How do I organize notifications on a Galaxy Note 10 - Seperate Messages from System Nots, Different Sounds, etc Just switched from iPhone to my Note10 and i love it. However what drives me crazy is that I get tons of system notifications that all pool in the Notification bar. However, to be honest I only really want to see personal notifitaions there, like messages and so on, System Notifications better only if I request to see them. How do I seperate system notififications and message notifications. Also ho do I specify different sound, so I hear if its a Whatsapp or Insta or Facebook ...

Also, how do I make these notifications appear on the locked screen, like they do on the iphone?

You'll want to play around with the notification settings in your settings app. This is will be different for you, but on my Note 3 I go into the settings app -> Device -> Sounds and notifications -> application notifications. From here I can disable notifications for specific apps, and set apps as priority notifiers. imagine it's aomewhat similar with the note 10. Additionally, some apps will let you disable or change the notification sound from within the app, but here YMMV.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by separating system notifications and message notifications.

As for making them appear on the lock screen, see if you can find a related setting under notifications or lock screen. This is also under "sounds and notifications" in the note 3 settings app, although this is again likely to be different for you.


Can I login to Whatsapp Web without scanning the QR code? My camera doesn't work. I already tried downloading different camera applications but none of them worked. Problem is physical not software-related. How can I login to Whatsapp Web without scanning the QR code?

You can't, you need to scann with Whatsapp, if you scann the QR code with a normal reader, how a website or similar, you only get a plain text.

Whatsapp send that text to your own server to enable you a session in your browser.


PIN invisibility in android I am using PIN security for unlocking the phone. When i type the PIN, a blue highlight comes to the pressed digit. How can i hide it? I am in Note 2 rooted with stock rom.

Unfortunately there is no such function on Android. There is something similar when using a pattern to unlock your phone. Another solution would be third party software.
Also check this article on Lifehacker for much more tips on improving your phones' security
http://lifehacker.com/three-ways-to-improve-your-androids-lock-screen-securi-1293317441


How to install Play Store on Alcatel OT 979 I am switching from iPhone to Android. I do not speak Android/PC. I speak Apple. This has been a difficult transition, and I require a simple explanation (pretend I am 5 years old).

My new Alcatel One Touch 979 did not have Android Market / Google Play installed. After much searching, I figured out how to get the application. I downloaded it - safely - and it was a very slow start, but now it only crashes. I tried three different platforms, each having the same outcome:

Android Market 2.3.6.apk
Google Play Store 3.5.16.apk and 3.8.16.apk

The error message reads "Sorry! The application Google Play Store (process com.android.vending) has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again." My only option is to force close.

The phone is listed as a supported device on the Google Play help page. I suspect I'm accessing an incompatible version, but I just don't know - and there are so many versions from which to choose.

When I log into my Google account via the laptop, I see my phone's application activity! I have a lengthy Orders list, but nothing has downloaded to the phone. To that end, when I review the "Device Manager" option in my account, nothing is listed, but when browsing the Play store and selecting applications, the compatibility indicator recognizes the phone and states whether the app is a match. How and what is happening?! The user manual for the phone is in a foreign language (Mandarin) with no English translation, so I cannot use it to troubleshoot. Here is some information about the phone:

http://magazine.tcl.com/en/article.aspx?id=476
https://deviceatlas.com/device-data/devices/alcatel/ot-979/3638583

The phone has Kernel version 2.6.35.7+SW2SVR@Android-Server #1. The Baseband version is BCM2155x_CustomerRel_SS_1_3_9_P3. I have no idea what any of this means, but I'm sharing in case it matters. The micro SD is a 4GB memory and the internal memory is 126MB.

I have tried clearing the data and the cache. I have also tried a hard re-set, which reverts the phone back to its linguistic Beijing origins, and I needed assistance getting it to English language. I am out of ideas, except to wait for the iPhone 5S launch. I've only had the phone for 15 hours; I'm an Android infant newborn. My head is spinning, really. There must be a kinder, simpler way to use the application store on this phone.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

You can't just install the APK, you have to download a GApps package, which contains all the Google applications that come with Google licensed phones. This, however, requires rooting the phone and installing a recovery.

The reason for all the trouble is that while Android is open source, Google Apps are proprietary code, and devices have to be licensed with Google in order for the Apps to be included on the device.

For more information, see How can I install the Google Apps Package (Play Store, ...) on my Android device?, RootzWiki GApps page and GApps download.


How to launch this Xiaomi Font Settings activity? I am trying to lauch this activity. But, can't launch.

I've tried like this.

adb shell "am start -a com.android.settings -n com.android.settings/com.android.settings.Settings$FontSettingsActivity"

Anything else I need to try?

You can try with monkey commands.

monkey -p package_name -v 500

An alternative way is to install Nova Launcher. Run it then touch and hold an empty space in the home screen > choose Widget > Activities. Scroll down to the settings icon touch it to expend its activities then touch and hold the one you want to launch.

And from your command: adb shell "am start -a com.android.settings -n com.android.settings/com.android.settings.Settings$FontSettingsActivity" you should just put /.FontSettingsActivity after the slash.


After ICS, Touch screen is not working when mobile is overheated I have Sony Xperia Mini pro, i recently updated it to ICS. But now when the phone is overheated (especially during recharging). The touch screen becomes unresponsive, even if i restart my phone, it stills that way.

It goes back to normal by itself after some period of time.

What should I do to fix the problem?

Your touch screen needs to replace now. Please contact nearest Sony Service Centre.


How can I find out the dimensions/resolution of a downloaded video file? My only device = An Android tablet (4.0.3), no laptop.

Long ago, I used to have a laptop, but circumstances have left me with (technology wise) only an Android tablet (4.0.3). When I used to have a laptop, I used VLC not only to watch videos that I downloaded & collected, but also to check on what a specific video's dimensions were (examples = 480x360, 640x480, 1280x720, 1920x1080).

Now that I only have a tablet, I have looked for a way to do this, but with zero success. I have tried lots of video players for Android including VLC's own app & none of them have the option to show any information about a video file. I use such information because the videos that I download always have more than one size available (dimensionals wise), but never identify the dimensions that any file has.

So, if anybody knows a way to find out the dimensions of a specific video file that I have downloaded & have on my tablet, please let me know.

MX Player provides a way to check video resolution. All you have to do is install and open MX Player, touch hold the video file until you see some options and select properties. There you can find resolution listed as well as other codec information.

Besides, VLC for Android also shows the resolution. Install and open the app, left-swipe and choose Video option. There you can find all the videos scanned by VLC with resolution already listed on them. However, if you choose Directories option, then you can't see the resolution.


Can't create new folders on SD card? I'm using Lenovo A7000 with Lollipop and I can't create new folders on SD Card. Attempt to create folder on SD card always end with error, however, android phone is not going to tell me what error it is. Attempt to use ADB from ubuntu terminal ended with lines below:

#Attempt 1
garrom@GarromMachine:~$ adb shell mkdir /storage/sdcard0/test_folder
mkdir failed for /storage/sdcard0/test_folder, Out of memory
#Attempt 2 with alternative folder path
garrom@GarromMachine:~$ adb shell mkdir mnt/sdcard/test_folder
mkdir failed for mnt/sdcard/test_folder, Out of memory

However, obtained error message is not somehow helpful because I have exactly 12362047488 bytes of free space. That is more than enough of space for empty folder. Even stranger, I can create or manipulate files just fine. I already tried formatting from phone itself, which is useless because phone format my SD card to fat16 which is obviously not good for 16Gb big SD card. I tried to format from Windows using Mini tool partition wizard and from Ubuntu using GParted, always same result,except formatting from phone but fat16 is too small and I had using Fat32 before without problems. I was using same SD card in same phone with same format before OTA update bricked my phone and I was forced to wipe out everything and flash in stock rom. Does someone know, how to be able to create folders once again ?After further research i noticed it sometimes let me create folder and sometimes not ... Thinking about it, it looks almost like writing from Ubuntu(XFce, Thunar) temporarily disable ability to create new folders. I have two partitions on my sd card. one is named DATA(fat32,11.5Gib) and is meant to be my personal storage, second one is named APPS(ext4.9Gib) and is meant to work with App2SD app. I had same setup before without any problems, except, I was windows user before, I was writing files to sd card via usb cable from Windows before I started using Ubuntu....... but I was writing files from ubuntu as well before OTA update bricked my phone and  I had to flash in stock rom. This whole problem is generally weird...

Is possible to destroy SD Card by repeatedly flashing stock ROM and repeatedly rooting ? Yeah, apparently yes. It looks like my SD card was destroyed. Next time, if you are going to flash or root something, remove your SD card first..... yeah, I'm stupid, it is obvious step to do. Problem solved by buying new SD Card.


How can I enable field test mode on Samsung Galaxy S3? I have a Samsung Galaxy S3. Are there any codes to enable field test mode, like band selection? Has someone managed to enable such an option?

*#*#7262626#*#* – Perform a field test
*#2263# - If previous doesn't work.

Sadly, Samsung used to provide field test display by entering codes in keypad. However, from Galaxy S3 onward, the service mode *#*#197328640#*#* was disabled. Only *#0011# is still available.  The worst is that even the Android default testing info *#*#4636#*#* was disabled as well.

And just because this looked very sparse, here's a big list!

For IMEI Number: *#06#
For RAM Memory version: *#*#3264#*#*
For FTA SW version: *#\*#1111#*#*
For FTA HW version: *#*#2222#*#*
For Touchscreen version: *#*#2663#*#*
To test Bluetooth: *#*#232331#*#*
To display Bluetooth Physic Address: #*#232337#*#
To test secret GPS: *#*#1472365#*#*
To test other GPS:  *#*#1575#*#*
To test WiFi/Wireless LAN of phone: *#*#232339#*#* or *#*#528#*#* or *#*#526#*#*
To display Wi-Fi MAC Address: *#*#232338#*#*
To test Vibration and Back-light of device: *#*#0842#*#*
To test Proximity/Distance Sensor: *#*#0588#*#*
To test Touchscreen: *#*#2663#*#*
For Audio Test: *#*#0289#*#* or *#*#0673#*#*
To launch Service Mode: *#*#197328640#*#*
Hidden Service Menu (Motorola Droid): ##7764726
Field Test: *#*#7262626#*#*
To format the phone: *2767*3855#
To Restore Factory Settings: *#*#7780#*#*
To create Immediate backup of your multimedia files: *#*#273282*255*663282*#*#*
To display Phone Information: *#*#4636#*#*
To get detailed Camera Information: *#*#34971539#*#*
For Software & Hardware Information: *#12580*369#
To display HSDPA/HSUPA Control Menu: *#301279#
To start GTalk Monitoring: *#*#8255#*#*
To get PDA, Phone, H/W and RF Call Date: *#*#4986*2650468#*#*
Displays Build Time and Change List number: *#*#44336#*#*
Packet Loopback Test: *#*#0283#*#*
LCD  Display Test: *#*#0*#*#*
Enter Service Menu (on New Phones): *#0*#
Diagnostic Configuration: *#9090#
USB Logging Control: *#872564#
System Dump Mode: *#9900#
View Phone Lock Status: *#7465625#
Executes Emergency Dial Screen to unlock PUK Code: **05**#
Enables Voice Dialing Logging Mode: *#*#8351#*#*
Disables Voice Dialing Logging Mode: *#*#8350#*#*
Change behavior of Power button: *#*#7594#*#*


How to control which apps has access to my connection? I'm looking for how to control which application has access to network. In my country it costs bit higher for data connections. I don't have access to wifi networks always when I'm travelling. Sometimes when I try to check my mail by turning my data on I will have to wait till all the new check ins of swarm come in my phone to get loaded my emails. Or sometimes when I try to check in swarm I have to wait till all the mails loaded kind of. How can I limit which application only to use when I try to open my data connection. Assume I want to check my email, so when I try to open my data connection for that I should be able to turn off all the other applications using network except mail application.
I'm using unrooted sony xperia L with jelly bean OS and I cannot root my phone.
Thanks in advance.

Go to settings, data usage. Press the apps you want not to use data, and scroll down and select "Disable background data". Now the app won't connect to the Internet if connected on mobile network or mobile hotspot. Please note that if you open the app, it will be allowed to use your data connection, this is only for background data.


Syncing fails after changing Google Apps user's email A few days ago, I changed the primary email of a Google Apps user from user@domaina.com to user@domainb.com

Ever since doing so, Android refuses to sync using either the new or old email address, but I can still log in on the web using both.

Both domains are controlled by my Google Apps organization, and attempting to reconnect the accounts after a factory reset gives me an incorrect password error.

The device is running Android 2.3.3 if it makes a difference.

I realized last night that since I have 2 factor auth enabled for my account, I might have to generate a new application-specific password in my google account settings.

I generated a new one and successfully synced with my new email using it.


ALL Android Apps Randomly Crashing? Recently my Galaxy Grand Prime has been acting weird. All of the apps, including settings, facebook, and youtube have been randmly crashing. I haven't done anything to it like rooting or factory resetting it. Any ideas on why?

This looks like a faulty RAM or some other hardware component like flash storage or CPU. But it does not seem to matter what part is faulty, as on phone, you usually can't simply replace one of them.


How do I activate Google Translate in Chrome? When I go on a page that's totally in a foreign language the "do you want to translate" option comes up but how do I make Chrome translate a page that has 90% English and a few lines in another language. Is there a button I can install or something because the Google Translate thing doesn't come up when only a few sentences are in another language.

OS: 4.1
S3

Go to chrome://flags/#translate-android-manual-trigger (copy paste into your browser) and enable this feature. After relaunch, you'll see the new "translate" option in the menu.


Will the Android OS Support Higher-Resolution Screens? As of Android 2.2, the screen resolution for an Android device is capped at 854x480, which has pretty much become the standard resolution for recent Android handsets. However, with the current generation of the iPhone sporting the so-called "Retina display", is there any information on if and when this cap will be raised? I haven't been able to locate any definitive information on whether or not this cap is altered in Gingerbread.

Gingerbread is adding support for "extra hdpi" and "extra large screen" devices, but this primarily geared towards tablet devices than actual phones (but who is to say that won't change).  More information can be found here on the updated dev guide on supporting multiple screen sizes.


How to correctly identify your phone model and version? I have a Samsung Galaxy Nexus and I'm trying to do a fresh reinstall of Cyanongenmod.

I see in their website that there are three different versions of this phone: https://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Devices#vendor=%22Google%22;searchable=%22galaxy%22;

Now I am confused and don't know which version I have? I bought it in Portugal. But is there a way to automatically identify the phone?

Thank you

Go into settings then About Phone and it should display everything you need


Manually Rooting - What Else Is Needed? I have copied the su binary and superuser.apk to my device via an adb root shell. The su binary is in both /system/bin and /system/xbin, and I am able to successfully use it in my adb shell (for example, I get the help menu when executing adb shell "su -h"). The superuser.apk as well as a good copy of supersu.apk (obtained from reading other similar posts here on stackexchange) are installed in /system/app.

su has been chown'ed and chmodded with the proper permissions. I've double checked that the superuser.apk and supersu.apk have been chowned by root.

Launching SuperSu.apk I get a message that says "Root undetected"
Superuser.apk shows 2 entries in the logs as having granted root

I have tried removing each of the .apks and trying just one on the system. I've also tried different precompiled su binaries I've found through XDA forums and stackexchange.com

No rooted apps work properly: I never get a prompt from Superuser.apk to grant root permissions, and root checking apps find the su binary and superuser.apk but fail to execute as root.

Can someone tell me what I'm missing?

I did find some random github article for rooting a different device that mentions a roothandler https://github.com/Unkn0wn-0nes/RootMyValet/wiki/Manual-installation-Instructions

Please note one odd constraint: I am trying to manually root, I don't care if it's just a temporary root. Flashing via TWRP is not an option, I cannot alter/remove/backup user data from this particular device, so I don't want to risk wiping it.

You also need to copy the busybox binary to /system/bin and /system/xbin. This may be the only step you're missing. Also, you only need one of superuser or supersu.

edit I was wrong, although for anyone else following along, the busybox binary from busybox.net includes su, which I thought was pretty cool. Anyway, it seems that rooting a modern android phone takes a bit more work. I took a look at the supersu zip, and from what I can tell, it creates a whole new ext4 system image and mounts it at /su. It also installs a few system daemons and initialization routines.


What are all the functions of fastboot on android 4.4.4? I have recently been able to access fastboot but I have almost no knowledge about the different options inside it. Could someone please explain in details all the functions of fastboot?

Extra info

I am on a moto g 2013 with android 4.4.4
I am not rooted and do not have anything such as Clockwork mod installed

Fastboot allows you to send commands to your phone while in the bootloader. The bootloader is the one place that ADB is not running.

Disclaimer, not all of these may work with your device.

fastboot oem unlock

Unlock your bootloader. If your device supports this, you can unlock your bootloader here. Most phones require an exploit in order to gain root access, phones like Nexus devices allow you to unlock the bootloader and then it is very easy to root, or install custom ROMs.  note: this will wipe all data off the phone.
Non-Nexus devices may require a code to go along with this command. so it would be called like fastboot oem unlock [the_code]. See fastboot oem get_unlock_data for how to get the code that goes with this command.

fastboot oem get_unlock_data

Motorola guide to unlock your device
I think this is a Motorola command, which will allow you to perform before the oem unlock.
This command will give you a code and you go to the Motorola website and enter the data. They will then give you a 20 character code that you use with oem unlock

fastboot devices

gets the list of devices that are connected to the computer. This is like the ADB devices command, but works on devices that are at the bootloader.
It is good to use this to ensure you can properly connect to the device.

fastboot flash

Flashes a custom image to specific partitions on the device.

fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot flash cache cache.img
fastboot flash userdata userdata.img
fastboot flash system system.img

fastboot erase

Erase partitions on the device [source]

fastboot erase system
fastboot erase data
fastboot erase cache

fastboot reboot

Yep, it reboots the device.

Normal Powerup

Just reboots the phone normal

Recovery

Reboots the phone to the recovery

Factory

Seems to just boot the device normally. Maybe 'Safe Mode'? [Source]

Switch console

??

Barcodes

Brings up device serial number, ID numbers, SIM numbers, etc. as barcodes.

BP Tools

Baseband Processing Tools? Used for troubleshooting baseband [Source]


Can I play DRM music from iTunes on my Android? I thought that DRM content on iTunes could only be played on iTunes, but then I saw SongBird, a non-Apple application that can play DRM protected music.

Is there an app for that uses similar technology that can play my old iTunes purchases?

Is there any other ways I can play my music on my Android (Wildfire)?

This has basically been answered in the comments above but I'll wrap it all up into an answer:

No, you can't play songs that have Apple's Fairplay DRM protection on your Android phone without removing the DRM protection (which technically violates Apple's toc).  As Edarerathis pointed out, Songbird doesn't actually support Fairplay DRM'd media, Quicktime does, so SongBird (like RealPlayer) uses Quicktime to decode the songs and play them.  It wont work without Quicktime installed and so you can't use this functionality in Linux or Android.


Link between device state & user settable root of trust I am (still) trying to understand exactly how verified boot works and I am wondering what happens when a user-settable root of trust is used by the device.
As said here:

  If the device is LOCKED, the bootloader goes through the steps in
  Verifying Boot to verify the device's software. LOCKED devices boot
  only if the loaded OS is properly signed by the root of trust. For
  more details, see The boot flow.

Does the fact of setting a user-settable root of trust imply that
the device has to be UNLOCKED?
Does it mean that a LOCKED device can
boot on a custom OS if it is signed with the user-settable root of
trust?
Is the warning still displayed if the user-settable root of
trust is used to validate tue boot process?

Custom root of trust has to be set from fastboot according to docs. The OEM can implement it in different ways, the docs recommend that a custom certificate can only be installed from UNLOCKED state
Once your certificate is installed as root of trust, you can boot in LOCKED mode (only binaries signed by either you or the OEM will be allowed to boot)
Following the docs, a warning should be displayed if booting a custom signed firmware (booting the OEM signed one shouldn't ?)


Can Google Daydream View function as a Cardboard for unsupported phones? I have the $79 I need to buy a Daydream View, but not the $650 to buy a Pixel to go along with it. My current phone is a Galaxy S7. (Don't tell me to just get a Gear VR. That's not what I'm asking.) If I get a Daydream View for my Galaxy S7, or any other phone that doesn't come with built-in Daydream support, will I be able to just use it like a really fancy Cardboard?

Surprised this hasn't been answered - but yes, Cardboard is just to hold your phone and have basic lenses to view the split screen. Daydream VR is a superset of that functionality, so Cardboard apps should work fine with it.


Restore SIM Card details to PC I have my SIM card from the back of my Samsung Galaxy S5. However, I do not have the phone anymore. I will not be getting a new phone for quite sometime.
My question is; is there a way to retrieve the entire contents of my SIM card, without having a phone? Maybe there is a way to download the contents to my pc. Please advise

You can buy SIM card readers for PCs, which will come with Windows software to retrieve any phone numbers and SMS messages from the SIM card. Just search your local Amazon site or eBay for SIM card reader. Be careful not to get an SD card reader by accident!

Do bear in mind that most Android phones don't store contacts on the SIM card by default, but on the phone itself. The SIM card can only store very limited information about contacts: just a name and a number. Unless you're sure you've moved all your data onto the SIM card, you might put a lot of time into finding a reader only to find the SIM card is empty.


How do I check the class of a micro sd card? I'm thinking about getting a new sd card and read that the class of them really matters. I'm looking at getting a 16gb one with a class not less than class 6. How do I check for the class?

An SD Card class basically the minimum sequential write speed that the SD card supports. Testing the class of an SD is quite easy, just copy a 1 GB file to an empty card and measure the time it took for the copy. A class 6 SD card should support at minimum 6MB/s.

Also check out the markings on the SD card, there should a logo like the following:

the number in the logo describes the speed class.


How to know if Android Device Manager's erase phone worked on a stolen device? Phone was stolen, and when I went to wipe it in the Android Device Manager the phone appears off line for more than 5 days.

Today when i checked, the phone was no longer listed in my device manager, does this mean it was wiped, how can i confirm this ?

There is no confirmation provided that the device had been wiped as you can read in Google Support (there are are earlier references and this is the latest I could find - last month)

So you can't - the fact that device is wiped also means that your device is not associated with your account and therefore you cannot see it listed in your devices. Also as stated here

  Erase
  Permanently deletes all data on your device (but might not delete SD cards). After you erase, Find My Device won't work on the device

(Emphasis Supplied)

Not appearing in the devices list cannot be a confirmation by itself that the device is wiped ; since Google didn't cite this as proof, but yes, most likely it is wiped

Unless you installed a third party device manager app, which provides such confirmation , there is no way to get a confirmation


How can I automatically connect my phone to the stronger Wifi signal around it? I have a Google Nexus 4 and have two wi-fi networks that I use in my home. Since they are in some range of one another my phone stays connected to the router that's farther away from the one I'm closer to. Is there a way or app that can connect me to the stronger wifi signal around me when I move around my house?

Unfortunately, there's no native method for this (at least to my knowledge). But WiFi Switcher does exactly that. According to its description:

  The tool checks the registered WIFI networks every 20 seconds. If one of these networks has better signal strength than the currently one, the tool changes the WIFI network to this better one.

But it's not that well rated (3.2 with 75 ratings). The alternative WiFi Jumper has a better rating (4.1@194), but is not free:

  Automatically connect to the strongest available WIFI (scaninterval configurable)
  Even unknown, but unsecured networks can be used automatically (configurable)
  Optional: create Wifi Zones based on one or more Radio Cells to automatically start and stop Wifi Hardware.


How do I disable the USB Connected notification? Every time I plug in my phone, I get a notification for USB connected. Is there any way to disable the notification, without disabling USB debugging?

Phone: LG Optimus S
Carrier: Sprint
Android: 2.2, Rooted

If the sound is what you don't like, on some phones the sound can be turned off by disabling USB Debugging. Settings -> Applications -> Development -> USB debugging. However, on some other phones, this will not change the sound that gets played when you plug it in.

To actually remove the notification, as previously mentioned, you'll need a custom ROM to do that for you.

[Update]
Another option to disable the sound is to go into your Sounds settings and set the default notification ringtone to silent and then go to each and every one of your applications that you want to have ringtones in and individually set them up there. I don't recommend this option (sure would be a pain if you forgot to set a ringtone to work email and missed an important one saying "We need you here ASAP or you're fired!"), but it is an option nonetheless.


Dropbox files won't open, 'Permanent Failure' Opening files from the Dropbox app seems to always result in a 'Permanent Failure' message. I see that some of the progress bar fills before the error appears. In the past I used Dropbox to view many file types, including JPG, TXT and PDF.

I am googling the problem but I don't see anything specific in the results. I'm wondering if it is due to having too full of an SD card. I will test that shortly.

Device: HTC Incredible (Android 2.3.4), App version: 2.0.1

I fixed this by removing data from the SD card. It was nearly full. Freeing up ~1GB of the card solved the problem. It's likely that the application uses some SD card space to open files.


Nexus 4 speaker no longer playing any audio The speaker on my Nexus 4 suddenly stopped playing audio a few days ago. No sound at all, no music, ringtones, etc.

Is this software problem or hardware?

If I reinstall Android 4.3 again manually, will it unmute the speaker?

First thing to do is to check the device's settings. It might very well be you just "silenced" your phone one way or the others. There are different places to look for:

Open the notification area. On many (recent) devices, it holds some shortcuts to frequently used stuff as toggling WiFi, airplane mode, and also mute (i.e. switch between "complete mute", "vibration only", and "normal noise").
Check all your stuff in the Settings menu. Different manufacturers/devices/ROMs have different settings in different places which might cause this
If you use some "automation tool" like Tasker, Llama, or the like, check whether it could be one of its profiles

If the above still didn't solve the issue, make a good backup and then factory-reset your device. If the device still stays mute after that, it's unlikely to be resolved on a software level, but rather a hardware failure. So in that case, you should contact the service; if the device is still under warranty, they should fix it for free.


Create a dead zone on a screen using adb to fix phantom touch Many a times a very specific area of a screens starts to show phantom touches. In this case a very simple tweak to just remove the touch sensitivity from this very specific area could fix the problem. Even an xposed module would do.

How could I achieve this? I'm using CM 13 and I know how to use adb. Please don't give me the same 'just buy a new screen bs' . Those screens aren't cheap. Somtimes the screen can cost half the price of the phone.

Thousands of people have this problem. If we can achieve this we could very well save a lot of money.

I also got that problem. I tried the command wm overscan [reset|LEFT,TOP,RIGHT,BOTTOM] (from this post). That didn't fix the problem but helped a lot.


Google Play store crashes and gapps process not working since upgrading to Jelly Bean on Samsung Galaxy S II My phone is about 9 months old and has not given me any problems before I upgraded to the latest Android version - Jelly Bean 4.1.2. I downloaded an original version (not a cracked version) when I got an upgrade for my phone. However, since then, while I try to launch the Google Apps store, it just crashes and I'm unable to browse the store, forget downloading new apps!

It hangs often now - while typing a message or browsing on the phone, I randomly get the message - Something like, gapps.process is not responding and has stopped.

I reckon, I shall have to format and re-install the Jelly Bean again on my phone. I'm open to suggestions though :D

I do not have Kies pre-installed on my laptop yet. Will it cause an issue? If needed, where do I download it from?
My phone is not rooted - I would not like to root my phone as yet.
Would appreciate only legal methods, as I'm worried about my warranty on my phone.
My phone memory - contacts (extremely important) and apps(if possible) need to be safe.
I would like to keep the data on my data card ( music, videos ) safe.

I do a bit on my S II (I9100G), but I'm no real expert with the phone. Appreciate a tested way..!

No need for a factory reset, friend.
All you have to do is go to Settings>Application Manager>All>Download Manager>Clear Cache and Clear Data.
Go to Google Play>Clear Cache>Clear Data and then Go to Google Play Services>Clear Cache>ClearData.
REstart the Phone and it will be alright.


okay, what about the pictures on my SD card? Will I be able to see my pictures on my home computer if they've been on an encrypted SD cell phone card? If that answer is no, that means I won't be able to use my SD card to make any prints of my pictures, correct?  If that's the case, how do I unencrypt my SD card? Or how do I change the setting for saving my pictures to my SD card? If I do this, how can I ever make prints of any of my pictures? I admit I take many family pics bc no one lives close by ~
it would be so nice to see some of them framed and around the house instead of only getting to look at them while sitting at the computer. Thanks again

For the first part of the question -- if your SD card is encrypted, then it won't be readable on a computer, print kiosk, or other device unless that device has compatible encryption capability and you supply the key (not going to happen at the print kiosk at Target, sorry to say).

As far as I know, there's no feature given to decrypt an entire storage volume (like your SD card); the most practical way to get the images decrypted would be to copy then to an unencrypted storage device.  One way to do that would be to install a cloud storage app (like Dropbox) on your phone.  Don't encrypt the cloud storage, and anything you copy to the cloud will be accessible to any device that has access to that cloud storage.  Dropbox has an application for Windows, Mac, and Linux, as well as both Android and iOS, which makes it a good choice (and it's free, with a fairly large storage limit, at least as of September 2017).  Some printing services will allow you to print from Dropbox storage, at least via their web page (Staples and Office Max/Office Depot allow this, as I recall).

Unless you also shoot porn on your phone or have a high enough profile to be concerned about blackmail, I don't see a lot of reason to encrypt storage of family photos anyway -- you might consider backing up your SD card (connecting the phone to a computer via USB cable may allow doing this without requiring the computer to deal with the encryption) and reformatting the SD storage without encryption.

Depending on your Android version, it may not be possible to store data (pictures, music, documents, etc.) on the SD card without adopting it, which encrypts it for unique access only by the adopting device.  If you're running Android 6 (Marshmallow) or newer, this might be the case (I can't check on my own device, as I have a Pixel which doesn't have an SD card slot).


I want to display the sender's name rather than their contact photo within a text message conversation I want to display the sender's name rather than their contact photo within a text message conversation.  I don't have everyone's contact photograph memorized and I have multiple people with the same contact photograph.  My old Android (version 4.0.4) did display the name within the conversation bubble, my new one (version 4.3) displays a small contact photograph next to the conversation bubble instead of the sender's name.  One friend has some random cat wearing sunglasses as her contact photo....I certainly don't associate that with her and when she changes her contact photo then there will be some other random thing I don't associate with her.  I would prefer to see her name rather than a random cat.  For people who don't have a contact photo or for whom I don't have a photo, it displays a generic outline of a head.

I recommend installing an alternative SMS app. Once you have it downloaded you won't need any Internet connection. From your comment

  "Apps work great when you have a good connection to 4G, 3G, etc."

you are obviously concerned about Internet speed, but this isn't an issue for an app that sends SMS. It will send and receive your text messages in place of the app you are currently using. I do not mean an Instant Messaging application like Kik or Whatsapp, I mean a dedicated SMS app. The current app you use is provided by whoever made the device (e.g. Samsung or HTC or Sony) and it works in its own way.

By way of an example here is a shot of Google Messenger  where you can see the name at the top of each conversation.

Note: This won't be compatible below Android 4.1 JellyBean so will not suffice in this specific instance, but may be of use to others on the site.

Another good SMS app is Go SMS Pro which is also free on the Play Store.

Google Hangouts can also be used for SMS. There are many great SMS apps on the store, and I'm sure at least one of them will suffice.


How to Turn on mobile data on all apps when each is set to off I somehow  individually turned off mobile data on 250 apps. How do I turn all of them on. I don't remember how I did it. I am on a poco F1 android 9 miui 10.

I can't find it through the settings but finally I found a popup view window titled restrict data that appeared when an app requested mobiledata permission, selected to restrict all and then clicked a second time to unrestrict all. It's an option at the top of the list of apps. It is different from the restrict data in the settings


What is the FastBoot? and what is the difference to obtain the root on Nexus devices? I have some doubts about fastboot and some other stuff.

I am an owner of an old HTC Desire on which, a long time ago, I installed Cyanogen Mod Android distribution.

Although I installed the Cyanogen I have many doubts about the fastboot and the Android architecture.

What exactly is FastBoot? What it is for?

I also have a doubt about how obtain root permission on the new Nexus 5, reading online I have understand that to obtain root permission on the Nexus devices I have to connect it to my PC and to execute a program that give me the root...but this is the same thing that I did on my HTC Desire.

What is the difference? Why many people say that obtain root permission on Nexus devices is easier than on others devices? It seems to me the same thing !!! What am I missing?

When talking about gaining root for a given device, it usually means obtaining it for the first time by developers. There are generally two ways of doing this. You can either find a software vulnerability that can be exploited to elevate permissions and sneak in the su (superuser) binary into write-protected system area, or you can flash an image of the device with root already in place. Needless to say, exploiting vulnerabilities is a lot more difficult. This is where fastboot comes in.

On some devices (mostly HTC and Motorola) Fastboot is a special start-up mode that allows you to flash pre-made images onto various internal memory partitions. It is similar to Samsung's "Download" mode, except instead of proprietary software like Kies or Odin (and Heimdall), it uses the fastboot utility that comes standard with Android SDK.

However, flashing can be, and usually is, restricted by device manufacturers to only images signed by the manufacturer themselves (or the carriers). This is what is referred to as bootloader locking. Most new phones ship with locked bootloaders, which makes it impossible to flash custom ROMs. You are back to having to root via the other, more difficult method.

Nexus devices come with unlockable bootloaders, so that you can flash ROMs easily and without restrictions.  Unlocking a bootloader of a Nexus device is very easy as well.  A pre-rooted image usually surfaces very quickly for these devices after they are released.

It is worth noting that with Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean) and even more so with 4.4 (KitKat) Google has changed some low level OS security policies, which renders old rooting methods obsolete. Unlocking the bootloader and flashing a modified image of the OS that circumvents these new policies will soon become the only way to really achieve root.  You can read more about this here.


Is there a way to navigate back after an inter-page jump in a PDF reader? Say I am reading a paper with a PDF reader on a tablet and I get to

  ... the second inequality follows from Lemma 3.2 ...

and I click on the text "Lemma 3.2" to jump to Lemma 3.2. Now that I reminded myself of what Lemma 3.2 was, I need to go back to the page I was reading before the jump.

In case of Adobe Reader which I am using on my phone, the physical back button (which I believe corresponds to the system back button) simply gets me to the recent files list.

Is there a way to navigate back after an inter-page jump in a PDF reader?

ezPDF Reader (free trial, pro) supports this.

Assuming you have a table of contents (TOC), clicking on a chapter link will take you to a page far from the TOC. If you click on the button with "a page and left arrow" icon (encircled below), it will take you back to the TOC.


run C executable termux Android 6 I have just installed termux in my Android 6 phone and have given storage permissions so I can read, write or compile from the terminal in the folder /sdcard/myC/ by using clang -o birthday birthday.c -lm.

However, when I try to run the executable I get -bash: ./birthday: Permission denied. I have tried compiling and running in multiple places, i.e. /sdcard/data/com.termux and have tried the command termux-setup-storage that ensures the permissions are granted to read/write. I have tried to chmod the program as well.

I should be doing something wrong because apparently the app is really good.

Finally I got it to work. Programs can only be run if they are located at the home directory of termux. That is, run pwd to know where the home directory is and put the source files there, then compile and run, enjoy!


How to limit Google account access to selected apps? I have used Google Photos App on iOS and the google account there allows me to disable access to the other google services where I don't see my other accounts in all Google Apps like Youtube, Gmail, Drive etc.
This can't be done as far as I know on an android device. Although I can turn the automatic sync off but the account is pretty much there on all apps.
Is it possible in some way that I achieve the same behavior as in iOS. It's pretty strange that google apps are giving more options on iOS than on Android.

There are two ways to do it.
Method 1 - Ugly
If your phone supports multiple sessions (I mean this), then disable GApps except Google Photos in the new user session.
Method 2 - Better
Use Parallel Space and just run the Google Photos A.P.K. in it
I'm not sure here but I think if you are a privileged user you can direct the sign in to a webview.
As suggested by @chx, Shelter is good, I just tested it, makes clone for these apps when I tried to do it for Google Photos.


How can I upgrade the OS of my Samsung Galaxy Exhibit from Android 4.1 to 4.4 or higher? How can I upgrade the OS of my Samsung Galaxy Exhibit (SGH-T599N) from Android 4.1 to 4.4 or higher?

I am trying to install Live on YouTube – by Xperia on my smartphone so that I can live stream videos on YouTube, but it's giving me this error message: "This app is incompatible with your device."

According to the app's Google Play homepage, which was updated last week, the app requires Android 4.4 or higher. I only have 4.1. :( So, I assumed it must be because of that (please correct me if this assumption might be wrong.) Also, when I press Software Update on my device, I get: "This device is up to date." Could it mean that I may never be able to update it anymore because it's too old?

Android updates are issued per device. Once the device is selected for update the update is distributed OTA(Over The Air) from your wireless carrier. Until then you have to use the current installed version of the OS.


Push a ROM to Galaxy S3 (d2att) while in TWRP/CWM? My friend has royally buggered up his phone and we can't get a file onto the phone in order to reflash the ROM. We are able to get into the recovery (either TWRP or CWM) and reflash the recovery via Odin- but not able to get anything to onto the phone to flash!

CWM doesn't seem to have an adb sideload option on version 6.0.1.2 and adb wouldn't recognize the device in TWRP.

Any ideas?

First of all, do a nandroid backup to save the current state of the phone.

Get a ROM that can be flashed via recovery (usually .zip, not .img or .tar.img), then just execute:

adb shell mount /sdcard
adb push <romname.zip> /sdcard

If the first option to mount the sdcard fails, you can manually mount if from recovery. Also sdcard path might vary from ROM or recovery.

Once the ROM is uploaded to the phone, you can then use the recovery option to install it.

If you're comming from a different ROM, be sure to wipe /system, /data and /cache.


How can a complete web page be saved and viewed on an Android device? There are situations I require to save a "complete" web page for offline reading. I can easily do that on Windows by saving the web page, but not on Android.

I am using Chrome on Android and I don't see a "save" option. Instead, I see "Save link" which, I believe, saves "only" the "pure HTML" version of a site of which the link leads to.

I have tried this but, when I view it in the HTML Viewer a lot of necessary CSS formatting and all the images were lost, which made the information misleading and incomplete respectively. (PS I thought I downloaded the complete page and the fault was that of the HTML Viewer for not rendering every thing, but I was wrong, as the desktop Chrome also displayed the "only HTML" version when I transferred those pages to my laptop through Bluetooth).

So, my question is: How can I download "a complete" web page on my Android smart-phone. It's OK if I can't view it on my smart-phone, but every thing should be in place when I view it on my laptop after transferring it. It is also OK if it is saved as a PDF file.

(PS I'm asking this as I use internet very often in my smartphone because my laptop is not connected to the internet. Also I want to transfer it to my laptop because I don't want to view those "important" pages on a small screen, it's inconvenient).

In chrome for mobile, you can save the opened web page as a PDF. To do that, you have to install the Google Cloud Print application to do this.

Once you have installed it, first open a desired web page in the chrome.

Then click on the menu icon and select on Print option. There you can select the Save As PDF option.

Select the location and click on the save button. This should save a PDF of the current web page which you can read by using any PDF viewer that came with your smart phone.

Hope this helps.


Where to find an original Android image? Possible Duplicate:
  Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?

I have found many custom ROMs for download. But now I want to use the official ROM for my phone. Is there any way to do it without a NAndroid backup?

Download ROM Manager and go to the "Stock Images" section of "Download ROMs".

You should always do a Nandroid backup when messing with system files. There's always a risk of something going wrong. Also when installing new ROMs (whether custom or stock), it's recommended that you do a clean wipe of the system before installing.


Google contacts party deleted, how to restore? My phone has since this morning forgotten about a part of my contacts: it only displays some of them in my contact list, or only displays their email address and not their phone number. I don't know what triggered this and there doesn't seem to be a logic behind it: I see and don't see contacts related to different accounts.

Now luckily my WhatAapp conversations with many of the deleted people are still there, so I can re-add them to my contact list manually, but this of course doesn't work for people that I have not talked to on WhatsApp recently.

The thing is, in my phone, contact sync with my main Google account is turned off (has to do with my limited data plan). This means that I sometimes sync manually, but I had some contacts in my phone that weren't synced with Google and part of them are now gone. Is there any way to restore these?

Also, which of the following will syncing my Google contacts do?

Overwrite the contacts in my phone
Add to my phone the contacts that are in my Google account without deleting any contacts in my phone that are not in my Google account
Delete all contacts that are just stored on my phone and not in my Google account?

Any other suggestions are also appreciated, but please be very clear because I'm new to this.

If you sync your google contacts it will add the contacts present in your google account to your phone, without deleting or modifying the other contacts (option b).

The reason might be that, you accidentally deleted all the contacts in your phone and restored the partially synced contacts from your google account.

How to restore? - I think you already restored the available contacts using your google account. You can't restore beyond those contacts, unless you had the other backup source (like you can backup your contacts using inbuilt option for contacts backup)


Read the URL of currently open tab in a browser, every time it changes I use Logitech media server (LMS) to play my music on a DLNA device. The server also has a youtube plugin and can play the sound of youtube videos if a specific url, which contains the youtube video id, is opened. For example http://myLMS:9000/status.html?p0=playlist&p1=play&p2=youtube://wS1drVzZPmw&player=myPlayer.

But it only plays back a single video this way. And I'd like them to autoplay, the way they do when youtube is accessed with a browser.

One way to do this, would be to open a browser and read the youtube url every time it changes, somehow, extract the video id from the url, and then forward it to LMS by generating a link, similar to the one I posted above, but containing the id of the video, that was extracted from the youtube url.

The generating and opening of the custom link for the LMS should not be too difficult, by using tasker, I think. But I suspect getting the url from the browser and constantly checking if it changed, would be more difficult.

So - is it possible to read the URL of currently open tab in a browser, every time it changes, and store it as text somewhere?

Or maybe the youtube app on android stores the id of the video it is currently playing somewhere. That might work also, if we could read it somehow. I think the youtube app also autoplays the videos.

Apps on Android can't access data of other apps. Therefore you can't just read the current URL of a web browser like chrome.

If this would be possible every app with advertisements would do so and report all the URLs you are visiting in the web browser back to some ad network. As you can see such an interface would be a privacy nightmare.

Hence the only chance to get what you want to do it inside of a browser-plugin.
However I don't think that there is any browser-plugin for Chrome, Firefox or another web browser on Android that would do what you want. Hence you would have to develop your own web browser plugin (please note that development topics are off-topic on this site).


Good combination for playing media from SMB/CIFS share? Currently I am using ES File Explorer + MX Player to play audio and video files for this.

Unfortunately it has some problems:

MX Player sees only current playing file, not a directory. So I can't jump to next file from within player. I need to go back to ES Explorer to go to next file.
Sometimes if there is a connection problem, the video just closes and later can be started only from the beginning. In correct software, the video should wait until the source is available again.
Some players are not displayed for certain file types at all. If I force using them, they say

  This file type does not support streaming

and then starting to copy entire file to local storage before playing. Correct software should simulate normal directory from SMB shares so that applications could not know that the source is remote.

VLC for Android plays media from SMB shares. I use VLC on my tablet, my little Android set top box and about to put it on my firesticks. I also use VLC on my Windows and Linux PC's.


Google play services deleted, how to repair without play store? I somehow destroyed Google Play Services while clearing cache n search history cause Play Store kept hanging up indefinitely when trying to  download apps. My Google account then kept pinging the phone for play services updates; to remedy the loop I had to remove my Google account.
Now I can't access Play Store to attempt repair of Play Services because it requires I sign in. I try that, phone starts process of adding Google account. Can't add my Google account because Play Services is gone, (according to the Fix Play Services app noted below).  Catch 22.
It's a Sony Xperia Z3v D6708. Android Version 5.1.1
(If system information like latest system update or kernel version are helpful I'd be happy to add a screenshot of the About Phone page.)
It is a Verizon phone, I have data and web access. Is Play Services recoverable/reinstallable via internet? Without Play Store access?
I downloaded from Play Store a couple "Fix Play Services" apps on a friend's phone, extracted the apk and bluetoothed to my XPeria. Fix Play Services says Play Services is not installed.
Apologies, I'm a little elderly, I'm on a fixed income and buying a new phone is out of the question.
When posting this question this post came up:
Install Google Play Services without Google Play Store
This appears to be a very similar issue, a bigger problem to recover than I thought.  I've never rooted a phone. Can I get help with this somewhere? Or advice?
Thank you in advance.

I once had a similar problem but in my case i caused because i tampered with the system. Have you tried downloading playservices from an external site. If the playservices you downloaded doesnt work correctly (in my case it gave me the "force stopped" error), you need to install a new firmware which will fix all bugs.
Link to playservices package (apk): https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/google-play-services/google-play-services-20-36-15-release/google-play-services-20-36-15-020300-333172415-android-apk-download/
Use the flash stock firmware method if the above fails
link to stock firmware : https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=95784891001602913
how to flash firmware full guide : https://flash-guide.com/download-flash-official-stock-rom-sony-xperia-z3v-d6708/
Hope this will help


Closing zygote and seeing simple interface Can i'm close zygote on my phone and see "terminal"? If i'm closing zygote with

killall zygote

my phone just rebooted and graphics interface starts again.

Can i'm close zygote on my phone and see "terminal"?

No. Android is not like a GNU/Linux desktop, with TTYs open in the background behind X Windows. Killing zygote is not like killing X Windows, it's like killing init. There isn't a TTY behind it you can log into.


When will my device get the Android 4.3 update (Jelly Bean)? Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean) was officially announced on July 24, 2013.

(You can review the high level changes in Jelly Bean at the official Android Developer's site or the announcement on the official Android blog.)

Of course, not all devices will get this update right away and others won't get it at all. Each manufacturer and carrier often choose to add their custom modifications which tend to delay the official release.

When will each device get Android 4.3, either officially or unofficially, if ever?

See also:

When will my device get the Android 4.2 update (Jelly Bean)?
When will my device get the Android 4.4 update (KitKat)?
When will my device get the Android 5.0 update (Lollipop)?

This community wiki will list all of the known and rumored dates for devices. If you have an update make sure to follow the format that's been established, and the following guidelines:

Keep phones in alphabetical order listing the manufacturer and model
Specify if the date is confirmed or rumored and link to the source
If there is an unofficial release, link to the site where it can be downloaded

Phones
HTC

EVO 4G LTE: end of 2013 (confirmed)
One

Google Play Edition: 2013-08-01 (confirmed)
With HTC Sense: 2013-09-27 (confirmed)

One (Developer Edition): 2013-09-27 (source)
One X and One X+: Never (source)

LG

Nexus 4: 2013-07-24 (announced)

Samsung

Galaxy Nexus:

GSM/HSPA+: 2013-07-24 (announced)
Sprint: unknown
Verizon:

Official: unknown
Unofficial: 2013-07-24: (RootzWiki)

Galaxy Note II: December 2013 (rumor)

Galaxy S 3: October 2013 (source)

Galaxy S 4

Google Play Edition: 2013-08-02 (confirmed)
With Touchwiz: 2013-10-17 (confirmed)

Nexus S

Unofficial: 2013-07-27: (confirmed - XDA thread)

Sony

Xperia SP: beginning 2014-Jan (confirmed)
Xperia T: beginning 2013-Dec (confirmed)
Xperia TX: beginning 2013-Dec (confirmed)
Xperia V: beginning 2013-Dec (confirmed)
Xperia Z: 2013-12-23 (confirmed)
Xperia Z Ultra: 2013-12-16 (confirmed)
Xperia Z1: 2013-12-16 (confirmed)
Xperia ZL: 2013-12-23 (confirmed)
Xperia ZR: 2013-12-23 (confirmed)

Tablets
Asus

Nexus 7 (2012): 2013-07-24 (announced)

Samsung

Nexus 10: 2013-07-24 (announced)

Sony

Xperia Tablet Z: 2013-12-23 (confirmed)

Other
GoogleTV

All models - Unknown

Nvidia Shield

2013-10-28 - (confirmed)


Are there any dependencies for unrevoked3 to run on stock ubuntu? I cannot get unrevoked 3 to run on either my laptop or desktop which both run 64 bit Ubuntu.

Is there a dependency I need?

I download and extract to ~/Downloads

cd ~/Downloads
gksu ./reflash

...and nothing happens.

Based on this Ubuntu forums thread, it seems to be a conflict between 32/64 bit. Is there a way to get this 32 bit application working on my 64 bit system?

unrevoked needs 32bit. That is all.

I ran it on a 32 bit live cd.


Is my phone's GPS limited by US regulations? Apparently any GPS module made in the US and exported is classified as a munition if it is:

  Capable of providing navigation information under the following operational condition:

  At speeds in excess of 515 m/sec (1,000 nautical miles/hour);
  At altitudes in excess of 18 km (60,000 feet).

http://www.armscontrol.org/documents/mtcr

Would the GPS still be usable above 18 km or while travelling more than 515 m/sec?

I have a Droid Charge.

No it's not.

Commercial GPS receivers (like the one in your phone) only work below 18 km and below 515 m/sec. The rationale behind this is that this way they can't be used in ballistic missiles (yes, I'm serious.)

In order to circumvent this you'd need to flash a different firmware to your GPS chip, if you didn't do this you're safe. No current android device ships with munitions grade GPS receiver.


Stop Media Playback through adb I'm testing some settings on a phone, and unfortunately the only control I have is through adb right now. My issue is that while I can start playback of a music file through the following command, I have no way of stopping it so I can perform the next iteration.

adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.View -d "file:///sdcard/Music/mediatest.mp3" -n "com.android.music/.MediaPlaybackActivity"

I don't know if it's possible to end the playback using another adb command, but it doesn't look like it to me - I see there are no Intents that seem to perform that function, nor any activities that are made to stop the media playback.

Use KeyEvent to do the job.

adb shell input keyevent 85

85 corresponds to KEYCODE_MEDIA_PLAY_PAUSE. More keycodes can be found  here or here.

Alternatively, if the activity featuring Play/Pause options is in foreground then you can do:

adb shell input touchscreen tap <X> <Y>

where <X> and <Y> are the coordinates of the tap that you would perform for Play/Pause using your fingers. See my answer here to know how to obtain them (step 1 and 2 under Instructions for Tasker and Xposed Additions).

Or, you can opt to completely kill the app using:

adb shell am force-stop <PKG_NAME>

Edit

Kitkat and above has the command media whose usage goes as,

adb shell media dispatch KEY

KEY can be play, pause, play-pause, mute, headsethook, stop, next, previous, rewind, record, fast-forword. (Source)


Copy internal storage from dead phone to new (same model) phone? Hi Android Enthusiasts!

I dropped my Galaxy S3 in water, then pressed some buttons and heard some nasty popping/crackling sounds. hehe

Ok, so now I think it's time for a new phone.

What I'm thinking is that I can get the exact same model, then copy all the data over (I'm guessing the internal storage is probably not damaged).

The question is, how can I do this? I'd like to flash the new phone with the image of the old phone, but the old phone doesn't work so I can't use a simple tool like clockwork to make an image backup.

Is it possible to get the data some how?

Internal storage doesn't not use the circuitry in the phone. There's no telling what's been fried, but an audible sound is not good. Next time you drop your phone in water, let it dry before you try using it.

Plug the phone into a PC using it's data cable. If it mounts, extract the data. If it doesn't mount, check the PC's device manager and see if any devices are showing up in the list that aren't being recognized by your OS. If there's nothing there, then you're pretty much out of luck.


How to define a preferred Mobile Network? Here is the situation: I live close to a border between to countries, one being under EU laws, the other being neutral, except when it comes to economical wars.

I have a phone contract in the EU, but I get billed high prices when roaming in the other country. However, in most places where I use my phone, I have access to the EU network where I should not be billed extra at all.

I know how to select manually the Operator's Network GSM network I want from the settings (Select a Network Operator), and this is the degraded solution I normally use. Problem is this takes too much time when it detects a bunch of useless operators networks around.

So I would like to know if there is a way (app, probably), that would make this easy, like "try to use the Operator's Network I know is provided in his very location".

Making it a "quick setting" would be a must, but probably already addressed somewhere else here.

edit:

My phone is not "rooted", so I may not use Xposed features. Using a Macro looks cool, but it would be enough if there was a known shell command to do this. Then I just have to map the command to the macro. Maybe an answer to this?

TL;DR: you cannot do that, at least not without root.

Now the reason for this is due to security concerns there are not public APIs to actually do that software-wise. The closest you can get without root is using this software: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kmshack.autoset but it can toggle almost anything (after providing adb permissions) besides the network operator, again due to security reasons.

The preferred network list is defined by the operator (see Preferred Roaming List) so you cannot really influence it. You can however enable/disable network roaming in the menu or alternatively if you have root do it programmatically with xposed: http://repo.xposed.info/module/net.caze.roamingcontrol. You can also use the hidden android menu *#*#4636#*#* where you can control how your phone will determine which network type (not operator type) to prefer, still this is in regards to the networks in the preferred list set by the operator.

You still have the option to ask your operator to disable roaming for you, which might be a solution, however that would really require you to ask them to enable it again if you travel elsewhere ...

And finally you can try the macro route via this: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joaomgcd.autoinput


Search/route with pre-cached google maps? I understand that its possible to cache Google maps for offline use.

But is it possible to search or calculate new routes with the pre-cached map without connecting to internet?

This is not possible at the moment (but maybe in the near future).

Reason:
Google maps data is stored as raster image tiles without any meta information (street vectors, streetnames, interceptions and so on) besides the geolocation per tile.
This means routes cannot even be calculated offline even if someone wants to.

Maps is deliberatly an online service, Google wants you to be "connected".

You have to either buy one of the many pro routing apps (from Navigon, CoPilot or others) or use one of the Open Street Map apps that also provide offline routing (I really like OsmAnd+ or OsmAnd free). See also Open Street Maps wiki for more apps and info.


How can I disable the low-battery sound in Cyanogenmod? I have a rooted Samsung Galaxy S3 running Cyanogenmod 11 (20140804-SNAPSHOT-M9-i9300). When the battery hits ~15% or 5%, an alert appears with a warning sound. How can I disable this warning sound (without removing the popup alert)?

I've tried removing /system/media/audio/ui/LowBattery.ogg; this did not prevent an alert sound, but the sound did change, perhaps to a fallback. I also tried installing "Suppress Low Battery Sound" (aka "Disable Low Battery Beep" via the web browser), but this had no effect either. I tried installing Sound Manager, and turning the system sound down, but this also had no effect.

As per advice from Narayanan, I replaced /system/media/audio/ui/LowBattery.ogg with another .ogg file. The next time it was triggered, the new file played.

I then tried placing an empty file at /system/media/audio/ui/LowBattery.ogg, but this did not work.

Finally, I downloaded a slient .ogg from here, placing it at /system/media/audio/ui/LowBattery.ogg. This worked perfectly.


Locked in a User Account My device (maybe) doesn't support Multiple Users.  I have a rooted device with Xposed Framework installed.

I installed an app from the Play Store (I think it's named as "Multi Users", or other similar to that ...), grant that app a root access, and enable that feature.  Then, I go to "Settings", and the "Users" Option was there.  I add another account, and when it opened a Dialog Box telling me to setup that account now, I rebooted my phone because it was too slow ...

Now, when the phone had finished rebooting, my apps are gone (I mean, when I try to open them, they keep telling me Application not installed);  as well as my third party launchers, lockers, clocks, etc.

Previously, I had done this before (but with a different app), and it gives me options on the Lock Screen to switch to Users.  But, this app doesn't have that option.

Also, the "Users" options is now hidden / not displayed on the Settings.

I also downloaded the ".apk" file of Root Browser (I already downloaded ES File Explorer, but cannot launch it due to that "Application not installed"), but it won't let me install either.

Will adb fix this?  - I hope so ...

My device is running Samsung Galaxy Core Prime - Android 4.4 (Kitkat) with Root and Xposed Framework installed.

Please HELP!

I can think of two possible things:

Hold the power button. Some phone has "Switch User" option on power menu.
Hold the "Power Off" option and select "Reboot to safe mode". May be you can figure out something from safe mode.


Why does brightness control not work in Oneplus 2 of CM13? Fig. 1 max, Fig. 2 min of screen brightness where you see no difference

Bug hypothesis in CM13 discussed with the authors here: no manual adjustment of brightness when the system auto-brightness control is on, because its what VAB does when you enable VAB's function.
Thread in CM13 forum here for evaluation.

Phone: Oneplus 2
OS: CyanogenMod 13
Su: no

I can't comment on the ROM behaviour on your device, but here is an alternative that is found to fix the problem - see OP's comment

Velis Auto Brightness, app description of relevance says:

  Velis auto brightness aims to provide the best possible brightness experience by using your devices sensors to determine the environment you're in. You have complete control over how much brightness will be applied for any given light condition, from selecting the sensors used to fully customizable brightness graph. This is a replacement for system provided auto-brightness functionality usually found in Settings / Display / Brightness

After installing app, OP is able to manually adjust the slider for required brightness


Desire password-required login for Facebook on Android I would like the security of mandatory password login to Facebook from my phone.  How to do this on Samsung Galaxy Express?

As AlEverett has stated, there is not a setting within the app to do this. Though you could download the free app called App Lock and set a password that way on whatever apps that you'd like.


Mock Locations option keeps turning off I am trying to test an app i have been sitting on for a while.
In order to do that i need to use the option "Allow mock Locations", so i set it to on. But as soon as i refresh the page it's gets automatically turned back off every single time. So i am unable to use this option.
I tried finding if an installed app does effect that but as it turned out was not the problem there. This is the only rooted phone i have so i need to get this working on this device.
I'm using 5.1.1, OnePlus X

Anybody maybe with a similar problem or any suggestions?

Thank you.

Things you can try:

If testing on an actual device, make sure that you have the "Developer options" turned on, and a check on the "allow mock locations" checkbox.

From the phone's location settings, make sure the location is not gotten by using Wi-Fi and mobile networks, so only "GPS" or in some models "Device Only" checked.

Finally, if you are developing the app yourself and/or have access to it's manifest; check to see that the manifest contains the correct permission:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_MOCK_LOCATION" />

for further help concerning development issues, you can read from this post on stack overflow for assistance: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2531317/android-mock-location-on-device

I left this answer here for further reference in case it will be useful for others.


How to find pid of Battery Service? I am able to find the pid of System server using ps. And I can find info about the system server process through /proc/pidof system_server. But I dont see (or unable to find) the pid of the other Android System Services like Battery Service, etc..

Is there any way to find the pid of Android System Services ?

There are quite a few apps that can show the PID of running apps and services.

One which I use to find a lot of info about what's going on in my phone is the Android System Info app, you can see the PIDs of some built-in services in this screenshot:


Proxy/tunneling options for the Android platform As the possibility of connecting to a public Wifi is increasing in our cities, the opportunity of proxying/tunneling the traffic is gaining importance.

I strongly believe it would be interesting to come up with a list of applications/procedures that can setup or manage different kind of proxies/tunnels like:

http/https
socks v* (also on top of SSH)
openvpn
pptp
...

My hope is to gather all the knowledge w.r.t. the topic building a community wiki page.

Should this question stay afloat: I recently created a VPN tunnel from my Android devices to my home Win7 PC and it was much easier than I thought. I'm running Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean), but this setup also worked with 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and should work with other versions too.

First, I had to find a way to create a VPN server. OpenVPN looked awesome but several previous questions made it look like it might be more hassle than I was interested in (respect for those who get it working!). I stumbled across two different solutions that would fit my needs and ability:

Setup DD-WRT to run a VPN server straight from a hacked router

This How-To Geek article provides a drop-dead simple explanation of setting up the DD-WRT VPN service. This, I think, is ideal because my router just sits at home all day and is always on. Alas, after checking if my older router was compatable, it turned out that the specific build of DD-WRT I'm running ("micro" in my case) doesn't include the VPN server functionality. If yours does, I'd say go to town. I'm planning on upgrading my router to someday obtain this very function.

Configure a Windows 7 PC to accept incoming VPN connections

Alternatively, I found a blog post describing how to set up Windows to accept an incoming connection. There's honestly not much to say, this was just a few clicks and now it's up and ready - any time the PC is powered on I can log into the VPN created by it with my Windows login credentials. I use the WOL function built into DD-WRT, combined with web-access to my router, to remotely wake my PC whenever I need to use the VPN. Be sure to forward port 1723 to the PC that will be negotiating these incoming requests.

Second, I just had to connect. In ICS/JB, go to System settings > Wireless and Networks > VPN > Add VPN network and enter your info. I use DDNS to work around having to keep up with my ISP's dynamically-assigned IP address.

With a little reading and a little network know-how, this was up and working in a few minutes and was much easier than I thought it was going to be!


Non google-playstore based community android-app rating website Is there any comunity based android-app rating web site where the app-popularity is not based on google-playstore?

The sites i found so far either indirectly uses google-playstore-ranking or some technical writer tells you "wich are the best XXX apps for YYY".

I am interested in community based ranking where even apps that are not available in google-playstore can be ranked.

I am thinking of something similar to *.stackexchange where registered user can either

up and downvote apps
or give an app a quality value (i.e. 1-5 stars)

I found https://www.slant.co/tags/android:

users can ask subjective questions.

i.e. What is the best android app for xxx

users can give subjective answers.

i.e. The yyy app is a good candidate

users can add subjective pro and contra arguments.

i.e. contra: the yyy app consumes to much energy

The community can add more answers and pro/contra arguments and rate each seperatly.


Control android devices remotely For an education purpose I've got multiple android devices (over 10 and they all are identical) and have to make them make the same actions simultaneously (like running app, click controls and so on).

A typical scenario is

Open an edu application on all devices
Navigate to a specific theme
Interact with content (play video, scroll text a requested position)

Is there web services or any other solutions to achieve such thing?

You can get auto clicker apps that can be setup on each device, My personal favourite is  HiroMacro

Another noteworthy one would be
Android Bot Maker

Hiro is better for touch based automation however ABM is better for full control.

Both these suggestions require root access on all of your devices to work

You would simply setup the first device and then export the data to an SD Card, Applying the data to all programs on each device.

I'm sure most of the answers you are looking for will require root access to manage things like clicking and keyboard access automatically.

I hope this answers your question


Are Samsung firmware updates regional? Silly straightforward question: are updates to Samsung devices firmware regional, meaning that  US may get an update earlier than South America or EU?

Also: who controls those updates? Do they depend on carrier when the device is tied to one?

Thanks a lot...really!

Samsung's OTA updates are carrier-based, as usual.  Kies updates are usually regional, but not particularly restricted; you can usually select a different region when installing Kies and get updates from there.

Kies updates are up to Samsung, though they would probably work with carriers on it to ensure it works well and whatnot.  OTA updates are controlled by the carriers, though of course they rely on Samsung to actually produce the update.  There's being some speculation that Google wants to break the carriers' tight control over this (and pricing, etc.) but in general Samsung et al. don't want to get on their bad side.


How to link cloud storage to android phone storage? I want to link Cloud storage like Dropbox or Google drive (or other alternatives) directly to android phone storage folders like Apps, media in order to save media files to cloud storage instead of phone storage. Is there a way to achieve this?

Without root access you cannot make cloud storage available globally i.e. to all apps on device. However, many file explorers (including MiXplorer) support remote storage access just like if it's locally available.

If you have root access you can use rclone mount which mounts a remote cloud storage using FUSE. All apps can see the mounted filesystem if proper permissions are set. E.g. to mount Google drive:

~# mkdir /sdcard/GDrive
~# nsenter -t 1 -m rclone mount GDrive: /mnt/runtime/write/emulated/0/GDrive --gid 9997 --dir-perms 0771 --file-perms 0660 --umask=0 --allow-other

All apps with WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permisison will be able to read/write files to GDrive directory. For details on permissions see How to bind mount a folder inside /sdcard with correct permissions?


Google Now cards not loading For the last week or so, whenever I go to the Google Now page (swiping right from the home screen with the google now launcher), I don't get any Google Now cards. No weather, recommended news, etc.

If I try to reload the page by pulling the screen down, it loads for a while but nothing happens.

I've already tried reinstalling the launcher, deleting the Google Now cache and deleting the card preferences.

Google now is not supported everywhere.
Check these links:

See or remove cards in your feed

Turn your feed on or off

Here are few things:

Check what account are you signed in to google app. If your google account from an unsupported country then cards wouldn't show.
Cards also depend on your location. If you are in an unsupported country then, no cards!

If you want to enable now card in unsupported country then check below links:

Enable Now Cards: No ROOT needed

Enable Now Cards [Root Needed]


Where Did Pocket Go? I lost Pocket and other options in Android Chrome share...

How do I get them back?  Apologies, as I think I'm missing something obvious and I'm being stupid.

It's a default feature in Firefox but in chrome you need to add it as an extension
see here


Add rows to table in Google Docs Any way to add a row to a table in Google Docs? I've tried to click everything, but I find no button to add a row;)

Highlight a cell (long press) in Google Docs and you would see at bottom option to "add row below" ; slide menu to reveal "add above" (not in pic)


How to block those annoying "Your device is infected" ads in Chrome without root We all know and hate them: those annoying ads that pop up along the lines of "Your phone is infected! Click to fix!" How can I block them in Chrome?

I know that adblock exists for root, but I do not have (or plan to) root.  And unfortunately a lot of sites host these adds, so it's not as easy as blocking or avoiding a specific site.

Phone: Alcatel Onetouch Idol S, Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean.

EDIT
Device has root now.

Now that you are rooted, you have a host of options and can be free from Google's policy of removing Ad blocking apps from play store

Install Xposed for your Android version and then Adaway to block all ads. remember to keep updating hostfiles periodically

  AdAway is a utility for root users used to help manage hostfile entries. AdAway doesn't directly block ads; it limits unwanted ads by blocking servers that distribute those ads to websites

If you are not familiar with Xposed, Xposed: The mighty Android tool box by Izzy, would be very useful


Do Samsung batteries actually charge to 100% capacity? My understanding on Li-on batteries is that they don't like to be charged to 100% capacity and that it can prematurely degrade the battery. Something to do with voltage increasing and heat at the last 10% charging capacity? Do Samsung allow their batteries to be charged to an actual 100% capacity or do they actually only charge to 80% but appear as 100% to the user/consumer?

First, a battery is not like a watter bottle with a clear, definite capacity. It's more like a balloon that you can charge more than it's designed for, but if you overcharge it, it gets damaged. There's a threshold that the battery manufacturer thinks "safe to charge to", and that's what you're presented with.


Android market - Application downloading problem I am accessing an Android market and trying to download Free applications, when i have tried to download any application by clicking on "Install" button.

When i click on "Download" button, it always shows the downloading application with the message : "Starting Download", i am seeing this message since last 2 hours, but application is not getting donwload to my phone.

Whats the problem ?

This question is redundant: Please see this one for a solution.


Samsung j7 (2016) Beta Program I want to get Beta Updates. So i signup here http://static.samsungmembers.com/betatest/binary/nos/US/faq_sub.html with my Samsung account. But i can't find Samsung Beta Program App and Samsung Members App in play store. So i downloaded apk and install. But i am having service error in both apps. I am not sure my device and region are eligible for Beta Program. Or am i missing something?
Is there any other way to get Beta Updates?

Samsung j7 is not eligible for Beta Program.
Available devices for Beta Program : Galaxy S7 / Galaxy S7 edge (with Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon contract).


How can I stream my android phone screen to my laptop computer? I am mostly trying to solve a low resolution problem when watching Google Play movies as on my Windows 8.1 PC many of them are not available in HD quality. As Android phones have access to higher resolutions, but I have a better screen on my laptop, I was wondering how I could stream video content from my (unrooted) phone to my laptop screen.

I am aware of some DLNA solutions but as far as I know, they do not allow streaming of Google Play movies.

Search for screen mirroring apps like these:

Screen Stream Mirroring
AirDroid - Android on Computer

Here is the tutorial video on YouTube


how to fix framaroot :exploit work but installation of super su and su binary fail 4.2.2 cherry mobile cherry jelly and I'm trying to find some rooting access applications to root my
Phone, and then i found the framaroot, after that it works perfect I have super su installed in my device after that I try to factory reset my device, and then I installed the framaroot again when I press some selection like boromir and it says  :exploit work but installation of super su and su binary fail: plss help me guys I want to root my phone again :-( .

Try to root with aragorn. If you have installed supersu from the playstore delete it completely. And don't forget to turn on USB debugging and allow unknown sources.

Edit:

Here is a rooting method for cherry:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2286251


Can I send messages via Facebook App without installing Facebook Messenger? When I want to send a chat message via Facebook App it forces me to install Facebook Messenger. Is there any way to pass it except chatting via Internet browser? Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich

No, unfortunately.

To chat, you need to install the facebook messenger application. You can send offline messages (facebook mail) with the facebook app.

Not really a solution: But without either the messenger app or the facebook app on my phone, I find that I tend to use my free time a lot better than constantly reading updates on my social networking applications. The important people in my life have my mobile number and can contact me in case of an emergency. Try it. You will appreciate the simple things in life more.


What is the name of Google Translate's (android) functionality, that with the app I can search for any highlighted text? I can highlight any text in any app, a little list comes up, and shows me that the text can be "used within the Google Translates app" - in this case the text will be translated. See screenshot below. "Fordítás" means "translate" in my language.  What Android system feature is allowing this behavior?

In this particular case you are using Google Keyboard which has the "Translate" feature. Such a feature is built into the custom keyboard.

Using Google Keyboard you can see the "Translate" menu option:

Google Keyboard Cut Paste Menu in Chrome:

Other keyboards which can come as default on devices like Samsung have no such feature.

Samsung Keyboard Cut Paste Menu in Chrome:

It is also possible that a custom item will appear in the pop-up menu which would be specific to that particular app. So, if you want to have that feature (or possibly others), you'll need to check if its feature of the app or the custom keyboard.


Auto-mount microSD when plugging phone to computer with USB In short: How to automatically mount the microSD-card as a storage drive when I plug the phone to computer?

When I want to connect my Android 2.3.6 phone (with USB cable) to computer (Windows 7 / PC), I have to

unlock the phone (slide finger on screen)
slide to make the top notification panel appear
click on USB connected / select to copy files to/from your computer in the notification panel

click on "Connect USB storage"

Accept the warning message

wait...

So many steps!

Instead of all these steps, I would like auto-mount the microSD-card as a storage drive when I plug the phone to computer. How to do that?

Based on your answer in the comments (apologies for not catching the OS in your initial post), you're going to still have to unlock by hand.  Past that step, I would recommend trying Macrodroid, Tasker, or other automation apps to see if they can help out. I've not used them to automate connections like this, but they are great in other situations, so I have great hope for a solution here for you.


What does this crescent shaped icon mean and do? This icon popped up on my screen today. I don't know how or what it does and how to remove it. I have a Redmi 4a.

Does anyone know to remove it?

That's DND (Do Not Disturb)

  DND is  a feature which after enabling you aren’t disturbed by
  notifications or other forms of incoming communication. Do Not
  Disturb(DND) can be set automatically or manually based on a few
  parameters that you control.

One way to disable DND is to  drag down your Notification Panel and select DND from the different toggles.

Alternatively navigate to Settings >> Do Not Disturb and disable it.

Acknowledgements

DND (Do Not Disturb) - A Nice Way To Block Unwanted Notifications!!


How to unbrick nexus 9 after an OTA update? After the latest OTA update my Nexus 9 boots forever. If I turn it off and then turn it on, it shows

and then it boots forever (green, red, blue, yellow circles, squares, circle slices move forever). I tried rebooting it a few times and even tried going into recovery -> hboot -> factory reset. Nothing changed. My Nexus 9 was not rooted and doesn't have a custom recovery.

Is it clear from this information what is wrong with my tablet? Can I unbrick it by flashing a stock ROM using adb or something?

I've got the same problem on a recent OTA update on my Nexus 9. Unfortunately thes "Nexus Root Toolkit" app didn't help because my Nexus 9 was all stock, no root and the OEM unlock was disabled. The problem got me into a dead end. But I found a solution that helped me out and now my Nexus 9 is alive again. It's simple, but you need to follow the steps thoroughly.

Be advised that your data will be completely gone, but at least your tablet will live again.

Ensure your tablet is fully charged and that you have 'adb' available (here's the official process, or a minimal installation)
Download the OTA image for your device, mine was Nexus 9 Wifi so i picked the Nexus 9 "volantis"
Start your Nexus and you'll see an image of an Android robot with a red exclamation mark (you may also see "No command").
Press & hold the Power button. While holding Power, press the Volume up button once. Then release the Power button.
You will then get into the Recovery Mode screen
I executed a Wipe data/Factory reset, not sure if it's mandatory for this procedure, but I did, it's up to you.
With the device connected with your computer choose the option: Apply update from ADB
Execute the following command in the directory
android_sdk_path/platform-tools:

adb sideload path_to_the_ota_image_you_downloaded_on_step_2.zip

Wait until it gets completed, restart the device and that is it!

Good luck!

It worked well for me on the first shot, I hope it helps you too.


How to set Google dialer as the default dialer in Sony Xperia Z3+? I hope you are well. I have recently switched from a Google Nexus 5 to a Sony Xperia Z3+. However, I'm slightly annoyed at all of the default apps that Sony bundle with it. I have already replaced the Xperia keyboard with the one from Google, and that was fairly easy. I am now trying to replace the default dialer with the awesome Google dialer that I am used to.

I managed to find online an APK for the Google dialer (all verified as genuine) and installed it to my phone. However, I cannot find the option to select it as the default dialer.

I went to Settings → Apps → All → Google Dialer.

The 'Launch by default' option is greyed out. Does anyone know how to get this working as I really love being able to search for a number by typing the name of a company and don't like the Sony dialer?

You may need to clear out the default for the Sony Dialer first.

Settings > Apps > All > [insert Sony dialer app here] > Clear Defaults

I find that dialing a number from your contacts may not prompt you for a new default, either. Instead, navigate to a website that has a properly formatted number like(###) ###-#### that you can tap on to have it open in a dialer - that should prompt you for a default selection.

After your default is selected, you can disable the old dialer so it doesn't show up in your app list.


non-wipe non-unlock root for Android 2.3.3 I have a Nexus S running Android 2.3.3.

IIRC on old android version such as this there were non-wipe non-unlock methods to obtain root anyway, however I wasn't able to find them right now.

Can this be done?

Android 2.3.3 was (on all devices I'm aware of) vulnerable to the Gingerbreak exploit, which used a software hole in Android to gain root permission and therefore doesn't require wiping your device. SuperOneClick provides this as one of its root methods, making it a popular choice for rooting versions 2.3 to 2.3.3 of Gingerbread.


Information about transactional SMS *this is not a coding query, rather a how stuff works question *
I am working on a project for which I will 'receive' a huge number(say 1000/day or more) of transactional SMS (transactional SMS means those that have OTP etc, ones that are sent because I asked for it, unlike promotional SMS which comes unasked!). I want to receive them on my android mobile itself. Please answer these if you know:
1.If I keep deleting the SMSes and never let the memory get full, then, can I receive any number of those SMSes per day? By the way, what is the max number of messages that can be stored at once in a mobile inbox?
2.what if the queue has become of say 1000 pending SMS, what will happen, will senders server get terminate the queue/get hanged or send them one by one? I read such queued SMSes will be sent in bunches, like 10 at a time, then an interval, then next 10 and a longer interval and so on; if so, how long is that interval then?
3.Lastly, what about the transactional messages that are failed to be received? Will the sms server resend it at some later time? Or it's gone!
Answer as much as you can, these are very bad ques I know! Thanks for your time! :)

I mentioned by @Άνδρας the questions 2 and 3 are not related to Android.
For the first question, I suggest two methods:

Android App:

you can use an Android App that use Alarm Manager which will be executed once a day or every hour to clean up the SMS database using Content Provider.

ADB solutions:

content delete --uri content://sms --where "date>EPOCH_TIME"

where: EPOCH_TIME is 13 digit epoch time (milliseconds)
The command will delete all messages received after EPOCH_TIME


LG G3 (d852), no OS, not loading into TWRP So I have been having troubles with my ROMs, and I decided to format everything to clean it up and do a fresh install. PC wasn't copying rom zip to the device, so I tried to use ADB Sideload and push the zip through that. Something happened on the Device's side, and I cancelled it, but it wasn't going back or finishing. I took a risk and pulled the battery, but now the phone boots up into the LG Logo boot screen, but does nothing from there. I am unable to boot into recovery from there, as if the buttons don't work. PC doesn't connect to the device, so I am unable to boot into recovery via ADB. Does anyone have suggestions or is the device completely bricked?

edit: phone's LEDs starts cycling colours after a few minutes, and device manager detects something, refreshes, but nothing comes up. I'm assuming these LEDs mean that the phone is trying to boot, but can't boot into anything due to no OS installed. ADB still doesn't detect any devices, and I am still unable to get into TWRP from here.

Looks more like corrupted OS than no OS; try to boot into recovery by 1: remove battery 2: put battery back in, and power up by pressing both power button and vol up button 3: when you see LG logo release the buttons and immediately press them again to boot into recovery 4: perform a factory reset to clear corrupted files. 5: reboot.


How can I disable popup-SMS notifications (2.2 Froyo, HTC Evo)? I have the HTC evo, and I need to disable the popup SMS notifications. I have the stock notification app and chompsms. I disabled all notifications from stock, and chomp has no option for popups (even when disabled this happens). Basically every SMS = a popup stating that heres your message, what to do: Done, Reply, etc. I would really rather it be a notification on the bar and not a popup.

Nevermind. This was a "quick reply" feature of chompsms. Wow. That was hard to find. Guess will accept this in 2 days.


Get Source Code from an .apk file? Having an .apk file, is there any way I can get its source code?

Even if ProGuard was used you still can get some interesting insights. Here is a StackOverflow question with a detailed explanation: Android: Getting source code from an APK file. YouTube video with a detailed guide. And a blog entry about that: How to retrieve source code from an Android APK file.


What is the difference between restoring and installing an app on an Android device? Is there any difference between restoring an app and installing an app on an Android device, or are both the same?

Well, one that comes to mind - if application is removed from market or is not listed as compatible for your device, restoring from Google account is one way of getting those applications. I did it with "FML official" and "Amazon" applications when they were not available on Nexus 7 2013 - "backed" them up on my Samsung S2 and "restored" on Nexus 7.

And, of course, for some applications settings are restored too.


How can I see the price of an app I already purchased on the Google Play Store? I would like to find out the price of an app that I have already purchased, so that I can suggest it to a friend. When I look at the app listing, it doesn't give the price if I already have it.

You can search it on the website of Google Play Store


Sony Xperia Z1 - problems with voice sound after update to Android 5.0.2 After update Android to 5.0.2 there is a problem in my Sony Xperia Z1 compact. When I make or receive phone calls the caller does not hear me (or hears, but poorly, with noise).
After restart these problems disappears for some time, but later appears againg.
Are there any known workaround for such issues?

I've found the workaround - to turn off the noise suppression. It fixed the problem for me.

To do that, press Settings -> Call -> Microphone noise suppression (off)