How to stream audio from Android to PulseAudio server? I have a home linux server running the PulseAudio - with shared audio devices, that are connected to cool sound system.

And I have an Android 4.4-based phone. I want to stream audio from my phone to the PulseAudio server.

How to do that?

For my linux distribution (Fedora 20) it's quite simple:

[PC] Run PulseAudio. (Runs automatically on Fedora)
[PC] Load module bluetooth-discovery. (It's auto-loaded on Fedora)
[PC, Android] Pair with Android-phone via Bluetooth.
[Android] In device's options set the profile "Use for media audio".
[PC] Connect to the phone.
[Android] Play music. (I use Google Play Music - it works)
[PC] The phone's stream is detected as an Input Source - in case, you want to mute or amplify it.

Caveats

The only problem is the step 5. I can't connect to PC from my phone - I think, it's a linux problem - and it's another question for another forum.


Disable Contacts sync does not work I have found that with my Pixel 4XL (or maybe it's Android 10) disabling Contacts syncing NO LONGER WORKS! With my older Pixel 2 it did work, and I would manually trigger a Contacts or Calendar sync when I wanted to. I have checked and double-checked all the settings (see below)... but it still syncs without me triggering a sync.

The settings I make are as follows ... Via Settings -> Accounts
At the bottom of the main accounts page, there is a toggle named "Automatically sync data" with the text "Let apps sync data automatically". If this "Automatically sync data" toggle is ON and you then select your GMail account, and press the "Account sync" button, you are able to edit the(Google) apps you don't want to auto-sync (i.e. turn sync OFF). I do this (I switch all Google apps to off), and return to my GMail account page. I then see "Sync OFF for all items" in grey text under the "Account Sync" button (my upper case for OFF above).
I then go back up to a higher level .. that is back to the main accounts page. The toggle "Automatically sync data" is still ON of course, and the grey text under it says "Let apps sync data automatically".
I don't want this to happen, so I now set this "Automatically sync data" toggle to OFF.
Here's the problem: after making this last change (i.e. "Automatically sync data" toggle to OFF), when I select my GMail account again, I now see "Sync ON for all items" in grey text under the "Account sync" button(my upper case for ON above)!!  This is completely contradictory! How can it be that after first disabling auto-sync on all the Google apps and then switching off "Automatically sync data" Google signals "Sync on for all items" ?!?

And here's the bigger problem: the above message is correct. Because if I leave the settings as above the Contacts does indeed continue periodically auto-syncing. (I know this because if I delete my contacts in the Google Contacts app in the cloud after a short period all the contacts on my phone disappear too!).

I have tried removing my Google account and adding it again, but without success.
It seems to me that this is either (a) a bug in the "Automatically sync data" implementation .. OR .. (b) a deliberate implementation of Google to fool people that their data is NOT being synced. I have also tried all sorts of variations and checked Google account settings in the cloud too (not much there!), all to no avail.
It seems I cannot now disable auto-syncing of Contacts ...
If somebody thinks I'm missing something help would be appreciated?

I've had the same issue and am happy that I'm not the only one.

Under Settings > Google > Account Services > Contacts sync you will find two Options - Automatically sync Google contacts and Back up & sync device contacts - to disable. I will test this the next few days and report back if it didn't do the trick.
I guess they have moved this option and replaced it with a wired design.


How can I access the Gmail contacts on an Android tablet? I am helping a friend who has an Android tablet with an app for Gmail. Her mail contacts appear if she starts typing a name, but she wants to be able to go to Contacts and check off multiple people to send mail to. We cannot find any access to Gmail contacts without going through the browser to the full Gmail site.

You can access to them through the "Contact" app of your tablet. If you do not see them at first sight, go to the parameters to select the contacts you want to show.


no alert tone when receiving a message I have Samsung galaxy s duos 2 GT-S7582. my problem is that, everytime I receive a txt message, I don't hear any alert. ive already checked all the notification settings and all of it were turned on..

Do you hear ringing when you receive a call?
If you hear nothing at all you might want to check your headphone jack, it has a little switch inside that is used for the phone to detect whether headphones are plugged in or not. These switches tend to get stuck from time to time causing the phone -wrongfully- to detect headphones are plugged in, and sending the audio to the jack instead of the built-in speaker.

Only try the below in case you hear no audio at all from your phone's speaker!

First I would try by blowing some air (either with your mouth or lightly pressurised air, like from those keyboard-cleaning spray cans). If this doesn't work you can try loosening the switch by poking around in the headphone jack with a toothpick or something, just be carefull not to bend any of the contacts or something.


Unknown "white rectangle" system notification icon on Samsung Galaxy I have Samsung Galaxy S7 running on Android 7.0 Nougat. I got a new notification symbol that looks like a white rectangle on the right side (which is usually for system icons).

Sometimes it's gone while I'm browsing with the Chrome browser but then it's back.

I don't use or install any Cast apps. Long-pressing the icon only open the notification bar, but no additional information. Toggling GPS, NFC, Bluetooth didn't help.

What does this icon represent?

Pull down the notification bar and long press on that notification, you should see the app associated with this icon. This could belong to an app you installed.


Does Android provide auto-switching of network mode when mobile data is toggled? Whenever I want to turn on the mobile data, I have to go to "Preferred network type" menu and Switch to 3G/4G/Prefer LTE manually which requires many steps.

So does Android OS provide auto switching to 3G/4G/Prefer LTE mode when network turns on and auto switching to 2G mode when I turn off the mobile data?

Note: I'm using MI note 4 mobile with Android 7.0.

If there is no such option, how can I send this as a suggestion to Google or Android developers?

So does Android OS provide auto switching to 3G/4G/Prefer LTE mode when network turns on and auto switching to 2G mode when I turn off the mobile data?

No, it doesn't

  If there is no such option, how can I send this as a suggestion to Google or Android developers?

Yes. You can, as mentioned here

  You can help improve Android by reporting issues and feature requests in the Android Issue Tracker.

IMO, this would fall in the Networking section.

I wouldn't cross my fingers hoping something will come out of the bug report but it's your call.

If you root your device and install Xposed framework, you can install Gravity Box and select Smart Radio option (Note: As of today, Xposed framework has not been ported to Pie; Gravity Box module & Xposed framework vary as per Android version). Also, Gravity Box works best on AOSP ROMs so it's better to check out in your device forums if it works well or not.

Using this feature you can switch to 2G when you are not using the data network and switch to selected network automatically when using data. I use it and snapshots below show the choices of network when
 connected / not connected to data (power saving and normal mode). In addition you can fine tune switching and create a Quick Settings tile for it.

(Tap to enlarge)


Obtaining root access I have a LGMS500 (never again), I have used Link2SD and Advanced SD Card manager and have moved as many apps as I can to SD card and this was not many. Any other app I try to move to SD card I receive the following "Could not obtain root access" "Allow or Grant to superuser". OK, newbe here when it comes to android, how do I obtain root access? While understanding this term as a former programmer, I have absolutely no glimmer on how to do this with Android.

It is slightly different for every device, I'd recommend seeing if there are any threads specific to your device and how to root it  at forum.xda-developers.com be careful to follow all steps correctly to avoid bricking your device.


How to set default action handler permanently? I've set defaults apps for many actions like sending email, opening PDFs, opening webpages etc. But, when I install or update an app which could handle that action, this default is cleared (even if default app is updated).

Nobody has problem with this because they can tick default checkbox on next action. My problem: I use Tasker to automate high amount of actions. And, due to this default removals (after automatic update), my tasks are stuck at Choose App pop-up. Tasks need to be completed in time. So, I face many real-world problems due to this.

What should I do to preserve defaults after automatic app update. Please, don't answer You can't or Turn off Automatic Update.

AFAIK, defaults on Android is not preserved if apps that use the intent are changed.

Workaround:

Use intent to launch the application or its activity screen.

intent is comparatively reliable though it may be changed when app is updated.

Take sending email as an example

Install Intent Intercept (Google Play)
Clear the defaults of email client
Choose "Intent Intercept" in Share menu when sending email
Copy intent details of your desired application activity
Open Tasker to "Create Task": Misc > Send Intent
Edit the parameters (Usually fill in the Action and Extra is enough)

Ref: http://tasker.dinglisch.net/userguide/en/intents.html

P.S. Some famous companies even provide you the intent details on their developer website, such as Evernote.


Keyboard overlaps text boxes I've been having this strange issue for a while where my keyboard overlaps in app text boxes. It happens with every kind of text box that sits on top of the keyboard. It seems like it aligns with the bottom of the selected text rather than the box. It's really annoying to type this way. Especially when trying to edit something higher up in the text. I then have to close the keyboard in order to be able to go back to the end and put my cursor there.
I attached a screen shot of the issue. It's showing SwiftKey but it also happens with the default keyboard.
I'm running lineage os 17.1.

Apparently this is not a common issue as I have found nobody else having it. I found that the issue is only present in the full screen mode (i.e: when te status bar is hidden). Cant really wrap my head around why that would happen but at least it's a fix for now.


Problems with time zones on a Micromax unite 3 with Lollipop My timezone is GMT +5:30 but it always changes it to GMT +2:00. Please help me fix this problem. This made me miss an important meeting.

I'd first check your settings under Date & Time (at the bottom of the settings menu).

Possibility 1: Automatic time zone is deselected.

Issue: Your phone is manually setting an incorrect time zone.
Solution: Select Automatic time zone

Possibility 2: Automatic time zone is selected.

Issue: Your phone is automatically selecting an incorrect timezone
Solution: Set your time zone manually by deselecting Automatic date & time and pressing Select time zone below and setting it to Kolkata or Colombo (both GMT +5:30).

Let us know if either of these fixes your issue!


Is there anyway to increase 'App Storage' space on a HTC One X? I'm currently using 6.48GB of 6.76GB 'App storage' on my HTC One X of which 4.95GB is classed as 'other'.

I've seen some guides which suggest methods to extend storage onto an SD card but the HTC One X doesn't have a slot for one.

Is there any way to repartition or something along those lines? Or is it time to upgrade?

You can try :
How I expanded my app storage (repartitioning)

or developing a rom with your requirement.

(delete the unused or etc apps/files from rom)


How do I tell whether an app or website has accessed my account password? Is it possible for apps to access one's Google account login credentials? How can a user determine whether this has occurred?

To determine if an app has accessed your account, you would need to look at that service.

For example, too see if an app is connected to your Google account, while logged into your account in a browser go to https://myaccount.google.com/permissions and you will see all the connected apps, what they are connected to and if they have basic account information permission or not.

Facebook has a similar page available at https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=applications as does Twitter at https://twitter.com/settings/applications

Other services you may have given an app credentials to likely have a similar page, if not I don't believe there is a way in your Android device to see if an application has actually used any permission or credential you have given it.


How to create a service without any /system/etc/init.d directory I would to get a boot daemon service.

My android 6 device is rooted and I installed busybox pack on it. After remount my /system partition in read/write, I make /system/etc/init.d directory  and I put my shell script inside. I rebooted my android device and the script didn't start alone. I checked the executable permission as well.

I browse the web around the question and I should modify my /init.rc file trough modify the boot.img file and this is a few complicate and init.rc seems target one file not a directory.

Is there an other procedure?
Thank for your help.

I found the solution here :
How to Enable Init.d Support on most Android

That's worked for me


Problems installing Lineage OS 14.1 on Lenovo P2 (black screen/blue LED) I have a Lenovo P2 (42a) with Android 6, which I tried switching to Lineage 14.1, as my carrier hasn't provided any security/OS updates since 2016. I have previously done this with my old Motorola Moto G from Android 5.

I took a backup with adb (under linux mint), using the -system and -all options.

I unlocked the bootloader.

I flashed/booted TWRP 3.2.1.0 for this phone ("kuntao").

I transferred zip files. At one point the phone switched off while transferring with TWRP having mounted the "Internal Storage" partition, but it appears I got all things over on second attempt. It seems that sometimes TWRP gets stuck if the screen switches off while it is doing something, but the timeout can be increased if that is really the case.

I flashed the Lineage OS 14.1 file for the P2 ("kuntao").

I tried flashing the stock GApps zip, it let me know this was the version for 14.0 and I needed a different GApps file.

I then started over, flashing the Lineage OS 14.1 file and the GApps zip for 14.1 (Android 7.1).
This would stop in various places, at least 3 different ones.

I then started over with the Lineage OS 14.1 file and the micro GApps zip for 14.1.

This completed, but when booting I get a black screen, a single long vibration and a continuously blue LED.
The phone cannot switch off, only restart into bootloader or recovery, which at least isn't the worst news.

My adb backup does not restore - if I try this under TWRP, it seems to react to it, but get stuck, although with the screen on. When the command line process finishes, the result is the same as above.

Only issue I know of is that the provider can have added a few features, so that the flashing of the 14.1 file doesn't work exactly as intended. That would mean I need a complete image for Lineage OS or an image to restore to the "standard" Lenovo P2 state, as indicated here and here.

Any good ideas/procedures? Thank you.

OK, fixed - in the end I did this:

Tried "flashback" to stock android 6 with this zip file.

That didn't just work, so I tried with the automated script "flashall" in the zip.

That failed for the partition/image prov/prov32.mbn with the error message:
FAILED (remote: Do not allow to flash Bootloader image on Unlock device)

I then went into the
PRODUCT_CONFIGURATION_KUNTAO_ROW.xml file and looked at the command list.

I then executed all remaining steps except the ones to delete partitions, for instance

<KUNTAO_ROW_IFLASH>
...
<step operation="flash" filename="prov32.mbn" partition="prov"/>
(first failure in script)

<step operation="flash" filename="sbl1.mbn" partition="sbl1"/>

became

  fastboot flash sbl1 sbl1.mbn (failed with same error)

<step operation="flash" filename="sbl1.mbn" partition="sbl1bak"/>

became

  fastboot flash sbl1bak sbl1.mbn (worked)

and so on all the way through, but skipping the instructions to erase (although I would have done it if the phone didn't start up). It did and I now have ROW (Rest Of World or normal) firmware rather than a carrier-specific version blocking OTA updates due to compatibility with one of their own apps.

I could then pick up a series of normal OTA updates from Lenovo, including Android 7, so I now don't need Lineage OS to get an upgrade for this device (at least not before they do an official Android 8 ROM for it :) ).

<step operation="flash" filename="rpm.mbn" partition="rpm"/> - didn't work
<step operation="flash" filename="rpm.mbn" partition="rpmbak"/>
<step operation="flash" filename="devcfg.mbn" partition="devcfg"/> - didn't work
<step operation="flash" filename="devcfg.mbn" partition="devcfgbak"/>
<step operation="flash" filename="lksecapp.mbn" partition="lksecapp"/>
<step operation="flash" filename="lksecapp.mbn" partition="lksecappbak"/>
<step operation="flash" filename="tz.mbn" partition="tz"/> - didn't work
<step operation="flash" filename="tz.mbn" partition="tzbak"/>
<step operation="flash" filename="keymaster.mbn" partition="keymaster"/> - didn't work
<step operation="flash" filename="cmnlib.mbn" partition="cmnlib"/> - didn't work
<step operation="flash" filename="cmnlib.mbn" partition="cmnlibbak"/>
<step operation="flash" filename="cmnlib64.mbn" partition="cmnlib64"/> - didn't work
<step operation="flash" filename="cmnlib64.mbn" partition="cmnlib64bak"/>
<step operation="flash" filename="emmc_appsboot.mbn" partition="aboot"/> - didn't work
<step operation="flash" filename="emmc_appsboot.mbn" partition="abootbak"/>
<step operation="flash" filename="logo.bin" partition="logo"/>
<step operation="flash" filename="NON-HLOS.bin" partition="modem"/> - didn't work
<step operation="flash" filename="fsg.mbn" partition="fsg"/>
<step operation="erase" partition="modemst1"/> - skipped
<step operation="erase" partition="modemst2"/> - skipped
<step operation="flash" filename="adspso.bin" partition="dsp"/>
<step operation="flash" filename="boot.img" partition="boot"/>
<step operation="flash" filename="recovery.img" partition="recovery"/>
<step operation="flash" filename="systemchunk0.img" partition="system"/>
<step operation="flash" filename="systemchunk1.img" partition="system"/>
<step operation="flash" filename="systemchunk2.img" partition="system"/>
<step operation="flash" filename="systemchunk3.img" partition="system"/>
<step operation="flash" filename="systemchunk4.img" partition="system"/>
<step operation="flash" filename="systemchunk5.img" partition="system"/>
<step operation="flash" filename="systemchunk6.img" partition="system"/>
<step operation="flash" filename="systemchunk7.img" partition="system"/>
<step operation="flash" filename="systemchunk8.img" partition="system"/>
<step operation="flash" filename="systemchunk9.img" partition="system"/>
<step operation="flash" filename="systemchunk10.img" partition="system"/>
<step operation="flash" filename="systemchunk11.img" partition="system"/>
<step operation="flash" filename="systemchunk12.img" partition="system"/>
<step operation="flash" filename="cache.img" partition="cache"/>
<step operation="erase" partition="userdata"/> - skipped
<step var="config bootmode factory" operation="oem"/> - skipped

EDIT: On the plus side, I just got the newly released Lineage 15.1 ROM to work for this phone.


How to prevent CPU throttling after not poking at screen I'm trying to run some benchmarks on a Nexus 5 using GNURoot Debian. (The purpose of these benchmarks is to figure out which implementation strategy of an algorithm is the fastest on ARMv7, so the CPU needs to stay constantly clocked.)

I've set GNURoot Debian to take a wake lock and a wifi lock. In the system developer settings, I've prevented sleep when changing. (And I've connected a charger.) I've set the screen timeout to max (30 min).

Yet, when benchmark runs suggest that the phone still alternates between some kind of 100% performance, 80% performance and 75% performance modes.

Is there a way to tell the phone to stay in one of these modes consistently (when the screen is on and the charger connected)?

(I'm keeping the phone in a cool place and the phone isn't running hot, so I think this isn't thermal throttling. Also, the phone stays in the non-100% modes for longer than Raspberry Pi 3 stays in its 50% mode when doing presumably thermal throttling during the same benchmarks.)

If you have root access you can try to use an app like Device Control
to set the processors min frequency and a rather aggressive cpu governor.
explanation:
The cpu governor controls how quickly the cpu responds to alternating performance demands. If you set it to an aggressive mode like "performance" or "interactive" the cpu will try to stay in a high power state as long as needed whereas with a powersaving mode it will try to be in a low power state as long as possible.
With the cpu min frequency you can try to lock it to the fastest possible power mode.


What does this icon mean, in the stock messenger app? Pretty straightforward; when viewing the list of recent contacts/conversations, the stock messenger app on my Samsung Galaxy S3 shows this icon, but for only the one conversation.

I don't know if it's a button, or notification, but I'm afraid to touch it.

Can anyone explain what it is/does?

Well, I believe I've found it.

As per this thread (for example) on the interwebs, it has to do with the Tango app, which I've recently installed.

Essentially, since Tango integrates with your phone like a parasite, when a contact is not available to use Tango the (x) icon indicates this in the stock SMS app.

Having cross-referenced this against similar threads, it seems to be the answer.


Where does Clockworkmod create a Backup? I have a Moto G with the bootloader unlocked, and cwm v6.0.4.7 installed. I'm still one the stock ROM, and am looking into installing cyanogenmod

Before I do this, all the articles I see advice me to do the following:
1)Create a Backup using CWM
2)Format System partition
3)Clear Dalvik Cache
4)Flash the new Rom

Now my question is, where is the backup created by Clockworkmod stored? Won't it be deleted when I clear the system partition & the Dalvik cache?

Will I be able to go back to my original ROM if I follow the above steps?

It is stored in /sdcard/clockworkmod/backups/<software version with time stamp>/, which on merged storage becomes: /storage/emulated/0/clockworkmod/backups/<software version with time stamp>/

It isn't supposed to be a hidden folder, but it might be in case someone changed something, including the CWM developer. Refer @beeshyams answer for further details.

Also, this is in reference to versions of Android below 4.2 JB for merged storage, but can be applicable up to 4.4 KitKat if the device has a separate SD card partition, i.e., no merged storage. Now, CWM does offer a choice of locations for the backup, not limited to USB OTG, external SD or internal SD partition (whether real or emulated).

Try connecting your device to your computer and see if the folder shows up there.


Can't reinstall an app uninstalled through ADB I recently got a Huawei P30 and used adb to remove some preinstalled apps I didn't want to use. I went a bit too far and removed the system gallery app (com.android.gallery3d) which turns out to be problematic for multiple things, such as opening taken pictures directly from the camera app.

I've tried reinstalling it but I'm facing multiple issues:

When trying to install the APK that's still on the phone in /system/priv-app/Gallery2, I get a INSTALL_PARSE_FAILED_NO_CERTIFICATES error. The full error:

Failure [INSTALL_PARSE_FAILED_NO_CERTIFICATES: Failed to collect certificates from /data/app/vmdl30820468.tmp/base.apk: /data/app/vmdl30820468.tmp/base.apk: File res/drawable-xxxhdpi-v4/img_patten_7.jpg in manifest does not exist]

When trying to install a version I found online, I get a INSTALL_FAILED_VERSION_DOWNGRADE, which is odd as the app is supposed to be uninstalled. It doesn't appear in pm list packages, however running dumpsys package com.android.gallery3d does give a result, and the version is indeed more recent than the one I'm trying to install (9.1.1.309 vs 9.0.15.355). Using the -d flag when installing doesn't help as it's not a debug app. I couldn't find a more recent version online.

Is there a way to reinstall this app that doesn't involve a factory reset? Alternatively, is there a way to install a different version of it? It seems like com.android.gallery3d is a generic package name, I wouldn't be against having the "stock" Android one.

The solution can be found in the question Reinstall System app which is uninstalled for the current user? (which is unanswered):

adb shell cmd package install-existing com.android.gallery3d

Note this doesn't work in Android 5 (hence the other question), as the cmd command was only added later (I don't remember exactly when, but it's available in Android 7 at least).


Is it possible to run applications with different locales (languages)? I want to run some applications in one language and the rest with the others. Specifically, I'd like to run maps in Russian (I really don't need names transliterated to Latin) and everything else in English (Russian translations are usually very poor and I just cannot understand what the app wants to tell me. English translations are usually good enough for me to understand).

I run stock android 4.2.2 on rooted Texet X-basic tm-4072. The solution involving Tasker does not apply for me because Google Play says Takser is not compatible with my phone. There was an application for this, but now it's outdated and I don't know how to reach the author (he suggests to send the newer version to those who write to him).

In desktop Linux I'd simply run app with different LANG value, does something like that work for Android?

This module for Xposed Framework should do the trick if your device is rooted.

Install Xposed Installer.
Run Xposed Installer and use it to install Xposed Framework. It's a two-tap operation followed by a reboot.
Find the App Settings module in Xposed Installer, install and enable it. Reboot device.
Click the module in Xposed Installer to show its GUI. You'll be presented with available features, including changing app locale.


galaxy s3 not charging I have a samsung galaxy s3. It is only 7 months old. Its battery is not getting charged. I have tried to reboot and take the battery out and put it again,it still doesnt get charged. The usb port is not faulty as others phones get charged from it. What should I do?

I think the USB port of your phone is defective. IMO it's best you get it replaced while warranty is still active(Samsung offers one year warranty)


"µamera" problem on S3 I am using an SD card on galaxy S3 - I store my photos on here. But today, on the DCIM folder of that card, I see a folder that named "µamera" and all of my photos were gone.

It seems that, this issue is somehow common, if you google "µamera" you'll see that.

I am trying to recover photos from SD card but it seems SD card is not readable by PC. However, I can see the all other files in the SD card from the phone, even other photos which are not in DCIM folder (that is current camera folder). The problem is only the DCIM folder which camera writes photos.

Does anyone have an idea about this problem and solution? I am also open to good advice on recovering files on S3. Thanks!

It turns out that, they were all in the LOST.DIR folder with arbitrary names (numbers) -- so taking them from LOST.DIR folder and rename the files in that folder with .jpg extension recovers the images. For whom interested.


The device is temporarily restricted I try to install an app from Android Studio on Xiaomi Mi Max via USB.

The debug mode is on, but when I try to switch the 'Install over USB' enabled, I get 'The device is temporarily restricted' message.

Core version is 3.10.84, Android version is 7.0, MIUI version is 8 Global 7.7.20.

Finally, I got a workaround - the Wi-Fi has to be turned off and then the installation over USB works as expected.


problem in updating CM12 nightly on Moto G XT1033 I have installed CM12 Falcon nightly build on my Moto G 1st Generation XT1033 after installing CM12 I tried to update using Settings->About Phone->Cynogenmod updates first time it successfully installed CM updates but after that I am not able to install latest updates.

The system update is crashing in Recovery mode message saying
unable to install from zip

What should I do?

Note : I am using TWRP Recovery and not CM Recovery.

Here's a stopgap measure to keep your phone updated:

1) Nandroid backup. Necessary

2) Get latest CM12 falcon zip.

3) Copy zip to SD card.

4) Reboot to TWRP.

5) Wipe /cache and /system.

6) Dirty-flash ( common parlance for flashing without wiping userdata) the zip.

7) Cross your fingers and hope it works.

8) If it doesn't, there's your Nandroid backup. Now try a clean flash (in step 5, also wipe /data.

9) It should work (it's like installing a new ROM).

10) The next time onwards, download the OTA zip yourself, compare checksums of the files, copy the OTA zip to your SD card, flash the OTA zip without wiping anything.


How can I fix small images on the Facebook website? Facebook images appear small, and don't take up whole width of the screen:

Screenshots (click images for larger variants)

This problem was reproduced on both Xperia T and Xperia SP (both running CM12, both have HD screen), and also both on Chrome and default CM web browser.

This problem didn't occur on Xperia Mini (HVGA screen), and I don't have any issues with the desktop version either.

Is there any way to solve this?

Which Chrome browser version you're using exactly?

So I just went around reading about the issue (of which I also experienced too), and realized it appears to be fixed already, at least for me.

To confirm again, I also quickly pulled my phone and tried viewing images on Facebook via Chrome, and they appeared nicely, not in small size.

Assuming the issue (which is likely a CSS issue) was reported some months ago, I am sure they'll be at it and tried to fix it.

My images appear alright though. Perhaps update to the latest Chrome on phone and it might solve it for you. I didn't even noticed it's been fixed until reading this question and going to explicitly try it out.

As a proof, see image attached. This is how images show on my Chrome when I visit Facebook for mobile, the m.facebook.com

FWIW, my Chrome version is 42.0.23311.bla-bla-bla. I'm on Android 5.1.1, custom build, using CyanogenMod for Xperia Z2


How do I turn on Safe Search ICS 4.0.4? I can't see any option to turn on Safe Search. Can anyone advice where I can find this?

System Settings->Select your Google account->Search->Near the bottom.


Turning off social apps I would like to know if there is a way in Android 6.0.1 to turn off certain apps when I am using mobile data. For example, I would like to turn off Facebook Messenger while keeping Whatsapp available. Is that possible? I have a friend that can do this but I cannot do it in my phone.
Best regards

Install a firewall and restrict internet access to your desired app.
You can grant access to mobile data or WiFi or block completely from accessing data.
There is an inbuilt app in Lenovo handsets called security, which does this job pretty well.

Lenovo security firewall (click image for larger variant)


How does the App "Battery Repair" work? I just found this App (Battery Repair) on the Google Play Store, my question is how can it make my battery last longer. What optimazions are they doing? Has anyone tested this tool, does it work?

No app can "optimize" or "maintain" the battery in any way as it can't get the necessary access to the hardware -- probably not even if it required root. This app explicitly advertises that it does not. Anyway, the manufacturer's engineers surely have already implemented all the necessary optimizations. There is no way that the app's developers knows anything useful about every phone's charging circuitry and battery that the engineers don't.

In short, there is no way this app does anything useful at all. (It might even be malware, but I don't get that impression in this case).

(Note: the following is probably not true)

The only thing an app can do (on a rooted phone) is to recalibrate the battery. If the battery is miscalibrated the OS might think that it is as good as empty and force a shutdown although there is still a useful amount of charge left. One app that does this is the aptly named Battery Calibration.


Moto G GPS is inaccurate I am running CyanogenMod (12.1) on my Moto G (first generation) and while using mobile data, the GPS is extremely inaccurate when driving. I use Google Maps driving mode which used to be great when I had an iPhone, but using Moto G, Google Maps always display wrong position.

I even had the GPS mode on High Accuracy but did not change much. Any suggestions?

Apparently it is a known issue with CM 12.1.
to fix :

fastboot erase modemst1
fastboot erase modemst2


Video player with chapter support? anonye knows if there's an Android video player that supports chapters embedded into .mp4 videos?
Similar to the player on IOS.

Thank you

There are only two of them.

SimpleCinema (by DeveloperRevolution): it works with both Quicktime-variant chapters and Nero-variant chapters. The former is more popular. It is a small player that just does one thing.

LVOE Media: If you are not sign language user, you probably will find its sign-language-optimized interface a bit weird, but I've tested that it can do Quicktime variant chapters, Nero-variant I did not test against this player.

Chapters in video files is a good feature, unfortunately most people don't know it exists.


Switching between my profile on Google+ and a page I manage I have a Google+ account. I manage a page there, too. But how to switch between them using an Android device that its version is 4.2.2?

In the Google+ app, tap the "hamburger" menu in the upper left. It should show your cover image, your profile image and name, and a menu of options: Home, People, Photos, etc.

Tap the downpointing arrow next to your name.

You will probably1 see an option to "Select Google+ page" with a right-pointing arrow. Tap that.

Now you should see your page(s) available in a menu. Tap it.

You are now using Google+ "as" that page.

To go back to your personal profile, follow the same steps, but choose your profile where before you chose your page.

1If you've done this before, then the page you used before will be listed here along with "Switch Google+ page" (if you have more than one page to manage). This also assumes that your Google+ account is set as a manager/owner of the page in question.


Disable sound when a specific App shows a notification Is there a way I can allow notifications yet turn off notification sounds for one particular App? I want the notification sound to be off even if my phone is not on vibrate or silent mode.

I am using a One Plus 5T running Android 9.0.8

I assume you mean OxygenOS 9.0.8, based on Android 9 Pie.

To do this, you can go to Settings > Apps and Notifications > See all apps

Scroll down the list to find your app and select it from the list.

Tap Notifications.

Choose which notification channel you would like to mute notifications from.

Tap Behavior and select your desired behavior.


VPN app in Google Play Store prevents me from connecting the Internet I was using the app called VPN 1-Click for a long time. Recently I got root and granted it permissions when it asked for it. I recently removed the permissions from the app because the servers weren't so stable.

Now my phone won't connect the Internet at all. Neither wifi nor mobile data works.

Naturally, the app makes changes in your network configuration.

The problem occurs when you do not disconnect using the exit button within the app. So it seems as if the internet doesn't work is because the server is down. You forget that the VPN is still connected although you think it isn't.

The problem occurs only with root permissions because without root, you can see running VPN services in the notification bar since it's running under Samsung's scope, reminding you that VPN is connected. When using it with root, you just don't see the notification, giving you the wrong idea that there's no working VPN although there is.

Anyways, restarting the phone reverts the configuration to a default state, thus solving the problem.

I don't believe that the app is malware or stealing ID in any way.


Why is there no option to choose size in TWRP's resize partition feature? I'm trying to reflash an old Galaxy Note N5100 but I realized that the system partition is too big (~1.5GB). The current ROM uses only about 40% of the partition so I want to shrink it to make space for cache and data. I heard that newer TWRP has resize2fs so I installed the latest (3.0.2-0) TWRP and try.

But after selected wipe > repair or change file system > resize file system there's no option to choose the new size! I tried swiping to resize it and the system is now even larger (~2.5GB). I checked with fdisk and it's really bigger now.

~ # fdisk -l /dev/block/mmcblk0
Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT

Disk /dev/block/mmcblk0: 30777344 sectors, 2740M
Logical sector size: 512
Disk identifier (GUID): 52444e41-494f-2044-4d4d-43204449534b
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 30777310

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1            8192           16383       4096K   0700  BOTA0
   2           16384           24575       4096K   0700  BOTA1
   3           24576           65535       20.0M   0700  EFS
   4           65536           81919       8192K   0700  PARAM
   5           81920           98303       8192K   0700  BOOT
   6           98304          114687       8192K   0700  RECOVERY
   7          114688          180223       32.0M   0700  RADIO
   8          180224         3325951       1536M   0700  CACHE
   9         3325952         8568831       2560M   0700  SYSTEM
  10         8568832         9715711        560M   0700  HIDDEN
  11         9715712         9732095       8192K   0700  OTA
  12         9732096        30769151       10.0G   0700  USERDATA

Why is that? Where does the new size come from? Is there anyway to enter the size in TWRP?

First to clarify, Resize Partition is different than Resize File System, TWRP provides latter option. It resizes the ext2/3/4 filesystem to the size of partition it's created on. Filesystem size can be checked with df command when mounted, and partition size with blockdev.

Just like HDDs or SSDs on PC, Android's eMMC storage is divided into partitions (can be 50+). Some of them have filesystem e.g. the larger ones userdata and system. In simple cases a filesystem occupies a complete physical partition, but it's not always the case, LVM makes it possible to have single filesystem on multiple partitions. Or the opposite what happened in your case as explained here:

Sometimes the zip file of:

  a custom ROM does not have the correct size for the system partition and if the ROM flashes a raw system image, that image will not take up the full block device. Running resize2fs can fix the size

Similarly:

  Sometimes flashing a factory image may flash userdata with an image with a file system that does not take up the full size of the block device

So TWRP can expand the filesystem to reclaim wasted space. That's what happened in your case to the /system partition. The actual size of partition was 2.5 GB, but flashed image was of 1.5 GB.

Coming to your query:

  I realized that the system partition is too big (~1.5GB). The current ROM uses only about 40% of the partition so I want to shrink it to make space for cache and data.

You want to resize partition, not filesystem. So resize2fs (which TWRP uses at back end) isn't the right choice. As your partition table suggests, you need to delete and recreate partitions 9 to 12. IT'S DANGEROUS AND NOT RECOMMENDED, you may permanently brick your device. All data on these partitions will be lost, so do backup. Also, fdisk isn't proper tool for GPT, it's for MBR partition scheme. Use parted or gdisk instead, but with great care.

RELATED:

How disk space is used on Android device?
Partitions and Filesystems on Android devices


Can I prevent auto-update of apps with changed permissions? I would like to auto-update any app that has no change in permissions.  Apps with changed permissions, I would like to review the changes before updating.  Is this possible?

You can choose do not auto update from the setting of play store
when you open Play Store > My Apps (from NAVIGATION Drawer) if there will be any notification to update apps ..
when you choose UPDATE / UPDATE all then it will ask for accept permissions if there is any change in permissions

Well it is not possible but If you want to stop Auto-update apps on android then this might be the perfect answer
 1. Open PLAY STORE
 2. Play Store Setting
 3. TAP AUTO-update apps
 4. Choose From Options


What is the default resolution of a wallpaper that fits the homescreen exactly in an Android phone? On an Android phone the wallpaper spans across all of the home screens.

So what size should pictures be to fit properly as custom wallpapers?

Here are the correct wallpaper dimensions for the phones cited in Leimi's answer:

480x320 for devices like the HTC Wildfire
640x480 for devices like the HTC Hero or Legend
960x800 for devices like the Nexus One
960x854 for devices like the Motorola Droid

If you device isn't listed there is an easy way to figure out the dimensions of the wallpaper based on your particular phones resolution:

2x the width and 1x the height

so for example my Moto Droid has a screen resolution of 480x854 so I want my wallpaper to be 2x the width (480 pixels) and 1x the height (854 pixels) = 960x854.

Here is a chart with most devices specs to help find the resolution.

Also check out this Lifehacker article that explains Android wallpaper sizing well.


Improve scrolling lag in Android I am not referring to the App opening/closing animations (that can be modified in the launcher or the Developer Options changing the animation scale) but the actual scrolling of websites, webviews, and within applications.

I am noticing this on a few flagship devices, but it occurs far less on Nexus devices. I'm assuming the OEM skins or the 1080p screens on these devices (or both) are contributory factors.

I've tried changing goveneors and I/O schedulers to no avail. This is persistent lag across a range of browsers (Chrome, Samsung, HTC, Dolphin, Boat, Firefox) and across other apps such as Google Plus, the Play Store and Facebook.

Is there any way to improve this scroll lag, it is severely degrading the performance on several devices including S5, M8, Note 3 and others.

Edit: Devices are rooted so all suggestions welcome.

First I would jump into the developer options and play around with rendering settings in there. This is going to pertain to the GPU probably a lot more than the CPU.

You can also enable some helpful rendering overlays to get visual feedback regarding touch areas, rendered areas, and gpu utilization.

Unfortunately I can't say that one particular item or another will fix it so you will have to play around with them until you see some improvement. Things to try:

High performance mode
Force GPU rendering

The next step would be to try to overclock the GPU's which is going to vary by device.

I would suspect that a mobile friendly site would have much less of an issue rendering all the scrolling than a full desktop site. Another option would be to zoom in more and see if that alleviates some of the lag.

Yet another option would be to try out some custom roms on each of the devices that boast smoother performance. The trade off you're looking for is more performance which is usually at the cost of more battery drain. Efficiency is a great thing but I would always prefer stable smooth performance first and then efficiency.

Do you see any difference if you start scrolling from a still screen vs continuous up and down scrolling? (ie not letting the gpu stop rendering) If so, bumping up the minimum clock at least temporarily may improve this area. The performance governor is your best bet for now.

For the M8, I would recommend ViperOne. I run it on my M7 and its very smooth. You can overclock the GPU with built in software. The only thing I see some lag on is when there are a ton of complex button/slider items that need to be loaded which happens to only be on a few pages within the ViperTweaks sub-app.


Is it possible to access Face ID sensors raw data? My Honor 10 has facial recognition capability in the dark, I suppose it works like Apple's Face ID which would rely on and IR camera and an Infrared pattern/dot projector.

So, since the Settings app and the Screen lock app can access those sensors, could it be possible to activate/ access those sensors data in another custom built app (on a Rooted smartphone) to use it for 3D scanning objects or simply recording the face of the user in order to 3D print a functional facial recognition "key"?

FaceId is based on infrared light sensors and depth sensing technology.
All the captured data is saved in the form of Encrypted hashes in the secure enclave.
First of all, the system doesn't allow you to read these files. But in any case
you are able to read the encrypted files, you can not decrypt them for your purpose.

All the encrypted data is saved locally.

If you are creating a new app, you can use these sensors for capturing data.


Google play store not working when default install location is SD card I have a non-rooted Android 5.0 device. The Android installation of my phone provides an option to set the default storage location (analogous to adb shell pm set-install-location 2, I think).

After changing the install location, and moving the existing data files to the SD card, the already installed apps are working okay so far. I can install apps from downloaded apk files too, which goes directly to the SD card).

However I can't install any new app or update existing ones via the Google Play store. It simply throws an error stating that the app could not be installed / updated with the error code 963.

I have tried clearing cache, Google play data and resetting Google play to factory state. But the problem persists. How should I proceed next?

The problem has been fixed. I don't know what caused it to fix itself, but here is the list of what I tried -

Clear application data of Google Play Services and Google Services Framework.
Clear application data of Google Play Store
Uninstall updates of Google Play Store
Remove the Google Account from the device and then adding it again.

After Google Play Store is now installing and updating apps on the SD card without any fuss.


I'm getting frequent inaccurate location as the same location, can I make this stop? My wife and I are both having this occur frequently, with the primary issue it brings up being that we often find ourselves getting directions to our desired location or searches for things nearby oriented in Mascoutah, IL when we are in fact about 45 miles away from there.

I have an LG G3 running Android 5.0 and she has an LG G4 running Android 5.0.

I'd like to figure out how to make this stop occurring, or at least occur significantly less.  I would have blamed WiFi locations, but I'm including a few screenshots of three different days of mine that show it is very unlikely I'm hitting a WiFi consistently with that location.

When this occurs, send feedback to Google from Google Maps, with your location enabled.

Open Google Maps.
Touch the menu (three lines).
Touch 'Send feedback'.
Touch 'Report location issues'.

This is what Google requests that you do.

More background:

The Washington Post reports that location as reported by your cellular provider can be inaccurate. This story includes a successful resolution for one person from Sprint, but a continuing battle for another person. Part of the trouble is that no one owns this problem. Reporting it to Google is a start, but may not actually solve your problem.

It could also be a WiFi problem. Using alternate firmware like DD-WRT often resets the MAC and SSID to a common default; so it is definitely possible that there are access points at multiple, widely spaced locations that map to the same place.

If you have the location accuracy of the bad location, this may also be hint as to the error source. WiFi will generally report errors in the 10s of meters, while cellular is generally in 100s of meters.


Recover data off internal memory of a pin-locked phone? How to retrieve data off of internal memory for LG Optimus (android 2.3.4), not rooted, locked via PIN password, and no forgot password showing up on PIN entry screen?  I'm more particularly interested in contact data then anything else.

Using adb, you can use adb pull to take any file you want from your phone, event if it is protected and locked (I tried on 4.1.2, don't know if it works on more up to date versions).

Only the /data folder needs root privileges to be read and it is where your contacts are stored. If you have root privileges, you can look at this answer to know where you can find them.

Note that you have to enable USB debugging before trying these steps.


Hibernate apps, but have them wake up periodically for a short time Many of us Android users have probably already heard of Greenify – an app that can automatically hibernate apps as soon as you turn off the screen. That even works while keeping their GCM functionality working – so whenever a cloud message for them comes in, they get awake again.

Unfortunately, that wakeup only works with GCM. Now I want to hibernate a non-GCM app, but have it awaken in intervalls (eg. de-hibernate it all 30 min for 1 min, then auto-hibernate it again).

Is this possible – and if so, how?

My device is rooted, the XPosed framework is installed, and tasker available as well – so solutions involving one or more of those criteria are perfectly welcome as well.

Oh well, oh my … question almost included the answer. Still needs some testing (I've just set it up now), using tasker which has a Greenify plugin:

  Condition:

  Event › Display › Display Off

  Task:

  Task › Wait: 20 s (just in case)
  Task › Anchor: (Name, optional step)
  Plugin › Greenify › Hibernate: Pick the app
  Task › Wait: 30 min (or however long you want to have the app hibernated)
  Plugin › Greenify › Wakeup: Pick the app again¹
  Task › Goto: Action Number, 2

  Exit Task:

  Plugin › Greenify › Wakeup: Pick the app again¹

Note: That's how I would set it up. Had to skip the exit task as Tasker won't let me add one. So that's the crux here: I have to trust Tasker to restore the "previous state" correctly. If that doesn't work, I'll have to create a second profile for Event › Display: Display On (which would, being an EVENT, fire when the display will be turned on – it's not a state) and have a single task to do what otherwise the exit task would do.

Note 2: In order for this to work, you need to add the "target app" to Greenify's hibernation list first (i.e. tell Greenify it should hibernate it when turning the display off). If you don't do that, it won't ever be hibernated at all.

¹ if your app doesn't react on the wake-up command, see Xavier's answer for an alternative shell command to try


Switch Payment Profiles on Play Store? I am based in India and my account has a billing address of USA. (this was long ago) I have made another profile which has a billing address of India, and I need to use the Direct Carrier Billing payment method but my Play Store is still showing me my USA profile.

How do I change my Payments Profile on the Play Store app?

You can now change this in the Google Play app under:

Menu > Account > Preferences > Country and profiles

If you have more than one profile - they should be here.
In case if you are stuck with a single business profile - signing up for YouTube premium creates an individual profile.


How to move tasks from GoTasks app into another phone I've just changed phone.

Using Samsung smart switch app, I was able to transfer all my stuff from my old phone to the new one. Everything has been transferred with this app, except tasks stored within GoTasks app. I know this application can synchronize with google account, but back in the days, I didn't care about that and just used local task saved directly into my phone for the convenience of it.

Overtime, I've put a lot a task with a lot of detail there so rewriting them in the new phone isn't really an option.

So here, it would seem Titanium Backup could rescue me. With it, I could backup data of the app from my old phone and restore the backup into my new phone. The problem is that this application need to phone to be rooted. Apparently, my old phone was and I wasn't even aware of it. My new phone is a Samsung Galaxy S5 running android 6.0.1 and I was unable to root it so far using "kingRoot, kingo root" and others. (sad) Yet, there is probably other thing to try to root it, but here the thing, rooting is almost illegal and void warranty. I might not care about this, but I wonder if I really need to get down that path to get my TasksGo tasks   transferred into my new phone.

Is there a better way to transfer the tasks of GoTasks from my old phone to my new phone? I would love something as easy as copy pasting a file from my old phone to my new phone, but sadly it doesn't seem that simple... There is no tasks saved in gotasks app of the new phone.

My old phone is a Samsung Galaxy3 running android 4.1 if that could help.

In the end, I was able to use google synchronization and a reasonable amount of manual work to get the tasks on the new phone.
Here is what I did.
Step 1 through 5 are on the old phone, after that they are on the new phone.
Step1
Rename a list of tasks in TasksGo to add "local" or "old" at the end.
Step2
Create a new task list with the original name of the list renamed at Step1. Here, you need to link this new list to your google account.
Step3
Put the new list below the old one. Then, from the last to the first one, start drag and dropping all task from the old list into the list.
Step4
Delete the now empty old task list and repeat step 1 to 4 until there isn't any local task list anymore.
Step5
Hit synchronise in the app's menu. This wasn't enough for me because automatic sychronisation is off on my old phone. I had to go into Android:"Setting\account" to mannually hit synchronise on GoTasks's data there. If you don't have a google account linked to your phone, this is also the place to add it.
Step6
On the new phone, open goTask and hit synchronize and to import all the good stuff. Your might need to do the manual sych. in the phone's setting like for step5 if automatic synch is off.
I had many list of tasks that each had plenty of tasks, so I had to find a way. With the amount of data I had, it took me an hour, but it should be much less than that if your usage of this app is lightlier than mine.
Author of this application is Evgeny Shurakov. Since the app was renamed, searching for the author is easier to find back this application now a day.


A traditional email client on a mobile platform? I am looking for an e-mail client for my Android. The problem is -- the only email clients I can find are designed with the "syncing" mentality that is all the rage on mobile platforms. I would like an e-mail client that thinks the way my Thunderbird thinks on my desktop.

What are the specific things I must have? For one thing --- I want the option to be able to set things so that when I download a message to my e-mail program, they are right there-and-then deleted from the server --- as opposed to them sitting on my server until I delete them from the local device. That used to be an option in the pre-mobile ear -- these days we're being stripped of that very-useful option.

Also - for organizing my e-mails, I don't want the very-limited category format that is provided by the e-mail host. I want to be able to have folders (and even sub-folders) - just like I used to --- and to be able to custom-program filters that would automatically determine what folder an e-mail goes into when I download it.

I want the option to set it so that E-mail will immediately delete from the server the moment I download it --- and then the one copy will remain on my e-mail client until I remove it ---- and I want to be able to export messages to files (either individual e-mails or several at a time) before I delete them --- so that I can save long-term copies elsewhere.

Once upon a time, in the desktop era, none of this was too much to ask for --- but these days when I search for an e-mail client for my Android, it's like I'm asking for private ownership of the moon!

So my question is --- is there any e-mail client available for the Android that can do what once was no problem at all?

You're probably looking for K-9 Mail, which is a traditional mail client in the spirit of mutt (but with less vi).


Galaxy S3 keeps switching wifi settings to use a manual proxy I get no internet connection message.  I go to wifi settings, and something has changed it to use a manual proxy setting.  I don't have a proxy server.  it's a home network.  I switch it to no proxy, save, and all is good for about a minute, maybe less.  I look at network settings, and boom, it's using a manual proxy again.  How do I stop this?

There's either an app that's controlling this setting, or malware. On Windows behavior like this is caused by malware 9 out of 10 times, but on Android I'd suspect that some app is the likely culprit.

For a list of apps with permissions to monkey around with your settings, go to Settings→Security→Device Administrators. Anything listed there that has a checked box on the right has permissions to control settings on your device. See if there is anything in the list that stands out, such as security software or network-related software. Try to isolate which one is the culprit by unchecking the enabled device administrators one at a time and then checking whether changes you make to the proxy settings stick.

I did a quick search on this and I'm seeing that Kaspersky Mobile Security comes up frequently as an app that makes changes to the WiFi proxy settings revert to "Manual" with a localhost IP address (127.0.0.1). Is that the IP address you're seeing, and do you have Kaspersky Mobile Security installed?

According to this thread in the Kaspersky support forums, there was a known bug related to this issue in version 10.4.45. A Kaspersky rep said it would be fixed in the next version in June 2013, but according to this thread in the Vodafone forums there was still an issue with this in a later version:

  Thanks for your suggestions guys, I think I have solved this one.  I found other people were having the same issue who were using Kaspersky Mobile Security.  I've just uninstalled it  (version 10.4.47) and not only has this issue completely gone, another weird issue I was having where the WiFi connection took 3 - 4 attempts before it settled on a connection has also gone. Happy bunny.

  I need an internet security app though so I may try that Lookout app you mentioned.

I'm not familiar with Kaspersky Mobile Security, so I can't tell you whether that means that the behavior of changing proxy settings is itself a bug that has not been fixed, or that there used to be a more specific bug with this feature but the behavior in general is part of the functionality of the app. However, I can tell you that I've been using Lookout for about a year and haven't had this or any other problem with it.


Wireless Charging stopped working; Could it be a software issue? (Samsung Galaxy S3) I've had a Samsung Galaxy S3 for a few years,  I even upgraded to a newer model, and revered back to my trusty ol' S3 because I missed it, and was and was happy with it's size & features.

Eventually the USB charge port stopped working (a common problem on this model).  Replacement part is under $2 but microsoldering & board repair are beyond my skill level, so I got a 2nd battery + external charger, which I've been swapping out twice a day for six months.

It's a bit of a pain, so when I realized Qi-style Wireless Charging could be inexpensively "retrofit" to my device, I was thrilled!

The transmitter & receiver pad arrived yesterday. I placed the pad under the battery cover as instructed (touching the previously-mysterious 2nd set of charging contacts), put it on the transmitter, and voilà, my charging headaches were solved!  It charged faster than plugging it in [used to], and even worked with my rubber case attached.

Hooray!  Until the next day.  :-(

Today the phone does not detect the wireless charger.  I've tried restarting the phone repeatedly, tried two batteries on each of two receiver pads (they accidentally sent 2 instead of 1), tried with/without case & cover, and even different power sources & cables to the transmitter.

None of these steps worked which leads me to believe this is a software problem... Is that possible?

If I can't get it working I'm obviously going to send the parts back and go back to constantly swapping batteries but I'm hoping someone has a suggestion.  Could there be settings I am unaware of?

When working, Ampere Meter app said it was charging wirelessly at 1050mA.  Receiver pads are rated for 800Ma; Batteries are 3.87v/7.98/Wh/2100mAh.  As I recall it would charge around 650mA back when the charge port worked.

Photo is similar receiver pad, on same model of phone:

Samsung Galaxy S3, rooted (with no other issues), running Kitkat 4.4.4.

Link to Samsung Wireless Charging Support.

Oddly, my receiver (NillKin) stopped charging the phone on the same day as yours did.  I have a Pixel XL (Android 8) & this solution worked great!  ...until it didn't.  Try turning the phone off & see if it will charge. Mine still will, but only if turned off.  I do notice that I have to be more precise with placing it on the pad than I used to.  Only thing I can think of electrically that matches the symptoms would be if there are multiple wires used in the loop & one is either shorted or ground.  ???  Anyway, I ordered another one that should be here in a couple of days.


Disable camera's lockscreen shortcut How can I prevent the camera app from opening directly from my Nexus 4's lockscreen? It opens frequently and easily when the lock screen slides from right to left, even if the phone is locked with pattern. My phone is running Android 4.2.2.

I'm not aware of any native settings for this, but there is an app that was built to bridge the gap: Lockscreen Policy. When you first launch it, you'll need to hit the "Activate" button to give it device administration permission, then you simply toggle the camera to "Off":

One caveat to this app that the author notes on the Google Play page:

  Does not work on TouchWiz Android 4.2.x firmware (such as Galaxy S4)

However, this does not apply in your case, since the N4 is not running TouchWiz.


stolen Galaxy tab 4. can it be located My Galaxy tab 4 has been stolen, it has a password on it but I know this is possible to bypass by factory reset. If the person has done this is it possible to still locate. Has it got an internal serial number which maybe Samsung could locate.

If the device has been factory reset, you won't be able to locate it using Android Device Manager. You could try asking Samsung but I doubt they can do this, especially on a device without data.


How can I make the Firefox menu bar dark? How can I make the Firefox menu bar dark?

The dark reader add-on doesn't change the Firefox menu color which is still white :

The bar you are targeting for dark mode can be changed via a theme. Head over to Addon store for Firefox, pick a theme of your liking and install/enable it. Do note that many themes listed there won't work on Firefox for Android even though they would install just fine.

But even after this, the menu bar or whatsoever that is called when you press the three-dots line is still gonna remained unaffected.


Prevent bluetooth keyboard from losing connection to android tablet I have an Android 6 tablet (Sasmung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 if it matters) and use a bluetooth keyboard with it. After a few minutes of being idle, the keyboard loses the connection. To reactivate it, I have to start pressing buttons on the keyboard, and wait a couple of seconds to start reading the keystrokes again. I want to prevent this 'standby' feature. Is there a setting?

EDIT: FYI: the most annoying side effect of this disconnection/reconnection of the keyboard is that video playback behaves strangely. Namely, it suddenly starts, or some other times it stops while I'm watching something or jumps to a different time point or a different video from the playlist. This happens with VLC and another app (Safari Queue) that has an integrated video player. I haven't tried other audio/video players but I'm guessing this a general problem and not something to do with the two apps I mentioned.

The connection loss over bluetooth is a feature of the keyboard itself.
Bluetooth 5 is little better than previous versions, but still you can only minimise the connection loss little because of the wireless nature of the connection and there is always a gap there which can lead to a connection loss.
BT5 should however be much more stable but end devices are still short in supply.

Differential solution: USB-C keyboard later if supported.


Hacker keyboard 5 row compact layout - where is the euro sign? I've been using the hacker keyboard for ages, and with a bigger screen, I started to use the 5 row compact layout - the US international layout that is used for normal keyboards on laptops and desktops.
My problem: where is the € or euro sign?

I have English (India) & English US as languages & keyboard set as 5 row compact layout (US QWERTY only), with the keyboard having default settings with only change being  Popup mini keyboard settings to the last one, Add Self

Press Alt and letter e, together and in the menu that appears, you see € at the end as in screenshot (see video)


Phone Call Recording Apps Only Record One Side Of The Conversation I have a Sony XA1 running Android 8 and it doesn't matter which phone call recorder I install, it only records one side of the conversation either me or the caller.  All the apps do the same on my HTC Desire too

I'm not sure if it is the app at fault as they all seem to do the samething and this didn't start happening until I updated the android version towards the end of last year.

Does anyone know of a solution to this issue?

Thanks

in Android, during a call, There is no way to access audio data of call directly. So what most of the app do is they record the audio from your Speaker.
Let me be clear

When you speak app directly record your audio with mic, as you are speaking at the higher sound it will be clear enough to be recorded the microphone which is near your mouth.
As the App can't access audio calls data so App record audio from your speaker (from where you are listening) and the microphone and speaker has almost distance of 8cm, so if your speaker's volume is high then only app will be able to record audio of the other side's person. Otherwise only your voice will be recorded.

few apps on the playStore provide better phone call recordings but they ask for Root access, if you are really interested in rooting your phone you can follow this article to have some idea "How to root an Android"
Thanks


How to root Xperia Z Ultra safely? I want to root my Xperia Z ultra . but not finding any safe method for it. I have heard of kingroot . is that safe ? please help me to find other safe ways to root my device.

According to XDA, you can root the Xperia Z Ultra by using V root

  1) Enable USB debugging [/Settings/Developer options]
  - To enable Developer options you need to go on /Settings/About phone/ and tap your 'Build number' 8 times...
  2) Download your device drivers, then install them.... and then
  3) Download VRoot (http://www.mgyun.com/vroot)
  4) Install VRoot
  5) Your phone needs to be turned on and your lock screen unlocked...
  6) Click the green button on the far right of the vRoot application.
  7) Now, your phone will restart by itself. (repeat the steps again if this does not work)
  8) Unplug your phone from the USB, and check to see if the chinese version of superSU is installed. (it will look like a blue shield)
  9) Then go to the playstore, and download superSU/ superuser. Open superSU/ superuser.
  10) Allow binary update, and then plug your device back into your laptop, and open vRoot.
  11) Click the white button (unroot) and wait for your device to reboot
  12) Click on superSU/ superuser (which ever you downloaded) and allow binary update (again!), then go into the superSU/ superuser settings > and select 'install to system'
  13) restart your device.... done!


Is there a way to separate downloaded videos and camera videos? So I recently got a Galaxy S4 and switched from Apple to Android. I like to download music videos to watch offline but when I moved the videos onto my phone, I found out that the music videos are stored in the same location as where the camera roll saves videos. On Apple you there was a built in app that could store videos while videos recorded by the camera could be stored on the camera roll. Is there a way to do this on Android? I used my micro SD card to move the videos to my phone by creating a new folder on the SD card named VIDEOS.

I guess, you just need to sort the view in your default gallery app. Try sorting videos album vise and your problem will be over.


Disable browser prompt when using ADB to open an URL I'm trying to open an URL using the ADB command:

  ./adb shell am start -a android.intent.action.VIEW -d URL

When I have multiple browser support applications, I'm trying to open this using google play store. Is there a way I can set this to open this URL by google play store app and nothing else? The URL is a app store app url. Its an automation where there might be apps installed back to back. In case I download a firefox for android app, I don't want the device to prompt me to open the URL using the available apps but stick to google play store app. Is this possible?

There are two ways.

The simpler one is to use a legacy market://details?id=com.shadowburst.showr URL instead of https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shadowburst.showr. No browser will offer to open a market:// URL, but it's still possible that another installed app will do so.

The more complex way is to explicitly specify what activity you want the intent to open. This way, there's no possibility of another app responding to the intent. However, it's possible that a future Play Store update will change what activity you need to name: very old devices that only have Android Market won't work with this command.

You can find the package and activity name using an app such as Stanley. (In this case, you need to go to Stanley's settings to let it show system apps.)

The command to do what you want is

adb shell am start -n com.android.vending/com.google.android.finsky.activities.LaunchUrlHandlerActivity https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shadowburst.showr


Why does "Android Keyboard" keep crashing even though I'm not using it? I use the Swype keyboard to enter text on my Samsung Galaxy S5 running Android 5.1.

Often, at least once a day and often more depending on usage, I get a pop up error message that says "Unfortunately Android Keyboard has stopped" and I have to click "Ok" to dismiss it. It does not seem to matter what app I'm using, this error will pop up any time I'm entering text.

I'm not using Android Keyboard, I'm using Swype, so why am I getting this error and how do I stop it from happening?

Try clearing the cache and app data for keyboard.  Go to system settings then apps and search the keyboard there.  Try clearing cache and app data.  If the problem is still there you can disable the keyboard.

Mostly the default keyboard is Google Keyboard


Admin profile locked on Android 4.4 KitKat tablet My daughter has locked my admin profile on my our tablet and there's only her user profile open but I can't reset from there. tried the volume up button and power on to reset my tablet but nothing seems to work is there another way? Please help

I am assuming she either set a new pin/password for you by mistake or you already had a pin/password before she locked it that you cannot remember. Either way you need to reset the pic/password. Here are the instructions for Android 4.4 which you are using:

"Older versions of Android — Android 4.4 KitKat and older — have an integrated way to bypass your pattern, PIN, or other password if you forget it."

"To find this feature, first enter an incorrect pattern or PIN five times at the lock screen. You’ll see a “Forgot pattern,” “forgot PIN,” or “forgot password” button appear. Tap it. You’ll be prompted to enter the username and password of the Google account associated with your Android device."

http://www.howtogeek.com/226942/what-to-do-if-you-forget-your-android-phone%E2%80%99s-pin-pattern-or-password/

If you cannot remember the password to your Google account then complete this process first:
https://www.google.com/accounts/recovery/

If you have still access to the number you used when creating the Google account, recovery will be easy, otherwise you will need to answer some security questions first.

Once you recover your account you can go back to the pin/password reset instructions for your tablet above.


Would my phone have to be reactivated after factory reset? I want to know if I  will have to reactivate my phone since it is already currently on through boost mobile. It is a LG tribute for which I paid a full $35 for a prepaid plan on June 27,2015. It is now July 3, 2015.

In your question, reactive might have two meanings:

Reactivation/registration is a process which is one time, at the time you purchased a device inserted your carrier SIM to make handset useable. It sends a message to the Device Company that this device is now active and registered.( This process is one time, your carrier may charge this message as per your plan.)
If you mean by setting up your device as new handset. So answer for this is

'Yes', you have to setup/register/reactivate all the things/accounts by yourself. Factory Reset will make your device completely clean(internally) as it was at the time when took out of the box.


TeamViewer 8.0.772 crashes on Sony Xperia running ICS 4.0.4 I am trying to use Teamviewer 8.0.772 to remotely access my computer. However the app is crashing in no time once it is started.

System Info:

Sony Ericsson xperia Neo V
ICS 4.0.4

I have re-installed it but nothing works.

Please try and clear the app data and cache - this fixed the same issue for me.


custom rom for galaxy 5 I am new to this Android stuff. I would like to know the easy way to install a custom ROM on my phone. I have already rooted my phone.

The easiest way is through ROM Manager (you can find it in the Market).  After installing it, open it and select the .zip file for the ROM you want to install.  The phone will reboot into Recovery mode.  Hit "Reinstall packages" or something similar to replace this recovery with Clockworkmod Recovery from ROM Manager (may have to do this twice).  Then your phone will go into this new recovery and install the ROM.

Note you can also use a Windows tool call Odin, but you must have a ROM specifically designed for Odin.  You might need to flash a "Clockwork compatible" ROM through Odin before ROM Manager will work.


LG G3 (d855) Lollipop: cannot set custom ringtone I'm having a weird situation: I cannot add a custom ringtone to my LG G3.

I made an MP3 file with Audacity, I uploaded it using AirDroid and set it as default ringtone (like I used to do on my GT-I9300 with CyanogenMod) but it won't take it, when I receive a phone call the default LG ringt one is used.
But apparently everything is set up correctly, after setting the ringtone with AirDroid if I go on the phone settings I see the correct file seleced, not LG's one.
I tried playing the audio from there and it works.

To make sure it wasn't a problem with the mp3 file itself I tried:

cutting down the size of the file: from a full song (3M) I tried stripping it to something like 30s (1M)
changing format: the short file, saved as OGG instead of mp3
manually uploading in a different directory (instead of using AirDroid)

All tests have the same result: LG's ringtone!

What works is using one of the other default ringtones provided by vendor. If I choose one of the existing tones the setting is correctly honored.

I'm getting mad, I don't understand what I am doing wrong.
I'm now running the latest version available for my phone (V20h-EUR-XX). I had Android 4.4 for a week or two, and as far as I can remember (it wasn't my priority) this wasn't working with that version either.

I found a popular AE question about ringtones and Lollipop, but sadly I cannot find the Clear cached data option on my LG.

Thanks to the useful suggestion of a forum post I managed to fix by

copy the ringtone in the /Music~ folder (instead of/Ringtones`)
start the bundled music player, play the song I want for ringtone, then in the menu select Use as ringtone

This way I could finally change the ringtone with a custom one!


Are there any custom ROMs which let the user somehow filter Share menu lists? Based on " How can I customize the list of services that pops up when I choose to "share" something in an app? " answer, any app supporting ACTION_SEND intent will be listed in "Share" menu pop-up.

Are there any custom ROMs which let the user somehow filter those Share menu lists to exclude installed apps?

That's another XY problem question: you ask how to establish your suggested solution, instead to ask how to solve your real problem, which is your actual concern. For this task, you don't even need any Custom ROM.

Take a look at Andmade Share -- this app lets you customize your share menu on any ROM, not even root is needed:

As you can easily see, this app lets you...

Select (filter) the apps appearing in the list (as your question required)
Change the order in which they appear in the list (e.g. put your most frequently used apps on top)


Swype quick emoji input list Does anyone know where to find the list of the available intuitive emoji input keywords? I have looked unsuccessfully.

It will be useful as a reference.

Many thanks.

My gf and I have compiled a list of what we have found so far, and are still discovering more.

☺ happy
 wondering
 smile
 sad / cry
 concerned / worried
 OMG
 tongue / raspberry
 grin
 wink
 asleep
 sleepy
 scared
 fear
 cool
 emo
 stubborn

☝ up / one
 bad / no / thumbs down
 good / yes / thumbs up
 clap
 hello / wave
 hear / ear
smell / nose
 mouth
 eyes / see
 massage

 guy / boy
 girl
 couple
 angel
 skull
 ghost
 liberty
 yay
 swim
 run
 kiss

✈ plane
 train
 car
 bus
 bike
⛵ boat
 trolley

 walk / hike
 man
 woman
 baby
 smoke

 bird
 dog
 cat
 fish
 whale
 panda
 rabbit / bunny
 monkey
 chicken
 pig
 horse
 sheep
 cow
 tiger

❤ heart
 love
✔ check mark
 trail / footprints
 knife
 gun / shoot
☎ phone
✂ scissors / cut
 box
 money
 atm / cash
 date
⏰ alarm
 shower

 music
 guitar
 saxophone
 violin

 beer
 drink / martini
 wine
 hamburger / cheeseburger
☕ coffee
 ice cream
 pizza
 donut
 tomato
 bread
 chocolate
 candy
 banana
☕ coffee
☕ tea
 sushi

 night
 sun
☔ rain
☁ cloud
❄ snow / cold
 fire / hot

 shoe
 shirt
 jam
 couple


Is there anyway i can run the same Whatsapp account on both my android phone and android tablet at the same time? I have a Samsung J6 phone, with Whatsapp installed.

I also have a Samsung Tablet, Tab A 2019.

Both are running the latest version of Android at the time of writing.

Ive downloaded and setup Whatsapp on the tablet, but this disassociates Whatsapp on my phone, is there anyway i can run the same Whatsapp account on both my android phone and android tablet ?

Yes, there is a way indeed. Install WhatsApp primarily on one of your devices. On another device, open google chrome and head to web.whatsapp.com. Now click the menu icon (on the top right of browser with 3 vertical dots), scroll down and check the "Request desktop site" option. Now you will receive the web version of WhatsApp on one of your devices. Scan the QR Code from your primary device.

Enjoy!


My samsumg s3 is acting like its on silent My s3 wont make any tones to allert me to calls messages email or anything. Its as though its on do not disturb but isnt

The lack of sound may be caused by the malfunction of the battery, try removing it and repositioning it after checking that there is no swelling of it, if you still have problems trying to replace it.


Cannot disable OEM app My new Jasper phone has a persistent app from the original manufacture which keeps popping up.  Without rooting the phone, how can I disable or remove this app?  Dragging it to "remove" doesn't persist as the app comes back on its own.

Can I get back to some stock version without the OEM apps?

I have already disabled the app, but it keeps respawning so that the icon populates to the home screen.

Apps are disabled in Settings - Apps...

Go to your Settings - Apps and press the 3-dot menu button and Show System, find the app in question and tap it open in the list, then select Disable. If there is no Disable option, then the app is set by the OEM to not be able to be disabled.


How to get 2012 Chevy Equinox to recognize my Evo 3d? When I plug my Evo 3d into my 2012 Chevy Equinox (w/color touch radio), the Equinox does not recognize the phone. I'm using a micro USB cable to connect my phone to the vehicle. After plugging it in, the Evo 3d starts charging, but the Equinox does not show any available USB connection.
Iphone 4 is able to plugin and get recognized just fine.

How can I get the Equinox to recognize the Evo 3d so I can play audio from my phone through the Equinox stereo?

On most android phones SD card storage cannot be used by both the phone itself and another device simultaneously. So for the Evo 3d to be available to your Equinox' player you might have to do something like tap on Turn on USB-Storage (not sure if this is your case) or choose Disk Drive when prompted about Connection Type on it. During this time the apps that you've moved to SD card cant be run, neither can you browse the SD card contents from your phone.

BTW, if your vehicle supports bluetooth with A2DP profile, that might be more convenient.


How can my employer change my Andriod security settings? I got the following email from my employer:

  Passwords required on all mobile devices

  In order to protect College data stored on portable devices, from
  Tuesday 20 November ICT will enable a feature which requires all
  mobile devices (Android, iOS phones and tablets) used to access
  College emails to be protected with either a PIN password or biometric
  recognition, such as fingerprint or face recognition. This applies to
  all portable devices, whether College or personally owned.

  At a minimum, ICT will enforce the use of a PIN for access to the
  device. Devices that do not meet the minimum requirement will be
  prevented from accessing College email accounts until the device has
  been appropriately secured.

  You can manage your security settings from the ‘settings’ menu of your
  device. Please get in touch with the Service Desk if you have problems
  doing this. If you do not wish to secure your device, then you may not
  be able to access your College email account from your

Is there a feature in Android that I don't know about that will enable them to change the settings on my phone?

EDIT The Plot Thickens

On my way to work this morning popped up on my phone screen when I tried to check my meetings for the day.

Now I am worried. I don't want to give my work admin access to my personal phone. What will they be able to do? Delete my emails? Reset the phone? Lock me out of the phone? Track my location?

I can see how this is fine on devices supplied by an employer but it normal for personal devices.

Your employer is informing you of the security you need to implement on your device to access company mails / apps etc. This is a standard practice to endure that company confidential information is not compromised owing to your not having secure lock screen etc. They are not changing it for you. They are asking you to change it. Going by the screenshot, it's simple - agree to implement yourself those measures or not access college mails etc.

But, there are variations like BYOD / Company owned device etc, which can exercise far more control on your device. See here for details.

Edit:

From discussion on comments added a very useful input from Izzy. The app which you are installing to read the mail should not have device manager permission as only such apps can do a factory reset (aka Google Device Manager on case of stolen devices)


Can I safely disable google app on my android as I use chrome app? I want to disable google app as I use chrome app.  Is it safe?

Yes, it is.  I haven't even had the Google app installed for most of the time I've had my phone, and I only browse with Chrome.

Note that some ROMs do have a dependency on Google Now, so it's possible that disabling it may cause you other issues.


Shuffle Controls work with Android? I've used an iPod Shuffle for the past year and have come to appreciate the control "pod" on the headphones. Here's a link to the Sony buds I use. The controls up by the ear work very well on long bike rides or even when lifting at the gym. Don't have to pull the player out of my jersey or shorts pocket to change volume or skip to next song.

Now that I'm using my Android phone for music, I'm wondering if anyone has spotted any little hacks or apps that would enable iPod Shuffle headphones to work with an Android?

Apps like Headset Button Controller are the most likely to do what you ask. That said the headphones you use have to be hardware compatible with the Android device you are using.

My Sennheiser  MM50's are designed for iPhone but work on my Google Nexus S and HTC Incredible S, so I'd expect the same to be true of other iPhone compatible headphones and Android devices.

That said, the MM50's do exhibit different behaviour on either phone (e.g. press on Nexus mutes the call as I'd like, but on Incredible it ends the call - Grrr).


Why does one type of tethering obstruct MTP while another doesn't? When I use the native USB tethering function of my phone, it makes MTP stop working. I can't use both MTP and tether both at the same time.

However, when I USB tether via ClockworkMod Tether, I can still use MTP even while tethering.

What is the technical reason for this difference? If it's technically possible to tether and use MTP at the same time, why is that not typically enabled in the native functionality of the phone?

I use OS X, so by MTP I mean Android File Transfer. But I think this works the same way on Windows and Linux too.

It's probably because ClockworkMod Tether is using a different USB mode (getprop sys.usb.config) which has MTP mode enabled too.

native USB tethering: sys.usb.state = rndis,adb (where rndis is the internet tethering interface)

ClockworkMod Tether: sys.usb.state = rndis,adb,mtp

You could try to enforce this yourself when using native tethering by doing this:

setprop sys.usb.config rndis,adb,mtp

But this could require root on your phone.


Why can't the su binary simply be copied (techical response please) I have rooted several Samsung devices and the underlying "goal" so to speak seems to be to get the su binary in /system/xbinand install Superuser.apk.

My question is why does one have to jump through all of these hoops to root the phone (install custom recovery and flash pre-rooted ROM or exploit the current installation)?  Couldn't one just download a precompiled su, move it to the SD card, and run it via adb?  The thing that seems to make a ROM "pre-rooted" is that it has Superuser and the su binary in their respective system paths.  I don't see why it is so important that it is ran from /system/xbin.

The su binary needs both the execution and the setuid permission bit set. The first is needed that the file can be executed and the second is that it automatically runs with the file owner's rights (set user id, or setuid. In this case the owner is root. Read more here).

Files on the external storage don't have the executable and setuid permission bits set and it cannot be granted without root rights. Note also that the SD card is mounted with the 'noexec' flag to prevent execution generally to boot:

shell@android:/sdcard $ ./su
/system/bin/sh: ./su: can't execute: Permission denied
126|shell@android:/sdcard $ chmod 4755 su
Unable to chmod su: Operation not permitted
10|shell@android:/sdcard $ mount | grep /mnt/sdcard
/dev/block/mmcblk0p1 /mnt/sdcard vfat [...],noexec,[...]

That's basically why you can't just copy su onto the SD card and then run it to grant yourself root.


Upgrading a locked Android 4.4.2 I want to try to upgrade my Huawei Y560-U02 Android 4.4.2 to anything newer but it should at least be Android Lollipop.

I opened another thread in regards for this phone in order to get the firewall working on it but since that did not work I want to try to upgrade it properly.

I did not know the steps on how to do it properly and ended up causing some damage.
There is a lot of information and steps on the internet and that is what lead to having some issues now.
I have already backed up all the data that I need and ready to proceed.

So the Phone is Huawei Y56-U02 2015 Android 4.4.2 Kitkat. The phone is locked.

Because I did not know that phones need to be unlocked first it caused damage to my boot recovery mode. I can't access it anymore as it would just get stuck in that. Otherwise the phone is booting normally.

What I will need is to find a way to unlock it which I understand can be done if I unlock bootloader.

Please provide me with the best tips and steps to get this done.

I did try to use the built in Huawei updater but that just installed a different version of the same Rom.

Locked phone I mean locked ROM.

I managed to flash the phone with SPD Upgrade tool and now all is back to normal.
The damage has been repaired.


Nexus 4 Nav soft-keys not responding On my Nexus 4 (Lollpop), the nav keys no longer respond when it is in portrait mode, and the q key no longer responds when it is in landscape mode. Here is the bug report. This has been discussed at the Google Group, and Grigoriy Kraynov has brilliantly put together an unofficial fix, but it requires rooting the Android. (Correction: Maybe not rooting it, but definitely some dangerous digging around in the OS's innards.)

There are also occasionally ghost presses. (I configured my phone to show a white dot when there is a press, and sometimes there are a lot of them all together, usually in this malfunctioning area, without my pressing the screen.)

It's been called a hardware bug in the digitizer, but it looks to me like it's in the software layer -- why would one particular rectangle stop working?

Can anyone suggest a simpler way to fix this? It's hard to believe that Google would allow such a significant bug to go unfixed.

My workaround is to install the Button Savior Non Root app and an autorotator app (to enable 4-way rotate in every app). This workaround is more or less OK.

I used Nexus Root Toolkit on my Nexus 4 with Android 5.1.1. Here's what I did:

Rooted my Nexus 4
Launch → Fastboot Flash → Recovery→ Latest CWM
It installs Quick Reboot app in your Nexus 4. Open it and "Recovery" will reboot your device in recovery mode. If it asks for root permission, grant it.
Install zip → Install zip from sideload
In Nexus Root Kit → Advanced Utilities (Click on Launch in NRK)
Launch CMD Prompt
It will show you the path of current location. Copy the correct UPDATE.zip (download).
In your device, enter the command adb sideload UPDATE.zip.

That's it. Go back and reboot your device.

Enjoy!


Killed my phone by USB tethering I couldn't connect to a WiFi network over my laptop so I used my phone to connect to the WiFi network instead and activated USB Tethering. When I started, the battery was empty. I started charging it via the USB cable connected to my laptop and I enabled USB Tethering.

The problem arised when the phone said that more power is being used than charged and that I should plug the phone into the wall socket. I did so and the battery wouldn't charge past 4%. It charges so slowly. When I'd turn on the phone or unplug it, the battery level would drop to 1%. I think I've destroyed it.

Has this ever happened to anyone? Is this a software glitch or a hardware problem? Have I destroyed both the phone and the battery?

USB tethering by all means should not cause this and I do not believe that your battery is dead. Instead, it's more probable that you stumbled upon a glitch within the OS.

Back up all of the data in your phone including photos and other things in your external storage, then do a factory reset on the phone. If this does not resolve the issue, there may be more serious underlying hardware or software issues. Contact the manufacturer if a factory reset does not fix the issue.


How do I get the actual boot image file from a block device without padding? I have 9.6mb file that after doing dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/block/mtdblock2 I write to mtdblock2. Before writing I have done a sha1sum on the file. I can use applypatch -c to check both size and sha but if I do a sha on the blockdevice it is of course different because of the space left on the device. If I copy the device I will get a 16mb image including that free space. Every where I read the suggestions are to use fdisk to get a count and then use the count option in dd. However, this does not work because the block and partition is the boot partition. How can I copy the original file, same size and sha, back off of the block device?

I would indeed use dd, with one or more of the several options available to specify the length (amount) of data to copy; otherwise, as you have noticed, dd will read the entire contents of the device, which is not what you want.
Re the apparent problem of the block device being the boot partition, the usual solution is to boot from some other medium (perhaps a LiveCD) so that the device you want to read is not the boot device/partition and can be read without difficulty.  Before that, though, try sudo dd ... and see if running as root solves the problem without requiring more drastic measures.


call volume increases by iteslf? The volume of the call increases by itself when I'm using headphones. It starts at max when a call is coming and a minute or so after I lower it it increases again to the max.
I thought it was my headphones, but it happens with different ones. The volume button also looks fine. And besides, this increase doesn't happen immediately after I lower the volume (which I would expect if something was constantly pressing a button)
I tried to look for a setting that does that, but couldn't find any.
I have Galaxy S5 with stock 5.0 ROM

First try to disable the equalizer of your music player. The Call Ring, Music volume and Alarm has different sound settings. So, check if all the settings are set to minimum volume. And if that doesn't solve your problem, install the Volume Limit & Lock app from google play-store.


How to take a screen shot of my text messges? I know how to take screenshots on my Droid Charge but everytime I go to take a picture of a text message it always goes to the page before and takes the picture. It is very frustrating. If you know any way to help please reply.

For my US Cellular Galaxy S running gingerbread, I had the same problem. When trying to screen capture the text conversation by holding the "back" and "power/standby" buttons, it backs up a screen and takes a screen shot of the message board. I found a work-around. Pull up the message thread you wish to capture. Press and hold the back button. Tap the power/standby button (I know, it will capture the message board). While still holding the back button, tap the message thread you wish to capture. The message thread should now pull up. Press the power/standby button again, and *click", you have your screen capture! This is the only way I have found to do this.


Disable lock-screen enter/return button? Is there any way to have the lock-screen unlock as soon as I enter the correct code? For instance, on my iPod touch if I type the 4 digit passcode, it'll unlock as soon as I hit that fourth digit. Is there any equivalent of this on Android? On my Droid X2, I have to enter the PIN and then hit the arrow-like return button.

No, because unlike the iphone/ipod touch, the unlock PIN can be longer then 4 digits. Android allows between 4 and 16 digits for the lock screen. Since it is "unknown" what the length of your pin is, you have to press OK to indicate "you are done".


Where is the message center on Moto G? I have a Moto G and I am not able to send messages, not able to find message centre. Where is the message centre?

Summarized from Motorola forum, Moto G and Moto X are designed in such a way that it will take the message center number automatically from the Saved configuration of the SIM. Try changing the SIM from Slot 1 to Slot 2. Save and set as default for newly received configuration settings.

You can try the following method by SmaRkieS on Android Geeks:

  Dial *#*#4636#*#*.

  You will get a menu. From that, select Phone Information. You will find
  a setting "SMSC". Refresh it. It is most likely to retrieve the
  message center number from your operator (or call your operator, and
  get the message center number, and then update in this field), then the
  problem should be resolved!