How prevent Pixel 2 from sleeping while dictating? I just dictated a long email message, but several times during the dictation, my Pixel 2 went into sleep mode, so I had to unlock it to continue dictating. Is there a setting I have to modify to keep it from doing this?

I saw a reviewer talking about that and i believe there is no fix in settings for that but I can recommend you an app called caffeine that keeps your phone awake for a set amount of time


Problem with WiFi connection -Android tells me it is not secured I didn't find a anwser to my question yet on the forum, but as I am new, I may just have overlooked it.

I had a trip to Warsaw today and had troubles connecting to WiFi. I would select the wifi network (either at the airport airport, or at my working place in Warsaw where I have a business trip) and then I would select the option "connect to ". This is usually where I need to put the login and the password. But this time, for these networks, he gives me a sign with a barred lock (I guess it means it is not secured?)
On my laptop he also tells me that it is not secured but he still gives me the option to go ahead anyways, which Android does not. I trust the network (it is the wifi network of the Polish academy of sciences...) and I would love to be able to do the connection whatever Android thinks of it.
What should I do?
I don't know if this helps, but my phone is a wiko rainbow 4G.

This happens with me too, whenever I try to connect to my  Wi-Fi when there is some maintenance job going on by my ISP or when the router lights are on but my final connection has not taken place ( I don't know why but it connects only after 5 minutes after all router lights are on ).
So I would suggest that you need not worry any of the above problems might be there.


Trying to restore photos from a broken S4 (AT&T), how do I go about it? My friend broke her S4's screen, and wants to get back the photos from the internal memory. The phone does not have USB debugging turned on, so having it attached to the computer only charges it. The phone does show up in Kies and is asking for me to unlock it. I do have the pin code, but as the screen is dead, and I cannot put it in. ADB devices, and FastBoot devices do not show the phone at all. Fastboot Reboot-recovery does not do anything either.

How can I go about restoring these photos from the internal memory. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks!

Though not (yet) a solution for the OP in this case, I will already start summing up helpful facts from the comments: they might solve comparable issues for others. An update might follow if we find further things.

A good starting-point for comparable issues is our data-recovery tag-wiki as well as its most frequented questions, where a solution often can be found already (see e.g. How do I backup data (SMS/contacts) from a device with a broken screen?). A search for "broken screen" might also prove helpful. Even if the devices differ, approaches should be comparable.
A raw idea (I never tried that myself, so no guarantees at all) would be switching the device to fastboot mode. Even if you might not be able to access your files from that, you could use it to temporarily side-load (and boot) some image shipping with ADB enabled (if there is such).
It might also be possible to access the device with ADB when booted into recovery. This very much depends on the recovery image installed (see e.g. recovery-mode). No guarantees for this either – but it's surely worth trying.
Connecting the device to a TV or the like via MHL/HDMI would at least show the output (hopefully). That way you could also test if it maybe even still accepts touch input. In case touch input is still accepted by the device, you might be able to activate usb-debugging this way, and then access the device via ADB – or to install some remote-management software such as Airdroid to have an interface for file retrieval and more.

If all fails, your hope is a local service center to replace your screen without deleting (or stealing ;) your data. Or a data-recovery-company (too expensive, I guess).


Android Virtual Device frozen whilst loading I have just started developing for android after a 4 year break, I see that the Android developer site now has an integrated package with everything included, in a single zip, to streamline setting up. I have downloaded and extracted the zip file and begun going through the tutorial.

However, when creating a virtual machine, it just hangs. I have followed the suggestions in this post: I can't get any of the Android Virtual Devices started

My machine has 16GB RAM and an AMD Phenom 2 6-Core processor. I have set the RAM to 768MB for the VM and even after 15 minutes it is just frozen.

The Console shows some details of the VM I have created, but does not progress much. Any suggestions on how to get a working VM?

Try androidx86 http://www.android-x86.org/download, just download the iso and create a new virtual machine, you only need about 1gb of ram.


How can I update my Samsung Galaxy Gio without a PC/Kies? I have a Samsung Galaxy Gio and at home we do not have a computer. Is there anyway I can update or upgrade my software without using a computer? It will be fine if I have to download a few apps for the update.

I'm afraid not. There is an official 2.3.6 upgrade available, but it's not available using Android's over-the-air (OTA) update system, so you have to use Samsung Kies on a PC to flash it to the phone. There are also unofficial 4.1.2 upgrades available, but similarly, you need Kies to flash the phone.


What extra features has the Android Youtube application over the HTML one? It seems the HTML Youtube application has all the features the Android Youtube application has. I want to remove the Android Youtube application. But I want to make sure that I will not lose any feature.

Do you know if the installed Android Youtube application has any extra features that the web Youtube does not have?

You shouldn't lose any viewing features. The YouTube application is simply a way to make it easier to view and search, without having to load the entire html pages. Probably the only feature you wouldn't be able to take advantage of (and i don't know this for sure) is uploading. You can use the YouTube app to upload videos you've taken to your own YouTube account. And like i said, you might be able to do this through the browser, but the app is just a way to make it easier. Simplification is key.


How to reset phone (DROID TURBO) system settings without factory reboot? System UI has stopped working So, a little bit of background. The worst part about this is that I'm pretty confident I know how to fix it, but I don't know how to go about doing the thing  I need to do to fix it. Bear with me a moment.

So I have a stock Droid Turbo, I don't have any kind of ROMS or any non-play store stuff on it.

So what I did was I went into developer settings on the phone, the "Hidden Settings" and I started fiddling with stuff.

I either pressed on:

Simulate secondary displays
or
Force RTL layout direction

and the phone's GUI crashed hard. Now it's completely bonkers, and only endlessly loops the error that "Unfortunately, the System UI has stopped working."

Now my question is, is there a way to reset those options in the developer menu somehow, without doing a factory reset? I have a few apps that store local data that will get erased, and I'd rather not.

Additionally, the phone is still working in the background, I can hear text message notifications and it rings when I get a call, though I can't interact with it in any way. The Droid Turbo user interface (For gestures while the phone is locked) works too.

I tried clearing the cache, I tried letting it complexly run out of battery and doing it again. Hard resets. Nothing seems to work.

The worst part is that my PC Doesn't want to recognize it either, which is odd. While in the bootloader it got a connection to my PC as a linux USB Storage device, inside system recovery it made the noise like something is there, but it's not.

So any tips? any way to save my data before I have to factory reset this? I really can't lose that data, a few apps I have store user data locally.

If your phone is encrypted, the only thing I can think of to get your data is to install a custom recovery, a custom ROM which uses a custom system UI and start the phone. Your data should be there. If it's not possible, you will have to turn off the phone, press and hold power on and volume down and factory reset. This last part is not recommended since you may loose your data.


How does NFC on Google Nexus S and Android 2.3 work? I'm curious on the Near field communication, NFC that the Google Nexus S has. From what I understand, this techonlogy can be used to read RFID-tags, or am I wrong about that?

What can I read with an NFC enabled Google Nexus S? Can I read all RFID-tags? can I read something else than RFID-tags?

Using NFC enabled phone like Nexus S one can read NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF) message content present in NFC tags. Gingerbread (i.e. Android 2.3) is capable of reading NDEF format which is specified by NFC Forum Type 2 Specification.

NFC operates in the 13.56 MHz frequency range. NFC, is a subset of RFID that limits the range of communication to within a few centimeters.

Based on what I read and understood, my guess is Nexus S should be able detect NFC tags and not the RFID. May be in later releases hardware would be capable enough to do that as well!

EDIT: Here's some additional info.

EDIT2:

Android blog states following are the new NFC related features in Android 2.3.3:

  A comprehensive NFC reader/writer API that lets apps read and write to
  almost any standard NFC tag in use
  today.
  Advanced Intent dispatching that gives apps more control over how/when
  they are launched when an NFC tag
  comes into range.
  Some limited support for peer-to-peer connection with other NFC
  devices.


Can I have horizontal scrolling in the installed application on the Sense 5.5? I have an HTC One with Sense 5.5 installed. In Sense 5.5 the installed application menu have a vertical scrolling. I'd prefer to have horizontal scrolling.

Can I change this setting in some way?

You can use a third-party launcher app like Nova Launcher. Nova will let you scroll vertically or horizontally via Nova Settings > Drawer > Drawer Style.


Broken Glass on Samsung Galaxy S4 with slightly bent frame So a few days ago I stepped on my Galaxy S4 on a hard tile surface, mainly around the home button. The digitizer and the lcd screen work just fine and I am able to use my phone normally. The glass on the lower section is shattered and the frame just below the home button is bent in. Not the main frame thats about 10mm, but the small outer frame that surrounds the display. This part appears to be plastic when chipped but it isn't.

Is there a way to repair this during the glass only replacement?

It depends which frame was impacted. If it was the "thicker one" this
  one is easily replaceable (though you have to remove pretty much
  everything - there are videos on youtube). Of course if you have a
  warranty sticker on one of the screws warranty goes bye, bye if you
  remove it.

  If it's the "thinner" to the front the only way to fix this is to
  replace the whole assembly - screen included which costs big (about
  250 USD import). That's because the AMOLED is glued to that frame -
  you'd have to unglue the glass, and unglue the screen which is
  impossible without breaking it.

(Source)


gapps install on CM11 failed- or did it? Verizon Droid Razr Maxx
cm-11-20141112-SNAPSHOT-M12-spyder.zip
gapps-kk-20140606-signed.zip

I got this error when I flashed the gapps zip:

Updating partition details...
E:Unable to mount '/osh'
Installing '/sdcard-ext/gapps/-kk-20140606-signed.zip'....
checking for MD5 file...
Skipping MD5 check: no MD5 file found.
**********************************************
          Google Apps for Android 4.4.3
**********************************************
Installing files...
Cleaning up and setting metadata...
set_metadata_recursive: some changes failed.
E:Error executing updater binary in zip '/sdcard-ext/g....'
Error flashing zip '/sdcard-ext/gapps-kk-20140606-sign....
E:Unable to mount '/osh'

After wiping the dalvik cache and rebooting I got an "Android is upgrading" message and I saw google maps and other apps.

Haven't dug into this yet, but I guess it worked? Whats the deal with that error I got? What part of the install failed and caused it to report a status of failed?

(I assume you are root user)

I don't know the error but I think you could extract the APKs from that zip and install them manually.

Then, with a tool like Link2SD you could long press each Google App and select the option "Convert in System app". That's pretyt much the same like flash the apps via recovery and zip (in this case).


My storage doesn't exist I have a samsung S3 mini GT-18190.It shows that the internal storage is 16GB available space and phone storage is 17MB. But when I plug my GT-18190 to my computer only 17MB partition displays. A 16GB partion doesn't display.Please can u help me for this problem.

Make sure you have right drivers intalled on PC for your phone.

Try rebooting after that.

Regards.


Very long boot time on my Galaxy Nexus My Galaxy Nexus 4.0.2 takes over three minutes to boot. Is this normal? Is it supposed to take this long to boot? Why does it take so long?

My Galaxy Nexus (I9250, GSM version) with Android 4.02 definitely doesn't take that long to boot.

Just switched mine off to test, and from off it takes just under a minute to get to the SIM card PIN unlock code screen (and after entering my PIN it goes straight to the pattern lock with my normal wallpaper).


Writing hebrew vowels with my phone keyboard With my phone I can easily write English, French and Hebrew.  But I'm wondering if there is a possibility to add vowels to hebrew words, as it's possible with a keyboard with Windows.

I was able to successfully type Hebrew with vowels on a Samsung using the steps I found on another forum:

  Since a few weeks ago it became possible to type vowels in the Gboard
  app—Google's own keyboard. I strongly recommend it. I switched from
  Samsung keyboard to it.

  To type the vowels, type the consonant first, and then hold down the
  letter that begins the name of the vowel sign:

  Patakh, Hataf Patakh: פ

  Kamats, Hataf Kamats: ק

  Segol, Hataf Segol: ס

  Tsere: צ

  Hirik: ח

  Holam and Shuruq go with the letter Vav, so hold down Vav (ו) to type
  them.

  Dagesh is the same character as Shuruq, and it's available also on
  Dalet (ד).

  Kubuts is on ק, together with Kamats, even though it's a different
  sound.

  For Shin and Sin dots, use the letter Shin (ש).

  A similar system exists on Windows since Windows 8, and on recent
  desktop Linux systems (since 2013 or so). Use the Alt key and the
  above letters to type the vowels.

  For Kubuts, use \ (the backslash; mnemonic: it's diagonal, like the
  dots in Kubuts).

  For Shin and Sin dots, use the Q and W on a QWERTY keyboard (mnemonic:
  they are above ש on the physical keyboard). For Hataf characters, use
  the key to the right of the letter:

  Hataf Patakh: ]

  Hataf Kamats: ר

  Hataf Segol: ב

Taken from: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/21743347/Lack-of-Hebrew-vowels-on-keyboard


Outlook contacts ALWAYS sync with my phone? I have a Milestone and I only want my Google contacts to appear in the contacts list, on my phone. The native (corporate)'email' app is synced with my work email (Microsoft Exchange) and calendar; this works great apart from one irritating problem... Even though I have unchecked the 'sync contacts' option from within the 'email' app and from Contacts>Menu>Accounts>Corporate A/C options (though I presume both options are the same single setting) my work contacts are pulled into my overall contacts list, anyway!

Twice I have deleted all of my outlook contacts (from my PC) and ALL of the contacts from my phone. After re-syncing the Google contacts and being certain that I didn't check the option to sync my Outlook contacts, low and behold the outlook contacts would start to appear through the course of the day (once I put them back on the PC).
Any suggestions as to why this is happening or, even better, how to fix it?

I understand that the MS exchange sync component was written by Motorola, so maybe this is interfering with the contact sync? Anyone not use the calendar sync and still have this issue?

I stopped using the Corporate Email app that came with my Droid because of stability issues and reasons like this. I got TouchDown (AppBrain) for my work MS Exchange email and haven't looked back.

I realize this doesn't offer a solution to your problem's symptoms, but it would solve your main problem by avoiding the inferior Exchange app all together.


Send "step" sensor event from ADB My smartphone has sensors those:

Step Detector                                   | Qualcomm                         | 0x0000001e | on-demand         | no batching support | last=<0.000000>
Step Counter                                    | Qualcomm                         | 0x0000001f | on-demand         | no batching support | last=<0>

I think , when I shake phone (or when walk), Step Detector is running and send a data to applications.
If I'm right, I can send a fake event with ADB connection. But I can't find anything about this.

For example:

  adb shell sendevent StepDetector

I had a quick look on Stack and i found this .  it might be helpful in the situation....

If you are using ADB, you will need to command into the shell with

adb shell        - for opening shell

su        - to gain root via superuser - Optional

sensor set acceleration 0:0:0

sensor set acceleration 99:99:99

here is the references i found StackOverflow Comment


Why does someone need to install Linux(Debian/fedora) distribution inside Android? I need some ideas from you. Why does someone need to install Linux distribution (Debian/Fedora) inside an android phone using android apps like 'Linux Deploy'?

This article has some good explanations.

eg.

  We can think of many reasons why you'd want a proper Linux PC in your pocket. You can, for example, use it to power a LAMP server that can run web apps and serve web pages. If you're a network admin, you can install your favourite Linux tools and turn the smartphone into a portable network troubleshooting or pen-testing device.


music play back via USB connected to karaoke player I am trying to play music on my Nexus7 via USB  connected to a karaoke player. It does not play through karaoke player speakers. What should I do ?

Which version of android do you have? If its jellybean or later then it doesnt support this because if you plug it into your jukebox, it doesnt recognises it due to it being in 'Media Device' mode not the old USB memory mode so if you cant find Settings>Storage>(The little three dots in the top right corner)USB computer connection>MTP device if you can find this option, tick it, if not then you could try another method eg. Transferring to USB stick/Plugging in speakers into the 'Headphone' slot on your androidPlease tick this answer if it solves your problem


how to keep using Google Maps in browser and avoid launching the app? If I point my browser (Doplhin browser) to http://maps.google.com it automatically opens the Google Maps app.

Is there a way to avoid this and keep using the site through the browser?

If it matters, I'm on Android Lollipop on Sony Xperia Z3 compact.

Yes absolutely. If your Dolphin Browser is up-to-date, just follow this step -
Open Browser > Settings > Advanced > More > Open in app > You'll know what to do after that ;)


Where can I find local installation files? I'm rather new to Android development.
Where I work there are pretty tight security measures (firewall etc) preventing me to download API 15 from within Eclipse. We configured Eclipse's proxy settings to match IE's, but this didn't fix the issue. Finally, I took my laptop home to circumvent the issue. Everything works great now, except for the fact that my colleague has a company desktop and needs to work with android as well. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to perform an update on his pc? / Does anyone know in what system folder the Android SDK stores the API15 installation files?

Thanks alot!

I know it's off topic, but the instructions are on the Android developer pages here. See the section under "Troubleshooting ADT Installation".

If you are still unable to use Eclipse to download the ADT plugin as a remote update site, you can download the ADT zip file to your local machine and manually install it:

Download the current ADT Plugin zip file from the table below (do not unpack it).
Follow steps 1 and 2 in the default install instructions (above).
In the Add Site dialog, click Archive.
Browse and select the downloaded zip file.
Enter a name for the local update site (e.g., "Android Plugin") in the "Name" field.
Click OK.
Follow the remaining procedures as listed for default installation above, starting from step 4.

To update your plugin once you've installed using the zip file, you will have to follow these steps again instead of the default update instructions.

Just download the zip file to a USB drive, follow these instructions and you're good to go!


How to fix S7 edge performance degrade after Oreo update? My S7 edge (G9350) upgraded to Oreo for a month and the performance really degraded. I did factory reset to my S7 but  nothing improved.

I want to flash my S7 edge G9350 from Oreo to Nougat/Marshmallow but did not succeed  because of FRP .I don't understand why I got locked by FRP even  when I entered correct Google account ( now my S7 working is functional except the performance )

Are there any possible ways to flash my ROM to Marshmallow ?

There is no way to downgrade as bootlader is now on revision 7 (if I recall correctly) and Marshmallow/Nougat uses way older ones. So an official update won't be an option.

The other method is to use a custom ROM from XDA (you'll find many there), but be advised that that'll void your warranty and could brick your device (tho unlikely).

If you want to use a custom ROM, you can either go for an old TouchWiz ROM or (like I did on my S7) use an AOSP-based ROM. Presonaly I use LineageOS 16.0(9.0), but 15.1 (8.1) is preferred for stability as 16.0 is still beta. I'd recommend you use a custom AOSP ROM over an old TouchWiz ROM as those old ROMs don't have security patches and using an old Android version is never a good idea, not only because of security, but also you're just downgrading your phone in terms of features.


Galaxy S4 "sound and shot" feature - extract sound The Galaxy S4 has a neat feature called "sound and shot" (maybe "sound & shot"?). It will let you record up to 9 seconds of sound with a picture.

However, I want just the sound out of a picture I took, and I cannot find how to do that. There is no intuitive way to do this in the current version of Android or the gallery app. I know they must be storing the sound file somewhere, but apparently it is not next to the picture.

This article explains that it is not possible to listen to the sound on anything but an S4. Seems kinda short-sighted to me.

My guesses are they implemented by either:

storing the sound hidden within the .jpeg itself or
they have a separate hidden place they put a .wav or .3gp file or something.

I have searched the phone for the latter, and cannot find it. Given that the file size is almost double a normal photo sitting right net to it, I am inclined to think it is buried in the .jpeg file.

Any guesses as to how to get that out? and what the file format is?

When using "Sound & shot" mode with the Samsung Galaxy S4 camera, the audio is stored as a WAV file that is embedded into a metadata tag within the JPEG. Here is how to extract the audio using ExifTool on a computer (not android). ExifTool can run on Unix platforms, Macintosh OS X, and Windows. If you are running linux, it might be available through your package repositories.

1) Install ExifTool on your computer.

2) Transfer the file of interest to your computer for extraction. (I'll leave that part up to you)

3) Now extract it. In my example, we assume the filename is called '20160520_061539.jpg', and the operating system is linux. You might have to  make adjustments to the process for other operating systems. In my case, the name of the tag which stores the audio is 'EmbeddedAudioFile'. To extract it, open a terminal and do:

  exiftool -b -EmbeddedAudioFile 20160520_061539.jpg > 20160520_061539.wav

You should now have a WAV audio file called 20160520_061539.wav in the present directory.


local cloud storage solution I have got a 1 terabyte external hard drive, and I would like to find a seamless way for my android device (an HTC one mini) to be able to access that hard drive.

In the old days when I wanted to do "cloud", I would plug such a device into my always-on-always-connected-to-the-internet linux and just share the device -- let other machines mount it. Of course this still works fine -- but I don't know how to do this via Android, or via Windows.

Nowadays we have cloud solutions like Dropbox, which works great on my Android device, but I have limited storage space (unless I pay -- but I already paid for the external hard drive).

Ideally I am looking for something with the simplicity of Dropbox but with everything under my control. I considered git for a while, and there are ways to get an android device to run git, but you seem to only have a limited end-user experience, and you seem to have to actually upload projects rather than being able to access them from afar -- and my android device doesn't have that much memory.

I tried sparkleshare, but I can't find a client for Android.

I tried every option that ES File Explorer offers, but they all seemed to involve losing control of the cloud storage.

Is it possible to do this via LAN somehow? The problem is that my Android device will typically be moving from wireless network to wireless network and will not always be on the same network as the external drive.

Basically I think I am asking for a way to plug a terabyte hard drive into my phone in a wireless way. This problem has surely been thought about seriously!

Did you take a look at OwnCloud and similar solutions? Not (yet?) as comfortable as dropbox, but open source, runs on Linux (so you can stick with your Linux-mount solution), and it has an Android app. For a quick overview, you might want to first take a look at this Wikipedia article. If that sounds interesting, next source to investigate might be e.g. How to Set Up Your Own Private Cloud Storage Service in Five Minutes with OwnCloud :)


Do the front buttons on the Droid X turn on the screen? I had an LG Optimus V phone and the physical buttons on the front could get pressed when it was in my pocket, which would turn on the screen.

I'm considering a phone (Droid X) with physical buttons b/c I like the physical buttons easier to see and feel when using).  But.... I don't want the screen turning on all the time (and draining the battery).

Does the Droid X's  row of menu/back/search buttons turn the screen on?

Yes, the Home button (and possibly the Volume buttons) turn on the screen.

Found a fix on: http://www.droidforums.net/forum/drod2169-x/132091-ocd-stop-home-button-waking-screen-save-battery.html

Have not tested yet, but it's mentioned in several places. Not sure if it works on an unrooted phone.

GINGERBREAD

Open /system/usr/keylayout/sholes-keypad.kl
remove "Wake_Dropped" And/or "Wake" after any entries for:
HOME
MENU
SEARCH
BACK
VOLUME UP
VOLUME DOWN

FROYO

Open /system/usr/keylayout/cdma_shadow-keypad.kl
remove "Wake_Dropped" And/or "Wake" after any entries for:
HOME
MENU
SEARCH
BACK
VOLUME UP
VOLUME DOWN


how am I suppose to remotely delete my google account on a device that is accessing a specific app I recently added my account on a device so he could access my game app whick is the Clash of Clans (COC)

now that person is controlling my COC using his device and cursing my clann mates via coc chat..

Go to Google.com or any Google site.
Sign into the account you're referring to, if you're not already signed in.
Click the circle avatar or photo (a blue person by default) in the very top right corner of the page.
Click "Account".
Under "Recent Activity", click "Devices".
Click the device you're referring to.
There should be a big red "Remove" button next to the words "Account access" under this device once you have clicked the device.  Click this button.


how to remove password lock when Google keyboard is uninstalled I was creating space by uninstalling some apps.by mistake I uninstalled Google keyboard and kept quite. After sometime security Password lock was locked.when I tried to open the password lock ,the key is not displaying

Try connecting a usb keyboard to your phone.


I have mmssms.db but the telephony.db is lost, can I get back my SMS messages in any way? For reasons unknown, my SMS messages disappeared today. I have a rooted SGS2. I've discovered that SMS messages are stored in mmssms.db and I was lucky enough to find a backup file. However, no such luck with telephony.db, and now when I replace the empty mmssms.db with my old one, the messaging app removes it and creates an empty one.

Is there a way to plug my old mmssms.db in there? Or maybe reconstruct the old telephony.db if that could help in some way?

SMS messages in smartphones have generally been stored in SQLite3 databases for a long time now. If the database is not damaged in any way, you should be able to view the contents and maybe export them to some CSV or HTML format with some type of SQLite database browser software.

Here's one you can give a try: http://sqlitestudio.pl/

Otherwise, I know that a data recovery company that specializes in cellphone data recovery would probably be able to recover the messages for you. Some have means of carving out text messages even if the database is damaged.

I don't know that there is a good way to "plug it back in" to your phone though. It's interesting it sees it and then creates an empty database. There may be some identifying marker that it sees doesn't match, perhaps with something related to the last OS update.


No mobile signal after installing CyanogenMod I have a Samsung Galaxy S 2 (GT-I9100) and baseband version I9100XXMS3. As far as I understand from this page it's a UK modem, which is where I am. When using the latest stock Android I was still able to connect to UK and Swiss mobile networks. After installing CyanogenMod 10.1.3-i9100 (but not flashing the modem as far as I know) while in Switzerland I was able to connect to phone networks, but after coming back to the UK I can no longer get a mobile signal anywhere:

Go to Settings → Wireless & networks → More... → Mobile networks → Network operators.
After some time several network operators are listed. Click "Choose automatically".

At this point, the message "Automatic registration..." displays for about a minute and then it simply says "Can't connect to this network at the moment. Try again later." The mobile signal indicator at the top of the screen stays empty and does not display an "R" for roaming.

In the Android Testing Menu (*#*#4636#*#* → Phone information) "Set preferred network type" setting is set to "WCDMA preferred" (I have no "Network mode" setting on the "Mobile networks" page). I've tried turning radio off and on again.

I have a Toggle Mobile prepaid card with plenty of credit.

Looks like Toggle Mobile just doesn't work well with my setup. I bought a £2 SIM card from Lycamobile a couple months ago, and it's been working flawlessly with no setup changes. Not much of an answer I'm afraid, but I'd rather lose my remaining Toggle credit than use several more days on this.


Should I delete accounts before encrypting and factory reset I want to wipe the phone with android 4.3.

https://www.cnet.com/how-to/the-best-way-to-completely-wipe-your-android-device/

says that I should encrypt the phone before factory reset because factory reset doesn't actually clean the phone (https://www.androidpit.com/why-a-factory-reset-doesn-t-wipe-all-your-data).

I want to know if it is a good idea to delete the accounts (gmail etc) on the phone before encryption and factory reset?

By the way, I don't think I can update android version... It is a huawei mate 2.

update:
Found description of factory reset:
How does an android factory reset work?

Not sure about how encryption work though.

I don't see how it is necessary to delete any accounts (Step 1) using the steps you outlined in your comments. However, if you're using Android 5.1.1+, you likely want to avoid Factory Reset Protection. In that case, it's just necessary to delete the main Google account tied to the device. (I added parenthesis around two of your steps that I think are unnecessary):

  (Delete accounts) Just delete the main Google account tied to the device if your device is on Android 5.1.1+
  (Encrypt) This is the default in Android 6+
  Factory reset
  Install and use data shredder
  (then encrypt and factory reset again)

The account tokens are encrypted in Step 2 and are therefore garbled for any bad actor trying to recover your information.
When you overwrite the free space in Step 4, the original master encryption key may be overwritten (and any space that is not 'free space' was already overwritten by the factory reset). Android may store the key in an area that isn't reached by an eraser app that overwrites free space; however, the free space that originally held the encrypted data is overwritten by the eraser and thus even a bad actor who has access to the master key won't be able to decrypt anything. Therefore, any subsequent encrypt/resets beyond the original Steps 2 and 3 are pointless.

  Updated the answer with Robert's comment below... and for a second time.


how to offload contacts through USB? I have an old Android phone with a broken USB port so that it doesn't charge properly.  There are multiple Google accounts so that different contacts are associated with different accounts.  Possibly, some contacts have no association.

Can I hook up the phone as a USB mass storage device and off load all the contacts?  Based on similar questions, I'm primarily concerned with "Device Contacts" which were never associated with an account.

Having contacts spread across multiple accounts is a secondary concern.

I synced the accounts and will look into uploading the account contacts to Google contacts.  Still unsure how to deal with device contacts.

I recommend one of these two free Android apps, both of which I find easy to use:

Red Rock Backup Contacts, which exports to Google CSV, Outlook
CSV, or a custom CSV, and has no builtin restore (You can easily
restore using Google Contacts).
OBSS MCBackup exports to vCard
(one file per contact) and does have builtin restore.

Both of these apps export files that can be imported into most contact managers (not just Android ones). Also, both of these can email them to you if you are having trouble with your USB connection.

Note that files created by these apps, like all Android files, are subject to a bug where you may need to restart android before they are visible over MTP to transfer to your computer.


switching from unlimited data plan to pay-per-data. what to watch out? I have been using unlimited data plan, but it is about to finish and after that I'll pay my data charge per data usage. Any particular settings should I change or anything I should take note in order to avoid suddenly paying a lot of money?

My phone is Galaxy S with Froyo.

DroidWall is an application (for rooted phones) that will let you select which applications are allowed to use which data networks (WiFi vs. Cellular/2G/3G/4G).  You can use it to make sure that certain applications always have data access when needed and restrict other applications to WiFi (or even no acess).


How to use Adblock AND a VPN I'm using Private Internet Access's VPN via its App and now I'd also like to additionally use Adblock Plus.
The problem however is that I apparently can only use either VPN or Adblock Plus - but not both in combination.
Is it possible to use both by changing some setting in either of the Apps or of my phone ?

It says it couldn't change the proxy settings of my phone so I should do it manually. But as all traffic is routed through the VPN changing the proxy-name to "localhost" and the proxy-port to "2020" didn't help. It keeps on waiting for traffic on Port 2020. I guess it comes down to routing the VPN traffic through the proxy. But maybe there's also another solution to it (like another Adblock App that works differently for example).

My phone:
Samsung Galaxy Ace 2, I8160
Firmware 4.1.2
Rooted

The Error Message (roughly translated):
"Seemingly no traffic was routed through adblock plus. Adblock Plus couldn't change the proxy settings of your device. Please configure them manually."

There are good reasons why you cannot use such a combination:

routing your VPN traffic via another proxy might compromise it, thus rendering your VPN useless
doing it the other way around won't work, as the Adblock proxy then would need to be behind the VPN one – which you cannot establish on your device

So what you need is, as you correctly pointed out, an ad-blocker working by different means. Examples include (without giving any recommendation here, just listing possibilities):

something working via the hosts file (i.e. routing all ad-requests "to /dev/null" (or rather to 127.0.0.1, which is your device itself, which doesn't have them → nothing returned to display)
something "nulling" the ad modules themselves (i.e. "disabling" them)

None of those are "to be found" at Google Play for obvious reasons (though there might be some which Google either didn't recognize yet, or which have the corresponding activity hidden from the UI itself by hiding it, or which are simply ignored as "not fit for international use").

I could name some of the latter two categories, e.g. LBE Security Master (which is only available in a Chinese version on Play (see XDA for a localized English version)). There are also several apps working with the hosts solution, which you can find on e.g. F-Droid or Aptoide (see my app-list on Ad-Blockers for examples).


Galaxy Nexus won't connect via USB So my Galaxy Nexus has been fine until now. It has been running Android 4.2 and it was going perfect, then like a day ago I go to plug it in and it just won't connect via USB. It charges on USB but that's it. The drivers are installed and the problem is not my computer; I tried it on another computer as well, I haven't changed anything at all. The last option I think for me is to do a factory reset, which I reaaally don't want to do.

It won't even come up with USB connected on the phone.

Any ideas?

UPDATE

I sent mine back for repairs and the mobo was screwed on it. No idea what caused it.

Funny thing is: Blowing into the phones USB solved the problem for me. Maybe you try that =D


Installing system update bricked an unrooted LG K7 I have an unrooted LG K7 metroPCS phone running Android 5.1.1.  Earlier today a notification popped up that a system update with security patches was available.  I clicked "Download and Install", and the usual "Installing System Update" animation displayed for a few minutes, after which the phone restarted.

But on restart the phone gets stuck at the splash screen, and will not get past it.  I know I can do a hard factory reset and start all over but I'd really prefer not to.  Any suggestions on

Why this happened?
What I can do about it?

For what it's worth, I use a Mac, so any suggestions that require using a PC to access root functionality are probably non-starters.

Edited:  It's worse than I thought.  I got impatient and decided to do a hard factory reset anyway, but after that it is still getting stuck on the splash screen.  Help!

Edit 2: And when I say "stuck at the splash screen", I mean stuck.  I have to remove the battery just to turn it off.

I have solved my own problem, so am posting the resolution here for the benefit of future searchers who might be encountering the same or similar situation.
Most online guides to un-bricking a phone are written with the assumption that the phone in question is rooted, and the recommended solutions all proceed from that assumption.  My phone was not rooted, and most of the suggestions -- putting the phone into download mode, flashing a new ROM, etc. -- were beyond my skill-set (basically a complete novice).
However, one online guide (specifically, this one) included a piece of information that I didn't find elsewhere: namely,

Unbrick using LG Bridge (Mac & Windows)
(If there is no KDZ available for your model or LG UP failed, try this)
(Official way to unbrick. If it fails, blame LG)

Download LG Bridge from here.
Install LG Bridge
Open LG Bridge
Connect device to computer and let LG Bridge install drivers
Go to the Software update tab
Click "Update error recovery" on bottom right
LG Bridge will download and flash the KDZ for you.

This turned out to be exactly what I needed.


Note 3 on OSX. Stuck in "Connected as a media device" I'm studying tutorials on Android development. After struggling to get an AVD running on my system, I'm using my personal cell (A Note 3 on Verizon) to test the small programs I'm writing.

I enabled developer options and USB Debugging on my phone. When I connect it to my computer (an iMac running OSX), it behaves as most people want it to: It notifies "Connected as an installer" for ~30 seconds, then displays "Connected as media device." The Android File Transfer application starts up.

My problem: I need it to stay in "Connected as an installer" mode. So long as it's "Connected As Media Device" Eclipse and the Android SDK can't copy programs to it.

For the last few days, simply closing Android File Transfer on the computer caused the phone to revert back to "Connected as an installer". Lately, though, that doesn't do the trick. I open and close Android File Transfer, but the phone is stuck in "Connected as a Media Device" mode.

If it helps: Eclipse can see the device. When I plug it into the USB port, Eclipse's log show all the messages coming off the device. But Eclipse won't run programs on it so long as it's in Media Device mode.

I am a professional Mobile Application Developer, and often use my own personal Galaxy Note 3 for test at the office, and I've never come across this issue.

When I plug my Note 3 into my Mac Pro, it appears connected as a media device, and it appears in the Eclipse "device chooser" window.

What you probably need, is the Android File Transfer software, which can be downloaded here.

If that doesn't work, try looking for Samsung drivers for OSX, although I don't believe I ever installed any.


How can I cancel an Android Device Manager Erase command? Using Android Device Manager from my PC, several devices are listed, including one that no longer belongs to me. While attempting to remove this device from my list I inadvertently sent an 'Erase' command to the other devices. Fortunately, none of these devices had Android Device Manager enabled as a device manager, so the request was ignored. Phew! But I'm now a bit concerned that the request will be pending, and that at some time in the future an Android software upgrade will enable Device Manager and my data will disappear.

Can anyone tell me a way of cancelling the 'Erase' command, or whether the command will 'time-out' at some time?

ADM only works if the device is signed into the Google account that you're using in the web interface. If the device in question no longer belongs to you, presumably it will never sign into your account, so there's nothing to worry about.


Does the Amazon App Store charge for updated apps? We have a new Android phone to replace an older one, and we use Amazon App Store.

We logged in with the same account on the new phone, and some of the apps show "Install".  But other apps that we have purchased in the past show a price instead of "Install" -- they seem to have lost the fact that we already purchased these apps.

For example: Polyclock World Clock purchased as a Free App of the Day (April 2012).  This shows a price ($2.99) instead of "Install".  However, if we click the price, it changes to "Buy" and then attempting to purchase, it says "You already own PolyClock World Clock -- please find it in My Apps."  However we can't find it anywhere installed on the phone.

This doesn't quite match the other similar situations I already searched for:

logging into Amazon AppStore with different credentials
messing with the apk?

The inconsistent purchase behavior makes me think it's a bug... but my other guess was that the version of this app was so old that perhaps it thinks it needs to repurchase.

I couldn't find information on Amazon matching this situation, although I might have missed it.  There was a lot of information about transferring Kindle apps.

Thanks!

No, Amazon does not charge again for apps you've already purchased.  You are misunderstanding the message that pops up.  When they say "Please find it in My Apps" they don't mean in your device's app drawer, they mean within the Appstore.  While you are still within the Amazon Appstore, do the following:

Open the side drawer (by sliding it out from left to right, tapping the Amazon logo on the upper-left corner, or simply pressing the menu button):

Select the "My Apps" option which is under the "Library" section:

Tap on the "Cloud" tab, and all of your previously purchased apps will be there, with an option to install on your new device:

You may need to refresh the list if it doesn't show up.


Attempted multiple solutions for malwares like androidSystem, timeService and monkeyTest, but to no avail My Micromax A106 is affected by viruses called  timeService, monkeyTest, androidSystem and some unknown ones.

These viruses started automatically even though I uninstalls, disabled and stopped them. Because of them, performance of mobile is very poor, not responding properly for my action.

I didn't even install any app. My mobile have only 16 apps.

When I switch off and then switch on the mobile, the apps like Privacy guard, 9 apps, cool browser, easy touch (1), easy touch (2), hot video, and some more unwanted apps are installed automatically.

I'm unable to uninstall them. If I uninstall them, they automatically get installed without my knowledge.

SOLUTIONS TRIED:

I tried by installing all the antivirus apps available in Google Play like Norton, Avast, AVG, Kaspersky, Trojan remover and more. Nothing happened.
Formatted Internal and External SD cards.
Factory reset the device.
Enabled the security options to not to install from unknown sources.

I tried most of the solutions available on web. Nothing works for me.

Anyone help me to resolve and relieve me from this issue.

I followed carefully every step and got rid of the issue. It will be very helpful to those having this issue.

All the credits goes to Nuh99 who posted the thread (with solution): FIX for Monkey Test & Time Service Virus. (Without Flashing)  on XDA Forum.

Follow the instructions:

Install following apps in your mobile from Google Play Store

Busybox Installer by JRummy Apps Inc.
Terminal Emulator by Jack Palevich
Root Explorer Pro by Speed Software

If you have root access in your Android mobile, then no problem. Proceed with further steps. Otherwise make your mobile to have root access by following these steps :

Download "Kingo Root" in your system (i.e. laptop/desktop).
Then connect your mobile by enabling "USB Debugging" option (turn on USb Debugging by going to Settings → Developer options → USB debugging).
Then click "ROOT" in Kingo root. That's it.

Turn off Wi-Fi/3G/4G, and then go to Settings → Apps → All → disable time service and monkey test. If already frozen via titanium backup or other app, skip this.
Open Root explorer, go to system/xbin and see if there is any file starting with a dot (e.g. .ext.base). Also note that every (.) file has different permission then the rest of other files. So just remember those files with dots because those are the one that you're going to remove in Terminal emulator.
Go back to system and then go to Priv-app folder and look for these two files cameraupdate.apk and  providerCertificate.apk  and notice that permission of these two files are different than the rest of APKs, so these two are the base of MonkeyTest and TimeSservice virus and needs to be deleted.
In Terminal emulator app in your mobile you have to run the following commands. If you feel difficulty in running those commands, use ADB from your system. If you are having ADB in your system (i.e. laptop/desktop), run adb.exe.

(I am using Android Studio. So, I run the adb.exe from User/AppData/Local/Android/sdk/platform-tools/adb.exe). Otherwise use it by downloading and installing.
Open Terminal Emulator, or if you have access to your device via ADB from a computer.
Follow these commands one by one:

adb devices # Type this line if you're using ADB Windows
adb shell
su
mount -o remount,rw /system
cd system/priv-app
chattr -iaA providerCertificate.apk
rm providerCertificate.apk
chattr -aA cameraupdate.apk
rm cameraupdate.apk
cd ..
cd system/xbin
chattr -iaA .b
rm .b
chattr -iaA .ext.base
rm .ext.base
chattr -iaA .sys.apk
rm .sys.apk

NOTE:

If you are using an older version than KitKat you need not to type priv-app. Just type cd system/app
If "chattr -aA ...." shows error, try it like this "chattr -iaA ...."

Please make sure you type the file name correctly just as providerCertificate, 'C' is capital otherwise permission wont change.
If you find any other files similar to monkeytest try to remove everything.
Exit Emulator/ADB by giving exit command.
Check it in your device if monkey test is present. Answer is "No".


Sd card COMPLETELY unrecognizable after rooting Around a year ago, I rooted my Samsung Galaxy Tab T-113. I cannot find the respective rooting thread anymore, so I cannot provide any links :/

I do remember that the thread told me from the start, that the external sd card (Sandisk class 4 32GB, used for rooting) would be locked to the device after rooting it.

The external sd card functioned without any issues for a while, until the device got into a bootloop. I restored the device to factory settings after which the sd card became unreadable, not even recognized as corrupt by the device.

I then tried formatting the sd card through Windows, but Windows doesn't recognize my sd card either.. no sound, no cards in device manager. It can't even be recognized by other phones/laptops (tried multiple)

Is anyone aware of any rooting tools which actually locked the sd card to the device? I'm trying to find the method, in order to find a solution..

Or does anyone know how I can retrieve the data from the sd card? (maybe through additional purchasable hardware for sd card recoveries?

Thanks in advance! :)

P.s: the sd card was never exposed to extreme temperatures or water.

If your pc doesn't see sd card but you are able to hear a sound when connecting to the pc then you have a chance of recovery. Try to connect via USB adapter and first go to your pc didn't management. If you can see your sd card there then you just make it visible. If you can't see through disc  management then log in to your bios and see if you can see your sd card there. Also try to use other port. If you can see via bios then you need to create  another usb with Windows restoration environment or create bootable USB with command line in order to be able to perform file check command. I don't know how advanced you are in these things. If don't feel comfortable doing this then perhaps you need to ask some tech. If you think you can do it yourself then check first whether you are able to see it as I have mentioned.   Also try to create bootable USB with Linux on it and boot your pc into USB with Linux on it. If you can see your sd then just work in Linux virtual environment.  Sorry may seem a bit complicated but it's the way it is.


Is there a special boot mode to boot into a system with root access (on Galaxy S)? What if the Samsung Galaxy S I've got has already been rooted?..

Is there perhaps a special boot mode which would boot into the system with root access?

Or normally, a "rooted" device always boots the system with complete root access?

There isn't a special boot for rooted devices AFAIK. Any rooted device necessarily boots with complete root access.


How to block YouTube in general on my daughter's phone while allowing her to follow her favourite YouTubers? While YouTube Kids app is allowed on my daughter's Android phone, YouTube app is blocked. Recently I realised she still accesses youtube.com through her web browser so she can follow her favourite gaming YouTubers (on YouTube Kids app she can't follow their channels, she can only find their videos one by one through a general search, which is extremely annoying and unsatisfying).

Is there a way to either follow a channel in YouTube kids or to allow the following of a channel in YouTube app or in web youtube.com while blocking YouTube in general?

There is a "combined approach" that should work for you, requiring multiple components:

1. Block youtube.com

As alecxs successfully tested, blocking youtube.com will only affect the web browser, but not the YouTube app (and thus neither the YouTube kids app). You could block that in your router, but then it would only apply when your daughter is home and not using mobile data. Do do that directly on-device, you can use e.g. Netguard (yes, the one from F-Droid – the one from Play Store doesn't have that feature as the Play Store policies do not permit, see here).

2. Use a child-protection app

While 1. would work, it would not prevent your daughter from simply "quitting Netguard". So you need something that restricts the apps she can use. For this there are plenty of child protection apps¹ – but you should choose wisely: many of those come with a bunch of trackers (Analytics, Ads etc), which is an absolute No-Go in this context. JoLo seems to be a good choice – it got very good reference from MobilSicher.DE, which never just scratches the surface (aka "looks great and has many features") but also checks what apps do "behind your back" (aka tracking, calling home, extracting data…). With such an app, you can establish a "Kiosk": only the parent can change settings – and the child only gets access to what the parent configured.

So combining 1+2, youtube.com would not be reachable from the browser, the kids app would still work, and the official YT app could be hidden. On top you get an ad blocker (less traffic, and also protecting your child against "unwanted content"), which you'll certainly welcome.

3. Put the YouTube app into "restricted mode"

You could try putting the YT app into restricted mode and see if that works for you, so the girl can "follow her channels" from there. Not sure how well that works, or how you can keep your daughter from changing that setting (probably only by using Google Family Link which from a privacy perspective can not be recommended, as all data will be logged with Google (again, found out by MobilSicher.DE).

¹ disclosure: link goes to my own Android site


during reboot stuck on "Samsung" logo After installing CM9 on my Samsung Galaxy S+ (Plus) it gets stuck in the "SAMSUNG" screen whenever I restart, the very first screen (I guess). I have to press the Power button 10 seconds to restart when I come to that point. Did someone discover that kind of problem before, how can I solve the issue?

This is a common outcome for many possible problems. If you can get in to clockworkmod(or whatever custom recovery) try reflashing cm9. If that doesn't work try doing a factory reset from recovery (clear data/factory reset) and then reflashing cm9.

On the international SGS you always had to flash cm-roms twice (on first flash it sets up the partitions and on the second flash it finaly flashes the rom).

If you still can't boot, flash a stock ROM with Odin (I think it is Odin you use for flashing stock ROMs, since it is Samsung device, if not use whatever is recomended on XDA-developers under topic named something like "restoring a stock ROM"), and check that it boots that. After that install root, recovery and cm as before.

If you still can't get it to boot after that, let us know.


Adb does not list LG G3 phone after Lollipop update on OS X I know a few questions have been asked about this, but I have not found a solution (particularly for OS X).

I updated my LG G3 to Lollipop and now adb devices does not list the device.

USB debugging is enabled on the device. The device seems to be stuck in MTP. Furthermore, the device requests to install PC Programs, but nothing happens when I allow it.

The device hasn't asked me to authorize my Mac for USB debugging, and I cannot find a way to get this prompt.

This was finally solved by enabling Safe Mode, and changing the USB connection type from MTP to PTP (which was actually successful this time).

When changing to PTP, I was prompted to trust my computer. I allowed the connection & then adb devices listed the device.

Special thanks to based EB.


phone mounts as media device not usb storage My Samsung Galaxy SII used to mount normally as a USB drive in Ubuntu until the 4.0.3 upgrade. Now the only two options are:

connect as Media Device (MTP)
connect as Camera (PTP)

neither of the above works properly with Ubuntu 12.04 so I could browse and manage files on the phone and the SD card.

Does Android 4.1 not support the device to be mounted as USB drive anymore?? I tried turning on USB Debugging in developer options but no difference...

Actually, this is even easier: http://www.computerandyou.net/2012/01/how-to-fix-android-samsung-galaxy-s2-not-recognized-on-linux/

Android 4.0.3 does still have the USB Mass Storage feature, it's just hidden in "Other Network Settings" where one would not really expect it...


Facebook contact sync, third party or otherwise Would I be right in gathering that there is now no way to sync Facebook contacts into the Android contact system?

Apps such as Hax seem to have dissapeared or stopped working due to Facebook's API changes, so has Facebook come up with an alternative, or are we just stuck with manualy copying email addresses to to Gmail?

As of now, there is no official way to see your Facebook friends on your phone's contacts app.

There might be some hacks to get it done though, with some risky apps, which I strongly discourage using.

Facebook has developed an app called Facebook Hello as an alternative contacts app. Download it from Google Play Store or APK Mirror. It is actually country-restricted in Play Store, but works if you side-load the APK file. It appears to not have been updated in a very long time and the program is officially "deprecated".

Another option is to use Facebook Messenger. It will show all facebook contacts within itself.


HTC Desire bravo custom rom I have an old rooted HTC Desire gsm version with custom recovery installed.
Presently it is running the stock 2.3.3 android provided by htc, but this rom contains no standard apps like maps or gmail, and it has an old "market" app. The market does not update do the play store because it's too old, and it crashes at startup, so I'm stuck without any app.

I remember that years ago I successfully installed the cyanogenmod rom, but unfortunately the site is down and I cannot download it again.

I just need a very lightweight rom (possibly 2.3.7) with no frills, I don't care about nothing but:

Gmail
Gmaps
Whatsapp
A browser

What can I do to bring my old phone back to useful life? Or at least, how can I update to a working play store?

While doing similar research to upgrade an old HTC Desire I found this article that may help you: Cant add Google account to HTC Desire

It points out that you first need to upgrade Android Market to Google Play.  However in other forums I read that you have to have Android 3+ to do so, though I'm not certain that's true.  But hope that leads you in the right direction.

Also, if you already figured out and answer, please share back, I'd love to know (it may save me time).  Thanks!


Android phone display stuck and restart not working My Android phone's display is stuck and none of the three buttons volume up/down and lock are working. I tried calling myself from the Android device manager, which didn't work.

I connected the phone to my laptop, it shows up connected as an MTP device.But, when it try adb devices, it doesn't show up.

What can I do to regain control of my phone?

For now I am just waiting until the battery is empty, so that I can restart it by plugging into a power source. Is there a better way?

This was answered in the comments by @Sandeep , but I hate unanswered questions, so:
Try a Hard Reset: Hard Reset essentially forces your phone (or any device, for that matter) to reset regardless of what it was doing or where it was stuck. It's the first thing you should try if all else has failed and you need your device to work.
Hard Resets, at least consumer devices with limited buttons, is usually done by holding the power off button for longer with another key.
For Android, it's usually the power button along with the Volume/Up Down Button for about 10 seconds or more. For iPhones, it's usually the Home Button and the Power button. For PC/MACs, just holding the power button for a long time can cause a force shut down.


Faster way to copy slot B back to slot A after update After update into Slot into B, is there any way to mirror the contents of B back to slot A? So that both slots have the same versions.
How do copy complete updated slot B back to slot A efficiently?

I have had to do this while installing Lineage OS on my Moto X4. You can find the "copy partitions" ZIP file on the official installation site here:

Pre-install instructions
In some cases slot b can be unpopulated or contain much older firmware than slot a, leading to various issues including a potential hard-brick. We can ensure none of that will happen by copying the contents of slot a to slot b. This step is NOT optional.
To do this, sideload the copy-partitions-20210323_1922.zip package by doing the following:

Download the copy-partitions-20210323_1922.zip file from here.
Sideload the copy-partitions-20210323_1922.zip package:

On the device, select “Advanced”, “ADB Sideload”, then swipe to begin sideload
On the host machine, sideload the package using: adb sideload copy-partitions-20210323_1922.zip


how do I enable 180 degree screen rotation on Moto G (3rd gen)? how do I enable 180 degree screen rotation on Moto G (3rd gen)?

Portrait is default
Landscape rotates the screen by 90 degrees

but is there a way to enable auto rotate for 180 degrees (upside down/reverse portrait) without root access

Use Rotation - Orientation Manager (7-day trial). It allows you to set the orientation per app or globally. "Reverse Portrait" is what you're looking for in terms of 180 degree.

(Click image to enlarge)

Alternatively, for my Paranoid ROM (AOSP; Android 5.1), using adb I can enter on PC:

adb shell settings put system user_rotation 2

It achieves the same goal.

On further search, I found some notable mentions:

Rotation Anywhere
Ultimate Rotation Control -- full 7-day trial
Screen Rotation Control
Rotation Control
Rotation Lock Adaptive (Free) (Source)
Set Orientation -- unsure about it


Is there a way from where I can keep watch on other mobile screen? I really would like to know if I can keep a check on other android mobile devices.
Scenario is I have Android application Developers team with me and gave them phones and tablets for testing and development.I want to keep track of their work and would like to see their screens anytime I want.

If anyone have answer to it please let me know.

Here's an article showing some options if you have a PC:

https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/mobileblog/entry/mirroring_an_android_device_screen_onto_your_desktop

In my limited experience, realtime viewing is tricky.  If screen snapshots are OK, I'd recommend Teamviewer as I've always found their products robust:

http://www.teamviewer.com/en/products/mobile-device-support.aspx


How to use volume keys for scrolling? (everywhere) I would like to use volume keys for scrolling (lists, homescreens, icons, documents -  anything which now does require you to swipe finger in order to scroll - just like my old java phone where you could scroll using screen gestures AND volume rocker as well);
would it be possible?

I have Samsung SGH T679 (android 2.3.5)

I have tried ButtonRemapper but it didn't help (it did not show volume keys as customizable buttons)

To my knowledge, there is no way to do this system-wide without heavily modifying the ROM, or at least system files. Especially if ButtonRemapper doesnt show your volume keys as programmable buttons, then it won't be easy. Some apps will, however, let  you customise their behaviour. For example, I know browsers such as Dolphin and Miren as well as Google Reader can change the volume button's behaviour.


How can I access to the files of a game with data? I have a game called for example "Shadow Fight 2" and I like it soundtracks, so I want to have the songs but this game has data and the songs  didn't exist in the .apk file ( I opened it with an Archive Manager ) and it downloads from Internet, so the question is how can I access to the data it has downloaded? and by the way my phone is rooted.

I am not sure for apks with obb data but for apk files without obb associated just rename apk file with .zip extension and then extract res folder you will get all resources


Install Android apps in Kindle fire with Jelly Bean 4.1 I upgrade my Kindle Fire with Android Jelly Bean 4.1 but i can't install some apps from Google Play site, it mentions that they are not compatible with the device, the only solution now would be install apk's manually? or depends on AndroidManifest.xml configuration set in every app?

The kindle fire does not support Google Play or Jelly Bean. I would guess that is the root of your problem. You are trying to run an application that doesn't work on a device with an OS that it wasn't meant to run.
Edit: If you are attempting to install them via the market web page front end then you are only doing the latter of the above. Either way though the official Market does not support the Kindle Fire, you have to use amazons app store. Which I suspect also may not work since you installed an unsupported OS on your device.


When calling my screen goes black on LG P880 After updating in Android 4.1.2 my screen goes black. Screen works again only when the call is finished.
I know about the feature when you put the phone on ear it goes black and the second you remove the phone from your ear , the screen turns on again.
But now is different. Now it goes black the same second when I press call and there's nothing that brings it back until the call is over!
Please help.

Based from OP's comment, you have to calibrate the proximity sensor:

Go to "Secret Menu" by dialing 3845#*880#
Select "Device Test"
Select "All Auto Test Menu Full"
Choose "ALC / Proximity Test"


Is It Possible To Completely Swap Storages On Kitkat 4.4.2? I'm using a rooted Samsung SM-G313HZ Galaxy V device with Android Kitkat 4.4.2 OS. Is it possible to completely swap storages on my device so that every single application and game will read their data on extSdCard by default like jelly bean does? In simple words, /storage/emulated/0 is /storage/extSdCard and /storage/extSdCard is /storage/emulated/0 like on the image i attached.

I have a noname MT6572 tablet with Android 4.2.2, rooted, and I've figured out the trick: I've changed mount point directory names in the fstab.

The file is: /system/etc/vold.fstab, original version:

dev_mount sdcard /storage/sdcard0 emmc@fat /devices/platform/goldfish_mmc.0 /devices/platform/mtk-msdc.0/mmc_host
dev_mount sdcard2 /storage/sdcard1 auto /devices/platform/goldfish_mmc.1 /devices/platform/mtk-msdc.1/mmc_host

The modified version:

dev_mount sdcard /storage/sdcard1 emmc@fat /devices/platform/goldfish_mmc.0 /devices/platform/mtk-msdc.0/mmc_host
dev_mount sdcard2 /storage/sdcard0 auto /devices/platform/goldfish_mmc.1 /devices/platform/mtk-msdc.1/mmc_host

As you can see, I've only swapped /storage/sdcard1 and /storage/sdcard0, then rebooted.

I'm not 100% sure, probably Kitkat has different startup mechanism.

Caution: make backup! Move all your file editing applications to internal storage, so if something goes wrong, and you found yourself without any storage mounted, you can restore or repair it with apps launched from internal storage.


Update Android on ASUS I have an Asus T00J, "ZenFone 5" with android 4.4.2 and the manufacturer did not post updates. Can I force the update to a newer version of Android?

Zenfone 5(T00J) is a old device now, Asus wont be pushing any updates officially after the latest Lollipop(5.0) update.
I would suggest staying with Kitkat as its better than Lollipop for Zenfone 5.
If you still want to update your zenfone 5 to latest update just follow this link: How to update ZF5 to latest LP from KK


I can't upgrade my S III software from 4.0.4 to 4.1.1 Samsung have released the 4.1.1 update for the SGS III and I am trying to upgrade my software from 4.0.4 to 4.1.1, but my Galaxy S III keeps saying:

  The server is busy or not available now, try another time or use the
  PC Kies to upgrade it.
  When I used the PC kies it gave me the message shown in thi pic below :

Is there any way to solve this problem? I'm very eager to upgrade my phone Jelly Bean.

As the error says, you've got 2 options

Use Kies to install the upgrade.
Wait until your carrier's wind-up toy servers get un-overloaded.

A third option would be to obtain an image of the appropriate firmware (e.g. from samfirmware) and flash it via ODIN, though this is slightly more involved.

As an addendum, I was getting this myself with my own GS3 on Virgin mobile Canada (aka Bell Canada) and I ended up waiting just about 2 days, from the initial reports of people upgrading on Sunday until I got it late Tuesday evening.


How Can I Access "Android Lollipop" I'm looking to download "Android 5 Lollipop" for my Samsung Galaxy S4 i9505. I want the official "thing". My questions are...

Where can I download this?
Any methods of installation?
Do I need to erase ALL data from my phone?
Any other things i should know?

Just wait. Watch the news. I have been now for a while, it appears to be getting released in some countries, but you will hear about it if you watch/listen.


rot13 on all names of files in a directory! This one has me stumped :-/

I have a non-rooted nexus 7 (2013, Android 4.4.2). There is a directory on the inbuilt sd card and this directory has about 200 files in and I would like to rename each file in this directory to what you would get if you rot13 the file!

$ for i in * ; do j=`echo $i | rot13`; mv "$i" "$j"; done

would do it on a unix machine with rot13 installed. I have Android Terminal Emulator and BusyBox Non-Root installed but unfortunately neither seem to have a rot13 command.

Not really an Android question (rather Linux/Shell/Bash), but I give the credit of the missing executable. So:

for i in * ; do j=`echo $i | tr '[a-m][n-z][A-M][N-Z]' '[n-z][a-m][N-Z][A-M]'`; mv "$i" "$j"; done


how to force the phone not to use wi-fi to upload video to youtube? I do not have wi-fi at home and I want to upload video I took into my youtube account. I have generouse data plan so I don't have to use wi-fi to upload larger files like the application forces me.

I am on HTC Desire 2.1

Use the mobile YouTube interface instead of the YouTube app?


Keep getting "Error retrieving information from server. [RH-01]" from the play store It used to work fine but now when I open the Play Store app it says "Error retrieving information from server. [RH-01]" and I can't do anything. I tried clearing the cache of the Google Play Store and Google Play Services but it still has the problem. Gmail still works from the phone so I don't think it's a problem connecting to my google account.

I have an Xperia Arc with custom rom, which turns out to be the problem. See accepted answer.

This could be caused by flashing an incompatible GApps package. If that's not the case (and you are sure you have the correct/compatible GApps installed), try the following:

Open the "Google Play" app and press the home button to return
Go to Settings → Applications → Manage Applications
Select the "ALL" tab, Search for "Google Play Store" and press it to open.
Press "Clear cache"
Press "Force stop"
Return to Settings → Applications → Manage Applications
Press "Google Services Framework"
Press "Clear Data"
Press "Force Stop"
Start "Google Play Store" and it should give an error
Reboot. Once your device has restarted Google Play Store should work. Wait a minute or too if it doesn't.

This should help if a corrupt cache is the cause of your problems (a corrupt cache might lead to strange error messages, amongst others). If it doesn't help, you might try the same steps but include "Clear Data" for the playstore app.


How to configure a Bluetooth keyboard to open and close a specific app? I want to convert my Bluetooth keyboard to some sort of control panel for my car, to open maps etc on keypress. So that I don't need to use the touchscreen while driving.

Is that possible?

Does your keyboard have media buttons by any chance? If so you can use something like Tasker or Automate (Free) to programatically set actions. I happen to have Automate on my phone and just checked you can use media buttons as a trigger e.g. pause, play, next, previous, eject etc. Then you can hook this up to start apps and voice searches easily - the interface is pretty straightforward if you haven't used one of these apps before.

If your keyboard doesn't have media buttons a generic bluetooth remote of some sort could work (try ebay/aliexpress etc.)

Quick google search says Tasker can't capture generic keypresses but that might've changed since 2015.


Add APN (+ Button) Option Missing So my gf and I both have the Xiaomi Mi A2, her works perfectly, but when I tried to setup mine, I realized I had no data connection.

In order to make it work with my provider, I must configure a new custom APN but for some reason, the button to add a new one is missing. I´ve checked, however, my gf's mobile, despite being apparently the same in every aspect, she has such button.

Then I thought there must be some differences between both devices operating system's version, so I wonder if is there a way to compare both to check what I'm missing in order to have the option that I need?

If not, any way to fix this would be really appreciated.
Thank you in advance

For some reason, without the SIM card or other cards the plus button to add APN appears, which doesnt when having my own card.

Finally I found an app called MyApp, that after installing, it allowed me to edit the APNs, so now everything works as it should, despite it's a workaround.


ADB on Ubuntu does not recognize Nexus 4 I'm unable to get my Nexus 4 phone recognized by ADB on Ubuntu (12.04 with a newer kernel installed: 3.8.0-30-generic). Developer mode is enabled on the phone.

The device shows up in lsusb:

$ lsusb
...
Bus 003 Device 034: ID 18d1:4ee5 Google Inc.
...

But when I run adb devices I get an empty list. I found many posts on the internet about this problem but none of them solves the problem. There are two solutions.

Add a rule to /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules. I found various variation for the content of this file. In most cases a idVendor and idProduct value should be set based on the output of lsusb. Below are some examples that I tried

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="18d1", ATTRS{idProduct}=="4ee5", MODE="0666" GROUP="androiddev", SYMLINK+="android%n"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="18d1", MODE="0666", GROUP="plugdev"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="18d1", SYMLINK+="android_adb", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="18d1", ATTR{idProduct}=="4ee5", MODE="0666", OWNER="my-login"

After adding this I set the permissions for the rule file to 644 and I rebooted PC/ restarted udev, restarted phone and plugged in my Nexus 4.

Add the vendor id to ~/.android/adb_usb.ini.

echo 0x18d1 >> ~/.android/adb_usb.ini

I ran adb devices as root and normal user but I only get an empty list:

$ adb devices
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
List of devices attached

Any ideas on how to solve this problem? Any help of suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

It's not enough to make the Developer options page appear in the settings menu (by repeatedly tapping the build number). On that page, there's an option USB debugging, which defaults to off.

When USB Debugging is enabled, connecting your device to a PC using USB makes the "USB debugging connected" notification appear, regardless of whether adb is currently running on the PC.


If I buy an ebook an Amazon, can my son, with another Android device, read my books? When I buy a pocket book both my son and I can happily read it.

I bought some books on the Amazon Kindle store (which I read on my Samsung Galaxy S), and am now wondering: can my son read these books too ?

Knowing that the price of an ebook is not that much lower than a pocket version of the same story ( I even found some where the ebook costs more than the pocket equivalent ), I am just realizing that this could not be a good thing to do.

[--- UPDATE ---]

Having read the first few answers, I must clarify something: the Amazon account of my son is NOT the same as my Amazon account.

I think that for him to access my Kindle store ( as I do as well with my Archos 101 tablet ), I need to give him my login credentials, or am I mistaken ?

It's not a matter of trust that I should not give him my login credentials. It's just that, I have a lot of items in my wishlist/saved basked that are items I may give to him as a present. And of course , I do not want him to see these items.

As per their FAQ:

  How many Kindles can I use to access
  titles in my library?

  Most books you purchase from the
  Kindle store may be simultaneously
  accessed for your personal use on up
  to six Kindles or Kindle-compatible
  devices (such as Kindle for PC or
  Kindle for iPhone) registered to your
  Amazon.com account. If the limit is
  less than six simultaneous copies for
  a specific title, you'll see the
  message "Simultaneous Device usage: Up
  to X simultaneous devices, per
  publisher limits" on the Amazon.com
  detail page.

  If you reach the device limit and want
  to replace one of your current devices
  with a new one, you must first
  deregister and delete the content from
  the device you wish to replace before
  you can access the content in question
  from your new device. For device
  registration instructions, please see
  the Help page for the device you wish
  to register/deregister on the Kindle
  Support pages.

  Subscription content such as magazines
  and blogs can only be downloaded to
  one Kindle at a time and cannot be
  accessed from Kindle for PC.

So yes, you can read the ebook on multiple devices, but be aware that there is a limit of 6 (or fewer) devices.


Does Chrome's reduce data make browser faster? I was wondering if using "reduce data"-function under bandwidth management would make the browser load pages faster on slow connection like mine ~512kbit. I have unlimited data so the pure amount of data doesn't matter. I just wonder if it makes loading pages faster.

It depends on the pages. If the pages are media-heavy (lots of large images or other media) then yes, the pages load faster since Google scales and recodes the images on the servers before sending them to your device, and optimizes other page content also. However, the device still needs to render the layout of the page, which can be slow on mobile devices. This happens on the device and requires CPU+RAM, and is unaffected by the bandwodth optimization. Also, since some content is compressed when sent from Google's optimization servers, it needs to be decompressed on the device, which uses CPU.

All in all, reducing data helps move the bottleneck from the bandwidth to the device itself, and the benefit of the setting depends on the content of the pages and the performance of your device.


Prevent autocomplete of addresses from gmail in android email application I use my Galaxy S3 for both work and personal email messaging. I use gmail for personal and the stock email application, synced to Microsoft Exchange, for work email.

However, when I compose an email in the stock email application, it sometimes autocompletes with an address from gmail.  This is very irritating (and has resulted in some mis-sent emails), and I want to disable it entirely. I do not want to see ANY addresses from my "Gmail Contacts" in the stock email app. I only want to see suggested emails from my Exchange contacts. Possible?

Also, in the meantime I have enabled the "delayed send" feature to remind myself to check email addresses before sending.

I had exaclty the same problem. I use Sony Xperia Z with Jelly Bean 4.3

The solution that worked for me is like this:
1. Stop contact autosync of google account.
2. Clear all data and cache of Contact Storage App.

After this Email app will not autocomplete with Gmail contacts.
 The drawback is that the native Gmail App will not autocomplete either.

In general I believe this should be fixed in the next patch for Android somehow to let me choose from which contacts I want autocomplete to pull.

Hope this helps

KS


How to update cyanogenmod custom rom If i install a  cyanogenmod custom rom with all the risky complicated procedure on bootloader and next upadte of cyanogenmod comes out with android l so should i have to again go though bootloader and install it or can i install it simply on going to setting upadte update and android update without going to bootloader.

The unlocking the bootloader and installing a custom recovery is a one time procedure, for future updates you just need to flash the zip file and you are good to go. Having said that, since you feel it is a risky complicated procedure, in case you have a phone that is mentioned on this Page then the whole process becomes a lot more simpler and opaque to you! At the end you will have a phone with the last stable release of CM for your phone, what this also does is take care of the messy steps, so if you are unable to root your phone just using CM Installer will unlock a whole new world.


How to configure smartphone/tablet to have no data connection? Before going on a trip overseas with no data plan, I need to check how well my Google Nexus 7 tablet works to geolocate me with just GPS + Glonass + GSM towers.

From experience, I know that just relying on GPS with no data connection pretty much doesn't work: Even after being outside in open skies for hours riding a bike, my GPS-only smartphone had a very hard time geolocating me, and wouldn't follow after it did, while it did work in just a few seconds when connecting to the Net through wifi.

So, I'd like to experiment while I'm still home: Is it possible to configure an Android device to have no data connection and only rely on other means to geolocate the user?

If needed, I don't mind moving to different ROMs such as CyanogenMod.

Thank you.

Edit: I found the reason why GPS wouldn't work even after hours standing outside: In Settings > Location, the option "Download GPS assisted data only over Wi-Fi networks" was disabled; Once enabled, geolocalizing through GPS alone works OK, although it works faster and better with the Nexus 7 tablet that has GPS + Glonass.

Airplane mode should do what you want.  If you want to turn off just the mobile or just the wifi, you can do that in CyanogenMod anyway from the pull-down notification-- just click on the wifi icon to turn wifi off, or the mobile icon (usually labeled with your carrier) to turn mobile functions off too.  You can always pull your SIMcard to be absolutely sure you're not using your mobile network.  If by the way, you want to use mast-based positioning/triangulation without using your mobile connection-- that may be a bit more difficult.  Try using an app like llama which I believe uses cell towers signal strength to triangulate your position.


Specific MP3 plays over headphones only I am out of ideas. The following MP3 does not play correctly on many Android-devices:
https://www.heimatmuseum-zinnowitz.de/app/download/12553824899/Kino%20Audiodatei%20Deutsch.mp3?t=1590484494

It contains a German female voice. But on several devices, it does only play over the headphones. If I use the normal speaker, I do only get some noise.

I tried many different things:

Used different devices (works fine on a Samsung-tablet (Android 8.1), but does only work over headphones on my Huawei P20 Pro (Android 9) and another older phone (Android 7)).
On Windows, it works just fine.
I converted the file a different format (OGG and WAV)
I changed the sampling-rate from 48.0 kHz to 44.1 kHz
I switched between constant and variable bitrate
I tried the default-player and a different app (MusicFolderPlayer)
I used different converters (Audacity and several online-converters)

The problem is always the same: I hear everything using headphones, I do only get noise with the speaker.
How can I get this to work?

Needless to say that all devices used for testing are working fine with other files.

This is due to the audio having stereo (left and right) channels being out-of-phase.

To put it very simply, when the audio waveform on the left channel is out-of-phase with the right channel, the resulting mono mix (basically (left+right)/2) may reduce the volume or even mute it (further reading: destructive interference & dead spot).

When playing with headphones or stereo speakers, there should be no issue hearing the audio because each channel is played through each speaker respectively. However, on some Android devices (e.g. Nexus 5) that only supports mono playback, the issue appears due to the previously mentioned phenomenon.

Depending on the model, there might be a true stereo (left-right channel separation) mod that can be applied/flashed. E.g. a detailed post by user "chdloc" on XDA Forum to apply true stereo on Nexus 5.

The alternative workaround is to fix the audio source by inverting the waveform on one of the channels. Example using Audacity (reference: https://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?t=71779):

Open the audio file
(Optional) Select the track, then open the menu bar: Tracks - Mix - Mix Stereo Down to Mono to see the effect of destructive interference, then undo the operation to continue to the next step
Select the track
Open menu (press Shift + M, or click the dropdown menu above the "Mute" and "Solo" button)
Select "Split Stereo Track"
Select one of the channels (either left or right)
Select all region of the track (double-clicking the waveform, or from the menu bar: Select - Region - Track Start to End)
On the menu bar, select Effect - Invert
Open menu on the first track (follow step 4)
Select "Make Stereo Track"
(Optional) Select the track again, then open the menu bar: Tracks - Mix - Mix Stereo Down to Mono to see if it is still affected by the destructive interference, then undo the operation to continue to the next step
Export the resulting audio from File - Export - ...


Is it possible to force a phone to use USB for data but not charge from it? My plan is to use my phone (Google Pixel) as a screen for a raspberry pi, and I'm worried that my power supply isn't sufficient. Is there a way to prohibit the Pixel from charging while still maintaining data flow? I haven't done much electrical work and I don't know if phones are equipped with this option, let alone if it's even possible. My power source is, if memory serves me, 3000 mWh, capable of 5 volt 2 amp (I can verify later if that turns out to be important).

UPDATE:

Upon some deeper searching, (not sure how I missed it to begin with), I found some posts suggesting commands such as echo 0 > /sys/class/power_supply/batterycharging_enabled/charging_enabled. My updated question is, then does this actually work? How does it work?

Considering usb C can send power in both directions, I'm assuming you can set the phone to power an external device using in phone settings, and this way you would avoid it pulling power from your source.

A side note though : 2A is quite a number, unless you're running rpi hot or powering something else my educated guess is that it should be enough for both.


Even with WiFi turned off it is still the biggest battery drainer (S5 Mini) I have a Samsung S5 Mini and today I noticed that even when WiFi is off, it is still the biggest battery drainer (oscillates between 20-23%). I also noticed that yesterday the battery drain was much higher than it usually is.

I have disabled everything that makes use of WiFi, tried rebooting the phone, but It remains the same.

Do you have any idea what the problem might be, and how can I disable WiFi effectively?

Navigate to Settings -> WiFi -> Advanced (under the context menu) and ensure that Scanning always available is not checked. This feature 'Let's Google location service and other apps scan for networks, even when WiFi is off'.

This is most likely the cause of the battery drain. To further reduce WiFi battery use, you could change the Keep WiFi on during sleep option to Only when plugged in or Never. However, this may prevent you from receiving emails, messages and similar notifications while the device is locked.


Why is the Android stock browser still alive? The Stock browser in Android has not been actively supported, and Google Chrome is actively developed and uses modern technologies unlike it's predecessor. Yet, the stock browser still has 22.77% of the market share on mobile devices, which is more than Chrome for Android.

With it's inferior support for modern web technologies and unfairly large market share, the Stock browser is quickly becoming the modern IE6. But for some reason it is still often included as a default browser on new devices.

Are there any advantages this browser has, from the user or business perspective, that might be the reason why it hasn't been phased out altogether in favour of Chrome through the automatic update process, or at least no longer selected as a default browser? Is there any reason for keeping the mammoth alive?

Why is the Android stock browser still alive?

As of June 2014, 15.7% (0.8+14.9) of users still use Android 2.2 and 2.3.x (Froyo and Gingerbread), since Chrome supports only Android 4.0+, these users can't use Chrome for Android.

Also Android 4.0 (ICS), which has 12.3% of users, does not come with Chrome preinstalled.

Moreover, I think the stock browser still comes preinstalled in all Android Jellybean phones (Version 4.1.x , 4.2.x and 4.3.x), which is used by 58.4% (29.0+19.1+10.3) of users.

That means the stock browser is still preinstalled on 86.4% (15.7+12.3+58.4) of Android phones.

  The above should be the reason why the stock browser is still being
  widely used. A lot of users don't bother downloading or changing the
  default/preinstalled browser.

There are no technological advantages of using Stock Browser over Chrome for Android.

  Google has already phased out the stock browser in Android Kitkat (4.4).

Chrome for Android is licensed from Google, while the Stock browser is not. Also, OEMs can modify the Stock Browser if required but not Chrome.
So from a business perspective, it is actually better for Google, if OEMs use Chrome. But some OEMs don't like being dependent on Google too much. To say more is beyond the scope of this answer. If you want more info go here and here.

Google has been slowly shifting the core of Android from AOSP to it's closed source and licensed Google Apps and the browser is one of the last components in this roadmap.

Update (Jan 2017):

As mentioned by Erwinus in the comments, Stock Browser was used for WebView in Android versions before Kitkat.

Stock browser share is now down to 7.26 %


my android phone keeps asking “Sign-in to WiFi network” even if WPA/WPA2 is already authenticated I'm trying to connect to a DLink Router protected with WPA/WPA2. It's our home router and I can connect perfectly to it from laptops and desktops, Linux and Windows alike, even for my friends mobile(Android) it connect smoothly. But when I connect to it using my Android phone (Motorola Droid), I am always notified to "Sign-in to WiFi Network" after I've entered the WPA/WPA2 password. Tapping into the notification loads my ACT logging page, and after entering my credentials it says you are now logged in, but when I try to open any other site or even refresh this page it again ask me for my ACT credentials. Other apps that connect to the internet do report connection problems.

I checked my router setting, in which I have added my mobiles MAC address also in Interface setup->wireless->wireless MAC address filters, but it is not working.
I have made encapsulation ISP as PPPoE and have entered my password there.
Still not able to connect in my phone.

I am able to connect my phone in all in my friends place so for sure thire is no problem with my phone. what else is required..?

I fixed mine by putting a static IP. I chose a IP in my network range and it work


Forcing apps on Marshmallow to use external sdcard (not internal /sdcard) There seems to be quite a bit of discussion about this but no real resolution. I've been trying to find a way to mount directories on my external SD card onto the internal /sdcard directories to force apps that only can write data to /sdcard internally (that is, they have that directory path hardwired) to actually write to directories created on the external card (e.g. /storage/xxxx-xxxx/whatever). What a mess. I've tried symbolic links, battled the FUSE mounts, experimented with "mount -o bind" -- on and on. FolderMount claims to do such things, but bricks some phones. Adaptable storage doesn't solve this problem and creates new ones of its own in terms of control.

I can do the bind mounts -- and when I look at them with adb they appear to be correct. But the apps continue to write to the internal /sdcard dirs. I've also turned off SuperSu mount namespace separation in testing.

It's a shame that something that really should be so simple is such a PITA. Any new ideas? Thanks!

There are many apps that can do that. Search for App2SD: All in one Tool (root version) on Google play. But you need to get root first in order for the app to work. Try Chainfire SuperSu, works fine on Marshmallow


Running older Android apps on Android Pie I have Samsung Galaxy J9 running on Android 9 Pie. I bought Grapher Pro from the Play Store and installed it. When I tried to run it, a message was shown:

  This apk was built for an older version of Android.

Because of this, I refunded it.

Is there any way to run such apps?
The free version doesn't show the issue though.

You may try to change the target Android version of the app using APK Editor and change the API version. But it most likely won't work for paid apps.
 Instead, you can try to run the app in a virtual machine in which an older version of Android is installed. See VMOS Virtual Root Android on Android-Double System.