How to root Huawei Y210? It runs Android 2.3.6 and has the 2.3.38.6-perf kernel version. I've already tried using SuperOneClick but it doesn't work. :(

I'm rather contented with it ( oh wait, it has this puny internal storage, 120+ mb, but I can live with that ) and I'd rather just leave it alone except for the fact that Huawei saw it fit not to add proxy support. My university network uses proxies so the smartphone is rather useless at school. I tried proxy apps but they all require the phone to be rooted. I hope somebody here can guide me in rooting this phone. Thank you for your time :)

UPDATE:

I tried SRSRoot as @Izzy suggested, unfortunately, it doesn't work either :(

    ---= SRS One-Click-Root v4.3 =---

11:29:51 PM - Starting ADB Server..
11:29:57 PM - Manufacturer: HUAWEI
11:29:58 PM - Model: HUAWEI Y210-0100
11:29:58 PM - Android Version: 2.3.6
11:29:58 PM - Build ID: Y210-0100V100R001C294B837
11:29:58 PM - Board ID: Y210-0100
11:29:58 PM - Chipset Platform: msm7k
11:29:58 PM - Getting OffSets.. : 0x8003 0x8005 (False)
11:30:00 PM - Query Server for Best Method.. Found Rootkit: 2

    ----= Start Rooting Process.. Please Wait =----

11:30:00 PM [+] Testing exploit: root2a (Please wait it can take some minutes)....
11:30:21 PM [+] Executing root2a exploit Failed, Proceed next...
11:30:21 PM [+] Testing exploit: root4 (please wait..)
11:30:24 PM [+] Device Reboot #1 (Wait till it's started)
11:33:23 PM [+] Executing root4 exploit Failed.  (Root Error: 0)
11:33:23 PM [+] Testing exploit: root4b (please wait..)
11:33:27 PM [+] Device Reboot #1 (Wait till it's started)
11:36:45 PM [+] Device Reboot #2 (Wait till it's started)

11:39:57 PM Auto Root Failed on this device. :(

11:39:57 PM Rebooting Device and try again...

That was for y210D. You need to flash it stock again and root it with a y210 insecure boot image. You can get the stock ROM here.


Are there any Android tablets that have the "negative colours" accessiblity feature like the Samsung Galaxy S III phone has? Are there any Android tablets that support the "negative colours" accessibility setting like the Samsung Galaxy S III phone does?

There are many people like myself whose vision is light sensitive and as such find it much more comfortable to read off screens that have a black background with light coloured text e.g. white text on a black background. Reading black text on a white background (the usual way round) gives me bad headaches.

The iPhone and iPad have long had an accessibility feature called "white on black" which basically negates all the colours globally - looking something like a photo negative. I was very glad when I saw that the Samsung Galaxy S III supports such a feature - they call it "negative colours" - basically making any app which has a light coloured background much more comfortable to view.

I'm after an Android tablet that can do this, not a phone. However, from what I've read, the Samsung Galaxy tablet doesn't seem to have this feature. I'm wondering if there are any other Android tablets that do.

The inverted colours setting I'm after is a global colour negation, so everything (all apps, home screen, built in OS screens etc.) need to have negative colours. I think on the iPhone, iPad and Samsung Galaxy S3, this is done at the video device driver level to achieve this globally throughout the OS and all Apps.

Are there any Android tablets that provide the "negative colours" accessibility feature?

Yes, the Samsung Tab 3 8.0 and others. The Samsung Galaxy S III phones got this feature quite a while before it was part of the feature set of the Samsung tablets. Other Samsung tablets like the Note also appear to have this feature now, as do later versions of the Galaxy phone. I still haven't come across any other manufacturer who includes this accessibility feature with their Android tablet range.

(for any users who need high contrast to read or have a light sensitivity problem, this feature is a life saver)


Scrolling behaviour for apps (in general) I have a HTC Desire and I've realised there appears to be, for most apps (in general) 3 types of scrolling.

Drag/pull with finger and the contents scrolls (slowly) depending on how much you've moved your finger
'Flick' your finger across the screen and the content scrolls (relatively fast) and slows down towards the end
"Do something" and the contents scrolls insanely fast - usually goes to the end of the content...

My question is what is what do I do to 'activate' #3?

Reason is, every now and then I somehow activate #3 (often when I don't want it) which makes it very annoying. But sometimes I do want to scroll insanely fast right to the bottom/top of the list/page but end up just flicking multiple times (very annoying again). Would be nice to be able to control/choose which scroll type I need.

I have also seen the 3 scrolling types you mention below, but it always seemed to me that the 3rd one was more a bug than a feature.

The HTC Desire (which I have too) is not known to have a great digitizer, the part of the screen that handles the finger positions and movements. Furthermore, it's not "multitouch", meaning it cannot handle properly more than 1 finger on the screen, although there are tries to support it but I've never seen it work constantly good. See this page for more proof.

It's true that it would be a nice feature, maybe on other phones with a better touchscreen and a further version of Android with more gestures supported. Why not for example scrolling down with 2 fingers would trigger a super-fast scroll or a "go to bottom" action?


Merging WhatsApp chat histories from different devices but same account Is it possible to merge WhatsApp chat histories on 2 Android devices (but 1 account)?

If so, how?

Admission: This doesn't fully answer your question, but it may help others struggling like I was with chat-history transfer. I couldn't better place my tip elsewhere (like here) because I don't have the reputation yet to allow me to do so.

Today I finally (read, much hair pulled over last few days) moved from my old Samsung S4 to a Note Edge (Note 4) with the same phone number. The directions WhatsApp gives for transferring history is incomplete or out-of-date it seems. In my case the last crucial step was to RENAME the msgstore.db.crypt8 file to msgstore.db.crypt. Bingo! This time when installing and activating WhatsApp the missing "Restore" question came up, and all went fine. HTH

Credit: crucial tip discovered in another response here at Stack Exchange.


What does deleting a file really do? When I run an app, select a file, and choose "delete" what happens then:

the file is moved to trash (and later is removed by OS when some conditions are met)
the file is removed from the filesystem at once
(1) or (2) depending on an app

?

There's no OS-wide "Trash" or "Recycle bin" like other shells have. However, the Android design guidelines recommend app authors to put something like that in each app as appropriate, to allow undoing deletes. Thus, in one app, a delete button might delete the content immediately, while another might mark the content as deleted but wait for some time before deleting any files in the filesystem.

There are even more possibilities with apps that sync to a server: they might need to keep 'deleted' content around for the next sync, or it might be on a server somewhere, never deleted.

In addition, not every item of user data you might delete is a file. Some apps might store things in a database, so after you delete an item, part or all of it might still be present in the app's database.

Of course, like any filesystem, once a file is deleted, most of its content remains on the storage. Someone with physical access to the storage, or a rogue root app, can almost certainly still read it for quite some time after it's deleted. It's pretty easy to recover files in this way, especially if your phone acts as a USB mass storage device when plugged into a computer.


How to remove magazine unlock on huawei p9 running nougat How can I completely remove the magazine unlock that comes with Android 7.0 (nougat) on a huawei P9. I want my phone to go directly to the pattern unlock screen and not show the magazine unlock.

I am willing to root the phone if required to delete/replace this screen.

I am running build EVA-L09C432B386 and have TWRP recovery installed.

From your device’s Settings, tap Screen lock & password > Magazine unlock.
Turn off ‘Auto-update via Wi-Fi’

Found it in this link:
http://webcazine.com/forums/honor-8-how-to-turn-off-wallpaper-updates/


Transfer data from desktop to an emulator I have some items in my ubuntu 12.04 desktop. I want to transfer them into the Sdcard of one of the avds in my android emulator (android-sdk-linux) which I have installed on the same system.

Like to know how to do the above.

1. Using command line: Here's how you can copy files to an SD card image.

You have to use adb push to copy files from Desktop to Emulator and adb pull for the reverse. Here's the syntax to copy files to or from an Emulator/Device Instance:

Copy from desktop to emulator:

adb push <local> <remote>

Copy from emulator to desktop:

adb pull <remote> <local>

Here <local> is path of file / folder on your desktop and <remote> is path of file / folder on your emulator.

Here is an example:

adb push foo.txt /sdcard/foo.txt

foo.txt will be pushed (copied) to the emulator.

2. Using DDMS UI: Here's how to work with emulator's file system using DDMS.

In the Devices tab, select the emulator that you want to view the file system for.
To copy a file from the device, locate the file in the File Explorer and click the Pull file button.
To copy a file to the device, click the Push file button on the File Explorer tab.

I personally prefer the adb pull and adb push commands as you can copy multiple files (in a single directory) with just one line command, using DDMS you can copy only one file at a time (no directory).


How do I factory reset when my Sprint LG phone that won't boot? I have a Sprint LG model# LS670.

When turning on the power it just displays the Android logo in a loop.

How do I factory reset it?

Make sure the device isn't connected to power through the usb.
Take out the battery if the device is on to turn it off.
Put the battery back in.
For about 10 seconds hold the volume up, home key, and the power button to turn it back on. Keep holding until the Android system recovery menu loads.
Use the volume down button to navigate to wipe data/factory reset
Press the button with 4 squares (menu).
Another menu will appear to confirm you want to wipe the data. Use the volume to navigate down to Yes and press the menu button.
Reboot the phone through the menu.


How to stop "Make your phone more social" prompts? Alcatel One Touch 983, firmware version 2.3.7.
I am frequently interrupted with a black screen displaying this prompt:

Make your phone more social
Authorize the synchronizing which will make it easier for you to connect more with friends, share photos and links, and receive event reminders and notifications.
Allow Skip

At first I thought it was Facebook, but then found that it was continuing after I killed the Facebook app. Moreover, it seems to stop when I switch my phone off and on again, but I don't know what's triggering it to start doing it again. Once started, it will sometimes pop up at minutely intervals, whether I tap Allow or Skip.
I'm not sure what it's actually doing. In any case, what can I do to stop this frequent interruption? A way to stop it for good would be preferable, but failing that, I would welcome advice on how to stop it for the time being without having to shut my phone down and possibly lose something I'm in the middle of doing.

Since a few days I have Alcatel Pop C3 and also experienced this annoying notification keeping reappearing. I didn't want it to have access to my Facebook account details.
As a result of many attempts I've figured out that it comes from default launcher. After I've installed ADW Launcher – you probably can choose any other from Play Store – the notification never showed up again :)

I hope will turn out to be helpful for someone!


How can I run a custom .sh script at each startup (without native init.d support)? This looks like a general concern of rookie Android system players who have just rooted their phones. The most prevalent method may be throwing your script into /system/etc/init.d. If the ROM supports init.d then Voila but that's not always the case. So

How can I run my custom script at each startup? What's the user/group my script will be running as if I use your solution?

We welcome all kinds of solutions.

I think that most easy way would be by using app Kernel Adiutor. It has ability to emulate init.d
Open app and swipe from left edge, it will reveal menu, scroll to tools section and than tap on init.d
There you have a switch to enable or disable init.d emulator, for devices that doesn't support init.d, in bottom right you have a "plus" icon to add scripts to run.


How can I force 3G only on the Nexus S after the ICS update? In earlier versions of Android there was an option to toggle data between 2G, 3G preferred and 3G only.  After the ICS 4.0.3 update for Nexus S, there is no option for "3G only".

Did Google lock down this option or is there a way to force "3G only"? I don't care about connection quality or battery, I just want my data to stay in "3G only" mode.

There's an app for 3G only mode:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mobnetic.only3G

However your phone should automatically try and go for 3G if there's a 3G connection available, it will never choose 2G over 3G so I don't see why this would be useful... There's still a 2G only mode to save battery in Settings -> Mobile Networks


understand root and su As I understand to "Root" a device, means to gain privilege to do all sort of things with the device, without restrictions, which probably means "root privilege".

Isn't that what "su" utility provide , i.e. root privilege ? I mean is all we need is to run su in order to have root privilege or are there any additional things, that should be done ?

Yes, the su utility is all you need, but the problem is putting the su binary (basically the .exe of Linux and Linux based-OS's) onto the phone. In order to put su onto the phone, you need root in the first place. su is usually added to the phone by unlocking the bootloader, which allows it to run a recovery which can flash su onto the phone.


How to configure Dropbox to ONLY upload camera pictures, and NOT download all folders in the cloud? Samsung Galaxy S4, installed dropbox to upload photos. However, S4 has 9 gig free, and my dropbox had 50 gig on it, so the first time, it bombed trying to download everything. deleted sync file (~4 gig) on S4, but now my device is deleting files from Dropbox on it's own! Had to shut it down and uninstall.

Any idea how to NOT sync anything but camera uploads? It's really messing with my dropbox folder sync between my home computer and laptop, randomly deleting files and folders.
Thanks!

I have found the Quickpic Gallery app.

You can set which folder from phone to upload into any folder on Dropbox. Uploading only while changing and on Wi-Fi.

You can as well browse the whole Dropbox - browse, not download.

(Click image to enlarge)


problems with sync of contacts to google my samsung galaxy europa seems to sync ok with my google account. but the contacts do not appear in my google account on the web [whereas updates to calendar and email do]. any advice appreciated.

By default the contacts you see on the web are your most used contacts.  You have to choose all contacts to see everyone.


Change pattern lock to Thin Pattern Lock like in ICS Device: Micromax A57
Android: 2.3

How can I change the size of the unlock pattern grid like this:

Try "Go Locker"
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jiubang.goscreenlock

Gives you a wide variety of lock screens to choose from.


Multiple Pattern Locks at the same point of time Is it possible to have multiple pattern lock implemented in an android device to increase it's security. I know that it must be possible to design an app to do that, but my question is whether any app has already done it?

Asking a Similar Question, is it possible to install more than one app that lock my screen with pattern lock and use them simultaneously? Will it cause any kind of clashes or other troubles?

To answer the first question - That singular pattern where at minimum four dots must be joined, is built into Android, if you want to have multiple patterns, that requires modding the source and rolling your own ROM which is outside the scope of this site.

Now, onto the second question "is it possible to install more than one app that lock my screen with pattern lock and use them simultaneously? Will it cause any kind of clashes or other troubles?"

That depends on the app, the lock-screen is within the framework of Android itself, unless the app over-rides the built-in lock-screen mechanism, then there should not be any clashes. The important keyword is over-ride.

If the said alternative lock-screen clashes then that's down to poor programming effort. :)


My android phone was stolen. How worried should I be with all my google data inside the phone? Ok, so my samsung galaxy 5 was stolen. I had gmail, calendar, twitter(tweetdeck), facebook, ... all my personal data in it.

I didn't have any app installed that could wipe this information from a sms (tried to install PlanB through the market, but I don't think it'll work).

I already changed my google password and I'm proceeding to change facebook and twitter as well.

Is this enough? How much of this information (old emails, tweets, ...) are saved in the phone's memory? Can I prevent access to this just by changing my passwords?

I've blocked my SIM card with my provider, so I guess the phone currently have no internet or telephone line access.

Here in Brazil we can also block a stolen cell phone with the IMEI number, but I don't know exactly what this means. Will this brick the phone or just prevent it from being registered in the network?

Remote wipe programs like Plan B only work if your phone still has battery and still has a data connection through the internet to download the app, if you'd pre-loaded a program like LookOut then it would work without a data connection but would still need a phone network connection to receive an SMS text message or something like that. If you've blocked your SIM and/or blocked your IMEI then it's too late to use a remote wipe program as you don't have any way to get any kind of message to your phone any more, you need to do the wipe before getting anything blocked by your phone company.

Did you have any kind of unlock code (pattern or number, or something like that)? If so that should stop the thief easily getting to any of the data on the phone itself, and if they enter the wrong code/pattern a number of times it totally locks the phone out, and you need to go online (and log in with your Google account) to unlock it. They can apparently still get to data that's directly saved on your phone if they plug the phone into a PC that has the Android Developer tools on it and use the ADB command, but even then some things like the central Accounts database are encrypted to stop them getting your passwords.

Blocking the phone via IMEI will stop anyone else being able to use the phone on a phone network, it won't do any wiping or bricking at all.

There's also your SD card, the thief can just pop that out of the phone and straight into a computer or another phone, nothing on there is protected, see this previous question for a discussion on what personally identifiable info might be on the SD card: Is there any contact information on the SD card?


One click calling on the Epic 4G? I've got an Epic 4G (aka Samsung Galaxy S) and one of the things I'm flummoxed by in my transition from my trusty old HTC Dream/G1 is that there are way too many steps to make a phone call.

Power key to wake the screen;
Motion to unlock the screen;
Phone button to pull up the keypad;
Logs tab to find the last few calls.

Am I the only one trying to use this thing as a phone? Am I the only person who mostly calls the same three people all the time?

Is there a faster way to get to my call log? On the G1 I could press the phone button, unlock and I was there.

After unlocking, when I press the Phone icon (on the TouchWiz interface's dock at the bottom of the home screen) it takes me to the last dialler view I used, whether that's the keypad, Log or Favourites. Doesn't yours do that?

If you literally mean the same 3 people, then the quickest way would to put a shortcut for them on your home screen. Just long-press on an empty bit of homescreen background, select Shortcuts, select Direct Dial, select your person.

Alternatively, Star the contacts in GMail, then put a Starred Contacts folder on the homescreen (long-press on an empty bit of homescreen background, select Folders, select Starred Contacts).

PS yes you probably are one of the few using it as a phone, these are smart phones for people who love email/messaging and internet apps, not dumb-phones for making calls on ;-)


How to use external SD card on Ehndroix? I can't access my SD card via USB. When I plug in to computer it reads only the internal SD. In recovery mode "mount sdcard" doesn't help.

Phone: Samsung S Galaxy GT-19001
Rom: Ehndroix IV

Since android kitkat, apps cannot access sdcard without special permissions.Most custom roms however bypass this requirement


Does LineageOS provide "Zip Signature Verification" TWRP provides an option on boot for "Zip signature verification". Is that option part of Android ROM packaging and would LineageOS support it? For me, that option does

Checking for Digest file...
Skipping Digest check: no Digest file found
verifying zip signature...
Zip signature verification failed!
Error installing zip file '/data/lineageos_updates/lineage-nightly-n1awifi-signed.zip'
Updating partition details...
...done

I ask this because this ROM was download with the OTA update from LineageOS, and when it failed I download a new ROM from the website and it also failed.

No! LineageOS does not Zip Signature Verify, instead the LineageOS download site provides SHA256 codes which the user or the downloading app can use to verify their downloads (using a tool like sha256sum).

You can click on the sha256 link above and change the ?sha256 in the url to ?sha1sum for example make this

https://mirrorbits.lineageos.org/full/guacamole/20191212/lineage-16.0-20191212-nightly-guacamole-signed.zip?sha256

Look like this,

https://mirrorbits.lineageos.org/full/guacamole/20191212/lineage-16.0-20191212-nightly-guacamole-signed.zip?sha1

You can verify build authenticity by checking the signature,

keytool -J-Duser.language=en -printcert -jarfile lineage-build-signed.zip


"Security update required" on Exchange account on Android 10 Beta I am on Android 10/Q Beta on Pixel 2 and my exchange email account stopped working and is constantly asking for security update. It doesn't lead me to anything when I click on it and hence stuck with no mail access. I've had Android 10 Beta for a few days now and the exchange account was working fine until now. Any pointers on this?

I've experienced the same (Pixel 2 XL Q/Beta4) but there seems to be a workaround which works for me:

delete your Exchange account from Settings -> Accounts
delete the latest update from Gmail in Play Store
open Gmail and add your Exchange account
update your security settings when promted (should work here)
update gmail to the latest version


Is there a difference between the CyanogenMod 11S Rom (for OnePlus One) and regular CyanogenMod? How does the CyanogenMod 11S Rom on the forthcoming OnePlus One smartphone differ (if at all) from regular versions or nightlies of CyanogenMod that can be downloaded and installed on other Smartphones ?

Would this be another unique selling point (from a software perspective) for this particular handset?

OnePlus

AndroidPit has an article that outlines the major differences.

http://www.androidpit.com/cyanogenmod-11-vs-cyanogenmod-11s-the-main-differences

Google Apps, no root
Extra Themes and Wallpapers
Display activation via tapping
Optional on-screen buttons
Screen calibration and adaptive lighting
Camera and Gallery App
Boot Animation
AudioFX instead of DPS Manager

Other than this, CyanogenMod 11S is natively tested on the OnePlus One and contains the best possible drivers for the phone. Essentially, it is optimised to run on the OnePlus One..


How to make full backup of encrypted Lollipop Nexus 5 device? This guide describes how to make full backup of whole memory block.

My N5 is encrypted with Android 5.0. As far as I understand new mechanism, it envolves dependency on some external data taken from separate hardware component (part of encryption key). Is it guaranteed that it will not altered after I factory reset and flash Android 4.4 ? And even if it's ok, is it possible finally to restore such backup ? (May be /dev/mmcblck0 is read-only or otherwise restricted due to way hardware-accelerated encryption/decryption works.)

You can install TWRP for your nexus 5 (just Google it...).
It will ask you for your password when you enter the recovery. Then you can do a full backup.


How to avoid entering Cloud credentials in many apps I was about to set up my FolderSync with Dropbox, but noticed that I can't browse my cloud the way I can with the Dropbox and other could applications (Which generally doesn't sync but let you navigate your files).

Is there an app that will let me do both?
(Could be just opening the website)

You might want to take a look at Cloudii. I don't use the cloud myself, but if this app keeps it promises, it...

  is the best app to manage all your cloud services within a single app. Cloudii brings full service integration as well as a powerfull synchronization tool.

It even integrates multiple cloud services (currently: Google Drive, Dropbox, Skydrive and Box -- more to come). According to its description, it lets you both navigate your cloud-stored files and keeping them in sync (the screenshots support this idea).

Note, however, that the free app is a 14d trial only, which afterwards requires an in-app purchase. I don't know the price, but as one comment put it: I'll be glad to buy the developer "coffee"!


Can't restore Nexus 6p Google Drive backup to new LG G6 Previously I've owned Nexus phones and the transfer of apps etc from old to new phone has been seamless. However restoring apps from my old Nexus 6p to my new LG G6 didn't work. The only thing that transferred was the google account.

I'm able to see the N6p backup on Google Drive from a desktop browser, but when I try to restore backups via G6 settings, I get told that no backups are available.

Is the LG maybe incompatible with the Android backup/restore system?

I had a similar experience with restoring a N6p backup to a Pixel. Nexus was running Oreo and Pixel still on Nougat. After updating Pixel to Oreo and doing a factory reset I was able to restore the N6p backup.

So it seem you can not restore to older Android release, is the LG running older version than the N6p?


Contact or application-specific vibration "tone" (pattern) Possible Duplicate:
  Is there a way to customize vibrate patterns?

I want a custom vibration "tone" (pattern) for different callers or applications.

Does Android have any facility for this? Can contacts hold custom information like this?

Thanks

Using the app, Locale, you can use the Contact condition to spot the caller and the Notification plugin action to use a vibration pattern.

There does not appear to be a contact-specific configuration built-in, even in Froyo.


Can't install TWRP on Note 4 I'm trying to install TWRP ("openrecovery-twrp-2.8.1.1-trltetmo.img.tar") on Samsung Galaxy Note 4 SM-N910F with Android 5.1.1 . I tried to do it with Odin versions v3.09 and v3.10.7 using different USB cables and ports. The process always seems correct: it shows 'ID:COM' and finishes without errors, showing green and ends up resetting the device, but after that I try to boot into 'Download mode' and after pressing "volume down" + Home + Power it keeps showing the default recovery, it doesn't boot on TWRP.

I've uploaded here five screenshots showing what's happening. Here's one of them, showing that apparently everything has worked fine and the device is beeing rebooted:

PC configuration:

Windows 7
Already installed Drivers "SAMSUNG_USB_Driver_for_Mobile_Phones.zip"
from here

Device configuration:

'USB debugging' is enabled
Security => 'Reactivation lock' is disabled.

How can I install and boot correctly TWRP?

Any help will be appreciated, thanks in advance

/Angel

thanks you all for your answers. It was a mistake of mine when pressing the key combination. I told I was doing "volume down" + Home + Power, but that's to boot into 'download mode', to boot into recovery the combination is "volume up" + Home + Power.

Thanks,

/Angel


LPM reboot Samsung Galaxy S7 I'm trying to have my Samsung Galaxy S7 phone start up into normal operation when USB power comes on. I have tested all the suggestions in this post and several others, but whatever I do the phone will not reboot into normal operation. My result is no reboot or reboot into Recovery mode.

I have also tested several ROMs with same result. There seems to be a problem when the \system\bin\reboot is called in LPM (Low Power Mode) mode.

Script:

#!/system/bin/sh
/system/bin/lpm_orig &
while [ true ]; do
  sleep 1
  ps | grep lpm_orig && sleep 3 && /system/bin/reboot
done

(The "lpm_orig" is the original lpm file). Linux owner and execution rights have been checked. Does anyone have an idea what to try next?

This has been hell to figure out. Might as well put it out here to help anyone else googling around.

For the Samsung Galaxy S7, first the script:

#!/system/bin/sh

# Script to reboot the system as soon as the charger is inserted
# https://android.googlesource.com/kernel/common/+/android-trusty-3.10/Documentation/sysrq.txt

# Enable kernel commands.
su -c "echo 1 > /proc/sys/kernel/sysrq"

# Send an immediate reboot request.
echo b > /proc/sysrq-trigger

And to install it, you first backup and replace the /system/bin/lpm file.
As OP already mentioned, replacing the file will cause it not to work (explained here)

The inode (file unique identifier) of the lpm file has to remain the same before Android will accept it, so instead we have to replace the contents of the existing file.

That's easily enough done:

echo /system/bin/lpm > /system/bin/lpm.bak

And dump our script code into it:

echo /sdcard/reboot_on_charge.sh > /system/bin/lpm

Of course this will require root, and to remount the system folder as read-write:

su
mount -o rw,remount /system

And that's it! That's how I got this to work for the S7.

Undoing the changes should be as simple as doing:

cat /system/bin/lpm.bak > /system/bin/lpm
rm /system/bin/lpm.bak

Edit:
 - To add an extra detail, make sure the file is using Linux (LF) line endings as opposed to CR_LF (Windows). My git repo switched them out from under me and I was left debugging why the phone suddenly started going to recovery mode again when it reboots.


shell command segmentation fault (ICS) On Cyanogenmod 11 (Kit Kat) I was running this ffmpeg binary from the command line and it worked great.

I needed to downgrade to Cyanogenmod 9 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and now I get a segmentation fault when running the same ffmpeg binary. Is there something obvious that I should check out?

Okay, I got hold of the developer and learned that the binary isn't compatible with Android ICS or earlier. Simple as that.


Is there an application / ROM that allows me to set the phone to "Guest" mode which I can configure? I would like to be able to set my phone into Guest mode so people using it will not be able to "abuse" it while I give it to them.

Example of usage:

Child mode - prevent editing settings, making calls, installing applications etc.
Friend mode - prevent viewing text/email messages etc.
etc.

I have the MIUI ROM which has a pre-defined Guest mode - I'm looking for something which is fully/partially configurable - is there something like that?

You might want to check for "app lockers" like e.g. App Lock, which allow you to password-protect apps, or use even more restrictive child protection apps like e.g. Child App Protector, which can sandbox an environment (also called "Kiosk mode").

A somehow "special" solution would be App Locker II: Fake Crash, which in "protected mode" displays a fake force-close message so people do not get the idea you protected something.


Can Gear VR on Galaxy S8 be used for Daydream apps I have an S8, but not yet bought any VR accessory; and I know that Samsung recently added Daydream VR support to the phone. From what I've read, Daydream case is far simpler with most of the sensors in the phone; while Gear VR has sensors in the headset itself.

So it appears to me that other than the controllers, Gear VR headset in hardware terms should cover everything the Daydream headset does. If I buy the 2017 Gear VR (for the controller), will I also be able to view Daydream VR titles, and how will the different controller affect the compatibility?

The Galaxy S8 is listed in the official Daydream-ready phones page, so you can definitely use a Daydream headset with your device.

This comparative article points out that both headsets give access to separated stores, with different applications, noting that Gear VR provides overall better hardware and immersion, while Daydream might have a stronger "software" approach.

Now some users managed to get Daydream applications working on their Gear VR, providing you have a Daydream controller - or a second phone to act as one, and follow the (seemingly lengthy) steps of this tutorial:
https://www.reddit.com/r/GearVR/comments/5dxd8f/how_to_get_daydream_apps_running_on_galaxy_s7/
It seems that you however cannot use the Gear VR controller with a Daydream application.

If you are more inclined to spending money in place of your valuable time, maybe buying the two headsets could give you access to the best of both worlds, and avoid you the headaches inherent to getting unofficial use of the products to work for you.


Where is the precmd command in android? I'm kind of used to linux. I'm using Busybox from the Busybox Free installer, with Busybox 1.21.0-Stericson. Trying to chance my shell to the Busybox shell using busybox ash gives the following error after every single command:

ash: precmd: not found
echo $PS1
$(precmd)$USER@$HOSTNAME:${PWD: -?} $

I tried to go back to the normal shell and find out WHERE precmd is:

which precmd

It just changes the prompt to have "1|" in front of it, without giving me WHERE it is. I found a solution here, but have no idea where to put it. I'm basically trying to do the same as this question (make Busybox shell the default).

If you are using Connectbot: according to an article at XDA-Developers, this is nothing but a cosmetical error:

  Connectbot seems to set shell variable 'PS1' to "$(precmd)$USER@$HOSTNAME:${PWD:-?} $ ".
  It means your shell (the busybox's ash applet) will try to use output from 'precmd' as a part of a command prompt.
  So when 'precmd' was not provided, error messages will be generated wenever a prompt was to be shown.

To fix this, mentioned post says you can use PS1="> " (or simply unset PS1) to work around that error.


USB Mass Storage Not Working I have spent a few hours trying to figure out why my USB mass storage function is not working with my laptop. Here's what I've done:

Installed Android 2.3.2 (Pete's GPA12)
Uninstalled, cleaned, and reinstalled drivers from Motorola.
Reinstalled Java JDK
Rebooted

After through all this, it still doesn't work.

Motorola Droid

Windows 7 x64

OK, I found out what's wrong. I had USB Debugging enabled at the same time so I had to turn that off and now it works.

Menu > Settings > Applications > Development > USB Debugging


Get the original photos after using PhotoSphere? Using the new PhotoSphere camera mode to take a 360°×180° panorama, you have a stiched together image. Is it possible to get access to the original photos that were used?

I really like the PhotoSphere UI and method of taking panoramas, it's very well done. However the panorama software isn't great (it is a phone after all), and I'd like to use something like Hugin to generate the panoramas myself. Is there anyway to get access to, or to save, the original images that went into creating the PhotoSphere?

I do not believe there is a way to do this as stock, since the photos taken are stored temporarily and are deleted as soon as post-processing is complete. If you want to develop your own solution to this by creating a 'hook' for the opensource app "Focal" which has the same features as the stock camera. (Focal: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=fr.xplod.focal&hl=en)


Which VPN do I use for a Cisco VPN concentrator? I want to setup corporate sync on my DroidX and it appears to work until I try to get email.

My office uses Microsoft Exchange.

I think I need to set up VPN to do this? (not sure, I know I have to use vpn to make outlook work if I'm not on the network)

Which VPN selection should I use? We are using a really old Cisco VPN concentrator that I don't know much about, with a Microsoft shop for pretty much everything.

With a "really old" Cisco VPN concentrator, there are pretty good odds that you can get by with a PPTP tunnel. Especially if you're relying on the native Windows client from desktop/laptops (XP?).

However, with Exchange in the mix you may not need to establish a VPN. My new employer runs exchange and I'm using the "Mail" app to connect to it with no fuss or muss. It "just worked" after I plugged in the external mail server address (mail.mycompany.com) and my domain creds.


How can I see the RRC state and signal level of an HTC Explorer? Is there any alternative to the Android secret code *#*#197328640#*#* for the HTC Explorer? I am trying to get the same Service Mode on my HTC Explorer to show the RRC State and signal level of the device.

On most Android phones, the code *#*#4636#*#* provides network information such as signal level and preferred networks. However I am unsure of what you mean by displaying that information within the HTC Explorer.


How to select content language on Google Play Movies I'm in Germany and I want to download movies in English from the Google Play store to watch my Android tablet, however I can only get movies in German. How can I get the English versions?

You can edit the build.prop settings on a rooted phone with something like ro.com.google.clientidbase.ms=android-uscellular-us i think or maybe ro.product.locale.region=US


How to use NFC with RFID tags/chips When I bought my Samsung Galaxy SIII, there was a big buzz about the new phones
on the market supporting NFC (Near-Field Communications). However, given that
Blutooth exchange of files and even the somewhat more powerful Wi-Fi Direct
protocols were already available to allow files to be exchange, it seems
to me that yet another technology (NFC), when used to transfer files,
doesn't add much to what was already available.

Hence, the true value of NFC should be its ability to read RFID (Radio-Frequency
Identification) tags. However, I have not been able to find any of these devices
anywhere, and I'm not sure if it's because these are less used abroad where I am
living or not. So, where can I find these devices?

NFC tags are one type of RFID tags. NFC is a protocol for RFID, which can be understand by more and more devices.
You can buy NFC tags on amazon or other websites.

What can I do with that tags?
You can trigger something when you touch your phone to that tag. For example a NFC tag in your car which turns on Bluetooth, mutes your phone and turns off the lock screen. Then you can put the tag anywhere in your car and when you touch it your phone will be in your "car-mode"
However this requires some apps to work. For example 'Trigger' (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jwsoft.nfcactionlauncher) or 'NFC Tasks' are great apps for this purpose.


How to make Magisk request permission/fingerprint every time for certain apps? I'm on Magisk v16 and I have a terminal app. I want it to require the user to use fingerprint every time this certain app requests root access. How do I do this?

I don't know about fingerprints (since I don't use them), but to make Magisk prompt to grant/deny root access to an application without saving this preference, do the following:

If you have already granted/denied root access, revoke it in Magisk Superuser settings by tapping your app and in the newly-opened list of buttons tapping "recycle bin" button.
Next time, when the you get the prompt, be sure to change the default Forever option to Once, and only then grant/deny access.

This will grant root access for this time, but won't save the preference for the app. Thus, next time you'll be given the option to grant/deny again. Just don't forget to change Forever to Once each time.


How do I keep CPU off when charging? When I connect the USB power source, it makes CPU to stay on (even though "Development->Stay awake" is off).

When charging from a weak power source if makes battery to drain even faster than is case of USB power is not connected at all (because of CPU stays on instead of sleeping).

How do I stop external power connectedness affecting CPU sleeping policy?

I'm not talking about screen being on, it's about CPU being awake (unfortunately it is not easy to see if CPU is on or off).

Long press on the power off switch while plugged in, next tap on the power off prompt.   When it powers off make sure the charging light remains on.    If light is not on press power on quickly just so that the battery percentage shows in the center, it should blank screen again and the charging light come on and remain on.  You can retest battery charge percent again anytime.  When ready to use  long press on power on/off to on and watch or wait for rebooting to take place.


How can I use a bluetooth controller to skip back/forward a video 5/10 seconds? I've been trying to find an application that will skip a video backwards 5/10 seconds when I press a button on a bluetooth remote and maybe even save a bookmark to a list of bookmarks when I double click for instance play. I was able to do this on a rooted ios device using an app that remapped the forward/next track keys to short skip. I'm watching video lectures and want to control the playback. Is there any hack that will allow this in for instance VLC which already short skips when double tapping the side of the screen?

MX player has this functionality although it doesn't appear to have a bookmarking capability that can save multiple bookmarks in a video.


How to change the country in Samsung Pay? I bought a new Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge in Asia before leaving to France. I now want to use Samsung Pay in France but the app shows Asian ads and notifications in Thai language. I want to know if the app will still work in France, and can you change the original country?

I use an imported Samsung Galaxy S8 from Hong Kong. I wasn't able to change the country that Samsung Pay uses. But I use Samsung Pay in Switzerland with a Swiss credit card. But unfortunately, I get ads from Hong Kong in Hong Kong Dollar.

Once you setup Samsung Pay you can use it worldwide.


Default launcher broken, causing infinite loop of force closes I've just installed a custom rom and restored my apps from Titanium. However, now the default Launcher app is broken and I can't get out of the infinite loop of force closing. I can't press menu or anything to remove it as default. How do I get out of this pickle?

I have a GT-i9000.

Did you have web install working? Then you can try installing an alternative launcher through the web-based Android Market, and that will (hopefully) cause the default launcher to be reset.


Wireless vs data connection Assume there is a 4G access point or router for internet connection, e. g. Dlink 953. That means a sim card is inserted to the access point. So the internet is routed via the data connection defined on the sim card. Users then connect to this access point via the wireless connection. In other words, they turn on the WiFi and connect to the access point. That seems to be fine.

Now, the problem is that users are actually using a data connection (internet is available on the sim card in the access point) but their phone won't notice that and it seems that you are connected to Wifi.

What is the actual problem then? Some applications have setting for reducing the internet usage on data connections. In this scenario, we see that phones are connected via Wifi and they won't reduce the internet usage. For example, Instagram has a setting to reduce the amount of download on data connections and not Wifi. Since the phone is connected through Wifi, Instagram assume it is fine and won't reduce the amount of data. But, really the internet is provided by a data connection (sim card in the access point).

Any idea for that?

Recent Android versions have a setting to let you designate some Wi-Fi connections as "metered"; i.e. they're actually a hotspot for which you get charged per byte transferred.

On vanilla Android, go to the Settings app, then Data usage, then on the overflow menu, choose Network restrictions. The name isn't very obvious, but the next screen explains:

  Metered networks are treated like mobile when background data is restricted. Apps may warn before using these networks for large downloads.

Within apps, any "only on Wi-Fi" options are affected by these settings: the networks you select do not count as Wi-Fi for that purpose.


Pixel Launcher crashing due to missing STATUS_BAR and MANAGE_ACTIVITY_STACKS permissions I'm running LineageOS 16 on a OnePlus 3T. Whenever I try to open the Pixel Launcher, it crashes. In adb logcat, I saw the following lines that looked relevant:

05-25 16:13:31.293 16356 16356 W TaskStackChangeListeners: java.lang.SecurityException: Permission Denial: registerTaskStackListener() from pid=16356, uid=10003 requires android.permission.MANAGE_ACTIVITY_STACKS
05-25 16:13:31.476 16356 16356 E AndroidRuntime: java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to resume activity {com.google.android.apps.nexuslauncher/com.google.android.apps.nexuslauncher.NexusLauncherActivity}: java.lang.SecurityException: Permission Denial: setShelfHeight() from pid=16356, uid=10003 requires android.permission.STATUS_BAR

I tried running these commands to fix the problem:

adb shell pm grant com.google.android.apps.nexuslauncher android.permission.MANAGE_ACTIVITY_STACKS
adb shell pm grant com.google.android.apps.nexuslauncher android.permission.STATUS_BAR

However, they failed:

java.lang.SecurityException: Package com.google.android.apps.nexuslauncher has not requested permission android.permission.MANAGE_ACTIVITY_STACKS
java.lang.SecurityException: Package com.google.android.apps.nexuslauncher has not requested permission android.permission.STATUS_BAR

I searched for this and found a post on XDA with someone having the same problem: https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/software/pa-gapps-continuation-t3098071/post77695616#post77695616

Responses weren't very useful though. They basically boiled down to "your ROM is broken; ask your ROM developer to fix it."

So how can I fix this crash?

I rebooted into TWRP and edited /data/system/packages.xml. Under <package name="com.google.android.apps.nexuslauncher" and <perms>, I added the following lines:

<item name="android.permission.STATUS_BAR" granted="true" flags="0" />
<item name="android.permission.MANAGE_ACTIVITY_STACKS" granted="true" flags="0" />

When I rebooted back into Android, the crash was fixed.


How do I uninstall MultiROM? I have a rooted Nexus 4 with stock Android on it.  I decided to try out the MultiROM app on the play store.  I am now trying to uninstall it, however the MultiROM app does two things:

It installs a recovery called TWRP
It adds a 'boot' menu which lets you select between the OSes

I was able to undo #1 by reinstalling ClockWorkMod ROM.

However, every time I boot up, the OS selection screen still appears.  Note that the OS selection screen only has 'internal' on it.

How can I remove this selection screen and remove MultiROM completely?

Uninstalling MultiROM - Source AddictiveTips

The developers have provided an easy way to get rid of MultiROM and get things back to the way they were before. All you have to do is flash the appropriate MultiROM uninstaller file for your device from recovery, and MultiROM will be removed from your device. Do note that this will also remove all secondary ROMs that you may have installed.

MultiROM Uninstaller for Nexus 4
MultiROM Uninstaller for Nexus 7 (2012)
MultiROM Uninstaller for Nexus 7 (2013)

The MultiROM-modified TWRP recovery will still remain on your device, but that shouldn’t be an issue; you can simply ignore the Advanced > MultiROM submenu, and use the rest of the recovery as the regular TWRP. Though if you want to remove that as well, you can easily flash a recovery of your choice.


Anyone have an alternative dowload site for a fastboot binary? I'm working on rooting my android kernel and most sites list http://android-dls.com/files/linux/fastboot as the place to look for the fastboot binary. However, I've been getting a 404 (Page not Found) error when attempting to access this site.

Does anyone know of an alternate download location for fastboot?

I'm currently running Ubuntu Linux.

The Replicant Project builds tools with every release; you can find their tools here (go down the directory tree in a path like replicant-2.3/preview/0002/tools/), along with notes about which git version was used for the source. Go one directory up and read COPYING for details.

Note: They only offer Linux builds.

Source code is here.


root cannot list files in /data 1|shell@maguro:/ # ls -l /system/xbin/
-rwxr-xr-x root     shell       59816 2013-07-11 02:12 dexdump
-rwsr-sr-x root     root        67008 2013-10-08 17:24 su
shell@maguro:/ # ls /data
opendir failed, Permission denied

The permissions on su are correct right? I get the hash prompt, but I can't list the files in /data (or do anything that requires superuser permissions). I don't have Superuser.apk installed, I don't want to install it because of that grant/deny access dialogue that pops up if you wipe the device. What does Superuser.apk do that I can't do when I unpack the *.img files?

Enter su first.

  > su
  > ls /data

Make sure your device is rooted.


redsocks on android emulator: getting error "not executable: magic 7F45" I'm trying to get proxydroid or redsocks to run on genymotion android emulator (x86).
Adb shell into the device, run redsocks and I get "not executable: magic 7F45".
I know it means that the version doesnt comply with the cpu. however, on Genymotion I'm able to run a bunch of Arm packages, with no problem (having installed the genymotion arm translation files).

I have compiled redsocks sources on my ubuntu box (binary works fine on my ubuntu x86), but when I copied the binary to the emulator- it still gives the same error message when I try to run it (not executable: magic 7F45). So it looks like neither the arm nor the x86 versions are working on the emulator

My question: is there a way to get redsocks run on genymotion?

UPDATE:
I have taken the redsocks binary that I compiled on my ubuntu x86 box, and pushed it to x86 avd (standard sdk) - it worked perfect.
So it appears that the "not executable: magic 7F45" error is not related to cross-cpu compilation.
Anyone know other reason to getting this error message?

What file(1) utility says about your compiled binary?

Because compiling on x86-based PC does not promises your binary always will have x86 target platform - GCC can produce virtually any targets.


Galaxy tab 2 10.1 is showing x and y coordinates and mouse lines on the screen My Galaxy tab 2 10.1 is showing x and y coordinates across the top of the screen. When I swipe my finger on the screen, a line is trailing behind it, like what I am doing are showing. It was normal one day, then showing this the next day.

Does anyone know how to hide these details?

Goto Settings--> Developer options-->(Uncheck) Pointer location.

Thats it.


Continually scanning for network drains battery, but I've got network? My Google Pixel's battery has been draining rapidly the last few days. When I look at the battery usage chart, it shows almost-entirely red for "Mobile Network Signal".

That makes sense: scanning for mobile networks uses a lot of power.

When I open the lock screen, it says "No service". When I pull down the notification icon panel, it shows "No service".

If I open the About / Status / SIM Status page, it shows "Network: Unknown", "Signal Strength: 0", "Network Type: 4G", "Service Status: Out of Service".

Except I've got signal. I've received a couple of calls, I've got 4G connectivity, I can upload photos and check in on Facebook. The phone shows full (or almost full) signal in the status bar.

The only thing I can think of is that I'm roaming from the UK to Australia, and my network provider (or the local provider) has screwed something up. Hopefully it'll sort itself out when I return home.

The problem I have right now is that I'm going to be here for another week or so, and the battery life of my phone is hosed.

I've restarted the phone; I've turned on/off Aeroplane Mode; the phone's been turned off and left for a while. Nothing seems to help.

What else can I do?

(Google Pixel; Android 7.2.1)

Setting the "Preferred network type" (under Settings / Wireless & Networks / Mobile Networks) to "3G" (instead of "4G (recommended)") causes the phone to report a valid network connection and seems to solve the battery issue.

In Android 9, this setting is under Settings / Network & Internet / Mobile Network / Advanced.

Remember to change it back once you're home.


How to do USB tethering using Android device which does not have SIM card? I have an Android device which does not have place to insert a SIM card, can I tether this device to PC through USB (I want it to be fast, hence preferring USB over Wifi) in some way?

If your device does not have tethering built in (Many devices do), you can get an app from the Play Store that allows you to tether your phone. There are several great applications that allow you to tether via USB or WiFi.
A good app that solves this purpose is one called USB Tether
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mkdev.usbtethering2
Its simple and functional.


Text messaging so slow it is nearly unusable I have a Galaxy S5 running 4.4.2. I am trying to send a text message to a certain contact.

When I select their name from the list of messages, there is a 30 second delay. While typing, sometimes there will be a 10-15 second delay for each letter. If they send me a message while I'm trying to type, there will be a 30-60 second delay. Texting this person is so slow it is almost unusable. Other contacts are slow as well, but still usable.

This is with no other apps running.

My guess is that this could be caused by the lengthy text message history for this particular contact, but I doubt this is the case for the following reason: It seems extremely unlikely that I should be unable to store and display several megs of text on hardware made in 2014. I want to preserve this text history in any case, but I don't necessarily need to display it all on the screen at once.

Thanks!

Edit: I have tried clearing the cache, no effect.

Most Likely your phone doesn't have enough Ram

Are you using a custom keyboard or just the default keyboard? As custom keyboards can lag out your phone

So your options can be:

You could slow down your typing  on your android phone

or
You can increase the CPU Frequency and/or Governor on your phone, thus it
ticks over a bit quicker and/or allocating more CPU time to the keyboard and allowing you to type faster

*Note: You shouldn't do anything unnecessary to your phone Like change your CPU settings un-less necessary and If you have the know the How-To

Why Scale the CPU And/Or Change the Governor?

You tap a few keys, the CPU ramps up, does it’s magic, presents its suggestions, then spins down again. You tap another few keys, and the CPU ramps up again, does its thing again, then spins down again.

The faster you type and the more pauses you take between words, the more apparent the lag is, and the more frustrating it is to the user

So you can change the CPU Governor to a govern that allocates CPU time differently, and also the CPU frequency. Thus it can allow you to type with less lag because the keyboard is/can get my CPU allocation


install missing apps after installing rom? I've installed a new ROM. In the previous times I've done this, Play reinstalled them once the phone booted. But this time it didn't (I've tried reinstalling the ROM a second time to make sure).

I have a backup of all these apps in Titanium, but I can't find a feature to install missing apps (just "restore" them, which apparently means just restoring settings & data for those already installed)

Is there anything I can do other than going to 'my apps' in Play and installing them one by one (I have many)?

Titanium should restore the APKs as well as the data.  But another method is to go into Settings>Backup/Restore (or similar), and there is an option for backing up and restoring data from Google Play.


Text Messaging: Group Text Message I  have a DroidX running Android 2.3.4.  When somebody sends me a text message that goes to other devices too, is there anyway I can tell?  Usually the only way I find out is when somebody else does a "reply all" (probably using a newer version of Android), and I get some random message from a number I may or may not recognize.

Also, what about when I reply to the message?  Does it only go to the person who sent it to me, or does it somehow auto-reply-all behind the scenes?

In 4.2.1 (maybe in 4.2.0) there was an option added to the MMS application to support multiple recipients.

While you may have been able to see them all the way that William stated, i've never seen that option.

In 4.2.1 you click on the menu and select "Group Participants". This shows everyone that is included in the conversation. When you reply to a group now, it sends the messages to all participants, not just the person that sent you the message.

I know this doesn't relate directly to your question as you are not asking about 4.2, but I do not know of a way that this can be done in anything pre-4.2. This feature was discussed a bit because it was the first time android supported this feature.

While you could always "start" a group conversation in any version of android, you could not "participate" in a group conversation with anyone other than the original sender.


Cyanogenmod stopped being blue The icons changed to a green scheme instead of the normal blue scheme, and it persists even after reboot. The autocomplete text is yellow now, as is the browser loading bar.  What happened??

This screenshot is from a while ago, when I was using a different launcher, but it shows how the colours were until yesterday. (There's also some unrelated background corruption.)

Now the Wi-Fi and cell and messaging and browser icons are green:

I tried reflashing the same version of CM7, and it's still green:

I don't care too much about the color, but I don't know how this could have happened and wonder if it indicates some kind of corruption of the phone's Flash, etc?

The colours aren't the only difference. Your second screenshot also has a dark background to each shortcut's label, and a different graphic for the tray at the bottom. The combination of graphical changes to the launcher, changes to SystemUI, and different-coloured icons for system apps like the browser, makes me say the second screenshot is of a different version of Cyanogenmod, or a different ROM completely.

Could you or someone else have flashed a new ROM onto your phone? If you're not sure, go into the Settings app, click About device and read the version information on that screen.


Openvpn on Android: Doesn't appear to be routing through tunnel I just noticed that my Android (running CM11) is not correctly routing my traffic to my openvpn server. I noticed when I was looking at the current connections on my OpenWRT router that I could see the VPN's local IP address, and the remote connection! It looks like this:

IPV4    TCP 10.9.0.20:56657 157.166.xx.xx:80

I could see all this in Luci's connection graphs, which means that OpenVPN is not sending my traffic over the tunnel at all, despite the reports from sites like ipleak.net . This means that when I connect over mobile data, my carrier can likely see all of my traffic. This is not what I want, I am having a hard time fixing it.

I tried two different OpenVPN frontends, tweaking the firewall on the phone (afwall+) and also playing around with the 'redirect-gateway' directives. I am not sure if this a DNS leak or total disobiedience on Android's part of my routing rules. The fact that I can see these connections from the router makes me think that the traffic is not even being encrypted before it's sent over the internet. Any ideas or advice?

Server Config:

mode server
tls-server
local x.x.x.x
port 35777
proto udp
dev tun0
ca /etc/openvpnca.crt
cert /etc/openvpn/randomcn.crt
key /etc/openvpn/randomcn.key
dh /etc/openvpn/dh.pem
topology p2p
server 10.8.0.0 255.255.255.0
;topology subnet

ifconfig-pool-persist ipp.txt
client-config-dir clients
;client-to-client
keepalive 7 80
tls-auth /etc/openvpn/ta.key 0
cipher AES-128-CBC
comp-lzo
max-clients 3
user nobody
group nogroup
persist-key
persist-tun
status openvpn-status.log

log openvpn.log

In my client directory, I have these settings. On my PC I do not have this IP leak problem despite the settings being the same:

push "redirect-gateway def1 bypass-dhcp"
push "dhcp-option DNS 10.8.0.1"

I have dnscrypt running with unbound on the server, serving the clients. This configuration works on my PC, but it seems no matter what I do I still can see the vpn local IP and all of my remote connections with Luci on openwrt.

I have tried using both OpenVPN connect, Openvpn for Android, and I am currently trying to use the ICS binary as well. Any help would be appreciated.

After a lot of research, I realized that either my ROM was corrupt or infected with malware, so I started from scratch, factory wiped my phone and installed a new ROM. The problem has been resolved. You should never be able to see openvpn connections on the local network. If you are, chances are that something is wrong. Since it is so easy to simply reflash a phone, I figured I may as well take this opportunity to upgrade to lollipop.


My Samsung Galaxy S doesn't recognize when it is plugged in to USB When I plug in my Samsung Galaxy S (Model SAMSUNG-SGH-I897, Firmware 2.2, Kernel 2.6.32.9, Build FROYO.UCKB2) to a computer, it starts charging, but does not recognize the USB connection for data.  I have tried toggling debugging, mass storage, and ask on connection, but all that happens is that it draws power.  I've tried both Windows 7 32bit and Ubuntu 11.04 32bit.  It was working yesterday.

Additional note: dmesg, lsusb, and adb do not recognize the device at all under ubuntu

Thanks

This has happened many times to me, and every time it has been a bad cable. If you have one, try finding another USB cable to test it with, and see if it works. Often some connection goes bad in the cable just from use and wear and it will only charge and refuses to transmit data.

The other possibility (this is known to be a problem with the EVO 4Gs, but i don't think i've heard of it on the Galaxy S) is that the USB port on your phone has been damaged or gone bad. This happened to my dad's phone (EVO) and they sent him a replacement.

Let us know what happens after you try a new cable!


device boots into recovery every time I reboot, probably because playing with a system app Today I removed chrome browser that was a system app. At first unintentionally my hand tapped on "integrate updated system app into rom" (titanium backup app) and my immediate attempts to cancel it failed, and chrome icon changed to android robot. Then without any restart I uninstalled it using titanium backup, so that icon got disappeared.
I used my phone for a couple of hours until I attached it to the charger and turned it off. Now every time I reboot, it boots into recovery (twrp 3.0.2).
My phone is Sm-J510F with official android 7.1.1 and it's rooted.
Is there any hope I can boot into system without factory reset?

There can be several possibilities so let's check step by step

check whether your volume kye is not pressed ( what happens if your device has fallen down by the volume side there are chances that the volume button would have got pressed.

2.if the 1st is not your problem then try checking your Rom setting if your device is rooted. there are chances that while flashing custom rom your rom would have been not flashed properly so the device gets into a loop and is not able to load your rom.

if not rooted, then there are chances that the problem is with your rom.

solution
Try hard resetting your device this may fix it.
or reinstalling your device rom.
some time while restoring the device can also cause this problem. so I would suggest checking your rom once. if still, the problem persists comment down will try some other fix.
wish you luck..


Trouble answering calls on Motorola G When my phone rings my screen is black - to unlock I have to press the button on the lefthand side which then ends the call.It used to automatically show the caller id but since an update I am unable to answer any calls :(. Hope some-one is able to help me please. Thank you

First go to Settings -> Apps -> Disabled(Tab). If you can find Dialer or Phone please enable it and then check after restarting your phone.

If your Phone/Dialer app is not disabled then try these steps,

Settings -> Apps -> All(Tab) -> Dialer
Clear Cache and Clear Data
Disable it and restart phone and Re-enable the Dialer app.

If problem persists you can for emergency purpose attend calls using your motorola headset.


Will upgrading my Unlocked, Rooted (fastboot + superboot method) Galaxy Nexus from 4.0.1 to 4.0.2 brick the phone? I can re-root if necessary, but we just paid $700 for the phone, and I don't want to brick it.

From what I can tell, upgrading will cause me to have to re-root and unlock the boot loader, which I can do again using the instructions I orignally used to root 4.0.1 (These Instructions)

Will this upgrade brick my phone?

Well, doing the OTA update to 4.0.2 from 4.0.1 did not brick anything. Superuser is still installed and apps that require root supposedly have root permissions, but they claim they do not.

I will attempt to re-root it, as I don't see why that will be an issue.

Thanks.


Restore "loud volume, long periods" notification in Lollipop I am running Lollipop 5.0/CloudyG3 2.5 and G3 Tweaksbox. Is it possible to restore the "loud volume, long periods" notifications?
I would like to have the volume limiter that this notification provides.

I've tried rebooting my device and restoring the setting via Tweaksbox, but neither action helped.

The volume warning was removed with Android Lollipop. It
  appears that this is in lollipop, but it is either very buggy
  or extremely passive.

Read the comments. Many users found it to be more of an annoyance than a useful feature. If you still want this feature, there are plenty of apps you can download that will limit the max volume of your device as KitKat did.


View Google Books in Android mobiles? Is it possible to see Sample Preview or Full Google Books, in Android devices?

Do we have an app for that?

I have Android 4.2 in my Micromax Ninja A89.

Small parts of all books are viewable in Google Books, they call it "(Sample) Preview", I want to be able to see this preview in Android, even if I am not able to download, I want to view it with an active internet connection in my mobile.

There is a Google-made app with almost exactly that name, that does let you read Google Books on your Android device, Google Play Books. I'm pretty sure that should do what you want.


List all free application on google play Possible Duplicate:
  How to get full list of apps in play-store

Is there a way I can get list of all free apps on Google Play.
Normally only 24 apps are displayed on one web page.Something like list view instead of icon view.Also do we have a tag search option?Ex search for device tracking apps

Basically no.
As +RyanConrad said there are far too many free apps, which change constantly, to be listed on a single page.  If there are ~600,000 apps and an html link to an app was around 150 characters, and each character is 8 bits, that's ~85 megs just to get the full listing.  I don't know for sure, but I don't think your web browser will like trying to render that page.


Is it possible to add an audio bluetooth profile to my phone? I want to make my phone act as a bluetooth speaker/headset because the audio jacks connection on my laptop is kinda broken (won't play audio on both ears unless the headset plug is midway inserted). Add to that the fact that the audio coming out of my laptop's speakers aren't too loud. My phone, however, fills in that gap by having quite good and loud audio and the headset jack on my phone isn't messed up like the one my laptop.

So upon thinking of ways to do this, I realized that I could add a bluetooth profile to my phone so that the laptop will be able to detect it as a bluetooth headset. However, I couldn't find any info about doing this.

I'm using an SE ST17i and I'm rooted so rooted solutions are applicable. I hope someone can help me out.

P.S. I know of the AirFoil approach but would rather prefer my above approach if possible because I don't like keeping my wifi on all the time.

See my answer to a similar question - the problem is that within the Bluetooth AD2P profile (for stereo quality audio) Android phones aren't designed to be a "sink" (a receiver of media) only a source. You're right in that this is a limitation of the Bluetooth stack on your phone, but so far the info I've found says that trying to alter the stack comes with moderate amounts of pain and compromise. Perhaps you're more adventurous than I?


ADB constantly disconnects, shows device offline I'm not 100% sure if this should go here or the main Stack Overflow, but I decided to go with this area in hope I might catch someone with more specific experience with a similar problem.

I have a Samsung Captivate (love it minus it's crappy GPS). I do development for it from 2 different computers, one at home, one at work. The machines are both Windows XP, Service Pack 3, 32 bit. I have the same Samsung drivers installed, same versions of Eclipse, etc. The phone is currently rooted running the Serendipity mod, though this issue was exactly the same on the stock firmware.

My home machine (the problem one) is an Athlon 64 2.2 Ghz.
My work machine is a Core 2 Duo, don't recall the model.

At work, I can do anything, mount the sdcard on the phone and copy easily, use adb to push, pull, uninstall, install. I can debug in ddms, install through Eclipse, etc, etc...

At home, if I reboot both the computer and phone and pull up a command prompt without having Eclipse open, I MIGHT be able to see the device by typing adb devices. Usually then, I can clear the logcat or run the logcat fairly stable. If I open Eclispe (my development IDE) and try to run a new build of an app, I'll generally lose the connection. The same thing happens if I try to copy files either via mounting or using pull with adb. Some files will copy, and suddenly the connection will be gone and the device will show offline to adb, or not in the list at all, or listed offline twice. Rebooting the phone sometimes helps, but not always. There are times I close Eclipse and every other app, reboot my phone and still end up having adb completely unable to detect the device. I'll use adb kill-server and adb start-server but this generally doesn't help. I use Avast for my anti-virus at home, but have tried without any anti-virus installed at all and it's the same. I've recently reinstalled Windows due to a hard drive crash and it was the exact same. I've tried every different USB port on my tower.

I hope VERY much someone can tell me what's wrong as I've been dealing with this for a year and a half now and it's about to make me lose my mind.

-Jeremiah

Switching from USB 3.0 port to USB 2.0 solved the problem for me.
Most laptops come with both port types these days.


Trouble with finding an app on play store I'm using Android 6.0 (non-rooted) phone and looking for an application called call tools optinno.

Though it can be easily found by searching on net : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.calltoolsoptinno , However, I can't find on play store by searching call tools optinno or by call blocker etc.

I've also tried by entering id : com.calltoolsoptinno on the play store but didn't get.

Note: I've scrolled down multiple times but can't find the app I'm looking for.

What's wrong with searching mechanism?

There are two reasons - I think -  an app can't be found in Google Play Store: The app is not designed for your phone model and/ or android version and/or it is  a geographic specific app. Use a VPN if it is geographically unavailable for your region/country.


Open PDFs Automatically from Browser in Google Drive or Google PDF Viewer Is it possible to configure Android to automatically open PDF links in an application such as Google Drive or Google PDF viewer instead of clicking link, then selecting the PDF from Notification bar.

The following question Android Tablet - Download PDF and open it on browser is similar but the accepted answer with using pdf.js plugin in FireFox is a discontinued product.

We plan to deploy many Android tablets where users just use them to print PDFs, the default UI experience seems counter intuitive.

We just want user to select PDF in browser, open it, and select print; ideally replicating the simplicity of how iOS works for viewing / printing PDFs.

The tablet used in Galaxy Tab S2 running Android 6.0.1.

We cannot use Adobe Acrobat PDF viewer as the PDFs we need to print don't print correctly with Adobe PDF viewer.

Cloud Viewer add-on for Firefox opens PDF links without downloading the file.

  View PDF, DOC, XLS and PPT files without downloading them to your device. Save downloading time and space on your device. Here's how it works: Just before a compatible file starts to download, you are prompted to open the file in the Google Docs Viewer instead. If you choose to open in the online viewer, a new tab is opened and the viewer is loaded.

It does give the print option also but I haven't verified it. Tested on Firefox 55.0.2, the latest on Play Store

On clicking a PDF link, you get a self explanatory dialog as below


How to change Android's Google Chrome's default downloader? (not under app - set default) I set Android's Google Chrome's default downloader to ES File Explorer and now I want to reset it back to Google Chrome. I found this to be impossible on Android 7.0 - I tried to uninstall both Chrome and ES File Explorer and then cleared all default application in app settings yet when I download a file ES File Explorer comes up. The only solution is to remove ES File Explorer from the system. Is there another way to fix this without reinstalling the OS or do a factory reset?

You'll have to first disable ES Downloader (download manager) from ES explorer settings:

Open ES explorer and navigate to Settings → (Tools settings) → Download manager
Tap on Download manager and check Disable ES Downloader
Now open your preferred browser (Chrome) and open a downloadable link, it should now prompt you as before and select the suitable handler.
Essentially you would've cleared the default handler for downloading links.

Note: I have also observed a similar bug in Android 7, where the defaults are not simply cleared the conventional way (i.e by going to Settings → Applications → Clear defaults, for now this is the better way to do it whenever ES explorer is involved.

This may also depend on version of ES explorer in use. I tested with version 4.0.4.7

Hope this helps


Can i install android wear on any smartwatch? I just got this smartwatch that is a copy of samsung wear and my question is if i can just format it and install normal android wear.

problem is i dont have any documentation on it and i can barely find any information about the model online.

No. An OEM needs to customize android wear to suit its devices. No one is likely to make such a great effort for a cloned smartwatch so basically, you have to live with what you have...


Android virtual keyboard app that support physical keyboard language and layout change Apparently on many Android phones on Android OS 7+ there is no option to change external physical keyboard language/layout without going into device settings.

Is there a good virtual keyboard, which also supports changing layout/language for the attached physical keyboard on wide range of devices?

Solutions that I found:

Dedicated keyboard app for typing with physical keyboard. Popular recommendation is https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apedroid.hwkeyboardhelper&hl=ru. There are other options like Logitech Keyboard Plus app on Google Play. This is inconvinient, as you have to switch between input method every time you plug the physical keyboard.
Install two keyboards for every language you want to support. Assign proper layouts for them in the settings. Switch between keyboards with Command + Space. This is a kludge and inconvinience.

A few additional points:

SwiftKey does not support this feature. Changing language with the globe icon does not affect what you type on physical keyboard at the moment of writing this question. See https://support.swiftkey.com/hc/en-us/articles/201591341-How-to-use-SwiftKey-with-physical-external-Bluetooth-keyboards-on-Android . Same with Google Keyboard at least on One Plus 3 and Xiaomi MI5 with latest OS updates.
There are multiple threads suggesting to add several language in physical keyboard settings. However most of them are for Anrdoid 5-6, where keyboard layout switch with Ctrl-Space appeared to be standard feature in most ROMs. It appears that this is no longer the case.

The following software have independent physical keyboard layouts not tied to the OS layout in any way.

ruKeyboard software. It's a software+hardware keyboard initially made for Android smartphones with qwerty keyboard. It supports Android 2.3-9 and allows to add your own software and hardware layouts for different languages (you need to modify the XML files inside apk, but it's not that hard). It's abandoned and not open source, but still works fine. Software and physical keyboard layout switching is independent. You can configure your own switching combination on physical keyboard.

AnySoftKeyboard is what you can call a modern alternative to ruKeyboard. It's a software keyboard with support for physical keyboards. You can define your own layouts just as in ruKeyboard, by editing xml files inside the apk. Layout swithing is unified: if you switch the layout on software keyboard, it would switch on hardware keyboard as well. It's open source.


Failed to verify whole-file signature while rooting on Moto 2G XT1064 First question on here. I've seen others with this verification problem but I couldn't find an answer for the Moto 2G XT1064 specifically. I've gone through all the prior steps, unlocking the bootloader, setting USB debugging to true, installed Moto 2G drivers and android drivers, and so forth. (However, the "OEM unlock" developer option doesn't exist on my Marshmallow 6.0).

Anyways, whenever I try to flash/install SuperSu.zip, I keep getting this error:

verifying update package...
E:failed to verify whole-file signature
E:signature verification failed
installation aborted.

It doesn't matter which SuperSu version I flash, 2.68 or 2.65. It still gets that error. I don't know how to get past the verification failure. Anyone have any clue? Thank you!

EDIT: I use titan-24.11.10-BR-boot.img

Your on Marshmallow, you need to do some extra steps...

First, install TWRP 3.0 or higher, or be able to boot it one time, and you need to have SuperSU 2.76 or 2.78 (even #'s are stable versions) on the device.

Start TWRP, go to Advanced - Terminal and enter

echo SYSTEMLESS=true>>/data/.supersu and press ENTER

Then exit and go back to home and Install SuperSU normally.


How do you install samsung Kies to an alternative hard drive? I am trying to install Kies in order to get Ice cream sandwich for my galaxy note 1, my C drive is full and I would like to install on D drive which has plenty of space.

Assuming your version of Kies doesn't let you specify a path, use mklink.

Creates a symbolic link.

MKLINK [[/D] | [/H] | [/J]] Link Target

    /D      Creates a directory symbolic link.  Default is a file
            symbolic link.
    /H      Creates a hard link instead of a symbolic link.
    /J      Creates a Directory Junction.
    Link    specifies the new symbolic link name.
    Target  specifies the path (relative or absolute) that the new link
            refers to.

So if the default install path was C:\Program Files\Kies and you want to install to D:\Kies, you would create the latter directory and then run mklink /D /J "C:\Program Files\Kies" "D:\Kies" before installing.


Where can I see in the Revolut Android application on which day of the month my amount of currency exchange is reset to 0? I have a standard plan with Revolut, which means I can do up to 6kEUR of  currency exchange without any transaction each month.

Where can I see in the Revolut Android application on which day of the month my amount of currency exchange is reset to 0?

I use Samsung Galaxy S9 with Android S9.

(Disclaimer: this is not a hidden advertisement for Revolut. On the contrary I advise against using Revolut as overall the user experience is really bad with them)

It currently isn't possible to see in the Revolut Android application on which day of the month my amount of currency exchange is reset to 0. One has to go through the customer service chat to know the information.


Possible to root Archos 79 Platinum I want to root this device:

Archos 79 Platinum

Is it possible, and can someone link me to a guide please?
(I couldn't find a clear cut answer whether it is rootable or not)

YES! It is possible to root the Archos 79 Platinum using the following methods:

VROOT-root exe file for use on Windows machines

And to replace the superuser-app with an English version:

English Superuser and busybox etc

Yoy may also first want to check out the following link to make sure USB works properly (also google on how to enable developer-mode and USB-debugging on Android devices in general):

Enable Archos USB devices

I just rooted my device, so I know for sure that it works.


Problem with sound and headphones I have this weird problem where all sounds while headphones are plugged in my phone is stuck in the background, but without the headphones the sound works fine. I am utterly clueless on how to fix this so any help is appreciated.

Turns out headphones were made for desktop use only. The darn manual had not mentioned this at all.


Permissions for apps from unknown sources When installing an app from unknown sources, does it have to ask for specific permissions like regular apps or is every permission granted by default?

What permissions are granted is not depending on the source. If you sideload apps directly on the device via "unknown sources" (e.g. by using a third-party market app such as F-Droid or Aptoide), Android's package installer will pop up and ask you to confirm, showing basically the same permission list Playstore shows (i.e. a quite abbreviated) for the "all-or-nothing" part (i.e. permissions that cannot be granted at runtime). Runtime permissions are then asked the same way as with all other apps, whenever you use a functionality needing them.

The first confirmation is only skipped if you install apps via adb install or adb pm install. Runtime permissions will always be dealt with in the very same way: whenever needed.


How to Clear Caches in LG G2 Running Lollipop 5.0.2 The Lollipop update for AT&T LG G2 has pretty much destroyed my phone.  I'm hoping clearing out every sort of cache might help.  But I can't clear the caches the usual ways because (1) the Settings app always crashes when I am in the section where you clear app caches, as does any other app that is made for clearing caches, and (2) restarting into recovery doesn't provide options for clearing any caches.  Plus, I'm curious about how to clear ART caches since I haven't found much information about them online.  By the way, my phone is not rooted.

So, the question is:  How do I clear (1) app caches, (2) individual apps' caches, (3) Dalvik cache (if applicable anymore), and (4) ART cache under these restraints?  I'm thinking I'll have to do something via adb, but I can't find info anywhere on how to do it.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

If you have root or a custom recovery, you can do this using a terminal emulator or adb. BusyBox required.

shell@android:/ $ su
root@android:/ # cd /data/dalvik-cache
root@android:/data/dalvik-cache # find -type f -exec rm -f {} +
root@android:/data/dalvik-cache # cd ../data
root@android:/data/data # find -type d -name '*cache*' -exec rm -rf {} +

Note that in Android L, ART has fully replaced dalvik, including cache directories (/data/dalvik-cache). The reason for not creating a /data/art-cache is probably for compatibility concerns.


Can I set HDMI resolution to 320x240? I have this 50 $ projector and I connect a Dongle to it with HDMI cable-- so I have actual screen of 320x240, but the screen is broadcast at 720p. This results in unreadable letters, even if I set font size to huge setting. Can I somehow change the resolution dongle works?

Hope this helps.
On my Note3 running Lollipop I was able to check for supported external resolutions by running ( via a terminal app or adb shell )

>dmesg

and ( filtering with grep ) looking for the lines:

<6>[  581.051746] hdmi_edid_add_sink_video_format: EDID: format: 1 [640x480 p60 4/3], Supported
<6>[  581.051756] hdmi_edid_add_sink_video_format: EDID: format: 1 [640x480 p60 4/3], Supported by MHL
<6>[  581.051767] hdmi_edid_add_sink_video_format: EDID: format: 16 [1920x1080 p60 16/9], Supported
<6>[  581.051777] hdmi_edid_add_sink_video_format: EDID: format: 16 [1920x1080 p60 16/9], Not-Supported by MHL
<6>[  581.051790] hdmi_edid_add_sink_video_format: EDID: format: 4 [1280x 720 p60 16/9], Supported
<6>[  581.051801] hdmi_edid_add_sink_video_format: EDID: format: 4 [1280x 720 p60 16/9], Supported by MHL
<6>[  581.051812] hdmi_edid_add_sink_video_format: EDID: format: 133 [1280x1024 p60 5/4], Not-Supported
<6>[  581.051822] hdmi_edid_add_sink_video_format: EDID: format: 133 [1280x1024 p60 5/4], Not-Supported by MHL
<6>[  581.051833] hdmi_edid_add_sink_video_format: EDID: format: 132 [1024x768 p60 4/3], Not-Supported
<6>[  581.051843] hdmi_edid_add_sink_video_format: EDID: format: 132 [1024x768 p60 4/3], Not-Supported by MHL

which you'll note correspond to supported resolutions in:

>cat /sys/devices/virtual/graphics/fb1/edid_modes
1,4

then select your preferred output using :

>setprop hw.hdmi.resolution 1

and then re-plug the mhl adapter.

which in my case resulted in 640x480 which was the only option supported by my 800x600 projector.

Thanks to this Force 720p Resolution on InForce 6540


SSH Tunnel with Android Without rooting, how can I SSH tunnel to my homePC running sshd?

I need ssh tunnel to VNC home, but i don't trust VNC, so I want to use it with SSH to make it safe!

Thank you for any help!

If you want to connect to your home PC from your phone, there is ConnectBot


Auto disconnect wifi when out of wifi zone? I want my mobile wifi to get disconnect when i am not connected after a specific time.  Ex- If i am out of my wifi network for 10min my wifi should get turn off.  Note I dont have root access.

This is not built-in to Android – so you'd have to revert to an App for it. When just looking for that kind of automation feature, Smart WiFi Toggler would be worth a look:

  Smart WiFi Toggler is an application designed to control your phone's WiFi using location based rules. Its aim is to conserve battery and minimize data charges by turning WiFi off when not connected to a network, and turning it on when a known hotspot is present. It constantly learns where your hotspots are located to make its decisions.

It's using cell-towers in reach to figure if you're close to a network you're normally using. As long as you have your "cell network" active (i.e. you're not in airplane-mode), your phone knows about those anyway – as it needs that for phone calls, SMS, etc. So it doesn't "waste battery" for GPS or other location stuff. The app initially learns the cells related to your network, so it should be easy to use.

Smart WiFi Toggler (source: Google Play; click images for larger variants)

As you can see from the screenshots, you can also have time-based rules – which might turn out useful for times you want to have "silence" (no incoming calls etc.) and switch to airplane-mode – but want to enable WiFi every hour for a few minutes to check for mails.

For more alternatives, be welcome to see my list on WiFi Automatisation – and also check our automation and tasker tags :)


What does this icon mean? There is no corresponding notification in the pull-down.

If it only happens when the phone is plugged in, I seem to remember this referring to the fact that Android Debugging was activated, though I also thought this usually showed a pull-down notification as well. If it only happens when you're plugged into a computer, try un-selecting Android Debugging under settings, and see if it goes away.


Malware installed with remote debugging Is it possible for someone to install apks without you noticing, using remote debugging? (E.g. over TCP/IP, or on the same WiFi network). I found articles referring to this after a quick Google, but I'm not sure if they are not just alarmist.

EDIT: This paper seems to talk about something similar - "Android’s External Device Attack: Demonstration and Security
Suggestions" - Wei et al.

I was thinking of enabling debugging mode, but this is keeping me from doing it.

The attack (in question) mentioned in the said research paper would work on a device only when your device is running  ADB in TCP/IP mode. You have to specifically give the instructions to bind the ADB on a particular port on your device.

Entering adb help would give one such entry:

adb tcpip <port>             - restarts the adbd daemon listening on TCP on the specified port

Until you restart ADB in TCP/IP mode you're safe from said network attacks (there would be no port opened by ADB to allow access to your device until restarted with aforesaid command).

For surety you can use an app like OS Monitor to see if there are any open ports on your device while running ADB over USB only.

You can enable USB debugging safely. However, other attacks like pushing malicious files or installing APKs et al would definitely work on ADB over USB, so be cautious while handing phones to others.


how can I have my you tube music playlists available to play on my galaxy xcover even when I have no Internet connection? Can I have a play list transfered from my you tube account on to my actual phone to use when I have no Internet connection?  What do I have to do? - im a tech no spaz!-please help me thanks

There is no possibility of using youtube without an internet connection.
Youtube doesn't even allow you to play music and such wil the screen is off.

You would need to have a playlist on your phone in order to play a bunch of songs.


How to prevent an app from being uninstalled? Is there any permission or method to prevent an app from being uninstalled even after factory reset like system app that does not get uninstalled?

You will have to root your device and move the app using any application to the system folder. This will enable your app to be on device even after you have formatted your device.

Here is the link of application which provides this administrative feature:

/system/app mover ★ ROOT ★

This app moves apps from and to the /system/app folder, making them a system app or a user app. System apps can get more priviledges, so some apps get more functionality when installed as a system app.
On the other hand, system apps can not be uninstalled. So this app can also be used to convert system apps to normal user apps by moving them from the /system/app directory to /data/app directory.

WARNING: Uninstalling important system apps might result in a unusable device! Use this function at your own risk and only if you know what you're doing! Make a NANDroid backup first! I won't give any kind of support if something goes wrong - don't install this app if you're not okay with that.


Security implications of remote (Meterpreter) shell to device An attacker who uses an exploit for e.g. CVE 2012-6636 can use a Metasploit exploit to open a Meterpreter shell in the context of the stock Android browser.

But what are the implications of such an attack?

As far as I understand the sandbox prevents the attack from accessing contacts, the microphone, the camera or other apps. He is limited to the data of the browser and the SD card.

Even if a device is rooted, there is no way to gain root privileges from within such a shell, or is there?

So the only way to escape from the sandbox would be to tamper the app's memory and make use of another exploit, that leads to privilege escalation, right? Therefore the impact of such an attack would be very limited.

That's right. An attacker can only create a shell with this tools/exploits. But if kernel has a vulnerability like privileges escalation, he (attacker) can gain root access then. (This  only exists when kernel has a vulnerability. This is so important.)

But  maybe attacker can execute malicious code with shell/interpreter then gain root access. Something like localroot.  Exactly what you said :

  So the only way to escape from the sandbox would be to tamper the
  app's memory and make use of another exploit, that leads to privilege
  escalation, right? Therefore the impact of such an attack would be
  very limited.

your question = your anwser


Google Play Store gives error "No Connection" I have an HTC Desire HD. I am having trouble connecting to the Google Play Store. Every time I try to connect it just come up with an error "NO CONNECTION". I really want to download some apps (in particular Words With Friends). I know I am connected to the Internet; I can access my mail and Facebook, etc.

I have uninstalled Play Store and re-installed it but no luck!

How can I fix this?

Solution 1
You need to uninstall(only after force stop it & clear data and cache) Freedom app in your mobile phone if you have. There are some reports that Freedom App causes "No Connection" error.

Solution 2 -
Check your Gmail / Google account password. Have you recently changed it? If yes, then you will need to re-enter your password on your Android device to get all your Google services back. As soon as you change your Google account password, your device gets a notification to enter the new password. Do it or your Google Play Store or any other Google service will not sync or work properly.

Solution 3 -
Clear the Play Store cache. The Google Play Store app on your Android device stores some cache data on your device which could be one of the reasons why you are not able to connect to Google servers using the app and keep getting the “No connection – Retry” error message. How to fix it?

Read the quick and easy steps below:

Go to Settings > Apps.
Scroll to All apps and then scroll down to “Google Play Store” app.
Open the app details and tap on the “Force stop” button.
Then, tap on the “Clear cache” button.

That’s it. Now start the Google Play Store app on your phone / tablet and it should load and work absolutely fine!

Solution 4 -
Check the date and time of your device. Yes, this was the problem with majority of users complaining about this error message in their Google Play Store app. If your date and time are not correctly set, you will again the “No connection – Retry” error message.