How to use Private DNS on Android Pie for tethering? Is it possible to use Private DNS on my laptop that is connected to WiFi shared by my Android Pie smartphone with configured Private DNS?

I tried visiting https://1.1.1.1/help from my phone and it says DNS over TLS is used, but when I visit from my laptop it tells me that it uses plain unsecure DNS.

DNS has traditionally been part of libc. Android's Bionic libc depends on netd for traditional DNS as well as Private DNS (DoT) implementation. See this answer for more details.
Since every app runs in its own stance of Virtual Machine (ART) forked by zygote, so when an app creates a new connection to a remote hostname, DNS queries are made by the VM on behalf of the app, which makes use of DNS resolution in native code. So the whole thing is handled by Java runtime.

When using tethering, a DNS server needs to be run on Android device which listens to DNS queries received from connected hosts. These queries are then resolved as per configuration of DNS server. dnsmasq is current implementation of DHCP/DNS server on Android up to Pie. It's a native daemon, which receives nameservers from TetherController (a part of netd) or /etc/resolv.conf (if no-resolv argument is not passed) or /etc/dnsmasq.conf (using server= option).

So dnsmasq works independently and doesn't depend on libc or netd for DNS resolution. In other case if the tethered device is using some other public nameserver and not dnsmasq, the DNS queries are forwarded to internet as per routing policy and NAT rules. In each case the queries don't pass through Private DNS.

That said, you can use third party solution for encrypted DNS. Go for a robust solution: dnscrypt-proxy on rooted device. See this answer for an advanced setup.
Or use some VPN app like this. But VPN doesn't redirect hotspot traffic through VPN network as far as I have tested on Pie ROM. You have to modify routing table and forwarding rules. This works for me:

~# iptables -t mangle -I PREROUTING -i wlan0 -p udp --dport 53 -j MARK --set-mark 2
~# ip rule add fwmark 2 lookup 5000
~# ip route add default dev tun0 table 5000
~# iptables -I FORWARD -o wlan0 -i tun0 -j ACCEPT
~# iptables -I FORWARD -i wlan0 -o tun0 -j ACCEPT

Additionally NATing might also be needed for some situations. So it seems there isn't a non-root solution.

PS:
Most probably Android Q will have DoT on tethering too because dnsmasq is being replaced with a DHCP service inside Java runtime.

RELATED: How to share VPN connection with devices on hotspot?


Is there any version of gtalk supporting multiple accounts which works with 2.3/cm7 Gtalk 1.3 doesn't support multiple accounts: it just connects with the main one, with no apparent way to switch it.

Upgrading to hangouts technically works, but it doesn't even bother to display user online status, so I'd rather have a real chat app.

Do I have any other option, running on 2.3.7 / cm 7.2.0?

If it isn't an official gtalk version, I'd appreciate if at least it was as good, integrated and non-bloated as it is, such as:
• integrated with address book
• downloads whole conversation (as opposite of just displaying new messages)
• plain and simple

Did you ever tried IM+
I still think hangouts is better, but since you don't like it may by you could give IM+ a chance. Now it will not download all your previous chats that you had on talk, but after you are logged in it should display all messages that you send, recive, even if you are not directly sending them from your phone.


Share WIFI to Computer? Possible Duplicate:
  Can the Samsung Galaxy Tab be used as a wifi-hotspot?

Is their a way I can share the WiFi on my Galaxy Tab on my PC without having a landline internet access already available? My mom and I are really curious because it's hard to do computer projects when you can't save it to a folder that is personal when you have little siblings, please HELP! (:

I think your question is a duplicate, it's a bit hard to understand given how it's worded.  Check out this question.


Is it possible to install Android KitKat or newers versions to Samsung Galaxy Beam i8530? I couldn't find any answer on how to install any android version higher than JellyBean on Galaxy Beam, do I need to buy a new phone?

The phone uses a NovaThor U8500 SoC, the manufacturer of which, ST-Ericsson was dissolved in 2013, not long after its release, thus cutting support for it. Although there are devices with the same SoC having higher Android version and third-party ROMs (namely Galaxy S Advanced and Xperia P/U/Sola), your device appeals to a much more niche market and therefore doesn't enjoy a large enough user base for developers to come and develop for it.

So the definitive answer is, yes, go for something new. And no gimmicks like those projectors - more gimmicks means less possibility for the community to support it.


Termux files permission I have an issue with files permission in termux. For instance I installed c4droid and copied the termux include and lib folders content in the c4droid folder where the headers are being looked for at compilation. I changed the owner and group to the correct name and mode to 777 but at compilation it says "cannot open ****.h permission denied". Same thing with a worldlist that comes from the sd card that I put on a folder meant to be used with hydra, not only have I to use root access to unzip the file and move it around, but hydra itself can't open it. What is this so important thing that I am missing about termux and filed ownership and permissions ?

Okay, from the above comments, hinting toward SELinux blocking acces to the files that are being copied around to the /data/data/ directory of apps. Yes it is SELlinux blockibg the access, you need just to set it to permissive mode with SELinux_switch and dont forget to set the user and group to the app's one. Thank you.
[Edit]
Okay so copying the files from termux with the options -pZL keeps everything in place and once you set the correct owner ans group it will work, I have not tried having a symlink from the droidc includes and libs folder to termux's ones.
If you missed fixing permission while copying files, you cén use /system/bin/restorecon -R (recurse) one both include and lib folders.


Cannot get MTP to work unless USB debugging is enabled I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 (i9300) running Android 4.4.4 (CyanogenMod 11-20141008-SNAPSHOT-M11-i9300).

If I have USB debugging disabled and I plug it into Windows 7 then:

I get a connection sound in Windows
Device manager reports "Google Galaxy Nexus ADB Interface"
The phone reports "Connected as a media device"
but the phone is not shown in Windows Explorer.

If I have USB debugging enabled and I plug it into Windows 7 then:

I get a connection sound in Windows
Device manager reports "SAMSUNG Android ADB Interface"
The phone reports "USB debugging connected"
The phone is shown in Windows Explorer
and I appear to also be able to copy files to and from the device.

This seems completely backwards to me and, given that I'm doing some development with MTP, I would really like it to work how normal people will have it work (as I seriously don't expect that everyone has to turn on USB debugging just to get it to work).

How can I fix this?

Do you have Samsung Kies installed? Samsung phones don't use the generic Google-provided driver for MTP in Windows, but if you install the correct Kies version it'll also load the relevant driver. This post on XDA-forums explains more about the cause, just don't forget to substitute the Samsung driver for the Google one when following the steps.

If you don't want to mess with Kies you can obtain just the Samsung driver portion here.


How do I check bad sector on my android with ADB recovery mode? I am finally able to install CWM on my asus. I suspected the asus didn't do well and there could be too many bad blocks on it's NAND.

So Now that I can do fast boot and recovery and adb, I think I would scan the whole NAND memory and see if something is bad and then mark it.

You know, like chkdsk or fdisk

How would I do so?

You can follow these steps to check your Android NAND chip partition which checks bad blocks:

1.for your data safety,backup your data to pc or cloud first.

2.boot to recovery.

3.unmount all partition in recovery.

4.connect your phone to pc.

5.execute adb shell .

6.use cd command go to your partition directory,usual in:

/dev/block/platform/soc.0/<chip ID>/by-name

or like:

/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name

for example:

cd /dev/block/platform/soc.0/12345678.sdhci/by-name

after enter directory,you can execute ls command show all partition name,like system,cache,userdata,etc.

7.execute e2fsck command with -cfv parameter and partition name,for example,you want check userdata ( /data ) partition with check bad blocks:

e2fsck -cfv userdata

or system partition:

e2fsck -cfv system

Additional Information:

The -c parameter for e2fsck is check for bad blocks and add them to the badblock list, you can execute e2fsck -h get more information.


How to script Android 7.0 to enable Mobile Hotspot AND USB tethering upon startup? I have a router that can use a 4G LTE Android device as a WAN port for Internet access. Whenever the tablet runs out of power, upon restarting, the Mobile Hotspot and USB tethering options default to disabled.

Using Android 7.0 on an LG G Pad X 8.0, is it possible to write a script that automatically enables Mobile Hotspot and USB tethering upon startup ?

If possible, the solution should not require a Google login.

You can use Tasker to accomplish this:

Objective: Auto Switch-on USB tethering and Mobile hotspot after boot

Profile (or Trigger)

Create a Profile which allows triggering of the Task at after boot:

Go to Profiles Tab and click the "+"
Event >> System >> Device Boot
Tap back to exit from this window

Task

You will notice as soon as you exit, you will be prompted to link this Profile to a Task;

Scroll all the way up the Task list select "New Task + "
You can name this Task AutoTethering or anything.
Click "+" to add new Action
Code >> Run Shell [ Command: service call connectivity 33 i32 1, Tick "Use Root"]
Tap back to exit from this task
Click "+" to add another action
Net >> WiFi Tether (Set On)
Press back the way all back until you exit Tasker (your profiles are now saved and ready for execution)

Extras: Give Tasker more priority (allow auto-start for Tasker, exclude from battery optimisations, task killers etc)

Explanation: Soon after boot, the first action turns on USB tethering, and the second option
turns on WiFi tethering (note: there is no need for a second script because Tasker already
has a built in WiFi Tether variable which is capable of handling tethering state)

This should work.  Cheers (tried and tested).


Problem rooting intex y2 aqua 1gb I am trying to root my phone using Ubuntu.
 When I try

  adb reboot bootloader

My device boots into fastboot mode

When I try

  fastboot devices

It list my device.
But when I try

  fastboot oem unlock

It freezes with 3 dots.
Any idea what is the issue?

Not every device is rooted the fastboot way like Nexus phones do, especially when the device in question is a MediaTek one.

I did a quick search and the result checks out: you'll need MediaTek's scatter flashing tool. Read this: LINK: XDA-Developers

I don't have the device so it's up to you to verify whether this works. Either way, do hang around XDA and other forums often for this sort of info.


How to check emails (safely & securely)? I trust Linux more than Android. Likewise, I trust Firefox (with certain settings and certain security-related addons) more than Chrome (or Chromium). I'm new to the smartphone world and couldn't wait for a non-dev Ubuntu Touch release, so I  bought an (Samsung) Android phone. Which I have yet to turn on. So the following question is theoretical for now:

How to check emails in Android (safely & securely) ?

Via an app (which?), via a browser (which?), else ?

Further, I have more than one gmail account. In Linux, I use two separate browsers to check both accounts simultaneously (I'm aware of other solutions, but am happy with that one on my PC). How to do so in Android?

I respect your desire for pirvacy, but if you're so leery of Google-backed software that even the open-source Chromium is suspect, then I don't know that anything simple will meet your needs. I'll do my best to make suggestions for you.

1: Remove the Samsung ROM and replace it with something else.

I'm not a privacy-demanding individual, and even I don't trust Samsung's software. In an ideal situation, you would be using a Nexus 4 so that you can install Ubuntu Touch as soon as it's available. Barring that, you can go find a lot of open-source Android projects like Cyanogenmod or AOKP that have baked-in privacy enhancements. Cyanogenmod (Just for example) is open-source, and doesn't include the closed-source Google Apps by default.
Note that Cyanogenmod recently announced that it's becoming a company, and will no longer be solely volunteer-developed. If you're not cool on that, there are lots of other alternatives. However, I'm pretty sure CM has the best built-in privacy features.

2: After you're on your new ROM, don't install a Google Apps package.

Google Apps, while extremely useful, are closed-source software. We don't know exactly what goes on inside them. If you don't trust Chrome, you probably don't trust Gapps. If you don't trust Chromium, you definitely don't trust Gapps.

3: Instead, use an open-source Android App repo like F-Droid.

F-Droid, a very well-filled repository of free and open-source software for Android, including Firefox, etc, is an excellent source for people leery of Google Play, Amazon App Store, and other closed-source or questionable sources of software.

4a: Use an open-source email client (Like the built-in email app).

The Android email app (not Gmail app) is open-source and generally considered quite safe. But you can't be blamed for being too cautious; there are a lot of email apps available from F-Driod.

4b: Alternatively, use an open-source Browser (Like Firefox, or the built-in browser).

The built-in browser is open-source, but is based on Chromium. You probably want to just install Firefox. However, you will probably not find the addons you use on the desktop available for Firefox here.

More Notes: Installing an ad-blocker from F-Droid will also help a bit. Ad providers try to do lots of tricky things to track users. Mess with security and privacy settings in Cyanogenmod or whatever ROM you choose.

Unfortunately, your Samsung phone may have a locked bootloader. If it doesn't, you should be okay - most of the flagship Samsung phones (S3, S4, Note2, Note3) - when their bootloader is unlocked - have good support from the major Android ROM projects. If, however, your bootloader is encrypted, then I might suggest returning the phone (if still possible) and getting a Nexus 4. Yes, I know this is a "Google" phone. However, it's one of the easiest to bend to your needs. It's also one of the very few that will have immediate and constant support for Ubuntu when it's available. If you don't trust Nexus, then just find something that's well-supported by the open-source community, and has an unlocked bootloader (Galaxy S4's are apparently getting locked by a new update, so be careful!).


How to run an executable on boot and keep it running? I have an executable build from a ndk-build program. I want to run it on a rooted Android device. How much is the possibility that Android will kill my executable?

Using adb shell, I am able to execute my executable using following commands:

adb push executable /sdcard
adb shell
device:/ $ su
device:/ # cd /system
device:/system # mount -o rw,remount /system
device:/system # mv /sdcard/executable .
device:/system # ./executable

My requirement is to run this executable on device boot.

I have tried following:

Write ./executable in init.rc.

On reboot init.rc reset to its original contents. I figured out that Magisk done this.

Write commands in /system/etc/init/bootstat.rc

./executable
service custom /system/executable
on boot
 ./system/dhandler/diag_revealer

None of the above thing is working.

How much is the possibility that Android will kill my executable?

Privileged native processes usually don't get killed by Android except if they can't handle an error occurred inside, such as some system resource not available or permission denied because of SELinux etc. To free up memory, Android only kills processes within its framework i.e. running under zygote. To manage resources for native processes, Android uses cgroups.

Processes are killed when they receive SIGNALS from kernel or other userspace programs (e.g. with kill command) (1, 2). Kernel is the actual operating system, not visible to us but handling everything we do with device. A developer can program his code how to react to a specific signal if received, or completely ignore it (3). Except SIGKILL. Which can't be handled by program, no warning from kernel, no grace period to exit safely, just being terminated immediately. But kernel won't mind your presence unless he gets short on hardware resources or you start misbehaving. That's why programming is important.

Programs can send each other signals (including KILL), which are forwarded by kernel, governed by UID (4). However, init the very first process in userspace started by kernel is the dear one, kernel never forwards dangerous signals to init. And if this happens for some reason, kernel gets panic and reboots (5).

Summarizing above lines, it is possible to avoid being killed (AMAP) programmatically or using some scripting tricks as @alecxs has mentioned. But if you want to make sure that your process should restart if gets killed, define an Android init service.

  On reboot init.rc reset to its original contents. I figured out that Magisk done this.

No, Magisk didn't do this. Android's rootfs is a temporary filesystem (not a persistent one like on /system or /data) that gets cleared on every reboot. Contents of root directory (/) are extracted from another partition named boot which contains kernel and ramdisk (though things have changed with system-as-root). So you can't change init.rc permanently unless you extract, modify, repack and reflash boot.img.

But to define a new init service, modifying init.rc isn't necessary. Android parses all .rc files from /etc/init directories located under /system and /vendor (6). So you can create your own .rc file.

NOTE: In order to get real root privileges and to deal with SELinux, all of the options given below depend on Magisk. See this answer for details.

INIT.D SCRIPT

You can use traditional init.d-like feature of Magisk to start a process on boot. Create script /data/adb/service.d/custom.sh:

#!/system/bin/sh

# write log file if executable throws something at stdout/sterr
exec >>/data/media/0/executable.log 2>&1

# run script in background to avoid blocking boot chain
[ -n "$BG" ] || { BG=Y "$0" & exit; }

# try to ignore signals as much as possible
for i in $(seq 64); do trap '' "$i"; done

# execute script whenever exits e.g. when executable gets killed
trap "sleep 5; exec $0" EXIT

# avoid multiple instances e.g. if script killed but executable is running
pkill -9 -x /system/bin/executable

# execute the binary, should run in foreground, otherwise get in loop
echo "$(date): Starting program..."
/system/bin/executable

# program is killed, won't reach here if script is killed
echo "$(date): Re-executing script..."

* EXIT is shell's pseudo-signal.
* Android's /system/bin/pkill (from toybox) is buggy, better use busybox applet.

Place the executable under /system/bin and set permissions:

~# chown 0.0 /system/bin/executable /data/adb/service.d/custom.sh
~# chmod 0755 /system/bin/executable /data/adb/service.d/custom.sh

You can also place script under /data/adb/post-fs-data.d/ but that's executed a bit earlier. Be sure that filesystem paths (and other required resources if any) are available at that stage.

EXECUTE PROGRAM FROM INIT

Another way is to directly execute the binary from init. Create custom.rc file:

#/etc/init/custom.rc

# execute the binary when boot is completed
on property:sys.boot_completed=1
    exec_background u:r:magisk:s0 -- /system/bin/executable

Set permissions:

~# chown 0.0 /etc/init/custom.rc
~# chmod 0644 /etc/init/custom.rc
~# chcon u:object_r:system_file:s0 /etc/init/custom.rc

And that's all! Restart device for changes to take effect.

However it's a one time execution, won't be restarted. Also there are some shell scripting features not available in .rc files. For instance you can't redirect stdout/stderr to a file, this has to be handled by executable program itself. So we can try to make use of both; shell script and .rc file:

INIT SERVICE

Instead of directly executing binary from .rc file, execute a shell script. Create script /system/bin/custom.sh:

#!/system/bin/sh

# write log file if executable throws something at stdout/sterr
exec >>/data/media/0/executable.log 2>&1

# execute the binary, should run in foreground, otherwise get in loop
echo "$(date): Starting program..."
exec /system/bin/executable

Create init service:

#/etc/init/custom.rc

# define service, use executable here if script not needed
service custom /system/bin/custom.sh

    # don't start unless explicitly asked to
    disabled

    # only execute once, don't restart if exited
    # don't add if you want to restart service when killed
    #oneshot

    # run with unrestricted SELinux context to avoid avc denials
    # it's required if SELinux is enforcing and service needs access
    # to some system resources not allowed by default sepolicy
    seclabel u:r:magisk:s0

# start the service when boot is completed
on property:sys.boot_completed=1
    start custom

Set permissions on executable, custom.sh and custom.rc as stated above and restart.

Other parameters (7) such as user, group, capabilities are required if you want to run the service as non-privileged user. Granting least required privileges is the recommended approach from security's perspective. See this answer for more details on capabilities and SELinux.

init will keep on restarting service every 5 seconds (by-default) if it gets killed. You can stop the service with setprop ctl.stop custom. Replace stop with start to start again.
To see what happens with service: dmesg | grep init: | tail.

RELATED:

How to run an Android init service with superuser SELinux context?
How to run a script in background from adb shell?


How to do backups and updates properly with full device encryption? I think about the following use cases:

'Perfectly' reverse encryption without losing settings
Update ROMs. Even if /system, /data, /sdcard (internal) are encrypted
Low level Backups with CWM. When SDCARD partition is also encrypted.
Emergency access to my data (screen broken, soft bricked...)
How to mount crypted dumps on linux (knowing the passphrase)

Is there some salt value going into the key together with the passphrase stored on the device?

I currently use a tmpfs mount to /sdcard and 'adb push update.zip' on my Nexus S to update the ROM. I've been told that the Galaxy Nexus also has an encrypted /system which would prevent all that (see Nexus S solution here: Broken screen while debug mode was disabled. How can I re-enable adb? )

I don't know of any implementation for non-android devices for accessing the data, although it should be fairly easy to port / implement. For an explanation how the encryption works I recommend reading the following article:

http://nelenkov.blogspot.de/2014/10/revisiting-android-disk-encryption.html

I really doubt the Galaxy Nexus has an encrypted /system. And starting from Android 5.0 it could be almost impossible to read the data on other devices than the android device itself because parts of the key are stored in otherwise unaccessible DRM areas of the system board / SoC --- not the eMMC flash (on Qualcomm devices and possibly also Intel).


How to check that an Android device isn't being used in a botnet / sending spam emails? I've discovered that my home network IP address has ended up on several blacklists after spam traps received emails from this IP address. I've tested the one PC that uses this network, and it seems to be fine. That leaves the most likely culprit looking like one of the two Android devices on this network.

On a PC, common ways to check for botnet-type activity include checking traffic on specific ports, and monitoring outgoing traffic. Is there any equivalent for Android?

I've searched on this but found nothing beyond generic anti-malware articles talking about antivirus software. I've not found anything specific to spam or unsolicited outgoing mail, and common anti-malware apps like AVG and Avast seem to only mention spam in the context of preventing incoming spam (not a problem for me), not outgoing.

If possible, I'd prefer a solution based on checking for the actual malicious activity (i.e. detecting actual outgoing mail), rather than relying that an anti-malware app has its listings up to date.

If possible, I'd also prefer to not need to root the devices, or change the operating system from the manufacturers' (Samsung and Sony in my case).

I suggest using the Android VPN feature to route all of your network traffic to an OpenVPN server. This will send all traffic, Wifi and cellular, through one chokepoint where you can log and analyze it, and it will do so regardless of what network the phone is using. Then you can log and analyze traffic from the OpenVPN server using any of the standard tools.

For an example of a project that uses this approach for a different sort of network security analysis, namely to find apps that send data over unencrypted or insecurely-encrypted connections, see nogotofail.


I modified vold.fstab and lost access to my SD card Background:

I have Samsung Galaxy Ace GT-S5830, which has very low internal memory (181 MB).
I have an external micro SD card of 16 GB, but still couldn't install many apps due to insufficient internal memory.

I read on the Internet that if I modify vold.fstab and replace the word "sdcard" with "sdcard2" then my external SD card will act as internal memory.

So I rooted my phone and installed Superuser, but I haven't installed ClockworkMod recovery or any other custom ROM yet.

Problem Description:

I installed ES File explorer on my SD card and allowed root access to it via Superuser.
I then went to /system/etc/ from ES file explorer, edited vold.fstab and replaced the word sdcard with sdcard2.

When I restarted my phone the external SD was no longer accessible. ES File Explorer is also gone, so I cannot undo the change that i did. I tried installing ES again from my data connection, but the installation fails (and the phone reboots immediately). I am not able to install any new apps.

I am unable to access my external SD card, so I can't put anything there via PC or via recovery. I tried pressing the power button + home button to go into system recovery mode. I see only these options

  Android system recovery <3e>

  reboot system now
  apply sdcard:update.zip
  wipe data/factory reset
  wipe cache partition

When I try to select the second option, it says "installation aborted" as the SD card is not accessible. I tried to select the 3rd and 4th options, but that didn't help either - I think factory reset will not reset vold.fstab.

I only have the default apps and Superuser now. I somehow need to find a way to get write permission to /system/etc or to /system/etc/vold.fstab.

Luckily I found "Android Commander". I installed it on my Windows PC and I am able to connect my phone and access the root folder, but I am not able to push a modified vold.fstab to /system/etc because  Android Commander says "no Root Access" - It is seeing it as read only.

Can someone let me know how I can edit this file again? I have an original vold.fstab on my PC, but I am not able to push it to my phone via Android Commander as Android Commander is seeing it as read only

Is there a way to give root access (aka read-write access) to Android Commander via the Superuser app?

Is there any other way to get write permission to /system/etc/vold.fstab so that I can modify it or replace it?

I don't know about Android Commander, but a simpler way (in my opinion) would be to use ADB. You may have already installed the Android SDK (if not, go here). I assume that you don't have modified your System Path.

Move your vold.fstab to C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools or C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools
Go to the android-sdk folder, shift+right click on platform-tools and choose "Open command prompt here"
Next steps depends if you have a custom rom (a) or not (b) (see comments).
We take root privilege:

a) If your device is 4.0 or above, type adb root
b) Type adb shell then su

We make /system writeable:

a) adb remount
b) mount -o remount,rw /system then exit

adb push vold.fstab /system
adb reboot

This should do the trick.


Skype app on Android I have temporarily moved to a new university for a research project, and I'm now using their wifi Internet connection. While everything seems to work fine with the Windows 10 laptop, the Skype app on my Android phone keeps "freezing". What I mean is that although I seem to be connected and I can see my contacts, I cannot make nor receive any calls. Even if I turn off the wifi and use the mobile connection on the phone, the situation does not change.
After many attempts, I have found out that if I logoff from the app and I login again using the mobile connection, the app starts working again. At this point I can even restore the wifi connection and everything works for a while. But eventually it freezes again...
The weird thing is that this trick doesn't always work. Sometimes after I logoff from the Skype app I cannot login back even if I'm connected with the mobile data. I keep getting the error message "unable to sign in. Please check your internet connection". Also, if I try to login to my Skype account using Chrome for Android I cannot reach the page and get the message "DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN". But everything else seems to work fine and I can browse other websites or use different apps.
I understand that this might be due to some strange settings of my host university. While this is annoying, I can live with that. But what I really would like to understand, though, is why my phone behaves so strangely even when I'm switch off from the university wifi and I'm using my private mobile data connection...

It sounds like the skype ports are being blocked
Ask the IT staff if these ports are being blocked.
For Skype to work correctly, the following ports need to be open in your firewall:
443/TCP
3478-3481/UDP
50000-60000/UDP
For the best possible call quality experience, these ports are needed too:
1000-10000/TCP
50000-65000/TCP
16000-26000/TCP


Instead of 5 GB storage shows 2.42 GB . I 've purchased Karbonn Titanum S5 Plus. In that, It is showing TOTAL STORAGE SHOWING as  (1 GB + 1.42 GB)  ie  2.42 GB But in the features it is written as  1 GB RAM and 4 GB ROM ie Total 5 GB

INTERNAL STORAGE        1.00 GB

PHONE STORAGE       1.42 GB

Total                  2.42 GB

OS is Android 2.2 . How to find the RAM size?.  can anyone able to explain this?

thnx
senthil

Your calculation is based on some misconceptions:

ram is no storage. It's the memory used to run active apps (see our ram tag-wiki for details)
ROM is a misleading term here (and in many other places). What's actually meant in this context ist storage. So these 4 GB is what you're looking for.

Now, storage on Android devices is devided into multiple partitions. Typical partitions are /data for the user data, and the read-only /system partition for the actual OS files. The latter is usually not included in "storage summaries". I don't know your device, but from the data given can assume:

1 GB "internal SD-Card"
1.42 GB "internal storage (/data)"
remaining storage devided into:

/system: probably about 1 GB
/boot: files for system start
/recovery: for the recovery-menu
and maybe some more small partitions

So there's nothing wrong; specifications have just not been given in a way clearly understandable by the end-user.
Recommendations for further reading:

Android Folder Hierarchy
our file-system tag-wiki
our partition tag-wiki
our storage tag-wiki

And always: Check the links in the "linked" and "related" section of questions, they might (and in most times do) lead to more useful information. Same for the "related" section, and the tags and links (just hover your mouse over a tag to reveal additional information/links).


How to lock android sim network? I want to manually lock the android sim card network is that possible and how to do it?

From your homescreen ….

Tap the menu button/key
Select "Settings"
In the network settings, tap "more…"
Then tap "Mobile networks"
On the next screen, select "Network Operators"
Instead of "Select automatically", select your network operator manually here

Network selection screen (click for larger variant)

Note that the network must be available in order for you to select it. You cannot e.g. select an US network operator while you're in China :)


How to use Pie manual rotation on a phone with physical buttons? Apparently, since Android Pie the screen can now be locked to landscape orientation (hurray! CyanogenMod (and WP8) has had this since like forever).

However, my device (Nokia 5) has physical buttons, so the method presented in the linked article does not work — and when disabling auto-rotate from the MultiCollider SuperDropdown, the screen reverts to portrait mode. How do i lock my phone into permanent horizontal orientation?

the default launcher for my phone had this as well try and install lean launcher

edit it appears that on Nokia phones with the default launcher you can't have it be in landscape
permanently if you set auto rotate off it will just go back portrait mode but lean launcher will allow you to use your home screen in landscape if auto rotate is off
lean launcher will force apps to work in landscape mode

turn off auto rotate hold your device in a horizontal position then click the button highlighted in the screen shot

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.hdeva.launcher&hl=en_US&referrer=utm_source%3Dgoogle%26utm_medium%3Dorganic%26utm_term%3Dlean+launcher&pcampaignid=APPU_1_l9KQXPfzGoHoxgPQrKfwDw


Restart camera service I have a smartphone which the camera doesn't work very well with CyanogenMod.

Sometimes (and very often), after taking some picture the camera stops working until I restart the phone.

When I try to open it, it just says "Cannot connect to camera".

I'd like to know if there are some way to "restart" the camera service, or something like that, because it's very annoying to be obligated to restart the phone everytime it stops working.

If that's somehow useful, I have a modified version of CyanogenMod 7 installed.

If the problem is in the kernel driver, as t0mm13b suggests, then only resetting the kernel driver will help. There might be a hacky way to achieve this with rmmod from the command line, if the device is rooted and that driver was built as a module in that ROM. I wouldn't recommend it. Restarting the phone is probably the only way to reset the driver.


Import OPML file to RSS Android? I have "liferea feed reader" on Linux for RSS feeds. Is there a way I could import all my added feeds there to Android? (NOTE: the extension of RSS exported file is "opml".)

Android doesn't have a built-in RSS feed reader, but there are many RSS feed reader apps (and websites) that will happily import an OPML file.

If you want to use a website, or an app with a website-synced back end, then Google Reader is very popular, and you can definitely import OPML files into Google Reader. On your device you can then either visit the Google Reader webpage, or use the Google Reader app, or one of the other many Android apps that sync with Google Reader.

To import an OPML file into Google Reader, click the cog/gear icon in the top-right of the page, then click Reader Settings and then  Import/Export. You should then see the option to upload your OPML file.


iris fuel 50 not able to download from playstore it is showing insufficient storage but i have big storage space in SD card iris fuel 50 not able to download from playstore it is showing insufficient storage but i have big storage space in SD card(2GB in internal memory and 29GB in sdcard but unable to download )

I think there're some solutions for you:

Uninstall the Google Play Store updates:

Open your Settings > Apps
Find and select Google Play Store from the list
On stock Android 6+, press the menu icon in the top right corner of your screen menu
Press Uninstall Updates

Move large apps to your SD card

Get your apk file from PC and then transfer them to your device : There're variety of third party store like Download Apk file for PC for free .This site is safe and free of malware so don't worry.
Hope these solutions can help!


Upgrade FreeLander PD80 Vogue QuadCore 9.7 inch Android 4.0 tablet to Jelly Bean I'm about to buy a FreeLander PD80 Vogue QuadCore 9.7 inch Android 4.0 tablet, but it has ICS. Can I safely upgrade to Jelly Bean? The website where I am buying from says that the warranty will be void if I upgrade to another Android OS.

I am a complete novice. So, I'd be grateful if you can help me.

Unfortunately it is a common policy for resellers to cancel the warranty if the buyer upgrades the ROM. Several manufactures though allow upgrading for their official ROMs, but I am afraid this is not the case for Freelander, for which unfortunately I have not found any official ROM (at least not in Chinese). I am not sure what are the legal aspects of such policies. In any case there is a risk involved when upgrading a device that the device may be 'bricked', ie be rendered unusable if something goes wrong.

Now regarding the ROMs for the particular device, I believe I have found mainly two alternatives.

The first is to use a ROM from a similar Ainol device. The link for the ROM is http://pan.baidu.com/share/link?shareid=352175935&uk=420337580 (use Google translate to identify the download button which should be the second at the right hand side).

The update procedure along with some testimonials can be found on:
http://www.slatedroid.com/topic/82866-android-422-on-freelander-pd80-wise/

According to those testimonials, the only thing not working properly after the upgrade is the front camera.

The second alternative is to use one of the Cyanogenmod ROMs (10.2 or 11) for Allwinner A31 device. In the above links you can find all relevant information, along with whatever may go wrong.

I have not yet evaluated any of these but I will eventually as I own such a device and the existing ROM is nonsense. Please provide any feedback when available.


Nexus 5 hangs after few minutes with screen off So, recently, I've got myself a few broken Nexus 5 phones to try to repair them. One of these, however, eludes my attempts to diagnose/fix the problem.

A few minutes after i press the off button to turn the screen off, the phone ceases to react. Experimentally, I found out it was about two minutes. Before that limit, pressing the button again wakes the phone ok, everything works.  After that time, the phone doesn't work anymore, and requires long button press to force restart.

It doesn't happen if the phone is connected via usb to charger/pc, no freeze whatsoever, only hangs on battery.

I've limited the scope of the problem to the mainboard - after transplanting it to different phone, same thing happens.

OS version doesn't matter, tested on KK, Lollipop, and Marshmallow, original ROM's - all the same.

Once when I connected frozen phone to PC, I entered a "DBI Apps Watchdog Reset! DemiGod Crash Handler" screen. (Not reliably reproducible behavior)

Anybody has any idea what's going on and how to fix it? I have some experience with SMD soldering, so if it's something purely hardware related, I can attempt a fix myself. I also have a donor mainboard.

I've experienced something similar, when I put my phone for charge and when I unplug after few minutes, it hangs for some time, the lock screen doesn't respond at all, and the battery icon shows still charging. If the alarm is on, it's unable to switch off the alarm, remember this is for about a minute or 2 then everything goes back to normal


Can't see icon names on my android home screen? So I got a new mobile and out of no where my mobile stopped showing me names of the icons on my home screen. pic:

Depending on the type of Home launcher, there are options to turn on/off icon labels. Check in Andorid Settings - Home, if not found, try long press on an empty part of the home screen, then check if you have options for Launcher settings (which are not the same as the Phone's settings). For Home Launchers like Go, L-Home, KK Launcher, and others, you can turn off/on labels for both your drawer and/or home screens.


Apps install data in phone storage instead of sd card This is really annoying me. I had deleted a 1GB game to free up space and install a game but I set all download and install locations to sd card but the app store downloads the game to the phone storage and the game spreads out it's data in there aswell! Why does it not install on sd card when I set it so?

sometimes the games app are configured in a way that they store their data in the phone storage for security or for getting smooth performance. there is nothing you can do about it.....it is more of an developer choice of storage location.


How to enable 3G video calls on Android smartphone? re.:

How to enable video calls on Android smartphone ?

In pre Android times it was easy to make video call on a standard phone, featuring small screen.

Today video call functionality is not supported by most of makes, models of Android smartphones, for unknown reason.

Ok, you need to establish 3G/ LTE data conectivity for video streaming as extra add-on- communication channel.

Ok, I have 3G data transfer enabled and still no support for making video calls.

I am not interested in third party video calling apps.

I am aware, few smartphones by Samsung support video calling functionality.

Is it due to licencing or for another reason.

If video calling was supported by default 10 years ago and promoted at Barcelona Mobile Congress, so why today video calling in Android smartphones is not supported or disabled by 99% default.

I read a lot on this subject on the Internet but all I need is to have video calling enabled in my smartphones

and I can pay extra fee.

Let me know your opinion and solution ( not interested in third party apps supporting 3G video calling)

thank you

BTW

I was told (need to test it first) that Samsung 3G video calling enabled smartphone can video call my smartphone to enable 3G video calling on-the-fly, showing camera icon to click to pick up a call.

If this is the case, so in theory, any Android smartphone can support 3G video calling ( 3G connection established and paid by third party)

BTW2

I read related questions and answers
one asked 8 years ago
Questions regarding receiving 3G calls on my IDEOS

another asked 3 years ago
How to video call

and still clear why no 3G video calling support on newer Android smartphones,
since what is claimed:
\
"
 what you are looking for is the operator backed 3G-324M solution that is available on most 3G phones (not including iPhone or Android).
"

This article on the history and future of mobile video telephony from 2010 covers the challenges of mobile video telephony at that time.

The author lists out the then existing landscape and practical issues regarding video call adoption. Perhaps more importantly is to what the author sees in the future:

  What’s next?

  We do have mobile video telephony, with all of its benefits and faults. But where are we going with it? The next step will be a migration of the service from circuit switching to packet switching – to become all-IP. This will require two major changes:

  Migration from WCDMA/HSPA to LTE, where an all-IP network will be the norm and network capacities and bandwidths allocated for each phone will increase.
  Replacement of 3G-324M with a different standard that runs over an IP network. Probably as part of IMS (IP Muiltimedia Subsystem).
  While Apple just came out with their front facing camera and FaceTime service on the iPhone, it is still quite limited: it runs over WiFi, only between iPhone 4 devices and uses a protocol that Apple plans to open. For mobile video telephony to become a valid solution it needs to use an open standard, run everywhere and be interoperable across devices.

  When will that happen? At the very least 8 years from now it will require the creation of the necessary ecosystem of companies who care. The problem is that these companies are currently focused on providing the basics of the LTE infrastructure. This requires them to rethink their voice and SMS technologies in initiatives such as VoLTE (Voice over LTE).

So

To get mobile video calling operators/carriers were mandating handsets support 3G-324M (a 3GPP specification), at least until the iPhone arrived.
Operators/carriers switched focus to providing the basics of LTE infrastructure.
Apple hasn't opened up Facetime
Android itself has no requirement to support the 3G-324M, and Android Compatibility Definition Document shows no support beyond standard audio and video codecs so any support would have to come from manufacturers or carriers building it in themselves.
In the US, AT&T and Verizon have announced end of 3G support, In Europe Vodafone has announced that 3G will be turned off throughout Europe between 2020 and 2021, and Deutsche Telekom plans to do the same in 2020 while in other regions/carriers it is still TBD.

So while older devices, like the Samsung mentioned had some type of 3G video calling support, should the associated carrier end 3G, support for 3G video calling will probably end as well, as the future lies with VoLTE which removed the circuit switch requirements.

If you are looking for older devices which does support 3G-324M,
from: https://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/android_video_calling

  The only modern smartphones known to implement 3G-324M video calling are the Samsung Galaxy range:

  Samsung Galaxy S4 +s5 +s6
  Samsung Galaxy S3
  Samsung Galaxy S2
  Samsung Galaxy Note
  Samsung Galaxy S I9000

Note that the most recent device that appears to have supported 3G calling on a carrier like Telstra AU is the Samsung Galaxy S5 whose last official update is Android 6.0.


Why is Install button still greyed out in absence of screen filter apps? As you can see in the image, the Install button is greyed out. I have Unknown sources enabled and no screen filter app or Twilight or Lux are installed in my phone.

I am using Samsung 6 Edge latest version.

It means Your Device Doesn't Support the app


"Device located,Android Device Manager located this device" How to turn this off Whenever I access Android Device Manager page I get a notification prompt on my phone saying:

"Device located, Android Device Manager located this device"

I really don't want this to show up. In case someone steals my phone, I don't want them to know I know where they are located.

I just want to be able to mute this notification on my phone.

I went through the steps to turn this notification off in the app manager. The "Show notifications" is turned off, however, this notification still pops up on my phone every time.

In Settings app, go to Sounds and Notifications, then  scroll to App notifications, click on it, then go to Google Play Service, click on it, then click on Block all.


Nexus 4 with no signal (sleep mode) I have a problem with my sister's Nexus4.
When I try to call her I have the reply that the phone is off while if I call the other phone (HTC Legend with the same operator) I can talk regularly.

It happened both at home or outside.

It is not a operator problem because I change the operator twice and with the same operator in the same places I can phone with no problem.

The strange is that when a try to call N4 I am not able to start the call and after that the N4 receive a sms with the "lost call" and return it on-line.

it seems it falls in a sleep mode when the creen is off

Try to call the phone with a landline. If the problem persists try a factory reset, if that don't fix the problem I'm afraid you have a hardware issue.


how to get battery percentage back in status bar, Android 7.1.1 I have a Samsung Galaxy J2 Pro running Android 7.1.1, and Samsung Experience version 8.5.

How do I get the battery percentage into the status bar? I am sure it was there until yesterday (unless I am going crazy) and now it has disappeared. Yes I have tried turning it off and on :)

OK, I found it myself when I had time to read through all the Settings in the manual:

tap "Settings"
tap "Display"
tap "Status Bar"
turn on "Show battery percentage"


How to permanently disable mobile data on a rooted Android device? Hi guys I was hoping for some guidance on disabling my mobile data on my rooted Android. I've tried locating a file do delete with ES explorer, but I'm honestly unsure if there is such a separate file to disable the data and keep my call function on. Any help at all would be much appreciated. Thanks.

I would use your phone's test page to disable it... It's like disabling an adapter on a computer are its devices software it will still look like it's on but you can change your way you speak to your tower from like 5 seconds 10 seconds 30 seconds and disabled or immediate. I use phone dialer to pull up the test page *#*#4636#*#*


Internal Storage Running Out Okay, so a couple weeks ago I bought a 32 GB micro SD card. When I installed it, I moved all my music, pictures, and videos to it -- all together, they were about 3 or 4 GBs. So I thought I'd get back those 3 or GBs of internal storage, but I didn't??? My internal storage still read as "Available Space: 500 mbs". Recently, I uninstalled about ten apps that I downloaded previously, yet I didn't receive that space back either. So I should have about 5 GBs of internal storage left, right? I've either deleted or moved everything to my micro SD card, but I keep getting the notification "Storage Running Out". Please help.

There are a lot of "fake cards" out there. I recently boughtone that was imprinted as a 64Gb card, but it had only about 6 Gb available. You can tell if that's the case with yours by the use of a program (or rather a set of scripts) called "F3".  Here's the link. http://oss.digirati.com.br/f3/   Read about it before you download it.  It is designed for Linux, but can be run under Windows using Cygwin.

If you are using linux, there is also an experimental "f3fix" to make the fake card  useable, but at its true useable capacity.

I have used the first two scripts, with pretty quick results. I have not used "f3probe" or "f3fix"

By the way, if you are not using linux, I highly recommend that you try it. It's really not much of a learning curve to get started with Mint17 or with Ubuntu, and you don't have to change or delete anything about your Windows installation. You can install it right along side of your current windows installation, and at boot time choose which you want to run.


Have you got flash to play on your stock Froyo yet? I have been playing flash videos using skyfire, but I would really like to play some games like chopper using flash.

How can I get flash enabled on Froyo? I have heard that Froyo supports adobe flash.

You can download the Flash Player 10.1 app from the Market or by going to http://adobe.com on your phone and clicking on the Get Adobe Flash Player button.


Is there a way to automatically change notification ringer&volume, differentiating email, sms and calendar via profiles? I'm aware of this question about different notification settings for different apps. But changing the settings manually like that is time consuming. It would be nice to integrate these settings into profiles so:

At night it would be nice to have SMS off, emails off and calendar on
During the day however, it would be nice to have everything on
On certain occasions, only sms and calendar notifications would be nice

... you can see the trend here, toggling different notifications on and off quickly would be a smart idea. Blackberry has had it for years. I understand that the way Android works makes this impossible. Why is there no API that allows apps to set other app's notification settings? Or would that make too much sense?

I have a Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy S3. Any solutions are appreciated. The new Blackberry has this feature but then I'd have no apps.

The Llama app supports “LlamaTones” — notification sounds which change according to the current profile. See this blog post for the description by the app developer.

You could achieve what you want as follows:

Create separate profiles for every different configuration you want to have.
Edit one of profiles and create a LlamaTone named “SMS”; select a notification sound for it which should be used when that profile is active. To make the notification silent, select a “No Sound” ringtone (at least on CyanogenMod 9 it is available in the “Ringtones” group; if there is no such ringtone on your phone, you should be able to find a no-sound .mp3 and add it easily).

Repeat this step to create LlamaTones for all other apps which need to be controlled separately (you can create a single LlamaTone for a group of apps which should use the same notification sound).
Now edit all other profiles and configure all LlamaTones there, setting notification sounds which are appropriate for these profiles.
Configure your apps to use the newly created LlamaTones as notification sounds.
You can either switch profiles manually, or configure Llama events to switch them according to the current time or any other available triggers.

Note that there is no way to set different volumes for different LlamaTones — the same notification volume is used, but this volume can be set in the profile. However, you can use a sound editor to change sound volume in audio files, and then use those audio files as custom notification sounds, e.g., like this.


Putting in an SD card made my zedge ringtones unusable and I can't access the pet shop app etc., I don't have an android, but my girlfriend said she needed an SD card so I got her one. She put it in her phone, it just said 'setting up SD card' and she didn't have to do anything else. It made her ringtones for specific callers stop working. Then it stopped even showing her downloaded ringtones in zedge and started using a 'default' ringtone which is one she had never heard, her phone is a T-Mobile touch and its default ringtone is the T-Mobile theme not the one that is playing. She has also been using a pet shop game on her phone for about 2 years and now she can't use it. It will just say the app isn't installed. Going into the application manager I can see that there is a file with the word 'petshop' in it saying it is on the sd card, the file and the other 2 (one is ebay app) are grayed out. She is going to be really upset if I can't recover that app for her. The whole purpose of the SD card was so that she could move all of her pictures of our son on to it in order to have them printed out or to move them to a new phone when she gets one. I don't honestly even know how to do that. As I said I've never owned an android myself. I know this is more of a powerusers forum, but I need some help here and I'm sure that someone here knows exactly what to do. Thanks!

The reason for the trouble is you've replaced the existing SD card without having copied the data. With apps installed on the (original) SD card, those are naturally "gone" as soon as you've popped it out – and did not "magically transfer" to the new card.

What you'd have to do is to first copy everything from the original card to the new one – including the "hidden directories". For how to do that, you might wish to consult How do I switch my Android device's SD card without causing problems?


Why does the Samsung S60 draw so much power? I've been recording the current draw from my s6 using ampere- the absolute lowest i can get is 100mah (screen at minimum brightness and airplane mode). The highest is around an amp with the screen on.
This means that my phone would be flat in two hours of use, and likely sooner. I typically get 5 hours of battery life out of my phone- which to me is ridiculous: just listening to Spotify for an hour in the gym and a 40 minute commute, and I am down to 50% from a full battery (screen isn't on all this time). I have tried factory resets and it is not significantly better with even the stock apps.
I know that power management comes into play when it comes to battery life, (especially during idle times), but what makes modern smartphones so power hungry? Is the screen the main culprit? or just crappy unoptimised apps that keep the device awake?

Most of the power consumed on a mobile device is by the display. I'm not sure how you are getting these current measurements, but 100mAh is good. 1 amp seems high if you're not running an app. I found by uninstalling apps like Snapchat and Facebook I was able to get extra battery life. Companies like Symantec publish annual reports of apps that consume extra battery and network data. Check those out.


How to connect to wifi router without internet? I've just setup a wifi router to use with an audio device which is controllable by Android devices through LAN. This router is expected to not have an internet connection - its sole purpose for me is to route the local network and enable the controlling via my Android phone.

However, my phone (a Moto G5S, with Android 7.1.1 installed) simply refuses to connect to this router - even though I can perfectly connect to it from a laptop. I even removed my other routers from my phone, to prevent it from jumping to wifi connections that have internet, but it still doesn't connect to this "offline router".

Now, a bit of a plot twist: I did see a notification about the wifi connection not having access to the internet, but I simply swiped it off. I tried connecting with my wife's Android, and, instead of swiping off the notification on her phone, I clicked it and I saw that it offered the option to stay connected even without internet. However, I can't do this on my Android anymore, since I got rid of that notification. Yeah, I feel stupid, but, in my defense, I had no idea that ability would be only available there. I even tried "forgetting" the wifi connection and re-entering the password, but it just won't show me that notification anymore.

So, any ideas of how to fix this, guys? How can I force the connection to my internet-less router, or, alternatively, how can I force my Android to show my the notification about "wifi offline" again?

My Solution:
Somehow, after a series of deletions, restarts, and retries to connect, the notification popped up again. I have no idea why it happened this way, but at least now I can stay connected to that router, which is what I needed.

Try deleting the connection.  You can do this by Settings -> Wifi -> hit the : on the top right, Saved Networks, select your router's name, then FORGET.


How to fix failed CM install on Moto G? I have tried to root my Moto G, which had the bootloader unlocked, and was on 5.1 GPE to install CM 11.

I have had a lot of issues...

First I successfully installed the CWM recovery, when I went into it it was flickering for some reason. After a reboot the recovery was even gone.

Installed it again, booted into android, put the CM file into storage, went back into recovery, installed it from there. I did not do a format first because it would have deleted the cm file as well...

cm-11-20140504-SNAPSHOT-M6-falcon

So CM installed, upon boot, the cyan logo was flickering, then it was encryption unsuccessful and had to restart, after many restarts it was the same...

Now I have not access to the storage so I cannot even put on another ROM, and the installed ROMdoes not start. No idea what to do.

I tried some other recoveries (as that's all I can do at the moment) all of them flicker.

twrp-2.6.3.1-MotoG4.4.img
philz_touch_6.58.7-falcon.img
cwm-6.0.4.7-MotoG-GPE-4.4.img
clockworkmodrecovery.6051.falcon.img

Any help appreciated.

As Moto g received the Lollipop update recently, other roms should adopt the changes.

If you want a working phone you can flash the stock firmware or you can sideload a custom rom but this requires a computer and fastboot files installed.

I encountered this problem and solved this as follows:

If you have installed fastboot files on computer and a custom recovery on your device(Twrp is my choice) then download any custom rom which you have tried before(just to confirm that it should work as you have already it) and place it in fastboot folder.

Reboot the device to recovery and you have a option to sideload the rom from computer click on it. Connect the device to computer and and type the command "adb sidelead yourrom.zip" it may take about 5 minutes to complete. Once rom is sideloaded it flashes fine.Do a factory reset and reboot.

Go to this link if you want info about custom roms.

Happy flashing


Should Vibration Feeback work on the softscreen on HTC Desire HD phone I think this used to work on my phone and then stopped. Vibration feedback is enabled but only works for the four off screen buttons - Home , Menu, Back, & Search not for any icons on the home or other screens.

So how can I get it to work normally again?

As long as the phone has a vibrator (and you mention it does), then it should work, unless HTC modified their flavour of the Android software.

Go to 'settings'-> 'Language & keyboard' -> your keyboard (often 'Android keyboard' or 'Touch input') -> enable 'Vibrate when typing' (in case of 'Touch input' this is in a 'Text input' submenu).

The real 'vibrate' (on call)  function as you know it from your old feature phone is at 'settings' -> 'Sound' -> 'Vibrate'.


How does Google Play determine the region on a tablet without SIM card I know Google Play uses SIM card to determine the region on cell phones. And I know Market Unlocker and Market Enabler.

How does Google Play determine your region on a tablet without SIM card?

And how to change it? I have access to IP address where Google Play is available. And I own a credit card whose billing address is in a country where Google Play paid apps are available.

Google uses your IP Address and visible WiFi networks, as well as the information from the Google Account you used to determine your region.


Can't get SP Flash Tool working with Blackview BV5500 to install TWRP Recovery I have installed Phone drivers (I have BV5500Plus & BV9500, same chipset MT67xx, same driver). For both phones, VCOM drivers are seen in Win10 if I connect turned OFF phone onto USB with Vol-DN pressed.
BV5500 bootloader is UNLOCKED via fastboot.
The method I use for connecting the phone is: (phone off): Vol-DN + onto usb.  Keep Vol-DN pressed until the phone enters Factory Mode menu. Release Vol button.
The instructions for downloading custom TWRP recovery to phone is to get SPFT setup for download BEFORE phone is connected to PC =

select DA file (in SPFT files)
select scatter file (from stock rom files)
select only 'recovery' partition to download & recovery.img file for TWRP
press Download button

The problem seems to be how SPFT needs phone to be connected when turned OFF (from what instructions I read).  VCOM driver for these phones is only visible in SPFT once driver is visible in Win10 (which is obvious to me).  However that doesn't fit with the instructions.
Before phone has an active VCOM connection, there is only COM1 visible (the printer). Therefore VCOM connection cannot even be selected in SPFT settings.
If I configure SPFT only when phones VCOM is visible in Win10 (so setting SPFT COM port to COM9 [shown in Device Manager but also only other option in SPFT] for example), this does not help.  Even when correct COM port chosen in SPFT, Download/connection still does not take place.  Zero activity shown.
I could try flashing the BV5500 from fastboot, but I tend to trust SPFT better, since its working with the scatter settings for partition locations. Also, SPFT seems to be the supported method of flashing stock rom if anything goes wrong, so I'm REALLY HOPING to get SPFT working.
What am I doing wrong here?  Should the progress indicator in SPFT show something immediately, or take some time to connect & transfer?  I'm not waiting long until I hit Stop button, & the program does recover/respond after maybe a minute/30 secs of pressing Stop.  Phone continues to work after these failed attempts.
There ARE SPFT logs.  I've looked at them, cannot understand them.  Maybe solution lies there?  Any help understanding the logs?  I can post some log contents here....

@alecsx explained to me that I should be using SP Flast Tool with USB connection, not VCOM connection, even though SPFT instructions were to install VCOM drivers (so I assume VCOM was needed).
I already had drivers installed, so set up SPFT with DA file from within SPFT files, and scatter.txt from stock rom files. Then =

turn phone off

Press Vol-Dn + connect usb

SPFT sprang into life & immediately initiated action (be action Readback or Download)

Seems the only part I needed to learn was using USB connection.


Can't install AIR on Galaxy Android device I'm doing some AIR for Android development. When I try and launch my app, I am told I need to install Adobe AIR. After being taken to the Google Play site, I get the message that "Your device isn't compatible with this version."

I updated my OS on my Galaxy Tab 10.1 to Android 4.04, but I still get this message. How can I get Adobe AIR installed?

From the system requirements for Adobe Air 3:

ARMv7 processor with vector FPU, minimum 550MHz, OpenGL ES 2.0, H.264 and AAC HW decoders
Android™ 2.2, 2.3, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, or 4.0
256MB of RAM
Android web browser


Galaxy S7 can't reboot. E:failed to mount /system (Invalid argument) I got a brand new Verizon(unlocked) Galaxy S7 with Marshmallow on it. Tried to upgrade to Nougat using Smart Switch which got stuck at 36% for hours. Had to unplug and plug back back for recovery but in vain (my device didn't show up in Emergency Recovery).
I went into recovery mode and wiped cache and Factory reset but no use. My device refused to boot.

At the top of recovery screen, I see this

Verizon/heroqltevzw/heroqltevzw
7.0/NRD90M/G930VVRU4BQH4

And, at the bottom, below Error:

No Support SINGLE-SKU
dm-verify API: 3
E:failed to mount /system (Invalid argument)

Is there any way to fix it?

This happens because the system partition is damaged/corrupted.

You should now flash the phone with Odin if using Windows computer or Heindal on a Mac.

Download the firmware manually from the internet then flash your phone in Download Mode (Volume down + power button).  Also download Samsung USB drivers (Windows).


Is it possible to recover data from internal memory? I have Samsung Galaxy S2, that was sent to the lab for repair.
The phone arrived and all the internal memory was deleted.
All the data that was on the internal memeory: Media, SMS, Contacts (actually I synchornized the contacs with my google account, but some contacs were deleted from my phone..)

Is there any way to recover this internal memory? I know that some application can recover an SD card.. but which one can recover the internal memory ?

There is some hope to recover data which was stored on the “internal SD card”. Samsung Galaxy S2 supports USB connection in the mass storage mode (unlike some other more recent models). This mode provides the required block-level access to the partition which holds your media and other files (but not contacts, SMS and app data). Therefore you can connect your phone to PC in the USB storage mode (not MTP), then use the same utilities as you would use to recover files from an SD card which was accidentally formatted (one free option for Windows is Recuva).

Recovering data from the internal memory is much more harder for several reasons:

You need to root the phone in order to get access to raw partitions (with some phones which have an unlocked bootloader there is an option of flashing an alternate recovery image with root access through ADB). Note that the rooting process in most cases involves writes to the /data partition, which could overwrite the data you want to restore.
The internal file system is not the usual FAT or NTFS, like in Windows (recent models in most cases use ext4), therefore many recovery tools designed for use with Windows filesystems won't work well (scanning the raw disk for pieces looking like data in a well-known format might give a useful result even if the filesystem is not supported, but see the next point).
In most cases the app data is stored in some format not used outside of the Android OS (e.g., contacts and SMS/MMS messages are stored in SQLite databases with the Android-specific schema), and these formats are unlikely to be supported by commonly available data recovery utilities.

And this assumes that the phone repair lab did not just replace the main phone board (which they often do, unless the problem was obviously in some other component).


Google maps wants a login now? Is there a way around this? I've managed to get away with running my Galaxy S without every hooking it up to a Gmail account, but sometime in the last couple of weeks (I think following an OS update from Sprint) Maps started objecting that I'm not logged in.

It's a little unnerving -- why do I need to be logged in to search for an address?

I'd love any suggestions for getting around this. Happy to root my phone. I've got OSM installed, but it doesn't do address searches unless I'm missing something.

Your three options are probably:

Downgrade Maps
Use the browser-based Google maps (perhaps in incognito mode if you're paranoid)
Use some other map application

Regarding OSM, I think they don't have an official app, so you could also try to use an app that uses their data. The OSM web site allows address searches, so that may just not be implemented in the app you're using. There's a bunch of OSM compatible apps and their features listed here.


Can I use an unlocked T-Mobile Galaxy S5 on AT&T? I made the unfortunate mistake of buying a Galaxy S5 through AT&T and was rewarded with a locked bootloader and no fun whatsoever for any reason ever.

As a remedy, I've considered purchasing a T-Mobile Galaxy S5 and somehow unlocking  it (how does that process work again?) for use on AT&T.

Two questions:

Will it be compatible with most (if not all) bands on AT&T? (ie: will I lack anything or will I be able to use the network just as well as with the AT&T S5?)
How do I unlock a device for use on a different carrier?

According to AT&T, these are the supported bands for the AT&T S5:

4G-LTE: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 17
4G: HSPA+ with enhanced backhaul
3G - UTMS: 840, 1900, 2100MHz
GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850, 900, 1800, 1900MHz

According to T-Mobile, these are the supported bands for the T-Mobile S5:

LTE: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 17
UMTS: Band 1 (2100), Band 2 (1900), Band 4 (1700/2100), Band 5 (850)
"Quad Band GSM" (what bands?)

It seems to be compatible.

See also AT&T Radio Frequencies and T-Mobile Radio Frequencies

Will it work?

Okay, here's what I can gather...

There should be no real loss of capability if you move to AT&T. While AT&T does not advertise LTE Band 8 capability on its S5s, Band 8 is largely used in South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan; unless you travel to those places, it shouldn't be a problem. I would, however, check AT&T's coverage map to be certain.
T-Mobile allows customers to unlock phones provided certain conditions are met. Click here for more information.

Also, "Quad Band GSM" on T-Mobile is 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, same as AT&T


After upgrade to lollipop, LG D415 grays out "Enable USB Debugging" when phone is connected to PC I've linked this phone to the same PC many times, but since upgrading to lollipop (5.0.2), my phone is not recognized (in adb devices) when I connect.

When I look in "Developer Options", "USB Debugging" is ungrayed when I'm not connected to my PC, and I can toggle it, but when I connect to the PC, it changes to gray.  It changes to gray whether it was enabled or not before connecting.

If I choose MTP as my connect type, I do see my phone's file system from my PC, but there's still no "USB Debugging" link.

Trying to follow the directions on http://developer.android.com/tools/extras/oem-usb.html to connect a driver to this device, when the phone is connected, I don't see "Other Devices" in the list under "Device Manager".

My PC is running Windows 7.  My carrier (who pushed the upgrade to lollipop) is T-Mobile.

I've already tried:
 - updating all the software in SDK manager.
 - installing a driver from the phone's "pc software".
 - downloading and installing a driver.

This also fails in the same way from one other PC we have at our company that is used to set up very many other phones.

I had to connect as a camera (i.e. pick "PTP" from the item in the drop-down menu option you get when a phone is connected) to get the device to show up in Device Manager (it showed up near the top under Android Devices).  From that point, it was standard: right click on the entry under Android Devices, select "Update Driver Software", click "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer", then pick "Android ADB Interface" under "Google, Inc." as the manufacturer.

I had previously tried (several times) connecting charge-only and "MTP" and the device didn't show up under Device Manager.  It looks like I always need to connect as PTP; MTP and "debug only" still leave my device invisible to adb devices.


Where does Google Pixel take caller ID from? I made an outbound call to a business today and the caller ID displayed was that of a completely unrelated business in a different geographical location (so would have a different (UK) area code).
Does Google perhaps pull this data from business profiles on the search engine and how can I report the inaccuracy?

Phone by Google app (which is the default Phone app on Google devices) uses data from Google and its licensors.
In the Caller ID setting (Settings - Caller ID & spam), Google put a disclosure,

Data being used in these features is provided by Google and its licensors. Learn more about business listings data.

The listed licensors are:

France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Israel, Luxembourg, Monaco, and Morocco: Kapitol S.A. (trading as Infobel) (the "Infobel Content")
Brazil: TeleListas S/A
Turkey: Turkey Yellow Pages (Yellow.com.tr)
Kenya: Yellow Pages Kenya Ltd (www.yellow.co.ke)
Egypt: Egypt Yellow Pages Limited (yellow.com.eg)
Saudi Arabia: Al Wahda Express Saudi Arabia (www.daleeli.com)
Bulgaria: New Europe Directories Bulgaria EOOD (www.goldenpages.bg)
Norway: Digitale Medier 1881 AS (www.1881.no)
Italy: SEAT Pagine Gialle SPA (www.paginegialle.it)
Republic of Ireland: Central Index (www.centralindex.com) and YourLocal.ie, trading names of Touch Local Ltd
Czech Republic: Zlaté Stránsky (ZlateStransky.cz)
India: INFOMEDIA Yellow Pages (www.yellowpages.co.in) and/or IndiaCom (www.indiacom.com)
New Zealand: Finda
Slovenia: Monolit informacijski sistemi d.o.o
Taiwan: HongKu Info Co. Ltd. www.ipeen.com.tw

It is also mentioned that

If you know that your business listing is supplied by [...] and you have any questions about it, you should contact them directly.

For data provided by Google, it should be possible to report them by finding the related business listing first, then following the steps on Edit business information in Google Maps or Report data or content errors on Google Maps.


Fix Android stuck on boot animation without deleting data I tried to do a backup from within my custom recovery (CWM or TWRP) but it failed due to a lack of space. Since then, my phone will not complete the boot process but remain on the boot animation for hours. (In case it matters: it's not a boot-loop in the strict sense as the phone does not go through the boot process over and over again. It's just stuck and doesn't go all the way through.)

I have tried wiping dalvic-cache and cache. I removed the memory card (to see if it had gotten corrupted and was blocking the boot process). I even re-flashed my ROM and GApps, but to no avail.

Since I did not flash anything or really make any changes to the phone at all, I am stubbornly refusing to believe (as many posts and videos on the net seem to suggest) that the only way to proceed in this situation is to do a factory reset (or some other method like an odin flash) which will delete all my precious data. There must be a way to get this phone going again without losing any data.

Stubbornness sometimes pays. Here is what solved the issue for me (and since I did not see this idea anywhere, I'm posting it here): it turns out that the (attempted) backup filled up the internal memory so that there was not enough left to complete the boot process. So I used the file explorer in TWRP 3.0 (Not sure if CWM has one, if not, just flash TWRP) to delete the backup and voilà, the phone boots again.

Obviously, you could also delete something else (make sure you know what you're doing), the point is to free up space on the phone's internal memory. In fact, I actually tried to move the backup to the external SD card but there seems to be a bug that (sometimes) lets the move command fail so what I did was copy and delete instead.


Is the app version I download always the latest? I have recently submitted an app to the Android market to quickly realize that I had left in a bit of code that needed to be removed. I quickly re-submitted a new version but was wondering if the market makes you download version 1 and update.

I could not see this being the case but when I tried to re-download the new version after removing the old one from my phone - it was exactly the case. The faulty version 1 was downloaded and I needed to manually update it to v1.1.

If anyone has any ideas or would like to help me out by maybe downloading the app and letting me know which version you were given that would be great - App Link.

The only way this would happen is if you downloaded the old version of your app before Google had "pushed out" the new version you uploaded.  If you download an app you won't get anything but the most recent version Google has available.  I assume you just didn't wait quite long enough after uploading before trying to download it.


What sepolicy context will allow any other context to access it? I am on a bootloader locked Sprint Samsung Galaxy S7, eng boot.img flashed to phone with SELinux permissive, which gives root adb shell from where I can change system partitions, debloat, install Xposed etc. But the kernel is very bad and has RAM leak, and eventually, the phone slows to a crawl. So I unrooted by installing the stock kernel and disabling DM verity to allow a modified system to boot up.

Now, SELinux is enforcing, but I want it to be permissive which will never happen with the stock kernel. I realize that secontext is defined at kernel build times and allows certain things to run.

Another option is to have a higher context to do things like supolicy --live to patch SELinux policy and get full root access with stock kernel. I'm trying to execute a script in the data directory created by my app, but unless seenforcing=false, it doesn't get executed.

I know by using root you can chcon a file/directory. So what is the (source) context that will allow to:

Set mode to permissive, or
Modify the SELinux policy, or
Execute a script on boot without avc denials

Or what is the (target) context that will allow any other (source) context to execute the script?

ROOT USER AND SELINUX:

User root (with UID 0) is the super user in Discretionary Access Control (DAC) implementation of *NIX operating systems. DAC is allowed by-default i.e. anyone can access anything unless UIDs, GIDs and permission mode restrict something. So root can do anything because it's the kernel's SUPER USER who isn't denied anything.

SELinux is Mandatory Access Control (MAC) which is denied by-default i.e. no one can access anything unless a policy rule is defined to allow the access. So there is no SUPER CONTEXT which is allowed to do anything, whatever the UID is. You have to define a rule to allow any operation you want to perform on your device.

Please note that Access Controls (DAC or MAC) are enforced by kernel at back end, who is the actual operating system.

HOW SELINUX IS ENFORCED ON ANDROID?

SELinux policy rules are defined when building ROM and saved as a binary file /sepolicy (or as split-policy). This policy is loaded by init (the very first process started in kernel's SELinux domain) before starting any services/daemons/processes on boot. Kernel starts with SELinux permissive if built with option SECURITY_SELINUX_DEVELOP=y (which is the default as discussed here and here). After loading policy, init - when still running with kernel's context - sets SELinux enforcing (depending on ROM build type and kernel parameter androidboot.selinux (0)) and then switches to init's own context. From here afterwards, even init isn't allowed by policy to revert back to permissive mode (1, 2). Neither the policy can be modified even by root user (3).

However there is one exception to above said rules. On userdebug or eng builds, u:r:su:s0 - which is the context adb shell gets when adbd is run as root (4) or when /system/xbin/su is executed (5) - is allowed to do anything, including setting SELinux permissive (6).

But on a final production (user) build of ROM, the only way to setenforce 0 or to modify policy is to take control of booting process before SELinux is set enforcing by init. That's what rooting solutions like Magisk do by replacing/patching /init and /sepolicy in RAM disk (boot.img). Magisk runs root processes with context u:r:magisk:s0 which is allowed by patched policy to do anything.

Once you have rights (granted by DAC and MAC) to play with SELinux policy, you can define new SELinux policy rules as explained here.

Coming to your question:

  selinux is enforcing but I want it to be permissive which will never happen with stock kernel

No. SELinux is set enforcing by init, not by kernel, except if built with SECURITY_SELINUX_ENFORCING=y option (7).

  a higher context to do things like supolicy --live to patch selinux policy

There is no higher context that is allowed to do anything. You can't set mode to permissive and can't patch policy on user builds.

  what is the (target) context that will allow any other (source) context to execute the script?

As said, there is no higher source context that can do anything to others. Likewise there is no lower target context that lets others do anything.
Also when executing a script, there isn't necessarily a single target context. Every file that the script uses (binaries, configurations, logs etc.) may have its different context label. And typetransitions can change source contexts too.
If you want to modify policy, you can get all avc denials from kernel log and then define new SELinux rules accordingly:

~# dmesg -w | grep avc:

Solution:

Since you are already on eng build, only replace kernel binary (zImage) in your boot.img if you want to replace kernel. Otherwise you get stuck by using init and sepolicy from boot.img of a user build.
On eng build:

/init doesn't set SELinux enforcing on boot (8)
/sepolicy allows root adb shell to do anything including setenforce and load_policy as explained above

If your kernel is built with SECURITY_SELINUX_ALWAYS_ENFORCE, you can't  set SELinux permissive once set enforcing (9).

RELATED:

What special privileges “/system/xbin/su” does have w.r.t. root access?
How to fix SELinux “avc: denied” errors when launching DNSCrypt as init.d script?


I got "Your device is corrupt. It can't be trusted and may not work properly" on a brand new Nexus 5X. What should I do? Through Project Fi of Google, I ordered and got a brand new Nexus 5X with Android 6.0 on it.  The first time it powered up, it said

Your device is corrupt. It can't be trusted and may not work properly.

Although I can still use the phone, every time I restart or turn on the phone, the above message will show for a few seconds.

What can be done?

Unlocked bootloader = yellow triangle warning; modified system/kernel = red triangle warning.

As long as the device functions fine you shouldn't worry much; however if restoring is what you need, then flash a factory image then relock bootloader. Do turn on "OEM unlocking" in Developer options after that, so that you have a chance to recover in case anything happens.


Hoping for a custom recovery (CWM or TWRP) for galaxy tab 4 10.1 I was hoping to tweak our tab like my s3 mini, but I can't find recoveries for it and came to the conclusion the device is still too new?

There certainly are tab 10.1 things mentioned but I'm assuming these are first generation tabs?

There are custom recoveries for your device but they are only available for the Wi-Fi only Galaxy Tab 4 10.1-

TWRP (SM-T530), odin/heimdall flash

CWM (SM-T530), odin/heimdall flash

**


Is Google Play rebranded app being pushed to India? My Android Market is still Android Market. I am eager to update it manually, but I prefer official way when payment is involved.

In India, only app store is available.. no music, book and movie store. So, I have been guessing maybe it'll not be pushed to India. Is there any such policies?

The "Market" to "Play" renaming is just a re-branding of the store.  It won't change any of the underlying availability or features.  You will have to ask Google (good luck!) about if/when additional feature will be made available in India.  So there is nothing to be gained by "upgrading", other than satisfying the Google marketing department.

Here are some details from the Google Play FAQ:

Q: What types of content are available in my country?
* Paid Apps: Available in these countries
* Movies: Available in US, UK, Canada, and Japan
* eBooks: Available in US, UK, Canada, and Australia
* Music: Available in US


"Update unsuccessful" on all apps running on SD card I know this problem has been reported before, but man, I am really, really getting tired of it. I have not been able to update any app running from the SD card on my HTC Evo since I got it nearly 6 months ago. I just went through all of my apps and documented which ones are on SD storage and phone storage. I was then able to go through my list of updates and select just those that are on phone storage and then all succeeded (11 apps). I then went through some of the ones on SD storage and they all failed (tried 7, but I probably have 10-15 more).

I have tried many of the "fixes" I've seen online like clearing the cache on the Market app. There is not enough internal space for all my apps. I refuse to accept some of the "fixes" as true fixes like deleting the app and reinstalling it or moving the app to the phone storage, updating, and then moving back. Those are not acceptable fixes in my book. This is a major black eye on the Android OS to me. When people ask me if Android is as good as iOS, this problem is front and center in my mind when I tell them that its good, but I'd rather have an iPhone (but, I'd rather have this than my old Blackberry). I get my phone through work, so rooting is not an option. Has anybody else had any success resolving this issue? I'm using the SD card that came with the phone but has anybody had luck with a different brand?

How many internal space do you have (check on Settings > SD card & phone storage settings > Internal phone storage > Available Space)? Make sure to leave at least 15-20 MB of internal space (probably larger if you have a large number of large apps) so you can safely update apps. If you have little internal memory left, then updates will fail and "Update All" will fail en masse. The solution is to update the apps one by one, or to clear up some space in the internal memory.

I never had problems with updating apps installed in SD card except when my phone's internal memory reaches about 5-10 MB.


How to turn off the "Screen Overlay" setting? I'm using the Oneplus 2 and last week I updated my phone's software and ever since then I'm not able to do much on my phone. I'm not able to download photos on WhatsApp and neither am I able to send someone photos. Only one message keeps on popping up saying "screen overlay detected go to "App Settings" and turn it off". I tried following the instructions and turned it all off, but it was of least help. If anyone here has any clues about it, please help.

Got insights from multiple answers here and other forums .

Consolidating how I got rid of the issue :

Go to Settings > Apps > (your app which is getting issue)
Press on Power button till window for Power off , reboot , airplane mode comes up
Hold on Power off option
Select reboot in Safe mode
Go to settings > apps > (your app which is getting issue)
Select whichever permissions you want
After Android M update , issues can come up in apps like Messenger , Whatsapp , Prisma etc.

Let me know if any issues .
Note : I am having One plus One mobile.


Change aspect ratio of pictures How can I simply change the aspect ratio of pictures on Android 4.2.2? Say from 1920x1080 to 1920x1280.

Background: On my Samsung Galaxy S4 mini, I can take pictures using the native camera app and this gives normal results. I have a remote that needs its special camera app ("Snap remote"), and the output of this app comes in the wrong aspect ratio.

I wrote the developers but they haven't replied or fixed it.

This guy works great for me on a Samsung 8.4" pro tab:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.co.valsior.resizer

Has a long list of pre-set sizes and a select-your-own-size option, which like photoshop allows you to choose whether you want to maintain the aspect ratio or not.  You can choose file type and quality as well when saving.


Contact names not showing on dialer, but do show in Recents Have a Samsung J3 2017 (SM327).  About a week ago, noticed that incoming & outgoing calls going to/from someone in my Contacts only shows the number, not the Contact name, so I often have no idea who's calling me.  But when I hang up and look in the Recent call log, the Contact name shows up correctly there.   I have tried every permission, every setting possible.  Spent an hour with an ATT tech - nothing.  Did a factory restore - nothing.  Took it to a Samsumg authorized serviced center and had it completely reflashed.   Fixed the prob for 2 days, then reappeared.   Any info?

Found out source of problem.  It was ATT Call Protect app.  Disabled app and issue solved.


No download link for Adblock Plus The page https://adblockplus.org/android-about from the Adblock Plus website discusses Adblock Plus for android. It clearly refers to the version that runs in the background and blocks all ads (and is not in the Play store), not any of the browser versions for Android that are available in the Play store.

Clicking the link on that page for ''installation instructions'' takes you to  https://adblockplus.org/en/android-install, which is an almost blank page displaying ''Want an ad blocker for your Android smartphone or tablet?'' and a button which redirects you to the android store (to install a broswer ad blocker).

I can't find any discussion of this online, and everyone seems to be able to download and install the correct version from the Adblock Plus website. Am I supposed to find it somewhere else? Why doesn't Adblock Plus provide it themselves?

Adblock forums says

  this product is outdated (not maintained anymore), eventually use adblock browser for android

Also, see this post

  see what said an eyeo moderator:
  "Unfortunately at the moment we have no Android developer, therefore solving real issues is kind of difficult."

That's probably why all links on the official site are dead. They haven't bothered to update the home page.

It's not available on F-droid too but alternative stores seem to have it but obviously there won't be any support.


SD card containing personal files is unsupported after phone repairs My Lenovo Moto G4 (Android 6.0.1) died recently. I sent it for repairs, without the SD card I used for internal storage (I don't remember asking for it to be encrypted). The phone just came back, with a complete factory reset.

Inserting my SD card, I was hoping to at least get back the files on it, but I get the "Unsupported SanDisk SD card" message.

When I try to open the SD card with my computer, Windows fails and tells me the card must be formatted.

Is there a specific procedure to restore files from a SD card formatted for Androids internal storage?
Is it otherwise possible that my SD card was corrupted when the smartphone died?
Any idea how to get my files?

Thanks!

Try getting your files off the SD card using linux. Depending on what format the card was formatted with Windows wont r/w to it without first formatting it.


Duplication of cellular phone Android 5.1.1 I think I have been duplicated or hacked. Google Maps time line shows me present for three days consecutively and me amd device were at another location, home. Is this possible what info /action have I allowed if it is possible? What I need to stop or solve the problem

If only one device is on the timeline, there is a high possibility that you GPS is not good.
My device thinks often that I am in a city about 20km away. I is a bug with google.
To get really save, you can open the Android device manager in your web browser and get a list of all Android devices logged in into your account.


Cannot cast Android screen to Philips TV I have a Philips 50PFK6550/12 TV, and a Nexus 5X running Marshmallow.
When I try to cast the screen of my Nexus to the TV using the Cast button in the notifications menu, the cast app crashes on my TV:

  Unfortunately, Chromecast Android Shell has stopped.

I can then report this error. If I view the stack trace, it says:

java.lang.securityException: Cast mirroring is not enabled.

Trying to cast a tab from Google Chrome on my desktop gives the same error.

Is there some way I can make this work, or is this something Google/Philips needs to fix?

I bought a separate Chromecast. This works fine.


Why can't I turn off vibrate while keeping audio on when a e-mail comes in? After my Galaxy Nexus upgraded itself to Jelly Bean last night, my phone refuses to turn vibrate off! It's set to Vibrate Never when email arrives, but it vibrates anyway. I've restarted the phone, taken the battery out, etc, but it still happens.

Mine too. I got this behavior to change by doing the following:

Open the Gmail app.
In the menu, select "Settings"
Select your Gmail account.
Select "Sound & Vibrate"
Set the Sound to "Silent", and the Vibrate to "Never"

This fixed it for me. My guess is that it is a bug or poor design (the Sound option seems to override the Vibrate option).


Unable to connect galaxy tab pro SM-T520 to PC with windows 8.1 My new PC having windows 8.1 does not recognize Samsung galaxy tab pro connected via USB cable. What to do?
I've tried different cables and different USB ports. It does not appear in Windows device manager. It only pops-out a window saying "The last USB device you have connected to the PC malfunctioned and Windows does not recognize it". I have not installed any drivers for the tab. I need just to copy files from PC to tab (music, movies...).

Thanks for help.

You need to enable USB debugging on the tablet, and then install the USB drivers on Windows. For explicit instructions, see steps 2.1 and 2.2 in the following guide:

How do I install CyanogenMod on the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 Wi-Fi?

Again, you don't have to follow the whole guide to install CyanogenMod, just steps 2.1 and 2.2.


How can I install CWM Recovery on my Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet? I want to install a custom ROM or use one of the many other features of Clockworkmod Recovery on my Thinkpad Tablet.

How can I install CWM Recovery on my Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet?

Installing CWM Recovery
CWM Recovery for the Thinkpad Tablet can be found on XDA. You need root on your Tablet to install CWM Recovery. Download the recovery image (recovery.img) and follow the instructions provided by the post. It basically comes down to pushing the image file on the sdcard and overwriting the boot partition.
Push the recovery image to the sdcard
adb push recovery.img /mnt/sdcard/

Get root
adb shell
su

Remount /system and backup install-recovery.sh (optional)
mount -o rw,remount /system
mv /system/etc/install-recovery.sh /system/etc/install-recovery.sh.backup

Overwrite the boot partition
dd if=/mnt/sdcard/recovery.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p1

Entering/Booting CWM Recovery on the Thinkpad Tablet

Shut down your Thinkpad Tablet
Press the power button until the Tablet vibrates
Keep pressing and releasing the volume up button until you see Booting Recovery Kernel Image in the upper left corner. It's all about timing of when the volume up button is pressed. That's why it's a good idea to just keep on pressing and releasing the button until the message appears.


Android keeps disconnecting wifi when the signal is weak/poor I've recently bought a pixel 4a 5g phone and I'm running the latest version of Android. I'm really happy with the phone but there's one thing that is really bothering: it will use mobile data when the wifi signal is considered weak/poor.
In the old days there was an "avoid poor quality wifi networks" (or something like that) in the advanced wifi settings which used to control this behavior. However, it seems like that option is gone. Is there any way to tell Android to stop transitioning to mobile data when the wifi signal is weak?
Thanks.

Check the Wifi advanced settings. There you should find an entry named "Adaptive Connectivity".
Disable this entry.


How to disable "security policy restricts use of html email" I use AirWatch Agent and created an ActiveSync account to connect to my company's exchange server. Now, when I read emails they show up as plain text with the message "security policy restricts use of html email". I've tried going over settings to find something related and found none.

I'm willing to bet that you can't change it. It's probably being enforced by AirWatch as part of your company's security policies. They have disabled HTML email; so that means HTML email will be converted to plain text.