Are custom ROMs really required? Are there any specific advantages of using custom ROMs? I am using a stock ROM and removed all the bloatware. I tried few tweaks in build.prop and init.d and use greenify for better RAM and battery management. Other than the custom UI is there any real advantage of custom ROMs over stock ROMs?

Well there are many advantages of using custom ROMs. Just removing bloatware from your phone doesn't make your stock ROM a custom ROM. Custom ROMs like their name, are based on "custom" code and are not based on the ROMs made by the manufacturer. There are many custom ROMs that change the base-band of your phone which in turn improves the overall signal quality. Some custom ROMs also adjust the CPU speed of your phone so that you get better battery life without impacting the battery life.

Also, custom ROMs generally give you a chance to use the newest version of Android, even before a manufacturer gives you an official release. This proves to be quite beneficial for older devices as a manufacturer tend to forget their old devices.

Just like their good points, custom ROMs have a few drawbacks too. They void warranty when you install it on your phone. Also many ROMs that are released may contain bugs too which will cause issues for the user.

Finally, it mostly comes to personal preference. Many people want that extra bit from their phone and end up installing custom ROMs whereas many are happy with how their phones are out of the box and stick with stock ROMs.

EDIT:  I went through a few more sites, it seems one can't overclock on a stock kernel(found in a stock ROM). You can only underclock on a stock ROM. But anyways my main point of the answer was not only speed. Yes most of what a custom ROM does can be done on custom ROM too but rather than spend so much making so many small tweaks it's best to install a custom ROM that already has all tweaks done out of the box.


is fully charging new phones before turning it on a must? I just got my Samsung note 5 shipped to my office. And I am wondering if I should charge it full before I turned it on

No, not at all necessary.. This is generally a misconception.
Just switch ON the phone and start using it.
The charge will already be around 75%.
You can recharge it when the charge drops below 15%.
Additional References:

Many people think that the first thing they should do with a new smartphone is plug it in and charge it to 100%. This is simply a myth. Remember, smartphone batteries work best between 40% to 80%, and since most phones ship at half capacity, you should be good to go out of the box. As a side note: If you fire up your new smartphone for the first time and the battery is below 40%, you might want to consider taking it back because that battery could be very old.
Source: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10-things/10-common-misconceptions-about-mobile-device-batteries/

Technical Background:

Why fully charge Lithium battery powered devices before first use?
For safety during transportation and storage, from the factory to the warehouse to the store, one would like the battery to be mostly discharged so that it's holding less stored energy in case of some mishap. If a forklift spears a big box of product, you'd like a minimal amount of energy released from the dead short which may be caused by crushing or puncturing cells. Probably there will be some protection built into both the cells and the product to try to prevent fire, however it's still safer to have less energy to release. Airlines in particular may have rules or laws which describe how batteries should be transported.
For purposes of maximizing lithium battery lifetime, it's better to keep them charged between 20-80% of full capacity most of the time. It's very damaging to over-discharge a battery and may render the cells useless. While any product shipping with a lithium battery should have circuitry to prevent over-discharge, it's possible the load on the battery will never quite be reduced to zero even when the product is "off" or in full shutdown, as there could still be a low-power microcontroller watching for a press of the power-on button, some tiny current powering the battery protection circuitry, etc. While this circuitry might run "indefinitely" from a full battery, if the battery is run down to empty and then the product is left in a drawer for a year it's possible the battery could get over-discharged regardless of the circuitry trying to prevent it.
One possible scenario could be that the factory charges the battery, the device goes into inventory for over a year (due to the product not selling well), the battery loses most of its charge by self-discharge and a small amount of current powering the "off"-mode circuitry e.g. microcontroller. Then if the device is turned on with this nearly-dead battery in it, the large pulse of discharge current causes the battery voltage to dip to where the undervoltage protection triggers, which may or may not turn off the current before the battery has been run below its minimum voltage for some small amount of time, like milliseconds. It probably won't destroy the cell but isn't a good idea. Especially if the user sees the product doesn't turn on and keeps hitting the power button a dozen times before deciding it must need to be charged up.
To minimize tech support phone calls, it's better to tell the user to fully charge their battery before trying to use the product, so you don't get calls about the product "not working" when the actual problem is that the battery is simply empty. It's one less variable in debugging whether the product is faulty. A product may have features that take more power than the baseline mode, and might turn on and operate properly, but then appear to fail when a higher-power feature is turned on (when in fact it's shutting down or resetting). Turning on the backlight in an otherwise simple device, or wireless transmission, loud audio, fan or motor, anything that's a large percentage of power consumption. If the battery is fully charged, it will have enough energy to power all modes, so this problem is avoided while talking to tech support.
That said, there's a lot of mythology out there regarding how batteries should be handled. The customer care person is probably not an engineer, and may be going by some mix of training, passed-around heuristic, and made-up baloney that's designed to mitigate unhappy boss or unpleasant customer rather than detect "the problem".
Source: https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/95487/why-fully-charge-lithium-battery-powered-devices-before-first-use


my phone was stolen last day and its switched off now , is there any way to get my contacts back? my phone was stolen last day and its switched off now , is there any way to get my contacts back ? There is a screen lock with numbers, can anyone access the phone without formatting the phone . If they format all the datas will be lost right? And als can I block my memmory card by an means ?

If you have your phone linked to your Google account, your contacts are, by default, saved to your Google account, and you can access them through gmail. Even better, if you get a new phone and link it to the same account, it'll have all your contacts again.
If it is linked and your phone is turned on you can find it's location through Google's Device Manager or remotely wipe your phone.

Keep in mind that if it's linked and they manage to get in somehow, they'll be able to access your Google account as well, so if you don't intend to locate the device you should unlink your device from your Google account, blocking their access to your account.

Unfortunately, if your device is not linked, or you chose to save contacts locally instead of the default location, there's no way of getting your contacts back, unless your manufacturer offers a way for it and you have enabled it. I believe HTC has something for it if you link your HTC account.


Is there a way to rollback to a stock rom without "unlocked" icon on XT910? I'm looking forward to install new CM 10.1.3 to my Razr MAXX (XT910), but I see some bug reports about this version. I want to give it a try, but - is there a way to go back to the stock ROM if I don't like it? By "go back" I mean restoring it's original state, no "unlocked" icons.

Currently I have 982.124.14.XT910.Retail.en.FR (Android 4.1.2).

The lock icon when you turn on your phone shows that the phone's bootloader is unlocked and doesn't show if it's rooted or not.

Just use the tool to you used to Root and unlock the bootloader to unroot and re-lock the bootloader it.

For info about the Razr XT910 have a look at this link

  By flashing a ROM or rooting your Razr voids Motorola Warranty Terms.
  Even if you flash the same rom your Razr came with.  3. All the
  devices are divided by regions. This means you can only flash a stock
  ROM designated for your Razr region. Common Regions are: Latam (Latim
  America 'n Canada) - Europe - Asia - PSHAsia - ME - China - Korea -
  Japan(*


I don't want my Whatsapp Media to restore (Google Drive BackUp)! I recently uninstalled and installed whatsapp on my samsung galaxy s2; and it started to restore my chats. I'm fine with my chats but after being done with the chats, it automatically started to restore the old media too, which would cause my phone to download a data of 2 gb. I want to stop it, but i cant find how to stop it. (It used to restore only messages before having the google drive backup)!!!

Thanks for any answer.

So disconnecting the whatsapp from the google drive didnt exactly work out because my chats were also in that google drive backup.

However, here is how I was successful in restoring only the chats. (No media).

Install Whatsapp and verify the number.
Make sure your Data connection is active. WIFI should be OFF.
Click on restore backup (Entire backup. Including Media).
It will restore the chats first.
Then it prompts that the media will be downloaded over Wifi. Click yes (or next) and it takes you to your profile name and then you have all your chats.
At this point, go to google drive and disconnect whatsapp from the setting- manage apps.
Connect wifi.
It would try to restore the media but it would fail.
It would ask you if you want to skip it.
Click skip.

There you go. Only chats restored. No media.


Trying to install a stock rom on a samsung captivate I recently basically bricked my phone by trying to mount the data part of the recovery file created by Nandroid (of the stock os) while CyanogenMod 10 was installed. The installation worked perfectly btw. I then downloaded the stock ROM to try to fix the phone and installed it using Odin.

After Odin says "success", I get the error on my phone after the AT&T logo. (along with other things , not errors)

Opening update package...
Verifying update package...
Installing update...
Successfully installed update...

__Copying media files...
E:failed to mount /dbdata (invalid argument)
E:copy_dbdata_media:can't mount /dbdata your storage not prepared yet, please use ui menu for format and reboot actions.
Media files copy failed

--wiping cahce
formatting /cache
cache wipe failed.
--Applying multi-CSC...
Installing multi-CSC
successfully applied multi_CSC

Please help -- I really want to get back into my OS. It would really help if I could get a link to download a complete file for Odin 1.85.

i am using I897UCKK4_I897UCKK4_I897UCKK4_HOME.tar.md5 ROM

Assuming that your phone is Captivate (from the filename I897), here's a list of stock firmware files found on sammobile. They can be used with Kies too.

Alternatively, try Check Fus, which can get the right stock firmware for your phone.

I assume you know how to flash the files, if not, let me know and I'll dig up some good links for you. Hope this helped! Don't forget to accept the answer if it did.


Booting into custom recovery with a locked bootloader I'm planning to flash a custom ROM on my device, but too lazy to take backups.. My favorite backup tool being Titanium Backup, I want root access on my device before I unlock the bootloader. But unforunately to flash the SuperSU file I need to have a custom recovery on my device as my stock recovery doesn't allow me to flash SuperSU zip. And to flash a custom recovery I need to unlock my bootloader. Can I however boot into Team Win recovery without unlocking my bootloader through this command?

fastboot boot twrp.img

This will allow me to root my device and take backups easily before I unlock my device bootloader. So is it safe for me to do so?

tl;dr

No, you can't use fastboot boot to boot into a custom recovery if the bootloader is locked (as Jerry Chin noted in a comment).

Longer Answer

Android Security Internals says in Chapter 13: System Updates and Root Access (in section Recovery, subsection Custom Recoveries):

  A custom recovery is a recovery OS build created by a third party (not
  the device manufacturer). Because it is created by a third party, a
  custom recovery is not signed with the manufacturer’s keys, and
  therefore a device’s bootloader needs to be unlocked in order to boot
  or flash it.

And in Chapter 10: Device Security (in section Controlling OS Boot-Up and Installation, subsection Bootloader):

  In order to ensure device integrity, consumer devices are shipped with
  locked bootloaders, which either disallow flashing and booting system
  images completely or allow it only for images that have been signed by the
  device manufacturer.

Thus, if you try to use fastboot boot twrp.img, the bootloader will find out that twrp.img is not signed by the manufacturer's key, and would refuse to boot into it.

And just in case we are not sure whether fastboot allows bypassing the restrictions that a locked bootloader introduce, we also have in Chapter 13: System Updates and Root Access (in section Bootloader, subsection Fastboot Mode):

  Commands that modify device partitions, such as the various flash variations, and commands that boot custom kernels, such as the boot command,
  are not allowed when the bootloader is locked.


My HTC desire C says 'type password to decrypt storage' and I can't remember my password I got a new phone and am trying to sell my old HTC desire C with beats audio. When I turn it on it says 'type password to decrypt storage' but I can't remember my password, any way I can overcome this? It has no SIM card either.

Try this:

  Power off your device and wait for 5-10 seconds until the device is
  fully switched off. Press and hold Volume Down button, then press the
  Power button to switch on your phone and release it, but keep holding
  the Volume Down button. └ This will boot your HTC Desire C into
  bootloader mode You’ll see a screen with option to boot into Recovery
  mode among several other options. Here, press Volume down once to
  navigate to RECOVERY, then press Power button to select it and boot
  into Recovery mode. └ In Bootloader and Recovery mode, use Volume
  buttons to navigate Up and Down between options and use Power button
  to select an option.

Credit: http://www.theandroidsoul.com/boot-htc-desire-c-recovery-mode-52061/

You should have an option to wipe device. Unfortunately, if you forget your password, all of your data is just gibberish.


How to remove the icon, caused by a voicemail, from Status bar? I have a Sprint Nexus 6 running Android 5.1.1.

The icon that I see in my Status bar when I receive a voicemail does not swipe away. It remains in my Status bar even after I listen to the message and delete it.

The only solution that I have found for this is to reboot the phone. Is there another way around this?

This is an app independent answer.

For cases where an icon seems to be stuck in the Status bar, choose any of the following approach:

Force-stop the app

Find the app causing that icon.

Usually, it is easy to know just by looking at the icon and matching it with app icons under Settings -> Apps -> All apps. For some exceptional cases, you can use apps like Notification Saver or Notification History or setup adb in PC and use the command:

adb shell dumpsys notification

Single out your notification and look for the package name of the app behind that icon. Read View app's full package name? to get the label for the app from the package name.

Assumption: The app causing the issue is "AppX".
Go to Settings -> Apps -> All apps -> AppX -> Force-stop.

That should remove the icon from the Status bar.

Uncheck Notifications

Find the app causing that icon.
Go to Settings -> Apps -> All apps -> AppX -> uncheck Show notifications -> check Show notifications.

Works well for user installed third-party apps.

There may be apps where  the option Force stop or/and Show notifications would be greyed out. For such apps, only the mighty root can help. Any app having root privileges should be able kill such apps, such as OS Monitor. For example, in Terminal Emulator you can kill an app using its package name and am:

su
am force-stop PACKAGE_NAME_OF_APP

Related readings:

"Show notifications" is greyed out for some apps. What's causing it and how do I change it?
I've rooted my phone.  Now what?  What do I gain from rooting?


Is there a way to get detailed information on why an OTA update fails? I'm trying to figure out why my OTA update is failing.  I have unrooted my Droid Bionic, and did a factory reset.  It starts to update, then reaches about a quarter of the way and stops.  It just reboots without the update.

I'm trying to figure out how to save off the update file in another question here.

Once I've done that, I was wondering if there is a way to get a verbose output or a text file log of what the failure was during the update.  Does anyone know if this is possible?  Is it not shown and logged so people can't figure out what the checks are for doing the OTA?

Ok, found the answer here

  When you start the update process it loads that screen with the android character and the yellow progress bar, as soon as that screen shows up press both vol up and vol down at the same time and it will switch to verbose mode where it will show each step of the install process. When it fails it will typically display a directory and apk file name.

Time to figure out what logwrapper is and why its out of date.


Gear VR + Trinus VR using a cable Hi i would like to ask you if you know about a way how to use Trinus VR with cable using gear VR . I could disable booting oculus app with Package Disabler Pro , but i'm not sure if i could pair pc and cellphone with cable since it's through gear VR . Anyone knows if it works ?

My friend has a Gear VR headset and I have wanted to do this for a while. I eventually just made it myself with google cardboard.

Dan Hulme has a good point. The gear VR does incorporate multiple other sensors the communicate with the phone. HOWEVER, the phones compatible immediately with Gear VR all have a gyroscope in them so you don't really need the extra sensors!

You should be able to use the Trinus VR app but with only the built in gyro, it might drift or lag a tad bit...

Hope this helps!


Show when roaming Ice Cream Sandwich Gingerbread showed a little R in the "signal strength bars" when roaming.

Ice cream sandwich  does not notify me when my phone is roaming (it just shows number of bars, but no R).  I want the phone to notify me when I'm roaming.

On which Phone are you using ICS?
I'am using ICS on an Galaxy S GT-I9000 (Teamhacksung Rom) and it showed me the R in the Signal Strength Bars.


Android 6.0 FTP server with external SD card write support? I have a Samsung Galaxy S5 phone with Android 6.0.1.

After upgrading to 6.0.1 (from 5.0), none of the FTP servers I've tried can write to external SD card. The only one that sort of works is FTPDroid, but it requires root to do that and doesn't work anymore since I reset my phone (and it's an outdated piece of software).

Does anyone know of a server that can do that?

Thanks


What linux distribution is Android based on? Did Google use some existing distribution (Debian, Red Hat, etc.) to create Android, or did they use the bare essentials (kernel, file system and some mandatory files)?

Android shares very little with a typical Linux distribution. In fact, this is where Richard Stallman's "GNU/Linux" distinction comes in handy — Android isn't really a Unix-like general purpose operating system with a Linux kernel. It's a new system which happens to use the Linux kernel. This goes all the way down to its own custom libc implementation (called "Bionic"), which does not necessarily attempt POSIX compliance.

This article from ZDNet covers a talk which gives a pretty good overview of the system, and although it's a couple of years old it's still basically correct and helpful.


HTTP Connection refused while connecting to a server I am using my Android device to talk to my WAMP server .

I am sending bits viahttp connection to a script on /www/ directory.

But in logcat, I am getting the following error :

~error in http connection org.apache.http.conn.HttpHostConnectException :Connection to xx.xx.xx.xx:8080  was refused ! ~

xx.xx.xx.xx is my IP address !

Help needed asap .

Thanks

Please check the following:

You can access to your server and port with your browser
Your emulator has 3G or WiFi enabled
Your emulator's browser can access to the server and port


Charge & data mode when connecting phone to PC via USB (Nougat) When I connect my phone to my PC via USB. It automatically enters charge mode.

If I want to transfer files (which is almost always what I want to do when connecting my phone to my PC), I have to select charge & data mode --> transfer files.

Always doing this when connecting my phone to my PC is slightly laborious, and I was just wondering is there a way to connect my phone to my PC & cause to autmatically default to charge & data mode?

I used to have a Moto G Gen 1 (Kitkat), which did this by default, why can't this be the case on Nougat.

The default behaviour in Marshmallow upwards is to charge and other options have to be manually selected

Being an OS behaviour, you can't modify it without rooting device. If your device is rooted, you can install this Xposed module - USB for Marshmallow

  Set MTP or PTP as Default USB Connection on Marshmallow with this app.

  Once you connect the phone to the computer and select the USB option from the notification and selected option will be retained for every reconnect your phone to computer.

  For example if you select the USB file transfer option, This app will retain that file transfer option for every reconnect your phone to computer.

It's also available on Play Store as an Xposed app

If you are on Nougat, this option may not be possible till Xposed framework is released - see Where can I find the Xposed Framework and installer for Nougat?


How can I force a website to provide its mobile page? I'm trying to access the following page using Chrome on my Galaxy S10+, but the website always returns the desktop page, even with the Desktop site check box unchecked.

Facebook's built-in browser seems to have no issue displaying the correct page.

I recently had a problem with gmail.com trying to get the desktop site to display (setting rules anđ labels requires the desktop site).  Somehow, the act of typing gmail.com into the browser does not show the desktop site but following the link from google.com works. I know this is backwards from your problem, but the presence or absence of extra data in the link or cookie can cause this behavior on certain sites. You can try deleting cookies for this site and try différent links from other sources.

I'm a web developer too and there are libraries like bootstrap that can switch to a mobile format that depends solely on the width of the page. It completely ignores the desktop checkbox and uses CSS and js to reformat the page even on a desktop computer if the window is resized. In this case, there really is no 'mobile site'. Viewing with your phone in portrait mode should work but landscape may or may not.

Facebook's browser may be a different size window, or may not be standardized to detect screen size with bootstrap, You could also have a chrome plugin that is causing an issue.
If I had to guess, I'd say that you need to delete the cookies (which will delete some login info) and try again.
Just keep in minđ that not every site responds to the checkbox in chrome. That only works if there are separate pages for mobile and desktop which is not the way that bootstrap works.

BTW, I just saw your link and tried it. I can use the checkbox on chrome on my s10e and I can switch from mobile to `desktop without issue.


How to stop the person using my stole phone what app? Since my phone been stolen..I already blocked my phone..so the new SIM card resend back..when I install at new phone.i find out my what app still been use...so what should I do now?

Sign in with your number in another phone then the other person won't use your account anymore. WhatsApp can only be used in one phone at a time


How do I load an unsigned Kernel Module to my signature enforcing Kernel? I compiled a kernel module (wacom.ko) using the proper kernel source for my device and Google toolchain. When I tried to insmod the module, an error message popped up saying

  required keys not available

I researched and found out that you need to sign the module to load it into the kernel if the latter uses signature enforcement (which in my case, it does). I assume there is no way of obtaining the private key which the kernel used originally while compiling. But it also doesn't make sense when I think about how any developer would be able to extend the kernel by writing modules if this barrier is in place.

Is there a way to disable signature enforcement of the kernel and load the module that I created? Alternatively, can I somehow sign my module and load it?

Building out-of-tree kernel modules is not usually recommended for newbies like me so that to avoid problems like vermagic mismatch:

  config MODVERSIONS
  ...
  Usually, you have to use modules compiled with your kernel. Saying Y here makes it sometimes possible to use modules compiled for different kernels, by adding enough information to the modules to (hopefully) spot any changes which would make them incompatible with the kernel you are running.

Also the warning:

  loading out-of-tree module taints kernel

Forced module loading may lead to situations like undefined symbols / references (functions / variables exported and available at /proc/kallsyms).

  I researched and found out that you need to sign the module to load it
  ...
  But it also doesn't make sense when I think about how any developer would be able to extend the kernel by writing modules if this barrier is in place.

It's the intended behavior:

  Module signing increases security by making it harder to load a malicious module into the kernel.

And that's why MODULE_SIG_FORCE is there. On PCs UEFI Secure Boot necessarily requires kernel and modules to be signed as a part of secure boot chain. Android's Verified Boot signs whole boot partition though, which then - using dm-verity - secures /system and /vendor; the partitions which may possibly include kernel's loadable modules. So signing modules doesn't seem necessary:

  Module signing isn't mandatory and isn't tested against

Quoted from Loadable Kernel Modules.

  I assume there is no way of obtaining the private key which the kernel used originally while compiling.

You are right. Public / private key pair is generated (using openssl) when building kernel. Public key is built into the kernel and can be viewed in /proc/keys or by:

~# keyctl list %:.system_keyring

If kernel was built with IKCONFIG_PROC, hash algorithm can be seen by:

~# zcat /proc/config.gz | grep MODULE_SIG_HASH

A perl script is also part of kernel source tree which can be used to sign modules:

~$ sign-file <algorithm> <priv_key_file> <pub_key_file> <module>.ko

  Is there a way to disable signature enforcement of the kernel and load the module that I created?

No.

  Alternatively, can I somehow sign my module and load it?

Ask the kernel developer to provide the same private key (if possible), otherwise only option is to rebuild whole kernel. Get configuration of running kernel from /proc/config.gz if available and required. Don't forget to unset CONFIG_MODULE_SIG or set CONFIG_MODULE_SIG_ALL.

SOURCE: Building External Modules


Possible to install unbranded android on HTC ONE? I am so sick of stone old android version HTC installed on my smartphone. While the phone is still super after several years HTC do update the Software anymore. So I d like to remove the branded garbage and install a fresh secure android on my device. Can some one point me to good docs or tell whether this is possible?

How to find device model number or version on the phone?
Where or how to find the correct image for my phone and how to install it?

It would be either very difficult or not possible at all.
Since Android is an Operating System, it is designed to fit varieties of devices, which differ in all kinds of modules that require specific drivers for themselves. Therefore if you want to create a clean Android build you must gather those drivers (and some additional configurations) to make it work properly on your device. Meanwhile, almost all 3rd-party ROMs are either manipulated from the official ones, or have extra configurations pre-applied, which both don't meet your requirement.


change UI dynamically according to location I want to know how in Uber app, type of cab availability options are changed dynamically according to user's location? e.g. 'airport to city' option in airport location.

Create the usual splash screen as specified in the below tutorial then you can do a background process which checks on the location then change the imageView dynamically.[http://www.androidhive.info/2013/07/how-to-implement-android-splash-screen-2/]


Dial a conference number and then automatically enter the participant code I am frequently joining conference calls (WebEx, GotoMeeting, etc) from my cell phone as I work remote occasionally. These calls usually have a static session number as they are recurring calls. Is there an application or a way to enter the number in the standard dialer to auto-enter the attendee / participant code?

Go to contacts and edit the number. Add a 'comma' for a 2-3 second soft pause, add a 'semicolon' for a hard pause. Example,press 1 for English and enter extension and wait 4 seconds toconnect looks like this: ( 555-555-5555,,1;12345,,)


Random App Crashes (Nexus 4 ~ 4.3) Within the last few days my Nexus 4 has started behaving strangely. This is a completely stock Nexus 4 running the official 4.3 build. Not even bootloader unlocked.

What happens is that random apps will begin crashing, usually Google apps like Gmail, Settings, etc. If I try to report the crash, the crash reporter also crashes. I plugged the phone in to check the logcat and all of the error messages are the same:

FATAL EXCEPTION: main E/AndroidRuntime(31480):
java.lang.IllegalStateException: Could not create an EGL context.
eglCreateContext failed with error: EGL_SUCCESS
E/AndroidRuntime(31480):    at android.view.HardwareRenderer$GlRenderer.createContext(HardwareRenderer.java:1192)
E/AndroidRuntime(31480):    at android.view.HardwareRenderer$GlRenderer.initializeEgl(HardwareRenderer.java:1044)
E/AndroidRuntime(31480):    at android.view.HardwareRenderer$GlRenderer.initialize(HardwareRenderer.java:979)
E/AndroidRuntime(31480):    at android.view.ViewRootImpl.performTraversals(ViewRootImpl.java:1536)
E/AndroidRuntime(31480):    at android.view.ViewRootImpl.doTraversal(ViewRootImpl.java:1004)
E/AndroidRuntime(31480):    at android.view.ViewRootImpl$TraversalRunnable.run(ViewRootImpl.java:5481)
E/AndroidRuntime(31480):    at android.view.Choreographer$CallbackRecord.run(Choreographer.java:749)
E/AndroidRuntime(31480):    at android.view.Choreographer.doCallbacks(Choreographer.java:562)
E/AndroidRuntime(31480):    at android.view.Choreographer.doFrame(Choreographer.java:532)
E/AndroidRuntime(31480):    at android.view.Choreographer$FrameDisplayEventReceiver.run(Choreographer.java:735)
E/AndroidRuntime(31480):    at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java:730)
E/AndroidRuntime(31480):    at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:92)
E/AndroidRuntime(31480):    at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:137)
E/AndroidRuntime(31480):    at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5103)
E/AndroidRuntime(31480):    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
E/AndroidRuntime(31480):    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:525)
E/AndroidRuntime(31480):    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:737)
E/AndroidRuntime(31480):    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:553)
E/AndroidRuntime(31480):    at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)

Rebooting the phone temporarily solves the problem. Does anybody have any ideas? Thanks

Try to disable "Automatic date & time" and "Automatic time zone".  This solved my issue like this on Nexus 7 and could very well help you out here.


Where are the download images for Android? I'm attempting to update my older Samsung 10.1 to a newer version of Android (7.1) which has been confirmed on a few sites that it's working.
However, the only download links I've found are on sites I'm not so sure I trust to download Android.  I want to get it directly from Google/Android.
Does anyone know how to get the OS APKs?

It seems like for Samsung devices the image download servers are available but there is no user interface to select an image for download. According to XDA blog there is a new Python based command-line tool that allows to search and download Samsung factory images:
https://github.com/nlscc/samloader
As the download information and the firmware images are original downloads from Samsung servers they can be considered trustworthy.
The original article from XDA:
https://www.xda-developers.com/samloader-download-updates-samsung-galaxy/


Battery-tracking app I have a Galaxy SIII on Jellybean that's about a year old. I've never had any battery issues with it. The last three days, it's been at 80% when I go to bed at night, and completely dead in the morning. Once it's charged (and it does appear to charge fully), it's fine all day, so there has to be some app that's hijacking it and running down the battery during the night. To the best of my recollection I have not installed anything new recently. I have GPS and wireless turned off by default.

Are there any apps out there that would produce a report of what apps are running at a given time (i.e. that I can look at after the fact; not something that shows me what's running now) and how much battery life they used?

Wakelock detector should show you if there is one (or more) apps keeping your phone awake overnight.

You could also (if you're rooted) try BetterBatteryStats. It's a paid app but it can be found on XDA if you want to try it out (The thread was started by the author). I've included their message on why they make it available free on XDA below.

  BetterBatteryStats is available on the Android market for what I
  believe is a fair price. If you like my work and want to support me
  please fell free to show your gratitude by buying the app.


Nexus 5 recovery issue On my Nexus 5 phone, WIFI and Bluetooth services stopped working all of a sudden. I recently got an update for 5.1 version, but could not update as some system files got corrupted. I tried a factory data reset but the issue still persists. Now I am trying to flash 5.01 OS and it is failing. Below is the log I have. Can anyone please suggest a solution to get my nexus back into working?

target reported max download size of 1073741824 bytes
sending 'bootloader' (3807 KB)...
OKAY [  0.363s]
writing 'bootloader'...
FAILED (remote: invalid bootloader image)
finished. total time: 0.543s
rebooting into bootloader...
OKAY [  0.098s]
finished. total time: 0.098s
target reported max download size of 1073741824 bytes
sending 'radio' (67169 KB)...
OKAY [  2.907s]
writing 'radio'...
FAILED (remote: size too large)
finished. total time: 3.088s
rebooting into bootloader...
OKAY [  0.097s]
finished. total time: 0.098s
archive does not contain 'boot.sig'
archive does not contain 'recovery.sig'
failed to allocate 1679613116 bytes
error: update package missing system.img
Press any key to exit...

. With the backup secured, just access Reboot your Nexus 5 device into Bootloader mode. To do that, hold the Volume Down and Up buttons to power on the device. Once your device is in bootloader mode, use the Volume keys to go through the series of options available on the screen. Now you would want to tap the Recovery Mode to enter with the Power button.


Sync iTunes U and Android? I am a huge fan of the podcasts on iTunes, as well as the iTunes U material. However, I'm having a terrible time finding a slick system to sync the two. Doubleplay never really worked all that great for me. Any other good solutions anyone has used?

I have a Droid Incredible running 2.2.

These guys recommend iSyncr as a solution. Cons: It's not free, and it won't sync copy-protected content.


If an app is written for Android 2.3 will it run on 2.1? If an app is written for Android 2.3 will it run on 2.1?

It depends.  If an application uses features present in Android 2.3, then it will not work on 2.2 or lower.  If it only uses features present in older versions, then it will work on those older versions.

For example, an app written for 2.1 (i.e., an app that only uses features from 2.1 or lower) will work on 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.0, and 3.1 (and any future versions, unless Google changes how things work).


Is NFC required for reading RFID? Can we read RFID like QR-bar code without NFC in Android? I am confused because we can read QR-Barcode with simple apps like Bar Code Scanner. After searching 2-3 hours I found NFC with every detail where RFID is defined.

So I have to consider that it is impossible to read RFID without NFC.

Can you read RFID without NFC? No you cannot.

Can you read QR-Code without a camera?

You need the right hardware to read codes. For reading QR-code you need an image of the QR-Code therefore a camera. Without a camera you cannot read QR-Code.

To read RFID you need hardware to read the code. The hardware needed is NFC, so without NFC you cannot read RFID.


Set Battery Saver Always On On Android 6, the battery saver automatically turns on when the battery is low and off after charging. I would like it remain on all constantly without having to manually turn it back on. How can I do this?

If you're using an unrooted Android, you can consider using BatterySaver Lollipop Shortcut with Tasker (userguide), AutoShortcut and Nova Launcher.

Fire up Tasker and follow these instructions:

Profile: Event → System → Intent Received:

Action: android.os.action.POWER_SAVE_MODE_CHANGING
Priority: Highest

Task: (Actions):

Task → If → Condition: %mode eq false
Task → Wait → Seconds: 1
Optional: Alert → Flash → Enabling Battery Saver
Plugin → AutoShortcut:

Configuration: Activities (next to Nova launcher's icon) → tap Battery Saver entry and select the entry listing the activity com.fd.batterysaver.ToggleActivity

Profile: State → Power → Power:

Source: Any
tick Invert

Task: (Actions):

Optional: Alert → Flash → Enabling Battery Saver
Plugin → AutoShortcut →

Configuration: Activities (next to Nova launcher's icon) → tap Battery Saver entry and select the entry listing the activity com.fd.batterysaver.ToggleActivity

You can use QuickShortcutMaker in place of Nova Launcher. However, I noticed that when Nova Launcher was not set as default launcher in my stock Android 6.0.1, although Settings app reported Battery Saver mode being enabled, I didn't get to see red shade in status bar and navigation bar. You may have to do some experiments here.

If you've root access, instead of using a shortcut to that battery saver app, you can setup the action Code → Run Shell and enter the following in the command field:

settings put global low_power 1

Make sure to tick Use Root in that action. (I came to know about this trick from this answer of Paweł Zmarzły.)

Whether the Android is rooted or not, the pro version of Battery Saver Lollipop claims to provide support for automation. It might be helpful considering that the free version causes few glitches during toggle. I cannot confirm though.

Information about said Tasker profiles

Alright, so the first profile would make sure that as long as the device is not plugged in to any power source, whenever you would disable Batter Saver mode, whether accidentally or deliberately, the mode would automatically be turned on!

The second profile would make sure that Battery Saver mode gets turned on whenever the device is unplugged from  a power source.


Which arm type should I'll choose? I'm trying to install a framework of xposed here  but I'm not sure which "arm" should I choose?

My phone is lollipop 5.1 with SDK 22 but I'm not sure about its "arm" it says in an android info app its:

CPU Architecture: ARMv7 Processor rev 5 (v7I)

Instruction Sets:  armeabi-v7a

Kernel Architecture: armv71

ARM v7 is 32-bit, ARM v8 introduced the 64-bit instruction set.


Force an app to full-screen mode Is it possible to force an app into full-screen mode so all the soft-keys will disappear and the app will take up the entire screen areas?

i hope your device is rooted to do so, you can disable them quite easily.

Open the File Manager App, then tap the Menu button (capacitative or onscreen), and tap Settings.
Go to General Settings, scroll down to and tap Access Mode
Switch to either "Prompt User Mode" or "Root Access Mode"
Then
Open the sec_touchkey.kl file in ./system/usr/keylayout/

Put a # symbol before the both the following lines:

key 139 MENU VIRTUAL
key 158 BACK VIRTUAL

Close, saving changes
Reboot

OR else if you dont want to root then go and download apps similar to https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gmd.immersive&hl=en


cannot access phone directories using adb shell after upgrading to android 11 I recently upgraded to android 11. Ever since I did that I cannot adb shell into any of the directories inside the /mnt directory:
adb shell
taimen:/ $ cd mnt
taimen:/mnt $ ls
androidwritable  appfuse  asec  expand  installer  media_rw  obb  pass_through  product  runtime  sdcard  secure  user  vendor
taimen:/mnt $ cd sdcard
/system/bin/sh: cd: /mnt/sdcard: Permission denied

What do I do to regain my access?

On Android 11 sdcard path seem to have changed. The path /mnt/sdcard still exists but via adb you don't the permissions to access this path.
But there are alternatives. On the an emulator running Android 11 I can see for example path /sdcard. This path however is a soft link to /storage/self/primary which again is a soft-link to /storage/emulated/0.
Hence you have the following alternatives:

/sdcard
/storage/self/primary
/storage/emulated/0


Why does HTC Incredible not update? My HTC Incredible (Verizon) has tried to update to either Ice Cream Sandwich (android 4.0.x) or just build # 4.x (I'm not sure which) for the past two weeks or so.  Either way, it has not been succesful.

Sometimes I'll get a notification telling me that the update has been downloaded, and asks me whether I wan't to reboot to install.  I tried that a bunch of times, but neither time did it even shut down after the ten second delay/grace period.  Once I tried going to Settings > About Phone > System updates, and downloaded the update and tried to install, but the same thing happened: ten second countdown, then nothing.

Now, the notification never pops up, and Settings > About Phone > System updates indicates that no new updates are out.  What's happening?

Thanks!

If you have installed a custom recovery (Clockwork or other) you won't be able to install the OTA update. You have to be stock ROM, with stock recovery in order to install OTA updates.

I am assuming that you have rooted and installed a custom recovery since you listed rom-manager as a tag.

If you want the update you will first have to get back to stock recovery and rom. Your best bet at this point is to install a custom ROM that was built from the latest update. That should stop Verizon pushing the update to your device.


Android Market on Google TV not working after update to Google Play I have both a Sony and a Logitech device. Yesterday I opened the Market from my Google TV and it immediately began updating it to Google Play. It looked like was not updating for very long time but was showing me the "Updating" message so I though it may take time and left both devices on overnight. When I checked in the morning I think it was installed incorrectly on BOTH devices

So now when I open the Market on either device it shows me this:

When I try searching for something in the provided text box it shows this page:

I am not able to use the Market at all now. I tried to uninstall it but was unable to do so.

How can I fix this issue?

"Doesn't work outside US currently. We are working on getting a fix out." ...

told me Les Vogel who is the Staff Developer Programs Engineer - GoogleTV

So i think we will have to wait.


Can't update or uninstall built-in Whatsapp I have an iBall Slide 3G 7334i tab which has a built-in Whatsapp v.2.9.5196 which has provision to Force Stop and Disable but not Uninstall. I can't either uninstall or update and the message:

  "Your phone date is inaccurate.Adjust your clock and try again"

keeps on coming.

I have searched all over and I can't get the remedy.

You have to uninstall and reinstall latest version of WhatsApp. It will fix your issue.
Since your phone have built-in WhatsApp Application(system app) you can't normally uninstall your App.

Try to uninstall using Debloater which helps to remove a built-in App without root.

After uninstalling try to install a latest version of WhatsApp APK file from here

Source


Where is Google's internal account authentication token located? I'm trying to write a Tasker script for my (rooted) phone that uses the same Google credentials that are being used on my device (for Gmail, Drive, etc.).

Where can I find Google's OAuth (or other) authentication tokens on my device?

I checked inside /data/data/com.google.android.gms/databases but couldn't find anything I could recognize as an authentication token.

The authentication token for Google accounts and of other accounts which uses AccountManager class are stored inside:

/data/system/users/0/accounts.db   # for Android Marshmallow and earlier
/data/system_ce/0/accounts_ce.db   # for Android Nougat and above.

0 implies primary user of the device. If you have secondary user accounts, replace 0 with the user id of that account. To find out the user id follow my answer here.

Note that access to that database requires root access.


Does deleting a Google account also remove his/her installed apps? I have the HTC Wildfire S. My friend gave it to me and it already has a Google account on it. Now she forget the password. I was just wondering, if I delete the account, will it delete all apps that she already put on the phone? If I don't want to get them deleted, is there another option?

It will not delete the apps but unless you actually want the apps, I would recommend making a different Google account for your own security and your friends' security.Once you remove the email address, you will lose all progress or saved data on those apps though. So as long as you do not care about the saved data with that Google account, you should be fine.


Docking Asus Transformer Prime back-to-front? Is it possible to dock the tablet in a sort of "back-to-front" way such that if I were to close the tablet whilst docked, the front screen would be facing up?

No, the tablet only fits into the Transfomer keyboard/dock one way, with the screen closed against the keyboard when folded shut.


Is there a way to have Adobe Flash displayed in Android 2.0? Are there any custom players or plug-ins or something like that?

I have seen a few "Flash Lite" binaries floating around the net for Android 2.0.

It's not Flash, it's only a partial version with fewer features.

Unfortunately the only binary link I have is an update for the Pandigital Novel; the update is probably specifically for that model, but the binary inside may work on other devices. (If you want it, comment & I'll update my answer. It's hosted on mediafire, not adobe's website which means I'm not sure how much I trust it.)


Android 2.2 - How to see applications that run at start-up Possible Duplicate:
  How can I prevent applications from running on startup?

Hello!

Is it possible to see which applications are set to run at startup?
For example, the idiots at Yahoo made the Android Messenger so that it starts on Android Start-up, but provide no way of preventing this behaviour. They always do this kind of dirty tricks...

Anyway, is there sort of an msconfig as in Windows?

Thank you.

I don't know of a free solution, though there may be one.

I do know of Autostarts, currently just under 1 USD, a pretty good price in my opinion. It gives you a list of applications that have attached themselves to different events in the Android OS (I'm not an Android programmer, my wording is likely wrong there). You can then choose to disable that association without actually removing or disabling the application. For your Yahoo startup example -- With Autostarts you can prevent it from launching on startup, but it will still be accessible for you to launch at your leisure later on.

Forgot to mention - this does require root. A bit of searching seems to confirm that there is no way to disable startup apps without root - your only option in that case would be uninstalling them.

I also stumbled on a manual process that I've never personally tried -- You can do what Autostarts does by issuing some shell commands (ADB or Terminal Emulator app).

su pm disable <package name>/<package name>.<activity name>

I believe that would translate to something like:

su pm disable com.yahoo.mobile.client.android.im/com.yahoo.mobile.client.android.im.android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED

But I've never tried this myself.


Can I recover my phone after system wiping in TWRP? Sorry for my English it is not so good.

I've done something stupid. I've wiped my system in TWRP mode.
So I've tried to reboot but it stucks on boot screen.          I think that my whole operating system is lost.
So I want to ask if there is a chance to recover my phone. Thanks in advance.

Phone model: HTC M7 running Android 4.4.4
Note : My phone can not connect to pc.

Conditions for flashing RUU

Bootloader LOCKED or RELOCKED when S-ON (This condition can be ignored when S-OFF)
RUU Software version must be EQUAL or HIGHER than  the device version (This condition can be ignored when S-OFF)
MID match of RUU and the device (This condition can be ignored when S-OFF and SuperCID)
CID match of RUU and device (This condition can be ignored when S-OFF and SuperCID)
HTC Sync Manager drivers installed (You may install Sync Manager to obtain the drivers and then remove Sync Manager again, because its an extremely annoying, stupid software, that interferes with the RUU.exe and breaks the update process – the drivers install separately from the package and will stay when you remove Sync Manager – you only need those drivers).

Prerequisites

Download RUU form here or here
Download HTC Sync Manager from here
Boot in bootloader then connect the USB cable, you should see FASTBOOT USB
Open a terminal and tape fastboot reboot RUU, the device should reboot in RUU mode (Dark screen)
Double click the RUU downloaded previously and wait the end of the process.

PS: First, relock the bootloader otherwise the flashing won't succeed:
Boot in Fastboot mode then tape fastboot oem lock


Recovering Twitter Account Created on Android Device? A friend of mine has created a Twitter account on their phone but now can not remember any of the details they used. They remain logged in on their phone but I've had a look through the app but it doesn't seem to mention anything useful.

Have I missed something? I have a adb backup (and the password) to look through if that helps.

Take a backup of the same Twitter client on your phone, with a known handle and email, and then search the resulting files (or backup image) for the know handle and email.  Then look in the same place on the original image/files.


I'm looking for a way to work offline with Google Tasks Is it possible to work offline with Google Tasks and then sync it back when online? My connection is not stable over here.

Please share if you know how to. Thank you!

GTasks allows you to work with you task list offline on your phone and then sync when you have internet as do most task managers that sync with Google Tasks.  I've never tried any of the others but I can say from experience that GTasks works well.


Android USB "Disk Drive" disappeared on HTC EVO V 4G (Virgin Mobile) I'm not sure if it's a result of the recent upgrade to ICS 4.0.3, but when I connect my USB cable to my Mac, I no longer see the "Disk Drive" option on the Android. My only choices are:

Charge only
HTC Sync
Media sync

Is something broken? How can I transfer non-media files?

I installed the HTC Sync app, but the "Files" menu option is disabled.

(Yes, I have rebooted both the phone and the Mac and have tried different USB cables.)

When connecting to a Mac, it's no longer a direct option, but there's an easy workaround.

From the Mac, download, install and start this app:

http://www.android.com/filetransfer/

The Mac app will prompt you to connect your Android.
Plug the Android into a USB port.
On the Android, select “Media sync” mode.
On the Mac, the file transfer app will show a window with file/folder selections.
On the Mac, open a Finder window, then drag and drop files back and forth between Finder and the Android File Transfer app.

Unlike the old “Disk drive” option, the Android File Transfer app does not provide access via a mounted volume.


Nokia 8 touchscreen issues It's a brand new Nokia 8, running Android Oreo 8.

When the phone is lying down on the table, the touchscreen becomes somewhat unresponsive. The effect is increased when it's plugged in for charging.

If I touch the screen, the touch does not register on the correct point, or if I draw a line, it breaks off into multiple dots or dashes. On picking the phone up, the issue sort of disappears.

I don't remember the brand name of the tempered glass screen guard I have, but I think it's of good quality, and do not believe it's an issue.

Some users on Nokia support have said they don't have any screen guards installed, and yet they have the touchscreen issue. I see that many users on XDA have the same issue as well.

I contacted Nokia support via the built-in app, and their response is that I should bring it to a service center for a close examination. I will do so later.

I'm keeping this question here for posterity. Maybe somebody will know what's going on.

Blame electrostatic charge for the fault.

The touchscreen in modern phones and tablets is capacitive. When you put your finger on it, your finger and part of the screen forms a capcitor, which allows the touchscreen to determine its position and size by examining its physical indications.

When there is unwanted electrostatic charge, either from another charge source like a metal furniture, or from a badly grounded charger, it can mess up the detection of capacitor of the screen, making it into thinking you're tapping every where. This is the cause for the strange behavior you see.

The solution is to keep your phone away from electrostatic charge, or release it if you happen to see the misbehavior. Releasing charge can be as simple as touching something metal and well-grounded, or touch your phone while you are well-grounded.


Make system app remain uninstalled/disabled permanently I already know that I can uninstall an android system app using adb pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.package.name, which is quite useful but not enough.
There are some system apps that I have to continuously uninstall and reinstall for several reasons, and connecting my smartphone to the pc every time is something I would gladly avoid.
Is there any method (possibly apart from rooting my device) to prevent a disabled/uninstalled system app from being reinstalled?
Thanks in advance

EDIT:
As suggested by @Robert:

Model name: Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro
Android version: 10 (Q)
MIUI version: 12.0.4
Package name: com.google.android.youtube (mainly)

There is no such option. The solution is customer specific. On some phones the app stays disabled, on others it gets reactivated, because the OS decides its necessary. Its possible that some setting or some other app makes the disabled one necessary, which leads to its re-activation.


Massive battery drain after factory restore I've been struggling the last couple of days figuring out a way to solve my mass battery drain issues on my android phone (Samsung Trend Android v 4.2.2). Since my time for finding a solution was running out (I used diagnostics tools to check wakeloks, battery usage and such, trying to turn off location services, etc. i mean i did try stuff) I decided to go with a full factory restoration.

Now the thing is I did this while specifying NOT to sync previous settings nor downloading my apps from my google accounts...I just wanted to see how it would behave "clean".

Seems like web browsing hasn't drained my battery (which it used to) but youtube persists on killing my style and decides to suck off my battery's soul after just a couple of videos (while fully charged).

I looked online and did search through out the forums but coudn't find a clue about this....anyone? help? please? lol.

How old is the phone? It sounds like the battery is getting on in age, which typically leads to rapid battery life loss under heavy load.
Greenify helped me squeeze extra battery life out of my phone, it may help you too. Keep doing tests on how quickly is loses charge in different apps. Try using MX Player or your web browser to play the youtube video instead of the youtube app. The only other suggestion I have for increasing battery life would be switching to a custom ROM more suited for battery life preservation. Anything else either consider replacing the battery, or getting a 2nd external backup battery/case


Drunk galaxy j7+ storage Well my situation doesn't seems good, my phone is kinda drunk, 32 GB of storage and having 500 mb only, in fact when I delete a 60mb file I free up 1.69 gb
BTW  it says 21.8 GB taken by apps
Answers?

I'm going to assume you are referring to Internal Storage and not the SD Card, in which case it would be good to wipe all of it. More specifically, a reset of your Android. Before you do this, you're probably going to want to back up important files to a computer or upload them to an online drive.

Here's a link to a guide that will help you reset (skip to step 3): https://www.wikihow.tech/Erase-Internal-Storage-on-Android

Alternatively, if you're not willing to reset, then it may be preferable to delete every single one of your apps until you're at a point where you have lots of space. My Android is also really silly when it comes to evaluating remaining space: I check the settings and go to storage and it tells me I have 500 MB left, yet when I connect it to my computer it says I have 0 bytes of free space in internal storage.

It could also be a problem with the drive itself (a physical hardware issue) in which case the only solution is buying a new phone unless you're willing to go through the trouble of changing that one part (the drive). My advice to you: clear up the apps, the photos, the videos etc. until the storage can reorient itself. Just do a general cleanup, and then it should do a better job of telling you how much space is left.


Restoring static boot logo and animation from ClockWorkMod backup for: Android Huawei Ideos X3 (U8510) I have a rooted (and unlocked) Huawei Ideos X3 (U8510). I have complete backups of the stock ROM using ClockWordMod installed to the sdcard.

Then I started playing with different ROMs on the internet. At some point I also flashed the device with another GENERIC Stock ROM for this device. At this point, the generic Stock ROM permanently changed my static boot logo and the boot animation. Originally it was a static Huawei logo with Vodafone animation (Red Vodafone logo). That was replaced by the static Huawei logo AND Huawei generic boot animation. This is the problem as:

I need to replace with the original static boot logo and boot animation in the event of a warranty claim.
I need the assurance that recovering to the stock ROM backup will restore everything to the way it was except the bootlogo and boot animation.

Now if I revert to the stock ROM from the backup (via ClockWorkMod recovery), everything from the backup is restored EXCEPT for the static boot logo and the boot animation sequence.

Things I have tried:

From the installed terminal, as su: I tried copying the recovery.img from the backup to the root of the sdcard. Then as su, I executed the following command:

flash_image recovery /sdcard/recovery.img

The above command worked. I rebooted into recovery. Then I rebooted again but still am seeing the generic static Huawei boot logo and boot animation.

I can see the following files from my stock rom backup:

.android_secure.vfat.tar
boot.img
cache.yaffs2.img
data.yaffs2.img
nandroid.md5
recovery.img   ---> This is the file I copied to the root of the sdcard.
system.yaffs2.img

I have also tried asking in other forums to get the copy of the boot animation from the stock ROM with no success.

Questions:

Do I have the original boot logo and boot animation from stock rom backup (above file list)?
If so, is there a way to recover it? If not: is there a known source to get the original boot animation?

Thanks in advance for your help.

OK: After some more reading, it looks like ClockWorkMod did not back up the /cust partition ie: /proc/mtdblock7 in which the vodafone logo and boot animation was stored. When I flashed my device with a generic Stock ROM that overwrote the /cust partition permanently. When I flashed my recovery.img, it only restored the recovery partition (which was the CWM Recovery image after rooting).

The only way I can now get back the stock voda animation is backup the partition (via dd maybe) from another device to an sd card and flash back to my device partition from the sd card.

Moral of the story: Backup all partitions (via ROMDump or dd) and not just rely on ClockWorkMod backup which ignores these partitions.

I arrived at this conclusion by checking my logs from the saved data partition (after rooting) when I saw this file in: /data/load_oemlogo.txt which references /cust/vha/au/logo/oemlogo.mbn

load_oemlogo begin
command_line_is: console=ttyDCC0 androidboot.hardware=huawei
androidboot.localproppath=vha/au androidboot.network=umts
androidboot.swtype=normal androidboot.mode=boot mem.size=256M
ret_str = vha/au androidboot.network=umts androidboot.swtype=normal
androidboot.mode=boot mem.size=256M

custom len = 6
custom : vha/au
logo path /cust/vha/au/logo/oemlogo.mbn!
stat file error!
load_oemlogo end

Update: Yes I can confirm that the /cust and /userdata2 partition are not backed up by CWM backup and restore.

I quote from translated version (german) from here: http://66.163.168.225/babelfish/translate_url_content?.intl=us&lp=de_en&trurl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.android-hilfe.de%2froot-hacking-modding-fuer-huawei-ideos-x3%2f203731-how-flash-partitionen-von-supertoast-anpassen.html

Completely importantly! Make always only times with CWM a Backup.

backup_partitons.

zip load down and in the CWM over “Install zip from sd-card” would drive out.

The two partitions are cust and userdata2 secured, which does not make the standard Backup of CWM.

Afterwards cust_backup.tar and userdata2_backup.tar should be to the SDCard the two files.

Now would drive the file out install_new_partition_layout.zip.
A new boat and Recovery image are installed, because in both the new Kernel COMMAND LINE must be contained.

Auserdem becomes still the volume demon (/system/bin/vold) and its configuration file /system/etc/vold.fstab it then a few volumes to mounten gives less replaced there.

Now one bootet by means of advanced->Reboot Recovery into the again installed CWM.

There one re-establishes over backup and restore - > advanced restore - > Restore DATA the data partition from the previous Backup.

EDIT: More info and updates.


How to export phone usage time data to json/csv/sql/txt raw form? There are many apps like Google's Digital Wellbeing and another famous app called Action Dash.
These apps show your data about how many times the phone unlocked, per-app usage stats, no of times an app launched, no of notification etc.
How can I get all these data in raw format from my android phone?
I basically want to use python to perform some analysis on these data.

There are some apps in the play store that let you see more.

App Usage - Manage/Track Usage This app lets you export the data.
Action Dash This has a great amount of data that is being analyzed in the app. (This makes me think that the data is stored somewhere).

Take a look at the folders and files in "/data/data/com.google.android.apps.wellbeing" you may find something useful files there. There are some files there that look promising. You will need to be rooted to access this folder.


Moto G2 (Titan): "fastboot flash recovery" won't work. my Basic Plan, is to install the latest Version of LineageOS 14.01 via TWRP 2.8.0.1. This failed with an error "unknown command [log]". Next Idea: update TWRP to latest Version 3.1 and try again. So i tried to Flash the Recovery Partition via: "fastboot flash recovery twrp-version-titan.img" (during the Process i tried different Versions like 2.8.6 and 3.1) and fastboot responded:

    target reported max download size of 536870912 bytes
    sending 'recovery' (8724 KB)...
    OKAY [  0.296s]
    writing 'recovery'...
    OKAY [  0.204s]
    finished. total time: 0.500s

The messages on the Display seem to be ok (no error Messages) and I try to boot in Recovery Mode by choosing "Recovery" in Fastboot Mode. This works, except, that the installed Version stays the old TWRP 2.8.0.1 (I installed it some years ago).
So i tried to boot TRWP directly via: "fastboot -c "lge.kcal=0|0|0|x" boot Downloads/twrp-3.1.0-0-titan.img", (worked) and install a new Version from SD Card. This failed, because TWRP couldn't mount anything.

During the whole Progress of try and error I messed something really up, because it won't even boot Android anymore. Flashing a stock Rom failed too.

Has anybody an idea, how to "force" an recovery update?

Sidenotes:

i'm working a mac
Android Studio is installed and updated incl. SDK Tools
i googled a lot
sorry for my english

Check the below link. This might help you.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/zuk-z1/development/win-zuk-z1-toolkit-0-1-alpha-t3235964

Though the solution mentioned is for Lenovo Zuk Z1 mobile phone. The process of doing it might help you solve your problem.


Status/Notification bar can't be accessed while inside full screen apps (GS4 - i9505 CM 12.1 Lollipop 5.1.1) When I'm running a game or playing a video on full-screen it's simply impossible to push down the status bar. So I have to close the APP whenever I want to see the time, battery percentage or answer a notification. AM I the only one having this problem? Does someone know anything on how to solve it?

Once nobody was able to help me, I decided to share the answer I got by myself. I was bored and had nothing to do so I started going here and there trhough the conf. menu and I found out an option to solve it. It's under Developer options. There's an option enabled called Block touch gesture events  or something like this. You should just disable it then you're able to pull down the status bar over the full screen apps. Hope it helps someone. Thanks anyway.


Moving apps to adoptable storage In Resurrection Remix nugget rom i am not able to move some apps to adoptable storage . why ? Any solutions ?

Guess what i found the solution.
Titanium backup pro lets you move the apps to adoptable storage of apps which system doesn't give option to .


Get software information My samsung j7 prime phone has received an update from July 2019. I would like to know the previous firmware version (February era) to install that previous version, or if there is any way to return to the previous update?

Note: both have the same version of android 8.1.0.

It is possible to get the full list of updates that has ever been released for your device but you simply cannot downgrade your device without formatting your phone.

If you still want to proceed with the downgrade, I strictly recommend you to backup all of your data, contacts, important personal informations, pictures etc. to a safe place like your PC

Once you proceed, there is no turning back and all of your data would be lost forever.

You can get the full list of updates that has ever been released for your device by typing in your exact Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime model in the search box of https://samfrew.com/all/.

This step is very important, make sure you select the correct model for your device. Selecting the wrong model would result in bricking your device and rendering it unusable without getting help from professional services.

You can find your exact model on the phone's original box or by using "Settings". First on your phone, go to "Settings" --> "About Phone" --> "Model Number"

Note: If your phone model has a "/DS" behind it, you can safely ignore it.

Example: SM-G610F/DS

You would search your model without the "/DS" like this "SM-G610F" in the search box.

In this case, my J7 Prime's exact model is "SM-G610F/DS". So, I would type in "SM-G610F" as the model in the search box and proceed with selecting the country and the choice of firmware that you would like to download that is around February 2019.

Once you've download the firmware file, you should have a file like this "xxxxx.zip" where xxxxx is your firmware file name.

For example I want to download J7 Prime firmware for my country Malaysia (XME) and I want the latest firmware. So my firmware file name is "XME-G610FDXU1CRL2-20190108182010.zip"

After completing all those steps, continue with the following:

Step 1:

Download Odin 3 from here https://samsungodin.com/download/Odin3_v3.13.1.zip
Download Samsung USB Drivers from here https://samsungusbdriver.com/download/samsung-driver-v1-7-11-0
Odin 3 is a flash tool that will install the firmware file to your phone
Samsung USB Drivers are used to detect a Samsung device that is in "Download Mode"

Step 2:

Use your original Samsung USB cable that came along with your original box like the image above

Step 3:
Unzip the Samsung USB Drivers file and install the driver. Follow all of the instructions in the driver installation wizard.

Step 4:
Unzip your firmware file (the xxxxx.zip file) and you will get a file with xxxxx.tar.gz, xxxxx.tar.md5 or xxxxx.tgz

Step 5:

Unzip Odin 3.13.1 zip and open up the application. Once inside, tick the box beside "AP" like the image above.

Step 6:
Press "AP" and select where your firmware file is located (the xxxxx.tar.gz, xxxxx.tar.md5 or xxxxx.tgz file)

Step 7:

Boot your phone into download mode. Press and hold "Power" button + "Volume Down" button + "Home" button together until you see a green background with text like the image above then read the warning carefully and make sure you want to proceed. Press the "Volume Up" button to accept

Step 8: Plug in the Samsung USB cable to your PC and connect it to your phone

Step 9: Press Start in the Odin app on your PC to start flashing the firmware

After flashing, Odin app will show a big green sign with "PASS!" and this indicates that your firmware flashing is successful like the image above

Reboot your phone, wait for Android to start loading everything. Complete the first setup and go to "Settings" --> "About Phone" and you should see that your firmware has been downgraded to February 2019 firmware


How can I allocate more than 1024 MB of RAM to an Android Virtual Device? I want to work with 1024MB or higher RAM sizes but when I try to start my Virtual Device it is giving the error:

Failed to allocate memory: 8

I researched many thing about this issue;

Some releated solutions are;

Manually change the AVD's .ini files etc.
Run emulator as Administrator
Run from commant line

All of them did not work for me.

My system is:

64bit Windows 7
i7 3610QM CPU
8GB RAM
2GB Graphic card

Android 4.2 is the version that I am trying to use.

In the 'Create new Android Virtual Device' window in Eclipse it says, "On Windows, emulating RAM greater than 768M may fail depending on the system load. Try progressively smaller values of RAM if the emulator fails to launch."

As answered here https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8853541/why-cant-i-boot-an-avd-from-eclipse-with-1024-mb-of-ram, there is a .ini file you can edit in [username]\.android\avd[avd name.avd]\config.ini that you can edit by changing 'hw.ramSize=1024' to 'hw.ramSize=1024MB'. I tried it and it worked for me.


Shortcut for email to a specific person I am new to Android, and would like to know whether it is possible to add a desktop shortcut so that when I press it, I can send an email to a specific person, and I just need to put the subject and send it.

Not for a specific person -- but still a shortcut, which simply opens the "compose new mail" screen: Compose Mail Shortcut. There's also Send Mail Shortcut which, from the name, sounds to exactly fit your purpose -- but as it helds no description at all, it's hard to tell. Last but not least: Mail Linker even seems to fit right from its description.

Unfortunately, as already mentioned, there's no such thing provided by the Android core system by default.


How to limit DropBox Camera Upload to only Camera images? I've used Dropbox and its Camera Upload feature for a while now, both on my old phone (SE R800 I believe), and my newer Samsung S4 Mini.

It used to be that only pictures taken with the camera were uploaded by Camera Upload. I'm not sure if it was on the old phone or on an older version of Dropbox.

Nowadays, it seems like every single image file on the S4 is being uploaded. I haven't verified that it actually uploads everything, but I'm 100% sure that it uploads a lot of pictures that are not from the camera, e.g. screenshots and downloaded files.

I prefer the Camera Upload feature to do what it says, and not mix everything it finds on my phone in one folder. Is there any way to make it do what it says on the tin?

Use FolderSync Lite and sync your default camera image folder on your Android. The folder path is: /storage/emulated/0/DCIM


Will Android shift Google Calendar events when I go to different time zones? I'm entering a bunch of events into my Google Calendar on the web interface and am wondering if I should do them all in local time or select the proper timezone.

If I explicitly pick a timezone (e.g. 1 PM PST) and it shows up as 4 PM EST, will it "fix" it when I go out to California?  What about events with different starting and ending time zones?

Yes, at least for me. All of my events are stored as GMT and the time of the event is displayed based on the time of the device (my location).

Now, I don't know what happens if you "specify" the timezone like you mentioned, as I have never done that.


How to stop Android asking for permission before permitting access to USB device I have an application running on a rooted no-name Android tablet running ICS 4.0.3 that controls a USB device via the USB host mode interface.  The android.hardware.usb.host.xml file is present in /system/etc/permissions and everything works wonderfully.  Except...

When I run the app for the first time following a reboot and then plug in the USB device I get a popup window saying "Allow the app APPNAME to access the USB device?  [] Use by default for this USB device.  Cancel  OK" and I have to tap OK before it can start using the device.

I need to turn off the user confirmation so that the app can use the device straight away.  How do I do this?  I've seem some suggestions about using a keypress generator to simulate the user tapping the button on the screen but I'd prefer to avoid that sort of approach and set things up so that the confirmation request simply doesn't happen.

I probably can't get the supplier to do a custom kernel build for me, but I should be able to get the firmware signing key from them so I can sign my app as a system app, if that will help.

One associated problem: ticking the "Use by default for this USB device" box doesn't appear to help - if I unplug and replug the device then I get the confirmation prompt again.  I have noticed in this situation that the device number in /dev/bus/usb/001/ changes each time I unplug and replug (001, 002, 003 etc) which perhaps explains this particular problemette.

This question and answer is basically a duplicate of
https://stackoverflow.com/a/15151075/588476
See the above link for an example program and more in depth discussion.

As far as I know, there are two ways to get the USB permission box popup:

Request permission explicitly from your application using UsbManager.requestPermission(...)
Register an intent-filter on your accessory and let the system ask for permission  when the device is attached

In the case of 1 I have found that the checkbox on the popup to remember the permission has no effect.

For me, I removed all code related to permissions from my software and simply put the intent-filter in my manifest. When the USB device is plugged in, if it hasn't already been granted permission then the USB permission box will popup. If the user clicks OK without checking the remember box, then the box will popup again the next time the device is connected. However if the user checks the box and presses OK then the box should never display again (unless the software is uninstalled and then reinstalled).

I'm not sure if there is a bug somewhere related to your device showing up as /dev/bus/usb/001 and then 002 etc - let me know if you are using the intent-filter, as without that the remember checkbox will do nothing.

I do not know of any way that you can avoid the permission popup altogether. I suspect there is no way to do it without digging into the android code like you said.


how to clear phone number and user from about device status - galaxy S5 Getting my Sprint Galaxy S5 ready to sell.  I've tried factory reset.  Even went into android recovery menu and wiped cache and factory wipe reset.  Yet when I go into settings -> about device -> status:  I see my user names (something like myname@samsung.com) and my phone number!   How do I wipe this?  I think I found the answer once before online when I was selling another phone a few months ago, but can't remember what it was.  I think I had to type some special ## into the dial pad to get it to wipe.  I think the info is store on the sim card.  Please help.

I found the answer.  Dial ##72786#   This restores all phone setup information to the original factory settings.  It is NOT the same a factory reset.  It removes completely the old phone number and old user name from the phone.

I found the answer here, near the bottom of the page; post #13 on the page:
http://forums.androidcentral.com/sprint-galaxy-s-ii-epic-4g-touch/254641-how-do-i-remove-my-user-name-phone-etc-settings.html

Answering my own question to hopefully help someone else ;-)


Which part of Android directories contains so-called proprietary blobs? When building AOSP (Android Open Source Project) or LineageOS, there is a tool named breakfast. It downloads proprietary blobs and integrates them to the source tree.

I have read this article, does it mean all of the blobs are under  /system/vendor/ directory?

Do those binary files also exist in Android filesystem? And where are they?

Yes, binary blobs are part of Android filesystem. Android can't boot without them as they are kind of hardware drivers for the device. Most of those are found under /vendor/lib(64), some also under /system, /etc and /bin. Before Android Treble, /vendor wasn't necessarily a partition but a symlink to /system/vendor directory. Starting with Oreo, /vendor is a partition, containing all content related to OEM and SoC vendor. Most of the blobs are executable files or libraries, run as independent services on boot. See this sample proprietary-files list.

In addition to that, the first partition (usually labeled modem) on eMMC contains Radio/RIL related firmware. Another partition dsp contains Qualcomm's Digital Signal Processor related binaries. They aren't built with ROM but are part of Android filesystem tree, mounted at (/vendor)/firmware and (/vendor)/dsp. Their execution is isolated from the rest of the device.

Many partition related to bootloaders are in themselves complete binaries, such as aboot, sbl, rpm, tz, cmnlib, devcfg, keymaster, lksecapp on Qualcomm devices. Those aren't mountable filesystem, but directly executed by bootloaders during boot process. All of them are proprietary binary blobs; the closed-source part of Android devices.

PS:
Android (a superset of AOSP) isn't a generic OS which can be installed on any hardware like we do on PCs. Support for the hardware is locked down to proprietary binaries (HALs) by the OEM and/or silicon vendors. So the binary blobs are critical, and the open-source AOSP (including modified Linux kernel source provided by Google) is of no use without hardware drivers. And the manufacturers rarely document the working of their hardware so that developers like Replicant can implement an open source driver. There is very small set of hardware components on Android devices that you can expect to be handled directly by making syscalls to kernel as is the case on PCs. The only notable addition by SoC vendors / OEMs to generic kernel source already modified by Google (1, 2) is the handling of non-discoverable devices (defining device nodes). Rest of the hardware related stuffed is handled in userspace through binary blobs.

Further reading:

Android Device Partitions and Filesystems
Android and Linux Kernel Drivers
Android HAL and Device driver architecture


How can I get my Galaxy S3 to behave at night? (turn off LED and notifications, etc.) Possible Duplicate:
  Any way to schedule a passive profile-change? (connectivity, volume etc.)

I've got a Galaxy S3, and I love it, but it drives me crazy at night sometimes. GMail will get a new message and it'll ring. The LED sometimes flashes all night long, etc. I've seen a couple of apps that purport to solve these problems, but they've got some bad reviews. Can anyone recommend a good way to solve my problem?

Thanks!

People might expect me to recomment Tasker including a profile -- so I will do this first. But I will include another, free solution as well this time.

First, how to solve this with Tasker? Quite easy:

Condition: Time (10pm to 7 am, for example)
Task:

Airplane On (optionally, so no incoming calls)
WiFi On (so weather-updates and streaming music for my alarm clock still make it)
Silent Mode On (that's the important one: everything off except for media volume)

This is just an example of what can be done. Many more options are available, but Tasker costs you about 5 Euro (it's really worth it, as other answers here tell you as well -- you can let hell freeze with it!). If that's too much for you, you have two options: First check with the free 7 day trial from the Tasker homepage -- or look for an alternative. Well, to be honest: nothing can get near Tasker, but for your case there are some options left:

Timeriffic is a very good scheduler (can deal well with time based events, like the above described)
Llama - Location Profiles can do with location based, time based (don't be fooled by the name of the app), and more
I know I repeat myself: Tasker can do all this and much, much more. And if you feel there's something missing: there are so many addons available (all Locale addons fit). And so many apps interface with it...


Phones wifi turns off automatically when im in wifi When I am using my wifi, after many minutes it disconnects and it will show in my screen that I am connected to my wifi again. What do I do? I checked everything.

This happens to me as well.
Try Disabling power saving apps and see if it works out, if not backup your data and try factory resetting your phone or reflashing it (android) or reinstalling the phone's software via your phone manufacturer'sPC software. If that doesn't solve your problem your phone might have a problem with the antenna.


The emulator process for AVD Nexus_5X_API_22 was killed I installed Android Studio with Android SDK from the offical web-site, created a new sample project, didn't change or delete even a line, but the project doesn't work anyway.

D:\AndSDK\tools\emulator.exe -netdelay none -netspeed full -avd Nexus_5X_API_22
Hax is enabled
init: Could not find wglGetExtensionsStringARB!
getGLES2ExtensionString: Could not find GLES 2.x config!
Hax ram_size 0x60000000
Failed to obtain GLES 2.x extensions string!
HAX is working and emulator runs in fast virt mode.
Could not initialize emulated framebuffer
audio: Failed to create voice `goldfish_audio_in'
qemu-system-i386.exe: warning: opening audio input failed
emulator: Listening for console connections on port: 5554
emulator: Serial number of this emulator (for ADB): emulator-5554
emulator: ERROR: Could not initialize OpenglES emulation, use '-gpu off' to disable it.

02/11 16:19:14: Launching app
Error while waiting for device: The emulator process for AVD Nexus_5X_API_22 was killed.

What can be wrong and how to fix it?

Go to:  Tools > Android > AVD Manager
Press the "edit" (pencil) icon next to your AVD
Change "Graphics" to "Software".


I get an application error 919 when updating Chrome. How to proceed? While updating Chrome, I repeatedly get the following error:

Unknown error code during application install: "919"

This is on a Wolfgang AT-AS43D4, running stock 4.1.2. I have about 100 MB free space in my app storage.

This happens both on WiFi and on 3G, so the top answer to this question is not applicable.

Using a cache cleaner, I freed up some cache, netting me a little over 130 MB free space in the app storage.

I then updated, and it worked. Freeing the cache again after the update, I only had 100 MB left. I also saw that the cache for the Play Store was about 28 MB, so apparently that's the size of the download for the Chrome update.

Using a disk analyzer, I found out that Chrome (after the update) uses over 100 MB for the apk (103.5 MB).

What I think happened, is that it downloaded about 28 MB, then unpacked that to 103 MB, then replaced the existing apk with that. So I needed 28 MB + 103 MB = 131 MB to do the update.

To be honest, I think that's quite a lot. I'm not sure if I'll be able to do the next one.
Also, as noted in my other question, Chrome uses quite a lot of data as well. It was at 25 MB when I asked that question, it's now a whopping 28 MB. I have no idea what's in there and no clue how to clean that other than deleting it all, which probably isn't a good idea.


Pokemon Go causes overheating? I was curious about Pokemon Go so I downloaded it and started creating a character.  After about 3 minutes my phone said it was stopping all applications because my phone was overheating.  Curious as to how pokemon go could overheat my Galaxy S4?  As an aside, apps on my SD card keep moving back to device storage.  I had to put them back on SD card again to get Pokemon Go to download so that may have been related but I am not sure?

How can a phone overheat?

And yes, I have uninstalled Pokemon Go now.

Because the game uses your mobile network and GPS constantly. which will over heat the phone. putting the app on sd would make no difference


How can  I disable screen lock feature temporarily? I want to lend a tablet to a friend of mine and I'm sure he will try to prank me with a locked screen.

What can I do to remove the screen lock, if he returns it with the locked screen feature enabled with a code or something?

One way to prevent this is to create an extra guest profile with help from SwitchMe:

Get root, install SwitchMe, create an guest profile, protect your profile with an password and enable SwitchMe's login manager feature. This allows you to recover the tablet by rebooting into your profile and resetting or deleting the guest profile.

Note that SwitchMe may not work with your ROM.


How can I get videos to play on my Pandigital Multimedia Novel? YouTube or any other videos won't play. I get music just fine but I can't seem to get videos. I have the Pandigital Multimedia Novel. What can be wrong?

I have one of these awful devices also. I will just put it simply & cut straight to the chase...it cannot play video well at all. I have rooted mine, in hopes it would play video files too, alas it is not possible. The cpu in the device is not powerful enough to handle decoding XviD (a common .avi file format), let alone higher cocmpression H.264 (.mkv files, sometimes .mp4). I use mine for an alarm clock, as it is not much more useful than this duty/task. If you're playing a mp3 file using the built-in player, and hit the HOME icon, it reboots. I had high hopes for this device, but it is just junk. I've considered selling mine on craigslist, but I don't want to dump this nightmare on anyone else either, I'm just not like that. If you want a GOOD tablet, that IS able to play most video's, get an Acer a500. You can find them refurbished now for about $250 or so. They cannot play HD video, but can play almost every regular definition file you throw at it, using BSPlayer, or Mirage beta player. I love my a500 and use it everyday, the whole family uses it in fact, and they all really enjoy it. The pandigital is nothing short of a paperweight. I have heard their other models are just as bad. The Nova is supposed to be capable of playing videos, but it has issues too. Just avoid this brand totally, and go with Acer or Samsung. Acer is much faster than Samsung, whereas the Samsung screen is a little better than the Acer. The Samsung devices are quite expensive, and most of them come with a cellular phone built in, which was something I did not want in my tablet. You can get the Acer devices at Walmart, but your best bet is ecost.com as they have them on sale right now. The 500 is a great dual core 1GHz processor, the 501 is dual core 1GHz with cell phone, the 510 is QUAD core 1Ghz, and 710 will be out soon with 1.3GHz quad core.


Endless loading for emulator on low-end netbook I'm trying to develop on my old netbook but the emulator never completely loads. It keeps working and sometimes it freezes but then it doesn't finish booting.

I'm not really skilled in Android development and I would like to know if I can tweak the emulator to require less computational power. I'm learning new stuff so I don't have to run big stuff, I just need to start the emulator and launch a simple application

I would say the simple answer is no.  The emulator performs fairly poorly on high-end computers, so even if you got it to start up the performance would be beyond horrible.


How to Clean Sticky Residue on My Smartphone? I had this my Nexus 4 for over 3 years and have upgraded to newer smartphone. I wish however to still keep my Nexus 4. I kept it in Diztronic TPU protective case that worn out with time and no longer has that tight fit feel to it. It has accumulated some little sticky residue on its sides and it attracts lint and dust:

I have no idea how to clean it to get rid of sticky residue and everything else that it managed to attract. I tried rubbing alcohol but it was a short term solution and soon I was back where I started. The sides are not made of some smooth material. It's a hard silicone and due to friction it makes it harder to clean. Thanks for ideas.

Former N4 owner here.

I sanded off all those stuff with a fine sandpaper, which made the sides slick. Also, the white version of the back cover assembly doesn't come with this faux-skin material, so I bought one and swap it in (just 2 screws away) when I feel like it.


Is there any way to use a touch screen monitor to CONTROL an Android tablet through USB? I have a Coby MID7065 Android tablet that I want to connect to a 4 wire capacitive touch screen monitor via USB. I want to be able to control my tablet via the touch screen monitor. I need to know if there is a way to do this, or if drivers that must be written for the Android OS to make this work or where I can get this information.

As far as I know, no Android devices ship with drivers for a USB touchscreen monitor. To make this work, you'd have to find or write drivers for Android, and they'd probably be specific to the type of monitor.

In the first instance you could approach the monitor manufacturer and see if they know of a driver for Android, or are willing to give you the datasheets you'd need to write one.


How to monitor signal strength? I own a Samsung Nexus S 4G on Sprint, and I am having terrible but intermittent problems with my signal quality on my phone. I have reasonably high certainty that this is a hardware issue (my wife has the same phone on the same plan and her phone usually works where mine does not), but due to the fact that the problem is intermittent I have not been able to duplicate it in the Sprint store.

What I am looking for is a way (perhaps an app) that will periodically poll and record the signal strength on my phone, as well as recording when my phone fails to connect on a call (during the periods when my phone is acting up this will sometimes occur 10-15 times in a row). Are there any apps that provide this functionality, or would have anyone have any advice on developing this app on my own (I am a decent programmer, but I have never developed an Android app).

There are a some apps available which would answer your question. The probably best ones include...

NoSignalAlert, which not only alerts you when you lost the signal, but also provides a log1 of those events, and lets you even browse those "dead zones" on a map and display the collected log information along2

OpenSignalMaps, offering similar features, and giving you the ability to show nearby cells3 (so if your signal is low, and you want to have a conversation, you can move in the right direction4 for a stronger signal)

If you are primarily interested in mapping signal quality, Antennas might be worth a look as well5. It can export collected data to KML, so you can display it in Google Maps / Google Earth on your computer as well.

Then there also is already mentioned RF Signal Tracker, again rather interesting for mapping6, which additionally tracks Wifi signal

Last but not least: G-NetTrack is also good for mapping8 of daily routes and the like.

What might be of even more interest to you is how to automatically react on a weak signal in order to save some juice. If so, I recommend you taking a look at the question What is Cell standby and how can I keep it from eating my battery? (and of course its answer).


Is there any way to watch Amazon Video on Samsung Gear VR? Netflix and Hulu have both apps for the Samsung Gear VR headset, but Amazon Video doesn't have an app.  So my question is, is there any way to watch Amazon Video on Samsung Gear VR?

I tried going to the Amazon Video website on the Samsung Internet VR web browser, but when I click an episode it just tells me to download the "Amazon Underground" app, which is a non-VR app for watching Amazon Video on the Samsung Galaxy S7.  Also, I tried clicking "request computer version" in the Samsung VR browser, to trick the site into thinking that I'm on a computer, but then Amazon just displays a message that your browser is not supported.

Is there any way to change the user agent of the Samsung VR browser to something which makes Amazon play the video?

There was some speculation around March 2016 about some job offers posted by Amazon, that some commentators interpreted as a hint that they were preparing a VR app for their video service. See this article for example.

However, more than one year later no official statement by Amazon has been issued, and no app has appeared.

It seems that the only alternative currently is to use the unofficial application SideloadVR, as suggested for example by this post answer.

However, it seems than currently not all the Gear VR devices are supported, as suggested by the reviews (and developer replies) on the Play Store. In particular support for popular Galaxy S8/S8+ devices is yet to come.


my stored contacts that have the country code prepended doNOT get matched to existing calling contacts due to travelling frequently I tend to store every contact in my phones (current and the ones I had in the past) along with the country code in which it resides. so I can still call them when I'm away.

The problem is that with my latest android phone a Samsung GT-S6310 with android OS 4.1.2 when someone calls me from the same country I'm in right now, the number that shows up on my screen does not have the country code prepended. As a result, the number is not matched to one of my existing contacts and I see just a 10digit number calling instead X calling.

Now this is not the 1st android phone I have owned and I know this was not a problem with the old one. Is there any way to avert that?

If you want a quick answer (two in reality) here is what I would do:

1) Go to Settings > Accounts > remove the Google account > add it back.
   I tried it once and it worked...
2) Go to Gmail on a desktop > Go to Settings (the gear icon in the top right) > Under General, go to 'Phone Numbers' and select your default country code from the dropdown list.
   This way your device should automatically recognize incoming call from your country...

I'm not sure if one of these is the solution to your issue, but I know that many people solved the same issue using them. Just try and tell me if they work. If not, we'll look for another solution ;)


How to S-Off on HTC One M7, HBOOT-1.61 I have a HTC ONE M7 purchased from T-Mobile. I rooted it and have CyanogenMod installed in it. Recently, I switched to different carrier. Now, my phone rejects foreign sim card and asks for Network SIM card lock. The unlock code provided by T-Mobile doesn't work due to rooting the phone.

I want to go back to T-Mobile Android stock ROM and try the unlock code. What's the process for it? Here are some details from bootloader screen:

* TAMPERED *

* UNLOCKED *

M7_UL PVT SHIP S-ON RH

HBOOT-1.61.0000

RADIO-4T.35.3218.16

OpenDSP-v35.120.274.0718

OS-7.18.531.2

eMMC-boot 2048MB

Feb 11, 2015, 18:39:53.0

Apart from help in doing S-OFF, I would appreciate if someone points me to right link for going back to Stock ROM.

The only way to get S-OFF on HTC One M7 hboot 1.61 is SunShine application which costs 25$. I was also searching for it and finally found Sunshine is the only working solution.

Here is the HowTo video about the application.