Change the date format of the default Phone app in Micromax canvas 4 In the Phone app (which came as as a preinstalled on my Micromax canvas 4 Device, running Android 4.2), the date format used (in the call logs for example to show history of calls placed/received) is USA-Style like mm-dd-yyyy., like 08/09/2015 (for 9th-August-2015).

I checked the phone app's settings but could not find a way to change it to dd-mm-yyyy., like 09/08/2015 (for 9th-August-2015).

Of course, I can certainly install another 3rd party app which can give an option to customize data format, but just want to check if it is possible in the preinstalled system app.

Anyone knows how to change date format from mm-dd-yyyy to dd-mm-yyyy?

Actually mm-dd-yyyy date format is used in American English(USA-style) and dd-mm-yyyy is used in British English(UK-Style) So to change date format in your device simply change language option in your device from US-English to UK-English.

Settings->Language & Input -> Language -> English(UK).

I hope it would help.


Android - Limit app permissions *before* installing app Whenever I go to change app permissions for on app on my Android, I do it after it has already been installed. Is there any way I can modify those permissions before I do the installation?

Update:

With the traditional way a period of time passes, however small, between the time you install the app and the time you update/restrict its permissions. During this period the app could be accessing the data (and uploading to its server) that you are trying to restrict (contacts, identity, etc.). Right?

You can't change app settings before the app has been installed.

However if you are concerned about data leakage I would do the following:

Download the apk to your device
Disable all network connections
Install the app
Change the app permissions according your preferences
Open the app manager and select the just installed app
Force the app to quit and delete the app data and caches (just to make sure)

Afterwards you can safely re-enable network access

Anyway, for common permissions the app have to ask before it can be used the first time. Therefore it is unclear to me what permissions you are referring to that could be directly used without that you have explicitly granted access to.


TWRP not recognize my sdcard I've ported a twrp 3.0.2 to my device (kitkat 4.4), all works nice, but when I try press backup, and select store, only shows the internal store...

Device description: Azumi a50c+ with rom Kitkat 4.4. Its a MT6582

NOTE: this works fine in twrp 2.7 but then try change to 3.0.2 the sdcard cant be select in the options

My partition is:

=================
Phone store: 8GB, divide in:
    Internal store >> 4.2GB
    ext sd card (this is a internal partition of phone store) >> 2.33
    System rom.....

=================

    =================

SDCARD: 16 GB

THIS IS THE PROBLEM, In the recovery sdcard 16gb is detected in this partition in mmcblk1p1 but cant see the sdcard in "select store" option of   twrp 3.0.2.

=================

What files of ramdisk should I modify?  check the images...

What is the best way to fix bug of my TWRP 3.0.2? Thank you very much

I've solved it

Note: this process requiere extract files of recovery.img, you can use "CarlivImageKitchen"

add this line and flags to the /etc/recovery.fstab files, and chage /sdcard to /external_sd example:

The mmcblk1p1 is the block of my sdcard:

 # Extructure is:
 # Mountpoint #type  #partition block     # block             #flags

/external_sd  vfat  /dev/block/mmcblk1p1  /dev/block/mmcblk1  flags=display="Micro SDcard";storage;wipeingui;removable

Problem Solved!


With a keyboard installed on the Android Wear device, how do you input text into alternate apps, or get the keyboard to inflate? Basically, i have a keyboard for the android wear. i've installed it with adb and whatnot. that's all fine and stuff, but how do i use it? i mean, i know how keyboards work and all, but what do i do to get it to inflate and let me type on it. i speak of the minuum keyboard and also probably any other android wear keyboard out there.

Which keyboard you have installed in your android wear? You can try SwiftKey Keyboard , one of my friend is using it, simple to use haven't face any problem.


How can I send SMS messages from my real phone number, not my Google Voice number? This question is precisely the opposite of the existing question: "How can I send SMS messages from my Google Voice number without using the Voice app?"

Since installing the Google Voice app, text messages that I send from the ordinary Messaging app are coming from my Google Voice number. I don't know how or why - no setting I can find in the messages app mentions GV or my GV number.

I currently use my OnePlus One's built-in Messaging app for SMS. I installed Hangouts and Google Voice, but both are NOT configured for SMS. (I use Google Voice occasionally, but I still use my real cell number directly for most calls and texts to my friends.)
In the "Messaging" app settings, it says "SMS Enabled."
In the "Hangouts" app settings, it says "SMS Disabled."
In the "Google Voice" SMS view, it says, "You are now receiving SMS in Hangouts." This is obviously not true, but doesn't seem relevant to my problem either. (I'm guessing that the writers of that particular message couldn't conceive of any SMS app other than GV or Hangouts. :)
When I actually receive messages, I get them in the "Messaging" app as expected. When I reply to those messages, which were sent to my AT&T number, my replies come from my GV number, confusing my friends.

After further digging, I found the answer. In the settings app under "wireless and networks," there is a setting: "Enable all apps to send SMS messages through Google voice." Disabling this fixed it.


How can I  upgrade my device without going through my carrier? Are there sites available that will allow me to upgrade to the latest version of Android without depending on my carrier?

Not officially, and not without voiding your warranty. You would need to install a custom ROM, of which there are several, the most popular of which seems to be CyanogenMod.


Accessibility into android7 there are news? I'm blind and I tried Android 5.0 and it seemed not very good using talkback.
Does someone know if there are many differences with the new version?

You should think of "Talkback" as its own app, like any other app in Android. So the version of the Talkback-app usually has not much to do with the Android version. You can have a new version of Android, but an old version of Talkback and vice versa.

Most of the time the Talkback-version in a newer Android is also newer, but you could manually upgrade Talkback.

Some manufacturers like Samsung or Huawai implement their own "TTS - Text to speech engine", which basically is the Talkback-App. For example: The way the TTS reads numbers or weekdays might be quite wrong, the focus-frame might be blue instead of Googles green frame, etc.

From my experience the not-Google TTS-engines are worse than the one from Google, but in the Talkback-Settings you can always switch to the standard Google TTS.

But to answer your question about Android 5 and 7: Sadly I could not find any change logs that exactly describe what has changed. The best link is this: https://nfb.org/blog/vonb-blog/android-60-and-talkback-45-accessibility-improvements

From my experience I can say that the accessibility usually improves from version to version, especially on WebViews and how things are put into context ("5:00" could be read as "5 - pause - zero zero" or as "5 o'clock"). So if you can use a newer version of Android / Talkback, you will benefit from it.


Stop from Samsung Galaxy S4 turning on when receiving text message Summary: Is there a way to stop the Samsung Galaxy S4 screen from turning on when receiving text messages (without disabling the notification light)?

Details:

I've got a Samsung Galaxy S4 on Verizon.  I've noticed that sometimes when it's in my pocket that it will turn on and access apps, etc. (for example one time I saw it had posted something to Facebook).

I think that the problem is when I receive a text message that the phone turns on and then from there the touch screen might do whatever it wants.  The reason I think the phone screen turns on when I receive a text message is I've noticed that happen sometimes.

So really what I want to do is prevent the phone from turning on in my pocket, but I don't think that is an actual option.  But I thought there should be a way to stop incoming text messages from turning on the screen, while still allowing the notification light to flash.  But I haven't found an option that does that.

It looks like having the screen turn on when SMS messages arrive is a stock feature of the Samsung Galaxy S4 on Verzion (possibly applies to other models and carriers as well).  I saw threads here and here discussing the problem.  There is no setting to disable only the screen turning on.

The workaround that I ended up using is as follows:

1) Disable notification in the stock app: go to settings and scroll down to Notification settings and unselect "Notifications".

2) Install SMS Popup.

3) Enable SMS Popup.  Then go to Addition Settings and disable "Screen on for Popup".

Maybe someday Samsung/Verizon will fix the problem, but for now this workaround seems to work for me.


What should I do after installing a new battery? I'm going to take the plunge to take apart my One (M8) to replace it's battery tomorrow and I was wondering what I should do to increase its battery life right off the bat. Should I charge it to full capacity first then use it normally, charge it to full then drain it and recharge it, or does none of this matter?

The reason why batteries degrade over time is because blockages build up in the individual cells as the current passes through them, preventing them from fully charging. This is a chemical process and is unavoidable, but one thing that is sure to speed it up is extreme temperatures. Too hot and the reaction speeds up. Too cold and the phone eats up all of the power to warm the components.

So here is a few helpful tips for keeping your new battery happy:

Keep your phone off of any insulated surfaces when charging
Turn off background processes that can make your phone run hot
Turn off features that you aren't using or don't use frequently (Bluetooth, location, even turning off wifi can cool down your processor)
Keep your phone close to your body in cold weather

If you are concerned about the length of a charge, some of these tips can help there too. There are also free apps that allow you to manage the processes running on your phone, clean up junk files, and boost the efficiency of the apps you are currently using. There are also some cheap apps that allow you to modify several aspects of the OS without needing to root your phone.

As far as charge frequency, you should be fine regardless of what you do.


Bought my friend's Samsung S6 but can't restore with new Google account Title pretty much sums it up - I bought my friend's old Samsung S6, did a factory restore but when I try to set up the phone for myself, it won't let me. It says "This device was reset. To Continue, sign in with a Google Account that was previously synced on this device".

How do I bypass this and start fresh with a new google account? Do I need them to log into the phone themselves to do something?

Please note I'm planning on using this without a sim card, just as a portable video device.

Thank you!

It's a new Anti-Theft feature of Android since 5.1. Your variants:

Wait 72 hours and try again.
If that didn't help, you should find 5.0 stock ROM, flash it and then upgrade back to Marshmallow or what have been previously there.

P.S. Of course, the fastest way is to cooperate with your friend, log in to his account and then enter the new account :)


How do I turn on the battery full notification sound? Similar to this previous question, but I want to enable the battery full notification sound, not the opposite :)

My Galaxy S used to make a nice beep and switch the screen on briefly when the battery was fully charged, since the Gingerbread update (official Samsung 2.3.3 JV9 release) it still briefly switches the screen on, but no longer makes the noise.

This used to be great because the plug socket on my desk is right at one end, so (if I don't want a long cable getting tangled in everything) the phone's out of my line of sight and I rely on the audio notifications to tell me there's a reason to glance over at it. Now, since Gingerbread, I don't get any audible notification for the battery full, and never know when it's been fully charged.

Unlike a lot of people here I don't plug my phone in to charge overnight (why would I, when I have to pay for the electricity at home :D), so was never bothered by the noise waking me up.

I've hunted through all of the Sound and Notification settings that I can find, and already have System and Notification volumes turned up, so it's not those. I'm slightly worried that they've listened to the moaners and removed a useful feature, but hope that buried somewhere there's a nice setting that can keep everyone happy.

Try Batteryminder.

In the features section it claims to allow for "Low/Full Battery Alerts"

Hope this helps


GPS Accuracy Data for Android phones I'm try to gather data on the feasibility of my next Android project in which I would like to use GPS indoors.  Knowing that GPS wasn't built to be accurate indoors, I'm trying to decide if the project is worthwhile.

I have a rough estimate of my required accuracy (10 meters).  The location is the middle of a major city.

So I'm wondering if there is any data out there that relates to the GPS systems on Android phones that would help me with this research.

Thanks.

Edit:

Thanks for the answers so far folks.  Good reads.  I realized that there are a lot of factors affecting GPS data.  Even though I may be "shooting for the moon" with my accuracy requirements, I'm hoping that my unique situation might help achieve my goal indoors.

I intended to use GPS + wireless network data (Assisted GPS) and try to get the best accuracy possible.  My user will also be in the middle of a major city, which I would imagine would have many cell towers.  Whether or not I can achieve this with current/up-and-coming Android technology is really what I would like to determine, so my search for actual data representing valid tests of Android devices continues.

If you have any links to data of this sort, please do share.

Thanks again all!

10 m?  You'd be lucky to get that kind of accuracy outdoors.

I'm the developer of Car Dashboard, which is a car home replacement that includes GPS features like speedometer, etc. I have the default minimum GPS accuracy set to 200 m which seems to work pretty good for most users (I also have it adjustable in the settings in case they have issues).  On average, I'd say indoors near a window will get you about 50-100 m accuracy. Outside with nice conditions should get you below 50 m. Indoors without any visual sight to the sky is going to be a dead zone.  The signal is just simply not going to reach you and if it does, it is going to be highly inaccurate.

This is the resource I use to describe GPS accuracy in my application:

  GPS accuracy is affected by a number
  of factors, including satellite
  positions, noise in the radio signal,
  atmospheric conditions, and natural
  barriers to the signal. Noise can
  create an error between 1 to 10 meters
  and results from static or
  interference from something near the
  receiver or something on the same
  frequency. Objects such a mountains or
  buildings between the satellite and
  the receiver can also produce error,
  sometimes up to 30 meters. The most
  accurate determination of position
  occurs when the satellite and receiver
  have a clear view of each other and no
  other objects interfere.


Google Keyboard (gboard) adds word fragments on backspace I have a strange behavior with my Google Keyboard on a Motorola Moto E (2nd Generation, LTE) with Android 6.0. Occasionally pressing the backspace key will result in adding word fragments. In the following GIF I only press the backspace button from frame to frame. This is really annoying because I try to just delete the last word and then have to cycle through this.

Is there somewhere I could file this bug? Is there any hope that this would be eventually fixed for my phone?

Gboard keyboard settings-> text correction-> disable auto correction.


Sync problem with Google account I erased all my contacts in my Samsung S i9000 to import all of them from Google.
Sync has downloaded only around a half of 4500 contacts. Over and over syncing to get the rest of them I get an error 'Sync is currently experiencing problems...'. Sync Gmail and Sync Calendar work well.

After some troubled tries I could save (not sync) all my contacts.
First try was to remove all contacts again and sync with Mac address book (which is also synced with Google) using Kies (Samsung); it always crashed when around 80% sync task was performed. Then I remove all contacts again, created a vcf file containing all Address Book data, copied it to the phone and finally imported data from file.

Just to check sync with Google I added a test contact to Address Book, synced to google and then synced from the phone. The contact was added despite 'Sync is currently experiencing problems...' was displayed again.


Free SMS to shortcodes/Magic? My current cellular plan does not include free SMS, so I'm trying to find an alternative way to send SMS for free from my Android phone. In particular, I'm trying to use the Magic service, which interacts via an SMS short code. I have attempted to use:

Google Hangouts/Voice - but I do not get a response from the Magic short code
TextPlus - but it does not recognize short codes as valid numbers
XFinity Voice - but it does not recognize short codes as valid numbers

Any ideas on how to get free SMS's to Magic?

I emailed Magic, and got a response that it is possible to use a regular phone number instead of the shortcode: +1 (408) 707-3077

Magic can then be used with the methods outlined in the original question (e.g. Google Hangouts/Voice, TextPlus, XFinity, etc.).


Changing volume capacity I have an adroid tablet in my car, and the volume it's volume is in the range on 0-30,
It is very low since the last tablet (not an android tablet) had a range of 0-60.

How can i raise the maximum volume to 60? will I have to root the device?

Maybe you can with root, but if understood correctly I think you're wrong in the basic of your question: A device has a maximum volume (which can or cannot be achieved regularly[1]) and the possible range is being split into a numbers range that will allow you to choose.

In your case, if you'll root and be able to change the range, it will do one of the following:

Set every 1 current unit to two new units (like jumping in 0.5 each time).
Split the volume control in another way so that it's not distributed evenly.

[1] Maybe it will be possible with root to increase the maximum volume by reducing the sound quality - but that's not what your question asks.


How to redirect complete outgoing phone's traffic to a proxy server? How to redirect entire phone traffic (including all apps) to a proxy (with out rooting the phone)

We are developing a parental control app for Android, in that we have requirement to capture all out going traffic from Android phone for categorization.
Is there a way to achieve this in Android with out rooting the phone.

Thanks,
Gopi.

It sounds like you are describing a VPN (virtual private network). A VPN directs all traffic (whether http or other tcp/ip protocols) through a specific server, usually with the intent to encrypt traffic between the device and the VPN server.

However, encryption isn't necessary, and a VPN would have full control over routing, which means you could customize a VPN server to block specific requests. Or you could redirect requests to unsafe/undesirable websites to a 'block' page of your choosing.

Almost all android devices have VPN capabilities built-in. You should look into that technology. In order to force the user to go through the VPN, you will need an app that can be set as a device admin (a built-in, almost-root privilege that prevents the app from being removed) that would also set the VPN to be always on.

See this Android.SE question and answer for more details.


Import/Export option not found in messages app (4.1.2) I just upgraded my cell phone to android 4.1.2. And I was shocked to see that there is no import/export option in my messages app. While in 4.1.1 there was the option of import/export.

My search for solution: I have tried many other apps for messages too, they all lack the import/export feature.

I then tried a new ROM of same version, 4.1.2! But again same results.

My Question:

Is there a ROM issue, or 4.1.2 does not allow this feature to import/export?

My cellphone: I am using Qmobile A8. I have tried ROMs by INCPak

If all you want to do is transfer your SMS messages to another device or back them up, use an app like SMS Backup & Restore- that allows you to import / export / back up your SMS messages for posterity.

It also allows a user to selectively pick and choose which conversations you want to backup or restore.


Offset Android Keyboard I'm making an installation using Android (Bliss Os).

For getting the recognizable android keyboard that everybody knows I installed GBoard. Everything worked fine except that my keyboard misses half the most left line of letters.

Does anybody have any experience with this problem? I already tried using a different display but this didn't help.

Also tried installing swiftkey. But this also had the same problem. They do have a functionality to rescale the keyboard but this is a dirty fix for my problem..

Sorry for the bad picture quality, I do not have the buttons on this elo touch display to take a screenshot.

I fixed this by disabling and re enabling the application that was forcing my device in portrait mode.

The application I was using was "Set orientation" V1.1.4 from package com.googlecode.eyesfree.setorientation.


Wipe /data/ but not /data/media/ through ADB shell or fastboot I know I can use fastboot -w or fastboot erase userdata, but these erase /data/media/, the internal storage which is located at /data/media/0/..., which I don't want.

Is there a way that doesn't include hitting the factory reset option in your recovery, but doing it manually? I'm using ClockWorkMod.

Boot into your custom Recovery, mount the data partition either using command-line or via GUI, and choose any of the following method:

(Note that TWRP already has the option to clear /data without touching /data/media. It uses rm -rf commands1.)

Go Immune

Make /data/media immutable2 i.e. immune from any modification. You can do so by executing:

adb shell chattr +i /data/media

You can also use -R for recursive immunity, though it was not needed in my test case.

You can see the immune attribute (i) in the output of

adb shell lsattr /data/

Time to go berserk

adb shell rm -rf /data/*

All the files and their holding directories inside /data/ should now be purged except the ones inside media, for which you would get the error (non-critical) Permission denied for every file inside that directory.
Now revoke the immunity using

adb shell chattr -i /data/media

Use -R if you used it previously.

If-Else

Manually pick each directory under /data and use rm -rf on it. Could be tiresome, so you may consider  Izzy's shell-fu

adb shell for dir in /data/*; do if [[ "$dir" = "/data/media" ]]; then continue; else rm -rf "$dir"; fi; done;

Replace rm -rf with echo for a dry run.

The command  picks up each file-path3 under /data, then  checks against whether the file-path is for media folder: if yes, then pass; else nuke the file.

1: TWRP FAQ: What is a data/media device?
2: Wikipedia: chattr
3: General overview of the Linux file system: Sorts of files


Stuck at CyanogenMod recovery I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab p3100 and i can't flash anything. All I have is a Stock CyanogenMod recovery and i can't even go through odin and install a new cwm/twrp. I don't know why but it says USB device is not recognized :(

I've tried to uninstall the usb thing in device manager but no luck. My only chance is flash a rom or a SIGNED cwm/twrp (i guess i'm running out of options) for my device but i can't find any signed zip file to be flashed on cyanogenmod recovery please help.

You can install TWRP with root access without the need of a PC.

Download the latest image for your device here.
Your phone needs to be turned on.
Copy the recovery IMG to the root of your sdcard and rename it to twrp.img.
Open a terminal application and execute this command: su -c "dd if=/sdcard/twrp.img of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p6"
The custom TWRP recovery is now installed.

  Note: Do not use this guide for any other devices, it will be bricked.

The reason your device isn't recognised on your PC is probably because you have Windows 8/8.1/10 installed. The drivers (ADB) for Android phones do not work correctly yet. There are some workarounds  on the internet.


How to 'root' (or gain root access to) a Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 with Android 2.1-update1? I have a Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 with Android 2.1-update1 and I need a quick easy way to get root access so I can boot it through a custom ROM me and a friend have been working on (the custom ROM is like Gingerbread (Android 2.3), but with a different UI so that it's compatible with my phone)

Taken from here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=811457

This hack (http://c-skills.blogspot.com/2010/07/android-trickery.html) is almost universal. I've compiled and tested a version for X10 mini.

Download: exploid_x10mini.zip

Download and extract the archive.

You will need ADB from Android SDK and USB drivers for X10 mini (part of Sony Ericsson PC Companion).

Enable USB debugging on the phone in Settings>Applications>Development and connect the phone to PC via USB.

Add the Power Control widget to your active widgets on the phone, so you can quickly turn off and on the wi-fi function.

From the command line (on windows it's cmd.exe):

cd c:\exploid_x10mini (or another folder where you've extracted the files from exploid_x10mini.zip)
adb push Superuser.apk /sdcard/Superuser.apk
adb push su /sdcard/su
adb push exploid /sqlite_stmt_journals/exploid
adb push busybox /sqlite_stmt_journals/busybox
adb shell
cd sqlite_stmt_journals
chmod 755 exploid
chmod 755 busybox

Immediately after the next command, you will need to disable and enable the wi-fi using the power widget on the phone:

./exploid

Then run:

rootshell and enter password rootnow

Prompt will change to # - now we have root. Enter the following to make it permanent:

./busybox cp /sdcard/Superuser.apk /system/app/
./busybox cp /sdcard/su /system/bin/
./busybox cp busybox /system/bin/
chmod 4755 /system/bin/su
rm /system/bin/rootshell
exit - out of rootshell
exit - out of adb shell

Verification:

When you run the abd shell again and issue su command, the Superuser.apk will run on the phone and will ask whether to allow the root permissions...


Device fails to install provisioning app I'm trying to provision a Huawei Y6 (MYA-L11) with a custom Device Owner app via NFC after a factory reset. However, once it has downloaded the admin app, I get a message box: "Oops! Couldn't install the admin app." and the only option is RESET which repeats the factory reset.

I have tried this method with a Motorola Nexus 6 without any issue. I have also been able to install third party Device Owner apps (e.g. SureLock) via NFC in this way on the Huawei Y6; the issue seems to be with custom apps.

I have also tried provisioning the sample apps in this way without any success. Is there something I'm missing from my apps and the sample app that third party apps aren't?

Provisioning the device manually works but I'd like to make the process do-able by non-technical staff. Manual provisioning can be done by going through the initial set-up process, skipping anything that can be skipped. Once set-up is complete you have to turn on Developer Mode in the settings, turn on USB Debugging, install the app via ADB and then set the Device Owner via ADB to the receiver specified in the app manifest. Waaay too complex for our non-technicals.

Had the same problem and it was because the App I was trying to install was self-signed.  I signed it with a real certificate and then the problem went away.

It should also be noted, that I'm using QR codes instead of NFC as the tablet I'm working with does not have NFC.


Bluetooth keyboard won't re-pair to my Galaxy Note 10.1 I bought a Bluetooth keyboard and it worked beautifully for 2 days. I then unpaired it to use on my friend's tablet and it worked amazingly well on hers as well. When I went to re-pair the keyboard to my Note 10.1 it shows up in the Bluetooth devices list, but the box to type in the code will not come up and there is no settings cog next to the name like there should be. So the keyboard has become useless as I can not for the life of me find a way to re-pair and connect it to my tablet. I am running android 4.1.2. Please help as I need this to work for school. I purchased this to take notes in class.

This behavior is typical of some sort of internal error, you could try restating your bluetooth service. If this doesn't work a quick reboot is likely to solve your problem.


How can I edit a movie with Movie Studio? Using Movie Studio, how can I edit a video, specifically split it to remove a portion of the video? I've figured out how to apply effects and transitions, but I want to clip a portion. Is it possible?

A quick search brought up this article at http://blog.laptopmag.com/how-to-edit-video-with-movie-studio-on-your-android-tablet.

While I don't have a tablet, I have played with Movie Studio before, and it looks like all you have to do is tap the timeline at the bottom of your clip, and drag the arrows that appear on its edges to trim it. This only trims the edges off, so if you want to take a part out of the middle, I would re-add the clip (so you have two copies of it in your timeline), and then drag the arrows on the ends of the copy so you only have the part you want, without getting rid of the beginning of the clip from the original.


How can I reboot my phone without the power or volume buttons? Title is pretty self-explanatory. My phone's power and volume buttons don't work. The home button does. It's a Lenovo ZUK Z2 Plus.

This phone has always had a tendency to crash unless rebooted occasionally. Now that the power button doesn't work, I won't be able to turn the phone on if it crashes and shuts down.

I've taken a complete backup, but I'd still like to continue using the phone for as long as possible. In order to prevent the inevitable crash, I'd like to reboot the phone every so often. How can I do so?

Use the Scheduled Power On/Off features available in the Accessibility setting to turn it off, then back on a minute or two later.


Can I make phone call and receive SMS with Nexus 9? Does the Nexus 9 come with standard phone and sms functions?

The specs on the official website include cell radios, but the battery life estimates therein only include tabletty things (browsing and video) and not talk time. Since phones always include a talk time estimate in their battery specs, it seems like this feature isn't present.


Where are contacts located on Xperia P internal storage? I have SE xperia P, and it stopped working, or at least the display did. I can access the internal memory (where I've been saving all contacts, which i didn't back up), is it possible to find and extract them? If so, how.

These file I see when i connect the phone to PC, but I have no idea where to find contacts or SMS/MMS and such.

You need a phone with root access. The folder that usually stores the contacts is data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/contacts.db As  you would imagine they are placed in a 'safer' part of the device storage.

However, the /data folder is accessed via root directory /

You can root the device or you can use a Contacts Contract to access the database programatically, but as a normal user you can't.

As noted in the comments /android/data is not the same as /data


Talk back access to phone when switched on How can I override Talk back on my samsung galaxy J1 phone. When I switch on my phone I cannot access my menu as the voice keeps telling me to press the select menu twice

That is how Talkback works.

Single tap to select an item in the screen, double tap to achieve actual tap action (double tap corresponds to single tap when Talkback is enabled.) Also, double finger touch scrolling will let you scroll list views. By this way you can reach to Talkback settings and disable it.


How to move apps to external SD card on a non-rooted Android 4.4.2? I have an  Acer Iconia One 7 tablet running Android 4.4.2. I've plugged an external SD card in it,  and kind of expected that I could now "save" my data, such as my apps, pictures and videos, onto this SD card. The most easy solution I found was this button (which I don't have):

(Click the image to enlarge it)

After going through some forums, the most used solution I ran into is rooting your device and using some kind of app which makes the SD card writable.

My problem with that is, it's not user friendly at all, plus you might break the device (and lose your warranty).

Is there any user-friendly or one time setup way, to make it so that you can move your apps to the SD card or make the SD card the standard install location  without having to root your device?

With Kitkat your chances for a "complete solution" without rooting are pretty much zero: the Android project has definitely screwed up here. No apps get full access to the external SD card, which rendered a lot of them unusable:

file managers: you cannot use them to manage your external SD card. In most areas, they can only read but not write
media apps: you cannot retag/re-organize your media collection any longer, as those apps cannot write to it
office apps: pretty much the same

The only place 3rd party apps are allowed to write on your external card are "their own directories" (i.e. /sdcard/Android/data/<package_name_of_the_app>). The only ways to really fix that require either the manufacturer (some of them fixed it, e.g. Huawei with their Kitkat update for the P6) – or root (see my list of Other storage media tools for examples.

If you do not want to go the latter way (rooting), and the former way (fix by manufacturer) is not available, you can only do minimal things on Kitkat:

use app2sd (which seems to be available on your device) to swap-out parts of your apps. This requires the corresponding apps to explicitly support App2SD, and only will "swap out" parts of the apps themselves; other parts of the app, including all its data, will remain in internal storage
set your "default install location" to your SD card (see: Installing to SDCard by default). This will automate App2SD for all your new installations.

Apart from that, you could only hope and wait for a Lollipop update – which will not completely fix the issue, but at least slightly defuse it.

As long as you don't hit any storage limits, you might be mostly fine. Nevertheless, I recommend you already familiarize yourself with potential solutions for the day your data "hit the roof", so you won't be forced to "act in a hurry" then.

Further readings:

Other Questions with answers on "kitkat sd-card write" on our site, especially: Workaround for Android 4.4 not being able to write to SD cards?


'Storage space is running low' while I have plenty of space remaining I have an LG-D855 smartphone having  16 gigs of internal storage and running Android Kitkat 4.4. Although I have plenty of space remaining, the phone prompts Storage space is running low.. I had only installed an obb file of 1.2 gigs, which was of Fifa 14; and a few apps which sum up to around 3 gigs out of the total 16 gigs, yet the phone prompts so.

I deleted the obb files and it freed up around 8.5 GB of memory. Likewise, I guess 3 GB worth of apps filled up whole 16 GB. I have tried factory reset over and over, but in vain. Please help me.

This is really a common question from android users.

The answer is that Android has two type of space: app space and file space. When you install an app, it will use the App space (that is usually around a couple of gbs). When you do a factory reset, you will remove all installed apps (from app space) but file space will not be touched.

A common solution to this problem, is going to Settings -> Apps and try to move as much app as possible to the external sd storage.

Good luck


Is there a root for Galaxy S7 / S7 edge US Carriers? I recently acquired my Galaxy S7 edge from Verizon and I have yet to find a way to root it? Flashfire? Safestrap? Verizon kinda sucks with this stuff.  I previously had my Galaxy S4 unlocked with the stock android MDK that was on it.

Does anyone know if there is a root for the Verizon S7 Edge yet?  If so can you link a walk through / document one?  I am pretty good with roots I've been doing them for a while, I'm not afraid to use ODIN either.

Thanks,
asloss

UPDATE 6/15/2016:
Turns out there is potential!! http://forum.xda-developers.com/verizon-s7-edge/how-to/root-unlocked-bootloader-update-t3392841

Root is out and a full guide can be found on XDA forums through this link:root guide and files  This root is for Verizon

Other variants can be found below

T-Mobile

Sprint

AT&T

Verizon:

  http://forum.xda-developers.com/att-...-root-t3410403 Also credits to Mastajeff >for originally making the guide for T-Mobile.

  First off download these files: http://d-h.st/PK3q  Extract them to whatever folder you want, there will be 5 files in there.
  Folder named: "su" contains the SuperSU and thing needed to root the phone
  ADB Setup EXE called: "adb-setup-1.4.3.exe" Needed to install ADB and the Drivers
  Special patched Odin that skips the SHA 225 called: Odin PrinceComsy.exe (Mainly for AT&T)
  .ini file named: "Odin3.ini"
  Last, file, named: "Samsung_G935x_QC_Rooted_BOOT.TAR", this is the engBoot for the phone.

  NOTE: Some users have experienced endless boot loop; this seems to be
  caused by using a package disabler that disabled certain services. If
  you used one and end up getting an endless boot loop try wiping the
  cache and factory reset the phone.

  I suggest you backup your phone before doing this, just in case
  something happens.

  Install ADB by running adb-setup-1.4.3.exe
  Make sure to put your phone into downloading mode (Power off--- Hold Down arrow + Home + Power button)
  Open up Odin and click AP and mount Samsung_G935x_QC_Rooted_BOOT.TAR
  Once restarted put the phone into USB debugging mode (Need Developer options for this)
  To get developer mode, go to "About" then tap "build number" about 6 or 7 times
  Go back to settings and you should now see developer options, turn on USB debugging
  Now back on your PC, Move the folder named "su" into your ADB folder (Default Path: C:\adb)
  Run CMD by either Win + R and typing cmd or from the control panel.
  Once CMD is open type this Code:

    cd C:\adb\su

  or whatever your path to your "su" folder.

  After that type root.bat
  Wait for the CMD to finish and then your phone should restart
  Once your phone has finally restarted you will notice that SuperSU was installed and root should be working, download root checker to
  find out for yourself.

  If your CMD just says starting Daemon and doesn't proceed any further
  than that, then you forgot to make sure USB debugging was turned on.
  If everything went well you will see the CMD was able to push SuperSU.

  You can now install Xposed via Flashfire. Unfortunately, TWRP does not
  work on this method, so, DO NOT TRY, there is a chance that you can
  Brick your phone from doing that.

  Fix for wifi bug on restart:
  http://forum.xda-developers.com/tmob...8#post67592828

  Thanks 2swizzle for mentioning this. If you want to fix the
  lag/slowness download any CPU or Kernel Editor or changer. This one
  works fine: https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...ladiutor&hl=en To
  fix the lag
  1. Open up the APP
  2. Go into the CPU settings
  3. Set CPU Governor to ondemand
  4. Apply on boot You will notice that the phone runs fast as ever.

This root is for Verizon and disables Samsung pay.  The root has many variations for all US carriers.

All credit goes to http://forum.xda-developers.com/member.php?u=4911585 (br3w3r, Chainfire and Princecomsy) and Argyrus for writing up this post


How to use Network Time Protocol (NTP) on Android? Is there any way to sync time using NTP with a time server such as NIST Internet Time Servers on Android?

ClockSync accepts any given NTP server you input and syncs your device time with it. The app itself is not new but works fairly well to this day.


privacy protection password Different Sims were switched back n forth out of my BluStudio5.0 and now after 3 factory data reset, the lock screen remains asking for a privacy protection password.  I don't have a computer to flash the phone, and u can't find the receipt of purchase to have a replacement phone sent. Is there anything else I can try. And I've also tried every secret code, lock code, and any and all things free of cost for all the most common brands

Well that's not all you can try! There's still one way to get back into your phone. But you must have ADB (Android Debug Bridge) and USB Debugging under Development Settings!

If that's the case connect your phone via USB to your Computer, go to shell and type:

adb shell

Now you have access to a shell in your phone!
Next you must delete a file named "gesture.key"

rm /data/system/*.key

Now reboot! If you still see the unlock screen type something random in and it should unlock!


How do I update app installed from 3rd-party with Google Play Store's version? I want to update my WhatsApp to be able to use the calling feature. I've used a third party app to update WhatsApp till now. How do I update from Play Store, or will it only happen automatically and not manually?

The call feature is available in WhatsApp-2.12.5.

The Google Play Store should show you the latest version (If Notification Checked)

  How do I update from Play Store, or will it only happen automatically
  and not manually?

This is only available, when the below option is enabled: if this option is disable, you need to download manually.

As you can see in above option, if there is an update it will be shown in a notification.


How is the Gmail password stored in Android - and where? I have looked around and found no information on how Android manages to store passwords on the device. Especially Gmail passwords. I'm looking to learn how Android encrypts and stores passwords ? What key does it use and where is this key stored, and what encryption algorithm it uses.

Gmail's official app doesn't store password in your device. Your password is 100% safe if you use this app.

This is how it works: The password is used by Google's authentication servers for the first time ONLY. After first successful authentication, an Auth Token is downloaded to device which is stored in accounts.db file as plain text. For all subsequent logins, this Auth Token is used, NOT your original password.
So, if your device is stolen, all anyone can get is Auth Token which becomes invalid once you change your password. So, you'll be in ultimate command.
For ultimate security, I'd recommend you to enable 2-Factor Authentication & create Device Specific Password for your device. After losing device, all you need is to disable that device. You don't even need to change main password.

Note: These all aren't true if you use third-party email apps for Gmail viz. Stock Email app, K-9 Mail etc. IMAP or POP protocol needs original password to authenticate users everytime. So, plain password needs to be available to email app before sending it to server. So, most of email apps store passwords in plain text (hashing/encryption is useless because hashing/encryption key needs to be stored locally). In this case, I'd recommend you to enable 2-Factor Authentication & create Device Specific Password for your device. After losing device, all you need is to disable that device.

Update:
Technically, its possible to store passwords locally in encrypted/hashed form without keeping encryption key/ hashing key in plain text locally. Thanks to @J.F.Sebastian for pointing it out.  Unfortunately, such implementation for Android isn't available yet.  Starting ICS, Android provides KeyChain API using which an app can store a password locally in secure form. Apps using KeyChain API are rare, but stock email app uses it (Thanks to @wawa for this info). So, your password will be safe with stock email app as long as your screen is locked. Remember, KeyChain isn't safe if device is rooted and its not available on pre-ICS devices.


Activate screen buttons on the CyanogenMod I have a Xiaomi Mi3 running an Android 6.0 Cyanogenmod version and the back button doesn't work anymore.

In which way can I implement the standard touch buttons on the screen (home, back and menu) in order to use them?

Edit /system/build.prop and add the line qemu.hw.mainkeys=0. Save and reboot. Should you want to revert, change that "0" to "1".

Alternatively, use a non-native solution such as LMT Launcher.


Lenovo A2010-a keyboard I updated my lenovo A2010-a system and I can't unlock it cause my password is a pass code type, and the keyboard isn't working.
I already tried restarting my phone many times.
What should i do?

Have you tried the following fixes:

Fix 1: Restart the keyboard

Restarting the keyboard can be very effective in solving the problem. Many have found this to be helpful.

Go to the Settings menu of the device
Scroll down to the Apps section and Tap on Application Manager
Swipe to go to the “All” tab
Now look for the app Android Keyboard and tap on it
Now tap on Force Stop to stop the keyboard

Exit out of the Settings menu and go back to using the keyboard and check if it works. If you happen to use a third party keyboard or if the device manufacturer has installed its own keyboard then you should look for the keyboard that is in use.

Fix 2: Clear Cache and Data for Keyboard

Clearing the cache and data of an application allows you to clear files that can be possibly corrupted or which may be creating problems because of bugs.

While deleting the cache files does not delete any important information, you will lose your personal settings when you delete the data files from any app.

If you had made specific changes to the keyboard, you will lose those settings. You will have to go back into the keyboard settings and make the changes once again.

Go to the Settings menu of your device
Tap on Application Manager which is under the apps section
Swipe to the tab which includes “All” apps
Now look for the keyboard app. It can be Android Keyboard or the keyboard that you are using if you have installed a third-party      keyboard or if you have the manufacturer skin on top of the stock       Android.
Tap on the keyboard app
Tap on Clear Cache
Now tap on Clear Data
Tap on OK to confirm.

Fix 3:  Clear Cache and Data Files for Dictionary App

The dictionary app is closely linked with the keyboard app.

If for any reason you get the “unfortunately keyboard has stopped” error, there is a chance that it may be because of corrupt files in the dictionary app.
Deleting these files can be helpful in solving the problem.

Go to the Settings menu of your device
Tap on Applications Manager
Swipe to go to the “All” tab
Scroll and look for Dictionary app and tap on it
Tap on Clear Cache
Tap on Clear Data
Tap on OK to confirm

Once the cache and data files have been deleted, check if the problem has been fixed.

Fix 4: Install Updates for Google Keyboard

You can try fixing this issue by installing updates for Google keyboard. For that, navigate to play store on your android phone and look for the updates. Alternatively download the updated Google keyboard from google play store via your PC (Apk leecher website - can directly download the apk from Google play servers)

Acknowledgements:
Fix Android keyboard stopped working


Computing when on charger - long term effects on battery life Donating your computational power for scientific projects is, in some cases, available for Android. One of them, the World Community Grid, states that "Using the application will not significantly reduce your battery life or your recharge time." (source)

On the short term, I'm sure this is true. However, I was wondering about the long term. On my Nexus 5, I have experienced that, even when the device is fully charged and still plugged in, if I use power-hungry applications, battery level may drop to 99 or 98 percents. This indicates that the battery is still used when the device is plugged in.

For this reason, I was wondering if the battery can actually be bypassed at all, or if the device is just permanently charging. Notebooks with removable batteries can obviously do this as they still work without the battery, but as I can't remove the battery on my Nexus 5, I can't check this there.

I'd be interested in an answer regarding my specific phone, but general information about how most Android devices operate there would also interest me a lot.

You could try disconnecting the terminal by taking it apart, but you would need more power than whatever you are using currently. Such as a powered USB hub or higher amp charger.


On OnePlus One w CyanogenMod, how do I add notes to a Google Contact? On oneplus one cyanogenmod 12.1 w Android 5.1.1 Lollipop, how do I add notes to a google contact? When I go to Edit the Google Contact, there is no Notes section and there is no button to add that section.

On CyanogenMod, the notes section is after the building icon with the dialog box. See picture attached. If you don't have any notes yet, the field doesn't have a blank so doesn't appear editable.


J5 2015 operating system I had to factory reset my Samsung galaxy J5. While doing that it automatically upgraded my operating system/software.Can I restore old/previous one?
Thanks

You can find your device firmware on XDA or SamMobile. Download it and flash via Odin. You'll find the tutorial in the source most likely


Orange state: can't boot into fastboot after bootloader unlock (REALME 1) Can anyone help me with this? I unlocked my bootloader successfully. But after that, when I am trying to get into fastboot mode, I am not able to do so. Whenever I run adb reboot fastboot, phone restarts and on the restart logo screen, I get a message saying:

Orange state- this device can't be trusted as it is unlocked. Reboot in 5 sec

And then, the device gets booted to normal mode. I even tried to rerun the in-depth app to get into fastboot mode, but that also not redirecting to fastboot mode. App says: You can only apply to exit in depth test after carrying out bootloader lock operation in fastboot mode

Now, the problem is if I can't go to fastboot, I can't flash anything and I can't relock my bootloader. Any help would be appreciated.

P.S I already enagle usb debugging after unlocking the bootloader and I could see the device in adb devices command.

Following this to unlock bootloader

adb reboot fastboot is not a command. You just rebooted into the system not the bootloader.

The adb command to get into the bootloader is:

adb reboot bootloader

or

adb reboot-bootloader


How to install custom kernel from source? - Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 (GT-P5113) I have modified the kernel code in attempts to add a driver for USB to Ethernet. I have successfully compiled the code and am trying to install it onto my tablet. I am following the README that came with the source code provided by Samsung (making a .tar for the zImage file), but when I try installing it with Odin it gives me an installation error. Alternatively, I have tried making a zip file and installing with CWM and it again fails.

I am thinking that I am missing some files needed to perform the installation. What else besides zImage do I need?

I assume you're on Linux.

If the zImage already has a ramdisk in it (check by using unmkbootimg and confirming if you get initramfs.cpio.gz after decompiling), rename it to boot.img and do this in a terminal (Odin way):

tar -H ustar -c boot.img > boot.tar

Or you can look for an existing kernel for your device, download the flashable ZIP for it, replace the boot.img inside with yours, then flash in CWM.


Where are the captions stored for images that are sent or recieved in WhatsApp? When sending images in WhatsApp, there is an option to add caption to it. This caption is visible on image, at the receiving end, but when this image is copied or forwarded, only image is sent? (although the selection shows image caption also selected)

Is the image caption not in the image file itself Or its stored separately somewhere locally and so that part is dropped?

How can I forward the image along with its caption?

This is a bug in Whatsapp. It should send both image and caption.

It's present both in Android and iPhone versions. Doesn't matter if you user the FORWARD ("Arrow/Forward") or the SHARE feature, both loose the original caption.

You and everyone with this problem can (and should) send a bug report thru the app by accessing the Settings panel > help > Contact us.


Whatsapp - last time seen online - what does it mean? I'm using whatsapp and some of my contacts have been seen online AFTER my messages have been delivered..

My question is: If I read something like this:

  [10:01] my message is delivered The contact has been seen online at
  10:08

Does this mean the contact has read my message/opened whatsapp by himself? Or does it mean that his Android OS has let Whatsapp application

A single green tick mark indicates the Whatsapp servers have got your message.
A double green tick mark indicates that the recipient's device has got your message.

However, it doesn't automatically mean that the user has read or seen the message.

The last seen online may merely indicate that the user may have been talking to someone on the contact list or been in the Whatsapp application for any reason like adjusting settings etc.

No guarantee that the user has read your message.

Taken from http://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/general/20951546


Installing Signal without using Google Play, Still requests update of Google Play I want to install Signal on my Android 4.4.2

I found countless of reports that it appearently works without it, I followed the documentation here https://k7r.eu/testing-signal-without-google-account/.

But still after the installation when I enter my phone number i get a prompt.

"Google Play-Dienste aktualisieren" "Signal wird nur ausgeführt wenn du die Google Play-Dienste aktualisierst."

Which roughly translates to

"update Google Play-Services" "Signal will only be run if you update the Google Play-services"

I tried installation with apks from both theire Website and Apk-Mirror.

This behavior is caused if Google Play is still active in the background.

Appearently Signal finds the service, tries to use it and finds that it is outdated. I had to deactivate Google Play via

"Einstellungen" > "Allgemein" > "Anwendungen" > "Alle" > "Google Play-Dienste" > "Deaktivieren"

rough translate

"Settings" > "General" > "Applications" > "All" > "Google Play-Services" > "Deactivate"

After that Signal gave me a notification warning me that using it without Google Play will cause increased power consumption and I could proceed with the registration.


Android Version differs from expected API level I have found a pretty old device Huawei Ascend Y210. This mobile officially has Android 2.3.3 (API level 10). I found an online custom lollipop ROM for the specific mobile. The device has CWM as custom recovery. The zip file (the rom file) was installed successfully. The environment feels like android Lollipop should look like. Going to the mobile's settings > About phone > Android version, the version is 5.0.1 as expected. Using the command adb shell getprop ro.build.version.release the result is 5.0.1 indeed. However, I tried running adb shell getprop ro.build.version.sdk the result is 10 which is the API level of the stock android of the phone (Android 2.3.3). Apps made from API level 23 will fail to install as the API level is getting recognized as 10. Changing the apps' Minimum API level to 10 using APK Editor Studio, allows the app to get installed but it crashes once I try to open it.

Is that a bug? I mean can I somewhere change the API level of the device? Or is the ROM a scam and the android is never really getting updated to 5.0.1 and the ROM just changes the graphic interface?  How is it even possible to trick the adb that the android version is 5.0.1 but keep the API level to 10?

P.S.: If someone has any ROM for Huawei Ascend Y210 with android 5.0.1 or higher handy, I would appreciate a download link.

Thanks in advance!

As Izzy mentioned the issue here was that the owner of the ROM had modified the ro.build.version.sdk in the build.prop without actually provide any feature of the API level 23. I am not sure if Fidz's answer is correct since I could not find any resource online that claims the same thing (correct me if I am wrong), Google's official site claims nothing about the API level, it just mentions some thing about the Android Compatibility regardless of the API level and the hardware. I could not find any ROM for the device since it's pretty old and almost every support for the Huawei and Honor phones on custom ROMs and rooting is dead after Huawei disabling the ability to unlock the bootloader.


How to comprehensively back up user-significant data from Android device I'm interested in making a thorough backup of all my customizations to my android phone. Perhaps not so far as to "image" the phone, because the phone itself is locked to a carrier and I would like to be able to restore the backed up customizations to a phone that has different service and a different phone number (but maybe the method that folks propose would restrict restoration to devices of the same make and model, which would be fine with me - it seems hard to conceive of a method that would allow a backup of a motorola to be restored to a Samsung). In other words, I would like to have my apps, the data saved by my apps, my system configuration preferences, and the files I've manually littered around the filesystem such as in the "Alarm" and "Ringtone" directories. Again, I'd like to be as thorough and low-level as possible without getting into the realm of carrier locks, carrier bloat, or phone number and carrier service account.

Any ideas? I'm a knowledgeable technology user new to the world of Android. The device in question is an ATT Moto E, and in the upcoming future, I might try to restore it to a Sprint or FreedomPop or Republic Wireless Moto E, that latter two of which make modifications to firmware. Further, ATT is GSM while all three of the other mentioned networks are CDMA, so I definitely wouldn't want to backup the "baseband," if that is the correct term,  for my particular imagined use case, but maybe this is best framed as two questions that may be combinable into one to some degree. How would one go about doing this in my particular usecase, and how would one go about it in case it was the exact same (sub-)model? Maybe the answer is the same, which would be great.

Thanks

If you have a good enough backup program, why not just backup the entire file system on the device?  Under Ubuntu 15.10, my Android-based phone gets mounted at /run/user/1000/gvfs/.  I back all those files up with borg-backup.

A lot of the customization might also get backed up to your Google profile (I haven't switched Android phones yet).  My approach is very low-level and there might even be slicker ways to do it.

#!/bin/bash

# exit immediately on errors
set -e
# error out if uninitialized variable is used
set -u

REPOPATH=ssh://backups.example.com/backup/device/borg
ARCHIVENAME=tgh-usbdevice
if [ $# -ge 1 ]; then
  ARCHIVENAME+="-"${1}
fi
ARCHIVENAME+="-"$(date +'%Y%m%d-%H%M')

echo "Creating: ${REPOPATH}::${ARCHIVENAME}"
borg create --progress --stats ${REPOPATH}::${ARCHIVENAME} \
  /run/user/1000/gvfs/

borg check --archives-only --last 10 ${REPOPATH}


How do I change the home screen's Email icon to go to GMail instead of the default Email app on the Samsung Galaxy S? On the bottom of the home screen there is an icon for EMail. I don't ever want to use the default Email app. I only use GMail and would rather use the Google GMail app. How do I change where the icon goes and how do I remove/disable the other app?

at&t Captivate (Galaxy S)

Android 2.1

click "applications", click menu button, click "edit". You should now be able to drag the email icon away. Then just replace it with the gmail icon by dragging it to its place.

The other way is to configure the mail application to connect to gmail with imap or pop, but I wouldn't recommend it since gmail app is much better.

Hope this helps!


Removing a device from Android Device Manager for a specific account I work at a small phone repair chain. When I'm logged into the Gmail or Inbox apps with the company's shared Google e-mail account on my private phone, my phone is listed in Android Device Manager for the work account. This allows any and all of my colleagues to Lock or Erase my phone. No thank you.
My phone is an LG G4 running Marshmallow.

How can I remove (not hide) my phone from the Android Device manager for my work account and still receive e-mail on it?

Actually, it is very straightforward.
Remove the work Google account from your phone and then add it to Gmail app as an IMAP account instead of a fully functional Google account.
If it is added as an IMAP account, it doesn't get linked to ADM or any other Google app, for that matter.
From How to add Gmail account without adding Google account on Android - Gmail Community

Instead of adding the account as a Google account, add it as type Personal (IMAP).  That way only Gmail will be connected.  The settings are:

Incoming servername:imap.gmail.com
Port: 993
Encryption: SSL
Outgoing server name: smtp.gmail.com
Port: 465
Encryption: SSL


How do I install missing command line tools onto an Android device? Android installations do not always have all the tools one would expect to have on a Unix-like system.

For example, right now I have a problematic device which doesn't have find CLI utility. I mean, this is what I get while in adb shell:

$ find
/system/bin/sh: find: not found

Also:

$ /system/bin/toolbox find
find: no such tool

This particular device is running Android 5.0 (plus some proprietary additions by LG, I guess), but the question is for all Android versions, of course.

Is there a standard procedure for installing native/CLI tools (such as find), on Android? (A package manager?) And, anyways, how to do it in the most correct way?

For rooted Android devices
You can consider installing BusyBox app by Stephen. Per Play Store, the minimum Android version supported by app is Android 1.6 and it is a well-updated app. In essence, it installs the busybox binary into /system/xbin and places symlinks in the same directory for all the utilities it has.
What is BusyBox (not the app)?

BusyBox combines tiny versions of many common UNIX utilities into a single small executable. It provides replacements for most of the utilities you usually find in GNU fileutils, shellutils, etc. The utilities in BusyBox generally have fewer options than their full-featured GNU cousins; however, the options that are included provide the expected functionality and behave very much like their GNU counterparts. BusyBox provides a fairly complete environment for any small or embedded system.

Here is the official list of utilities it provides. find tool can be found there.
A competent alternative to BusyBox is Toybox, which has replaced Toolbox in Marshmallow release.
What is Toybox?

Toybox combines many common Linux command line utilities together into a single BSD-licensed executable. It's simple, small, fast, and reasonably standards-compliant (POSIX-2008 and LSB 4.1).

Here is the official list of utilities toybox supports. BusyBox, at the moment, appears to support more tools than Toybox.
I do not think an app exists to install Toybox binary, so you may use my answer here for the purpose of its installation. Note that the answer can be used for the installation of  both Toybox and BusyBox. Only prerequisite is downloading the binary from official sources.
Official download links:

Toybox
BusyBox

For non-rooted Android devices
I do not know whether there is a universal approach for all Android versions. That said, for Android 4.0 and up BusyBox Install (No Root) claims to work. There may be some terminal apps that comes with BusyBox binary. I've not personally tested any such terminal app but it is easy to understand that their  biggest drawback is: you can't make any or much good use of them using adb.
There is an approach however, which appears to work for any Android version above 4.2 (based on my tests). /data/local/tmp is a directory which can be edited by shell user. adb shell grants you the remote shell on device and login as the same user.
All you've to do is put  BusyBox/Toybox binary into /data/local/tmp and create symlinks for the utilities in the same directory. You can use the following steps for that.
(Requires adb setup in PC.)

adb push LOCAL_FILE /data/local/tmp/    # replace LOCAL_FILE with the file path of toybox/busybox binary in PC
adb shell
chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/FILE          # setting appropriate permission on pushed binary file. Replace FILE with the name of the binary you pushed in first step. Recommended is to use a single word as a name with all lower-case letters
box=/data/local/tmp/FILE                # setting up a local variable for usage in next step. Replace FILE as appropriate
$box | $box sed 's/\ /\n/g'| $box sed '$d'| while read line; do  $box ln -sf /data/local/tmp/FILE /data/local/tmp/$line; done   # We're executing the binary referenced by $box to list all utilities, followed by creation of a list and then for each item in the list, we're creating a symlink in a directory.

Izzy has recommended the most straightforward way to place symlinks for BusyBox binary.

adb shell /data/local/tmp/FILE --install -s /data/local/tmp/  # Replace FILE as appropriate. --install -s will create desired symlinks for you in a directory. Directory's path is provided next to it.

All those tools can now be accessed using the absolute path /data/local/tmp/TOOL. Replace TOOL with the utility name. Example usage of calling find command:
adb shell /data/local/tmp/find --help
adb shell /data/local/tmp/FILE find --help   # alternative way of using a tool

For interactive shell sessions, you can add the location of FILE into $PATH using export command:

export PATH=/data/local/tmp:$PATH   # this is prefixing /data/local/tmp into the existing value of $PATH. export would make sure that sub-shells see the same value in $PATH

Done that, you can now use find or another BusyBox/Toybox utility  in this manner:

adb shell
find --help

It is to be noted that changes in $PATH are applicable only for the current shell session. It means that every time you launch a shell using adb, you would've to export $PATH.
That said, there is no Android-only solution for non-interactive shell sessions other than of finding a way to create a variable whose existence and value would persist beyond the current shell session in your PC, not Android. Example:
adb shell $lolcat   # $lolcat is a temporary variable in my shell on PC and it was assigned the value /system/xbin/toybox. My bash shell is replacing $lolcat with its value and then passing it to adb shell (or you can say, it first expanded the variable and then executed the whole command)


Is there a way to stop android from creating folders on the SD card such as "Android" and "Download". I have Android version 8 In sd card folder of android is automatically created always, is there any to stop it?

Without tricks, the answer is No.

These "Shell Directories" are hard-coded into Android and get created automatically if any of them is found missing. You cannot prevent this behavior from happening, but there are workarounds that makes the directory creation fail, by putting a file with the same name in the same place.

See Why do Android create "Shell Folders" automatically? Can I change the shell folders?


Is there a way to visualize music from the microphone? With all the media and 3D graphics capabilities available on modern hardware I'd like to see a nice visualisation application that listens to the microphone.

If anyone knows the G-Force winamp plugin they know what I'm talking about.

Some 3rd-party apps can do this, such as:

Spectral Audio Analyzer

Free real-time audio analyser with 8 kHz spectral bandwidth. Display any sort of audio from the microphone as a coloured spectrogram. Identify environmental noise, search for annoying tones, view harmonic patterns of instruments and voices, analyse the frequency range of your speaker... .


How do I toggle grayscale in Android 11? In Android 10 I had grayscale display turned on. This was achieved by dragging editing the dropdown shade to add the Grayscale tile.
I just updated to Android 11. The display is still in grayscale, but the Grayscale tile is removed, so there doesn't seem to be any way to turn it off! I sometimes want to when using the camera, but then switch back to grayscale for day-to-day use. How can I toggle grayscale in Android 11? Moreover, is there a quick way to do so? The old way (pre-Android 10) involved turning on developer mode and changing a deeply embedded developer setting.

EDIT: There is a new Bedtime Mode tile. When I turned it on and off, color was restored. Turning bedtime mode on goes into grayscale, but also sets Do Not Disturb. So I can turn on grayscale only be entering bedtime mode and then turning off Do Not Disturb. This is less than ideal. Also, bedtime mode only lasts till the following morning. Is there a way to either (a) recover turning on grayscale without bedtime, or (b) change bedtime mode to last until turned off?

Actually you can schedule and customize the Bedtime mode.
If you long press the Bedtime mode tile, it'll open the Bedtime mode screen.

In the schedule option, select all the days and in the time select 00.00 to 23.59, so as to keep it on almost the whole day(max. possible time - 23hrs 59 mins a day).
If you tap the Customize option, you can see a way to turn off the DND mode.

That's it, done! Now you can simply tap the Bedtime tile and it'll remain on
Once you've done this, you need not turn off DNS, while enabling Bedtime mode, as it's customized now.

A small point: Bedtime mode turns off an hour before if you've set an alarm, say you set an alarm at 5.00 a.m. Then, the screen turns back colorful at 4.00 a.m. And if you set an alarm daily at that time, schedule bedtime from say, 5.05 to 5.04 or so


How granular can the app developer set the permissions to avoid turning the user away at the "Permissions to Photos, Media and Other files"? When a Notes app (like Google Keep, Wunderlist, Stickynotes) etc asks for permissions to "Photos, Media and Other Files" (PMOF) on your device, the user can get a bit uncertain. So essentially, can the app just ask for Files permission and not Photos,media? Are the permissions defined at such granular level post Android 6.0?

PMOF means android.permission.[READ|WRITE]_EXTERNAL_STORAGE, which, once granted, allows app to read whole /sdcard. See this answer for details how this happens at back end. Now the app can read / write / inspect /delete / rename / modify / upload / encrypt whatever you have in shared public storage including photos, videos, documents, contacts, messages, backups and so on.

Unfortunately Android offers no more granular control over this filesystem level access. However Storage Access Framework (SAF) can be used to not let app access whole /sdcard filesystem, but only a specific file or directory (included subdirectories).

Android Q is introducing a more fine-grained control with Scoped Storage.


In a Google account (sync), what is the difference between Contacts and People details? For a Google account, you are allowed to sync Contacts and People details. What is the difference between these two?

The best explanation I could find online:

  People Details is a new sync service related to the recent release of
  Google Play Games. It was pushed to most (if not all) android devices
  recently. Its purpose is to tie you together across all Google Play
  services (the separate services available from the Google Play
  screen). The idea is to maintain a uniform and unique "identity" for
  you in all related Google Games so that data from one can potentially
  be used to "enhance" the user experience in another

The contact sync is for the usual contacts that a user saves directly on your phone.


Will the app still be on my old device? So recently a favorite app of mine has been taken down from Google Play Store. But even though the app is no longer available on Play Store, it is still on my phone and tablet (both from Samsung company) and works perfectly fine on both of my devices. Also, when I go to 'My Apps and Games', I still see the app on 'Library' and 'Installed' options.
I'm aware that in order for my favorite app to function properly, I must ignore software updates on my devices. Hence, I've been ignoring software update notifications ever since.
But what I really want to know is that, will I be able to install the app from 'Library' on a new device from Samsung or any other company even when it is no longer in Play Store? Or doing so will cause the app to malfunction across all my devices? Will the app still be safe on my old devices?

If an app developer removed the app from Google Play Store this does not change anything for device which have the app already installed. Google only discards apps from devices if the app is known to behaving malicious (and may be if the app is violating some Google [business] rules, but I am not sure about that). Therefore your favorite app will stay on your old device unless you device to delete it.
On a device you won't be able to install the app anymore. Therefore if you want to continue using the app on a new phone you have to extract it's APK(s) from the old device and install it/them on the new phone.
If you want to keep your favorite app I strongly recommend to you to backup the app now. However it may happen that the app is not compatible with the newer Android version of a new device or the CPU architectures supported by your new device (ABIs). In such a case you have to let the app go.
To backup an app I recommend to you not only backup the app but also the app data (if the app allows to do so). This can be done on a non-rooted device using Android Debug Bridge (ADB) using the command adb backup. See various posts here on Stackexchange on that topic.
The app APK itself can be retrieved by various file explorer tools. Extract the APK and save it to a secure location e.g. on your PC and/or an external flash drive.


What is "FQC" test app in Nokia 6? There are some dialer codes in Nokia 6, e.g: *#*#4636#*#*,*#*#2486#*#*, *#*#372733#*#*. The last one starts an application named "FQC". In this app, there is a menu containing "Receiver test", "LED test", etc.

I think this is for factory testing, but after starting this test mode, did my device change to a test device? If yes, how can I stop and exit this test mode? Do I need to factory reset?

Just quit the app and it's ok.

If you change some settings (e.g in *#*#4636#*#*, setting priority to "Only GSM" or "WCDMA"), this will be set on your device. But if you only run it without changing the settings, quitting is enough.

To get your phone on "running test mode" you have to do it on "fbootloader" screen and set it to "factory mode", but restarting the device will get out of that.


Moto Droid v1 disabling primary Wireless AP I have a Motorola DROID v1 that is running Froyo (2.2).  I've noticed that if my device sleeps for a while, when I wake it up it will not attempt to connect to the wireless AP in my home.  When I go to the wireless settings section, I see a note next to the AP entry that says 'disabled'.  If I click the entry and select 'connect', it connects right away.  It will remain connected until the next longish sleep, when it is again marked as disabled.

Is there any way to prevent this AP entry from being marked as disabled?

Try this - go to SETTINGS > Wireless & Networking > Wi-Fi Settings. In this screen, press the MENU button and then ADVANCED. Click WiFi Sleep Policy and set it to NEVER.

Hopefully, that will retain a connection to the Wi-Fi Access Point.


What can I do with lost.dir files Is it safe to delete lost.dir files to save space in an android cellular phone, or is it better to move it to the sd card?

This question helps explain what it is.

In short, it is similar to the Recycle Bin in Windows. The system sends files that were recovered in during boot to it. When you put an SD card in, the "Preparing SD card" notification is shown when it is checking the LOST.DIR folder.

This folder is safe to delete, just as much as emptying the Recycle Bin on Windows is. But you will see the folder reappear next time you restart your device.


How to get current (foreground) activity name? Hoi! I'm trying to make an automatic night mode for my phone using "Automate", but I can't find certain app activities. How do I get to know what activities are executed in the foreground at the moment, so I can start it?

Using apps: Current Activity and some similar apps will display the info in the form of floating texts above the screen content.

Using adb (from your PC): dumpsys window windows | grep -E 'mCurrentFocus', or dumpsys activity top (for full info meant for developers)


Could someone confirm the status of Google Gtalk App on Android? I am a new android user but I am a computer and internet search veteran, however today I have been unable to find information about the status of google talk for android.

I simply want to download and install the Gtalk app for Android, but I cannot find it on the market. I find many references to it elsewhere, but the app itself seems to be gone from the market. I also find many references to voice and video chat in Google talk on android, so is it the case that google have removed the basic chat app in favour of google voice?

Google Talk was never on the Android Market.  It should have come with your device if it was a "Google Approved" device, e.g. one that met their minimum requirements (see this for the Gingerbread requirements).  The Google apps that come pre-installed on devices are usually not listed publically on the Market.  An exception is Maps, for example, which isn't preloaded on some devices either.

You should look under your app drawer for "Talk" (rather than "Google Talk", it's easy to miss if you look for that instead).  If it's not there it can probably be side-loaded if you root your device, but that's another issue.


How do I screen pin several apps to Lollipop? How do you pin an app so that you cannot go to another app or web without a pass code? Can this be done for several apps at a time?

To pin an app to your screen, go to settings->security->pin windows->on.

Then turn on 'Use screen lock type to unpin' there is no option to choose the code for this action. It will simply use your lock screen code for this.

Now open the window that you would like to pin, and press the recent apps tab, and press on the 'pin' icon.
To un-pin the app, hold down the recent and back buttons at the same time. This will bring you to your lock screen where you could unlock it using your regular unlocking method.
(More detailed directions here)

Unfortunately there is no way to pin multiple apps at once.


App killed from task manager is called foreground state or background state If I close app from task manager by doing-- Press home-button for a long time -> see all running apps -> swipe my app aside -> All app killed.

Now those apps I have removed from task manager is in background or foreground?
If app open in task manager is called background?

Thank you.

Apps foreground/background process depends on memory management of your device.

Let's say in your task manager you're running 8 apps and out of 8 you're currently using 3 apps via continuous switching among these 3 apps then your device will see your usage and it could trigger rest 5 apps to run in background for a while but if you don't use those 5 apps for much time then those apps could be triggered to sleep to save power and CPU consumption until you open them again.


Where can I get he CIFS kernel add ons to run CIFS? I use a GB ROM on my Infuse 4g but it does not have CIFS built in.  I am told there is an external way of adding this in.  Does anyone have a link to this?

What do you want it for?

There's 3 ways to get CIFS client support on Android:

3rd party apps implementing it themselves.  Many file managers (e.g. Astro, FX, etc.) go this route.
Replacement kernel with CIFS support compiled in or as a loadable module included.  This is the most common route, IME with Android phones.
Pre-built loadable module for the vendor's kernel.  This seems pretty rare, since the kernel interfaces can vary, and it can be difficult to find the right combination of compiler switches that yield the correct binary interface.

With 2 & 3, you still need some way of loading/activating the module and mounting shares.  This might involve editing boot scripts or loading a 3rd party program (e.g. Mount Manager) to handle the mounting/unmounting.  Even then, not all your applications will nicely handle the paths to files on a network share.

Now, if you want to serve CIFS shares out from your phone, that's a whole different ball of wax, and there's a number of apps in the Market that will handle that.


How to Install Android Apps to the SD Card by Default I am following this tutorial for moving apps to sd card.

How to Install Android Apps to the SD Card by Default

But My Default Location is not changing. And My Phone Memory is full and unable to install new apps.

After Android Tools Update command adb shell pm setInstallLocation 2 has been changed to adb shell pm set-Install-Location 2

Updated Tutorial can be founded here.


Can my friend's Android phone impersonate the starship Enterprise? I was recently browsing Reddit and found the geekiest command to boldly go where no command has gone before.

play -n -c1 synth whitenoise lowpass -1 120 lowpass -1 120 lowpass -1 120 gain +14

It's a Linux command using the sox package to create a continuous sound loop like the background sound on the starship Enterprise. Are there any existing Android apps for a Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone running Android 4.0.1 that would be able to replicate this?

You could just use Audacity or something to create a short clip of white noise, then play that on loop through the phone's media player. However, in my opinion, this whole question is a bad idea. It will constantly be running down your battery and using up processor cycles.


Nexus 7 is stuck in reboot loop after full discharge I have a few day old Nexus 7 tablet, unrooted, bootloader still locked, and otherwise in factory condition. This morning, it ran its charge out. When I plugged in it, this happens:

Google Logo appears.
Nexus Logo appears.
Lock screen which shows charging: 0%.
White screen, device powers off.
Repeat.

What is happening? Thanks!

If you've just plugged it in to the charger, leave it a while before you try to turn it on.  The boot sequence uses power faster than USB can provide it, so you will need a little juice in the battery in order for it to boot up all the way.


How to show wifi password? I have a rooted Samsung s3 mini, android version 4.1.2

How to show the saved wifi password of the router I am connected to?

From any file manager that allows root access to system files you can go into /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf file or directly search for wpa_supplicant.conf file.

You can open it with any text editor.

If you have Terminal Emulator you can also do this:

cat /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf

You will find all your saved passwords inside that file. Password will be stored as:

network={
    ssid="WiFiName"
    psk="password"
    key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
    priority=1
}


Updating old Android Jellybean (4.2.2) Device My friend has just dug out an old Samsung Galaxy Tab2 7.0.  It looks like it hasn't been used in a long time, and hasn't been updated in years.  It doesn't support TLS 1.2 and is missing updates to Trusted Root CAs.
If I open Play Store it goes into a loop of "Unfortunately, Google Play Store has stopped" messages and I have to reboot it.  I've tried clearing all the cache data for Play Store and Play Services apps, but it hasn't helped.
I did some searching about support for TLS 1.2 on Android 4.2.2 (which is what it's running) and found that it supports TLS 1.2 but is disabled by default.  But every post I find about enabling this refers to doing so in the API while building an app, rather than on the device itself.
Does anybody have any thoughts/ideas on how I can get some updates installed onto this device so that it'll start talking TLS1.2 ?  Is there any http only site that I could download some updates from for example ?
I did try going into About > Check for Updates but it says that it's already got the latest.  I'm not too sure if this is just because it can't talk to any updates server or if it's correct.  Seems like there'd have to be some way of supporting TLS 1.2 on these older devices ?
Thanks in advance

According to the Wikipedia page for this device, officially, it only supported 4.2.2 at the highest.
You'd need to update it using a third-party software, such as LineageOS.
That said, the tablet itself is outside of even their maintenance window, and depending on which device you have (the Cellular version or the Wifi version), will need to manually build their latest OS for it.
All the standard disclaimers about modifying your android device with aftermarket software remain relevant here.


My app refuses to work unless I have a vpn enabled Would be grateful for some advice. For over a year my app developers have been struggling to get my app working correctly on my Galaxy S7. The issue seems to be that some aspect of the login process fails unless I use an active vpn connection. This happens with both Facebook login and regular login. With the vpn on it all works ad it should. We see the same behaviour on 2 S7 Edge devices. It doesn't seem to be as simple as just having something blocked here in Dubai as with an emulator on my laptop the app appears to work. What could cause this very strange problem? We've been trying to solve it for a year. I can't launch the app until we fix it.

Android Nougat adds a feature whereby Android for Work apps can declare in their security configuration that the app can only work when connected to a VPN, for security reasons. There's a quick description of the feature (amongst other Nougat features) in this Ars Technica article. This page on the Android Developers website describes how the app developer can control the feature, but the description is very technical and a bit impenetrable.

The restrictions added inside the app interact with the Device Administrator app (such as AirWatch), so that your IT department can set a security policy that enables or disables the restrictions (just like any restrictions on password length).


How to remove "Bing" sign from Microsoft Launcher? I would like to have my home screen as clean as possible. Is there a way to remove the "Bing" icon from Microsoft Launcher (bottom right corner)?
I've deleted the search widget, fixed the dock in place - nothing helps.
I have:
Android 10.
King Kong Mini 2

The icon is there because the wallpapers from the Microsoft Launcher is being pulled from Bing, so it has a watermark on it. You can't remove it unless you place your own custom wallpaper.


deleting photos from device I see this when I go to delete from the Photos app

  "Deleting will remove the photos and videos on your device and also
  any backups in your account"
  "Cancel"/"Delete everywhere"

is there a way to delete from my device without deleting the backup on my Google+ account
Nexus 4 Android 4.4.4

When using the Photos app it will do that for you.

If you use the Gallery app it will only manipulate the local images, therefore deleting the local ones. The Gallery app comes with Nexus 4.


Importing contacts from SIM card results in only mobile numbers, and no home numbers I needed to reboot my phone, (Galaxy Ace, Android2.3), but wanted to save all my contacts. So I did the following:

export contacts to SIM card
reboot phone
import contacts from SIM card

The problem is that only one phone number for each contact came back in when I imported. (When you enter contacts in Android, the default 'first' number is a mobile, and the second number is labelled 'home'. Ever wonder why the phone displays "call mobile" even when the number is a landline? This is why.)  Anyway, as I was saying, only the mobile or first phone number for each contact has been brought back in.  Any suggestions?  I have checked all the display options available.

Contacts on SIM-Card are very limited -- so they e.g. can only store one phone number. Your phones / Google contacts, however, use a much enriched format, where you can store additional information like multiple phone numbers and even pictures.

Naturally, both formats are not 100 compatible. When exporting your contacts to SIM, information must be cut down to fit that format. That was when you lost your additional information. So no way to get that back -- it was gone the moment you overwrote your data doing that import.

The only chance left is using "forensics methods" -- in the hope the "deleted" data has not yet fully been overwritten. However, that would require root access to the device: You need to locate the contacts database (it's most likely named contact2.db, and will probably be located below /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/ -- the location might be different with some devices (e.g. Motorola uses a different provider for this). You could copy the databases from this directory to your PC, and investigate deleted entries with a HEX editor -- but that's no easy job for someone not used to it...

I know it's too late now for that -- but it might help you next time: To backup/restore your contacts, the contacts app offers an export to VCard format (.vcf) which it of course also can read back. This way all information is kept.


Have a widget activating something in an app? I have the SyncMe app, and I would like to have a widget activating a fuction in the app.

Now I have to open the app -> Click on a button -> Click on another button.

Can I have a widget doing this by just clicking it?

In short, you can't.

Only the application can interact with itself internally, unless an API was created for that end. External applications aren't able to know what to do in order to follow your desired "path".

The best you could achieve is opening the application, but you still needed to manually tap the buttons.

My recommendation:

I believe you are trying to have some sort of "Sync Now" functionality without having to open the application and clicking some buttons to achieve that. Either case, Email the developer and request such widget, I'm sure it's useful enough and interest will arise.


Why does scanning for carriers take so long? Whenever I want to switch my carrier (even to back automatic selection), my mobile (rooted Galaxy S4 mini if that matters) scans one or more minutes for carriers. Why does it take so long? Wi-Fi Matic doesn't seem to require that much time to identify cell towers which in turn provide information on the available carriers, so what's the problem, and can this be accelerated somehow?

Your cellphone searches for a predefined (by the vendor) time (in your case about 1 minute) for available carriers and then displays the result. The delay is there to make sure there are as well the towers available for you to choose from which have a weak signal and loose some packages on the way.

You can not change that behavior in your Galaxy S4 mini.


Uploading and sharing geotagged photos I would like to be able to upload photos with geotag data to an online database that gives access to a controlled audience.

For example it is possible to use Picasa with a joint Gmail account that the photographer uploads to, but the viewer will have the login credential to the Gmail account and therefore can edit/delete these photos.

Is there a way I can accomplish this?

You could do this with Picasa. Simply create an upload account for the photographer, (you could then upload from your computer or directly from your phone) and choose to share the album or individual pictures with the viewer(s) via private link.


Is there any way to force market to update and install apps one at a time? I'm having problems with my Samsung galaxy Captivate where whenever I attempt to update all the apps in market, every single app begins downloading and installing all at the same time and the result is always the same, it crashes (20+ simultaneous downloads and installs would definably overrun any system!).

Is there any way to set it such that android is only allowed to download and install a single app at a time? I want to be able to run the batch updates but I want them to be queued up as opposed to all running at once and overwhelming my system.

If you use AppBrain it does downloads sequentially. Unfortunately you'll still need to click "Okay" for each to start the download but it'll save you a few taps.


Wi-Fi Verbose logging fields I've been trying to troubleshoot a Wi-Fi issue (with a specific network) and have Wi-Fi verbose logging on, but I can't find any documentation on what any of the fields in the network selection menu are.
The network in question has the full info of:
Connected [ UN UN UN ] f=2462 00:00:b1:6b:00:b5 standard=4 rssi=-75 score=59 tx=23.3,27.9,1.0 rx=20.9 4G STAs:8[(2)

I understand rssi and STAs (although, I have no idea for the second number for STAs) and f fits the channel frequency, but the rest (UN, tx/rx, standard, score, and 4G) have me stumped.
Does anyone have any idea for these or a pointer to the relevant documentation?

The Android source code is available online.
Your log line appears to be from:
WifiStateMachine.java specifically String getLogRecString(Message msg)
Around line 2196, the string output starts looking similar to yours:
sb.append(" rssi=").append(mWifiInfo.getRssi());
sb.append(" f=").append(mWifiInfo.getFrequency());
sb.append(" sc=").append(mWifiInfo.score);
sb.append(" link=").append(mWifiInfo.getLinkSpeed());
sb.append(String.format(" tx=%.1f,", mWifiInfo.txSuccessRate));
sb.append(String.format(" %.1f,", mWifiInfo.txRetriesRate));
sb.append(String.format(" %.1f ", mWifiInfo.txBadRate));
sb.append(String.format(" rx=%.1f", mWifiInfo.rxSuccessRate));

The variables names appear reasonably descriptive for at least further research. The above file is dated 2017, given that there have been a number of WiFi changes made between OS version, I would find the one matching your version of OS, by looking for a "base" OS version branch (left hand side), and then drilling down to the appropriate WiFiStateMachine.java file:
https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/opt/net/wifi/
or searching for an appropriate string where you can find where logging is occurring.


Disable some Touchwiz features I'm using a Samsung Galaxy Music and the screen locks every time I make a call with the message "double tap to unlock". Can I change this?

Try disabling the talkback feature if it's on.

Go to Settings>Accessibility>Talkback and uncheck.


Can I forward my text messages from my Android phone to a Chromebook? I am coming from an iPhone and a mac book, and I am used to the idea of being able to send and receive all my texts, calls, and face times from my laptop. After making this huge switch, I am confused how anyone can consider this better. Can someone tell me if this is possible? I am not against any sort of under the table methods of making this happen. I have a Galaxy S3 and a Samsung Chromebook 2, so if Google can't do it, I'm thinking Samsung should be able to.

MightyText: http://www.mightytext.net

and PushBullet: https://www.pushbullet.com/

are third-party apps that provide this functionality.


On screen soft mouse? Is it possible to have a touch control of the mouse cursor in Android instead of the use of a hardware mouse?
Maybe something like the soft keyboard?

As Liam W suggested, have you tried the any of the developer options? On at least 4.0 (ICS) and higher (and perhaps older versions, someone else will have to verify) in Settings > Developer Options check out Show Touches and Pointer Location (screenshots and short descriptions here). Neither are exactly what you're looking for, but perhaps you'll find them useful.


Restore Firefox icon removed by mistake from the screen I don't know how I did removed the firefox app icon from the main scren

How can I restore it?

My phone is using Android 5.1 and it is a TPLink Neffos C5

Edit:
The icon is not present in the app drawer

But at the applications section

As unusual, my phone does not support app drawer, but it comes with a feature named Hidden apps, the solution was:

Access hidden apps by doing a 2-finger swipe on the home screen.
Search for the firefox icon and add it to the hidden apps.
Close and reopen hidden apps.
Press edit and unselect the icon.

Now it should appear at the end of your screens.


Recovering from forgotten lock pattern My son has an impression tablet 10 and has forgot the lock pattern. How can we reset it without knowing the code?

If you entered your pattern incorrectly 5 times, Android would lock the lock screen so you cannot draw any more pattern for 30 second (this is to prevent brute forcing) and a button will show up that will allow you to reset the pattern by entering your Google Account email and password.

The image on the left is what the lock screen normally looks, after entering the pattern incorrectly 5 times, another button appear on the bottom.


I am always seen as online on Google Chat/Hangout How can I make myself offline so that noone can see that I am available. I am unable to find this option after GTalk -> Hangout upgrade.

the availability option has been deprecated in hangout. To make yourself invisible or so, either you have to downgrade to gtalk or the easiest way you can do this by going to your gmail account from your pc. There you should find this availability option.