple days.

At the beginning I blamed it on activating my phone's wi-fi hotspot and downloading some files. So I waited the rest of the month for the plan to reset. Once it reseted, I decided to activate the 3G and while I left my phone unattended, in less than 12 hours, my phone had consumed +400MB!!!

Taking a closer look the Android OS had been used more than 10GB of wi-fi over the last month (I don't have any games, web browser nor audio/video application for this to be possible!). Looking back, this behaviour seems to have started between the 7th and 14th of May.

So as some android forums suggested, I decided to install "Onavo Count" to find the culprit. It turned out to be Google Apps/Google Play Services:

Onavo registered that Google Play Services had consumed 189MB of my data plan just a couple of hours I had it installed! I turned off the 3G immediately, but still after 3 days, Onavo registered it consumed 1.8 GB of Wi-Fi...

I've looked through many forums, yet none has been able to provide a solution that works for me.

Some suggest one should restrict the app's background data, but that doesn't solve the high Wi-Fi consumption problem...
Others suggest upgrading CyanogenMod to the lastest stable build (v 13.0-20160418), but that broke completely the functionality of all Google Apps (constant crashes that make the phone unusable... luckily I did make a backup... backups are good).
There are suggestions of removing permissions and functionality, but I've played with every setting and removing all Google Play services functionality to no avail...

Has anybody encountered this problem and has been able to solve it?

TL;DR:

Install Autorun Manager (you must have root access)
Go into the settings and enable "Show System Entries" and "Enable system app disable"
Disable permissions for "com.android.gsf.update.SystemUpdateService$Receive" and "com.android.gms.update.SystemUpdateServiceReceiver"
Sigh in relief as your mobile plan is freed from Google Play's insatiable hunger for data.

After a long afternoon of googling, I ended up finding some old but interesting thread on reddit from 2013 that detailed a problem very similar to mine. Although they talk about the Nexus 4, what they discussed seemed to apply for my Nexus 5.

Caseyls, the original poster, seemed to have concluded that the problem is that Google Play services is constantly downloading an update:

  [...] Your phone is trying to update to [a newer version of Android]. It downloads the update files, but then when it goes to try to tell you to update, [some] of the files are [missing]. [... Then] your phone deletes the update files, and tries [to download them] again. And again. And again.

The poster suggested solutions were pretty much the same ones I found all over the internet, but an user named Dourel suggested something useful they found on XDA:

  Install Autorun Manager from the Play store. Then enter its recommended advanced mode. Go into the settings and enable the following : system entries and system app disable. Disable com.android.gsf.update.SystemUpdateService$Reciever under Google Service Framework

So as it was suggested, I installed the app and enabled the options "Show System Entries" and "Enable system app disable" in the settings, like in the picture below:

Then looked for Google Play Services in the list of apps, expanded its contents, and looked for "com.android.gsf.update.SystemUpdateService$Receive". Sadly, as the first picture below shows, that permission had already been disabled in my case (don't know how that happened though). So I thought I was back at square one.

But I wasn't going to give up just yet. Searching more thoroughly I found out there was another service called "com.android.gms.update.SystemUpdateServiceReceiver" that was checked on. So naturally I checked it off. To test it whether it worked or no, I left the Wi-Fi on all night and crossed my fingers for it to work.

The next morning, Onavo Count (the app I mention in the question) reported that no substantial amount of Wi-Fi data had been consumed, so I proceeded to test leaving the phone's 3G data plan for the rest of the day (Wi-Fi off of course). To my rejoice, as of tonight (12 hours later), my data plan has barely even been used. Less than 1MB was consumed all day! Yay =)

So that's it! The most effective solution I could find to stop this madness. I hope it works for anybody else.


How to check what's wrong while my phone starts? How to get logs? My phone does not start up. It shows splash screen, but it doesn't load a system. How can I check what's wrong?

EDIT: More info: the broken phone is Galaxy S+, it is currently rooted, I installed CM 11 on it. I don't know if it is my blame I think not because I haven't done anything special on this phone for some time (it has worked correctly about month with all those modifications installed). I haven't given access to root to any of installed apps. Reinstalling system works, system starts but when I restart my phone it doesn't work anymore (until I re-install it again).

Maybe is there some way to save logs on external sdcard?

Install the android sdk and plug in your phone.

Go to a command prompt
change directory to to your adb folder
Type adb logcat > logcat.txt

this creates a text file in your adb folder and would tell exactly why your phone isn't booting.


Is recalibrating the battery after flashing a new ROM really neccessary, and if yes, why? The description of the app, Battery Calibration, claims that after changing ROMs you should recalibrate your battery gauge. It has good reviews so it seems like the general concept is sound and trying the app at least won't cause harm.

What I'm wondering is what the battery statistics have to do with the ROM. My understanding is that the batterystats file contains a mapping of charge values in mV to %, so why does it need to be regenerated if a new ROM is flashed?

No.

This App just removes the file "batterystats.bin" in the "data/system" directory. It has nothing to do with your battery life and also not the status indicator of your system.

It only keeps the Infos in the "Battery Usage" screen. It will also be resetted every time you connect to a power source.

Further Information and Sources:
XDA-Developers and Dianne Hackborn (Google employee)


Why can't I hear callers after installing new upgrade? I was notified on my phone that it had an upgrade so I selected it. Now no-one can hear me unless I put it on loudspeaker although I can hear them?

There is no guarantee, but hard reset most time tends to fix this type of problems, try and observe your phone closely, you might have some apps that might be manipulating the speaker in your phone. Take time to troubleshoot the problem.

If there's no app causing the problem, then you can run a Factory resetting for your device by following the steps,

  click on your menu list
  Settings
  Backup and reset
  click Factory data reset which usually should be at the end.
  Reset phone or Reset device.

Ensure you have adequate charge on your battery to handle the entire process and that battery is not mistakenly pulled off during the process, because if any happens, it can lead to corrupting of data.


How to cancel email account setup without accepting server specified security policies? This is a similar question to How do I avoid the server-specified security policies for my work e-mail? but whereas they are trying to use an Exchange email account without accepting the server's stringent security policies, I'm trying to cancel setup of the account.

The problem is, I can't open my Mail app without accepting these security policies. I get a dialog:

  [Server] requires that you update your security settings

...with two options - accept the security policies, or cancel, which simply closes the app.

How can I remove this half-complete Exchange account from my Mail app, when the Mail app won't open without accepting the policies and completing the setup of the account I no longer want to set up?

I'm on Android 5.0.2, non-root.

Found it - you have to go through the phone's general settings, not the Email app.

Settings > Personal > Accounts > Exchange ActiveSync, then select your account, then there's a option "Remove" in the menu from the ... dots menu icon at the top right of the screen.


Mails deleted in android gmail app are not deleted from server I have installed android on my HT device.. when I delete the mails from android gmail app, they are still available on server and i can see them using gmail web page..

can anyone give me solution?

happened again after flashing the ROM again and restored with titanium backup :(

Are you using the gmail app or the HTC mail app?

The first one, gmail app, will have everything synced right away.

The other option, using HTC mail will be using a pop/imap account for accessing your Gmail. In that case you can update the pop/imap settings in your gmail account logging in with a browser and going to your settings. There you can choose if you want messages to be deleted or not.


How to create a Broadband connection (pppoeconf) on my Android phone? I have Broadband connection at home, and from my PC running Linux, I use the pppoeconf command to connect to internet, that in turn asks me for the username and password both provided by my ISP (BSNL).
Is there a way to create a broadband connection on my android phone?
PS: I'm currently using Android 2.2 (Froyo), and I don't wanna setup a proxy connection on my machine.

WIFI PPPOE by cnDDU is an app that allows you to make a PPPoE connection from your phone over a wireless connection:

  ...main purpose is for user
  to make PPPOE connection via WIFI, e.g. dialing through ADSL Modem
  with user name and password provided by some internet ISPs. This app
  makes the Android devices be able to connect to Internet directly via
  PPPOE dialing through WIFI, and no need for another WIFI Router any
  more.

Note that a rooted phone with Busybox installed is required to use this app.

There are also a number of other similar apps available in the Play Store now, some free, some not. They all currently seem to require a rooted phone.

(answer rescued from deletions)


What does data partition in nandroid backup contain? I've been trying to find information on what's included in the data partition when doing a nandroid backup.

I couldn't quite figure if it includes:

Media files (images, videos, music)
User apps + Configs
System Apps + Configs
Whatever else...

Reason being, I wondered if I could just backup system and boot:

The media files are synced using rsync.
The system apps are updated anyway when flashing new ROM.
The user apps are backed up using titanium or whatever.

This could save some space of my backups,
since I don't have much to spare -
having no external sd slot and only 16gb of storage...

I think that the best answer is here.  As an Android Expert, I couldn't have said it better myself!

  To my knowledge, TWRP does a nandroid backup. As you can read in the
  tag wikis of the mentioned tags (nandroid, backup), a Nandroid backup
  takes images of your partitions. It's not a backup on the file level,
  but on partition level. So it includes everything stored on those
  partitions. Doing a full Nandroid backup of your system thus includes
  the entire system, one file per partition. There are only very few
  things not contained, such as the radio-firmware.

  So to put it as a short direct answer to your question: Yes, a full
  Nandroid backup would include all your apps, app data, messages,
  contacts.

  Though it might be complicated to extract them separately (Nandroid
  can't do that, it's always an "all-or-nothing". But e.g. Titanium
  Backup can read data from Nandroid backups. Just in case you'll need
  that :)


My samsung s2 is being spammed & I have 2 apps that I can't uninstall. Please help My son was playing games on my samsung and now I am being spammed all day long for the past week. I have installed Airpush Detector and it said that they don't detect any push ads on my phone from apps. But I noticed that I have 2 apps on my phone that I have never seen before. One is called Nova & it has a pic of what looks like the No.O.V.A. game icon & has HD on the icon as well. I didn't install this on my phone and there is no option to uninstall it. It is labeled as a default on my phone. I also have an app called Top HD Games on my phone that I didn't install and am unable to uninstall it as it also is classified as a default setting on my phone. The icon for this is an XBox game controller. Has anyone else seen this before? I can't find anything in the google play store and can't figure out how to get rid of these. I uninstalled all games on my phone except for the Angry Birds series, Finding Nemo game, bubble blaster and zoo club. I would really appreciate anyone's help.Thanks!

I'm going to presume this was a side-loaded app with a potential malware payload, since you mention you cannot find it on Google Play Store.

First step is to see if the application can be prevented from uninstall because it has set itself up as a Device Administrator, sort of a protected app.
See Settings>Security>Device Administrators, and deactivate both or either, if listed. You may need to provide a Device Administrator password to do so. Then try to see if they will uninstall normally.

If not a Device Administrator, you may still attempt to uninstall normally, just finding it in a different list, the "All" list.
See Settings>Application Manager>All(far right column)
Find the application(s) in the list. Try to uninstall this way, or at the very least "Disable" or "Turn Off" if those operations are possible.

To prevent side-loading apps in the future, see
Settings>Security>Unknown Sources, and uncheck.


What do I need to know about the "weird" Galaxy S Vibrant emergency call handling? Vibrant support was dropped from CyanogenMod after 7.1 (Gingerbread) due to issues with failed 911 calls.  I flashed 7.1 a bit before this was made known, and have since reverted to my stock-based ROM.  This is obviously a bit concerning and I have a few remaining questions:

Did flashing CM damage anything?  (I.e., will emergency calls work now that I'm on a different ROM?)
Can this happen with stock-based ROMs?
Was it all emergency calls, or just 911?
Is it related to Gingerbread?
Has it been fixed in CM? I've seen a few things both ways.

The official announcement on the CM forums states:

The issue was in the RIL code, which is just typical code and libraries packaged in the ROM (e.g. /system/lib/libril.so, for example). The CM team recommended installing a Samsung ROM noting that any Samsung ROM is fine and any AOSP ROM would have issues. There's no permanent damage since the RIL code was replaced when you reflashed.
They specifically cited the issue was related to closed-source RIL code, so this wouldn't happen with a stock ROM unless Samsung severely borked their RIL code.
Only 911 was listed as a problem, but I don't know (and neither have the CM team ever stated) if other emergency numbers were affected.
Official support for the Vibrant didn't occur until 7.1, which was Gingerbread. It's really hard to say if older versions were affected, but I would assume yes (if they exist somewhere still).
The announcement states that the issue was fixed and the Vibrant is officially supported at this point.


How to migrate Android device, including SD card? I have a Huawei Ascend G6, which uses a 32GB SD card to store most app data. I now bought a Huawei Y6 to migrate to and want to retain as much app data as I can. How would I go about to transfer my apps (data) to the new device?

The Y6 has Lollipop, so when booting the device, I was asked which apps to install. So I got all apps installed now. So how do I go about transferring configuration data? I assume I can't just put my SD card into the Y6 and be done with it?

You can try using Helium backup on the older phone in order to make copies of your apps and their settings. These can then be migrated to the new phone through the Helium backup interface. Alternatively, you could take an ADB backup of your old phone and restore it to your new phone. All this is on the assumption that you don't have root?


Where app drops sdk version info Long story short i used appcloner to spoof android SDK version to lower to get messenger chat heads as they were on android 10 and lower. I copied the installed app, so now i got .apk with all that info and when i install it from that file it still works. App must dropped info about android SDK into it's files, but i cannot find where. Does anyone could help me with that?
My goal is to inject this file into original messenger apk so that i could update this app from official messenger .apk

If an app behaves differently on a higher or lower Android version, then it uses code like that (before the app has been compiled):
if (android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= android.os.Build.VERSION_CODES.M){
    // do something on Android 6+
} else {
    // do something on Android before version 6
}

Such code structures will be present in multiple classes of the app. If you want to forge the Android version in the original app you have to decompile the APK using apktool modify every occurrence of such a structure e.g. by replacing the access to android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT which queries the device's Android ADK version and replace it by a constant like 29 for Android 10 and the rebuild the APK using apktool, zipalign and sign (apksigner) it and then you are ready to install the app.
Unfortunately apktool does only generate Smali code and not Java code, which makes the whole task much more difficult as Smali is very low level and not easy to read.
There may be existing programs/apps that already do such modifications in an automated way, unfortunately I don't know or use such apps.


Individual Photo Backup : New Google Photos I've enabled Auto-backup in the new Google Photos app. And I have excluded some folders from being backed-up. But this seems to be all or nothing. I want some of the photos in those excluded folders to be backed up. Any way to do that?

I've been trying to do what you're asking for a while and I think I've found a way. Upload the pic to Google Drive and go into pic info. From there click 'send to' and select 'upload to photos'. The pic/pics you uploaded should be in the 'photos' section of Google Photos. After that you can delete it from Drive.
Hope this helps


Why did a .nomedia file get added to my device? Showing 0 Image, Audio or Video Files? I woke up today and my Gallery was showing 0 Image, Video or Audio files. After seeing this thread Images have disappeared from gallery, but still in "My Files" (Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, 5.0.2) , I plugged in my device to a laptop and deleted a .nomedia file in the root folder of my device. I deleted this file, which fixed the issue and the device rescanned everything automatically and showed all of my files.

My question is why did this file get added to my device? And if I had been unable to access a laptop how do I delete a .nomedia file from within android?

I think the file got created by some app on your device.

You can delete the file by using any file explorer. In the My Files app on Samsung devices you first need to go to its settings, and enable 'Show Hidden Files'. Then the file is visible and you can delete it.


Why is Youtube draining the battery and what could we do? A friend of mine just asked me a nice question:

His (stock) Samsung Galaxy S4's Youtube is draining his battery.
He said, that he hasn't been in the app today, and this morning he had the phone booting up.

Now, Youtube drained 51% of his battery.

I know, there are many possibilities, to "solve" this, like:

Rebooting the Phone to get rid of the wakelock
Terminating the Youtube-app via the Settings -> Apps menue
Clearing Cache/Deleting Data
Uninstalling Updates and deactivating the app

But besides these workarounds:

Is there any fix for this issue?

What could one do, if he'd have to terminate the app everytimes he boots up his phone?

Is there even something to do?

/NOTE

We try to achieve a better information about what exactly in the YT-app causes the battery drain using Better Battery Stats.
Stats will follow.

Try to install Greenify.

  It helps you identify and put the misbehaving apps into hibernation
  when you are not using them, to stop them from lagging your device and
  leeching the battery


how to find application that is opening proccesses When running ps as root within my device (HTC Desire HD)
I see the following line:

app_132   18584 13586 0      0     ffffffff 00000000 Z ratc

Repeating hundreds of times.

How can I tell which app is "app_132" ?

UPDATE:
O.k. I actually found out which app it was based on the class names listed at the end of first lines in the output of the ps command where app_132 is listed.

ps | grep app_132 | more

but even though this solves my immediate situation I still would like an answer to the original Q.

The numbers in "app_XYZ" name will be different on every device, since they depend on the order of installed apps.

In adb shell or terminal emulator perform the following command:

ls -l /data/data/

This should return a listing of installed apps' directories that contain their data and settings, like so:

drwxr-x--x app_1    app_1             2012-03-28 09:07 com.android.backupconfirm
drwxr-x--x app_2    app_2             2012-04-04 09:37 com.android.bluetooth
drwxr-x--x app_3    app_3             2012-03-28 09:07 com.android.browser
drwxr-x--x app_4    app_4             2012-03-28 09:07 com.android.calculator2
drwxr-x--x app_5    app_5             2012-03-28 09:07 com.android.calendar
drwxr-x--x app_7    app_7             2012-03-28 09:07 com.android.camera
drwxr-x--x app_8    app_8             2012-03-28 09:07 com.android.certinstaller
drwxr-x--x app_70   app_70            2012-03-28 09:07 com.android.chrome
drwxr-x--x app_0    app_0             2012-03-28 09:07 com.android.contacts
drwxr-x--x app_10   app_10            2012-03-28 09:07 com.android.defcontainer
drwxr-x--x app_11   app_11            2012-03-28 09:07 com.android.deskclock
drwxr-x--x app_12   app_12            2012-03-28 09:07 com.android.development
drwxr-x--x app_14   app_14            2012-03-28 09:07 com.android.email
drwxr-x--x app_15   app_15            2012-03-28 09:07 com.android.exchange

The 2nd and 3rd columns list the app's owner, while the 5th column contains the app's package name.  Find the line corresponding to the "app_132" from your logcat entry, and the package name will help you figure out the responsible app.

Once you have the package name, try searching for it in the Google Play Store.  Just use the link https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=xxxxxxx, where "xxxxxxx" is the package name you found.  For example, on my phone "app_70" corresponds to "com.android.chrome", which corresponds to Google Chrome browser in the Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.android.chrome


Wifi Direct not working on LG-G4 I can turn on Wifi Direct on my LG G4, and I can connect to another phone. There is even a Wifi Direct icon on the notification bar. However, if I try to share something, I can not see it in the sharing options.

Also, if I try to share the other way around, the G4 never receives the file, not even a confirmation popup comes up.

The other device is a Samsung S7.

It seems that manufacturers are now making  Wi-Fi direct to be compatible with same brands only.

Quoting a support chat concerning this issue, it was indeed the case, according to Samsung support:

  Wi-Fi direct only works between same manufacture phones. I am afraid
  it does not work with LG or any other brand.

One thing to note:

  Wi-Fi direct is a protocol, but you still have to have an app to use
  it. Samsung has S Beam and LG has SmartShare as well, but S beam only
  works with Samsung devices and SmartShare only works LG devices.

This is by design, and not LG G4 device specifically, you may still manage to connect but won't send any files like you noted, perhaps old smartphones still support cross brands functionality.

A proposed workaround is using 3rd party applications like Superbeam from playstore.

Reference

File sharing between phones


Stop Hangouts sending message when enter is pressed I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 and installed Hangouts (version 2.0.122) recently.  It is a great tool to organize all my messages together. However, it is quite annoying that it sends messages when I accidentally press enter, causing me to send unfinished messages.  Also I don't know how to insert a new line.  I looked into the settings but could not find any relevant options.

The iphone version treats enter as inserting new line so it does not have this problem.

Thanks for any tips you may have.

You can't change this. In Android, the app can tell the keyboard (or input method) what extra actions to show (such as Send). The app can also specify that the text field can only hold single-line text, as in this case.

What you could do is switch to a different keyboard app. You might be able to find one that puts the action in a different place (not in place of the enter key) that's harder to press by accident, or that completely ignores the action that's hinted by the app.


adb device always unauthorized Im running Ubuntu 16.04

adb version
Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.32

However, when I plug in my devices for testing via ADB I always get an unauthorized error.

adb devices

List of devices attached
LGD855a1098057  unauthorized

adb works flawlessly on Windows 7 x64 SP1with Koushik Douttas Universal ADB driver and my friends Macbook , this singles out the Ubuntu 16.04 as the problem.

Things I have tried:

I tried revoking previous USB authorizations.

Nothing happened.

Switching adb debugging on and off.

However, the CLI just keeps mocking me with the unauthorized error.

Switching ports.

Each port on my 16 port development rig has been tried.

Updating adb.

android-tools-adb is already the newest version (5.1.1r36+git20160322-0ubuntu3).
android-tools-fastboot is already the newest version (5.1.1r36+git20160322-0ubuntu3).

Same problem here with exact same linux ubuntu version.

The solution for me that work well is

1 - adb kill-server

2 - sudo adb usb

after this you mobile will ask for authorization and work well.
so, adb needs root privilege.


How does Android obtain battery temperature? I am curious about the way Android phones obtain the battery temperature. Android has an API called BatteryManager which provides the value of instant battery temperature, but is there an actual temperature sensor inside the battery? Or is this value purely calculated by a certain equation, using the value the current, the voltage and the elapsed time? If it is calculated not measured, is there anyway that we can know how hot the phone really is?

Every mobile battery has an inbuilt thermistor, (which is a transducer which varies its resistance with respect to its temperature) with which the charging circuit constantly measures the battery temperature. It can even prevent charging the battery if the temperature reaches dangerous level and by controlling its temperature, the life of battery is increased.

Mobile battery has more than two terminals, one of which is for this thermistor. See the image in my question asked in this site.


How are Googles OTA (over the air) updates delivered/notified? I've got a Nexus 4 (but this question relates to all eligible devices) currently running Android 4.2. However Android 4.3 was announced a few days ago.

I've run Check for Updates
I've followed the tips to checkin †
I've done the trick to "Force Stop" the Google Service Framework app and then pressed "Clear Cache".

But none of this seems to be doing anything, and I'm still running an "Up to date" OS with 4.2.2.

Is this a carrier issue? Could it be because I'm not on one of the BIG THREE carriers in Canada (Rogers, Telus, Bell), but instead I'm on Virgin Mobile?

footnotes:

†: *#*#2432546#*#* or *#*#checkin#*#*

So I tried to "Clear Data", instead of just "Clear Cache" in the Google Service Framework (and Forced Stop).

I then ran the checkin again (Dial *#*#2432546#*#* in the phone app), and now I'm being shown the new Android 4.3 System Update.


Google's location-based services versus third-party services Since Google offers various location-based services for which it uses its maps, known as Google Maps, what is so special about third party software programs that also provide location-based services? Don't those make use of Google Maps, which Google in turn bought from NASA? Is there any legal restriction that Google puts for those third-party programs?

I am a newbie.

You can read more about Google's Terms of Service for using Google Maps APIs or Google Earth APIs. That should define the legalities of using their data.

The APIs are used by 3rd-party application developers so they can use Google Maps/Earth data in their applications. They can build on top of that, providing additional functionalities. (e.g. Foursquare used to use Google Maps, for their check-in app).

However, there's a limit to how much data a 3rd-party application can use/access for a given period of time. Beyond that limit, 3rd-party application developers have to pay. This is similar to the limit that Twitter has for 3rd-party Twitter clients (like Falcon Pro, which recently reached this limit; thus, not being able to display Twitter feed in their app).


How do I disable rapid charging? When I plug my phone in the AC charger, it says "charging rapidly" and charges from 20% to 100 for less than 90mins. Is it possible to charge it normally? When I charge it over USB it takes up to 7 hours to fully charge which is too slow. Phone is Pixel XL.

Google Pixel XL allows for slower charging, if a non USB-C adapter is used.

From the support area at Google on the section concerning charging. See the suggestion #2 for your concern:

  Which power adapters and cables to use

  Pixel phones use USB-C with USB 2.0 power adapters and cables.
  To charge your Pixel phone with a USB-A power adapter, use a USB-C to USB-A cable. This will charge your Pixel phone more slowly than USB-C.
  Other Android cables and power adapters might not work with Pixel phones.
  Pixel phones can't charge wirelessly.


How do I make my Samsung Galaxy S8+ use wifi first before my provider network? I have weak network coverage in my office.  My phone is connected to our office wifi.  I'd like my phone to use the wifi first, rather than the network connection

If you open up Settings app and scroll down to About, tap the option for Software Information and the find Build Number. Tap Build Number 7 times in a row and it will unlock Developer Options back in the main menu of Settings (scroll down). Open Developer Options and then scroll down about halfway to find some options related to Wifi and Cell signal. There is an option there to prioritize wifi signals over network signals, "even if the signal is weak". This should work for what you need, though if it doesn't please feel free to respond and I'll give you some other options.


Flashing ROMs means Installing zipped apps? My sister and I have Galaxy S4 and a Galaxy S3. Along the time of usage we have only downloaded common apps like social apps and games. We've never downloaded any system-related apps such as those used to root a phone. Thus, both phones are not rooted.

Questions:

Is it possible for an app (before installing) to be in the form of .zip file instead of its usual .apk file (before installing)?
(not the normal archive .zip file)
Does flashing a ROM mean putting a .zip file (with app inside it) in an external SD card, then pressing the Volume-Home-Power keys, later installing it?
Let's say I did all the steps in question 2 using the unrooted S3 and S4, will I successfully install the zipped app to the phones?
If question 3 fails, what other ways do I have to install the zip file? And I don't have access to the computer.

Those are the things that bother me. If there are things very wrong please correct me.

Android can only install .apk files (though .apk and .zip are interchangeable)
Yes, it does mean that, but you'll need a custom recovery which has the ability to flash .zip files. Note that such .zip files are not just applications packed in an archive, those .zip files are specifically designed for recovery flashing, and have specific scripts that run when they are flashed
installing custom recovery requires root
As said before, you need root to have recovery so that you could install .zip files. To achieve root access, you'll need a PC.


Can I flash a Motorola Charm with a T-mobile update? I recently bought a Motorola Charm with a Motoblur logo on it, but it doesn't appear to actually have Motoblur installed! There's no message widget, no Facebook update widget, no sign in for first use - nothing. Just a normal Android system. I am wondering what phone I actually have, and if I can update my phone with T-mobile's "Blur_Version.0.2.6005.MB502.T-Mobile.en.US" image.

Yes, you can, but in my experience it does not work well and you can't downgrade afterward. I'd recommend that you do NOT flash that T-Mobile updated ROM.


Extract a presentation file as PPT on SlideShare app I am using SlideShare to view presentation. Sometimes I want to transfer the presentation to my PC and view it on projector. However, in the Android app, there is only a save feature to view it offline.

I know I can use its website to download the .ppt files, but is there any way to get the .ppt from the app?

I found that the presentation saved by this app isn't in .ppt format but each slide is sliced into a .jpg having a numeric name, and the images are found only under /data/data/net.slideshare.mobile/files/
E.g. A presentation with 78 pages was sliced into images with names ranging from 7456179_00.jpg, 7456179_01.jpg...7456179_78.jpg.
Note that all the related presentation images  will be having a numeric string like 7456179 in the beginning of name, which is exactly the ss_id defined in the table slideshows of database slideshows under /data/data/net.slideshare.mobile/databases/.
Now, here is the disappointing news because all of the said information probably wouldn't be of any worth to you, since this app has declaration of android:allowbackup="false" in its AndroidManifest.xml. What it means is any non-system/root backup app won't be able to touch this app's data, including ADB and Helium which I deliberately try despite clear evidence of failure. It seems that there isn't much of a choice left to backup the presentation (or what has become of it).
What's next? There is one thing that I can think of. If your device is not rooted and you're or can make yourself aware of extracting backup made by your device's Recovery, then go ahead and take backup from it since Recovery doesn't care or even know those "disallow backup declarations", and it should take backup of your app too, among other things.
For root users
You now know what to do:

You can copy-paste images from  /data/data/net.slideshare.mobile/files/ into your SD card and then into PC, or may be do adb pull,
You can also find out easily which ss_id belongs to which presentation using an SQL query or an app like SQLite Editor,
You can take backup by Titanium Backup, export it, and extract it to see the files,
and any possible way you can think of. :)