Maximum ring volume for one contact, vibrate for others (SMS) I keep my phone on vibrate all the day because of my work. So I mostly get back on people when I have the time.

However, I must be informed immediately when some server goes down. For that I have ordered a service which sends me an SMS when it happens.

How would I have the phone ringing with a maximum volume for just one contact, while at the same time have everyone else on vibrate?

There are SMS apps in the market that allow you to customize notifications by sender.     Handcent SMS is the one that I've used.


Updates reinstalled bundled apps I have uninstalled I've recently purchased a Samsung S3 Mini, and as I do with all my new devices, I go through and uninstall applications that I know I will never use.

Twice now since I've owned the device, there have been android updates, and in both cases it has re-installed the apps I removed (as well as add a few new ones that can't be uninstalled but that's another question).

So is there a way to configure my phone to not install these unwanted applications?

I'm afraid not. These bundled apps are part of the ROM image, so the app updates are part of the system update. When you install an update, it just copies the data wholesale into the phone's system partition: it doesn't install apps one by one. For this reason, there's no way to filter out individual apps from the update.

You can't even remove those files from the update image on your PC: removing files would make the update signature fail to match. The phone would detect this and not install the update.

You just have to disable the bundled apps you don't want after each system update, or unlock your bootloader and install a custom ROM.


My Kindle Fire is stuck at the yellow triangle screen after installing TWRP. How can I fix this? I followed the instructions on the official TWRP site on how to install TWRP on the Kindle Fire. So I did

wget <twrp.img>
adb shell idme bootmode 4002
fastboot -i 0x1949 flash recovery <twrp.img>

But now, my Kindle Fire wont boot. It just shows a yellow triangle. How can I fix it?

You need to reset the bootmode. This can be easily done with fastboot. Execute the following commands:

fastboot -i 0×1949 oem idme bootmode 4000
fastboot -i 0×1949 reboot


How to extract .backup files created by android stock recovery? I'm using Coolpad note 3 lite, running Android 5.1. I created internal memory backup using stock recovery. Files were created in this format:

userdata_yyyymmdd_HHMMSS.backup  = 2GB
userdata_yyyymmdd_HHMMSS.backup1 = 2GB
n. ...
userdata_yyyymmdd_HHMMSS.backup5 = 1.53GB

Is there any way to extract the files to PC? I couldn't see file header mentioned here. Another user referred a method, which I couldn't understand.

Android 5.1
TWRP installed
Rooted
FAT32 internal & SD card.
Tried Titanium backup and it don't recognize the format.

Edit:

Tried to do a stock recovery backup and replace the files. While trying to restore stock recovery not showing SD card, although it takes backup in SD card during backup in same session.
7Zip Windows opened the merged .backup file. It shows "2.ext".

Mounting 2.ext in Ubuntu shows nothing even though file space is occupied.

When trying to open 2.ext using 7zip, I see lot of files in similar name and opening them in 7zip again shows again same file names....

Now how do I recovery files from this 2.ext?

As a first step, you will need to merge the various .backupN files into one by using the following command:

cat userdata_yyyymmdd_HHMMSS.backup* > userdata_yyyymmdd_HHMMSS.backup

It looks like the header size of 512 bytes is the same across many devices, so try to extract using the following command:

dd if=userdata_xxxxxxxx_yyyyyy.backup bs=512 skip=1 | gunzip -c | tar xv

If this doesn't work, you can try the other method as described in this post:

Download the simg2img tool from here.
Convert the .backup file into an image using command simg2img userdata_xxxxxxxx_yyyyyy.backup userdata_xxxxxxxx_yyyyyy.backup.raw
Mount the image using command mount -t ext4 -o loop,rw userdata_xxxxxxxx_yyyyyy.backup.raw "data".

You should now be able to copy the contents of the backup image.

Alternatively, you can download the simg2img binary along with the script that automates the above steps using the link from the above mentioned post.


How to modify a system configuration file on Android? On an Android device I would like to modify /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf with as minimal side effects to the rest of the device as possible. (there are unexposed APIs in Android framework)

Is it possible to just use a command line su executable to get permissions to modify the file?

Can I do this without an unlocked boot loader?

Would this be easier on a Nexus device?

In case this point is not clear; it's not enough to just have a su executable and run it.

Since you asked

  Is it possible to just use a command line su executable to get
  permissions to modify the file?

The su executable must be properly installed, meaning that for it to do its job 'on behalf of' the superuser/root it has to have the SUID bit set (Switch User ID) for root. This process, called rooting needs to be done before any su executable becomes valid.

You can read all about the SUID bit and Linux file permissions as well as the rooting process by doing a search.


how to backup cell phone contacts to gmail, and view them on pc i have synced my phone LG E975K (whatever that means!)
i have tried to save contacts to my gmail account. (gmail account only shows email contacts on - not the phone numbers from my smartphone)
i basically dont know how to save information from my smart phone to my computer.
i need a button repaired on my smart phone, and i dont want to lose all my information when i take the phone in to be repaired...

i believe there is a way to import or export? but my phone threatens me with possible loss of information, so i am scared to try it.

i see there is an option of merging contacts when i looked for info online, but my phone doesnt offer that option

i want to save all my phone information in gmail.
i dont know how to do it,
and i dont know how to find it if it has saved it
and i dont know how to restore it to the phone after it has been repaired, if information is lost....

can anyone help, but give instructions in layman's terms or explanations........

Go to Settings > Accounts - Google > Tap on your account >. Now
select the checkbox for Contacts and see what is the last synced
date and time shown below.
Now login to your Google account and go to Google contacts. You will
be able to see all the synced contacts

From Panel:
Make sure you export all your contacts from sim/phone to gmail account via phonebook, then sync contact again through the direction given above.


Deleted System Dialer app I have a CUSTOM rom. I deleted system Dialer app. Is it possible to recover it, or fix it? I can't get calls, can't make calls, but I can write & receive messages. Other dialers don't work and it says "this device does not support this function"

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.dialer&hl=en

Does this kind of dialer also dowsn't work??

If it doesn't, the your only choice is to dirty flash your current rom from rcovery


Properly migrating app+data backup from one phone to another with a broken digitizer I have just cracked my Nexus 4 screen, which seemingly has completely destroyed the digitizer, as I cannot interface with my screen anymore.

Luckily, I had a TB schedule that ran on my nexus 4 every day, which backed my apps+data and pushed to box cloud storage. So, what I did with my new nexus 5 is I went through the unlock, root, and rom flashing process. Then, I installed Titanium Backup and synced from my box folder, which I confirmed with ES that all of the app/data that I need is indeed there (apks, .properties files).

The problem that I am encountering is that my "restore missing apps + data" does not show many of the applications that I need to restore. I am not really sure why this could happen, unless maybe TB is noting the fact that the apps state that the device is "Nexus 4" in the properties file? (probably not, all of them do) I have attempted to refresh TB, which did cause some more apps to appear, but I still am missing a huge chunk of applications. To further complicate matters, when I go to my "delete backups for uninstalled applications" menu, I see a couple of the missing applications ( but not all )... only they seem to be missing icons and do not have fully resolved application names ( instead listing their com.x.x.x package names).

I'm quite confused.

What I'm trying now : I have a computer that (hopefully) has been auth'd for ADB access, so I'll try to pull the TB folder from my actual phone and see if I can overwrite the files and restore them that way.

I wanted to be able to use ADB's ability to simulate touch input to pair a bluetooth mouse to my phone, but it does not seem like this is going to be possible because I am running 4.2+ which requires RSA fingerprint authentication... which none of my computers have permission for.

I will order a USB 3-way Y cable and use a hack version of USB OTG to plug in a physical mouse. I can do this because I can use ADB through fastboot to temporarily boot a non-touch CWM recovery, then use ADB to push the modified kernel img and flash using the non-touch interface, which should then hopefully boot up. Since I'm on CM10.2 I already know Franco Kernel causes soft-brick, so hopefully the modified OTG stock kernel does not cause soft-brick. Once I have the phone fully booted, it should just be a matter of connecting a power source and pointing device to interface with my device.


Reducing the memory usage of Contacts Storage I have an HTC Desire running 2.2 and have noticed a lot of low memory warnings lately.
I think this is due to my Contacts Storage taking up 33+ mb of space.

How can I reduce or limit the amount of space the contacts take up?

The only way to reduce this number is to remove contacts. Now this could be setting apps like twitter and facebook to not sync contacts. But if you have pictures for everyone, it is going to increase the amount of storage as well.


What is the maximum charging current supported by Samsung Galaxy S3? As the title says: What is the maximum charging current supported by Samsung Galaxy S3 (GT-I9300)?

By using a 2A Samsung charger and USB doctor and Samsung Chargring Current Lite app, I found that the MAX current reported by both USB doctor and Samsung Charging Current Lite App is 1A(1000 mA).


Is there a way to tell my phone to prefer some SSIDs above others? Use case: my internet provider offers wi-fi hotspots all over the country; I like to connect to them, but not when I'm home or at work. My phone seems to use one of the available wi-fi connections randomly; I end up 'forgetting' the provider's hotspot to assure connection to the wi-fi at home or at the office.

Windows 7 allows me to change the order of preference of wi-fi connections; that way I can tell my laptop to connect to my provider's hotspot only when no 'better' wi-fi is available.

Does Android have something similar?

I don't believe there is anything built-in for this, although some manufacturers may have added such a feature.  There appear to be several apps that will do this.

I've always just manually edited /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf myself (root required).  (Note that there are different files/locations for different devices.)


Headphones aren't working on S7 I have an S7 Active, and all of suddenly both my headphones stopped working with it. The interesting part is my headset I was for my Xbox works with it, and my headphones work with everything else I tried them on. Is there any way to fix this?

Did you try pressy? it maybe blocked the sound! if not, call google to help.  if it does not help, get a new phone.  lastly, they are not compatible. if one of these do not work, comment and ill try to fix it.


Page can't be loaded in S4 using http, but it does in https I'm having special issues loading a website in my Galaxy S4, either Chrome and the default browser. In my case, when I try to access a website file using http, it throws an error 500, while accessing it using https, it works as expected. The weirdest thing is that when I try to access using another phone or a pc, it perfectly works. I've even tried using Firefox, but it still doesn't work.

Do you know where does this error can come from?

HTTP error 500 indicates a server problem. You should report the problem to the owner of the website so they can fix it. Some sites deliberately behave differently for different browsers and OSes, so that could be triggering the problem at the server.

There's one more possibility, if you're using mobile data (instead of Wi-Fi) to access the site. Most carriers use a transparent web proxy to compress data you access on the web (especially pictures), to use less bandwidth. Obviously this only works when you're using HTTP: for HTTPS, the carrier's proxy server doesn't know what the page contains. If you're seeing the same problem on several sites, it could be that the error is coming from the proxy server (or is otherwise caused by the proxy server), not the site you're trying to access. In this case, another phone on a different network wouldn't show the same problem. If you're using mobile data, and you suspect this problem, you can check whether it happens on Wi-Fi too.


How do I get my phone to connect the internal SD by USB? I recently rooted and upgraded my Samsung Galaxy S2 to version 4, ICS.

Since doing so, when I connect my device by USB to my Ubuntu computer, only the 12GB internal storage shows up on my desktop and in Banshee.

How do I get my 16GB SD card to also mount on Ubuntu, so that it is available for transferring music files and so on?

Update

According to one answer below, and also in instructions I've now seen elsewhere on the web, I should be able to adjust my USB connection mode by following the following instructions:

  1.Bring up Settings.

  2.Click More… (under Wireless and network).

  3.Then select USB utilities ~ Set USB cable connection mode.

  4.Select Connect storage to PC

However, I am stopped at step 3 because I do not have a "USB Utilities" option under Settings -> More.... What I have looks like this:

I don't know if this is the make-or-break factor that will get my USB connectivity as hoped, but in any case, shouldn't I have the option since everyone else seems to? What can I do to get it?

Details

Here is the storage settings as seen on my phone. As you can see, there are 2 entries of "Internal Storage", one of about 2GB, and one of a little under 12GB.

Then there is an "SD Card", which seems to have about 15 GB, but it is grey and I am unsure if this is really my SD card or not.

Then under "USB Storage", I have the option to mount an SD card, which is problematic, because I already have my card inserted, and seemingly mounted (as described after this image):

If I press the menu key while in the storage settings interface, I get two options:

For "USB computer connection", I have these settings which I don't think I want to change, because MTP does not work with my Galaxy Tab, so I'm not confident it will work with my Galaxy S2. I tried the camera option, but that made it so my phone appeared with a camera icon on my computer, limited the directories, and did not do much to help:

For "Storage configuration", I tried "Use internal Storage" both on and off, but it does not seem to make a difference:

Here is a screen shot from PowerAmp, which seems to think my music is located in a directory called "emmc". The music is accessible from within PowerAmp, but I can not access it when I connect my phone by USB:

PowerAmp tells me I can actually find the emmc directory, where my music seems to be stored, in two locations, /emmc and /mnt/emmc:

When I connect my phone by USB, it looks like this. Note no emmc directory, nor any Music directory, and if you look at the side, there is one 12 GB Filesystem, no entry for my 16GB SD card:

And lastly here is the 12 GB drive's properties:

There's no problem with Ubuntu, problem is most probably in your phone settings or your phone system. It would be very helpful to know from which source did you get your upgrade, was it official update from your phone provider or something found on the net?
According to your picture you have 12GB of internal storage and 16GB SD card inserted in your phone. Numbers you see are the result of conversion of 16.000.000.000 bytes (which is 16GB as memory or HDD manufacturers think) into the gigabytes, each containing 1024*1024*1024 = 1073741824 bytes. If you divide the 16.000.000.000 by 1024*1024*1024 you'll get your 14.9GB or something.
Grayed out "Mount SD card" under USB storage possibly represents the external USB storage you might insert into the USB port of your phone. There's no reason to click on it, unless you have the external USB storage plugged in. And even then, I'm not sure if this is actually supported on SGS2.
Missing from your screen grabs, there supposed to be a "menu" option below the "Storage" page, usually represented as three dots aligned one above the other. If you click on this "menu", you'll most probably be shown "USB computer connection" submenu or something similar. Once you get there, you may change how your phone represents the memory you have to the computer. If you make a screen grab of that screen, I could tell you which option to select.
As a side note, it's not a very good idea to remove/insert SD card without unmounting it first. Please, next time you remove SD card from your phone, power the phone off or issue "Unmount SD card" from the "Storage" screen you've shown in the question.

If you could not find "USB computer connection" submenu on the Storage screen, you may try this approach to make USB mass storage to work on your device:

Open Settings, then click More… (under Wireless and network).
Select USB utilities / Set USB cable connection mode.
Select "Connect storage to PC".
Connect USB cable from phone to PC.
Click "Turn on USB storage".

Also, you might need to turn OFF "USB debug" before trying this.


Install zImage on Android 2.2 devcie How do I install zImage on Android 2.2 device? I have one galaxy tab 7.0 and one NVIDIA Tegra 250 delvel kit.

I was trying to using fastboot on NVIDIA Tegra 250 but I failed.

I could load zImage using following command

fastboot boot zImage

The device shows that it downloaded the image but nothing happened. If I forced to restart then the kernel wasn't updated.

As for the Gallaxy Tab, I was trying to load the zImage with odin. But the input format should be either .tar or something else not the zImage.

I have been trying to figure this out for two weeks and I am still stuck.
I will be very appreciated if you guys could help with that.

Thanks in advance..

The Odin-able kernels for my Galaxy S are simply the zImage in a .tar file.  But the zImage has a peculiar format, and I believe it's specific to Samsung devices.

I would assume that either the kernel you've compiled is the wrong format, or simply doesn't work and the system is restoring the stock kernel from the recovery image.


reply with a different account - multiple email accounts I have an Exchange account, e.g. hub@domain.com, that I forward all my emails to from all my other accounts. But I need to reply to these messages using different accounts, e.g. reply to a work email with me@work.com - how could I do that in Android?
Default Email App in 4.2.2
Hitting reply on an email in my hub account does not let me change the account to send the reply with (e.g. work account). I can go to my work account and compose a new email there and copy paste the original email and subject and receivers manually, but that is cumbersome.
TouchDown
Only supports Exchange accounts, but no IMAP, which I need to set up my other accounts.
Solution?
Is it doable

With the native app would be best solution (is there anywhere to submit feature requests for Email app?)
With any other email app that I have not tried?

K-9 Mail allows to choose the "from" mail address when composing a message (or replying to a received message). Click the "from" address field and a pop-up menu will appear which allows you to choose the appropriate account.

K-9 supports pop/imap/exchange(via webdav) accounts.

Pictures for illustration

compose window:

account chooser:


Is it possible to use another system language than the one defined by country I'd like to use my phone (CM 11, rooted) in English. The only problem I have is that this means that the contacts app doesn't sort names that begins with Å, Ä or Ö in their own separate section, they're shown within the A and O section. I thought that for example setting  locale to en_FI with MoreLocale 2 would solve the problem, but it doesn't. For example, Åsa is still shown between Arne and Atte.

Google hasn't helped, neither did I find answers here. Is it possible to set the language and locale to different values? sounded right but didn't solve my problem.

Go to system setting and language & input.

(I also have CM11 but in BAM rom which includes many other roms)


Turn off notifications for old unread emails and only keep for new emails in gmail I'm using Gmail on Android 6.0 and almost every time gmail fetch new emails I have notification about old unread emails, each time I got new email the number get bigger (40 right now on my not gmail email that I've got spam sent).

I don't want to click on each email to maker it as read.

Is there a way to turn off notifications for old unread emails and only keep the ones that are for new emails.

As confirmed , the solution that worked is posted below

You can try automation.  I prefer Macrodroid, being easy to learn and free (upto 5 macros)

Create a macro

Trigger: Notification → Notification received  → Select Application  → Gmail  → Text content contains  → Enter here the text you see on the unread notifications

Actions:

Clear Notifications  → Clear all
Optional if you don't want notification sound Volume Change  → Set notification on slider scale to zero

Constraints : Leave blank


Bluetooth headphones controls problem after Android 7.1.1 Nougat update (Galaxy J5 2016) I just installed an Android 7.1.1 Nougat update on a Galaxy J5 (2016) phone in our family. (It's running Samsung Experience 8.5, if that's relevant.) There's an annoying problem with Bluetooth stereo headphones that previously worked flawlessly with many phones, including this one. The problem is that Play/Pause button stops the playback (as it should), but another press doesn't resume it. I've tried rebooting the device, unpairing, switching bluetooth on and off, and nothing helps. Could someone help on this?

A lot of this depends on:
1. How good the music app you are using is programmed.
2. Which KeyEvents your Bluetooth headset sends and how your app handles them.
I guess your headset uses same button for play/pause so there might not be proper handling of KeyEvents on the app side.
The solution is to try different app for music playback, check if YouTube app is working OK with your headset.
I will suggest you to use Google Play Music, as it works great with my Bluetooth headset with single play/pause button, running on Moto G4 Play (Android version 7.1.1).


How to use your voice to add items to a shopping list? With iOS Siri, you can say "Add tomatoes to my shopping list" and it will add it to a list titled "Shopping List" in the "Notes" app, easy.

In Android, using S Voice or Google Voice, if you say "Add tomatoes to my shopping list" it will google that, which is unhelpful.

Ideally there should be a way to add items to lists generically in Google Now. Is there such a workflow?

I am aware Grocery IQ app has Voice entry, but then the workflow is tedious: Hold a button, say OK google, say Open Grocery IQ, then tap a mic, then Say tomatoes.

You can now say "Ok Google" followed by "Add Chicken to my Shopping List" via Google voice recognition app. See a list of Google now voice commands here.


where does the official, "non-custom firmware" Android os look for version updates? When the "new update is available" popup appears on the screen, does the os go to the manufacturer's server or the google's servers to download the update? in other words who is the main version update publisher that the os looks for updates from?

The OS looks for updates from the manufacturer's site for a newer version. When you click download on your phone it download the latest update usually as "update.zip".


"This app won't run without Google Play Services, which are missing from your phone" When I tap Google+ and try to sign in with my Gmail account it says couldn't connect to the server, but I can receive email, and when I'm trying to download apps in the play store it says error downloading app. YouTube is working, but when I tap sign in, it says this app won't run without Google Play Services.

This is happened because your mobile is not supported by Google play service. For this you have to root your mobile and install play service


Wifi disconnects during sleep I noticed recently that, when I would use my phone after it had been sleeping, wifi wouldn't be connected and it would have to connect.  I went into advanced wifi settings and ensured that "Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep" was set to "Always", but the problem remains.  Any ideas?

I have an HTC One and AT&T.

Update #1: Went through troubleshooting with three different HTC techs. The last effort was to clear the boot partition cache and factory reset the phone. After doing both, however, the issue remained.  I learned that the AT&T software is out of date and actually has never been updated since I've had the phone for 16 months.  I'm waiting for a level 2 HTC tech to send me the latest version.

Just as an addition: I stumpled across the same (plus another problem) while upgrading my nexus 5 from Lollipop to Marshmallow. Every time when the phone was at sleep mode (for example: while driving my car and phone rested in the pocket) and I walked into a know wifi it did not auto connect.

Usually when I arrived at work, as soon as I exited at the parking lot I got notified for incoming mails or messages, but not anymore on Android 6. As soon as I unlocked the phone wifi automatically connected and everything was fine. But I always forget to do this and It sometimes took hours before I realized I haven't done this step and messages won't get sent to me since I was not connected to the wifi until I picked up the phone from the pocket and unlocked it once.

I looked through all the settings and policy stuff, and finally I found something that worked:

Under Settings -> Power -> ... -> Power Optimimization you can switch the list from "unoptimized apps" to "all apps". Then search for "Google Connectivity Services" and disable the power optimisation for this system app.

After I've done it finally autoconnects to known wifis while my phone is in my pocket.

UPDATE
I just wanted to leave a note, that there was a small update a couple of days/weeks ago that brought back the not autoconnect issue to me, Power Optimization did not work for me anymore. Still have this issue, I will do a clean Android 6 install in the next weeks and look if the issue still exists. If yes I will stick with Android 5.x

UPDATE2
There was another update a while ago that almost "fixed" this problem.


How to get USB file transfer working on Oreo 8.1? I always used to transfer files between my laptop and Nexus 5X phone. Upon connecting the USB cable, there used to be a notification thingy on my phone showing USB options, which was default on 'Charging' and then when changing that to File Transfer, I could transfer files.

I recently had to reset my phone and now that I have a new, freshly installed Oreo 8.1.0 environment, this USB notification does not appear anymore. And the device does not show up on my laptop at all.

While searching for a solution I came across these suggestions which I already tried:

Enabling developer mode on Android (clicking 7x on Build number in About).
In developer options, enable and disable USB debugging.
Clearing the cache and data storage for the 'External storage' and 'Media storage' apps, and rebooting my phone, and wait for a while.
In developer options, there is something called "Select USB configuration" which is on "MTP (Media Transfer Protocol)". Changed that to "Charging" or "PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol)" and back.

None of these helped, unfortunately. Any hints?

Note that the cable is fine. It works OK on other phones, and upon connecting my phone to my laptop, it does show the charging indicator in the battery icon. It's just the USB notification and file transfer related options that are no longer there.

Go into Developer options, scroll down to "Select USB Configuration" and select MTP ( Media Transfer Protocol ) even if it's already selected.

This solved the problem for me.


What if a thief disabled Android Device Manager in settings I have my phone stolen and It has no Lockscreen pattern. No sim Card. Location Turned off. No Data/WiFi.

What if the thief is smart enough to turnoff the Android Device Manager first before doing stuff with the mobile?

Does Android require Google account password first before disabling the Device Manager?

Will the Remote Erase work once the device goes online ? (Do they use device Id or IMEI for this)

Law One of Computer Crackers: If I can touch your device, I own your device.
Law Two of Computer Crackers: If you device does not have a password, I definitely own your device.

Okay, so those are not really laws, at least not written ones. I am just stating them to make a point.

Because you have no device security to access it, anyone who gets hold of your phone can do anything they want.

What if the thief is smart enough to turnoff the Android Device Manager first before doing stuff with the mobile?
Does Android require Google account password first before disabling the Device Manager?

Then you are out of luck. You do not need a password to disable/uninstall any application through settings.

Will the Remote Erase work once the device goes online ? (Do they use device Id or IMEI for this)

No, it uses your linked Google account to erase the data.

No sim Card. Location Turned off. No Data/WiFi.

But before any of this, you say there is no sim card (meaning no carrier service available) and no wifi. That alone means that you are not able to do anything with device manager. If the thief were to connect it to the wifi, then you could, unless they have removed your account before connecting to the wifi.


Is it possible to display incoming calls groupped by caller? In  "all calls" i have something like this:

 John Doe 14:32
 Peter 14:30
 John Doe 14:25
 Peter 14:10

On another android device with same version i would have:

John Doe (2) 14:32
Peter (2) 14:30

Which is much, much better. But i could't figure out how to change that.

Model number: Lenovo K910
Android version: 4.2.2

This greatly depends on the Dialer application you are using.  On stock "vanilla" Android that ships with Google/AOSP Dialer app, there is no such option, and you will have to find a 3rd-party dialer app that has such a feature (e.g. Dialer One or PP, for example.)

Some manufacturers like Samsung and HTC replace the default dialer app with their own that has many more features, and may already include the one you are looking for (grouping records by caller.)


Tablet listed under adb devices, but not under lsusb while in recovery I am working with a Gemini devices GEM1000 tablet, I have performed all the steps to get adb working, and the device shows up under 'adb devices' so I go to the bootloader with 'adb reboot bootloader' and once in the bootloader, the device can no longer be descovered with 'adb devices' or 'fastboot devices'

checking 'lsusb' the tablet is not showing up as connected, although if I select "appply update with ADB" it then shows up as '2837487629 sideload' under 'adb devices' and then shows up in lsusb again

The recovery says 'Android System recovery <3e>' and 'Recovery system v4.2.41' in case that matters. Could it be possible I need to flash a different recovery? if so are there any generic recoveries?(since I doubt this generic tablet has any custom ones)

How do i get the device to show up in 'fastboot devices' once I enter recovery mode?

I'm afraid the stock recovery (as pointed out in the comments) doesn't come with ADB enabled, which is why your device is neither shown with adb devices nor with lsusb when you've booted it into <3e>. The only way around this (if you really need to access the tablet via ADB while booted into recovery-mode) is flashing it with a custom recovery, such as clockworkmod-recovery or twrp – which again requires your bootloader to be unlocked (see: bootloader-unlock).

Note that the recovery image must match your device, so you cannot just pick any. I'm not sure whether there's any custom recovery available for the GEM1000; good points to check that out is looking at XDA-Developers and the websites of the corresponding recoveries.


Is there a simple way to use the same headphones for my phone and PC, at the same time? Is there a simple way to stream sound from both my PC and my Android phone to the same set of headphones?  I'm open to both hardware and software solutions, but software solutions would be better.  I'd like to listen to music and notifications on my phone, but also hear sound effects and notifications on my work PC.

Personally, I've found software solutions to this kind of thing to be more hassle than they're worth. Do you mind if your devices are physically close to each other? If not, I recommend a cheap hardware solution:

2 x 3.5mm Stereo Male / 3.5mm Stereo Female, 6 inch

You could buy a 3.5mm extension cable to give yourself more flexibility if you need your devices a little farther apart. All of these kinds of cables are basically the same; search around Amazon, or your online market of choice, for the deal that fits you best.


Shuffle songs across albums on Google Play that have been downloaded to Android phone I'm new to Google Play and have just downloaded a good bit of my music to Android phone. I like to shuffle but am dismayed to find the only facility for shuffling appears to be within album and not across albums (may be specific to downloaded tracks).

Is there a way to do it?

If you're looking to play all the songs you have, in shuffle, simply open Google Play Music. Open the menu -> Music library -> Shuffle all.

If you want to shuffle between specific songs, find the desired songs, press on the three dots next to the name of the song, and click on 'Add to playlist' -> New playlist. After adding all your desired songs or albums, go to the playlists tab, and next to your newly created playlist, press on the three dots -> Shuffle.


Skinning the Android emulator I need to have mobile skins for the Android emulator, specifically for testing apps, for which I have referred this site: http://teavuihuang.com/android/.

I would like to have HTC 4G EVO skin. Where can I get one?

you don't need an official "skin". You just need to figure out what screen dimensions and memory capacity the device you want to test has and create a deployment target file.


Whatsapp chat conversation email I tried exporting my whatsapp conversation via email.
This conversation is received to mail box in .txt file attachment.
Once the file is downloaded to pc and opend with notepad as usual, the chat messages with our local language (hindi, india) are not displayed. Only square boxes are displayed in notepad. (making the conversation backup useless)
What i need to do so that all the messages are displayed in pc ?
(Eng msg are displayed correctly)(emoji not displayed is ok for me)

regards

Your system doesn't support Devanagari fonts. If you're using Windows, install the fonts from Microsoft Support.

Update:

Download this(press the big blue Download Now button)
Open the downloaded file and click onInstall button(requires administration privileges)
Open the log, and select encoding as UTF-8

Update#2:
For details on how to set the encoding to UTF-8:
 - click on the
    File menu - click on save as - on the drop down menu beside the field encoding, select

CHARSET UTF-8


Are there benefits to using Greenify with Android Nougat? Greenify by Oasis Feng (donation package) is a well-regarded tool to manually and automatically freeze apps that are not in use.  Typically, Greenify's benefits are to:

increase battery duration
improve task-switching
reduce data usage
increase privacy (by not having apps performing background operations, including data transfer).

Android Nougat (7.x) has many new battery saving features as well as improved memory management.

Are there benefits to using Greenify with Android Nougat on non-rooted devices?

In my personal experience and opinion, no. I have tried using it for about a 3 weeks, and haven't seen any improvement. Maybe it works for rooted or custom Rom devices, but generally Nougat does a pretty good job.


Has ES File Explorer removed the adware? I used ES File Explorer for a long time, but when they made the terrible decision to add that "Charging Boost" adware tagalong I had to uninstall, probably along with 2/3 of the apps users.

Is it now safe to re-install ES now? Have they removed all the internal adware from the app?

Nope.

ES Global will none removing all their Adware/Ads/Charging Boost/Complete bulls**t they added. Its an example of a good app falling to greedy devs.

Here's some complaints: Soooo, One from slashdot) Ummm, One from the Android Police on ES Pro And XDA has a Nice list on everything wrong with the New ES, and a story too! Read that to the kids.


How can I unlock my Samsung Galaxy Ace? I have just purchased a Galaxy Ace locked to a specific carrier. I was wondering if it is possible to unlock the phone for free without having to pay for it?

Yes, as with many of the Galaxy devices it appears that the unlock code is actually stored on the device and easily accessible (as long as you have root access).

This XDA post should guide you through it.  Note of course that it might not work and you could brick your device by rooting, in addition to voiding the warranty.  In my experience the Galaxy devices are hard to brick and unlikely to be problematic.


How to extract sqlite file My Samsung Galaxy S was having an error on the notification bar saying sd card blank or has unsupported file system, so I was required to format my sd card. However, I couldn't format it using the phone, and my lappy couldnt recognize it either. So I formatted the card using my Nokia 5800, and it works.

I tried to recover lost images and songs using Photorec. However, I was only able to recover 3 files and all of them are sqlite files. One of them is 2gb in size which match the size of all the photos and songs that I used to have. Is the sqlite file my lost data or not? If it is, how can I convert it back to photos and songs that I mentioned earlier?

That's odd, photos are usually stored within a DCIM directory of the SD-Card. Never heard that one would store them as binary blob within a sqlite db.

Anyways, you cold discover the contents of the sqlite db with the sqlite (sometimes sqlite3) tool. But you need some basic understanding of SQL syntax.


How do I reset the Logitech Revue to factory defaults? I rebooted my Logitech Revue today by pressing ctrl+alt+delete, which I have done a number of times before. After it went through the normal boot up it went to a blank screen. And just stays there, unresponsive. The remote does nothing for any of the other devices either as it seems that the "universal" part of the remote is actually software based, not in the remote itself.

I figure that I should be able to reset the device back to factory defaults but not sure how to reset it. I am hoping that a reset will get the device working correctly again.

You can try to press and hold the Pair/Reset button on the back of the Revue for 10 seconds.

Source

  Using the hardware button

  Press and hold the Pair/Reset button located to the left side of the left HDMI port on the back of the box for about 10 seconds. The Revue will then restart with factory default settings.

  Using the menus
  1. From the home screen select Applications.
  2. Choose Settings.
  3. Select About.
  4. Choose Factory data reset.
  5. Select Reset device.
  6. Select Erase everything.

The Pair/Reset button is the one identified by number (1) on page 3 of the Logiteh Revue manual.


Possible to estimate the number of users for an Android app? Are there any statistics that indicate how many users an Android app has based on the number of reviews for it? Are there other ways to tell how many users are using an app?

On AppBrain, you can find the number of installs right at the beginning of the page for the app:

On Google Play, you will have to scroll a little further down, as with the relaunch the summary has moved to a less ideal position:

It's just a raw number of installs done via Google Play, and does not include other sources (such as AndroidPIT, Pdassi, or Amazon). I don't know how is dealt with users who installed an app and later uninstalled it, but that number should at least give you a raw idea.


What happens when Google removes a purchased app from Market? Google removes malicious and copyright-smasher apps from Market. And, I think paid apps are equally treated in this case. Fortunately, Google hasn't removed any app purchased by me, yet. So, I don't have any idea.
What happens when Google removes a paid app? Google returns its cost to buyers or not?
Can I continue to use that app with infringing law?

Another situation: When I purchase an app and do its FIRST installation after even month, the 15-minute refund option is provided. In case of app removal from market, can I utilize the refund option?

From http://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/mobile/android/market-policies.html ,

  Product Removals: From time to time, Google may discover a Product on
  the Market that violates the Android Market Developer Distribution
  Agreement or other legal agreements, laws, regulations or policies. In
  such an instance, Google retains the right to remove those
  applications from your Device remotely, at its sole discretion. If
  that occurs, Google will make reasonable efforts to recover the
  purchase price of the Product, if any, from the originating Developer
  on your behalf. If Google is unable to recover the full amount of the
  purchase price, it will divide any recovered amounts between the
  affected users on a pro rata basis.

From what I can gather from above, it seems that

The app in question will be removed from your device and you will be entitled for a refund. (not strictly a full refund sometimes)
The app fails to be removed from the device and you may not get a refund. (Though I suggest you can contact google in this case)

If the app exists on your device, you can use it any how and it is not under jurisdiction of google anymore.

And answer to you alternate situation, again, yes Google will make reasonable efforts to recover the purchase price of Product and the refund option will probably work.


How to see all the purchased apps in google play store I have purchased several apps on Google Play Store. I've installed a new ROM, and I want to reinstall the purchased apps. Is there any way to see only purchased apps in play store.

I know that there is a way to see all the previously installed apps, but is there any filter to list only the purchased apps?

Go to  Playstore menu → Account → Order history,  you will find all details of purchases made using the linked  account. Click on the apps you wish to install from there and you are done

Edit: Added additional pics to depict the process, seeing that there are answers saying it cannot be done (App chosen is purchased but currently not installed)


How to Sync Screenshots to Google Photos automatically? I would like to sync my screenshots to Google Photos.

OS: OxygenOS 3.1
Phone: OnePlus 2

Go to Google Photos > Albums > Click Screenshots, Whats... and click the cloud symbol with arrow.


Is it possible to install Docker using Termux? I'm just tinkering with my Android tablet and was wondering
if I can get Docker running on it.
I've tried dkg install docker and also apt install docker both gave me
unable to locate package Docker
I probably need to add Docker's repo into list of repositories.
Have you ever done it ?

March 2021: Possible with root & compiled kernel
From termux-root Issue #60 it appears that it is possible to use Docker without QEMU, but requires root & a custom kernel.
Details can be found in this gist
No, not possible
From: https://www.reddit.com/r/termux/comments/av6z2s/how_to_install_docker_on_termux/
contains a reply from a Termux dev:

This is not possible.
Docker requires features that are not available in typical kernel installed with Android OS. This is why docker is not packaged for Termux and likely never be - 99% of devices (even if rooted) won't be able to run it.

with the additional comment.

Termux does not emulate Linux. It just terminal application with own tools added to PATH.


update.zip just for fixing file permissions, possible? I soft bricked my colorfly g808 by following this guide (Japanese)

http://bl.oov.ch/2012/12/android-421-mvno-sim.html

I didnt do it using adb shell but using a terminal emulator in the phone itself, so I don't have ADB debug mode enabled.

the file in question is

/data/resource-cache/vendor@overlay@framework@framework-res.apk@idmap

I need to set its permissions to "644"

I have access to adb sideload by pressing the volume key while booting while connected by USB.

I tried several tutorials for making a custom updater-script but I always get the message "Installation aborted." when I try to install it. I tried signed and unsigned, by the way.

Is it possible at all to create an update.zip for just setting a permission on a file? do I need an "update-binary" also present? (I tried including one from here http://pan.baidu.com/share/link?shareid=92493&uk=252038779  which I thought was targeted for my device)

My android version is 4.2.2... I think..

What I see in the computer:

$ adb sideload update-signed.zip
loading: 'update-signed.zip'
sending: 'update-signed.zip'  100%

What I see in the device:

Now send the package you want to apply
to the device with "adb sideload <filename>"...
Installation aborted.

The "Installation aborted" appears right after I send the file. It looks like it doesn't even try to analyze it.
I tried simplifying the script using just

ui_print("Next time don't forget to enable debug mode before playing with fire!");
sleep(5);

(I'm taking care of leaving an empty line at the end also...)

The zip file I'm using:
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=79008422714753153826

Another trial:
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=00027545588116868142

Sure. Just put it in the updater-script which is usually located in META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script

Make sure your script mounts the data partition and executes something like this:

set_perm(0, 0, 0644, "/data/resource-cache/vendor@overlay@framework@framework-res.apk@idmap");

Not sure if the @ chars are not causing trouble in recovery though.

And yes, you need updater-script etc. in there.


Opening a pdf file duplicates it on android Whenever I open a pdf file in adobe reader in Android and then close it, the pdf file duplicates itself in the same folder. This happens again and again as I open and close the file.

I tried searching google but found nothing relevant.

I would try to go to the pdf reader app settings and clean the data.
Settings -> apps -> the pdf app -> clear data
This will reset the app.
Is this happening to different pds files or just one? Is the file located on the phone or on the internet?


After adding icon to home screen, the icon in the apps screen remains I have put a few applications in a folder on the home screen, but their icons are still displayed on one of the apps screens.

How can I remove those still on the apps screen?

The app icon on the home screen is just a shortcut to the app. The purpose of the app drawer is to show all installed apps.

If an app is installed, you can't remove it from the app drawer, unless you uninstall the app itself.

Consider the icons placed on your home screen as shortcuts, like on desktop in Windows.


Automatically data and wifi are being activated few days ago my lg e420 with android 4.1.2 version had to be restored due to following few problems, firstly its data services and wifi settings get automatically activated. By this the battery life is rapidly decreased. When i switch them off by myself,all happens again by itself..is there any solutions,? Please help me.

If I understand your issue correctly and you are on the stock ROM, you should be able to fix it by going to Settings>More>Mobile Networks and disabling something called connections optimizer.


How do i recover my data on a Galaxy Tab after a factory reset? I forgot my password to unlock my Samsung Galaxy Tab, so I did a factory reset to get into it. Now I would like to recover as much of my previous data that I can. Is this possible? If so, how do I go about recovering it?

You still got your SDcard contents
You still got synced data on Google cloud associated with your Google account and other cloud services.
Everything else is wiped out and cannot be restored

All you can do is log in with same Google account on your device and it will restore some data from cloud like Google Contacts, Calendar and, maybe, settings for some apps. Purchased apps are still available from Google Play and you don't need to buy them again. Install Dropbox, Google Drive and other apps which store their data outside your device.

In future, try to keep copy of everything important on other device such as your computer or in cloud. Nowadays you can get lots of free storage on many services like Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, Skydrive etc. You can avoid wiping your device in future but you cannot avoid losing it or breaking it, so backups is very important.


ADB backup restoration on an older Android version I have made an adb backup of my OnePlus One running an unofficial CM12 ROM based on Android 5.0.2. Is it possible, considering the latest release of Android for the Nexus 5 is 5.0.1, to then restore this backup onto a Nexus 5 running 5.0.1?

You may be able to restore apps and data as far as they are no system apps. But be sure to fix permissions (Owner, Group and access) to what the system uses for all files (data and apps).

I already did this on my SIII LTE for an upgrade of Android 4.4.4 (CM11) to Android 5.0.1 (CM12) with no side effects (except some single apps that deleted and recreated their data for some reason).

  Also: Of course your device needs to be rooted to be able to write onto the /data partition.


Can the LG 768 be encypted? I have an LG 768 device. It is running Android 4.04 with Kernel version 3.0.21 and build number IMM76L. I can find no way to encrypt the device. None of the menus lead to an option to encrypt.

Has anyone figured out a way to encrypt this device?

Out of the box, No.

LG 768 User Manual

LG devices don't have the Full Device Encryption capability with the stock ROM, but you can always install an app to deal with that:

SSE - Universal Encryption

  Secret Space Encryptor (S.S.E.)

  Password Manager, Message (Text) Encryption and File Encryption integrated in the all-in-one solution.
  Store and manage all your passwords in one secure place protected with one Master Password.
  Keep your messages, notes and other texts safe from unintended readers.
  Securely encrypt your private and confidential files or whole folders.  Wiping (secure delete) feature is included.
  Everything is encrypted using strong encryption algorithm: AES(Rijndael) 256bit, RC6 256bit, Serpent 256bit, Blowfish 256bit/448bit, Twofish 256bit and GOST 256bit ciphers are available.
  Other Utils: Password Generator, Clipboard Cleaner, Algorithm Benchmark, ...
  Minimal Permissions. No ads.
  Cross-Platform (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, ...) GUI Version and Command Line Version of the File Encryptor is available on the application home page (download section).
  This software is Open Source project – we have nothing to hide, so you can have securely hidden everything you need.
  (as Open Source, this software is published under TSU - §740.13(e) encryption export license exception)


How to update my moded Nexus 4 to Android 4.3? I'm going to want to update to android 4.3 when it comes out. I have rooted my Nexus 4, flashed Paranoid Android and Franco Kernel. Can I just use Root Keeper to temporarily un-root, then install update from settings>about phone>system updates, and turn on root in Root Keeper? Ultimately I want to have the latest android and paranoid android version and keep all my data.

No, if you're running Paranoid Android you will need to wait for them to update to Android 4.3 when it's released by Google. You need to be on the stock rom to be able to install the update from "settings>about phone>system updates".


How to use phone calls without code? My friends and family need to use my cellphone regulary, it doesnt bother me, because some of them cant have a cell but still need one just in case...the problem is that i dont want them to have access to my apps, notes, texts private infos etc... is there a way for them to use my cellphone (just for making calls) without having access to everything in my phone? Thank you

Yes. Go the Google Play and download this app. If it isn't exactly what you are needing, get back to me and I'll find something more appropriate for your needs. Is your phone rooted? That helps a lot when you are wanting to customize your device. You can find plenty of info at XDA-Developers.com  Here is your link to the app. If you need any thing else, just ask. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.privacylock.guest&hl=enk.


Command to list partitions? I want to list the partitions on my phone - system, boot, recovery etc. What terminal command should I use? The mount command just lists mount points.

Use one of those:

cat /proc/mounts
mount
  # free disk space of mounted fs'
df
  # this shows you available devices
cat /proc/partitions

ps: Lines containing asec are moved-to-sdcard apps (it's each an encrypted volume per app for security reasons)


How do I root Samsung Galaxy Tab? (Verizon) I need to install an app which requires root on my Samsung Galaxy tab(Verison).  How can this be done?

I have not attempted this myself, but here are the steps that I found and seems pretty close to how I rooted my Samsung Galaxy S.

I am not responsible for any issues that arise from following these steps, including, but not limited to your device spontaneously bursting in to flames. I suggest you do additional research and see what others say about using the tools below and read EVERYTHING TWICE before doing it. And follow the instructions step-by-step.

The firsts step is to make sure that you have KIES installed on your computer.
Now download SuperOneClick Root App from here and save it on your desktop.
Once this is done, turn your Samsung Galaxy Tab on and connect it with your computer. Make sure that you have USB debugging mode disabled and sync with KIES.
Now disconnect Galaxy Tab from computer and enable USB Debugging mode. You can enable the USB debugging mode by Settings>Applications>Development>USB Debugging.
Now reconnect your tab again to your PC and tap the Home button so that your Tab loses sync connection with KIES.
Once done, launch SuperOneClick.exe and click on root. Please wait for 5 to 10 minutes while the application roots your Galaxy Tab.


Why do apps get smaller when they are moved to the SD card? For example, the Barcode Scanner app takes up:

Total: 0.96MB
Application: 0.92MB
Data: 40KB

on the phone. When I move it to the SD Card, it changes to:

Total: 524KB
Application: 484KB
Data: 40KB

How come it changes?

Like Bryan says (I can't comment so had to add another answer...), it doesn't move the whole app. The size given after the move is the bit still on the internal storage - it doesn't give any size for the elements that have beend moved to SD.

So in answer to your question, the app doesn't get smaller, just amount of internal storage used gets smaller.


Take multiple pictures instead of making a video I've an Samsung Galaxy S10e (Android 10) and I can't take picures fast after each other when I holding down the shutter button. It will always take a video.

In the begin, it was well possible to do it with my smartphone. I can't find a setting to enable it. Is that option removed?

Update: I can only find a setting for Swipe shutter button to edge to.

In the camera settings, look for Hold Shutter button to. You should see 3 options: Take a picture, Take the burst shot and Create GIF. Select Take the burst shot.

This article explains the difference between the 3 options.

  Take a picture. Essentially, it is identical to the single tap gesture.
  Take the burst shot. You are using the Galaxy S10 burst mode. All photos taken in the burst mode will be always saved in the phone storage even you set the storage as the SD card.
  Create GIF. Galaxy S10 camera will take a series of photos and saved them as one GIF animation file. Please note, the resolution of the GIF animation is 480*640 (VGA) only. You do not have the option to change the resolution for the GIF.


root access failed or busybox was not found Phone: Xiaomi Redmi 4 prime
Rom (custom): lineage-13.0
Xposed: xposed-v87-sdk23-arm64
Root: SuperSU.Pro.2.82

Right now everything works just fine and those apps that need root privileges to work properly, asking for root permission and after granting, they work fine;

There's just one app call Performance Profile (an xposed module) that after running asserts that: "root access failed or busybox was not found"

I do have successfully installed BusyBox 6.7.3.0

What is the problem with this app?

Update 1: I uninstalled BusyBox 6.7.3.0 and installed BusyBox 1.26.2 and using BusyBox Checker Pro 2.0 got the following results showing that everything is ok.

A wild guess: You did not correctly install busybox.

BusyBox is not a simple application, it's a executable binary that should supposedly be located in /system/xbin. A correct installation of BusyBox includes copying the binary and creating symbolic links.

Judging by the version number you gave, you might probably installed something like "BusyBox installer" from Google Play or so. The (currently) newest BusyBox binary version is 1.26.1, so you may want to check again if BusyBox is installed correctly, not an app from GP.


Stock e-mail client (Nexus 4) not synchronizing to IMAP SSL account since 4.2.2 update I have my school's e-mail account being checked via IMAP SSL/TLS on port 993. It is an Exchange mailbox but I did not want to to use MAPI and have my device "managed" by the school.

Anyhow, this worked fine prior to 4.2.2 update. Ever since then, e-mail is not being synchronized automatically and requires me to manually press the synchronize button.

My testing:

Send test e-mail to self from another account
Set checking frequency to 5 minutes
Wait 10 minutes (just to pad a bit)

Still nothing. If I go to the client and manually hit refresh though, I do get the message pulled. Also, if I restart the phone, all the new messages get pulled as well.

Things I've checked:

Factory reset: Reluctantly did one yesterday but, unfortunately, did not fix the issue.
System Settings -> Accounts -> Email: The synchronize button icon is green, when I click on the account, "Email" setting is checked. Says "Last synced" with a time that's over 5 minutes ago.
System Settings -> Data Usage -> Menu -> Auto-Sync Data: Saw that this was the issue with many people. That, however, is checked for me.
Wifi vs. Mobile Data: I've tested on both and no difference in results.

Does anyone have any suggestions on things I should check or test to figure this out.

My wife has a Nexus 4 too. I suggested to delete the account and recreate it. Then the sistems ask for authorizations of xxx stuff i cant remember and after agree it works again.


nexus 7: set static IP address for non-wifi My desktop PC's second NIC is configured to IP address 10.0.0.2, subnet 10.0.0.0/24.  Other PCs talk to each other, when I give them similar addresses (10.0.0.3, 10.0.0.4, etc.).  All these PCs plug into a NetGear 100base hub.

How can I add a Nexus 7 tablet running Android 6.0.1 to this network?

My USB-to-cat5 dongle successfully connects the tablet to the internet via a router.  But when I plug it into the NetGear hub instead, I see no way to specify an address like 10.0.0.5.  (Were this wifi instead of cat5, then it would be easy.)

If I replace the hub with another router (which would give the tablet a DHCP address), then the host PC gets confused because it has two 192.168 networks at once: https://superuser.com/questions/1101720/if-i-have-two-routers-how-do-computers-choose-which-to-use.

Edit: From google play I installed "wifi static" and, through that, set the IP address to 10.0.0.4.  But then I still couldn't see it on the 10.0.0.xxx net.  Ping from PCs to the tablet failed.  The tablet's TeamViewer  app (for remote desktop) failed to connect to PCs with "connection error."

You can address reserve the tablet by using address reservation on router with the MAC address of the tablet.

MAC address an be found in About Device -> Status


How to remove the "vinyl record" from the lock screen? On my Android phone I see a picture of a moving vinyl record when I press the on/off button.
It seems to be a media player application. But I don't want to use it. I don't even have any music saved on my phone. And I don't find any setting to remove it.

How can I remove this?
I want to see the clock and maybe other things on the lock screen.

Force Stop the music app in the Settings. Hope it works.


How do I install cyanogenmod on a Galaxy Tab 3 (7.0)? For Christmas I got a Galaxy Tab 3 (7in, SM-T110) for the wee ones to play with. I want to secure it as much as possible so they cannot accidentally buy stuff or get tracked or whatever. So I thought I'd install Cyanogenmod.

However, the device is not officially supported. From what I understand, I can still install Cyanogenmod on the device, it's just a bit more complicated. Obviously, it is possible, because there's "tutorials" out there about how to do it by people who have successfully done so. Never having done any of this, though. I got lost pretty soon among instructions on rooting, using ODIN, CWM, TWRP, ROM managers, and whatnot. Sigh.

So what do I need to do in order to install Cyanogenmod? I suppose I need to root the device? Do I need a ROM manager? Or is it advisable? What do I need ODIN for? Do I need ODIN? What I need is 1) a thorough explanation what all of these buzzwords mean and what they are good for, and 2) a step-by-step for dummies for how to put them together.

Note: I have seen this answer (which assumes the device to be supported) and this answer (which assumes too much knowledge).

If the device is not supported officially, you may be able to find an unofficial build for the device. If you find that, then the first answer you linked to is your instructions, as installing CM on any device basically requires the same steps.

If there is not even an unofficial build, then I do not recommend you install any build of CM on your device. All you are likely to do is 'soft brick' the device. ROMs have to be built specifically for the hardware, and hardware can differ even between variants of the exact same device. Like a T-mobile version versus AT&T version.

Rooting the device will not get you any closer to installing cyanogenmod. You will need a custom recovery. ODIN is usually used to install Samsung based ROMs, so you shouldn't need to use ODIN. But, this really all depends on if you have found an Unofficial build of CyanogenMod for the SM-T110. Without that, your only other option is to build an unofficial build yourself, that does require a lot of knowledge of how linux, android, and build systems, etc. work.

On the cyanogenmod forums there is a request to add support for the device.


What does the voice privacy setting do? In perusing the settings on my EVO today, I noticed that there is an option under call settings named "Voice Privacy". The description beneath the checkbox merely states "Enable enhanced privacy mode":

The screenshot is from Deck's ICS pre-beta, but I'm fairly positive I saw this in CM7 as well because it seems very familiar. I've also seen this settings on my Verizon Galaxy Nexus running both ICS (stock and CM9) and Jelly Bean.

Both phones I've seen this on were CDMA devices - an HTC EVO on Sprint, and a Verizon Galaxy Nexus. What little information I've been able to dig up seems to suggest that it may be unique to CDMA, but I cannot say that for certain.

What does this setting do? Some theories I've found on forums have included reducing the earpiece volume (so others can't overhear your conversation, I suppose?) and adding extra encryption to the CDMA connection, but I haven't found anything definitive.

This is a feature of CDMA (standardized in IS-95) and is called Voice Privacy.

See an Analysis of IS-95 CDMA Voice Privacy by M.Zhang, et al. from 2000, free download here

Citation (the real paper begins at p.10 in the PDF:
Abstract. The voice privacy of IS-95 CDMA cellular system is analyzed
in this paper. By exploiting information redundancy on the downlink
traffic channel, it is shown that an eavesdropper can recover the voice
privacy mask after eavesdropping the transmission on the downlink traf-
fic channel for about one second. Thus, IS-95 CDMA voice privacy is
vulnerable under ciphertext-only attacks.

That cryptanalysis is now 12 years old and already then was the scheme considered broken. I guess it's easy to suggest to just leave the setting disabled.

By combining some information grepped from the android source, I'm pretty sure it's what you're asking for.

To make it a little more transparent here are some source references:

packages/apps/Phone/res/xml/cdma_call_privacy.xml defines:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<PreferenceScreen xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
        xmlns:settings="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/com.android.phone"
        android:title="@string/additional_cdma_call_settings">

    <com.android.phone.CdmaVoicePrivacyCheckBoxPreference
        android:key="button_voice_privacy_key"
        android:title="@string/voice_privacy"
        android:persistent="false"
        android:summary="@string/voice_privacy_summary"/>
</PreferenceScreen>

packages/apps/Phone/res/values/strings.xml defines those strings:

<string name="voice_privacy">Voice Privacy</string>
<string name="voice_privacy_summary">Enable enhanced privacy mode</string>

./hardware/ril/include/telephony/ril.h defines also:

typedef struct {
    RIL_CallState   state;
[...]
    char            isVoice;    /* nonzero if this is is a voice call */
    char            isVoicePrivacy;     /* nonzero if CDMA voice privacy mode is active */
[...]
} RIL_Call;


Why can I download Kindle books from amazon.com but not from amazon.co.uk? I installed the Android Kindle application and purchased my first Kindle e-book yesterday.

Although I have an account on amazon.co.uk and have used this account for multiple purchases of dvd's and regular books, I cannot purchase Kindle e-books from this site.

I can, however, purchase Kindle e-books from amazon.com (with the same login).

Does anyone know why this is ?

It's an artificial geographic restriction that Amazon have put in. Essentially the .com Amazon Kindle store is accessible to any Amazon customers worldwide (except for customers who's account has an address in a country that has its own Kindle store). Country specific Kindle stores, like Amazon.co.uk's Kindle store are only accessible to Amazon accounts that have an address in that country.

So, the Amazon.co.uk Kindle store is only accessible by UK devices, based on a UK Amazon account. The Amazon.com Kindle store is accessible to everyone worldwide who has a non-UK Amazon account. The same thing happens for the newly launched Amazon.de Kindle store, only users with German or Austrian addresses can use it. It's based on your account's home address/billing address, not on which website's account you use. You can apply to Amazon to have your Kindle account moved from .com to the country-specific site, if you created your account before your country's site was available, but you can't use two sites at the same time.

Presumably when more countries have their own Kindle store, they'll be locked out of the .com store, and other countries will be locked out of their country-specific store.


How can I prevent an app being uninstalled from the Play Store? In our organisation, we are providing Android tablets to some users. There is an app we have installed on the devices that we don't want users to be able to remove.

I have searched for "app lock" in the Play Store, and tried the various 'app lockers' which password protect the apps I choose.

If I then use the Android menu to try to uninstall an app that I have protected with the app locker app, it prompts for a password - which is good.

But, if I go into the Play store app and try to uninstall through there, it removes it straight. And I don't want to password protect the Play store. Is there any way to prevent uninstallation of certain apps in a foolproof way?

One way to achieve what you want would include the following steps:

(temporarily) rooting the device
converting the app in question into a system app (e.g. using Titanium Backup ★ root, but there are also other apps helping you with this step)
unroot the device again

As the app now resides in read-only space (/system), the user cannot delete it without either rooting the device or flashing a ROM -- which of course could be done, but it's a higher inhibition threshold at least.


How to completely save large chat history of WhatsApp in Android phone To save a large (group) chat history of WhatsApp in Android phone I have looked to the internet for help - but still cannot save/backup the entire conversation/chat from the beginning.
For information, my example is a group chat with history composed of maybe a few hundred text messages (starting in 2017), contains maybe thirty images, a few videos and some short voice files. It definitely should not exceed the limits of the WhatsApp system. There is nothing rude in the chat but some strong feeling are expressed by some, in any case should not fall foul with any censorship.
So why the heck can I not backup the entire chat history???
I can see the entire chat (from beginning to current) in my phone but when I export the chat via email and Gmail it only shows approx. one month of chat!!!
Why? What is limiting and preventing seeing (exporting?) the entire chat history?
I use the procedure advised by the internet including this forum that I am writing in. I use the selections: More, Export Chat, Include Media, Send chat via (and each time click Email or Gmail), type into the To field, then send....it sends but in checking the sent mail, can only see recent chats.
Can anyone advise? Your help would be appreciated.

There is a limit which is imposed because of the maximum sizes of emails

see the WhatsApp FAQ section of their website

  If you choose to attach media, the most recent media sent will be
  added as attachments. When sending with media, you can send up to
  10,000 latest messages. Without media, you can send 40,000 messages.
  These constraints are due to maximum email sizes.

whatsApp FAQ Android


How to use "street view" in Google maps on Xperia Mini ST15i? I'm unable to switch to the street view when using the Google maps on my android phone. I updated the Google maps to the latest version and also the street view but unable still though. I turned off the satellite view and tried but the street view was still disable. I tried to finding informative videos regarding this and some forums but they didn't helped me. I would really appreciated if any one help me about this.

Most probably, Street View imagery is not available for your location (yet).

Cross check the web version with any PC for the same location that doesn't work on your phone
Check a well-supported Street View location such as Google HQ on your phone


Transferring data (contacts, SMS, call log(s), browser history, application data) from rooted phone My understanding is that, even with access to the filesystem exported over USB, one still does not have access to SMS data, for example. I have a phone that needs to be sent back to my insurance company (the screen broke and I received a replacement), but it is important that I get the data off of the phone, mainly so that I don't lose it.

I've tried a recommended app for saving SMS data on the filesystem with no luck (its output was garbage). Is it impossible to just dump the phone's internal storage, or wherever such things reside, to an external medium for later analysis/extraction?

As already pointed out in above comments, there are multiple questions on this site offering parts of the solution you might need:

How do I transfer all my data to a new phone?
The answer there already covers contacts and text messages, and works even without root.
How to transfer apps, contacts and settings between two identical phones?
Currently has three answers. #1 should cover most of the data exposed via Android's own APIs (so called service-providers), again without root. #2 covers some more areas, again not requiring root. #3 then mentions a very helpful app, which requires root: Titanium Backup ★ root.

I'd recommend you taking the payed version of the last mentioned app. While 5 bucks may sound a lot in terms of an Android app, you won't ever regret having spend them. TiBu was one of the first apps I've bought years ago, and I'm still a happy user. Using this app, you not only can backup all your apps including their data, but all your messages, contacts, call logs, and whatsnots. Even the system settings go along. Provided you get back the very same device running the very same Android version, you simply can go ahead and batch-restore everything (Pro only; with the free version, you need to do this manually for each item).

But even if you switch to a different device or Android version: restoring your apps+data goes the very same. Just with system apps and their data (including your APNs, WiFi hotspots, contacts, text messages, etc.) you need to take special care. TiBu offers a "migration mode", which I strongly recommend in that case; but still, some extra care cannot hurt: For your user apps+data, use the batch mode -- no problems to expect there. But for the just mentioned system stuff, better restore items one-by-one using the migration mode, and then check if everything works fine (even a reboot in between might be required, e.g. after restoring your text messages, contacts, and the like, as Android does not expect them coming that way). It's just in case. And if something seems "botched", remember what you restored last -- then do a factory-reset, batch-restore all apps, restore everything up to the point before the "botched" item, and skip to the next.

I don't expect any trouble that way. But in case it comes (thanks to Murphy's Law), you're welcome to ask that in a new question, giving the details, and we'll do our best to help you again.


What are the other "home" screens called? On my Samsung Galaxy SIII when I get past the lock screen there are several "home" screens, each indicated by a clickable dash, and one of these (the second one on my device) has a home icon in place of the dash and can also be accessed by two (if an app is open) or one (if no app is open) clicks of the home button. Of course one can also swipe left and right from one screen to another (or use the dashes area as a scrollbar).

Now my question: if I were to write about these "home screens" differentiating between the "main home screen" and the other "secondary home screens", so as to differentiate between these two kinds of "home screen", is this the corrrct terminology or would I call these two different kind of screens something else?

Note: I am also but not exclusively asking this question with accessibility (TalkBack) in mind. Haven't figured out how to pass from one of these screens to the next with TalkBack enabled. (when an app is closed and the launcher is shown, no matter which page, TalkBack says "home screen").

From source code of Launcher3 in Android 6.0.1 r16:

  The workspace is a wide area with a wallpaper and a finite number of pages. Each page contains a number of icons, folders or widgets the user can interact with.

Honestly, this is the first time I heard the term workspace in context of a launcher for Android, but if you want a standard term, there you have it.

The page with home icon is referred as default page and the page currently displayed to the user is called current page. This is what I understood from this line in the source code of the said launcher.

Edit: After checking the sample of Home app in Android 6.0.1 r16 (they are using a very old sample for developers), I noticed this line inter alia and I conclude that each page can be referred to as home screen and you can reference another page by calling it previous, succeeding, or preceding home screen or by using the numbers available through scroll, such as home screen 3.


SMTP auth server settings I'm using my own SMTP server with SMTP AUTH for sending mails. The greeting looks like:

  250-[...fqdn...] Hello [...fqdn...] [...ip...], pleased to meet you
  250-ENHANCEDSTATUSCODES
  250-PIPELINING
  250-8BITMIME
  250-SIZE
  250-DSN
  250-AUTH CRAM-MD5 DIGEST-MD5
  250-DELIVERBY
  250 HELP

Unfortunately when configuring user name and password for SMTP (no TLS), Android 4.2 (the standard mail app of the Google/LG Nexus 4) does not seem to expect this: authentication methods aren't supported by server.

On the server, I see Android disconnecting after that greeting was sent.

What authentication methods are actually supported by Nexus 4's mail app?

Probably a bit late to the party, but I'm recording this here for posterity.  My wife's Xperia Z5 Compact (Android 5.?), as well as my own Samsung S3 (4.3) suffer from this same problem.  I've pulled down the source code to the most recent email client, and it appears that the only authentication mechanisms that the native email client supports is PLAIN, LOGIN and XOAUTH2, otherwise the client comes up with the above error message.  As noted in the OP, the mail server is only offering CRAM-MD5 and DIGEST-MD5, which the client doesn't support.  I had to add PLAIN and LOGIN to my mail server (after enforcing TLS), at which point the stock mail client was happy.


Resetting SMSC for Lollipop 5 SMS bug Ok, so I tried to do this tutorial to fix the SMS bug that was keeping me from texting my buddy in Switzerland (I'm in the US using AT&T on a Samsung Galaxy s6 Edge with Lollipop v5.0.2);

I followed it, did the *#*#4636#*#* and brought up the screen. Hit "Refresh" and it displays "1",0

So I hit update "Update" and reboot. Now not only does my texts to him fail, but all the local US people I can normally msg fine fails as well. Could someone show me the light? Thanks!

Sorry for the trouble. I'm the writer of that fix. Well, I was able to get it right on Nexus 5, Unite 2, Galaxy S5, LG G2, LG G3 and MOTO G as well. So, if you've come across a different problem try doing a factory reset. And, keep a backup of your data before formatting it.


How to cast Youtube video, but keep sound in headset? My Sony Bravia TV sound system is horrible, but my headset hyperX is sufficient.
I tried the apple LocalCast but it does not allow you to cast video at all from its browser.
Android: 10, latest.
Phone: OnePlus 6T.
Chromecast: 3 gen.
TV: some 10 year old Sony Bravia.

Robert's answer in comment:

When casting an online video your smartphone simply tells your TV
which web address to play. The audio is never processed by your
smartphone. Therefore it can not be played by the smartphone. Better
connect the headset to your TV.

So not possible the asked feature, but you need to connect your headset to your TV.


If I buy a tablet with Honeycomb 3.1, will I be able to upgrade it to 3.2? How about 4.0, 5.0, ...? I am in the market for a tablet. However I am not clear the degree to which the hardware will be linked to a specific android version. For example, if I get the Motorola Xoom or the Galaxy Tab 10.1, will I be able to upgrade it to honeycomb 3.2?

Will there be limitations on future upgrades, and if so, on what time scale?

There's really no way to answer this question. There are devices out there that got to version 1.6 and are at the end of the line. I have a DROID with Froyo (2.2) and don't expect to get any more OS updates.

It all depends on the hardware and, most importantly, how much effort the manufacturers and/or carriers want to put in to update the device. If the past is any indication, the answer there is "not much". They seem much more interested in selling their new phones. While Google and the manufacturers recently met and said that there will be more of an effort to support and update devices for at least 18 months, we've not seen the results of that. While they occasionally backpedal on announcements of "no more updates" it hasn't been very frequent.

If past performance is any indication, I think you can expect a few point releases, and perhaps a full release (to version 4.0) but beyond that I don't think is going to happen.

This is, of course, speculation, and this is now a fairly long non-answer answer to an unanswerable question.


How can I log the start and stop connection with known WI-FI networks At the end of a week , I would like to see a log for each connection with a (known) WI-FI network I made with my Galaxy phone.

I automatically connect to different networks.

It would be nice to see the time of start/end connection for those networks I am connected to. This would give me an indication for hours spend at each place.

Anyone knows if this is possible ?

I will answer my own question until someone else shows me another application.

I have found the following one in the market : Wifi Monitor.

Time will tell whether it really does what it promises.

Still, if anyone has got some other software which does this, please let me know !

UPDATE

After trying this app for a week now, I can confirm that it works. When I enter/leave buildings with a known WiFi connection, the start and end of the connections are logged. This gives me an easy although crude way of hour-logging.


Partition problem in AOSP build I am compiling the AOSP rom for Nexus 7 flo. After the build is completed, I always end up at this screen "type password to decrypt storage".

The factory images work correctly, and the device works. Also there has never been any password. I could understand that the problem seemed to be with userdata partition, so I flashed everything from the factory images, and then flashed only my own compiled userdata.img. And it works, so I am left clueless as to where the problem could be?

Any ideas?

Edit1:

So after some searching/asking around, it seems this problem can occur if partitions overwrite each other (any of the img files is too big, particularly boot.img). But how can I verify this? Any thoughts on this?

Are you using make -j# otapackage? If so it should result in a ZIP that should flash with no problems.
Also fastboot format all partitions to get rid of the decrypt error.
If the source is untouched, i.e. the ROM compiled is the same as the stock ROM, the images should flash without any such error.


Can I use an Android phone without an Internet access plan? I'm interested in buying an Android phone for Xmas. Currently my pick is LG Optimus One.
I will be using it without any Internet access plan, only using Wifi wherever possible.

Some questions that I have:

Can the phone be usable even if I don't have any Internet access plan, or there will be severe usability issues? (eg: features that will not work)
Do I have offline access to Google Calendar and GMail, auto-synchronizing whenever it detects Wifi connection?
Is there an option to block any attempts from apps/phone to connect to Internet through GPRS/3G (thus slashing my credit from the carrier, since I won't have an Internet plan...)?

Thanks.

YES. You will use it as a regular phone, but will be disconnected from the networks (Facebook, Twitter, IMs, Sync, etc)
YES. You can access your calendar offline. And yes, you can sync when Wi-Fi is available.
Yes, you just disable data traffic.


How to sync gmail sent only by specific contacts? I used to be an email-on-the-phone junkie. Then, I read 4 Hour Work Week, which convinced me to un-sync my email (gmail) from my phone (Samsung S3). I started checking my email once per day on my laptop... then once per week. My productivity skyrocketed, and my stress levels went down. Some weeks, I spend less than 1 hour per week reading and returning email.

After 6 months of not having email on my phone, things are pretty good. But, there are 3 contacts (my wife; my PhD advisor; and a key customer) whose email is actually worth reading in real-time. I'd like to sync email from ONLY these 3 people with my phone.

Here's what I've tried so far:

First idea

Configure Android phone gmail to use me@gmail.com
In me@gmail.com, create a label called "Send to phone"
In me@gmail.com, create a rule to tag wife@gmail and advisor@gmail as "Send to phone."
In me@gmail.com, create a rule to forward all "Send to phone"-labeled messages to me.phone@gmail.com
In the Android gmail app, under Settings > me@gmail.com > Manage labels, I was able to unsync all labels (including Primary, Social, Forums...) except for "Send to phone."

But, it didn't work: emails to my Primary inbox (from people other than wife/advisor/customer) are still syncing to my phone. WTF?!

Second idea

Create a new account called me.phone@gmail.com.
In me@gmail.com, set up a rule that forwards email from wife@gmail.com and advisor@gmail.com to me.phone@gmail.com
Use me.phone@gmail.com on my Android phone

But, it didn't work: I like having the me@gmail.com calendar on my phone. I haven't found a clean way to use the me@gmail calendar but me.phone@gmail email account.

Has anyone done this before?

What else should I try?

Give this a shot. http://www.howtogeek.com/171178/how-to-get-notifications-for-only-the-emails-you-care-about-with-gmail-on-android/

It's not exactly what you want, but it should only notify you when you get an email from those contacts. If this does work for ya. I'll edit my answer and detail how to do this, incase the link goes inactive at some point. Hope this works out for ya.


Cannot rate apps on Google Play I just found out I cannot rate apps on Google play. Any app. And yes, I have them installed. But the rating 5 stars or 'Rate' button are missing.

Am I missing something? Anyone else experiencing the same issue or know why is this happening / How to overcome this?

Quite weird, but looks like this is happening because I'm a G Suite user.
When I switch to a different, regular gmail address user, I can rate my apps again.

Looks like this behavior is rather new and undocumented (started around June 2018).

I found this article: G Suite users can't review or rate Play Store content anymore.
But haven't found any official evidence from Google to support that.


Flash is not working with Firefox on Android Possible Duplicate:
  How do I make Adobe Flash work with Firefox?

I installed Firefox on my android from the market app, then I installed flash from the market app, and Firefox still does not display flash on sites like charlierose.com for example.

Any idea what it is I need to do in order to get flash to work on Firefox?

Current version of Firefox for Android does not support Flash content.  Mozilla developers said that they are working on it, and eventually Flash will work in some future version.  No ETA was given though.


I have to triple tap everything on Galaxy Tab 10.1 I don't know how the settings were changed; my young daughter may have done it. Also, I just got the new update this morning. I have to touch, then double tap every time. Also, there is a yellow line around the screen and everthimg. I've checked all settings I know of, but I can't reverse this.

Sheryl found the answer herself. Quoting her comment:

  I finally found it.. My daughter must have been in the accessibiltiy settings. She had the talk back on. But I didnt realize because she also had turn off all sounds on. I dont know how that makes the tapping weird, but is fixed now.

If one has a similar effect (e.g. red borders shown), and it's not the accessibility settings, another place to look for is the development settings, which also has switches to highlight certain areas for "developer feedback" when testing an app.


recover whatsapp messages (database folder deleted) Problem

I accedently formatted my memory card which had the database folder of whatsapp which had the last backup of my messages .... Now how can I get all my messages back ?? is there an online backup of my messages ?? Is there a way to get the messages back or should I stop searching for solutions since there is no backup in the sd card nor phone ...

I'm sorry for you but that isn't possible. Whatsapp only stores message backups locally. The only things on the Whatsapp servers are messages that hasn't been delivered yet. I.E. Skype doesn't backup messages on their servers and they also don't store messages on it which haven't been delivered yet so the 2 contacts have to be online to receive the message. If one of them isn't the message will never be delivered to the other unless they come back online at the same time. It might be usefull to backup your Whatsapp message backups to the cloud. I.E Google Drive.

Have a nice day,


Force Android to display in grayscale Is there a way to force all of Android to display in monochrome(also known as grayscale)?

I'm working with a someone who has ADHD (and I am mildly ADHD myself). The colors are too much for him/her to handle.

EDIT: Ideally I'm looking to create an easy way to toggle such a setting.

Android 5.0 Lollipop provides this feature by default:

Enable Developer mode (by tapping build number within Settings > About phone multiple times)
Go to Developer Options and turn it on.
Under Hardware accelerated rendering you will see option called Simulate color space, click it and set it to Monochromacy.


Chrome taking up lots of space on my Android device I have an OnePlus 5T running Oxygen 5.1.4 (which is based on Android Oreo 8.1.6). According to the app DiskUsage, Google Chrome is using almost 15 GB of data.

(Click image to enlarge it)

Apart from this insane amount of space (which no app should ever use), I've been trying to figure out a way to backup the data (and remove the data I don't want). But I don't see a way of doing this without unlocking the bootloader and possibly flash the ROM.  I've enabled developer mode, I've tried backing up using the ADB drivers, but Chrome don't seem to let me backup it's app data.

Specifically asking to backup Chrome using adb backup -noapk -f Chrome.ab com.android.chrome only leaves a 1 kB .ab backup file.

But clearly the app data is there – and even DiskUsage can see it – and the device is not rooted.

So to summarize:

1. Is there a way for me to see the app data of installed apps, without having to root the device?

2. Is there a way to backup Chrome, only so that important stuff is backed up (open tabs, the state of each tab, history, saved passwords, browser settings, etc) and neglecting god knows what Chrome uses the space for. I'd imagine these would be stored in SQLite3-databases under /data/data/com.android.chrome/, but as I'm unable to access the files I cannot know for sure.

You might be browsing lots of and possibly media rich websites. To ensure this is the case, go to Settings → Applications →  list your system apps then select Chrome → Storage → Manage Space → delete the irrelevant data.

I once had 5-6 GB of space occupied by Chrome and I selectively cleared the irrelevant data.

As for ADB backup issue, see this Github page.


About Extracting & Replacing files in a Custom ROM Custom ROM's come in as a .zip file. Is it good to extract those and add a few apps like Settings.apk(replacing), MMS.apk (replacing) with the existing one? Doing so and after that compressing it back to a .zip file would work when i try to flash it or not?

Replacing will probably work. However adding or removing files might not, Flashable Zip's need to contain a script which tells them what to do (in this case: installing, moving, copying files) You need to change these scripts to your desire, I don't know much abou that but XDA-Developers has a lot information about it.

Another Problem might be some sort of checksum which verifies integrity. You can make a Nandroid-Backup and test it yourself ;)


Encryption Unsuccessful error I have an Amazon Kindle Fire 2nd Generation (Tate). A few years ago I installed the Pacman KitKat Rom.

Recently I tried installing a few new roms. However I didn't like any of them because they don't have multi user support. So I decided to reinstall the Pacman KitKat Rom.

I have installed everything correctly, but on startup it says:

"Encryption Unsuccessful – Encryption was interrupted and can't complete. As a result, the data on your phone is no longer accessible. To resume using your phone, you need to perform a factory reset. When you set up your phone after the reset, you'll have an opportunity to restore any data that was backed up to your Google account."

It gives the option to reset tablet, but the same error comes up again.

I have tried booting into TeamWin recovery and reinstalling the rom as well as doing a wipe of everything, but the error message persists.

You are doing wipe - though you need to format.
While in TWRP, enter Wipe menu, then select Format Data (type yes and confirm); go back, enter Advanced Wipe and select everything, then Swipe to Wipe.
Reboot to bootloader, then boot recovery, push ROM && install.
This is generally accepted course of action that regular user should do when error in encryption occur(s).