Break SQLcipher by modifying libsqlcipher.so? I was trying to extract data from an Android app which uses SQLcipher. SQLcipher is an extension of SQLite that encrypts database files with 256-bit AES.
Most of the application code is compressed and protected with some sort of anti-reverse-engineering stuff, so no source code and no debuggers. However, the SQLcipher binary lies in lib/libsqlcipher.so. I'm curious if I can extract the encryption key simply by swapping libsqlcipher.so(e.g. modify sqlite3_key function so that it logs the encryption key to file). The plan is to compile my own version of libsqlcipher.so, repack APK, and run it on a device.
Will this method work as expected? It sounds too easy to be true:)

I ended up using Frida to hook sqlite3_key dynamically and got the encryption key. Simple enough.

Brief steps I took:

Setup Frida to connect to your Android device
On the Python end, attach to target app and load JavaScript.

import frida

# Attach to target app
session = frida.get_usb_device().attach("cn.com.company_name.app_name")

# Load Javascript from a separate file.
with open("script.js", "r") as file:
  script = session.create_script(file.read())
  script.load()

# Print any messages that Javascript send back
script.on("message", print)

On the Javascript end, hook into sqlite3_key and read encryption key from memory:

// Locate the SQLCipher library
var sqlcipher = Process.findModuleByName("libsqlcipher.so");

// Locate the `sqlite3_key` function call
var func = sqlcipher.findExportByName("sqlite3_key");

// Hook into it
Interceptor.attach(func, {
    onEnter: function (args) {
        // The encryption key is the second argument to `sqlite3_key`
        var key_ptr = args[1];

        // read 32 bytes worth of data(256-bit key)
        var key = key_ptr.readByteArray(32);

        // And send it back to Python
        send("Got key", key);
    }
});


/system cannot be remounted as RW, even when rooted (Sony Xperia E3) I rooted my Sony Xperia E3 (D2203) a while ago using Kingroot, which worked flawlessly.
Before rooting my device, /system could be accessed, which is how root was installed in the first place.

However after rebooting the phone, I now cannot mount /system as rw, as the kernel mounts it as Read-Only and gives me a Operation not permitted error whenever I try to remount it as rw. Apparently the kernel on Sony devices detects root and mounts /system as Read-Only.

I cannot flash a new recovery as the bootloader is permanently locked.

What can I do to mount /system at startup as rw, or mount /system when the device is online?

A non-destructive method would be great.

Here is the command I'm using to try and mount /system:

mount -o remount,rw /system

Yes, the terminal is in root mode.

Using Total Commander to remount the / directory as RW also remounted /system as RW.

Howto:

Enable Root Functions Everywhere in TC settings.
Proceed to add a new button to the toolbar with Function Type Internal Command.
Press on the >> button, and select the 119 Remount option.
Press OK/Apply
Navigate to root (/) directory.
Press newly created Remount button and accept any prompts.

Edit: I've found that when I'm using Kingroot to manage root, mounting works correctly. When I migrated over to SuperSU however, I could not remount / or /system as RW.
If the above steps don't work for you, Kingroot might be worth a shot.

Another edit: While I do recommend Kingroot as an option to allow access to your /system folder, you should exercise caution with Kingroot, as it is known to gather information about your device. I would save Kingroot to be a last resort, should you cannot find any other method of remounting /system as rw successfully.


App just hangs forever when I try to log into my google account from hangouts via my phone I can log into hangouts from my desktop or laptop. I can log into anything google BUT hangouts from my phone. As soon as I touch the Hangouts icon, it attempts to sign into my valid google account that works fine with everything else. And it never ever does or has.

Talk had no issues of the sort. I've uninstalled/reinstalled, deleted Play Services' data; all the recommended procedures from all the knowledgeable sites, yet nothing has ever changed the inability to sign in only from that one app behavior.

How can I make Hangouts work on my phone?

what worked for me was simply logging out of google and signing back in.
from the apps>google>settings(the three little bars in the corner)>accounts and privacy>sign out. then go back to this setting after restarting the phone and log in.

This worked for me YMMV


How do I translate an application that is protected and cannot be translated by AllTrans Xposed Module? I've been trying to translate this application using AllTrans, yet I don't know how to do it by extracting and recompiling the APK?

Try Google Lens.. it can translate text directly from your screen. Pretty awesome.
Hope it helps


Removing all google data except the play store My main android device is a phone. I recently aquired a tablet which I don't really use for email, calendars, etc. Therefore I want none of that data on the tablet.

I have disabled sync for all entries under my Google account, but the emails/calendars/hangouts which were already synced remain on the device.

How can I remove my emails/calendar entries/hangouts/etc from the device while keeping the play store credentials?

I'm not 100% sure for all apps involved, but for most the "general rule of thumbs" applies:

go to Settings→Apps
select the "All" tab (to also show pre-installed apps)
walk the apps one-by-one, open their entries, and select "Clear Cache" plus "Delete Data"

Especially exclude things like "Google Play Services", but include the "Calendar Provider" and "Contacts Provider" (or similar named entries).

It's a good idea to first make a backup (just in case), and also to keep log of what you cleared. The former in case you hit one app too much, the latter in case you need to perform a factory-reset one day – as after that, sync would be automatically enabled by default, and you can only disable it after having finished the wizard and re-created your account – so all calendars, contacts, etc. would be back.


What else might be causing battery drain on my Android 6.0.1? My Galaxy SC-04F, not rooted, recently upgraded to Android 6. Since then, it runs really hot and the battery drains very fast.

I looked for solutions on the net, and I found two suggestions:

Clear the app cache in Settings -> Storage -> Internal Storage ->Cached data

Rebooting into recovery and clearing the system cache.

I did both of these, and my phone was almost immediately noticeably cooler, and the battery was definitely not draining as fast.

Unfortunately, this only lasted about 24 hours. The next day or so, my phone felt hot again, and the battery was draining fast.

I checked online again, and some people said there was a 6.0.1 update that solved some kind of bug. I checked Settings - About this device, and it says my Android version is 6.0.1 already.

What else can I do to try and get my phone to run normally and not overheat with excessive battery drain?

I seem to have found the answer to my question.

When my phone was hot and losing battery power quickly, I checked Settings -> Battery - Battery Usage, and would see that "Android System" was the #1 power consumer.

I would then go to Settings - Developer Options -> Running Services and look for any services under the name "Android System" and with the same icon. There was only one, so I click on that to see more details and I can see that there is a service called "AtFwdService".

Stopping this service often helped, so it seems to be the power consuming culprit. However, there is one additional step that often seems to be necessary:

After stopping the AtFwdService process, I then us an app called "Smart Manager" which has an option to clear applications out of RAM (there are probably other ways of doing this, this just happens to be the way I've done it). I use "Clear All", because, I have learned that even though the "AtFwdService" doesn't show as an entry, and even after stopping it, it still seems to be in memory somehow.

Once I've cleared the memory, my phone cools down and power consumption slows down to something more normal.


Samsung Galaxy S6: Back button presses by itself On my Samsung Galaxy S6 (Android 6.0.1), sometimes the back button starts firing by itself, hence closing the current app or going back on a page. Other times it's like a ghost press on other parts of the screen, so that e.g. the menu opens by itself. Often this happens in bursts, making the device unusable.

It's a common problem, as seen here:

https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s6/help/s6-pressing-button-self-capacitive-key-t3146253
https://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s6/519860-galaxy-s6-capicitative-back-button-spamming.html
https://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s6/556632-back-button-issue-ghost-pressing-constantly-how-can-i-fix.html
https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/Smartphones-Tablets-Wearables/S6-back-button-self-pressing/td-p/160823
https://forum.xda-developers.com/s7-edge/help/random-screen-presses-button-presses-t3599821

Users report as possible causes:

Device overheating
Use of data connection (perhaps causing #1)
Hardware problem (interference from speakers on the capacitive touchscreen)
Moisture (triggering false contacts on the capacitive touchscreen)

In my case, I've noticed it happening especially when I use the Twitter app, which makes large use of the phone capabilities. Running Smart Manager and closing all running apps sometimes solves the issue, so it might really be #1.

Users suggest possible solution (none of which are working):

Factory reset and/or cache reset
Let device cool down
Disable data and/or WiFi connection
Lower volume speakers to less than 75% (?)
Dial *#2663# and do a TSP FW Update (General)

Anyone found a definitive fix for it?

I've had this happen to me on 2016 (hence the post), then the problem disappeared by itself, now in 2019 it's back, more annoying than ever.

Note: Related to an older Galaxy model: Galaxy S4 back button pressing itself

Had same problem. I did a factory reset which solved nothing, i tried the code which resets touch screen sensortivity.  No joy.  It's hardware. If your phone is under warranty take it back.  My cell was not so took it too local repair shop. They replaced a strip that runs around perimeter of my cell. This strip contains the sensors on the bottom of the cell and the side as well as the charger port.

Problem solved. Hope this helps


Unlocked bootloader "can't" be checked I have a Nexus 6p, and I unlocked it's bootloader. There is a message saying that my phone can't be checked for corruption since the bootloader is unlocked. I am a little confused because when I flashed Paranoid Android, the first time it booted into it, the message said that it was corrupt (so far I don't see anything wrong).

How does it know that my phone is corrupt if it can't check for corruption?

It has to do with dm-verity.  Taken from XDA Developers here:

  The problem (it’s a problem if you like root and modifying devices)
  stems from something I pointed out a long time back, when it first hit
  AOSP – the introduction of dm-verity to Android. Verity is a security
  feature, originally found in ChromeOS, designed to provide assured and
  trustworthy computing devices, preventing malicious software from
  modifying a device. Back in Android 4.4, Google announced verity for
  Android, and then all remained quiet. While there has been some
  research into using verity, for the most part, things have been quiet.
  Until now, that is.

  With Android 6.0, Google has begun to up their game on device
  security. One of the fundamental requirements for this is to prevent
  the software on a device from being modified without a user’s
  knowledge – while many here at XDA take root for granted, imagine a
  user’s device being rooted without their knowledge or consent, and
  root access being used to steal their data. For this reason, Google
  has started to implement verification of the system partition on some
  devices.

To answer your question of "How does it know..."...any changes to the system partition at boot (or when accessed) could cause one of three warning/error messages.


Is there a device that will keep me from losing my Android phone? Recently I lost my phone and have had to order a replacement. It seems that there should be some sort of device I could use that would sound an alarm when I separate more than, say three meters from my phone. Does anyone know of such a device?

I tried searching for a proximity sensor but got only irrelevant stuff about the sensor that detects when the phone is being held up to the ear. It seems that "proximity sensor" is the wrong search term.

There's no easy way to control the mentioned scenario, since you may get away from your phone, leaving behind the device used to alert you.
I've been playing around with an APP, that basically runs a task when a certain action occurs within your phone.
The test I performed, was having my phone playing a really loud sound if my phone gets disconnected from the bluetooth earpiece. It works, I go away from my phone and as soon as the bluetooth gets out of range, the phone starts to play the music. I hear the music and remind myself that my phone was left behind.
Of course that if you use Dragon V2 Bluetooth Headset, it will only get out of range after 100 meters, which is roughly 10 times more distance than a regular Bluetooth earpiece. :)

Tasker
Tasker by Crafty Apps available from Google Play Store (4,49€)
From their website you have a free 14-day trial download.


Paragon app won't mount I have a Galaxy Note 2014 edition. I rooted the device in order to use a NTFS partitioned external HD. I followed all the instructions, used the root checker and everything is fine. When I connect the external drive it is recognized by Paragon but when I click "mount" it just flashes back to the initial screen of the app.
Does anybody have a clue of what is possibly going wrong?
(I've tried other apps such as stickmount, ntfs mounter and none of them worked.

Thanks.

In paragon mount, try changing the mount point when you tap mount. Just make a new folder in the root of your storage space.


Is factory reset neccessary when updating cyanogenMod? I have rooted my phone and have TWRP installed.

I am updating CyanogenMod 11 to 12.

Do I need to do a factory reset/ Clear data partition to proceed or can I do without it?

Yes, it is always recommended to do an factory reset and wipe cache data after every update or change of firmware to avoid problems.

You will lose all your data anyway so right after flash your new firmware, reboot the phone. You don't say your phone so just do as usual do the factory reset wipe cache reboot it again then done wouldn't spend more than 5 minutes.


After flashing TWRP with Odin, nothing happens and the OEM recovery is still there I'm using a Samsung Galaxy S5, and after flashing the TWRP with Odin 3.07 and 3.10 I'm finding that my recovery is still the default. I'm using these instructions exactly.

  Android system Recovery <3e>

It's as if nothing happened, how do I resolve this?

Before you flash the recovery, untick the Auto Reboot option in ODIN. Then flash the recovery. After flashing in done, reboot your device directly to recovery mode from download mode by pressing Vol up + Power + Home button together. Now you will see the TWRP recovery is booted in your device. Now you can reboot normally and your TWRP will be installed.


Device update triggers factory reset and completly locks user out My father made a installed as system update on his huawei gx 10.

After the reboot a message stated that the device was factory reseted and that it was necessary to log in with a google account that synced from this device.

First of all, not factory reset was made. At last not by a local user interaction. I hope all the data is still there and the message is incorrect. Of course my father made no backup. At last not willingly. Maybe some app-data was backuped to his google account, I'm not sure how to check what exactly is there.

I changed the Google accounts password because I assumed somebody remote-wiped it. But now this looks unlikely. It was probably a faulty update.

Second, the authentication does not work. This device only ever used one google account. When attempting to log in there is a message that this account wasn't previously used on this phone. This is false. When logging in to the account from a computer I can see the history of devices that where associated with it. This phone was associated with this account. However the phone lists two devices: "Huawei GX 10" (last activity 22h ago) and "Huawei GX 10 (new)" (last activity 10 min ago). Nobody in my family or my father ever owned a GX 10 besides this one. Maybe this is due to the fact the OS was updated? I don't know what version was running on it previously and don't think i can find out the current version right now. The whole problem would probably a way less serve if google recognized that these two phones are the same.

In summary, I have physical access to the phone and access to the google account, but can't get past android device protection.

Did this happened before? Is there any hope that does not involve desoldering the flash chips?

Called both android and huawei support. Neither of them was helpful. Both insisted that this shouldn't happen, althou the google support said he once had a similar case from a huawei consumer. Both suggested to delete the phone from list of devices in the google account. That didn't work and neither could tell why it didn't and how it could have helped.

Huawei accepted it as a repair case. The phone is still in the warranty period, so i hope for a replacment phone.


How to set AutomateIt to active a task in "AND" or "OR" condition? I want to make my smart phone smarter and I try AutomateIt because it is free. However, I don't know how to make it run a task when the task needs multiple conditions trigger. Thanks

Multiple triggers are supported on AutomateIt Pro:
http://automateitapp.com/index.php/user-guide-2/composite-triggers-actions-pro-version-only/

As of version 3.0.54 (released on Feb 2013), you can unlock Pro features from within the free version.

Read here how to unlock features:
http://automateitapp.com/new-release-rich-notification-unlock-pro-features-and-more/


Volume buttons not working in fastboot mode (LG Leon H320) I'm trying to unlock the bootloader on my LG Leon (running on Android 5.0.1 Lollipop). I've followed SO many online tutorials, and most come down to one and the same problem:
First I create a backup of my phone using adb with

adb backup -apk -shared -all -system -f backupThree.ab

Then, after that's done in about an hour, I do

adb reboot bootloader

After that,

fastboot oem unlock

Up to there, it's all working fine and dandy, but then I get an option on my phone to choose yes or no using the volume buttons.
But whatever button I press, NOTHING happens. Nothing at all.
I understand that the process should be taking a fraction of a second, so I know I'm not just interrupting the process when disconnecting my phone from my computer and reinserting the battery, which is necessary to be able to start my phone again.
An I'm not able to find ANYTHING on this on the internet. Am I the only one?
The only thing I can find online is people that have broken volume buttons, but that's not the case here. Outside of fastboot, they work perfectly fine.

So what's going on?
If anyone could help me, it'd be very much appreciated!

Kind regards,
Kasper

I have almost the identical problem on a Rook phone from EE, which I understand is a carrier-rebranded ZTE Blade III A410. I  found this post by jbdubbs which might offer a fix, but I haven't tried it yet. Quote:

  When booting to fastboot with any sort of USB plugged in, your buttons on the side may not respond. In this case, pull the cable and hold down power + Vol Down until it reboots. The buttons should now respond and you can plug USB back in if you wish.

You can take a look at the original. There are a few other similar bugs described there.


Rooted Galaxy Nexus GSM silently fails to reflash/erase - Unable to wipe and its rebooting continiously I have been struggling for a week. Searching all though the internet.

My Galaxy Nexus has suddenly stopped working. It is continuously rebooting.

Its rooted but has stock rom 4.3.

My problem is, I thought of wipe everything and do a fresh flash and I started with fastboot commands.

So I ran all the commands below:

fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-maguro-primelc04.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader

fastboot flash radio radio-maguro-i9250xxlj1.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader

Both went well with out errors and OKAY for all erasing, sending and writing.

This was taking endless time.

fastboot -w update image-yakju-jwr66y.zip

So, I disconnected. And now:

I am unable to Flash or wipe partitions or even a single file (from fastboot or recovery screens - wherever applicable)!!!

I am not able to erase and do a fresh install. The height of the situation is when recovery is falking me showing that the files and folders are deleted, but after a reboot all files and folders which I just deleted are coming up in list!

Moreever, when I do a ./fastboot oem lock (the bootloader screen shows that the lock status is locked) and do a reboot, the lock status again turns UNLOCKED!

I tried to flash the latest TWRP.

fastboot flash recovery openrecovery-twrp-2.7.0.0-maguro.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader

Its showing successs. But when I run it after reboot, its my earlier version 2.6 of twrp shows up!

I am not sure what is causing this! but please help me recover my device.

So after searching lots of forum, chatting with experts in XDA, I found out that:

  Samsung used a cheap substandard emmc.

I have tried everything from adb, Odin to jtag. The emmc just died,no way to fix it.

First there was this awful lag issue : Galaxy Nexus GSM bad eMMC chip type V3U00M phone is almost unusable

Later within 2 years, emmc will die and you will stuck with bootloop issue :
Galaxy Nexus GT-I9250 with hardlocked NAND ?!? need help !
Galaxy Nexus S (i9250) stuck in reboot loop - gets to OS loading and restarts

Almost all of us with V3U00M chip and other defective mmc chips would have now got there emmc fried.

  What to say, on my side I'm blacklisting Samsung, this phone has been a joke for me since the beginning (the fstrim bug has been a nightmare), if you dare you can try to replace the board.


How do I access an attached thumb drive? I've attached an external drive to my phone using a USB-OTG cable. I can open it in File Manager (v2.0.0), but when I go to /storage/usbdisk none of my files show up, and if I try to create a file it complains about needing elevated permissions. I've read online that I need to enable root access mode in File Manager's general settings, but there is no such setting on my device.

It turns out you have to enable "Superuser" mode in CM's settings app if it's disabled. I was only able to get to this setting by searching for it - I couldn't find it anywhere in the menu tree. Android normally restricts apps to only access their own special sub-folders on an attached flash drive, so File Manager needs special permissions to access everything.


"Check Your Connection And Try Again" repeated toasts For about a month and a half my Nexus 6P (running Android Marshmallow 6.0.1) has at random times shown a toast of "Check your connection and try again". This toast shows up no matter what app I am in, maybe two or three times a day, usually; so far today, however, my phone has given me this toast maybe 15 times.
When it shows up, I am usually actually connected to WiFi or Cellular (the issue has occurred on multiple wifi networks and multiple carriers), and loading a webpage immediately before/after it pops up invariably works. Here's what the toast looks like:

When it happens more The issue occurs more frequently (but not at all exclusively) when:

I'm downloading/updating an app from the Play Store
Uploading a photo from my device to Google Photos
I've just restarted my phone
I've just awakened my phone from sleep
My phone turns on after having been turned off with the Google App in the foreground (i.e. when the Google App is on the screen when the phone turns on)

Not actually a duplicate This question may appear to have been asked before, but those questions are about when the toast shows up in the Play Store app; I have nonetheless followed answers' instructions from those questions (instructions like clearing Play Store cache), but to no avail.
These toasts are annoying and I'd like to determine the source. Could it be an app? The Play Store? Google Photos? Or a system prompt?
What I've tried so far

Restarting phone
Switching WiFi networks, switching to Cellular
Clearing Play Store cache
Toggling Hotspot/Tethering on/off
Toggling Airplane Mode on/off

Phone Specs
Nexus 6P, Android 6.0.1, not rooted, has Project Fi as carrier (used to be on AT&T, issue occurred then too)
Edit: One other solution to a similar question mentions the Freedom app, but I don't have that installed.

Based on your assertion that your issue is not Play Store-related, I believe it is a malfunctioning app.

The Toaster app will help you track down the source of these "toast " notifications.

The app description reads:

  Records every toast message including the sender package. May be helpful if you get messages and don't know which app sends it.

Update: As confirmed by OP, the Toaster app worked and the app responsible for the repeated notifications (as determined by Toaster) is NYTVR, the VR app of New York Times. Interestingly, there is one  user review there which complains of the same problem faced by you!

Update 2: I tried downloading the NYTVR app to see if the same problem would arise (I am also on same OS, though I have a Moto X Play); however, I did not encounter any such notifications, which makes me think that this may not be purely OS-related, but rather a general bug in the NYTVR app that only occurs on certain devices.

If Toaster indicates that a certain app is sending the notification, make sure that app is updated and has settings set in a standard way. If you can't stop the notifications, contact the developer of the app or uninstall it.

Hope this helps!


disable music button How can I disable the hardware music button on the side of my LG GW620?  I keep accidently triggering it in my pocket, causing random bursts of Foo Fighters when I sit down in a meeting.

Just disabling it while the screen is locked would be best, but completely disabling it would be better than nothing.

My GW620 has been upgraded to android 2.2 (Froyo) using the the OpenEtna firmware.  Prior to this I don't think the music button did anything at all.

You can try Button Remapper, but I am not 100% sure if your device is supported. if its not, you could contact the dev and see if he can add support, he recently added support for the Galaxy S devices.

Edit
Actually, from looking at that thread, it may be supported already. I see there are "media" actions that can be changed...


Does the Android OS provide any overheating protection? Apple iOS devices display the following warning and suspend operation should they overheat:

  Temperature

  [iDevice] needs to cool down before you can use it.

Does the Android OS contain similar functionality?

(For reference, I'm using a Nexus 7, running stock Android 4.2.2 without root or unlocked bootloader.  However, this question is intended to be device-agnostic.  I have not experienced any overheating—the tablet does get warm under load but by no means excessively so.  I'm just wondering if any protection exists at the system software level in stock Android.)

Within the BatteryManager documentation for Android there is a constant that can be used to check against that is named BATTERY_HEALTH_OVERHEAT. This would lead me to assume that there is a check that the OS does against this value, though I have never personally experienced a warning like this. I did on my old iPad, but being a recent Android convert I haven't had the time to find out about this just yet.


Samsung Galaxy Tab 7" Plus -- adb drivers I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab 7" Plus tablet on my hands, and I am trying to test my "large" scale layouts. The device shows up in harddrive mode on my computer (Win XP), but adb does not recognize it as a device (Note: it doesn't show ??????, it doesn't appear at all). I also tried using Samsung "Kies"- no success. It doesn't even recognize that the device is attached.

As a first step, I do have debugging mode enabled under developer settings.

Am I missing some drivers for the tablet? I checked here, but no drivers are offered- just Kies. Any help is welcomed, thanks!

Note: If running "adb devices" shows your device as ??????? kill & restart the server as described here. This is a separate issue.

The current best, known solution is to use "adbWireless" to connect the device with one's computer over a network. Be careful to connect both devices to the same network.

If you do not have access to a wireless network, the .apk can be transferred in harddrive mode after exporting the project from eclipse. However, this route does not allow use of adb for logging, debug mode, or any other tools. (See application "aLogcat" if logcat logs are wanted)

If anyone finds other solutions, please edit this answer.


Is there any way to watch Showtime shows on Samsung Gear VR? Last night the revival of the TV show Twin Peaks started airing on the premium cable TV network Showtime.  I'm a Comcast cable customer who's subscribed to Showtime, and I would like to watch Twin Peaks in my Samsung Gear VR headset.  So my question is, is there any way to watch Showtimes shows using Samsung Gear VR?

As you can see in this web page, Showtime allows for streaming of their shows through a variety of devices and services, including through Android phones using their mobile app.  But they don't have a Gear VR app on the Oculus Store.

But is there still some way of watching their shows through Gear VR?  For instance, can it be done through a web browser (either the Samsung Internet VR Browser or the Oculus Browser)? I know that from a computer, you can stream Showtime shows via showtime.com, but when I try to visit showtime.com on my phone it redirects me to a page that links to their mobile app.

One idea is to use a Plex account to play the video from the web interface you can access from Oculus Browser or Samsung Internet (it also seems to be supported by PhoneCast).
Then can try to use this client whose Github page claims to be working with TV shows.
I have not tried it (neither Showtime), so I cannot guarantee anything, but you might want to try this solution.


Is my phone listening to me? I've recently received a Nexus 5, which touts very tight Google Now integration. This weekend I've been visiting my parents. We had a discussion about a local restaurant which they went to last night. I just flicked over to Google Now and it's got a card about that restaurant, and only that restaurant. (we're in a big town, there are many restaurants, and it's by no means the nearest. I've never been there before). Is this a crazy coincidence or is Google Now listening to me?

We've had nothing mention of the restaurant in email's or texts, only a face to face conversation this afternoon while I had my phone out (but not explicitly listening).

It is possible that maybe your parents  (or your friends) searched for it, or +1d it, or checked into it, and they are in your Circles! Google regularly gives you suggestions based on what people in your Circles like.

Take a look at http://www.google.com/policies/terms/changes/

  Feedback from people you know can save you time and improve results
  for you and your friends across all Google services, including Search,
  Maps, Play and in advertising. For example, your friends might see
  that you rated an album 4 stars on the band’s Google Play page. And
  the +1 you gave your favorite local bakery could be included in an ad
  that the bakery runs through Google. We call these recommendations
  shared endorsements and you can learn more about them here.

Hope I helped!


Samsung Galaxy Discover SCH-R740C running 4.0.4 fails the JB 4.1 update Our service provider cricket has now released the 4.1 JB update. My friend and I have the same phone, and got the message to update at the same time. His went thru no issue – but mine downloads, starts installing, and then my poor little Droid falls over with an "E sig Verification fail" – and stops the install.

I've downloaded the zip and tried to do from the recovery, and same thing. Is there a way to bypass/shut off this evil thing?

and im running everything stock!!!! NO ROOTS OR FANCY SMANCHY ROMS OR RECOVERYS

Doing some searches to try and help some losts souls with this little phone, there is a download available on several other forums that will update this phone via Odin tar files to a 'stock' 4.1.2 firmware, it's a tool release directly from Samsung and it's available on their website.

XDA Developer thread for CWM on the SCH-R740c

Samsung download page for upgrade utility


Can I permanently disable the cell/radio of my phone? My wife got a new phone with a new service, so I get to have her old phone to play around with.

Since the old phone no longer has cell phone service, I want to completely disable the cell phone or radio portion of the phone so that it doesn't eat up battery. This is a CDMA phone, so there's no SIM card I can just take out.

Enabling Airplane mode works just fine, except that also turns of WIFI, which I have to manually turn on. And if I reboot, the phone stays in Airplane mode, but it turns WIFI back off.

Is there a way to modify the phone to turn off the cell portion completely and permanently, at least to be able to withstand a reboot (not necessarily a factory reset)?

Looks like someone already figured this out and made a script using Script Manager that runs the script on boot. It turns the radio (cell) off, just the same as activating airplane mode, except that it leaves all other wireless settings alone (that is, bluetooth, wifi, etc).

Or you can install a flashable zip described in this forum that you load in recovery mode.

  Removes unnecessary apps (Messaging.apk, Phone.apk, TelephonyProvider.apk, Mms.apk, TelocationProvider.apk)
  Completely turns off cell radio on bootup
  Installs the radiooptions binary in case your ROM does not include it
  Prevents emergency calls and 911 calls (good for giving your kids your old phone to play with)


How to solve a softkey error? I was on CM9 Alpha 14 for few months, suddenly my phone's softkeys stopped working and then the touchscreen stopped responding. On factory reset the device worked smoother than ever before, with everything working in proper condition for few hours. I installed stock rom xxkpe first and then now I'm on DDMF1, have rooted it. For a while it also worked fine, now touch screen is working extremely well, but softkeys(back and Option/menu) keys are not responding. Checked with key debug in recovery mode. It does not respond. Other stuffs are working fine.

Is it the touchpad? I feel like software error as it worked for a while after installing ROM. Any solutions?

Did you do a full wipe before installing DDMF1 ? If not, then there is your problem. You must always do a full wipe when you switch roms ! (Exceptions are when you switch a Cyanogenmod-based rom to another Cyanogenmod-based rom)


How can see Google Now flights cards on my LG G2? How can see flights cards on my LG G2? I have Google Search, Google Now Launcher and G+ as well. I was looking at this article on how to activate flight search,  but I don't see these settings on my G2.

Can anyone help?

If you've already activated the Fligth's card, then you only have to do a simple search on google.
You WON'T have a card that let's you search for flights. Instead you'll have a card that remembers you of all the flights you searched.
For example: if I search a flight with Emirates that goes from Milan to Dubai, then Google Now will keep track of all the flight's info. After I make the search and close the browser, in Google Now there'll be a card that tells me if there are delays, the airport of departure and the airport of arrival and all the other info.
Long story short: there ISN'T a Flights SEARCH card in Google Now; there is a Flights Card and that's different ;)

P.S.: if my answer helped you could you accept it? :)


HP TouchPad: After reinstalling CM9, one app refuses to re-install at all, and I cannot move apps to the internal SD card The app in question is Viral Floating Youtube Popup (a really awesome app, try it).
The notification bar says "Couldn't install on USB storage or SD card".
Here's my relevant ADB log output as it finishes downloading and attempts to re-install:

D/Finsky  ( 5512): [1] DownloadQueueImpl.onComplete: com.Mata.YTplayer: onComplete
D/Finsky  ( 5512): [1] DownloadQueueImpl.remove: Download com.Mata.YTplayer removed from DownloadQueue
I/installd(  164): free_cache(0) avail 1346953216
D/dalvikvm(  249): GC_EXPLICIT freed 861K, 57% free 6745K/15559K, paused 3ms+9ms
W/ActivityManager(  249): No content provider found for permission revoke: file:///data/data/com.android.providers.downloads/cache/downloadfile-3.apk
D/VoldCmdListener(  153): asec list
I/PackageHelper(10147): Size of container 8 MB
D/VoldCmdListener(  153): asec create smdl2tmp1 8 fat {} 10041
E/logwrapper(17534): executing /system/bin/newfs_msdos failed: No such file or directory
I/logwrapper(  153): /system/bin/newfs_msdos terminated by exit(255)
E/Vold    (  153): Format failed (unknown exit code 255)
E/Vold    (  153): ASEC FAT format failed (I/O error)
E/PackageHelper(10147): Failed to create secure container smdl2tmp1
E/DefContainer(10147): Failed to create container smdl2tmp1
W/ActivityManager(  249): No content provider found for permission revoke: file:///data/data/com.android.providers.downloads/cache/downloadfile-3.apk
D/dalvikvm(  249): GC_EXPLICIT freed 125K, 57% free 6739K/15559K, paused 3ms+8ms
D/Finsky  ( 5512): [265] 1.packageInstalled: Package install status for "null" is -18
D/Finsky  ( 5512): [1] InstallerTask.cancelCleanup: Cancel running installation of com.Mata.YTplayer

Error "-18" (see the previous-to-last line of your log) is a typical app2sd error. Trouble is, there were remains from a previous install left on the SDCard, and now the package manager cannot create a file with a name already existing. There are two possible approaches:

if the app is already installed, and you're trying to update: Move it back to "internal storage" (e.g. via Settings→Apps, scroll to the app, open it's entry, and use the corresponding button). Then try to update again. Once succeeded, optionall move the app back to SDCard
otherwise: attach the card to your PC using a card reader (or, if you have root access, use a file-manager with root support, e.g. ES File Explorer; without root, Android will hide the folder you need to access). In the root of the card, you should find a folder named .android_secure (note the leading dot!). Navigate into it. Watch out for a file named smdl2tmp1.asec (see the corresponding error message: Failed to create container smdl2tmp1), and remove it. If you had used a cardreader attached to your PC: unmount the card safely, and put it back to your device. Try installing the app again, it should work now.

Reading the log again, it looks like the cause was a little different here: executing /system/bin/newfs_msdos failed: No such file or directory is where the trouble starts. The system was unable to create a "handler" to deal with the FAT file system on the SDCard, thus could not access it (ASEC FAT format failed (I/O error)), and then couldn't deal with the "smdl2tmp1" container because of that. In short: It looks like there's a binary missing (or it's there but lacks the appropriate permissions).


j5 cant open after updating to marshemallow j5 cant open after updating to marshemallow and it display the word (samsung) in the screen for 20 hours without opening

tried restarting and removed the battery and the same happens

It mostly happens when an incompatible ROM or KERNEL is installed on the phone. It is known as boot-loop, the phone never leaves the booting screen. To fix this issue in most cases, you have to change to a different ROM or KERNEL.
In your case it is the problem with the ROM as you mentioned that you updated to Marshmallow. It happens mostly when you try to update it yourself and not from OTA updates, if you really did update it yourself just flash a different ROM insuring that ROM is compatible with your device model.


Is it possible to add 5GHz wifi capability to a Samsung A3 2016 through a dongle? Question in title.

I have a drone I need to test which requires a 5GHz connection.

If it's possible to add 5GHz wifi capability through a dongle then I want to give it a go.

No. It's not possible

Your device doesn't support dual band (802.11 a or ac not supported) and adding OTG dongle that supports dual band isn't going to help. As an analogy, your service provider may provide WiFi but if your router ( like the older ones) doesn't support 5Ghz you can't use it in upper band


How to solve: "Failed to push selection: Out of memory" I Create an article in Stack overflow. But as I found this site, I decide to ask the same question here, because I still need your help.

I have made the following steps:

Launch Eclipse
Go To: Window -> Open Perspective -> Other ...
Select DDMS from the opened dialog
Select "File explorer" tab.
Press "Push a file onto the device" and select library which I wish to push.

  Failed to push selection: Read-only file system

Minimize all opened windows and open Command Line
Write: cd C:\android\android-sdk-windows\platform-tools enter
Write: abd remount enter

  You will see remount successful

Maximize Eclipse and try step 5.

  Failed to push selection: Out of memory

Error appears! What to do to solve this problem ... Please help.

ADDED

1) When I write ADB SHELL MOUNT:

rootfs / rootfs ro 0 0
tmpfs /dev tmpfs rw,mode=755 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,mode=600 0 0
proc /proc proc rw 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs rw 0 0
none /acct cgroup rw,cpuacct 0 0
tmpfs /mnt/asec tmpfs rw,mode=755,gid=1000 0 0
tmpfs /mnt/obb tmpfs rw,mode=755,gid=1000 0 0
none /dev/cpuctl cgroup rw,cpu 0 0
/dev/block/mtdblock0 /system yaffs2 rw 0 0
/dev/block/mtdblock1 /data yaffs2 rw,nosuid,nodev 0 0
/dev/block/vold/179:0 /mnt/sdcard vfat rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,uid=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0702,dmask=0702,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0
/dev/block/vold/179:0 /mnt/secure/asec vfat rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,uid=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0702,dmask=0702,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0
tmpfs /mnt/sdcard/.android_secure tmpfs ro,size=0k,mode=000 0 0

2 ) Shel Prompt starts with: #

Launch the emulator from the command line so that you can specify a /system partition size using the -partition-size <MB> option. For example, I use this to launch an emulator running Android 1.6 with a /system partition of 512 MB:

emulator -avd Donut -partition-size 512

...where "Donut" is whatever you named your AVD (you can check in Eclipse's AVD manager if you need to). The emulator binary should be in your tools/ directory within your SDK install, which for you appears to be C:\android\android-sdk-windows\tools, so be sure you cd into that directory first (or add it to your system's %Path%).

Eclipse may not pick up the emulator right away, or it may recognize it and then drop the connection. If either of those happens, click the view menu on the Devices tab (the little arrow next to the minimize button) and select "Reset adb" to get the connection back.

Once it shows up in your devices, do what you were trying to do earlier. Run adb remount to get the /system partition in read-write mode, then use Eclipse to push the file wherever you want. I tested with a couple of random files a minute ago and was able to push them to /system/xbin without any trouble.

For reference, here's the partition size and use of /system on my Donut emulator when I specify a 512 MB partition:

> adb shell df
...
/system: 508416K total, 61332K used, 447084K available (block size 4096)
...

But here's how it looks if I launch without specifying a size:

> adb shell df
...
/system: 65536K total, 61204K used, 4332K available (block size 4096)
...

Additionally, you can set command line options in your application's run configuration via Eclipse if you want to. Go into your Java perspective, then select Run->Run Configurations from the menu bar. Select your application in the left pane, and then pick the "Target" tab. At the bottom is a text box labeled "Additional Emulator Command Line Options", and you can add -partition-size <MBs> to that text box so that the emulator launched when you run your application will have a larger /system partition.

Note: You may have to add also -no-snapstorage or other options, to disable loading the existing snaphot, to the command line. It did not work without it for me.


Allowing SSH connection to Android Devices with Droidwall installed I've installed SSHDroid and Droidwall on my Android device. I know that SSHDroid won't work if Droidwall is enabled. Is there's anyway to list SSH connection in Droidwall whitelist? So, I can connect to my Android device via SSH.

>> AFWall+
>> Filter for " (root) - Applications running as root
>> Enable LAN

This can work with default Port# 22


Why is WiFi on 100% of the time, even though Extended Standby Mode is enabled? My Sony Xperia S has an Extended Standby Mode which states that WiFi and mobile data are disabled after a time when the screen is off.

However, sometimes this stops working and the battery starts falling quickly, and BetterBatteryStats shows that WiFi was on 100% of the time for the last 22 hours. Usually after I reboot the phone it starts behaving normally.

This is the explanation text for the Extended Standby Mode:

And I know for sure that I don't have any downloads or uploads running.

What is happening here? How do I make sure that Extended Standby Mode really works?

Go to settings --> wifi
Press menu key or 3 dots
Tap on advanced
Untick always scanning option.
And wifi will stay down when off


twrp crashes while trying to backup files Can someone help me with a crashing TWRP backup. I am using twrp 2.8.6.0

I have installed TWRP recovery for Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos gt-I9082, but it keeps failing and rebooting to the phone in the middle of 22% of the backup.

I am running Jellybean 4.2.2 Stock Samsung Android dist.

Has anyone ever faced this problem ?

Can anyone help ?

Somewhere you have a lot of files. Look at the process of creating a backup and pay attention to which folder the process lasts the longest. For me this folder was SuperSU logs folder in which there were thousands of files. When I deleted them my problem was solved (twrp 2.8.7.0).


Is it possible to access another partition from recovery partition using command line? Here's a situation: I've got Meizu 5 pro flashed with Flyme 6 which I flashed using TWRP recovery. I made few tweaks of the partitions (deleting and recreating and renaming) and then I wiped data.

Now the phone boots but as soon as it hits main interface I get error saying "internal storage is running out the process has been stopped" then it reboots and starts over, hits the message, reboots, starts over .... stays in this loop.

I still have access to:

Meizu's recovery mode (which is kinda useless if I can't access root directory)
locked fastboot mode (also little bit useless if it's locked)
recovery partition through USB

I also have MRT dongle for repairing Chinese phones but it doesn't seem to work unless the phone boots fully into Android.

What I can do about this ? Any help much appreciated.

The answer is no. The partition will show up as a root directory in command line interface. The same goes when trying to browse the partition with Python.


How can schedule an event that doesn't start on 00, 15, 30, or 45 on Microsoft Outlook for Android? How can schedule an event that doesn't start on 00, 15, 30, or 45 on Microsoft Outlook for Android?

For example, I would like to schedule an event that starts at 14:08, but when I drag and drop the event, the start is always on 00, 15, 30, or 45:

On your screenshot, the top row of "choose time" go to the far right. You will see up and down arrows with 00:00 in between. Select that and you then will be able to enter a specific time.


How can I unlock a pattern lock if my screen is defunct? I have damaged the screen on my phone, so much so, it will not allow me to get the data to transfer onto my laptop. On opening Samsung Kies, it is saying that the connected device is locked. Please enter password on the connected device. I can only assume its the pattern lock they are referring to as I have managed to unlock the sim.

As I am unable to do this due to the screen being cracked, I wondered whether there is any other way of doing this, before sending the same onto my insurance company, as they are saying that I will lose all the data! Cant see why seeing as its just the hardware that is damaged and not the software.

YES That worked for me!!!

I've broken my screen, and after removing the SIM to another phone, the avast alarm starts louder every time I turn on.

Connect USB
Open KIES
Let the KIES waiting the screen unlock
Log in @ http://findmymobile.samsung.com/
Ensure choose the correct device, unlock the screen.
Done!!!!!

I did without the SIM card


Google Latitude update every 1 hour my question is it possible to configure Google Latitude on a Android OS phone to update its location more often then every hour? for example, every 30 minutes? or every 15 minutes? I check where my wife is located while I'm at work by opening the latitude website, but it updates her location only every 1 hour. I would be very happy to make it update more often. Thank you for your time.

If you didn't try this already Latitude has a "Real-time updating" feature since Maps 4.6.

To enable this: click on the person you want real-time updates from, on their Latitude profile you should see an option to get "Real-time updating".  Click that and you'll get another dialog asking how long you want the real-time update (15, 30, or 60 min).  When you go back to the map that that person will be orange instead of blue now.


Play Store not registering my phone after root I rooted my phone and after that for the 1st time, as I was just checking out stuff, Google Play recognized my device and registered it.

Later I did a factory reset and now for some reason it is not registering my phone and I cannot download anything!

Entering the "My apps" section only lists the installed apps. No update options, no all apps section!

What happened? Now what should I do?

Update to latest Play Store.

Clear Play Store app's Data and Cache.

Reboot your phone. They check whether problem exists or not.


Why can't I download anything on my ZTE reef all of a sudden? I just bought this phone on eBay and got it on Saturday. I downloaded games, music, ringtones etc. from play store on Saturday & yesterday. Now today when I try again to download it says couldn't install on usb or sd card.

Did I mark or unmark something somewhere that could have caused this to happen or is it an internal phone problem? I'm completely dumb when it comes to phones & technology. I have no idea what almost everything on the phone means!!!

As suggested in the Android Central forum post follow the workaround to solve the issue,

Temporary Workaround:

Goto Settings-> Storage -> Unmount SD Card.
Now install the app from the Playstore.
Settings -> Storage -> Mount SD Card and start using the app.

The above steps solved the issue for many while this is not an actual fix it should solve the problem temporarily for installing an app.

As explained in this blog post the actual problem and has a fix for that,

Actual Fix:

The problem is caused by a temporary file called smdl2tmp1.asec that is used during some installations (I think of apps that are movable to SD) but does not get deleted for some reason, most notably when you run out of space. Because of this, the system can't create it and treats it as an error, rather than figuring out that it's stale and simply deleting it.

The solution is go and delete smdl2tmp1.asec yourself. From what I can tell, it could reside in two locations:

/sdcard/.android_secure - this is an invisible folder on your SD card, which you can access with any file manager, like ASTRO File manager.
/mnt/secure/asec/ - access to this folder requires root and a program like Root Explorer

Look for smdl2tmp1.asec in these folders and delete any ones you see. Since it's just a temporary file deleting it seems to be a safe enough operation. Once you've done that, all the update problems should go away.


Text to speech: Unable to switch to UK English My phone (Fairphone) does not have the 'English (UK)' locale, only the US one. I recently discovered how to download custom voices for Google text-to-speech ('Install voice data' from settings) and have downloaded a UK English voice to replace the default American voice, which I find incredibly irritating (sorry, Americans!).
Unfortunately, even though I have downloaded the voice data, I still seem unable to switch to the new voice, as 'English (UK)' is still not an option when visiting TTS's 'Language' menu. Am I missing something here? How do I make my phone speak to me in my native language? (My Android version is 4.2.2)

Here's what worked on my US-based xperia:

Settings > language & input > language (select English (UK))
Then back to language & input > text-to-speech output  > select google-text-to-speech engine then click on the settings icon next to it > language > english (UK)

Any luck? The key for me was to set the language first.


My phone is stuck on booting loop I have a Samsung Galaxy Young. Yesterday it suddenly switched off and is turning on but stuck on a lopp. I can not boot into recovery mode it has stuck in some kind of loop. Please help me I have tried flashing the stock ROM but it does not help. Even when I plugin the charger it shows same loop. This is a video of the loop I have recorded:

Video

My phone is samsung galaxy young GT-S6312. It is running on android 4.1.2 Jellybean.
Please somebody tell me what is the problem and what probably is the solution.

It looks like your bootloader or recovery has been messed up. Were you trying to flash anything while this happened?
Best way to fix this is to get the phone in "Download Mode," then flash a new bootloader or recovery. To enter into download mode, press and hold the volume down, home and power buttons together until you enter the download mode. From there, you can flash a new recovery image over. Make sure the recovery image is specific to your phone model.


Unable to delete old calendars from Microsoft Outlook Android App Software:

Microsoft Outlook App on Android
Microsoft Outlook for Windows, version 2007

I currently have a work account which I have synced with my Android, and for some reason, all of the calendars I've ever accepted on my work's account (and deleted on my desktop) are still showing up on my Outlook App on my Android.

Aside from being annoying (given that all their respective reminders are still popping up), I have on many occasions accidentally added a new reminder onto an old calendar which, if isn't a "shown" calendar, ends up hidden and I never know about it.

I found this discussion helpful:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook_com/forum/osettings-ocalset/deleted-calendar-showing-up-in-ios-outlook-app/2812d42a-4bdd-464c-9077-b1517d6f665c

What worked in my case was:

1.deleting both outlook account from account settings AND outlook app

creating microsoft exchange account according to instructions from the link above
installing once again outlook app, but this time using not outlook settings but Microsoft Exchange settings


Turn off Yahoo News notifications without turning off email notifications I just recently downloaded the Yahoo app to get my email on, and I am constantly getting notifications from Yahoo News. I want to turn off the news notifications but not the mail notifications.

I turned off all notifications, but I get time-sensitive email messages and I am missing a lot of deadlines with the notifications off, so I turned it back on.

But now I'm killing my battery because I am constantly having to check my phone because I never know if it's an email or news that I don't care about.

Can this be done?

The news notification can be set inside the Yahoo Mail app itself.

Open the left navigation drawer (e.g. by swiping from left to right, or tapping the "hamburger" icon on the top-left)
Tap Settings at the bottom
Under General, select Notifications
Under News notification settings, tap Enable notifications to switch it off/on


Bricked (Hard?) Android I5510 recovery I was attempting to install ClockworkMod and CynogenMod10 for my phone using odin.

I followed the steps listed here

http://nguyenkieuhung1984.blogspot.in/2012/02/odin-how-to-upgrade-samsung-galaxy-551_01.html

And used 5.0.2.6_CWM_recovery_Gingerbread_willing.tar
(Admittedly this was stupid since my phone was running froyo, But I wasn't able to find the froyo build for this, the links are all dead.)

And now I think I'm hard-bricked. Neither adb, nor odin, nor Linux can see/recognize the device.

I've already tried a list of things
 - power+home+Volume-up (Nothing happens, flashes at the samsung screen and stays there)
 - Power+W (Takes me to little kernel mode, still no detection by any of the tools)
 - Power+T (same result as power+Home+Vol-up)
 - Power+Q (")
 - Power+A (")

Any Idea what can be done here?
I'm absolutely running out of ideas about what to do.
Any help is appreciated.

turn it off and then, when you are turning it on press power + q in same time.


Forward SMS messages to Telegram I'd like to read my SMS messages without picking up my phone when I work on a laptop.
Telegram has a lot of handy bots for different things.
Is it possible to forward SMS messages to Telegram bot?

You can forward new SMS messages to Telegram bot.
Look at https://smsq.me


MMS and Restricting background data Using GT-I9300, JB 4.1.2.

I can't seem to find details on how "Restricting background data" works (with Mobile Data enabled) exactly.

What is considered "background" data?
E.g., if I'm sending an MMS and the phone goes to sleep, will the MMS be sent? If I'm sending an MMS and press the Home button, will the MMS be sent?
Do I need to have the Messaging app open all the time for it to be sent? Is it okay, if I'm looking at the settings of the said app?

I've asked questions pertaining to MMS, but I'm also wondering about the general case.

Background data is anything that involves mobile data or Wi-Fi; it will use whichever is enabled (I think Wi-Fi has higher preference). This includes autosync, background polling, notifications, and other similar operations that will access mobile data.

Assuming you don't have any task / data killer that runs in the background when your phone sleeps, the MMS will be sent You do not need to have the Messaging app open. However, if the sending fails (after a certain number of retries), it will fail and you will have to resend it manually.

Update #1: Autosync depends on background data. If background data is disabled, autosync is also disabled. Autosync is used by accounts defined in settings (In S4, System Settings > Accounts).

BUT it's also possible to have background data enabled, and autosync disabled. In this case, apps could poll and show notifications (e.g. Twitter).


3 storage locations? i have a boost maxx, I get the insufficient storage error.  I noticed when I looked at the storage  that there are 3 storage locations, i'm confused shouldn't there only be internal and external storage?  my phone shows internal storage, total space 1.49 available 233mb, then it shows phone storage total space 4.08 available 3.82 and then my sd card.  is this normal?

I'm guessing you've got a 8gb phone (out of the box you get available 5.5gb).
Out of this 5.5gb it is partitioned into 1.5gb( / root ) and 4gb (internal storage sdcard0 )
/ Root storage is where apps you install is stored.
Internal storage is where appdata and gamedata is stored
You can also keep your files here.
Third location is sdcard1 or external sdcard

You can learn more about it here


A non-cloud local calendar for Android? Is there any way to have and use a local calendar on Android?

I would like to use it on the Android phone and open the file (vcs, ics, anything) on my laptop sometimes.

I have not found any applications that deal with local calendar files stored on the SD-card of the phone. I have found only numerous cloud applications so far.

Is there any app that can open and edit local calendar files on Android?

Etar - Open source calendar app is what we needed.
See its source at GitHub.


Jabiru disconnects/reconnects every 10-15 minutes when inactive I'm not an Android user, but I have an Android user as a contact in my XMPP roster (instant messaging). I noticed that his presence switches from "Away" to "Offline" rotatory when his smartphone is not in use (but constantly connected to his private WLAN).

See for example the following status changes for his account from tonight (while he was sleeping, so no activity with the phone):

[00:05:13] Status: Offline
[00:06:02] Status: Away: AutoStatus (idle)
[00:18:14] Status: Offline
[00:21:17] Status: Away: AutoStatus (idle)
[00:35:15] Status: Offline
[00:36:32] Status: Away: AutoStatus (idle)
[00:50:47] Status: Offline
[00:51:52] Status: Away: AutoStatus (idle)
[01:00:08] Status: Offline
[01:01:14] Status: Away: AutoStatus (idle)
[01:15:13] Status: Offline
[01:16:31] Status: Away: AutoStatus (idle)
[01:25:13] Status: Offline
[01:25:44] Status: Away: AutoStatus (idle)
[01:40:13] Status: Offline
[01:41:00] Status: Away: AutoStatus (idle)
[01:49:14] Status: Offline
[01:50:14] Status: Away: AutoStatus (idle)
[02:15:17] Status: Offline
[02:17:32] Status: Away: AutoStatus (idle)
[02:31:19] Status: Offline
[02:32:48] Status: Away: AutoStatus (idle)
[02:52:20] Status: Offline
[02:54:04] Status: Away: AutoStatus (idle)
[03:07:52] Status: Offline
[03:09:18] Status: Away: AutoStatus (idle)
[03:22:52] Status: Offline
[03:24:34] Status: Away: AutoStatus (idle)
[03:37:55] Status: Offline
[03:39:48] Status: Away: AutoStatus (idle)
[03:53:26] Status: Offline
[03:55:03] Status: Away: AutoStatus (idle)
[04:08:57] Status: Offline
[04:10:18] Status: Away: AutoStatus (idle)
[04:23:57] Status: Offline
[04:25:32] Status: Away: AutoStatus (idle)
[04:39:28] Status: Offline
[04:40:47] Status: Away: AutoStatus (idle)
[04:54:29] Status: Offline
[04:56:04] Status: Away: AutoStatus (idle)
[05:09:30] Status: Offline
[05:11:19] Status: Away: AutoStatus (idle)
[05:24:31] Status: Offline
[05:26:34] Status: Away: AutoStatus (idle)

He uses the XMPP client Jabiru. He can't explain why this is happening; he doesn't find any settings that could be responsible for this.

I googled if it is a known bug and found this statement (in German) in a forum thread, which could be translated to:

  Nice client, but it will probably not keep you connected when inactive, "thanks" to Androids memory management

Is this true? Could it be a problem with Android itself and not this particular XMPP app? How can this be fixed? The XMPP status should stay at "Away" (and not disconnect&reconnect again and again) when the smartphone is inactive.

About the statement

The quoted statement is just plain wrong. Android (or it's memory management component) does not prevent any app from keeping a stable connection to any kind of network service (e.g. XMPP).

You only have to deal with fact that Android will kill your process if it's under memory pressure. But the same manager that did kill your service (ActivityManager) will also restart your service once the low memory situation is resolved. Your app simply has to reconnect then.

As this will only happen when no Activity from the App is in foreground, the user usually doesn't notice the reconnection, or he/she simply doesn't care, since the App is in background anyways.

Your symptoms

Obviously Jabiru does reconnect. And I also think that jabiru doesn't disconnect intentionally. It's more likely that the data connection went down. The most probable reason for this is that the WiFi went to sleep. But then the GSM connection should take over and we would only see **one* disconnect after around 15 minutes.

I think you should look in the Android log to find out what happens around the time Jabiru disconnects. The WiFi sleep policy is one reason to look at, but then I wonder why Jabiru is able to reconnect at all, since the WiFi should be disabled until the device is woken up again.


Samsung Galaxy Note 3 - Eye detection on non-native apps? Although I feel that the eye detection still requires a lot of tweaks and performance improvements by Samsung, I would be more tempted to use it and test it if it worked with non-native apps.

For example, although Google Chrome comes pre-installed on the device, the eye detection will not work with it.

It would also be nice if the feature worked with messaging apps such as HandCent SMS.

To put it simply - Is there a way for this feature to work with apps you install on the device?

There's an important distinction to be made: Android in its stock form, and Samsung's version of Android, with the Touchwiz framework.

The Touchwiz functionality for the eyeball recognition works with only with apps 'native' to Samsungs Touchwiz version of Android. Apps like Samsung SMS, Samsung Internet, Samsung Gallery etc.

Air Gestures can be ported to 3rd party apps, Flipboard is an example of this.

Fore the eye recognitions stuff, like  smart scroll etc. the app needs to be embedded in Touchwiz. However, the 'keep screen on' functionality works over apps, so the screen shouldn't lock while gaming etc.

After looking into this myself, I havn't found any Xposed or other modules to override this for root users. Also, on the S4 Google Edition (running almost1 stock Android) there is no eyeball recognition whatsoever, and cannot be implemented.

Also, from a developer's point of view it, even if it was possible to access this functionality, would it be worth implementing it for only one device, and not being accessible on any other phone? It's a good idea in a way, but I don't see it expanding for a while, until other OEMs decide on similar tech perhaps.

1 Techincally the Touchwiz framework is there to enable the S-View cover. On the HTC One Google Edition HTC Sense is there to allow Beats Audio to be built in.


How can I factory reset my Android TV? Is there any way to do a factory reset somehow from the welcome screen as I can go through to do anything?

After prompting me to choose the language it keeps returning to the Welcome page to start over. Yes I tried every possible combination (wifi, cable, buttons, etc) but there is no way to go through so maybe a factory reset will do the trick.

Try going to Settings --> Privacy --> Factory Data Reset

For More Detail You can check Here:

www.allview.ro/uploads/tx_allview/Manual_AllDro_TV.pdf


Is there a hardware or software limitation to how long smartphone can record video? Besides the obvious battery and storage limitations, are there any limits to how long can a smartphone record video? For example, could the image sensor overheat after an hour or more? Would the camera software explode?

In theory no limit on recording. But as you say overheading is a big problem on summar days.

I experience that camera did shutted down recording video because a software problem. When you recorded, everyframe have to processed by processor. And camera recording process is a stream between processor and camera chip. During this stream, if a bit of stream's data changes, processor will handle an error in stream and will delete all recorded stream. This is a one scenario. Scenario's count can be increased.

For example if processor heat up, and after heating up , on transistor level will one electricity jump 1001st transistor to 1002th transistor and this cause a processor error and this can be the limit of recording video.

I hope I could explain.


Refund Google Play apps but haven't got my money back I had purchased a game on Google Play but later I realized that it was too bad, so I requested a refund. I've received a refund email from Google but I haven't received my money back. Is that a problem?

When I opened the Payment History page, it writes Canceled next to that game. I purchased that game using my phone bill.

No

It's not a problem. Sometimes it takes time to refund. It's happened to me earlier.

Nothing to worry about since you got your confirmation mail as also transaction is cancelled

If you wish to be doubly sure, you can call or chat with Google help from the Google Play Settings → Help and feedback

Edit: Just stumbled on this from
Google Play Refund help.
If the status shows cancelled it means

  If the status is "Cancelled," the order was never charged and so you will not see a credit on your form of payment.

There is also a detailed table for refund timelines. Summary below :

Credit or debit card - 3 to 5 business days
Direct carrier billing (prepaid / pay-as-you-go) - 1 to 30 business days
Direct carrier billing (postpaid / contract) - 1 to 2 monthly statements
Google Play balance (gift card or credit balance or Google wallet - one business day
Online Banking - 1 to 10 business days
PayPal - 3 to 5 business days


Installing Android OS on SD card I am not using Android smartphone till now. I want to install the Android OS on SD card and use this SD card to boot Android on same line of smartphones.

Is it possible to do that?

I believe it is possible if your phone has an unlocked bootloader and you are capable of modifying it.  I have no idea how to do this but you may find help on Stack Overflow.  You can also check out how the devs that install Android on Windows phones do it.  This site talks about installing Android on the SD card for their dual-boot mod.

This is probably more work than it's worth.  Another option, if you are going to be using it on the same exact model of phone and they are rooted: Use Titanium Backup to backup all the apps and settings and then restore them to another phone.  This can be done to the SD or to Dropbox.


Is my battery faulty I've had my HTC Desire (latest legit firmware) for 18 months or so, and I believe this problem has existed for a while but it getting worse.  It might just be time for a new battery but in case there's something I can do to fix it I'll explain.

I charge the phone overnight, everynight.  If I use it for surfing/texting on the way to work (25-50 mins) plus leave it checking for emails every 15 mins or so, plus with data enabled, then there's a good chance it'll have less than half the charge left by lunchtime.  If I don't charge it in the afternoon then there's a good chance the commute home will make the phone power down due to lack of power.

Looking at the battery graph it seems that the phone gets to about 15% power then runs out, often without warning or just the one warning.  And when I charge it, the charge on the graph climbs from zero up to about 85% then jumps to 100%.  It's as if there's 10/15% which isn't available for me to use or charge any more.

I've read - and tried, unsuccessfully - some "trick" when you charge the phone, turn it off and charge it, then turn it on and charge it. It made no difference at all.

My phone's not rooted and I'm not desperate to do so.

It could be that the battery is not calibrated correctly. This can cause the phone to think that the battery level is much lower than it actually is, as well as the "jump" when you disconnect from the charger. I'm not sure how to fix this without rooting, but if you do decide to root, the Battery Calibration app in the market can reset the calibration, then guide you through recalibration.


Will Xiami Mi Band work on Redmi 1 with Android 4.2 The official line is that the Mi band requires Android 4.4 to work, but it has been tested on a Redmi 1S running 4.3.

So does anybody know whether it would also run on a Redmi 1 running 4.2? And if so, would there be any functionality losses?

I've checked here and the Xiaomi forums, but have been unable to find anything.

I went head and bought a Mi band. It didn't work with MIUI 5 running on Android 4.2, but it does work by updating the MIUI 6 on Android 4.4 (which is currently only available as a developer version).


After upgrade to android lollipop Moto G 1st Gen getting slow and lagging My Moto G 1st Gen mobile is getting lag and slow after upgrade to android lollipop.
Please help me to get it fix.Thanks!

No need to reset the phone.Clearing cache partition should do the job.
How to clear cache partition on Moto G


LG K10 Rooting and Bootloader Unlock without a computer How I go about unloacking the bootloader on a LG K10 without a PC?  Can it be done or do I need a computer.   Thanks in advance

You will need a PC to run the required fastboot commands. So, yes, it cannot be done without a PC.
One alternative can be to use another rooted Android phone with ADB and Fastboot binaries installed. Then connect the two phones using a USB OTG connector/cable and you should be able to use the fastboot commands.


Phone keeps prompting for pattern confirmation About two weeks ago my phone started popping up the confirm pattern screen for no apparent reason. It happens whether I'm using the phone or not. I took it into the verizon store and the guy played with some settings but that didn't help.

I watched a process monitor to see if I could see anything spike cpu usage when it happened but didn't see anything.

I've tried uninstalling apps but I hadn't installed anything new when this started.

I've tried to confirm the pattern multiple times, and when I do it just goes back to the security options screen.

I've tried changing the pattern to no avail, as well as setting it to pin and then back. (I can't set it to no security due to a work app unfortunately.)

Any ideas what could be causing this?

Motorola Droid Turbo btw.

If you've root permissions, try these steps via ABD:
MUST HAVE A BACKUP BEFORE PROCEEDING

removing your gesture.key file located at "/data/system/gesture.key
dumping the database of settings app. The location of file is - "/data/data/com.android.providers.settings/database/settings.db"


Autoreject calls via predefined SMS message while away from phone On my Samsung Galaxy SIII Neo there is a neat feature where when you receive a call you can type on a predefined text message to send. I wonder whether the following scenario can be achieved on Android phones:

The user is away from the phone, perhaps having a shower or working out at the gym.
The user (sets up and then) selects a predefined text message (saved in a list of predefined text messages).
The user specifies that whenever a phone call is received, the corresponding text message will be sent to the caller's phone number automatically (and this could be set up either for everyone or just for a few phone numbers the user wants to share this info with).

If a caller rings twice from the same number, there would also be an option to send the SMS only the first time (so as to not have some malicious user deplete all your SMS credit).

With SL4A or Qpython (Python Script Engine) you can use android apps permission .(E.g With it you can send mesaages, take picture etc.)

If you have basic knowlege of python you can make a script that will help you to do that.

You will also need tasker etc. To launch script

[I think it will be hard task to do it.I just gave you the Base Idea.Hope you will make it]


Android menu navigation without touchscreen input I'm working on a smart glasses project that is using an Intrinsyc Open-q 2500 SOM (connected to a custom breakout board) that utilises a Snapdragon processor, running a custom Android SDK (Oreo 8.1) made for smart watches.
To navigate through the Android UI, as well as applications, we are hoping to use a IQS223 touch sensor chip, which will output high for a short period when a gesture is detected. E.g If a swipe forward is detected it will set pin1 (connected to GPIO1 of SOM) to high for 80ms, or if a TAP is detected it will set pin2 (connected to GPIO2 of SOM) to high for 80ms.
I've read it is possible to connect navigate/control an application via an external keyboard. All interactive widgets are focusable, meaning that the selected widget is highlighted (via a glow or appearance change). Therefore, It seems I should be able to fire a keyboard event on detection of a GPIO input change, and use that event to trigger an action. E.g. on detection of a high input on GPIO1 I'd fire a "Enter" keypress event.
My question is how would I go about doing this for the main Android UI (navigation of settings, selecting an app from main menu etc.)?
i.e I want to set the main Android UI to be focusable (if possible) so I can navigate/control the device by simulating  keypresses, which are fired when an input level changes on a certain GPIO pin.
Is there an alternate method to achieving this?

The functionality which you are looking for is available under the Accessibility settings. It is called Switch access, Universal switch and many more, just search for the term switch after going to System settings -> Accessibility. Then, follow the on-screen instructions for setting it up.


Making a call Google Assistant by saying "Call Mom & Dad" shows "App is not installed." I have an Android Head unit in my car running Android 8.1  It has Google Assistant and almost all of the voice commands I've tried work normally except for making calls with the command "call Mom & Dad".  My phone is connected to the Head Unit through Bluetooth.  It is running an AOSP version of Android 10.  I can manually make and receive calls successfully on the head unit through the phone Bluetooth app that comes with the head unit.
Assistant recognizes the command and then displays "App is not installed." in a toast message.  After that, it shows the command that was just spoken.  There is a button next to the command that says "Call".  When I press this button, it successfully brings up the Bluetooth app and makes the call.
I've tried the following with no change:

installed Google Contacts
installed an XDA version of the Google phone app as the Google Phone app does not show up in the Play store on my head unit
I've made sure all permissions have been turned on for the Google app
I installed an app called GVC CallHandler for Joying

When I try to do the voice call on my phone, it works.  Initially, I made the call through the standard Google phone app.  I then installed the GVC CallHandler app on my phone and selected it to make the call.  Assistant tried, but when the GVC CallHandler took over, there is an exception saying that the Joying Bluetooth app was not found...which is correct when run on my phone...and that can be found in the app source.
The GVC CallHandler is not used and/or is not an option to make a voice call when I voice "Call mom & dad" on my head unit.  After installing this GVC CallHandler on my head unit, when I pressed the Google Assistant "Call" button described above, then I am asked to choose between the Bluetooth app and the GVC CallHandler app.
From my research, I believe the message "App is not installed" is shown when no activity is found in Android to handle the intent being invoked.  I'm not sure what intent is being called and don't know how to find out what intent is being called.  I have the source for GVC CallHandler.  It's an app from XDA that is available on the Play Store. GVC CallHandler XDA thread and the post with the source.
GVC CallHandler is an app that was previously created to modify the number being called to make it into a format that would work in the built-in dialer.  It would remove characters such as "(", "+", etc.
So, any help to determine and address the "App isn't installed." message as described above would be great.  What I'd like to do is say "Call Mom & Dad" and have the call go through my Bluetooth connected phone to make the call.
Addition:  This happens to any and all contacts that I've tried.
Addition:  The intention of this is to make calls through the Bluetooth attached phone.
Addition:  While testing this again, I was able to find this in the logs related to the request to make a voice call:
android.intent.action.CALL dat=tel:xxxxxxxxx flg=0x1000000000 pkg=com.android.server.telecom (has extras)

This was followed by a failure to find the activity and/or the telecom package.  I'm currently looking into this.
Thank you

I thought I'd come back and post an update / conclusion to this question.
With the help of others, it was determined that the Android Telecom server on my Android Head Unit was missing code to handle the voice call.  After replacing it and then adding a custom phone dialer modified to pass the call information to the GVC CallHandler, which then passes the information to the Bluetooth attached phone, the voice calling worked.
Details can be found on the XDA forums under the General / Android Auto / Android Head Units forum in the thread named "Modding your Joying/FYT SC9853i unit without root", page 31.
Note: I thought originally that this was a common problem.  However, this is not a general problem with Android but a specific problem with my head unit and possibly other FYT head units based on the Intel sc9853i CPU running Android 8.1   This may also apply to other units, but you'll have to go through and determine that on your own.


How to automatically remove placeholders for ads when blocking them in Chrome? I have a Moto Z2 Play running a Pixel Experience Oreo (8.1) 64-bit ROM. I have TWRP, Magisk root and Xposed Framework running. My browser is Chrome 70.0.3538.110 which is the latest stable release as of 5th of December 2018.

As the top answer in "How to block ads on Chrome for Android?" suggests, I have "AdAway", which works using the hosts file. It does work, however the space normally taken up by the ads is now taken up by a "sad face" icon as in the message Chrome shows when a page fails to load.

To me this is better than no ad-blocking at all, but one of the points of an ad-blocker is to remove clutter and use more display real-estate for actual content. Therefore, I am looking for a way to block ads in Chrome while also freeing up the space used by them so it can be used to show actual content. This is how most ad-blockers for desktop Chrome work.

I know that the newest Chrome Canary releases have a native ad blocker built in. However, it only blocks the most obnoxious ads. I am looking for a way to block all (or the great majority of) ads.

Browser based ad blocker extensions, such as uBlock Origin, work by preventing third party (cross site) requests from being made at first place. They explicitly have a list of which third parties loads ads, so they prevent the request, which in turn means no placeholder (the space occupied to show them on a page) for them in the rendered page output because those third party scripts were blocked from execution.

Non-browser based ad block solutions, such as Adaway and DNS66, focus on hosts based blocking, in which a request to an advertisement is redirected to localhost (user's own system), which in turn does not load anything. Since they don't prevent third party scripts from being executed, the scripts get to be loaded, with the placeholder the advertisement getting reserved in the rendered output of the page, but with no real ad being shown because of content request redirection to localhost.

So, if you want to save that real estate in the screen, you'd have to find a browser which has support for a popular browser based ad blocking extension.

Chrome does not support extensions as of now, so it is out of the equation. I don't know of Chromium based browsers with support for extensions, except Yandex browser which supports some Chrome extensions, and Brave browser who's native ad blocker at some sites achieve what you want. But, Firefox for Android is explicitly supported by the mighty uBlock Origin.

Here's how  a sample page from Vox website looks like, first with host based solution, than with uBlock Origin extension based solution, in Firefox.


How do I check if Tasker is the application in focus using a Tasker profile? I want to execute a few tasks whenever I am active on Tasker (e.g. editing profiles, viewing settings, etc). However, the problem is I can't see it on the list of applications that's usable when creating a profile. Am I missing something?

The developer of Tasker has specifically excluded Tasker itself from showing up in the Applications list.  He cites his reason in the Tasker Why...? section of his website.

http://tasker.dinglisch.net/userguide/en/faqs/faq-why.html#d


factory reset a device having no volume keys or home button I got a device that I have to reset to factory settings because the owner of the device has forgotten its password. I checked Debugging is not enabled.

I have seen various suggestions on how to reset a device but all suggestion involve volume keys. Unfortunately this device doesn't have any volume or other key, there is just only one power key.

Device: QMobile E885

How do it reset it ? or unlock the device. any suggestions?

There's instructions floating around for a QMobile E790, so this might work for your model.

Try dialing 277634#*# or 47328545454#
It should then give you the option to factory reset.


How can i hide an application? I want to hide some applications from other people who have access to my phone but be able to get to the application whenever I want. I don't want locking. I need it to be not seen on applications list.

You could easily hide by using custom launchers like Apex or Nova.

But if this is not an option, you could try apps available on Google Play like [ CCSWE App Manager (ROOT) ] or [ Hide App-Hide Application Icon ] which needs root access. *I want you to read the user feedbacks on Google Play before consider using the app because some said the icon gone forever after it was unhide.

You can also try to Disable the app from Setting -> Apps. This will hide app icon from app drawer. You can enable it again when you need it.


Google Voice - Separate ringtone but maintain caller ID? I suspect I know the answer to this question, but I wanted to quadruple check here just in case...

Is there any way to set a phone to have a different ringtone based on what number was dialed?  I want to know if someone called my GV number or my cell number.  However, I do not want to set the GV caller ID to display my GV number.  I know this would work, but I'm trying to get my cake and eat it too here...

Is it possible?

No, unfortunately you can't have your cake and eat it too. At least not by just using the native dialer. Android will only choose a ringtone based on caller id.

There is the option of setting up SIP Droid or GrooveIP for the sole purpose of ringing for an incoming call. You could continue to forward GV to your cell as well as the second number picked up by those apps, and you would simply know they are calling your GV number because that app is ringing. A bit hacky, as you have two apps ringing (native dialer and the second app you chose), but it is an option. I think they can be set up to reject a call after a few seconds, so you would note that they rang for a couple seconds, then pick up the native dialer knowing it is coming via GV.

If you have a good enough connection, you could disable forwarding GV to your cell and instead only forward to your Chat client (which is used by GrooveIP or SIP Droid). Then you would set that program to make a different ringtone, and you would have the person's correct caller ID. But it means your call goes over data, which can be less reliable.


I have lost my Panasonic Eluga A3 mobile - Can i do Enable lock and Erase then can i access my phone back? Hi i  have lost my Panasonic Eluga A3 mobile and i could see the last time when it was online was last morning 5:45 AM in chennai. The mobile has been switched off by the guy who has looted it. Now i know that the mobile has location ON but as the phone is OFF it is now showing anything on Android manager and i am not able to Ring it or Lock it. So the only option now i have is Erase Your device option. So if i do it now.. Then will i be able to again login to my Andriod device manager and track this mobile ? Is this the last option ?

Since the phone is off you cant retrieve anything from it, the location that is showing to you is the latest location the phone could retrieve before it was switched off.

Trying to erase all the data will take place after the phone is turned on again and got any 4g - wifi signal on it.

  "Then will i be able to again login to my Andriod device manager and
  track this mobile"

Answer - No, because of the above.

Hope it helps


How to mount an ext3 partition from an external sd card on android I'm trying to run Debian on the Android 4.4 (modded with cyanogenmod) that's installed on my nexus 10 to external sdcard. I'm reading this tutorial :

http://whiteboard.ping.se/Android/Debian

I've attached the Leef microSD microUSB Connector to the mini usb port of my nexus 10 as you can see here :

I've created two partitions on the sd card,as explained on the tutorial. The first is formatted with fat fs and the second one with ext3 file system. This is what I did when I've prepared the sd card partitions on the desktop computer :

Disk /dev/sdf: 64.0 GB, 64021856256 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7783 cylinders, total 125042688 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0004504c

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdf1            2048    32767999    16382976    b  W95 FAT32
/dev/sdf2        32768000   125042687    46137344   83  Linux

When I attach the leef connector,only the fat32 partition is recognized by android,but not the ext3. This is the mount points that I see :

To proceed with the tutorial I need to mount the second partition where should be installed the debian OS. How can I do this ? thanks.

I've fixed the problem by myself with these commands :

mount -o rw,remount /

mount -t ext4 /dev/block/sda2 /mnt/deb


What factors could cause a massive spike / drop in bitrate? I'm seeing a graph of one of my Android application's bitrates during a video stream, and I'm not sure what to make of it:

Relevant Info:

This is a single application's bitrate over the duration of a video call
The video call starts off perfectly fine, but suddenly degrades.
This graph repeatedly shows up for different users, different devices, different locations, different networks, etc.
In this specific case, packet loss is minimal, latency is also minimal, access point strength is 5ghz.
The duration of this graph is 30 minutes, start to finish, but the drop occurs at 4-7 mins, every time.
The device supports WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac – 2.4GHz and 5GHz
Line of sight to the WiFi router does not appear to be an issue.

What types of things affect bitrate? What other information can I gather to help understand this? Does Android potentially throttle things like WiFi connectivity due to resource constraints, overheating, etc?

I have to assume it's something that my software is doing, but there's nothing obvious that I can see...

Thank you.

Bitrate is an average. As with any average, it is greatly affected by the size of the window it is averaged over. On average the temperature where I live is around 70 degrees F. But some days it’s 30 and some days it’s 120. But the average is 70. If you do daily readings you will see spikes. If you do monthly reading, you will see a sin wave, if you do yearly readings, the line will be pretty flat (not factoring in climate change).

Individual frame sizes vary massively depending on information density, motion, scene detection, and minimum key frame intervals. It’s a function of how video compression works and completely normal.

Research how video compression works. Specificity I/P/B frames and it will make sense.

Also note that available bandwidth changes very rapidly. Especially on wireless networks. And many video conferencing software will adapt to keep the call working.


Where are custom kernels being flashed to in internal memory? I've unzipped zip files for custom kernels and noticed that the majority of the files that are being applied are in a /kernel folder. However that folder is unlisted when listing the root directories using both Root Explorer and ES File Explorer. Where is this /kernel folder?

The kernel is part of the "boot image", which is stored in a separate partition in the flash memory, not in a normal file. See http://android-dls.com/wiki/index.php?title=HOWTO:_Unpack,_Edit,_and_Re-Pack_Boot_Images


Got stuck with a Pop-up on the main screen I have Samsung Galaxy E5 (SM-E500H) with Android 5.1.1. Recently, I installed few apps and after that, I encountered an annoying little pop-up below the screen sometimes. I got into uninstalling some of those apps but the pop-up didn't go away. How can I get rid of that? More technically, how can I find out which process is the cause of that?

Screenshot (click to enlarge)

Thanks for all the helpful comments. Answer to: Determine which app is drawing on top of other apps? helped me a lot. I monitored the apps having special permission to put an overlay on top of other apps. I waited until the pop-up showed and with a little compare with the preceding apps list I could find the causing app. Thanks @Firelord.

So, I want to expose the app that caused this unwanted and annoying pop-up:

  Official name: Premium Wallpapers HD

  Package name: com.pixign.premiumwallpapers

  Play Store link:
  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pixign.premiumwallpapers&hl=en


My Phone Time-Travelled Again. How? and Why? I have a Moto G XT1033 with ResurrectionRemix-M-5.6.8-20160502-falcon ROM.

Yesterday night after a low battery alert I had a Whatsapp unread notification from my friend. I opened the message and found that I had a unread message from him which I remembered reading in morning.

Then I observed that I was missing my conversation with him from that time onwards till I noticed this. I also observed that that all Personal/Group Chats were also missing the entire duration's chats.

I thought maybe Whatsapp had reverted to an Old Message backup. But then I found that Firefox was missing 12-15 hours worth of browsing history.

I had also observed that the SMS which I received from the bank in the evening had disappeared. As well Google Play Store re-updated two applications which it had already updated in the evening. I had also lost some Photographs which I took with my phone in the evening. Call History is also missing for the day.

Google Now showed it was last updated 20 Hours ago.

From all this it looks like my phone Time-Travelled from morning to night.

QUESTION: Aside from Time-Travelling. How is this even technically possible for the Entire phone to rollback its memory/state/data to some previous time.

I think I had noticed this behavior few months back also, when I lost some Whatsapp chats but that time I thought it must be a Whatsapp bug and did not investigate.

UPDATE1 (16th Jan 2017, 10:35PM IST): It happened again today (Now around 10:30 PM IST).

My phone automatically restarted. (As if it just time-travelled and entered current time).

Restart Vibration made me alert for expecting this scenario.
As soon as the phone started, I switched the phone to Airplane Mode to prevent Time-Line contamination

This Time I am observing the following:

Google Now Updated 8 hours ago.
Battery Graph is missing some time. (Time Jump?) But battery has decreased.
Outlook is missing the Mails it received at around 9PM
Inbox is also missing Mails.
Call History looks good. Last call 8 Hours ago (2:10PM). Time Jump started around 4PM.
Whatsapp is missing chats which I received at around 6:30PM.

Sync Timings

Llama Event Logs

If additional Info is required please inform. I will try to get it before I turn off Airplane Mode

Update2 (17th Jan 2017, 8:33PM IST): It Looks now phone has become a Serial Time Traveller.

It restarted just now and the battery graph is missing two blocks of time.
Whatsapp messages are missing as well.

I thought I was the only one facing this issue, and I didn't even know how to describe my problem back then. Looks like we're on the same boat.
Even I'm using the Moto G (XT1033), but on NXROM 10.2, and I started facing this issue around a year ago until last December. The phone randomly reboots when I'm using it, and as you had described, it went back in time, and all the messages, downloaded files, statictics for a period of time and other stuff just vanished.
I tried to Google this up, and here is my understanding (I may be wrong, so please correct me if so):

It turns out that this happens due to a kernel panic, and when the fsync function is not executed. fsync is responsible for writing the data from the buffers (all changes you make to data, like new messages, photos etc. is stored temporarily here) to the internal storage. When a kernel panic occurs, all the data in the buffer is not moved to the internal storage, but just vanishes. So all those changes you made just vanishes into thin air.

I was pretty frustrated about this, and then I stumbled upon LSpeed (available on Play Store). There was a battery profile which emphasises on conserving battery life. It disables kernel panic, and modifies a whole lot of other settings. Since I installed that, I've not faced this issue again. Try this out and do let me know how it works out for you.