How to fake my android - Zuk-Z1 to look like Nexus 5x/ 6p How to fake my android - Zuk-Z1 to look like Nexus 5x/ 6p

My office has a policy only to allow email and calendar over Gmail native app on Nexus 5/ 6/ 5x/ 6P devices with latest factory Rom. I just bought Lenovo Zuk Z1, loving the grey metallic look of it. I was trying to fake my Zuk-Z1 as Nexus 6P, so when my GMAIL client makes a request to Company-Exchange Server it looks as if coming from Nexus-6p or Nexus-5x. The reason I am not trying to spoof Nexus-5 is as it does not have a fingerprint scanner. It would be great my device-administrator allows security policy to unlock my phone using fingerprint scanner. I am in so much liking this device, at time  price-value make me glad, other times, the so premium look of it makes feel happy. I downloaded Nexus 6p factory build, not able to extract the values from the img files.

I humbly request, if some can share the value below from the Nexus 5x/6p devices.

To be changed
ro.product.model
ro.product.brand
ro.product.name
ro.product.device
ro.product.manufacturer
ro.build.fingerprint
ro.build.product=Z1
ro.build.host

I have read online, not to be changed
ro.build.version.sdk

My plan is to replace these values in caynogenmod build.prop file. rebundle it and then flash it.
Do you think this makes sense. Do you guys think this would work.
If this work, next I really wish to spoof boxer email UA. A great email client, i would like to use. But, for now can someone please

update me on the above values for nexus 5x/ 6p
update me if i am missing on other important values.
update me if you think i am dumb.

Thank you all.

I had a similar issue to Vivek. This is what I tried and worked for me.

Before attempting, SEE NOTES. This assumes you are rooted.

So first I went to google playstore and downloaded a build.prop editor. I focused on these attributes for my Moto X Pure:

ro.product.model=XT1575
ro.product.brand=motorola
ro.product.name=clark_retus
ro.product.device=clark
ro.product.manufacturer=motorola
ro.build.fingerprint=motorola/clark_retus/clark:6.0/MPH24.49-18/18:user/release-keys
ro.build.product=clark
ro.build.host=ilclbld87
ro.build.version.security_patch=2016-02-01
ro.build.version.release=6.0

and changed them to match the Nexus 5x:

ro.build.version.release=6.0.1
ro.build.version.security_patch=2016-03-01
ro.product.model=Nexus 5X
ro.product.brand=google
ro.product.name=bullhead
ro.product.device=bullhead
ro.build.host=wpiy3.hot.corp.google.com
ro.product.manufacturer=LGE
ro.build.product=bullhead
ro.build.fingerprint=google/bullhead/bullhead:6.0.1/MMB29Q/2480792:user/release-keys

After making the changes. I saved and then rebooted. After that I installed Gmail (didn't have it before) and it automatically sent me a "Welcome Nexus 5x User" email after installing. That made me pretty confident that I was now viewed as a Nexus 5x, by that app at least. I added the new exchange account, entering my credentials and things worked.

Fini

Important Notes

Make a backup of your phone. Specifically a NAND backup. What this
means is to have a custom bootloader like TWRP and make a backup
there.
Backup your original build.prop file and store somewhere.
Like on your SD card or computer.
Make sure GooglePlay has auto-updates disabled. This might cause some issues as it tries to update your phone with new software revisions due to it thinking you are now a Nexus 5x 6.0.1 and need the latest and greatest software for each app you have installed.

Good Luck!


Remove Samsung Tab S3 SetupWizard Message 'Activation Incomplete' for Verizon service I just purchased a used Samsung Tab S3 which comes with Verizon network capabilities. I don't want to use cell capabilities, just Wifi.

After setup, on the lock screen and in the notification center is a message from "Setup Wizard" that says "Activation Incomplete" and to call Verizon support to activate the device (which I don't want to do).

Is there a way to remove this message without calling Verizon?

Here's an incomplete solution, since the notification itself says "These notifications can't be turned off":

Touch and hold on the notification in the notifications dropdown
Tap "Details"
When "System UI" opens under "App notifications" in Settings, it will briefly flash the "Ongoing" section
Tap the "Ongoing" section
Tap "Notification Style"
Tap "Silent and minimized"
Tap "App icon badges" to turn the switch off

This makes the notification much smaller in the notification dropdown, and doesn't show the icon in the notification bar

This works as of 2020-04-24 13:20 CDT on Android 9


What does the yellow progress bar in stock browser means, while rendering downloading web page? While rendering / downloading web page the stock browser shows moving yellow progress bar. It tends to start increasing from the left, at times increasing from the right, there are also gaps in the yellow bar, before finally completing rendering / downloading and disappearing. I'd love to understand what it all means.

Whatsmyuseragent.com gives ...
"Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.2; en-us; ViewPad7 Build/FRF91) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1"

Android browser progress bar video on Picasa at ...
00:01 shows short yellow bar from left
00:02 shows yellow bar from right
00:03 shows longer yellow bar from left
00:05 complete rendering, progress bar disappears

I've never seen it come from the right, nor have I seen it "gap", but the progress bar is just that, it shows the download progress for the page that you about to view.

After you posted your screenshot and video, it looks like that the browser is seeing that you are on the Malaysian version of Google. If I am correct, the Malaysian is read from Right to Left, which would be why the progress bar loads from right to left.

If you just go to Google.com, it will load from left to right, or you have the default language on your device to be Malaysian, in which case, would default it to right to left.


Self replicating worm in sd card I have a Samsung Galaxy Grand with a 16gb micro-sd card. For some inexplicable reason, I am losing data on the sd card. Folder names are being changed to start with the character "μ." For example, my_music was changed to μy_music (this does not happen on the device's internal memory). There are more than 960 files with the name "μ" and it is replicating itself. Is it a problem with the Micro SD card or something else such as the phone itself? Is there any way I can fix this other than formatting?

Check for suspicious applications you may have installed recently. Also this behaviour is very weird as it should usually do that on the internal sd card where it could harm your device and not on the external one where it only annoys the user.

About the "self replicating": If you know in what file the worm is located and checked if all files are the same then deleting that file and formatting your sd card may be the solution to your issue.


How to use PC internet on Android mobile via Bluetooth How to use my PC internet on Android mobile via Bluetooth. I'm having a bluetooth dongle connected to my PC. My phone and the PC are paired.

DETAILS

OS: Windows XP
INTERNET CONNECTION MECHANISM : ADSL modem (connected to PC via
Ethernet cable)
Phone: Sony Xperia (Android Ice Cream Sandwitch)

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

First switch on your PC's and your phone's Bluetooth.
Make sure that your phone is paired up in your PC.
Goto "System Preferences"
In that goto "Sharing"
Then goto "Internet Sharing"
Now Select "USB Dongle" as the source
Now "Airport Wireless" as share via
And now you can connect your phone to the internet.


Copy URL with unicode symbols without percent-encoding in Firefox Methods used on Desktop version don't work. I have both browser.urlbar.decodeURLsOnCopy=true and network.standard-url.escape-utf8=false and URLs are still encoded.

This seems to be an old bug as reported here. I did not find any other bug report that specifically relates to Android for this problem (Edit:OP has created a feature request)

A url shortner such as Tiny url add-on may be an alternative, till a better solution is found, keeping in mind the reservations of OP in comments


Do Android devices make active or passive scan when looking for WiFi AP I would like to know if Android devices make active or passive scan when looking for the AP to connect. I've already made a test using Wireshark and wifi sniffer and it seems that while an iPhone sends Probe Request frames to discover available APs (active scan), my Android device sometimes sends Probe Request frame, but most of the times it does not send Probe Request frames at all, but waits for the AP to send a Beacon frame (passive scan).

I've been looking for some official info/documentation concerning this topic, but haven't found anything useful yet. I would be very grateful if someone could provide me with the answer to this question.

The only "official" explanation I found is in this comment (dated July 2009) in the Git repositories on android:

wifi: WifiManager.startScan() will now do passive scans by default.
Active scans will only happen if an hidden AP is in use, or if the new method
WifiManager.startScanActive() is called.

The existence of an hidden function to start an active scan (reported here) suggests that the normal scanning function is indeed passive. This is to be taken with a grain of salt, though, as the Android documentation doesn't explicitly tell if the function WifiManager.startScan() is passive or not.
Also related: this two posts on SO (post 1, post 2) report that the scanning activity is passive (post 1) and that since android 4.3 it not even possible to call the active scan method (post 2) - but there is no link to official sources.


Country restricted apps: how to find out where the app is available? It is well known that some apps can only be downloaded in specific countries.

There are a lot of tutorials on the net that show how do bypass this restriction and download the app anyway.

However those tutorials require you to know in which country the app is available.

Is there are an automated way to find out in which country/countries an app is available (except from stupidly trying out each and every country)?

42 matters seems to provide this. I haven't checked out by signing in. It claims to provide this information

Country Availability API for Android Apps
Check in which countries an Android app is available on Google Play Store™.

Source: Andrea, On Quora


Why the file path the phone tells me ,I couldn't find in 'adb shell'? I used my new Moto X phone, then I encountered a basic problem. It's running Android 4.4.2.

I take a photo, and want to send it to my PC. The Gallery app tells me the photo is at /storage/emulated/0/DCIM/Camera/, but in 'adb shell'... I cannot find it.

shell@ghost:/ $ cd /storage/emulated/0/DCIM/Camera/
/system/bin/sh: cd: /storage/emulated/0/DCIM/Camera: No such file or directory

I find it at /storage/emulated/legacy/DCIM/Camera/

Question 1: Why is the 'legacy' dir '0' dir?

Then I send it to the phone.

Question 2: Is there a convenient way to use 'adb pull' when I am in 'adb shell'?

exit;
➜  ~  adb pull /storage/emulated/legacy/DCIM/Camera/*.*
zsh: no matches found: /storage/emulated/legacy/DCIM/Camera/*.*
➜  ~  adb pull /storage/emulated/legacy/DCIM/Camera/IMG_20140302_105047591_HDR.jpg
5326 KB/s (2746404 bytes in 0.503s)

Question 3: Why can't I use '*' in adb pull?

Thank you for your reading this. Forgive my multiple questions. I really want to know why. Do you have any suggestions?

* is being processesd by YOUR zsh. There's no /storage/... path on YOUR system, where you're running the adb commands. zsh cannot possibly know that you're trying to talk to an android device, so it's trying to expand the wildcards using local system paths. Since that path doesn't exist, let alone have files in it, it's properly telling you "no matches".

You probably want

adb pull '/storage/emulated/legacy/DCIM/Camera/*.*'

Note the '-quotes. They prevent zsh from seeing the wilcards AS wildcards - they'll be treated like plain text by the shell, and passed in to adb as literal text.


Getting WhatsApp to work for both networks on a dual-SIM phone I have been using WhatsApp for a very long time in a dual mobile HTC Desire U under a specific network. Now, I would like to use WhatsApp for the other network too.

Is it possible to use watsapp for both networks under a single roof? I have tried suggestions many other sources, but I did not find any solution.

You can install one app per phone So you cannot use it for more than 1 network in the same phone(dual sim phone)

From Whatsapp FAQ

  Your WhatsApp account can only be verified with one number, on one
  device. If you have a dual SIM phone, please note that you still must
  choose one number to verify with WhatsApp. There is no option to have
  a WhatsApp account with two phone numbers. If you attempt to
  frequently switch your WhatsApp account between different devices, at
  a certain point, you may be blocked from re-verifying your account. So
  please do not repeatedly switch between different devices.


Change android name from "android-..." I have many android devices connected to my network but they are all showing as android-[string of hexacecimal].

My OnePlus 3t (v7.1.1) is one of the devices. I have changed the name of the device but it still shows up as android-xxxxxxxxxx....

Is there a way of fixing this.

What you wish to change is the device's hostname. On certain ROMs such as LineageOS, you may do so via the Device hostname setting, located inside the Developer options. You can access them by typically tapping the Build number information, placed inside the About phone setting, seven or more times.

If the Device hostname setting is missing, you may achieve the same result by either using a computer and sending commands via adb, or by installing a terminal emulator app.

While I won't cover the topic of setting adb and USB debugging on, the command to use with adb is

adb shell "setprop net.hostname <hostname>"

If using a terminal emulator, instead, the command to use is

setprop net.hostname <hostname>

In both cases, replace <hostname> with a name of your choice, and press the Enter key to run the command.


Mobile network not displayed after I rooted my samsung galaxy 10.1 tablet I have a Samsung galaxy 10.1 tablet (GT-P7500) with android version 3.1.

I upgraded the android to 4.0.4 (the latest one available). It was rooted but I guess I've modified something since it always used to show "permission denied" for superuser requests.

So I rooted the tablet. When I did, the tablet didn't reboot by itself. Someone suggested that I wipe all data. So I did it and now the tablet reboots well, but it isn't showing the mobile networks options when I go to Settings > About device > Wireless & Networks.

I am not getting the 3G network either.

I want my tablet to get the mobile network again and I want to upgrade it to android version 4.0.4.

There are two versions of the tablet, one with mobile network and one without. Make sure you have the right firmware installed so that you get the right options.


How do I enter Recovery mode without keyboard or Home button? The phone is Samsung Galaxy S2 (GT-i9100) with SlimROM installed recently.

I was using Paranoid Android, and today I flashed SlimROM 4.4.4 and a gapps package. The latter one occured to be wrong for this version of Android, so now I don't have any keyboard to use (keyboard won't show, and I constantly get an error message).

So now I want to install another ROM/gapps for my phone, but the Home button is broken.

Therefore:

I cannot install Terminal Emulator to use ADB command line for entering Recovery mode upon the next reboot. That's because I cannot even log in to my Google Play account.
I cannot use Volume Up/Down + Home + Power combination to access Recovery/Download modes while booting. So this also makes it quite hard to consider using Odin as an option.

I have done a research on keyboard and Home button issues, but it seems that no-one has experienced them both at the same time before. Seriously though, can you suggest something to do with my situation? Thank you, and feel free to ask for any clarifications.

The best way to get this done is to use Android Debug Bridge (adb).

Get Android SDK on your PC, plug in your Android Device, and run adb reboot recovery in ADB shell.

That command restarts an Android device in recovery mode.

Here is a lifehacker article that might be useful:

The Most Useful Things You Can Do with ADB and Fastboot on Android

And here is an extract:

  adb reboot recovery
  Function: Reboot your phone into recovery mode.

  A lot of functions like flashing ROMs to your phone require you to boot into recovery mode. Normally, this requires you to hold down a particular set of buttons on your phone for a certain length of time, which is obnoxious. This command allows you to boot directly into recovery mode without performing the complex finger dance of your people.

Hope this helps.

PS: this method was already recommended by a user (at the time of posting) named GiantTree as a comment. I am only posting this answer so that others might find this thread appropriate and useful.


Undo "marked as spam" on Facebook Messenger I was texting with my friend, but I didn't lock my keyboard. I marked her as spam. Do you know how I can get back notifications from her messages?

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by 'marked as spam' since I can't see this option in either the Facebook app or the Facebook Messenger app. I'm assuming you mean you turned off notifications for her messages since you mention you want to get them back. I'll explain how to turn them back on.

Facebook Messenger

Open up the conversation with person
Press the 'i' in the circle in the top right

Click on Notications and set to 'On'.

Facebook App

Go to your messages and open up the conversation with the person.
Click on the gear icon in the top right

In the Settings tab make sure 'Alerts On' is selected.


How can I access my files on Galaxy J1 Ace? (restore "My Files" icon) At the moment, I can only access the files stored on my phone from the PC. I can access some music through players and pictures through gallery, but any other files that are there are hidden. Reading the manual, I realized this would normally be accessed through "My Files" - only... I don't have that icon anywhere. If it was there initially, I must have accidentally deleted it during the very first couple of minutes of having the phone and getting used to it. I hope such a thing is not irreversible? If I download something from the web, the download icon will show and then I am redirected to My Files, so they do exist, only the icon has gone and I don't know how to restore it or how else I can access the files without having to newly download something each time.

Did you try a third-party app? Some phones appears to have no file manager/explorer at all.
To achieve this just install a third-party file explorer and you're done or if you think your phone had it before, you'll need to factory reset it then the icon will be back.

I'd recommend you to download ES Explorer but there are many other similar apps in the Google Play store.


Does gboard have a key to switch keyboard apps? I am looking for a way to quickly switch between keyboard apps while using gboard. My phone is a redmi 5.
For e.g if I am writing a message I prefer gboard. But when I have to write code I want to quickly switch to hackers keyboard app.
Incidentally on the latter I have the option to jump back to gboard...
I want to be sure that there is no option on gboard to do the same.

You can press and hold the spacebar while using Gboard to switch languages and keyboards.


How can I return from power-saving mode in Android 2.3? I'm using a Samsung Galaxy S II Epic (with Android version 2.3.6 installed), and whenever my phone reaches 10% battery life it prompts me to turn on power-saving mode (and I do).

However, once my phone is fully charged, I'd like to turn off the settings that power-saving mode comprises (lowered screen brightness, shorter display timeout, etc.)

I see no way to do this in Android except by manually going through the settings and resetting them to the non-power-saving-mode levels. Is there a better way?

Total guess here: press and hold the power button. Is there a Power Saving option in the popup menu?


Share option: How to append into text file? If I go to share in any app or from selected text (icon with three connected dots), I get some sharing options such as SMS, Bluetooth, WiFi direct, etc.

But I would also like to dump it directly into a chosen text file destination such as /(the default Android user directory path, different by each version)/Documents/Shared.txt

I need this for easily storing URLs into a file without needing to fumble and fiddle around with copying the URL bar and pasting it into a text editor, which costs a lot of time. The browser usually has a Share option.

Additionally, I would like it to be appended to the text file, not overwritten.
I am also fine if a new file is created each time, because some desktop PC commands can easily put 1000 tiny text files into 1 file, and Notepad++ and some Linux commands also support searching all files in a directory for text, even with regular expressions.

Simpletask does what you ask for. It creates a new line in a todo.txt file.

Personally, I use Simpletask Cloudless and sync with syncthing. There is also Simpletask Nextcloud and Simpletask Dropbox. And if you like it, we should donate to the author (just found this amazing solution two days ago, so I didn't do it yet).


How to correct issues of Proximity sensor I have Lenovo a1000.When I am calling,the screen doesn't turn off.I checked for proximity sensor error on Lenovo companion app,its not correct.Please help.

That would be hardware damage. Bring it to your local electronics repair shop or send it back to the manufacturer for repair.


Does the Grand Neo GT i9060 have USB OTG? Does the Samsung Galaxy Grand Neo GT-i9060 have USB OTG (usb-on-the-go)? Can I instantly watch movies directly from OTG without copying files into my phone? If not, is there any other way to get OTG working?

The Galaxy Grand Neo from my reading does not support USB OTG.

You could just stream videos onto your phone from your PC / Desktop, and there are plenty of apps to do that.

There is some great further reading in this question "How can I determine if my device has USB host mode & USB OTG Support."


Lost 2 GB of internal storage after unsuccessful try to swap I have a Alcatel C5 5036, initially with 4GB internal storage
I have rooted it successfully,
I tried to increase ram with "ROEHSOFT RAM Expander (SWAP)",
After some unsuccessful tries,
While any SWAP was not created,
The internal storage decreased to 2.05GB,
2 GB has been lost!
I tried SWAPoff for several times, but there was no any SWAP for it to remove now in storage or any other explorer location, it shows the total capacity of internal storage as 2.05GB, instead of 4GB. Please help me as to how to recover the lost storage.

Try to change partition size using GParted

Using adb you can dump whole internal storage to your PC
this will work only on linux but since you will have to use gparted it shouldn't be a problem
connect phone to the PC and type in the terminal

adb shell
su
cat /dev/block/mmcblk0 | busybox nc -l 6666

aasuming that your pc and phone are in the same network and phone's IP address is 192.168.0.101
in another terminal type:

nc 192.168.0.101 6666 > dump.img

after few minutes transfer should end and then you can edit dump.img using gparted:

gparted dump.img

after editing partition layout dump it back to your phone
(you may need to remount all partitions read-only before it)

adb shell
su
busybox nc -l 6666 > /dev/block/mmcblk0

and in another terminal

cat dump.img | nc 192.168.0.101 6666


How to import photos from a digital camera using USB OTG? I have some simple digital camera for my kids with only internal memory. I do have some windows software for it to import the photos. The windows software looks a bit outdated, but it works.

When I connected it on an Ubuntu machine to read the USB ID ("ID 0979:0227 Jeilin Technology Corp., Ltd JL2005B/C/D Toy Camera") it worked instantly. The memory was mounted as a drive, I could see the photos and copy them!

But when I go on holiday I will have neither a Windows PC nor an Ubuntu machine nearby. I will only have my Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, which supports USB OTG.

When I connect the camera via the USB OTG connector, the camera gives a bleep and on my tablet I see a message "USB connector attached". But I don't see a mounted drive (which I do see when I connect a simple USB memory stick).

Is there some kind of app to import the photos from a digital camera?

Regards,

The camera may be connecting on PTP (Picture Transfer Protocol) or MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) mode, not as a normal USB drive (which uses USB Mass Storage drivers). It shows up in Ubuntu similarly to a USB Mass Storage device, but Android has no support for this out of the box.

You could try an app that supports PTP, such as DslrDashboard, but I haven't tried these personally, so no guarantees.


A stock rom for Samsung Captivate? I need to flash a stock ROM to my Samsung Captivate i897 as a part of unbricking process, but I can't find one. Odin one click roms don't work for me as Odin one click doesn't see my phone (regular ODIN does see the phone so I assume the drivers are ok). I need a rom that I can either install in recovery or using regular ODIN

For samsung stock ROM download log on to http://samsung-updates.com/latest-firmware/

Choose your Device
Choose ROM
Download and then Flash it

Done


Is there a way to completely disable all Bixby functionality without rooting the S9+? I would like to get rid of Bixby altogether and preferably reassign the Bixby hardware button to a different function.

Is that at all possible and if so: how?

This article has a useful guide to disabling bixby.

Disable Bixby Voice
Go to Bixby home. Click the three vertical dots then settings. Uncheck Bixby Voice
Disable Bixby Button
Go to Bixby home. Click the cog. Uncheck Bixby Key
Remove Bixby from Home screen
From home screen, hold down on empty space. Swipe right until you see Bixby home screen. Uncheck Bixby Home.

This other article covers remapping Bixby button. You will have to keep the button enabled. Skip step two in the previous article.
This one is longer, but basically you download an app that will remap the key to what ever action that can be done.
EDIT
As of Android Pie (9.0), this guide is no longer accurate to disable Bixby. The Bixby button can still be remapped using bxActions(free) or Tasker beta(paid)(thanks beeshyams) and Bixby Home can be removed from the home screen. However, disabling Bixby completely will most likely require removing via ADB or possibly using Package Disabler Pro+(Paid app).


host file in android I have a rooted device. I would like to protect my hosts file from being deleted, maybe with a password or something like that. Is this possible?

As is currently stated (revision 4), the answer is No.

Your hosts file is located at /system/etc/hosts, in a filesystem of (probably) ext4. Since ext4 uses regular Unix permissions and Android does not support ACL, you have no chance to do so.

However, I don't think you really should protect it as it's protected by default, because /system is mounted as read-only by default. As long as you don't grant your root access to malicious apps, no one will delete your hosts file.

Moreover, there are alternative dirty approaches but I don't think they're much helpful so I'm not posting them here.


Getting unwanted message "There are trespassing signs. Check it in Observer Settings screen." There are trespassing signs. Check it in Observer Settings screen.

I am getting the above message whenever I open a new app on my Android 4.1.2 Samsung Galaxy Grand DUOS. This has started suddenly when my child was just playing a simple ABC kind of rhymes.
Following things have been tried by me, in the given order, but without success:

Check out which was the last 3-apps installed and uninstalled them
Cleared App-cache
Did a restart

Any pointers or solution is welcome.

It is caused by the app Smart App Protector that maybe you installed and activated an option called Observer. Just check the observer and watch who wanted to enter your apps.

Good luck.


Why does the Android device connect to a secured wireless router without providing a password? During the weekend, I was able to connect to a secured wireless network via an Android device (Asus Transformer Tablet), but when I tried to connect to the wireless network via my laptop it was requiring the connection key (which I didn't know).

Can anyone explain me how was this possible?

I've tried to see the password of the wireless network on the Android device, but (I guess for security reasons) the current password for a wireless network is not shown in its settings.

(The secured network was not previously saved/configured on the Android device.)

Do you have another Android device (like a phone, maybe) that you'd previously connected to that same Wi-Fi point?

Android 4, Ice Cream Sandwich, (and possibly older versions too, though I don't have any to hand to check) has an option to sync saved Wi-Fi passwords between different Android devices on the same Google account. Here's the option under Settings -> Backup & Reset on my phone:

There are also apps that allow you to sync Wi-Fi passwords between your laptop and your Android devices, though I assume you'd know if you had one of those installed.


The size of the MMS message What is the maximum size for an MMS message that any Android phone can handle? and is there a way to increase this size?

Short Answer:

The maximum size for MMS is rather carrier-dependent, and usually is set to 300kB. For your second question, you might want to check Manually edit your max MMS size limit.

More details:

As for changing the limit, there are several consideration to be taken. Sure one can alter any limits, but usually there's a good reason for their presence. As Zuul pointed out (see comment below), you may then be able to successfully send a message of, say, 1MB size -- but that doesn't necessarily mean the recipient is able to receive (let alone read) it. Consider the 300kB limit as "smallest common denominator" between your phones capability, your carriers capability/configuration and the receivers capability.

So if you are pretty sure what you are doing (say, you know your phone can handle 500k at least, the recipients phone can do so as well, and both your carriers support it), increasing the limit might enable you to exchange MMS up to 500k with that recipient -- while failing to do so with others.

To me, this was never a question. If I need send some message, I use email. It's cheaper than MMS, and works between phones and PCs and Macs and... Exception: the recipient has an "older phone model" without email capabilities. But then chances are good it cannot handle MMS either -- so I have to stick to 160 chars with SMS telling him to lookup his mail :)


Which modem firmware for Samsung Galaxy S (GT-I9000) works best with the mobile networks in Russia? Trying to use a Samsung Galaxy S device coming from China or Korea in Russia lead to the observation that the quality of the connection to the mobile network is much worse than on Samsung Galaxy S we used previously (which was bought in Russia).

I have installed CyanogenMod 10.0 on the device in the hope that the mobile network connection quality would improve. But that doesn't seem to be the case.

Now I see information that there are different firmware available for the modem; one should try to flash them to get modem working well in a specific region --https://android.stackexchange.com/a/44021/13117:

  Well, I guess you should flash another modem file, which is working
  well for your region/carrier (use google . A modem file defines how
  the radio part of your phone works, it has an influence on signal
  strenght/network speed (and might have influence on battery life,
  too).

and http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1158783 lists a lot various modem firmware for the device.

Which one to choose for Russia, Moscow (Megafon mobile network)?

(The one that was working bad for us is XXJPK, and--on another device from China or Korea--SPJG2, which also has bad/unstable signal, but not as bad as XXJPK. After the installation of CM10, XXJPK on that device was replaced with XXJVT, which again has very bad signal.)

(Initially, the device had XXJPK radio firmware, and it worked bad in Moscow (Megafon operator). Another device had SPJG2 radio firmware, and it worked a bit better here.)

Then I tried:

XXJVT, which was installed together with CM10. And it worked almost as bad again (no signal in our apartment, where previously another Samsung Galaxy S had connection);
JW1, JW4 (radio-cm-7-GalaxyS-JW4-signed.zip), which were bad again;
Modem_XXJVT-CWM3.zip (again XXJVT) couldn't be installed into my device with CM10 from my CWM-based recovery (something incompatible); radio-cm-7-GalaxyS-JVT-signed.zip, which worked bad;
and, finally, ZSJPG_ICS.CM.I9000.zip (from CM10 files) works better! -- it has better signal in many places (but not as good as some other old mobile telephones with the same SIM card in the same places). (I saw a good reference to ZSJPG in a message at xda-developers from April 2012: "What do you prefer for a good stable rom in Holland? -- ZSJPG..best modem ever made"; I started searching for it because I saw it among the popular/most-downloaded radio-modem-firmwares for SGS at 4pda.ru (in Russian); in another thread at 4pda.ru (in Russian), it is listed among the modems for Asia, and there is a comment below saying that JPG was the only one that worked good for that person in an office building.)

(Feel free to give other good tested radio firmwares here, if you have some experience or information!)


Widget to show alarm information on HTC Desire Is it possible to have information about scheduled alarms always visible on the screen? Ideally, as a widget with the list of alarms, or at least just the time of the next alarm somewhere, so I could always know this information at a glance, without opening alarm settings screen.

For now, I have to regularly check my alarm settings by clicking on the clock widget, which is inconvenient. Also, there is an alarm icon in the status bar, which is rather useless because I have several alarms at different times and at least one is always enabled.

I use a widget called "Digital Clock Widget", free from the Market. It's a simple clock/date widget, which can be configured to also show the day and time of the next alarm.


Why does Google Wallet depend not only on the Phone but the Carrier as well? I'm trying to use Google Wallet on a Moto X at Duane Reed.  I'm under the impression that this should work.

However, when I browsed the help file for Wallet, it lists a number of Moto-X compatible devices, but they also list the cellular service.

What is the technological, or vendor relationship that is needed in order to Google wallet work with Moto-X with T-Mobile?
Why is there a dependency outside of the actual phone?  Is the cellular operator working with Google, sharing my PII, and monitoring my transactions?

My goal is to understand the extent the cellular operator is monitoring my on-device actions, and purchases.

The Google Wallet Privacy Policy specifies that personally identifiable information and transaction data are only shared with the carrier if necessary to allow carrier billing (that is, where purchases made via Google Wallet appear on and are paid through your phone bill).

The relationship between Google and the carriers for this purpose is a purely business one. The only involvement of the carrier in the transaction is (a) if carrier billing is involved, as I said above, or (b) if you use 3G to make a payment over Internet, instead of through NFC. As eldarerathis says, several carriers have payment services that compete with Google Wallet, and Google can't afford to fall out with carriers.

If you're worried about privacy from your cellular operator, please do remember that they have the ability to "customize" your ROM, if you buy your phone through them. Software that monitors your on-device actions and purchases might already be installed on your phone, before you even start using Google Wallet


I can't unlock bootloader of my moto g xt1033 android 4.4.4 Guys I've been stuck at this step for a while. My device as Motorola says is unlockable and I also have the unlock code but still it says in the command window that error occurred. I've installed android SDK and in it I've installed the platform-tools and all the other build tools.

Link  to screenshot:https://www.dropbox.com/s/wgqpq7jdki6sik5/Untitled.png

There is a bug in Android KitKat 4.4.4 which causes this issue. A thread in the motorola forum explains how to resolve the issue.

Follow these instructions only if you have upgraded to 4.4.4! If you have 4.4.3 or 4.4.2 it is more likely that you misspelled your unlock key.

Download the boot loader patch (this the link from the forum)
extract the ZIP file & read instructions
your user data might be erased as part of this process
Then run following commands:

$ fastboot flash motoboot motoboot_41.15_testdrive.img
$ fastboot reboot-bootloader
... your device will reboot in fasboot mode

$ fastboot oem unlock [UNLOCK KEY]
... wait for unlock confirmation ...
... you might see some error messages here, ignore them...

$ fastboot flash motoboot motoboot.img
$ fastboot reboot


How to get mp3 files form Saavn app I am using Saavn for listening to and downloading music. The problem is that the app downloads all of its data to my internal storage. I have only 8GB of storage in which only 5.23GB is user usable.

Now the cache size of Saavn is more than 2GB. I don't have space to install new apps but I don't want to delete the songs.

I tried to move the mp3 files. I navigated to the Android > Data > com.saavn > songs folder and found mp3 files whose names are random 10+ digit numbers. When I try to play these files My music players is unable to play them. I even tried other apps like N7 Music Player.

Is there any way by which I can either extract the mp3 files or I can change the storage to SD card? I see no option for this in Saavn.

It will vary depending on your phone and version of android. But in Settings>Applications>Saavn you should find a Move to SD button which will move the app and its data to the SD card.

If the app was preinstalled on your phone the button will not be there since the app probably cannot be moved out of the system partition. In which case, I recommend clearing the app's cache and using a different service that can be installed on the SD card.


Is it possible to transfer EVERYTHING from one Nexus 5 to another? I just broke the screen on my phone, and the way my insurance works, they're going to replace it with a new one...

However, I've spent a lot of time setting up everything in my phone, and would like to not have to do it again...

Is it possible to transfer EVERY SINGLE BIT OF DATA on my phone to my pc, and then restore it in a new one?

Yes, there is. It's called making a Nandroid backup.

The complete steps are outlined here, but before you even proceed, you'll need to root your phone. You can't do this without rooting. Rooting is the process of gaining superuser access on your phone.

Since you have a Google Nexus 5, you should read the instructions for rooting it available over here and here.

After you have rooted your phone, you might want to install a custom recovery tool like ClockworkMod Recovery or TWRP.

After you've completed both those steps (got root, installed a custom recovery), all you need to do it reboot your device into recovery mode and perform the Nandroid backup.

UPDATE: To restore the backup on your new phone you'll need to root it as well. And install a custom recovery too. After that, you can boot into recovery mode and restore the nandroid backup.


Authentification wi-fi with my Android? I have an Hisense L675, Android version 6.0.
I haven't Wi-fi connection at home YET and I use my USB pendrive to my PC HP 15-AY094NL. Sometimes I would like to connect it and use it like Wi-fi with Hisense L675. But it doesn't work. I tryed everything for example turn off the mobile phone or my computer but I don't know what to do.

I know that that there is a way to connect your mobile phone to your PC via USB to use internet, but I don't know a way like Wi-fi, there are some apps that probably can do it but I think you have to pay. Look at this link and say me if I helped you


How can I determine USB host controller type I'm trying to determine wheter my tablets have:

Open Host Controller Interface (OHCI)
Universal Host Controller Interface (UHCI)
Ehanced Host Controller Interface (EHCI)

Is there any tool that could help me to determine it?
My tablets are:

Samsung GT P3110
GoClever R76.2

I was told i would not have permissions to comment here?!? Therefore here my comment.

Perhaps you could have a look on what additional cables are available for your device. If you want it to be usb master there's a universal cable that works well. But if you want hdmi connection, make sure you take a samsung adapter for your samsung device, the standardized version won't work, samsung has it's own protocol there.


How to login to Pokemon Go with different Gmail account than in Oreo phone? I have a different Gmail account connected to my Pokemon Go than the gmail account in my phone.
The game attempts to use phone's gmail account, and it does not allow to set login details manually.

How thinking how to troubleshoot?
Niantic's support forum is down, and I cannot ask the question there.

Phone: OnePlus 3T
OS: correspondent to Oreo

You cannot. This is a "design bug" in the game system.


Difference between GINGERBREAD.DDLJ1 and GINGERBREAD.DDMA3 build number on Samsung Galaxy Y Duos? I am using Samsung Galaxy Y Duos phone. Today, my phone showed the notification for software update. So, I clicked on it and installed the updates. The update was more than 12 MB in size.

Before update, my phone was showing GINGERBREAD.DDLJ1 build number. Now, it is GINGERBREAD.DDMA3.

I Googled for it, but did not get any information about it. Is this build number given by Samsung or Google? How will I know what this update changed, or what new features it added to my phone? How will I know what performance impacts it has on my phone?

Normally whenever we update the app, it shows changelog about changes or new features to be added to that app. But, they are not providing any kind of changelog after the OS update.

DDLJ1 and Builds starting from DD are the roms basically made for Indian based samsung models. These are official update pushed by Samsung called OTA updates. For more info on samsung's builds you ca refer http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/1/


An app keeps sending me to a website i dont want to be sent on When i installed an app after a few days it started opening chrome on random time intervals that keep sending me to baovendt.org
How to fix it?

The best way is to uninstall the app, here's how:

Open Settings
Find "Apps and notifications"
Select "See all (how many apps you have) apps"
Locate the app and tap on it
Tap on "Uninstall"
A dialogue will pop-up, now press "OK" to finish the uninstallation.


Phone stuck in ADB sideload I recently try to reset my android phone by power off, power on and volume up button.

There're several option but once I push volume down once and volume up once, it stuck with alarm sign and android logo. Below the logo said

  Now send the package you want to apply to the device with adb sideload <filename>.zip...'

What should I do to fix this?

if you can't take out the battery of your device and if longpressing whatever does not solve it

install adb on pc.
connect device with usb cable to pc
enter following command on pc

adb sideload /dev/null

the device will complain that file is not valid but it will come out of the sideloading state


Can a app store data beyond uninstallation? I've an app that creates an account for me but uses no login credentials (starting the app logs me into the account).

When I uninstall and reinstall the app it still logs mit into my account.
When I reset my Android Phone (e.g. new OS) it does not remember my account

My question is: What possibilities could this app have to do such behaviour and how do I eradicate it completely from my phone when uninstalling it?

A lot of apps leave behind what I like to call junk files.

There's an app called SD Maid which helps you clean up your F.S. (filesystem). There is also Ccleaner and System app remover, these apps will assist you in cleaning up cache and removing apps. You can also navigate to /sdcard/Android/data/ and remove any left over folders an app may have left behind.

What I like to do is clear the apps cache and then uninstall the app. I hope this helps.


Is it possible to flash CM for Samsung S3 I9300 on different version? Is it possible to flash CM on a different version? The other one is a SCH-I939 which was bought in China. Can someone explain to me how I can do it and why I can't flash it? I flashed CM13 on the SCH-I939 but it shows not SIM card. The sim card is a US one and works on other phones so there is definitely no problems with it.

Thanks in advanced!

Simply no.

i939 is a China Telecom variant, and has a CDMA baseband, along with other minor differences (there's a variant of i939 itself that even differs in dimensions). Unless the build was specifically marked as compatible with multiple variants (e.g.  S3 Qualcomm versions, aka d2lte, share a single CM build), the build will be limited to that model only. It's even more obvious considering i9300 is a GSM-only device.


(feature discontinued) Google Hangouts phone app: How to start a group SMS where one of the recipients is a Hangouts user? I'm actually answering my own question here, and the purpose for this is because the question hasn't been clearly stated before.

Imagine the following scenario:

I have a friend named Joe who uses Google Hangouts on his cell phone
I have a friend named Mary who uses a cell phone, but does not have
Google Hangouts

I would like to send a group message to both of them.  I know that Joe can receive SMS or Hangouts, but Mary only has the capability to send/receive SMS/MMS.  How can I ensure my message is compatible for Mary?

You can do this in two different ways:

Method 1:

In Hangouts, tap the + button
Tap "New SMS"
Find Mary and tap on her entry.  The combination of step 2 and 3 will solidify the message as an SMS.  If you select Joe (our Hangouts contact) first, it may convert to a Hangouts message, so it is important to start with your SMS contact first!
Find Joe and tap on his entry
Tap the green arrow to continue.  In my case, I have two numbers I can send from (my carrier number or a Google Voice Number), so I would select my desired number.

Method 2:

In Hangouts, send a message to Mary
While staying in Mary's conversation, tap the "three dots" button in the upper right
Tap "New Group MMS"
Find Joe and tap on his entry
Tap the green arrow to continue.  In my case, I have two numbers I can send from (my carrier number or a Google Voice Number), so I would select my desired number.

Testing

In either situation, you can test if you were successful by tapping the "three dots" button in the upper right of your group message.

If the dropdown has an option for "Delete", then you are in a group SMS/MMS
If the dropdown has an option for "Leave", then you are in a hangout

Tested on Hangouts version 10.0


How to save Google search to My contacts Is it possible to, after searching for people or business on Google maps or on Google, to save the info to my contacts directly without typing in the info yourself? Unfortunately no longer have the option on Google maps to save contact, and I'm not sure I why Google removed that option. Maybe a different app would be an option, if anyone know one that would work? I have a Galaxy S5

When you search for the business (or person), it will give you a phone number, if you click on that phone number, it will open the dialer.

Somewhere on the dialer there will be an option to add to contacts (on stock android it is at the top), click that, then click new contact, fill in the name, and you are done.

However, this doesn't include the name, or address, and I don't think there is an easy way of adding those (unless you have a business card with an nfc tag).


How to efficiently install same apps on 2 phones? I have a main phone and a backup phone. Main phone is functional and has a bunch of apps installed. How do I install all the same apps on the second phone while using same Google account?

Transfer all apk files of apps to backup phone using any transfer app or Bluetooth. And install all that apk files in backup phone.

There is not required any internet data.


Voicemail app that doesn't require carrier voicemail I'm looking for a voicemail app that will answer my phone after a configurable number of rings and route the caller to voicemail stored on the Android device.

I don't have voicemail with my carrier.

I'm not interested in features of Google Voice because it seems to piggyback on real voicemail and also I don't want to port my phone number to another service if indeed that is required.

(Note: I remember doing something similar on a PC desktop years ago when the phone line was hooked into the modem, the computer would act as voicemail.)

Try if any of these apps work for you. It would depend on your phone, as android has limited support for total offline answering machine capabilities due to technical barriers. See this thread on XDA. If your phone isn't compatible, you might have the following issues:

Not be able to record calls
Record the conversation at only one end
Very low sound quality or volume

Google voice doesn't depend on your voicemail. The calls are recorded on google voice's servers.


"Can't connect to camera", Nexus 6 - Lollipop 5.1 My Nexus 6 is unable to start the camera. The google camera app hangs when it starts and nothing shows up. Earlier the camera used to open but it lagged a bit when HDR was on. Now the camera isn't opening anymore. The other apps like Instagram that use the camera are also not able to open it. The app opens up and hangs, nothing shows up just black screen and sometimes the message "Can't connect to Camera" appears. This issue came after 5.1 and I also had buzz launcher installed once but then I removed it. The phone is less than 7 months old.

What I've tried:

Forced stop the app (Google Camera)
Cleared cache of the app
Booted in recovery mode and wiped cache partition
Factory reset the device

Nothing worked for me, I tried these steps one by one and then tested the camera but it is still not working. Please help me with this, I paid a lot of money for this phone on my own and it feels really bad and annoying that the camera isn't functional anymore.

Thanks in advance.

Update: after no solution was found and no help from Motorola, Google or flipkart, I have sent the phone for repair to the service center.

The phone is back from the service center and it works fine again. They told me that they had to replace the camera unit. It took them more than 2 weeks to get this done though. The people there were not aware of the actual reason for the issue to occur, neither were they concerned. But I'm happy that it works now.


Reinstall default apps on Galaxy S3 before updating to Jelly Bean I want to update my Galaxy S3 to Jelly Bean but after downloading the firmware using Kies, it starts updating, but then it stops with a "dead" Android with a red triangle icon.

I think it's because I have removed some default apps like ChatOn and Yahoo widgets.

Is there any way to get them back or to install the official Jelly Bean update without a factory reset? I don't want to reinstall my apps again and lose my settings each time I need to update the OS (I also don't want bloatware apps that are pre-installed).

EDIT:
I have ClockWorkMod recovery installed. I think that might be the problem. Is there any way I can flash the stock recovery only?.
My operator is vodafone from Portugal.

Any ideas?

Depending on what network you are on the official OTA update may be your easiest answer. When I updated my razr m  from ICS to JB 4.1 on verizon with the offical JB OTA update, none of my data was lost, didn't have to reload any apps, or reset options.

Also when you clear your user data your phone may automatically re-download apps that you previously had. In my case when I cleared my user data to root my phone, it re-downloaded all the apps I had before the clear but unfortunately the options for the apps were reset.

You may want to try clearing only your cache first (that will not erase any contacts or apps) and try reinstall again.


Find Proxy IP address used by Android app I use the "Proxy Browser For Android" app on the android platform, developed by Abhinav Singh.

It uses a proxy to enable the user to browse anonymously.

I really wish to know the ip address used by the app.

My question is: How do you closely monitor the internet traffic on an Android ?

I am an Android developer, so I use ADB to connect Android to the pc, and issue commands to android from the pc. Is there an ADB command that I can use to see internet traffic or even get logs etc ? If not, then, is there an app for that ?

The easiest way to monitor Android internet traffic is to connect it to a Wi-Fi network and run Wireshark on the router. That way, you can do whatever you like on the Android device while watching the packets go past on the Wi-Fi router.

An on-device solution can be less convenient, because you have to do the activity you want to monitor, then switch to the monitoring app to see the results. In addition, you need to have root on the device to monitor other apps' network traffic. In some cases this can change the behaviour of the app you want to monitor, though I don't expect that'll be a problem for you. Network Log is an open-source example of an on-device network logging/monitoring app.


What is ROM porting? This might be the silly question but am bit new to Android world so I wanna know what does porting of rom means?wanna know in detail

Porting a ROM is basically having the features of one devices to another devices. By using a Custom ROM you can add software capabilities your device doesn't have provided your phone's hardware supports it.

For example, if your phone manufacturer ships your phone with KitKat and doesn't offer upgrade, you can use Custom ROM and upgrade your phone to Lollipop, MarshMallow etc. However, if your phone doesn't have an OTG hardware, you can have ROMS that support OTG but since your hardware doesn't support it you cannot have it enabled.

Making the ROM from scratch is difficult but Porting isn't too difficult.


Is there any way to make Android Market "global"? Possible Duplicate:
  How can I circumvent regional restrictions in the Android Market?

What I mean is, is there any way to make the recommendations offered by Android Market be the same as the ones shown on the Android Market website. The app version currently shows localised rankings, which is very annoying because there's a ton of low quality apps and regional stuff which I couldn't care less about.

Y'know, kinda like the option that you get on Youtube.

There is no way to make the market global, but you can change your region with MarketEnabler. Simply set it to US and you will see the same, as on the website.
Notice: You need root access!


1080p is missing from Youtube App i am using android 4.4.2 which came preloaded on Android TV BOX, it is capable of playing 1080p videos on it , and ican see them on my big TV too which is also 1080p TV,

But when i use Youtube App from Google in Android TV Box , there is no 1080p option to play the youtube videos in 1080p the max option there is 720p,

How can i get 1080p option in youtube app ?

My box i set to 1080p 60 Hz,
Tv is set to 1080p 16:9

i have tried other moethods i found on internet like,

Reinstalling youtube app, cleaning app data, rebooting various time, changing prop value to 4.4.2 android which already is 4.4.2

but still no luck, so how can i view youtube videos in 1080p ?

This is the behavior of the YouTube app, it won't allow you to watch 1080p with hdmi plugged in. There is a xposed module for this ( http://repo.xposed.info/module/uk.co.villainrom.pulser.youtubeallowfullscreenhdmi), if you are willing to root your device. Otherwise use another YouTube app.


Why does Android require you to revert back to factory version in order to disable a system app? In Android, you can go to the App info page and do things like see how much data storage it's using, force stop the app, and uninstall it. If the app isn't installed via the Play Store or APK (ie, it's installed in the /system partition), the Uninstall button is replaced by the Disable button.

Why does the Disable button require the app to be rolled back to the factory version before it will disable it?

No, no, no.
Reverting to the factory version is not required to disable an app.
It's simple. The dev team think that by disabling, you mean you don't need that app anymore so it's of no use to keep an updated version, so they decide that the 'Disable' button will take the same place as 'Uninstall Update', resulting in less buttons in the app info page.
In actuality, you of course can disable a system app without reverting to factory. However this requires command-line operations, like adb or a terminal emulator. Type in

pm disable com.example.foo

and hit carriage return, the app will be disabled without reverting.
To re-enable, type in

pm enable com.example.foo

and hit Enter.
That's all. Pay attention that you should replace com.example.foo with the actual package name.


What exactly is synced with Google? If you enable syncing to Google, what exactly is synced in a more technical way? E.g. about syncing app data, I guess there is just one standard path synchronized? Has anyone seen a more technical documentation of the synching, that describes, what exactly is synchronized?

You can check this e.g. in the Honeycomb User Guide. Basically, it sums up to the following:

Android Settings, as WiFi networks incl. passwords, user dictionary, etc.
Settings of many Google apps, as e.g. browser favorites
Apps downloaded from the Playstore

Additionally, app developers can use this API to have their apps data backup'd along -- but only few do so. Furthermore I wouldn't rely on this backup -- there are many reports that, while the backup works, the restore not always does: It seems there's no way to manually trigger it, and on initialization after e.g. a factory reset (or with a new device) it often fails. also, as far as I know, it's an all-or-nothing thing: You can have it let all your backed-up data restore (as described before), or not.


How to Have better on-screen Gesture-control in CM13 of many phones? There is currently drawing circle (camera) and drawing V (flashlight). However, I would like to have other shortcuts such as drawing up-arrow.
I have noticed that the first two gestures are specific to Oneplus phones.
I have not managed to get them for Samsung phones.
So it would be great to find some software which gives you sufficient gesture-control in all phones.

Phone: Oneplus 2, Samsung Galaxy S4, ...
OS: Cyanogenmod 13

Not supported by default at the moment. Waiting for better sensors in the devices.


How to trace a process sending data over network? I found that some mobile data is consumed by unknown process. There's a huge difference between my ISP report and glasswire report, around 40mb for each 100mb used.

I know my phone is infected and someone spying on me but couldn't find how to get rid of that.

I wiped boot/recovery/data/cache and dalvik partitions before installing a custom ROM (dotOS) from a trusted computer. I managed to root the phone and install a firewall to check what's happening but got nothing worth it.

My assumption is that some process is still running somewhere, I have no idea how can I, at least, see what's going on. I do not have any background with Android development but I understand most of the concepts around it.

It's not a system application so please do not mention that.

There are multiple ways to sniff outgoing network traffic. Since Android uses Linux kernel, we can make use of in-kernel reliable firewall: netfilter which is controlled using userspace utility iptables. It's the easiest available option for rooted phones.
Through a root commandline:

# iptables -I OUTOUT -j LOG --log-prefix "SNIFFER " --log-uid --log-level 7

This will log all outgoing traffic to kernel log that you can capture and save to text file:

# dmesg -w | grep SNIFFER

This will provide you uid of the all the processes sending out traffic, which can be used to trace the processes.

AFWall+ app also makes use of iptables owner module to block traffic from certain user/system apps (UIDs) including root.

For further details on capturing packets, see View network traffic requested by app.


Turn on bluetooth if wifi is not connected to some network and turn off wifi after that I've managed to do that, but I have a problem.

First, bluetooth turned on even If I was turning wifi off manually, which is not what I wanted. I wanted bluetooth to turn once I'm out of home.

So I added if not wifi ~ on clause to bluetooth turn on action. And this is working alright.

But now I have another problem. If I'm using turn off wifi in sleep mode. Then wifi after entering the sleep mode bluetooth is turned on. I don't want that. How can I do what I really need to, which is if I'm on the street, then turn on bluetooth and turn off wifi?

This would require using a "custom variable" – let's call it WANT_BT for a reference – and some additional profile:

on "monitor start", set an initial value for it. Which that is, depends on your usage: say you've got WiFi on usually, set it to 0 here, otherwise set it to 1 in this place. Experiment a little which is better fitting. Alternatively, make it depending on whether WiFi is on at this time. We'll interprete this as "Do we want BT to be turned on when WiFi switches off?" with "0" as "no" and "1" as "yes".
in your sleep-mode profile, set it to 0 in the task. Optionally set it to 1 in the exit task (Tasker should restore the "before-value" automatically)
in your BT task, check this variable additionally (i.e. "turn BT on if WiFi is off and %WANT_BT% is 1")

You might have to adjust some other profiles triggering WiFi, but that should basically cover it: BT should only be turned on when "wanted". Even if you manually switch off WiFi via a toggle widget (or the shortcuts), BT would only turn on in situations where you WANT_BT :)


Root Android virtual device with Android 7.1.1 I'm using the official Android SDK with the Android Emulator to create a virtual Android 7.1.1 (x86). I need to test a number of things, amongst others, some applications require root access to the device.

Now I know that I can adb root and I have a root shell, but that doesn't allow the apps I install to have root access.

I've researched this topic now for a while and have seen various approaches. Most answer haven been posted rather long ago.

I think it's quite odd that there's no option to toggle root - this is after all an SDK.

How do I root an Android virtual device, running Android 7.1.1, effectively allowing installed apps root access?

edit: I'd rather not resort to paid emulators like Genymotion if possible.

edit2: This is solely for personal use.

edit3: Genymotion appears to be a viable solution, as an alternative emulator. How come Android SDK/Emulator does not offers such a feature?

edit4: The answer by xavier_fakerat seems to work perfectly fine, however since Android Studio version 3.1 this doesn't seem to be a permanent rooting. Once the AVD is rebooted, root access is gone.

How to root android emulator (Android 7.1.1/ Nougat)
I’m pleased to inform the community of  an easier way to root android emulator (run from standalone Android SDK)
Requirements:

SuperSU app (chainfire) latest version 2.82

Recovery flashable.zip (contains su binary)  (Here is alternative mirror link for flashable zip if the main link is not working : Flashable zip super su 2.82 for all roms)

Note: SuperSU is now deprecated, but this method still works to root the emulator, and more updates will be given for newer rooting methods.
Instructions

Install the SuperSu.apk

Install the SuperSu app firstly, just do drag and drop (if running latest emulator version or sideload through adb i.e adb -e install supersu.apk)

After installing it, when you run it shows a screen as shown below indicating “There is no SU binary installed..”. This error just confirms the device is not yet rooted.

Make emulator’ system partition writable

As it suggests, we need to give the emulator permission to write system files.

Type the following code to accomplish this: emulator.exe -avd {emulator_name} -writable-system

Note: Navigate to the tools folder where Android SDK is installed and open command prompt there by pressing shift and right clicking.

Pushing su binary in system directory

Extract the Recovery flashable.zip (containing the su binaries of different architectures)

Important! Only use the su binary that matches your avd architecture e.g x86, arm etc.., and note the path where you extracted these binaries.

Make sure you are running adb as root and also you need to remount.
Just enter these codes

adb root
adb remount
Now its time to push the su binary:
This is the code I successfully used:  adb -e push C:\%USERPROFILE%\Desktop\rootemu\x86\su.pie /system/bin/su
(nevermind about my specific location of su binary, any location is okay as long there is no white space)
If this fails try this pushing to this directory instead /system/xbin/su. Also for emulators running android 5.1 and below use the su and not su.pie

Change permissions of the su binary

Next let’s do a bit of modification of the permissions of su binary. We have to do this in emulator device through adb:
adb -e shell
su root
cd /system/bin
chmod 06755 su

Important!! Take note of su binary path (mine is /system/bin)

Setting the install directive on su binary and set a daemon

Type the codes:
su --install
and for setting up daemon:
su --daemon&
Important!! Take note of spacing

Setting SELinux to Permissive(i.e turning off SE Linux)

Finally turn off selinux through this code:

setenforce 0
That’s pretty much it!! Open SuperSU app and it may ask to update binaries, you can use Normal method.
Open any app requiring SU permissions just to double check and indeed SuperSU ask if you wish to grant it su permissions.

Remarks
Most content in reference was for older android versions and hence the reason for different commands and paths which I modified.
Special acknowledgements;
Special gratitude to Irvin H, whose tutorial inspired me to create this guide after myself having failed countless times, and also after seeing the need for many users to root their emulators too. I hope this will also benefit a lot
Irvin H: Rooting the android emulator –on Android Studio 2.3((Android 4.4)
#Update
As commented by SaAtomic,

This approach is still viable with Android Studio 3.0.1

After upgrading to emulator version 27.2.9 and above it now makes preserving root much easier through snapshot feature (if copying the system.img method isn't working):
Ideally it is more like hibernating the virtual device with config intact, hence everything is preserved.

Snapshots
You can now save multiple AVD snapshots for a given device
configuration and choose which of the saved snapshots to load when you
start the emulator. Starting a virtual device by loading a snapshot is
much like waking a physical from a sleep state, as opposed to booting
it from a powered-off state.

This implies the only requirement to start the emulator is adding the -writable-system parameter to the normal emulator -avd [avdname] command to start the emulator. (Running the emulator just with emulator -avd [avdname] doesn't launch the rooted version/copy or may lead to some error)
Tested on API level 22


Finding out the intents an app uses internally I have an app (Smart Tools) that consists of mutiple distinct subapps. I would like to have an shortcut for a single subapp, so I wouldn't have to open it through the app's main menu.

I'm pretty sure the app uses some specific intent broadcast to open any of the subapps. I know Tasker can be used to broadcast a custom intent to the Android system. If I understand correctly, if I just mimic the intent the Smart Tools main menu uses to invoke the specific subapp, I could start the subapp directly with a Tasker shortcut.

But for that, I need to be able to mimic the intent. Since Smart Tools isn't open source, how do I find out what intent the app uses "internally"?

Easiest solution: Ask the developer!

Reason: It's the most reliable source if he/she answers. You cannot say easily what parameters to set and if it's even allowed to start other activities from your own 'intent launcher' (be it Tasker or something else).

I had a quick look at it, it's a paid app and a small dev. Often those developers really care and respond quickly, especially if it's a paid app. I did so with Titanium Backup in the past and was positively suprised how easy it was.

If you have the information, you can also use the free Manual intent shortcuts app to create a custom launcher.

Google Play has a 'contact developer' button just below the overview description of (most?) apps. Having a look at smart tools, you see that it's there: androidboy1 (at) gmail com

What you could also do:

UC Berkeley has a cool project:
ComDroid. A static analysis tool for identifying application communication-based vulnerabilities

It's a web service where you can upload your .apk to. (Since you ask an advanced question I guess you know how to get the apk of your app). After the upload search the analysis for Malicious Activity Launch, this is the information you want. You might be lucky to misuse it using Tasker, etc.


Installing AROMA File Manager I have to break the pattern on someone's Android phone. I researched on Google and found a way of doing it with AROMA File Manager.

Do I have to install CWM or TWRP or can I use a custom recovery mode to extract AROMA File Manager's file? Does the phone need to be rooted or can it be done without root?

Yes,you need a custom recovery. Aroma runs within a custom recovery.
A custom recovery such as cwm or twrp can be installed without root on most phones, but you will most likely have to unlock the bootloader first.
Exact steps are dependant on what phone model you have.
Most phones are well covered on xda developers, google it.


Can I restore Titanium App Backups from a phone with Android 4.4 to my Android 6 Phone? Im backing up My Galaxy Note 2 with Titanium Backup.
Is it possible to restore Apps + App Data on my Huawei P9 running Android 6?
And maybe even more important: Is that adviseable and will work without problems?

As requested by beeshyams, I'll sum up my comments to an answer here:

There should be no problem as long as you stick to user apps (i.e. apps you've installed yourself – as opposed to apps that came pre-installed with the device). I've done that for years without any issues – though I must admit I've never skipped major Android versions, but always upgraded step-wise (i.e. 2.3 › 4.0 › 4.1/2/3 › 4.4 › 5.x – which means I've skipped 5.0, and maybe some (but not all) of the JellyBeans).

However, it is strongly recommended against restoring system apps and their data across different ROMs, especially across multiple Android versions, as this almost surely will lead to trouble. I've experienced such in the past when just trying to restore data of some system app. So if you need to include system apps and/or their data, first check for alternatives, in this order:

SMS/MMS, APs, contacts, call lists and some more: Use TiBu's XML backups for those. Restore those XML backups, but never directly the app and its data.
apps not covered by XML: If you cannot do without, take extra-extra care. Always be prepared you might need to do a factory-reset. Try avoiding the restore of system apps (which came pre-installed) the best you can: those are more often closely integrated with the resp. ROM than not.
If you really have to restore their data, make it the first thing in your restore process (so the factory-reset doesn't hurt as much), and do it one-by-one each time followed by testing for side-effects. If it breaks something, skip that backup and rather shed some tears1. If you instead want to follow the hints from the footnotes, make the affected app the first to restore data from after your next factory-reset and only go on when you either succeeded including testing for side-effects – or gave up and did your subsequent factory-reset.

Also see beeshyam's answer on How to restore from Titanium Backup with file on computer? for further details.

1Before abandoning it, you can try enabling some troubleshooting-options: In General › Settings, pick the first item in the "Troubleshooting" section (labeled something like "app processing mode") and change that to "AUTO, indirect". That should try to update the tables inside the apps' databases instead of replacing the corresponding SQLite files, thus keeping the table structures intact (if I'm interpreting this correctly that is; in older versions, TiBu had an option called "Migration Mode" at this place, which is gone without a note in the Changelogs – while this item suddenly "popped up", sounding like what "Migration Mode" was supposed to do). You can also check with additional settings from the Troubeshooting sub-menu: especially enforcing system SQLite helped in several cases.


Control Android TV with Android Phone I have a new tv that has Android 4.0.3 installed.

I would like to control the Android system on the TV from my Android based phone. I have tried the following applications.

XBMC - Has a great remote and good interface but I would like to control the whole Android sytem not just an application.

DroidMote - Has a server application that will only run as root. (Yes I could root the TV but that's effort)

TeamViewer - Only offers remote control through view and click.

I understand that sending keypresses and control the Android system may require root due to the need to interface with the Android system but I'm sure there would be a way to do this without root and Android to Android should be very compatible.

Suggestions??

Specs

Android - Phone
http://i.imgur.com/ZhEKh.png

Android - TV
http://i.imgur.com/quPrq.jpg

I just briefly read through the manual for your television found at Kogan's website, and as far as I can tell, the only available connection interface other than the typical IR used by remote controls is network-based. That means whatever application you use has to be supported both by the serving device (i.e. your TV) as well as use the local network protocol, much like the Netflix application has recently built in.

From what I read about DroidMote, it's going to be similar to TeamViewer, however you have the added downside of needing root, which I understand you're attempting to avoid.

I'm not necessarily presenting a suggested solution here, but I did want to call out some of the limitations I've spotted while digging. I think you've listed the best out-of-the-box options thus far, so I'm afraid I have no additional suggestions beyond.

Good luck.


Can a device pretend to be a USB keyboard? What I'm looking for:

Is there a way to make the device claim to be a keyboard/HID when plugged into a USB port and "type in" the contents of the clipboard? More accurately; What would it take to make it happen?

Motivating use case:

I have a password keeper program on my phone but it's annoying to have to read the password off the device and try to type it into another computer.

Background:

I have an Android device that was built before MTP was supported for transferring file but, with recent upgrades, now supports it. Based on this, the USB class that it claims to be can't be hardware defined and must be defined in software.

IIRC, this project has Android devices (with what I think is a stock kernel) talking as some USB class that was definitively not built in. This indicate to me that you might be able to control what USB classes it support without kernel work but I don't know for sure.

As for the Host side (i.e. the PC), I've never seen a PC, Mac or Linux box need special drives for keyboards, even for some rather esoteric devices that claim to be keyboards (bar-code scanners, credit card and smart card readers, etc.) so the generic drivers should be good enough for what I'm wanting.

All that argues that what I'm looking for can be done from a hardware point of view, but says very little about what software support exists and nothing about if there is an app for it.

Yes. This is definitely possible, requiring no modifications or drivers on the PC. As the OP mentions, the USB identification on the phone end is ultimately done in software (in this file https://github.com/android/kernel_msm/blob/android-msm-2.6.35/drivers/usb/gadget/composite.c), and it could be modified to identify itself as a standard USB keyboard.

This change would require a couple of things.

A modified kernel with a patched USB driver
An Android app that could talk to some interface exposed by the modified USB driver.

There was a paper published a couple of years ago (titled Exploiting smart-phone USB connectivity for fun and profit) that described using a phone to brute-force desktop login screens. The method they used involved making the phone appear as a USB keyboard.


copying music, pictures and movies from a galaxy s 4g to the pc My daughter would like to copy (not transfer) her songs, pictures and a movie she has on her Galaxy S 4 G cell phone over to our PC.  How can she do this?

It would be really helpful if you mention which operating system your PC is running.

On Windows 7 and above, you simply need to connect the phone to your PC using a USB-MiniUSB cable. You should then be able to access the files on the phone via Windows Explorer. You can then use Windows Explorer to copy files to and from your PC.

On Windows XP and below, you will need to either:
a) download and install Samsung KIES

b) download and install the Samsung Mobile Device USB Drivers

Once the drivers/software are installed, follow the same steps as for a Windows 7+ PC.


How can I change the user agent for the stock browser? I am constantly annoyed by websites that force me into the (often terrible) mobile version of the site and provide no way to switch to the full version.  I know Dolphin for example allows changing the user agent string of the browser to trick websites into delivering the full site, but I don't want to switch.  Is there a way to do this with the stock browser?  I'm open to hacks, and I have a Galaxy S Vibrant running 2.2 (Nero v5 with TouchWiz).

For Galaxy devices, you can simply enter about:useragent into your browser's URL bar. I don't think this "sticks" across reboots, but it's relatively painless to do and doesn't require extra software/hacks/etc. I don't own a Galaxy so I'm not keen on some of the specifics.

If about:useragent doesn't work, then other phones can typically to this instead:

Enter about:debug into the URL bar to activate debug mode in the browser (you won't see any kind of confirmation that this has worked)
Go into Menu->More->Settings and scroll all the way to the bottom. You should see a new menu item called UAString
Tap the UAString menu option and select a different user agent from the provided menu

I have IE6, "Mac Desktop" and "Linux Desktop" as options for mine, all of which give me full versions of websites.

See also this question with info on some of the goodies in debug mode.

The about:debug menu also works on Honeycomb (or later), but the menu is organized a little differently. You enter about:debug the same way, then go into the Settings and you'll find a new settings tab (on the left) simply named "Debug". UAString is one of the first options in this tab.


Bought a new Galaxy S5 New Edition 11 of January 2016,Evening February 05, put in silent mode to sleep,morning of Feb. 6 , phone dead Bought a new Galaxy S5 New Edition( G903M/DS ) 11 of January 2016,Evening February 05, put in silent mode to sleep,morning of Feb. 6 , phone dead, will not start for Beans, removed Battery several times, took to store Tech. no go, told to contact Samsung ? Any ideas ??

I'm assuming a phone bought and activated in the USA:

For a phone that new, I'd certainly start with the seller or provider.  If you're getting that "not our problem" response from the store where you bought it (where you should be able to return the phone as defective, for a full refund or exchange to a new -- not refurbished phone of the same model), call the tech support line for the provider.  They should be your first point of contact if you bought the phone from them.


How to force the use of jack output every time on rooted phone I have several phone A Xperia Pro a S4 mini duos (soon for sold) and a HTC desire Z.
I sometimes want to disable the speakers so the phone will only output the sound through the headset I plug on it, sometimes the physical detector does not work correctly or the headset is not supported.

What I want is a way to only output sound through the jack and only the jack.
Is there any mod ? trick ? modification of the android kernel ? an app ? that could do the trick ?

All my phones are rooted and unlocked flashing stuff is not an issue

Try something like toggleheadset2. It's an app that has sorted that sort of problem for a lot of people. Hope that does the trick.


Images are not being scanned in Kitkat I have nexus4 with Kitkat 4.4.2. I added .nomedia file in DCIM/Camera folder. After restarting the phone, Gallery didn't show any of the pics from that folder. I removed the .nomedia file from the folder, but the gallery doesn't show any images. After rebooting the phone couple of times and trying few media scanning apps, it shows new images which I took from the camera. But it doesn't show any old images.

What could be the problem? What can I do so that it shows old images too?

Many media scanner apps do not work as expected on KitKat. After trying couple of such apps i found that the media scan function in FX file explorer app works 100% every time you use it. It successfully updates your gallery with the changes.

Get FX file explorer from here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nextapp.fx

Open this app, go to 'Main Storage' & run 'Rescan Media' from menu.

Tested on Nexus 5,
Android 4.4.2


“Error while retrieving information from server [DF-DFERH-01]” on Play Store I have a Storex eZee Tab 702 tablet. My Google Play Store was working very well until a few weeks ago, when it started saying,

  Error while retrieving information from server [DF-DFERH-01]

I tried to clear the cache, clear the data, force stop, and downloading another Google Play Store, but I'm still having the same problem.

How can I fix this issue?

for android 5.0

Go to "SETTINGS"
Click "GENERAL TAB"
Scroll down and click "Application Manager"
Scroll across to "ALL"
Scroll down to and click "Google Play Store"
Click "CLEAR DATA"
Go back and now open "PLAY STORE"


Are Google Photos' high-quality pictures compressed even if they're under 16 megapixels? Recently, Google has changed the Google Photos app so that everyone has free and unlimited access to store 16 megapixel files.

The camera on my phone is under 16 megapixels. When I downloaded the app, it asked me whether I wanted to keep the photos in original or high quality.

I would like to take advantage of the free storage so my question is if the photos are originally less than 16 megapixels, is high quality going to be the same as original or would Google compress it more?

Also, what happens to the existing photos on my Google Drive that are less than 16 megapixels? Are they automatically not counted toward my quota or do I need to somehow migrate them to Google Photos? Just that, the majority of the files on my Drive are photos (which are less than 16 megapixels) and since I've downloaded Photos, the space available has not changed.

I just took a picture with my phone (8MP) after configuring auto backup with both Google Photos (with "high quality" option enabled) and Dropbox.

I compared both images and I can't see a difference between them, although the file sizes differ (the image in Google Photos has 1.3 MB and the one in Dropbox has 2.2 MB). I made the same comparison with an older image (when I had the "original" option enabled in Google Photos), and the files are exactly the same.

Seems like Google is really compressing the file, although keeping the image quality.


Can I set a macro to delete media from a particular Whatsapp group or contact? Is it possible to set up a macro using Macro Droid, Tasker, or any other automation app which will delete all the media received from a particular Whatsapp group or from some specific contacts.

I am running Android 6.0 Marshmallow on a non-rooted Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML with stock ROM.

It is not possible

Quoting MacroDroid developer, in future request (dated 21 Feb this year- you can access that from within the app in forum )

  WhatsApp has no SDK/API by design, they don't want third party apps interacting with their service.

When the automation app can't interact with WhatsApp, it obviously cannot set up automation tasks

I am not conversant with Tasker, but the limitation should be equally valid for any automation app


How can I determine the latest released firmware for my Samsung device? This problem eludes me. I have two Samsung Android devices, a Galaxy Tab 10.1 and a Galaxy S2. I keep'em up-to-date using the update option in the settings panel, however, I think I'm not always sporting the newest firmware that was released, maybe because of region issues or some other reason.

So I would like to know if there's a Samsung website or any other source where I can spot the latest stock firmware available?

Thanks all

In general there really doesn't seem to be a good way to keep up with updates that haven't been released directly to you.  I find the best way is simply to be involved in the "Android ecosystem" — reading Android blogs and news sites, and so on.

Sometimes there are stock ROM lists maintained on sites like XDA, for example this one for the i9001, and you can monitor those.

For actually acquiring ROMs, see: Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?


Prevent stock keyboard app from being activated while/after connecting physical keyboard? I have a Samsung I9305 with rooted stock 4.4.4.. I have Xposed framework.

I use SwiftKey.

When I use a Bluetooth or OTG keyboard, SwiftKey is automatically disabled and the stock keyboard is enabled.

Is it possible to

Prevent the change of keyboard and have SwiftKey continue even while using the physical keyboard?
At least make the system automatically change back to SwiftKey after the physical keyboard is disconnected?

I used Root App Deleter to disable the stock keyboard app. That way I just keep using SwiftKey whether using physical keyboard or not.

Note: SwiftKey only lets me use the English layout when using a physical keyboard. I normally type in both English and Norwegian, and like to switch between layouts. The Samsung stock keyboard let me easily do this by pressing alt+Shift. As far as I can see, Swiftkey has me locked onto English layout when using a physical keyboard. If you want to be able to switch between different layouts, you will be better off using the Tasker method suggested by Izzy.

With SwiftKey, the soft keyboard disappears from the screen as soon as the physical keyboard is connected. One catch is that there is annoying message I have to click OK to every time I connect the physical keyboard, but that is okay. It just amounts to a simple press of the Enter key.

Warnings:

This method worked on my particular device and ROM, but there is no guarantee that it will work on other devices and/or ROMs. The app I linked to above requires root. Do NOT delete the stock keyboard app of your device, just disable it. Even disabling the stock keyboard app of your device may in some rare devices and ROMs cause the system to misbehave. If that happens to you you can use the same app to reenable the stock keyboard app again, and use the Tasker method suggested by Izzy in the comments instead.
A very small number of Android ROMs may be unable to reenable apps after having disabled them with this app. The app has a test module that you should run before disabling any apps, to make sure that reenabling them again will work.
With the OS default keyboard unavailable, there might be issues with lock screen (enter password/pin) as well as encryption (same thing), which might rely on the "stock keyboard". Such cases already have been reported here – see e.g. How to enter password for decrypt without system keyboard on android. Especially for the encryption password, this is a logical consequence: the user-installed keyboard app is stored on the user partition (/data), which is encrypted – so the keyboard cannot be loaded before that partition is decrypted, which requires the user to enter the passphrase; a typical dead-lock situation..
In general, use this (and all other) root apps at your own risk, and backup your system with clockworkmod/twrp regularly if you have a rooted device and use root-applications.


Samsung KNOX is not working I'm having a problem with my Samsung Galaxy S4 GT - I9500, it isn't rooted and has the official Lollipop ROM.

Whenever I open KNOX and select setup and press next, it closes and displays the error:  Failed to start KNOX mode, Try Again

Things I've tried so far:

Resetting App preferences.
Booting into Safe Mode and trying to run in Safe Mode.

Does anyone know what might be causing this?

Download Mode :

And Here's detail of my KNOX version :

Once you flash your phone with ODIN then your KNOX flag will ALWAYS be triggered. Even if you flash an official ROM/firmware package. As you can see in download mode: KNOX WARRANTY VOID: 1. That can never, yes I say NEVER be reset back to '0'. So you haven't got any warranty anymore on your phone and you can never use Knox anymore.  Hope my answer helped you to understand the issue.


Unresponsive menu button on several Android apps I have noticed on several apps there is a menu button/icon (three vertical dots) but it is unresponsive and I'm wondering if it's just me or the app. I initially assumed it was just the app, but I have noticed it in several apps now. The menu button responds to a tap, in that I hear the "tap" sound and the button highlights momentarily, but nothing happens - there is no menu?!

Three apps I have noticed today that have a "do nothing" menu button:

Compass (called "Tiny Compass" in the Play store)
BBC iPlayer
Stack Remote

Is this really a "problem" in the app?

This menu button is a backwards compatibility feature. It's displayed on all apps that say they are designed for a version of Android from when Android devices had physical menu buttons. (That's Froyo or earlier.) The Android system can't tell whether such an app needs the menu button or not, so it has to display it to make sure the app is usable on newer devices without the hard button.

If the button annoys you, contact the author of the app and ask them to update their "target version". They can do this and still be compatible with older versions of Android.


Why can't Wi-Fi be enabled in Android-x86 inside VirtualBox? If I enter the Wi-Fi settings of Android-x86 (currently v8.1-r1) inside VirtualBox (currently v6.0.4) and turn it on, why does it just immediately get turned off?

Some Android apps try to find devices inside the network so it's essential (e.g. if you want to use Chromecast and iRobot Home).

If you're running Android within a VM, I suspect the VM software is not allowing the Android VM to interact with your WiFi hardware directly, meaning that Android does not actually see that there is any hardware available for accessing WiFi. If you check your internet connection on the Android VM, does it show you're connected to the internet via ethernet?

There may be a way in VirtualBox's settings to give the VM direct access to your WiFi chip, but I highly doubt that would work based on the nature of running Android via a VM on desktop or laptop hardware.


"OK Google" stops working after a phone call Most of the time, the "OK Google" feature of Google Assistant works fine. I say "OK Google" and it goes into listen mode. However, everytime I finish a phone call, my phone no longer goes into listen mode when I say, "OK Google". Doesn't matter whether it's immediately after the call or half an hour later, it basically just ignores me completely.

Rebooting the phone is the only solution I've found that fixes it. I am currently on Android 7, but I believe this was an issue on Android 6 as well. I have a Galaxy S7.

Is there something else apart from rebooting I can do to stop this from happening?

Go to settings then under app section find google app and after that clear it's cache and data .


BusyBox `ln -s`: How do I create symlink to a directory on external SD-card? How do I create symlink to a directory on external SD-card? Do I have to edit /etc/passwd and add user or root to the sdcard_r group--since, I see that the /storage/ location is owned by sdcard_r? Do I have to change the partition type, ie filesystem of the external sd-card?

I've searched through the previously-asked questions, as well as google-search about the ln function in busybox; however, I'm not able to figure out why I keep getting an error creating link failed File already exists when I try to run ln -s /storage/sdcard1/original_dir/ /storage/sdcard0/DCIM/sym_dir .

I have root privileges and, as far as I can tell, /storage/& sdcard1 are not symlinks themselves. I appreciate any and all helpful comments.  Thanks.

The rootfs (/) as well as /system have to be mounted with rw permissions.

So, to check for that execute # mount |grep -i rootfs and # mount |grep -i '/system'

If you don't see rw for the permissions, do # mount -o remount,rw / and/or # mount -o remount,rw /system


Can you install custom kernels on DroidX running CyanogenMod? Can you install custom kernels on DroidX running CyanogenMod?

Or does the locked bootloader prevent that?

No, The DroidX can not run custom kernels.

"It is still impossible to flash custom kernels on the Droid X, but the ROM developer community has matured to a point where they’re able to make great things happen on this phone without having to rely on changes to the kernel."


Is there an Android video chat client that displays video stream and text messages at the same time? I'm looking for a video chat app for Android, but I'm unable to find one that can display the video stream and text messages at the same time, it's either one or the other.
I tried for example Google Hangouts and Skype and both have this problem.
Screen estate should not be problem since it would be used on a tabled with external keyboard

Is there another app in the market that allows this? If possible I would like also to be able to call Windows clients.

Voice chat programs uses an Internet data stream.  It isn't up to the developer of the application.  No matter which app you find it will be limited based on your phone service provider and the type of phone you have.

Take a look at this (the protocols that are available via some services and phone types:

(taken from this thread, Can I talk and use Internet or other apps at the same time)

  If you really want to know why and how this happens, without all the
  techie speak - - - -

  Verizon's 3G data and voice network is CDMA, and only a device with
  SVDO technology can use voice and data at the same time (as opposed to
  the current standard EVDO) on CDMA. The first device to do this was
  the HTC Thunderbolt. The Galaxy S3 also has SVDO, so you can surf and
  talk at the same time if you have Verizon 3G service.

  The VZW iPhone does not have SVDO, so it can't do it. The iPhone on
  ATT and Tmobile can do this, as those two carriers don't use CDMA -
  they use GSM, which can do voice and data already. I don't know why
  specifically, but just know that Tmo and ATT are GSM and Sprint and
  VZW are CDMA.

  Finally, any 4G LTE enabled phone on verizon can do talk and data at
  the same time, as the data will run over the LTE network and the voice
  runs over CDMA. So, devices like the Moto Droid Razr and other LTE
  phones can do talk and data at the same time, but only if LTE service
  is available. If in a 3G-only area, the Droid Razr can't do talk and
  surf together.

  Make sense?

So if this is a needed feature you would have to shop for a specific phone provider and a specific phone that will allow you to use Data service and Phone service simultaneously... again, limited by the phone service and phone, not the app.


Automated deployment of app to multiple devices I have a business android app and I need to deploy it to 2000 android devices. Is there an automated way to do this? Can I deploy my app, install a widget app from google play and configure it in an automated and tested way? Coming from a web background I'm thinking of something like web deploy. Octopus deploy for example.

(all devices are 4.1.2)

Zebra devices use a program to serve and deploy smartphone apps, called StageNow

You can connect to your devices wirelessly through the same network using the adb from android studio, once connected install the app with an adb command

there should be more options provided by the official android team, in my opinion, some times they treat android developers as if they were all hobbyists, i deploy apps for production in a factory, we use StageNow which allow rapid deployment