Connecting a headphone to an Android via bluetooth Please excuse a novice if the following questions are too simple are even stupid.

Question#1 As far as I know, *.aac generally achieves better sound quality than *.mp3 at the same bit rate. Even if I have an *.mp3 converted into *.aac, the sound quality will not be better. Is that correct? If it will not, why some take the extra effort in making such conversion?

Question#2 When I rip a CD track, I can choose the resultant format in either .mp3 or .aac. Is that correct?

Question#3 Suppose that both my phone and my headphone support {SBC, AAC, aptX}. How do they match? Do I have a choice to ask for a specific connection? [A simple answer (that does not include too technical info) will do.]

A rather simplified explanation of lossy and lossless conversion.
Images: BMP and PNG are all lossless image formats. JPEG and WebP are lossy image formats. JPEG/WebP discard quality to become smaller. How? say a background is all black lossy duplicates RAW Data over the entire pic once rather than a continuous representation of 9 zeros. Instead 8 are missing but are still represented by the digit 9. MP4, WMA are lossy conversions for film, usually used for the Web, creating a small compact file using the fore mentioned data loss, by replicating the background rather than leaving it RAW.
Audio conversion:
WAV, is a container file often used to contain lossless audio, although it is capable of containing lossy audio.
FLAC is lossless, MP3 is a lossy audio format.
Lossy audio files use the same premise as JPEG/WebP,MP4 WMA image conversion; 9 zeros can be compressed by discarding/throwing out 8,then using the digit 9 to represent all the zeros. Lossless files contain all 9 zeros and fit into the file size with out discarding/throwing out any of the zeros representing the RAW data.
Ex< a FLAC file only supports 24 bit audio conversion. A WAV 32 bit PCM audio file converted to FLAC would result in discard/throwing out some data.
ACC/MP3 like FLAC and MP4/WMA are lossy. No lossy Audio format is great according to my Audiophile roommate, I don't really hear a difference in quality between lossy and lossless other than decreased volume in the prior mention format. In Film it's clearly evident by poor quality in movement/pixilation.

I hope I haven't confused you more, LifeHack or howtoGeek.com have a plethora of info on this one format VS format/conversion.
As for your Bluetooth pairing/compatibility query. 4.0 needs to pair with 4.0 and so on. Follow manufactures pairing instruction. Ex; Its a myth that BEATS SOLO 3 wireless won't pair to Android devices and pair only to iPhone, simplifying it they discover one another because the "pairing Frequency" is the same, as in  4.0 to 4.0

https://www.howtogeek.com/200698/benchmarked-whats-the-best-file-compression-format/

https://www.bing.com/search?q=geek.com+audio+and+film+compression&FORM=AWRE1

https://www.reference.com/Bluetooth Pairing

Author: Chris Hoffman


System Application was uninstalled and could not be recovered in android I have rooted my device. I have installed crDroid-7.1.2-20171202-j5nlte-v3.8.3 and android 7.1.2

I am using j5nlte model of samsung.
I have accidentally uninstalled contact and contact storage applications since my device was already rooted.
After the uninstall process, I have installed simple contacts application from f-Droid
When I am willing to create a new contact I could not create the contact and the system says

No app from this device

As I think, the problem was "contact storage application was uninstalled".
I have downloaded below application to install the contact storage application. I could not installed and the error was

The package conflicts with an existing package by the same name

I can restore the device to get my system apps but I can't restore since I have some other issues.

Is there any way to get my system apps back. Do I have any method to save contacts without contact storage apk?

Afraid you need to re-install your ROM. Until you can do that, you can e.g. use OpenContacts from F-Droid. This is an addressbook/dialer that comes with its own contacts storage no other app has access to (privacy-focused), so it should work in your current situation.


Setting up automatic reboot? This may sound a bit lazy, but does anybody know of an app or a method that can automatically reboot one's phone? I sometimes forget to reboot it daily (I like keeping my OS fresh).

If your device is rooted, Tasker can do that (there's a free trial available at their website for you to check first). While you don't need to boot your device daily (I don't boot it more often than once a month usually, if at all), I also thought about a weekly reboot on a device having problems otherwise (my old Wildfire started behaving oddly with calls after about 10 days uptime).
So here we go, assuming a weekly reboot at Monday morning 3am for a fresh week:
Condition:

Day → Day-of-week: pick "Monday"
Time: Set both, From and To time to 3am

Task:

Reboot

I have to include a warning here from the Tasker UserGuide on Reboot:

Unfortunately, this is not a 'clean' shutdown. Neither Android nor running applications are informed that the device is rebooting, so be prepared for possible data corruption.
On the other hand, every other app that allows reboot does it the same way.

So this warning does not apply to Tasker alone, but obviously to all other solutions as well.


How to find date a bluetooth connection was first paired I have a rooted samsung Galaxy grand 4.1.2 with full file access, That has a paired bluetooth connection with another phone. Is there any simple way/app (non programmer) to see the actual date the original pairing request was made. I need to find it out exactly for a legal issue and am struggling to find out if its possible. thanks

The database you're looking for is /data/data/com.android.bluetooth/databases/btopp.db

The full history should be there until you explicitly clear data in Application Manager.

I remember reading a full guide on a digital forensics site, can't find the link I had in mind, but this one tells us the log includes MAC addresses (good for legal evidence):

http://www.forensicfocus.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=11733/

Hope this steers you in the right direction.


Can't pull down quick settings panel? So my HTC One M8 battery has been dying recently at around 30%. I'm pretty sure it's hardware, as it happens even after flashing a RUU multiple times.

Well anyway, I just searched for showtimes for a movie theater near me and it shut off with no warning, as now is normal. I plugged it in, turned it on and... Nothing from the Android OS is vibrating, as in the lower on screen buttons don't give haptic feedback like before, but all third party apps do, like my SwiftKey. I also noticed that I can't swipe down from notifications to get to my quick setting, it's like it was never designed to go any further. Another thing that changed is that Now On Tap is also disabled. Holding on the home key does nothing.

Is it possible the sudden shutdowns finally corrupted something? Should I restore the backup in thankfully made last night, or is there a way to fix any of this?

Don't know if you still need a fix for this (it's been a few months since you posted), but anyway I had the same issue with not being able to open quick settings and also my M8 stopped displaying notifications. Not sure what triggered all that, but after performing a few dirty wipe re-flashes of my ROM, I finally did a clean wipe (not just system and caches but also data partition) and that fixed it. Having a google cloud backup made downloading everything a little easier, but I couldn't have avoided essentially wiping everything but my SD card and needing to reinstall all my apps.


Cannot see phone under 'My Computer' My Galaxy S3 (running CM11) isn't showing at all under My Computer. The phone is set to MTP.

Under my computer the GT-i9300 shows up under 'Unspecified'. When I go into the device properties it shows up as Google Galaxy Nexus ADB Interface even though I have debugging mode turned off.

When I try to update the device manually to MTP USB Device or Samsung Mobile MTP Device I get an error saying "This device cannot start. (Code 10)"

I've tried un-installing and re-installing the drivers, as well as the registry tweaks mentioned in this XDA thread but I do not have the UpperFilter key present. I've also tried installing Kies and running the connection troubleshooter with no luck. Any suggestions please?

Many thanks

It appears that you are using Android Studio (or another IDE). Try turning on developer mode and then connect the device.


What are the SEC80 and SECD00 Android Wi-Fi capabilities? I have been collecting Android ScanResult.capabilities for a while and have encountered some settings I can't find any description of.

[ESS][SEC80][SECD00] and [WPA2-PSK-CCMP][ESS][SEC80][SECD00]

These were on two different access points scanned by a Samsung Galaxy S5 with Android 5.0.

What is SEC80 and SECD00? They seem to be enabled together. Any link to an explanation for the two Wi-Fi capabilities will be much appreciated.

You're in luck! Several years ago I was thinking about extending some aspects of WPA and wanted to test using my phone. It seemed that you need to add these as flags, so that made me dive in the Android source code, specifically wpa_supplicant.

Then @schroeder posted a link to your question on a private chat room, and it instantly rang a bell. I went back to the wpa_supplicant source code and traced it back a bit until I found references for the flags. If you look at line 89 there, you can see that the scan results entries ordered in the same exact order they appear in scan results console, so from there you can see that they're "flags" and you can go back in the source code to where they're declared.

Anyway, these are called '802.11 Access Point security flags'. Here's the reference list of the flags used in Android. For instance, [SEC80] would be NM_802_11_AP_SEC_GROUP_CCMP. I'm not really sure what [SECD00], but the 802.11-2012 specifications might give you some hints.


What is a safe way to root a device ? It looks like rooting a device require using uncertified app, are any of these app open source ? how do we know they are safe to use ?

The best method would be this way:
 unlock bootloader>flash custom recovery from fastboot>flash super SU .zip file from recovery
if this is possible, on some phones it isn't..
If you by safe way mean "the way that won't screw your device" then there is no way, in every possible way of rooting it's possible that something goes wrong but in most times flashing stock firmware resolve trouble.


Nexus 5x came with preinstalled android 7.0.0 I've recently bought Nexus 5x from amazon and it came with android 7.0.0, but official specification says that it comes with android 6. So question: does it mean something wrong with my device (used, refurbished etc)?

It's most definitely refurbished.  Android 7 doesn't come preinstalled on the Nexus 5X brand new.


Control your smartphone using your laptop I have a sony xperia z and the screen recently smashed.  Touch screen capability has also gone.  As such I can't even unlock the phone.  Does anyone know of an app or a method for connecting it to my laptop and gaining full control of the phone through the laptop?  I need to unlock it and access an app that's installed.  I've been through the folders on it using the laptop but need access to the app itself to get the data I need.

Since your screen is smashed and touch screen capability is gone, you may not be able to use apps like AirDroid, as VarnerBeast14 has suggested. Instead you can use a service like Droid@Screen. Follow the steps below to view your screen.

Install Java JRE (or JDK), version 6 or later
Install Android SDK
Run its SDK Manager and install the Platform Tools
Set the environment variable ANDROID_HOME to point to the
installation directory of the Android SDK
Install USB drivers for your own Android device, by getting it from
the vendor’s support web page
Download and install the latest version of Droid@Screen
Configure your device to allow USB Debugging (Settings-> Developer
options -> USB debugging)
Plug in the USB cable between your device and PC
Launch Droid@Screen


In call volume root modify I have a HTC One m7 international. It has root access. Android lollipop 5.0.2

The in call volume is too low despite being on max volume.

Which file in the root system should I modify to increase the max volume? What line of code corresponds to this setting?

Thanks vm

This approach achieves desired functionality by communicating with Android APIs at AIDL level making use of ADB

Run the command:

adb shell service call audio 7 i32 3 i32 0 i32 1

Here, the service call refers to IAudioService. Click here  for more info.

7 is the function named setStreamVolume. It is the 7th in the list of functions in the interface IAudioService. Verify it here. (setStreamVolume takes 3 parameters streamType, index, flag)
i32 is to write the integer INT into the send parcel. (Alternatively we can make use of s16 for UTF-16 string)
3 is streamTypevalue. (Value 1 → phone, 3 → speaker, 4 → alarm, 6 → bluetooth)
0 is index value and 1 is flag value

See the source here.


Can Samsung tell if my galaxy s3 is rooted if the phone doesn't turn on anymore? My Galaxy s3 suffered from what seems to be the "sudden death syndrome". It had been turning off once in a while and wouldn't turn back on unless I removed and the battery and put it back in. But the last time it turned off it would not turn back on. When I connect my phone to the PC, the PC will make a sound recognizing the device has been connected but does not read it. When charging the phone to a wall socket, nothing happens. But if I remove the battery and connect it to either the outlet or the PC, the red led goes on. The battery isn't the problem though because I tried a different galaxy s3 battery and it did not work. I sent my phone to Samsung for repair under warranty but my question is whether they will be able to tell if the device is rooted despite the phone not turning on at all. Thanks a lot for the help!

If you can connect to the device from a PC then they will most likely be able to tell. It might not matter though because they might not look for that and unless they intentionally look to see if its rooted they will not know. Also like @Poldie said they might not legally be able to do anything about it depending on where you live.


Is there an easy way to un-root Android 2.2 on Droid X rooted via z4root? Is there an easy way to un-root Android 2.2 on Droid X rooted via z4root?

The reason is that I would like to apply a Gingerbread 2.3 update from Verizon, and that update ALWAYS fails to install.

Since I never had a custom ROM on the phone, my first guess is that the problem may be due to being rooted, but I don't see an "Unroot" option in z4root.

Please note that factory reset is NOT an answer I'm looking for.

z4root added an "Unroot" button in version 1.2. Version 1.3 added "force unroot" (not entirely sure what that means). You can grab the most recent version from the XDA thread, then you should be able to simply hit "Unroot" and be on your way.


Prevent mobile data from automatically turning off after a while on Xiaomi Mi 4 I use Xiaomi Mi 4 (Android 7.1.2 Nougat) phone's hotspot to surf the internet on a laptop. After sometime approximately 20 minutes, the phone automatically turns off the mobile data and I have to turn on the mobile data manually.

I think the phone turns off the data automatically because it is left undisturbed and to save battery. However, the phone is already plugged-in to the charging spot.

How to prevent mobile data from automatically turning off after a while on Xiaomi Mi 4?

this solved my problem

developer options > Networking > Cellular Data always active

toggle this option on


Voice activated / HF inputs: how can you escape special function phrases? For example, say I have a sentence that I want to end with a period then have returned to a new line, but the contents of that sentence itself include period and new line as literals.  Is it possible to use voice-only commands to write such a message?

I tested the sentences below. They should have been separated by a new line.
The first period is about to start.
He crossed a new line on the sand.
This is the end of a period.

In my case, period was handled correctly the majority of the time whether I wanted the word period or a dot for the first sentence. The 3rd sentence was hit and miss. For a sentence that as both the word period and the punctuation mark period, you can make it easy for the phone by saying full stop so it can differentiate between the two. But for the third sentence, the differentiation did not work.
To go to a new line, I had to pause 1-2 seconds before saying new line. Only then, was it recognized as starting a new line and not the literal new line.
In both cases, while dictating my sentences in one go, the literals were considered. Pausing would insert the punctuation marks. This is not a scientifically proven experiment. You will have to test on your side and reach a conclusion.


You cannot upload a video larger than 1GB I took a video with my DroidX and when I use the menu to share it with YouTube I get the message "You cannot upload a video larger than 1GB." So I tapped on the info icon on the video and it says that the file size is 222MB. So why does it think that this video is >1GB and prevent me from uploading it.

Other info:
I've uploaded plenty of videos from this phone before but they were of shorter duration. This one is 3 minutes long.
I am connected to wifi.

Ideas?

Maybe the metainformation about the file is incorrect, try to copy to a pc and check it (right-click -> Properties)


How come apps showed up in apkmirror before I can download it in Google Play Store? I have been checking and waiting for Pokemon Go 0.45 for several hours, and now it is 11pm Pacific Time and it is still not available on my Android phone or on the Google Play website. However, it is on the apkmirror website and it says:

  Uploaded November 6, 2016 at 4:21PM PST

So it was uploaded 7 hours ago to apkmirror?  How is that possible and can it be trusted?

I would trust apkmirror.com

  So it was uploaded 7 hours ago to apkmirror? How is that possible and can it be trusted?

The app appears on the apkmirror.com because some apps are not rolling out globally at once so appearantly someone living in another area got update before you and upload the file on the website.


How to check how much battery the data network is using? How do I check how much battery the data network is using? When I enter Settings->About phone->Battery usage I get the following:

Voice calls
Android OS
Display
Android System
Dialer
Cell standby
Phone idle

Which one is hiding the data-connection part? Is there a way to figure out how much the data connectivity was?

I barely use Wi-Fi, but I'll be also happy to know where that is (if its separate from the connection through the cellular company). Using Android 2.3.5 on Galaxy S 2

I tried searching google, but it just gave me stuff about how to make the battery last longer, nothing about how to check that.

A bit of a hack, inconvenient and I'm not even sure if it would work: Download Juice Defender, set it to always keep data disabled and later check how much battery it claims to have saved you.

As for the Wifi, on my Phone (Xperia Neo V, 2.3.?), it's a separate entry on the battery usage panel. Maybe you used it so little that it isn't even displayed (probably <0.5%)?


Why does Android download pause, and only continue after restart? Sometimes when I download apps (from the market), the download gets paused. After the download gets paused, I am unable to continue the download. But after the restart my device and then retry downloading, it works fine. What could be the reason behind this?

It happens generally when Kernel discards Market from memory. In Android, there're many ways to achieve multi-tasking. Market app achieves it by running its service in background. This way Market app isn't killed. But, when kernel runs out of memory, it has no other choices. It kills other apps (even having running service) to reclaim memory, otherwise device would be crashed. Such power killing returns unstable & unexpected results.

So, to prevent it lower down running app load from system. You can hunt down running apps from Settings ~> Applications ~> Running Services. Simply uninstall all unwanted always-running apps.

Plus, Market might have memory leaks etc. type bugs on your device. So, its better to contact Android support if previous step doesn't help. They really respond (don't think its Google).


Silence notifications but not calls During my night time, I would like to silence all app notifications, including text messages, emails and news alerts.

On the other hands, I do not want to silence calls. This is because calls after midnight are far less frequent than notifications, and they are probably intentional and urgent.

Is there a way to silence every notification except a phone call?

Yes you can simply turn off/reduce your volume to 0 for the notifications and only keep the ringer volume as required.

You can do this under settings>sounds(As you have not specified any os details or the device make or model I can only give you a common answer)


Notification snoozes alarm? Found a pretty interesting feature/bug from the combination of K-9 Mail and the stock Alarm app on my Galaxy S (rooted + Darky's Rom 10.2, 2.3.4). This morning, just as the alarm started to ring, I got an email. This caused the alarm to snooze and the short email notification sound I have to play. I'd think that an alarm would have preference over an email notification, and thankfully I had a regular alarm clock as a backup.

Has anybody else run into this problem or is it just me? Suggestions how to avoid in the future?

As long as the alarm in fact snoozed and didn't get turned off I'd think you'd be safe, just maybe a bit later than normal. :) I can't find any other info about how to force alarms to play over notifications or of anyone  else having the issue. If you're worried you could silence your phone at night, then notifications would be silent but the alarm would still go off.


Possible to charge one phone off another? What's stopping the ability of charging a cell phone from another cell phone? If I were to create a crossover/patch USB cable and connect it between two phones or tablets, would there by any way to have one of their USB ports provide a charge to the other?

It's fully possible to do that if the charge-from device has USB On-The-Go (OTG) support.

You just need a USB OTG host cable (like this one), which you connect to the charge-from device, then plug a normal micro-USB cable into that, then into the device to be charged.

The only obstacle you may run into is current limitations.  A USB OTG port almost certainly will not provide as much current as an all-up USB port, much less a charger.

Best case, this will mean that the charging device will charge slower.

Middle case, you won't get enough current to charge the device while it is powered on.

Worst case, the charge-from device will simply say "You're drawing too much current.  You're cut off."


Using Google Maps in a car with a Hotspot and a cell phone with no sim card I have a  AT&T Samsung Galaxy 7.
I have another AT&T phone with no sim card.
I have a verizon hotspot and will be purchasing an AT&T hotspot as i am converting to almost full time RV'ing.

Is it possible to use google maps, Waze, or any other driving app like that with my no-sim card phone through one of my hotspots as i drive the country ?

Given that I've sat in a moving bus only using WiFi an can see the blue dot in Google Maps move down the street, it should work.

You may have location problems if there isn't any GPS signal and you are in an area where there is little geolocated WiFi hotspots/signals.


So, what type of process is Android Keyboard? I've recently installed CyanogenMod 11 on my (now very old) LG Optimus 2X. After some tweaking, I managed to make it work much snappier than the original ROM, one of the main things being setting the built-in Minfree Taskkiller preset to Aggressive.

This created a large problem, however - when using some memory-hungry apps (like Viber and Facebook Messenger), the taskkiller seems to kill my keyboard. Basically, in the middle of typing a message, the keyboard simply disappears, only to appear a couple of seconds later and then disappear again soon after.

To fix this, I wanted to tweak the Minfree Taskkiller further so that it wouldn't kill the keyboard so eagerly. It offers the following categories of applications to tweak the threshold for killing apps:

Foreground Applications
Visible Applications
Secondary Server
Hidden Applications
Content Provides
Empty Applications

To which of these does the keyboard process belong to actually?

Some time ego I have written custom android keyboard, and finally Keybaord extend android Service class.
I.e I think We can say - android is a Hidden Application - a  Service.


Android Jelly Bean 4.1.1 on Galaxy Nexus showing droid I've been testing the Galaxy Nexus with JB 4.1.1 and this is what happened yesterday. Has anyone seen this screen?

That screen means your device is in "download" mode, which allows it to be reflashed using Samsung's Odin utility (or the open source alternative Heimdall). It's accessed by holding the volume down button when powering on your Galaxy Nexus.

Also, to clear up some confusion, this is not Fastboot mode - that is different. You access fastboot mode by holding down both volume up and volume down while powering on your device, and it also gives you access to a bootloader menu which you can scroll through using the volume rocker. The image on the screen is also different, and your device will not respond to fastboot commands in Odin mode. This is what the fastboot screen looks like - as I noted, you can see that the most obvious difference is that the background image is not the same:


Can the video chats on Messenger or WhatsApp be hacked? I am using the Marshmallow version of android and often use the newly launched video call feature on WhatsApp and that of Messenger to talk to my family and friends. So usually a question arises, given there are lots of cyber crimes happening now-a-days, can my video chats be hacked ? If so how can I protect my phone from that? What are the tricks or ways hacker use to hacked the camera on my phone? If anyone can explain these things to me then it would be really helpful. I hope this question is allowed in this site. Thank you.

In theory there is no way hack any video call because whatsapp include a point to point encryption.


How do I clear the browser's auto-complete history? My phone keeps saving what I type into chrome or the browser. I have tried erasing the history it still auto completes if I need to retype it. I understand it great to save all the info but I have typed my credit card in one of them and its saved.

How do I clear the browser's address bar auto-complete history?

If it is auto-completed by Google Chrome, please follow the following steps,

Go to your Google Account Dashboard. This will list all of the information collected on you by Google.
Scroll down to Web History and search for your Credit Card entry or other entries to be removed, and remove it from the history. Or you can go directly to your Web History.
Further, in Dashboard you can scroll down to `Chrome Sync and click on Manage Chrome Sync.
Click on the Stop and Clear button to clear all the Autofil and
Omnibox History and to stop syncing the data with Google Server.

Steps 3 & 4 will merely stop Google from collecting data on Google Chrome's Omnibar (I am not 100% certain on this).


How do I detect if I have a Super AMOLED or LCD Screen on my Nexus S? Many sources are citing that the Nexus S is shipping with 2 different types of screen due to Super AMOLED shortages. As I am in the UK it is likely I will have the Super LCD, which I read somewhere is inferior compared to the Super AMOLED.

How can I tell which one I have? What are the main differences?

Update:
Found the answer here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1022216

Looking in 'Baseband version' under 'About Phone' reveals that a baseband beginning wth I9020 is the Super AMOLED or I9023 for Super LCD.

Look at something black (e.g. an image of only black) on your phone, and shut off the lights.  If you've got an AMOLED screen, it should be pure black (virtually no light emanating).  With an LCD it will be significantly brighter/greyish.


My Galaxy Tab 4 won't turn on? I turned it on this morning and it was fine but it died. I tried turning it on later and the Galaxy Tab 4 logo popped up and it vibrated but the screen only turned on for maybe a second and then the screen went immediately black.

Your cable to recharge is dead. Change your cable.


Simplified prepaid phone balance with Tasker On my prepaid phone, I can receive current balance as text message responses. They are five messages, four indicating the balance itself and some additional bonuses, and one more indicating the remaining SMS count. However this requires sending a message to the balance number, reading each of the responses, then deleting them manually. How can I set up a simple notification as replacement for this using Tasker?

Here is a summary of how I have implemented it. Besides Tasker, I also used:

AutoNotification, for a richer notification.
SMS Popup, for suppressing SMS notification for the balance responses.
SMS Auto Delete, for silently deleting those SMS responses after a while.

Profiles

Request Balance on Calls - on outgoing call: Balance Before Call, on exit: Balance After Call.
Process Received Balance - on SMS received from the balance numbers: Process Balance.
Show Balance Summary - on Balance variable set: Show Balance.

Tasks

Balance Before Call

AutomatedBalance = Yes
CheckConsumption = Yes
Request balance by SMS

Balance After Call

Wait 15 seconds
Unset CheckConsumption
Request balance by SMS
Flash "Balance has been requested"

Process Balance

response = number from each SMS response
Case SMS sender is the one responsible for
    Bonus balance
        BonusBalance = response
    SMS balance
        SMSBalance = response
    Normal balance
        BalanceConsumption = (Balance - response)
        Balace = response
    Favorite-number balance
        FavoriteBalanceConsumption = (FavoriteBalance - response)
        FavoriteBalance = response
    Same-carrier balance
        CarrierBalanceConsumption = (CarrierBalance - response)
        CarrierBalance = response
    Local landline balance, then
        LocalBalanceConsumption = (LocalBalance - response)
        LocalBalance = response
    Unknown sender
        # This normally means an error, when none of the above have been fired
        Append "(previous)" to Balance

Show Balance

If CheckConsumption
    If Balance is not currency
        notify "Error while getting the balance in the beginning of call"
    Exit from task
Wait 5 seconds
If Balance is currency
    If FavoriteBalanceConsumption > 0
        consumption = FavoriteBalanceConsumption
        Prefix consumption with "Call to favorite (min) consumed"
    Else if CarrierBalanceConsumption > 0
        consumption = CarrierBalanceConsumption + LocalBalanceConsumption +
            BalanceConsumption
        Prefix consumption with "Call to same-carrier number consumed"
    Else if LocalBalanceConsumption > 0
        consumption = LocalBalanceConsumption + BalanceConsumption
        Prefix consumption with "Call to local number consumed"
    Else if BalanceConsumption > 0
        consumption = BalanceConsumption
        Prefix consumption with "Regular call consumed"
    Else if AutomatedBalance
        consumption = "Free call"
    Else
        consumption = "Phone balance"
    Notify consumption and all balances
    Set all unset balances to zero
    Set all consumptions to zero
Else
    previous_balance = number from balance prefixed with "Previous balance is"
    notify "Error while getting the balance", previous_balance
Unset AutomatedBalance


how to lock notification screen in Samsung duos how to lock notification screen in Samsung duos to prevent access for quick toggles like Wi-Fi, GPS,Screen rotation, Screen brightness?

That simply is absurd. You will have to lock your screen(Device lockscreen) to prevent anyone from accessing your phone's system controls. You simply cannot or wouldn't want to lock the "notifications" while using your device.


Transfer a folder with subfolders from PC to Smartphone Note 3 via WLAN I'd like to transfer a folder with approx. 300 files (wma, mp3 etc.) in different subfolders to the Galaxy Note 3 External SD Card.

I've tried some possible solutions:
WiFi File Transfer Pro: does not transfer the subfolder-structure
AirDroid: is too expensive (approx. 20 Dollars per year)
Kies Air: does not work neither

Is there any (almost) free solution?

I tried and it was possible per hazard with this one:
"ES Datei Explorer" App --> Activate ES FTP-Server
Installation of FileZilla on PC and open this WLAN Server Nummer
It was possible to tansfer whole subfolder structure

If someone knows an even bether or easier way (because in the way describes with FileZilla you cannot directly transfer to the external SD Card, you have to move on the smartphone afterward) please let me know.

There are a number of programs.  You're described the functionality of an FTP or SMB service.

One of the best is Servers Ultimate.

You might also take a look at Airdroid.

Type this in the file explorer window of your OS to see a GUI resolution:

ftp://192.168.1.150:2121

(The IP address should be replace for the one that Servers Ultimate Pro gives you.)

You'll end up with a regular file browser window where you can drag and drop items between your computer and your Android.

This is a view of your drag/drop (copy option) in Linux:

This is a view of your drag/drop (copy option) in Windows:

The Android is on the left of the two pictures.  The PC is on the right of the two images.

When you drag and drop, you can drag and drop (transfer) full subfolders between the Android and the PC, or of course individual files.

Enable write access for the user:

Ensure you have setup a user for your ftp server and enabled write access for this user.  You can check this by clicking (from Servers Ultimate Pro):

Click on Servers then Click the FTP server you setup
Click Edit
Click General
Click Users
Click the specific user
Put Check mark in Allo write access


Where to find "adb" version 1.0.32 to install on Ubuntu? My laptop has Ubuntu 14.04 as OS. I installed latest version of "android-adb-tools" available in "Synaptic Package Manager". After installation, adb command --help says that adb's version is 1.0.31.

I used adb sideload to install a new ROM on my Samsung device (with TWRP version 2.8.4.0 as recovery), but command returns error: protocol fault (no status) and TWRP says that I have to use adb with version 1.0.32 or higher! Where i could find "android-adb-tools" package with adb version of 1.0.32 or higher?

Download and untar

https://skia.googlesource.com/skia/+archive/cd048d18e0b81338c1a04b9749a00444597df394/platform_tools/android/bin/linux.tar.gz

After this, just copy the extracted executable "adb" over old one in /usr/bin.


"Android broadcasting MAC when the Wifi is turned off" How authentic is it? According to TheHackerNews latest article,

http://thehackernews.com/2014/02/chainfire-released-pry-fi-android-app.html
According to the expert, the latest versions of Android OS keep on
broadcasting MAC address of the Smartphone you are using; doesn’t
matter whether the Wi-Fi is turned ON or OFF.
“If your Wi-Fi is turned
on, even though it is not connected to any network, your phone will
periodically broadcast a unique number (the MAC address), as well as
all the Wi-Fi network names and addresses it remembers ever connecting
to. With newer Android versions this can happen even if Wi-Fi is turned off, due to a feature called "scanning always available", which**
helps your device better determine its location.”**

How true is this statement ? and what is the authentic source of this statement ?

I think the key is the little may be hidden in there (different paragraph from the one you quoted).  If you leave "scanning always available" on then basically the wi-fi will blip on and off every so often just to see what's around... this could be enough for a nearby wireless network to detect/track you.  If you read the google plus post (and bare in mind it's by the person who wants you to download his software) it actually points out you can still turn your wi-fi off in latest Android (off in the sense you'd expect - "One solution is shutting off wi-fi completely").

The paragraph you quoted is a bit of a dogs breakfast... the first part happens (wi-fi networks will be able to see the MAC address of any device polling them).  The only reason the second part would happen is when your device knows about wireless networks with SSID broadcast turned off (it used to be recommended to turn this off, but now the opposite is true for this reason) - if it knows of such cloaked networks it'll poll each network it meets to see if it's one of the ones it knows (simplified).  There's also allegedly some "known network sharing" between your device and google for the purpose of backing up your network settings to the cloud, but this isn't available/visible to the wi-fi network.

So the benefits... disable wi-fi completely a strange feature since the author recognizes you can do this with stock, but you wouldn't want to because you'd loose the "scanning always available setting".  Random MAC address this could be useful, it certainly defeats a series of networks from tracking your device's movement, but so does turning of wi-fi completely.  MAC addresses are supposed to be unique, and while it's a large namespace, one wonders with a randomizer if collisions will happen (if two devices have the same MAC address they won't work properly on wi-fi).  If you visit places that have MAC address filtering or identification (for legitimate reasons - your home network, a business network, a company that provides free wi-fi for a period and tracks that you've accepted their terms) you may find your device no longer works although there's mention of a setting that will restore your stock MAC when wi-fi is on.  war mode sounds like it just changes the MAC address more frequently (possibly during a wi-fi session) but this isn't without processing overhead.


After flashing ROM in Odin, reboot with animation, message pop ups - processes stop I flash  NEW ROM and after reboot, the samsung animation came up.

But there as it load there are messages saying the process stop, I press Ok and next message is another process stop - such as a.core.process, gmap amanger, etc.

Pls help

Try clearing the data (performing a factory reset) from your recovery.  Some custom ROMs need this, for whatever reason.


Can android phones play DVD-format movies over WIFI? I have ripped my library of DVDs to my home server. I play them over WiFi from other PCs.

Can an Android phone with HDMI out do the same thing as a media center PC, playing these movies over the network on to a TV?

It sounds like you're trying to do something a bit like DLNA? This is the set of technologies/protocols that allow you to play media on one device on another device on a home network. It's designed for connecting things like media servers, media players, TVs, etc all together to play across the home network.

You might find the answers to the following questions useful:

Can I get DLNA on my Droid?

DLNA enabled media player?


How to "passthrough" a file from PC to Android and back using 'exec-in' and 'exec-out' directives? I can do this:

adb exec-in "gzip > sdcard/test.gz" < C:\test.txt
adb exec-out cat sdcard/test.gz > C:\test.gz

The question is how to do something like this:

adb exec-in "gzip > C:\test.gz" < C:\test.txt

I mean, how can I use a file on my PC as an input for some android (linux) program and use another file on my PC as an output WITHOUT saving any data on android's internal memory (flash, microSD etc)?

My post is more a comment than an answer (but I cannot comment).
All my comments below address only the case of Windows adb host.
adb shell gzip >C:\test.gz <C:\test.txt probably works just because the input file is a text file.
adb shell gzip >C:\test.gz <C:\test.bin fails because the call of Windows read function in adb stops reading as soon as 0x1A byte (ctrl+Z) is read. This is the default text operation mode of the Windows read function.
The workaround uses by exec-in and exec-out is to call _setmode() to configure the writing and reading of file descriptors in binary mode.
Unfortunately most of the time <test.bin adb exec-in "cat - > sdcard/test.bin" fails as well for adbd version < 1.0.41 (ie anything below android 10). The cause is probably some race condition issues in the usb.cpp code of adbd.
Android 10 fixes this with the nonblocking FFS implementation and <test.bin adb exec-in "cat - > sdcard/test.bin" works with Windows (tested with LineageOS 17.1 + Windows 10)


How to move Android folder to SD Card in LG P760 to install big games? I want to install Wolfs Among Us on LG P760 which  requires 2.5GB of space. I don't have that much space to even download the game, but I do have 3GB of free space on SD card.

Game installs itself only in Android folder ( Android\obb ) which is located in internal memory card. Back on my old phone, HTC Desire S, Android folder was default set on SD Card so I had no problem installing heavy games as long as I had memory on SD card. But my LG P760 has Android folder in Internal storage, so I can't install the game.

If you folks find me a way to set Android folder on SD card, or just install game in SD card, I will be really thankful to you! Here are few things I've tried :

About Link2SD, I haven't really tried it. I think it just moves folder after game is installed. I don't have enough storage on internal memory to even download the game, so I can't use that option. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it only moves folders, not changes default install directory.
Unsuccessfully tried the steps mentioned here. I get stuck every time I try to search for my device using the command 'adb devices', and my phone doesn't show up even after I have enabled USB debugging.
Rooting - I didn't do it yet, but if process requires rooting, I'll do it. I have never done that before, so I would thank you if you could show me which rooting program to install.

I was setting up my phone while I was in hurry, so if some steps are in-accurate or missing, I am sorry :/
- Root your phone using the following link and steps : How do I root my Android device?
- After you are done, you'll have a special permission to edit your android settings as super-user, so then download Folder Mount from Google Play
- After installing, enter FolderMount and find option to change folder directory ( I don't remember this part well, I am sorry )
- Install game, enter Folder Mount and change destination.
- Enjoy game :D


Android 4.0.3 Google tablet will not connect to Billion 5200n RC router I have an Android Google tablet that will not connect to internet Wi-Fi on Billion 5200n RC model router. iPad and iPhones do connect without a problem, but the tablet shows its connected but when I go to browser it will not load a page and connect to internet. Have tried connecting tablet at the neighbors house and it connected without a problem. Can someone please help me out and tell me what the problem is.

Try going to your Billion router and check that it is not restricting access by MAC address. If it is then make sure your Android's MAC address is pluged in.

Also, if you have Bluetooth running on the tablet, try turning it off first, in case there is an address conflict.


Add manually installed android apps to Google Play account I regularly install a number of frequently used applications on new android devices.
Since I do this often, I download and the latest versions of these apps and sideload the APKs onto the devices in order to save internet bandwith among other reasons.

The problem I encounter with this is that new applications I install via sideloading do not appear in the user's application list in Google Play even though the apps are free.

How can I get these new apps added to the user's application list?

Sideloaded apps are not linked to Google Play. You will have to update them manually (i.e. sideloading)

What you could do is install Titanium Backup (needs root), and use its Attach to Market feature.

Another solution would be to use AppBrain instead of Google Play, because AppBrain scans the apps in your phone, and informs you of any updates.


Is there a way to turn my device on while it's stuck in a boot loop due to a broken power key? I have this old LG Nexus 5 with a broken power key laying around and I want to access storage now. Problem is whenever I hold down the power button it goes into an infinite boot loop. Gets to various lengths of the android boot animation but always fails and starts over.

I know for a fact that the phone has USB debugging enabled.
Phone is not rooted.
I have tried using ADB, however adb devices doesn't list anything and connecting it via USB automatically starts the boot loop without me even holding down the power button.

Is there anything I can do other than take it to some shop?

Thanks in advance

Got lucky and managed to turn it on for just long enough to get my data.


How do I get sound out of galaxy 4 to come through Aux port in my car? I have a Toyota Sienna.  I am trying to get an audio book located on my Galaxy S4 to play through the Car's sound system.  I attach the cable to the Aux port in my car and turn on my Galaxy 4 audio book. The Sound comes out of the phone but I can't get it to come out of car's speaker system.  When I plug in my iPod tothe Aux port, the music plays just fine in the car's speaker system.  What am I doing wrong?

Check that the app you are using to play the e-book is correctly outputting the sound to the aux-cable (in case it has some setting to disable/enable audio output to headphones). Alternatively, try some other apps, to check sound output through the phone, to the aux cable, into the aux port and to the car music system. Also, as @Zeiss Ikon suggests check sound output from your S4 to a pair of headphones, external speakers etc.

Most of the times, the volume is also reduced for headphones and Android warns on possible ear damage. So also try increasing the volume.

Try with a different aux cable. Though if the iPod is being connected with the aux cable and it is working, theoretically it should work.


How to delete duplicate SMS? After unlucky using some SMS backup tool I have the duplicates of all my SMS.
So question is which way better to delete them.

You can use Back up and Restore to manually and multi select all the SMS's you want to delete.


What are the limitations of installing Ubuntu on an Android device? I'm looking at
http://androlinux.com/android-ubuntu-development/how-to-install-ubuntu-on-android/

What are the limitations of this Ubuntu installation?  Can I install anything that runs on Ubuntu?

I'm only interested in using this for commandline tools (Ruby, gems, and Emacs).

Ubuntu running on one computer is really no different from Ubuntu running on another computer, whether one of the computers is called a "phone" or not :P

Things to consider for your applications:

Does this application rely on specific video libraries?  No existing Android phone has an ATI video chip, for example, as far as I'm aware.
Does this application rely on specific input methods or other hardware?  Not all Android devices support peripherals.  Of course, most have Bluetooth so Ubuntu should be able to manage a Bluetooth keyboard, for example, but I'm not sure whether a phone's Bluetooth stack could be so different as to not work in Ubuntu.
Does this application rely on the x86 architecture?  Most (all?) Android devices use the ARM architecture.

I would suspect that Emacs would be fine if you compiled it for the chipset of whatever device you used.  Ruby might be more complicated -- maybe it relies on specific x86 instructions, I haven't really studied how interpreted languages work in that regard -- but maybe not.

You're making me want to try Ubuntu on my phone so I can better answer these questions :P


How to unpack Android's radio.img file Android images (e.g. those for nexus) ship with a radio-(version).img file. I wanted to unpack this file to look at its contents.

I tried using simg2img, as is done with system.img, but that approach didn't work for this file. I know that for boot.img, separate tools are available. I wanted to ask if anyone has tried unpacking this img file ?

radio.img is the radio firmware.  It's a binary, not any kind of archive; you can't unpack it.

You could, of course, attempt to de-compile it — but manufacturers generally don't release the source code so you are not likely to get very far with that without extreme effort.


Switching contacts from Windows Phone to Android I have been trying to figure how too switch my contacts over to my Galaxy S III. I had a Nokia Lumia 520 and I really don't want to manually put my contacts in, but I don't see where they were saved.

Easy.

Sync your Microsoft account with your Windows Phone.
Sign in to your Microsoft account on your PC (you can do this at people.live.com), then press the dropdown next to Outlook, and select People.
Select Manage and choose "Export for Outlook.com and other services".
Now press "Save" to store the exported contacts file "OutlookContacts.csv" on your computer (e.g. on your Desktop).

Now you have to transfer your Windows Live (Hotmail) contacts to your Google Account. To do that:

Sign-in to your Gmail account using a desktop computer.
In the main Gmail window, click the "Mail" or "GMail" drop-down arrow on the top left of the screen, and choose "Contacts".
In Contacts page, press "More" menu and select "Import".
Now press the "Choose File" button.
Navigate to the location where you saved the Windows Live Contacts file (OutlookContacts.csv) in the  previous step and "Open" it.
Finally, press the "Import" button and wait until the import process is completed.

And finally to your phone.

On the Android phone, go to "Settings" > "Accounts and Sync" or "Settings" > "Accounts".
Under "Manage Accounts",  select (or "Add") the Google account you used to import WLM contacts.
Finally press "Sync Contacts".

You're done!


how to link contact with facebook, gmail etc? I am on cm7 & HTC Desire. Old HTC Sence was linking my contacts with Facebook, Gmail etc. It gave me good suggestions what could be linked or an easy way how to link a contact item with some other kind of account. The current contact manager has a 'join' feature which I am not sure if I can use for Facebook.

Are there any advanced contact managers?

You have to go to Edit contact, then press the Menu key, then select Join. This gives you the list of suggested contacts to join. Works for me between Google contacts and Facebook on Galaxy S + CyanogenMod 7.1.


Fast Upload, Slow Download on Wireless-AC WAN over SFTP Title says most of it.  I use ES File Explorer, but the issue seems to exist in any file manager.  Copying files to the SFTP server nets 20-30MB/s, whereas copying files from is ~400-500kB/s.

I gather this may have something to do with Android treating these copy operations as a background download, but that's mostly supposition.

Maybe the site/computer you are downloading from have a upload limit. but when you push files (you upload) the other side is downloading, so it less of a problem for them.


Messenger pics iv sent to friends move sometimes to gallery Samsung Tab 4. Pics I send to friends on messenger (facebook) have started showing up in my gallery under messenger app , but only sometimes.Even ones I delete show up there sometimes . My second problem is stuff under messenger ,screensshots and Facebook apps in my gallery vanish . Please explain in easy terms if anyone got any idea as I don't know all the jargon yet . THANKS .

On Facebook Messenger,

Go to Settings › Photos and Media.

There uncheck the two options, if you wish to. This will stop messenger photos from appearing in the gallery in the future.

My Messenger is version 55. I think this option exists in all recent versions, too.


How many apps can be installed on an Android device? How many apps can be installed on an Android device? Is there any limit in number? Or whether it depends on RAM/Storage ?

In the source code of Android M that you can find here, is this statement:

/**
 * @hide Range of uids allocated for a user.
 */
 public static final int PER_USER_RANGE = 100000;

In this line of code, it states that a user can have one hundred thousand UIDs.

However there is a conflicting information. You know that root UID is 0 and system UIDs start from 1000. Normal user apps start from 10000. This interval defined for user apps' UID numbers is also stated here as:

  FIRST_APPLICATION_UID has the constant value of 10000 (0x00002710)
  LAST_APPLICATION_UID has the constant value of 19999 (0x00004e1f)

Therefore, first UID that will be given to a user app will be 10000, and last one will be 19999. Therefore, it states that a user can have ten thousand apps.

So, which one is correct? I think this might explain. Before 4.1.1 LAST_APPLICATION_UID was 99999, allowing ninety thousand user apps as the limit. However, this is for user apps while PER_USER_RANGE doesn't specifically say so and therefore probably includes all UIDs from 0 to 99999. After 4.1.1 LAST_APPLICATION_UID was reduced to 19999 but PER_USER_RANGE was left untouched.

So for pre-4.1.1 versions, the limit is ninety thousand user apps and for 4.1.1 and after it is ten thousand user apps.

That is of course the limit that Android accepts. But in most cases, your storage will be full before you can reach such numbers.


Clear Application Cache on ICS I want to clear a specific system application's cache — Calendar & Calendar Storage. How do I do it in ICS?

I've stopped the running app:

but cannot find the Clear data / Clear cache like before:

I'm on a Nexus S and I prefer a way to do it natively, without needing to install an app just for that.

I see Calendar and Calendar Storage in my "All apps" list in Settings.

If I open either of them, I also see the old, familiar Clear Data and Clear Cache buttons.


Unable to enable Wifi/Bluetooth I have a HTC One X , Android 4.2.2, everything worked as a charm, but suddenly my WIFI/Bluetooth functionality stopped working. I cant see any WIFI network and cant turn WIFI on/off.

It just shows me the message: 'Error' on the Settings > Wifi dashboard. also I cant enable bluetooth.

At Settings > Info > Hardware info it states:

Wifi: 802.11 a/b/g/n
Wifi MAC Adres: Unavailable.
Bluetooth: 4.0
Bluetooth adres: Unavailable.

I tried a wifi diagnostic app (Wifi fixer) it states: WIFI_STATE_UNKNOWN

I tried the following:

give it a static IP-adres, but I can't reach the advanced settings tab. (Settings > Wifi > Advanced)
Soft and Factory Reset.

Because it cant tell me the MAC adres of the wificard/Bluetooth is unavailable. I am afraid that the radio unit is broken.

Do you have some suggestions for a fix or how to trace the cause of this problem?

Like you said - it may be a problem with the H/W itself because if its a S/W problem it should've been rectified after hard reset (in most of the cases). If the device is on warranty I'd suggest taking it to a service centre ASAP :)


Apps can't see my pictures Apps like Facebook or Tinder or any other can't see my freshly uploaded pictures (via USB cable)... File explorers can see them without any problems... what is going on? I even tried to post them to my GMail and download, but apps can't see those pictures even after downloading (file explorers like EZ can see them in Download directory)... that really makes me mad... what the is going on?

Nexus 5.

I discovered a solution, that someone may find useful:

There is a way to make your photos visible for apps that are not seeing them by just opening the photo in original Android photo app. Doesn't work with ES or similar, has to be original build-in app. After that, photo starts to be visible everywhere.


Why will a video game from the google play store be asking me for root/super users permissions? So I don't know if this is a question for here or security.stackexchange.com but the thing is I installed a game that ask me for root access to my system it seems suspicious and strange why will a game be asking for root access I assume to myself that it is some type of malware and I uninstalled the game yeah a game asking for root access what a malware and is that normal?
the game is snipper 3D assassin free games By fun games for free

It shouldn't be... There is no viable reason I can think of for a game to request or need root permissions.

If this game is from an official channel like Play Store, Amazon App Store, or F-Droid, do not grant the permission and remove it immediately. This should also be reported to the appropriate app market and given a comment or review warning other users of the potential problems.

This is likely a way of hijacking your device, installing malware of somekind, or ransomware of some kind.

If you granted root permissions and run the app, I would immediately backup important data and factory reset the device, but keep in mind that root permissions can allow the app to read and write to the /system partition which survives a factory reset, so a reflashing of the factory firmware, or wiping of system and reflashing a custom ROM is highly recommended.


Phone / Skype Dialing Option I have a Samsung Galaxy SII.GT-I9100 Android Version 4.1.2
Recently I installed their latest upgrade. I still have the option to choose between Phone & Skype when I am dialing, which is great, but now they have a second annoying choice which must be made each time. That is ALWAYS or JUST ONCE which then immediately sets that as the default.
This means there has to be an extra choice pressed each time I want to make a call.
Is there a way to disable that ridiculous feature & still retain the Phone/Skype option.

Thanks for any help you can give.

You can't get the old popup back, but Sparx's suggestion is correct: if you double-tap the app, it has the same effect as clicking "Just once". Hopefully this is quick and easy enough that the new-style chooser doesn't annoy you any more.


Sony Xperia L1 Screen Always Open, I Cannot Lock I have a Xperia L1. When I press lock button, the screen locked and re-opened in 2 seconds every time. I cannot find the fix for it. Are anyone encountered with this issue ? Thanks.

The problem has been solved. Proximity sensor seems broken due to service report. After a fix, it resolved. Thanks.


Phone memory full and it shouldn't be I have a weird problem with my android phone: for some reason, I'm getting a 'Low phone memory' error message, and before getting the message the phone was slow and unresponsive.

I have 2 GB internal storage; in the app manager, it says 1.2Gb used, 27Mb free. Where did the rest of the space go? I noticed this slowdown after installing an app (QR droid) from that Play Market (or whatever name it has now). When I first saw the error message, I had like 100 mb free in the app manager, and each time I reopened it the space was decreasing.

The phone is a Motorola Defy, rooted and using Miui, android version is Gingerbread.

So how can I fix this issue?

Simple solution. Press phone and select keypad. dial *#9900#. A new menu appears. press the second one down "Delete dumpstate/logcat" then just press home to exit.. Done, you'll have bags of extra device memory with no ill effects. Should free up to a gig of device memory, it did on mine.


Why do apps like WhatsApp, Facebook run background services in android even though their apps on iOS without backgroung services What is the reason for apps like WhatsApp running background services in andrioid even though in iOS they work smoothly without any background service

Because they can.

In Android you can create background services and do a lot with them, whereas in iOS Apple does not allow you to do this. Both use push notifications to get your new messages when the app is closed, so the main functionality of the app works fine regardless, however the apps may be doing more processing or monitoring, or whatever Facebook wants it to do in the background while you're not using it.


How to mod android rom so none can ever install an app in it? I already know how to modify an android ROM by modifying files, remove and add it into ROM. But I don't have knowledge to building/compiling a ROM.

I want to lock the OS so none can ever install new app to it. Well at least for they that not have a knowledge to flash the ROM with other OS.

Is there a way to prevent user from install any application to the ROM?

like removing the market app or the package installer, pros n cons?

Your idea of removing the store and package installer should work.

To do so, delete the following apks (and any .odex files of the same name) from /system/app, either in your ROM image or after obtaining root.

DefaultContainerService.apk - used for app installs by both the Play store and Packageinstaller.
PackageInstaller.apk - This is used to install non-market apps.
Vending.apk - This is the Play store.
Phonesky.apk - This is the Play store on JB and some ICS builds.

With those gone (and the phone unrooted), it should be impossible to install anything.

Note : I have not tested this.  Making a backup before doing this would be advisable.


How do I force USB debugging? I am trying to figure out why my apps don't work on tablets manufactured by the company Ainol.

USB debugging is already turned on, and I took a look at all of the settings that I could find on it, but the USB debugging bridge refuses to find it.

I figured out that it might be because the tablet ALWAYS connects the USB file transfer (either as mass storage, or media, or camera, but it ALWAYS connects, and I found no option to not connect).

How can I force ADB to find it somehow?

Normally you should have to install the driver of the tablet to have ADB working with it. On the opposite, mass storage usually work out-of-the-box because any PC recognize this standard.

After some search on Google I found some info that may work with your tablet here:
http://www.slatedroid.com/topic/70585-adb-drivers/page_p_805857


Android status bar symbols Why has Android not made available the meaning of all the relevant status bar symbols?  Why can I not find this complete list?  I try to find out and post it, now Android is stopping me from doing this because I cannot find a ""TAG"" ???  What is going on?

It is mostly because status bar icons vary from OEM to OEM. Each one has a slightly modified icon set to go with their overall skin/UI. And then icons will depend a lot on the features incorporated within a device. So, developing a full list of icon sets seems like a tough task. Because you'll eventually miss at least something used on a phone.
Other than that, 3rd party apps also show their icons up the status bar. And it's impossible to keep a track of each and every app.


How to start an app from the command line? I want to start an app with the package name de.avm.android.fritzapp
from a shell prompt because it occasionally quits. I have decompiled the .apk and got the AndroidManifest.xml.

I have launched certain screens of app by:
am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN-n de.avm.android.fritzapp/.gui.SettingsTestActivity

But this is not the same as clicking the app icon on from the home screen.
Upon normal startup, the app registers with the router for receiving IP-calls, etc.

So how can I simply start the app as if it had been clicked on?

TL:DR;
adb shell monkey -p de.avm.android.fritzapp 1

Long Answer

  How can I simply start the app as if it had been clicked on?

You can start the main activity of the app
am start -n com.package.name/.MainActivityName

Since you have decompiled the App and got the manifest file so you would have the name of the main activity. You can get this information from the App's AndroidManifest.xml by searching for the activity with intent-filterand also contains android.intent.action.MAIN under action

Check the activity element with skeleton as below

<activity android:name="this.is.main.activity.name you.are.looking.for">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
        <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER"/>
    </intent-filter>
</activity>

You can start this particular app by
am start -n app de.avm.android.fritzapp/.gui.FRITZApp

Alternatively if you do not have the source code (manifest file), you can try the more general method where knowing the package name is enough with the help of Monkey tool as below:

adb shell monkey -p package.name 1 (Simplified)

The above command works because Monkey takes a constraint -c <main-category> which if not specified will select activities listed with the category Intent.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER which in turn becomes

adb shell monkey -p package.name -c android.intent.category.LAUNCHER 1


Ultra slow speed while transfer files between PC and Samsung S5 I just got my new Samsung Galaxy S5, original ROM with version 4.4.2. It uses a new Toshiba 64GB speed U3 micro SD card.

When I transfer my WhatsApp folder from PC to GS5, it took me more than 24 hours!!!

The WhatsApp folder has about 3GB in size, and thousands of received/sent images.

At the first time, I transfer them from PC to the (fast) SD card in the phone. It really took me more than 24 hours. At the second time, I tried transfer them from PC to the phone internal memory. It seems to be a little bit faster. I did not wait it to complete. But I assume it will take 20+ hours also.

When I use the file manager in GS5 to copy the entire 3GB folder from SD card to phone internal, it takes only 5 minutes or less. (It's a U3 card afterall)

I did a small test. I transfer only the database files from PC to the SD card (in the phone). There are 7 files, in total 1 GB in size. It takes only 1 minute.

So my guess is, the transfer speed will be ultra slow when it contains many small files.

The same issue happens in different fast computers.
I used the original USB cable, and tried on other short and average quality cables.
I prefer not to pull my SD card out every time. Even if i do, transfer from PC to phone also have the ultra slow speed issue.
I know there are threads suggesting to transfer file by other methods. But my concern is: Why is it so unreasonable slow? And I prefer using the USB method.

Is my phone a defect?

Wikipedia is our friend, again. :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Transfer_Protocol#Drawbacks

Quote:

MTP allows no parallelism, unlike USB mass storage or NAS. MTP has been built to only allow a single operation at a time (for example, read, write or delete operation), while no other operation can be executed until the previous operation is complete.

By design, MTP devices (like PTP devices) are not treated as a traditional removable drive. The actual file system is implemented by the device, and not by the computer's operating system. This also means that file system recovery tools on the computer will be of no use. In addition, most other programs on the computer will not recognise the MTP device, limiting the user to software from the device manufacturer or other MTP specific programs.

When opening a file, the user must wait until the file is copied to the host computer/device before it can be viewed; the file remains on the host computer's storage after viewing and after removal of the device.

Devices that are limited to MTP transfers do not allow or support instant access or multitasking.

The MTP and PTP standards do not support direct modification of objects. Modified objects must be copied out of the device and reuploaded in their entirety, which can take a long time for large objects. Google's MTP implementation in Android includes extensions to deal with this limitation; however, these extensions must be supported by the host operating system, and are not available by default. This blocks the direct creation of files on the device from the host computer; files must be first created on the host computer and then copied over.

...

Most MTP-compatible devices are not assigned drive letters; instead, they appear as "devices" in applications such as Windows Explorer.


Timer not showing card on Android Wear Some time ago the native count down timer app used to show a card with time remaining and an ability to pause/resume the timer. This card couldnt be dismissed and would stay until the timer was running. Now the running timer won't display any card or time remaining. Is there any way to get this functionality back?

This appeared (to me at least) to be introduced when I installed v5.0.1 of android (on to my LG G watch). As soon as the timer is set the card usually, but not always, disappears and even more unhelpfully, on occasion, the timer no longer appears to work! This unreliability has meant that I have had to stop using it.


How to login in Skype via Facebook? I have a skype account that I created via Facebook login and can use it on my PC or Mac just fine. Now I want to use Skype on Android and have installed the official app. Yet the app lacks an option to login via Facebook.

How am I supposed to login, as I do neither know my user name nor the password, as I am used to login via Facebook.

Go to the login page, tap on "Problems in signing".
Enter your primary Facebook email, Skype will send a code to your email.
Copy it, go back to the Skype app.
Tap on enter the key, paste the key in it.
There's your Skype account named facebook:your.name.
Tap on your Facebook profile, tap sign in with Facebook
Then Facebook login page will appear and enter your login info.


Can "adb remount" be used on a stock phone (unrooted)? Is it possible to use adb remount with a standard firmware and without having rooted the device? If not, is there another way to force the system to make /system writable without rooting the device?

Without root: No, for security reasons this command is only accessible for the superuser.
Standard firmware, rooted: Yes, if the partition you like to remount is not in a locked flash region (HTC calls that S-on/S-off)


Can the RECEIVE_SMS permission be used to intercept SMS messages? I've noticed quite a few apps requesting the RECEIVE_SMS permission. Two things are clear to me here:

RECEIVE_SMS enables an app to "snap" incoming SMS
READ_SMS just applies to SMS already stored

As some of the apps just were asking for RECEIVE_SMS, but not for READ_SMS, I got curious: this seems to imply RECEIVE_SMS is not only targeted at the receiving part, but the app can also do what it wants with the received message – e.g. read it, then throw it away silently (so the user doesn't even notice there was an SMS – which might be the way TAN Trojans act to snap identifiers for online banking transactions).

But would it also be possible for such an app to "intercept" the message, i.e. receive it, read it (and process its content in any way, e.g. forwarding it by other means such as via IP), and then pass it on as if nothing had happened? In other words: Can it spy on the user this way?

Yes, it can, but only on Android 4.3 and lower. This is used for example in Whatsapp. When you activate the app, Whatsapp sends an SMS to the number you reported, and the app intercepts it quietly and reports to the servers that it has received the SMS. This is how the account is tied to your number.

Of course, this can be used in harmful apps also. If an app registers as an SMS receiver with the highest priority, the app can listen for incoming SMSs, process them and either dismiss them without the user ever noticing, or forward to the next SMS listener with the second-highest priority.

This has been redone in Android 4.4, and if I understood correctly, only the default SMS app has access to all incoming SMS (SMS_DELIVER_ACTION), and the other apps with correct permissions will only receive a notification of the incoming message (SMS_RECEIVED_ACTION). In addition, the SMS_RECEIVED intent is non-abortable, it can't be stopped. I assume that in Android 4.4, this is done to allow the user to see all incoming SMS messages in the default app.

Edit: Found some more useful info on the Android Developers Blog. I'd test this further, but my only Android phone is currently WiFi-only, so no SMS :/


Options darked in JOdin3 Casual I am trying to root my phone using JOdin3(as Odin does not work on Linux).

But some options are darked out as shown in the image below.

I need to select Auto reboot and F reset time for continuing.What should I do?

Also my phone goes into charging mode(shows the green charging bar) quickly after going into odin mode, so I'm unable to do anything.

 I had to use Odin tag because there is no JOdin tag.Please change it if you think it would be appropriate

According to the developer, those disabled checkboxes are not implemented. Source.

You can still proceed with the flash even if F. Reset Time is disabled / unchecked. There should be no problems with it.


How to force 2G/3G/4G? I recently moved from Note 2 to Moto X. In Note 2, the 'Mobile Networks' page inside Settings had the 'Network Mode' setting with options: GSM/WCDMA (Auto mode), GSM only or WCDMA only.

In Moto X however, instead of 'Network Mode' there is 'Prefered network type' which has the options: 4G (recommended), 3G or 2G.

Through this I can force 2G, I'm assuming, but not 3G or 4G (there's no 4G in India yet anyway).

Is there any other setting or any app that can force only 3G (or 4G)?

Try *#*#4636#*#* in your dial pad (type the * and # also). Under Phone information you will find Preferred network type. Select GSM  or WCDMA from there.

You will find

WCDMA preferred this will use both 2g and 3g whichever has the
better reception
WCDMA only this will use only 3g
GSM only this will use only 2g


How to know if my tablet is compatible to a later Android version? I have a Pandigital Star tablet with Android 2.2.

But now Pandigital have closed their business.
I would like to Upgrade to atleast Android 2.3 myself.

Can I do it?
Should I do it? Will it make my system slow?
How to do it?

Can you do it ? Yes you can, how hard or time consuming is it going to be? A lot of time for sure.
Sure you can go ahead! Many people run custom roms or build their own roms from AOSP on their android devices.
You can either search for compatiable custom roms for your device else go pull a branch of AOSP and build on it!


Pressing backspace whilst typing an SMS causes the screen to exit to the "Delete by Selection" view, how can I stop this? As in the title -

When I'm writing a text and hit backspace, it always exits to the 'delete by selection' view for the person I'm writing to. Which is especially annoying b/c when I hit back to escape that screen, it takes me to the top of the list of conversations between me and that person, necessitating me spending either a long period of time scrolling, or exiting the menu entirely and beginning again.

Any tips on how I can get it to stop doing this? I have a HTC Desire HD.

Found a thread of people with the same issue.
HTC was contacted an to fix they said factory reset your phone:

With the phone turned off, press and hold the Volume Down key.
Briefly press the Power key.
Wait for the screen with the 3 Android images to appear.
Press the Volume Down key twice to select CLEAR STORAGE.
Press the Power.
When asked to confirm, press Volume Up

HOWEVER this has not worked for many users.
The second fix would be this:
*hey i will GWY<----- when you make a mistake like that instead of tapping the backspace button to get rid of your mistakes. Press AND HOLD it until it gets rid of your mistakes its a SLIGHT fix but its ALOT easier to have to deal with the whole delete by selection issue


Document file names automatically change during Share I'm using a Huawei Y7 Android 8.1.0. Everytime I select share for a PDF or DOCX file and select whatsapp or viber, the file gets renamed to a longer file name. In Whatsapp it shows 'NULL' in the thread. When opened within Whatsapp it shows long file name. Does anyone know how to stop this. It happens for file names less than 8 characters. My issue is I want to share the file with the name I have given but not a long meaningless code. All software including android and apps are updated. App caches cleared. Can anyone help?

Mine does the same when I share a file from the location in which it resides (like a pdf in "files"). But when I share it through WhatsApp (click on the attachment button in the chat) then it shows the correct name. Hope it helps for you too.


What happens when you kill the Samsung Kies Wifi Agent? My Macbook Pro was running hot, the fans running constantly. This is not usual behavior. When I looked at the running processes, I saw that the Kies Wifi Agent was gobbling up a lot of RAM. I tried killing the process, and the temperature dropped by sixty-eight degrees.

I assume the agent will start up again the next time I reboot. My question: Aside from not being able to use wifi from the Mac to the tablet, what will this do? Can I permanently kill the agent, or is there some way to set it to only run when I need it?

I'm running Mac OSX 10.6.8, and using a Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 plus wifi.

It's quite simple to turn this off. I'm using OSX 10.7.4 and I did this:

I went to "System Preferences", then in the line "System" I went to "Users and Groups". At the top, there is "Password" and something like "Login Items". I went to this "Login Items" and just clicked one time in "KiesViaWifiAgent" and then in the " - " button under it.

Now, I can reboot the MacBook Pro and it will not start up by itself.


Android - 2-ways USB sync for multiple calendars from outlook 2013 to phone I use an iPhone since 5 years, and I'd like to switch to an Android phone, under KitKat and probably soon Lollipop.
I've checked all my needs and there is still one for wich I didn't find how to satisfy it with an Android phone, the reason I ask for your help : syncing calendars and contacts.

With iTunes until now, I connect the phone, click on "Sync" and the work is done flawlessly, even with many or strange entries in my calendars. Perfect job.  I'm searching the same kind of working on an Android phone.

I use Outlook 2013 x64 on a Windows 7 x64 system. It's my main database for both my calendars and contacts. Note that I WON'T switch to an online solution.

I have 3 calendars into that Outlook, lets says they are called C1 (personal), C2 (professional) and C3 (family).
Into these calendars, I have many years of events, and multiple kind of events : recurring, multi-days, full day events, events with alarms, recurring events that start on 1900 (cause I don't know the right year for them).
Note : I don't use the category feature of events.

I found 2 apps on Android that seems to satisfy my needs : BusinessCalendar and Digical.
There may be other ones but I've found these that do the job like I want.

At this step, I still need to find a software that can make a 2-ways sync between each of these calendars by direct USB connection (why not by bluetooth even if I prefer avoiding it, but sure not Wi-Fi).
But all I've found so far as softwares can join C1, C2 and C3 into a single calendar C(phone) onto the phone.
Or better, sync individually each of these C1 C2 C3 from Outlook to C1(phone) C2(phone) C3(phone) onto the phone.
But I found nothing that is able to sync back the same way C1(phone), C2(phone) and C3(phone) from the phone to their C1 C2 C3 equivalent into Outlook.

I've tested without fibnding what I need :

MyPhoneExplorer (do not deal old dates correctly, and do not seem to be able to sync back individually each of the calendars)
CompanionLink (do not manage multi-days events)
Android-Sync
Mobisynapse (awfull results)
Android PC Sync
myDesktop Companion
Akruto
VCOrganizer
Sync2 (not a solution for the exposed problem)
Samsung Kies (not tested, I don't have a Samsung phone for testing)
HTC solution (not tested, I don't have a HTC phone for testing)
Could not try The Missing Sync because it do not offert a trial version. By the way, the feedback about this soft seems to be very bad.

I cannot buy many phones just to test the proprietary solutions from Samsung or HTC.
I cannot take the risk to corrupt my Outlook databases just to test the multiples available solutions and discover some day that it has been corrupted, so I've never done a real reverse sync : I've just deduced the way of working of these software from looking at their options that are so far clear enough to deduce what they are going to do on a sync.

So I ask for your experience (and not just thoughts) :
Do you experienced one or many softwares that allow to do a reliable 2-way sync from my Outlook contacts and multiple calendars from the PC to contacts and multiple calendars onto the phone ? Price is not a problem if the software is reliable and do not exceed 100 euros.

2 main constraints :
I DON'T want my calendar to go onto the net.
I don't mind if my contacts go onto gmail, but Outlook must stay my main database.

Note :
The answer "This does not exist" is a hearable answer, that would of course force me to continue with the iPhone, but... that's life. But I hope I missed some kind of software that would allow me to make the switch, ideally without needing to be prisoner of a brand.

I have 3 calendars into that Outlook, lets says they are called C1
  (personal), C2 (professional) and C3 (family). Into these calendars, I
  have many years of events, and multiple kind of events : recurring,
  multi-days, full day events, events with alarms, recurring events that
  start on 1900 (cause I don't know the right year for them). Note : I
  don't use the category feature of events.

CompanionLink can do this. You will need to use their Android app (DejaOffice) to hold Outlook data on the phone. You will do USB sync for C1-C3 to DejaOffice Calendar. While this still merges all Outlook Calendars in one calendar in DejaOffice, C1, C2, and C3 are denoted as Categories in DejaOffice Calendar so you can easily filter and see appointments for each. If you create an appointment on the phone and assign it to the C2 Category in DejaOffice, it will sync back to Outlook's C2 Calendar. USB sync is supported. This works for Contacts + Calendar (and Tasks and Notes if you wish). Multi-day events are fully supported; not sure why you got the impression that they aren't...?

Link: http://www.companionlink.com/android/outlook/

Disclosure: I work for CompanionLink, and this kind of setup is a common one we deal with.


Can a looped Android be rooted? I deleted a system file from my Android (com.android.providers.settings.apk) and now my Android is in a loop. It is a KitKat tablet and I am able to use adb sideload.
Is there a way to root the tablet in these conditions?

If you have a custom recovery, chances are you're already rooted. Try typing "whoami", and in case it returns "root", you have root access.


Tracking Android Phone via IMEI number I have lost my Android Phone. How can I track it via IMEI number.

Can I install any application which can given me the number of SIM currently on given IMEI number.

Please help

TRACK IMEI (website)

  TRACK IMEI is here to help you locate your lost mobile. If you have lost your mobile and remember the 14/15 digit IMEI number of your mobile which is a unique number for every mobile then you can register you mobile with us, if any of our dealers across the world will come across that mobile having that IMEI number we will contact you on the details provided by you while registering with us.

  If you have already registered with us the details then you can search for your mobile by entering the IMEI number in the below search for IMEI number field.

Track IMEI (useful before you lost the device)

  Have you ever had your phone lost or stolen, and then had it reset or had the battery die? Traditional tracking software will not be able to help you because it requires the phone to be on and your account attached. This is where Track IMEI comes in.

  Track IMEI is a mobile phone tracking system that stores your phone’s past and current location in a secure database which you and only you have access to. This means that if a criminal resets your phone, you will be able to track it the entire way until it was reset. Most of the time this is at the persons house, and you are then able to let the police know.

  Current features:
  Track past and current location of phone at a time interval set by you
  Change the time interval from our easy to use online interface located at www.trackimei.ca
  View your current and past location on a map in the application

  How to Use:
  1. Install the app on any supported Android powered smart phone.
  2. Create an account directly on the phone.
  3. Once created, log into your newly created account right on your device.
  4. Go under settings and turn on background update and select the tracking interval you want

  That is it! You can now log in at www.trackimie.ca with the same login info to view your device history.


Update to version 2.2 on my HTC Hero Android 1.5 phone Currently I am using HTC Hero with Android 1.5 and as we know right now Android 2.2 (Froyo) has been released, so i am planning to upgrade from 1.5 to 2.2.

Regarding updating, I have the following questions:

How do I update it?
Is there any selection options provided to update? For example I want to update my 1.5 to 2.1 instead of 2.2, 2.0 or anything else.
Are there any issues that have already occurred with Android 2.2?
What if I want to down-grade to lower version, is it possible? (i.e. rollback to older version)

Unfortunately, if you were running SDK 1.6 or later you could just update without installing a new SDK. But for 1.5 you need to install a new SDK. Per this link from Google http://developer.android.com/sdk/installing.html (see quoted text below)...

How ever, you can backup your projects and move them into the new SDK environment. So it looks like all may not be lost. Just read that link above pretty thoroughly.

  Updating?

  If you are currently using the Android
  1.6 SDK or later and want to update to the latest tools or platforms, you do
  not need to install a new SDK.
  Instead, you can simply update the
  individual components in your SDK
  using the Android SDK and AVD Manager
  tool. For information about how to do
  that, see Updating SDK Components

  If you are using Android 1.5 SDK or
  earlier, you should install a new SDK
  as described in this document and move
  your application projects to the new
  SDK environment.


How to turn off Hindi Language prediction in Google Chrome mobile? When I search something in google, I get a suggestion from google about its meaning and details in Hindi Language. I don't know whether it is based on some geo location or something. I neither know Hindi nor wanted to learn it.
Is there some ways in which I could turn this feature off? I don't know why google is suggesting something to me which I don't even know.
What I have already done:

Went to My Account
Under Language and input , selected English ( UK ) and My mother tongue ( Malayalam )
Saved the preference.

Open google website. At the bottom you will see setting.
Go to setting / search setting / region setting / change it to United States. Then you will not get Hindi version.


Why my S3 device sounds when magnetic card is put on its back? Possible Duplicate:
  Why does my Galaxy S3 make a noise when I put it down?

Why my samsung S3 play a sound when I put above my gym magnetic card? Only with this card the device play this type of sound. Nothing happen if I put it above credit card or other magnetic/chip support.
The gym card open doors and let me enter inside the gym if I've paid. There's a way (maybe an app) to read what happen when my s3 grab that card?

Your S3 has an NFC chip in it that can read and write NFC tags which are a type of RFID. RFID is most commonly used for things like identification chips for dogs and NFC for public transport payment cards like Octopus or Oyster. It's also in quite a lot of credit and debit cards now too.

The card will have some kind of tag in it - the NXP TagInfo app will give you information about what kind of tag it is.


Why SDK version in recovery is different from SDK version in build.prop I have Nexus 5 running RR 7.1.2 (Nougat) and of course the SDK is 25, but in TWRP Recovery i'm using ADB Shell and type `getprop ro.build.version.sdk' it say 22 (Lollipop)?

I do a clean install and upgrade TWRP still the same, please help me

The recovery is a miniature OS in itself, built with separate sources from the OS. For your case, the recovery is built from Lollipop source. This does not affect anything, for this SDK level is not representative of actual OS SDK level and therefore should not be used in any updater-script, etc.


Switch between search engines on Brave Browser I am using the Brave browser on Android and would like to know if there is a way to switch easily between search engines.
This feature exists for Firefox and Opera who provide small icons of different engines when typing in the search bar and you just have to click on the one you want to use. Here is an example with Firefox

For example, I am mostly using duckduckgo.com but sometimes would like to use Google. I already know I can add "!g" in DuckDuckGo, but I'm looking for something more straightforward.
Given Brave is based on Google Chrome, I guess that it explains why it is not implemented natively, but maybe an alternative exists in Chrome that would do the job on the Brave browser?

You can do it by using keywords.
Go to Settings -> Search Engines -> Manage Search Engines -> Default Search Engines. There, you will see the keywords for different search engines listed, which you edit to your liking. For example, for Google, the default keyword is :g. So if you prefix your search with :g, it will search on Google, no matter what your default search engine is.
I have modified the keywords as per DDG bangs. For instance, I use !g instead of :g for Google.


Can I improve accuracy of Google Location while hiking My Google Location history is amazingly helpful and informative, and generally accurate. I have all settings set to highest so I can always get the best location accuracy. I've read several posts about how Google estimates my location, using cell towers, wifi SSIDs/BSSIDs, etc and it all makes sense. But when I go on my daily hike, the accuracy is 'way off' by a few miles. I take photos on my hike and their Geo-location tagging is accurate to within a few feet, so I know the location information is available with GPS.
The following screen shot gives an example. The red line was drawn by me and represents my hike. The blue lines are the estimation by Google Location. My hike follows a ridgeline that surrounds a residential neighborhood. Obviously, my phone's location sensor is latching onto either cell-towers or wifi access points in the neighborhood.

Is there any way I can tell my phone to use GPS to report location, rather than wifi or cell tower, during a hike?  If I launch google maps during the hike, will that cause my accuracy to improve? I often take photos at various locations along the hike (and these are accurately geo-tagged) but this doesn't seem to help the location map below.  I did notice that, if I use a 'hiking app' such as 'map my walk' or 'strava', the location as reported to Google is very accurate. So do I need to launch 'any app that uses GPS' to make the GPS location available to Google?
Also, I've read that I can click on 'blue dots' on the map to see where it's getting the location information from, but I see no blue dots no matter how much I zoom in.
Thanks!

There's a trick: open Google Maps, press Go button, then select a very far away destination that you are not going to arrive, then confirm to find a route. Google map will keep running on background without screen on. Also turn off the navigation voice to avoid the sound they would make. By doing that, Maps will always track your current location even if you are not really going to that destination and all location data will be saved. I use that trick often and it's way more accurate than default location report.


Can I use a keyboard for Apple? I want to buy a mobile Bluetooth keyboard.  It seems Apple ones are easier to find.
Does it make much difference?

(I assume the connection is the same for similar models, and the issue is layout)

I have used a couple of different BlueTooth keyboards and they all work pretty well on Android. I would assume the Apple keyboards would work just as well. I am a fan of Logitech keyboards just because I've always used them and they have always worked. You can always just buy an Apple keyboard and if it doesn't work you can just return it.


Ran "adb reboot bootloader" now can't boot past logo (Azpen A746) So I bought a cheap Azpen A746HD tablet to tinker with (running Android 4.4.2, I believe). This is my first time messing with an Android tablet, and it seems I've probably bricked it, but from what I can tell I didn't do anything "dangerous." I'm hoping for some insight from more experienced folks and any possible suggestions on how to get it to boot again.

I did not yet root the tablet (I was in the preliminary steps of figuring out how to do that). From what I can tell, what bricked it was simply running adb reboot bootloader. The current state of the device is as follows:

The device won't boot past the initial Azpen logo screen. Doesn't appear to be looping. Just stuck.
Pushing the device's "reset" button with a paperclip doesn't help.
I can no longer boot to recovery mode (power + volume up) because it doesn't boot far enough to register the volume up button being pressed.
The device no longer shows up with adb devices and it isn't listed in lsusb from my Linux terminal (it was showing up previously after I added the vendor id to ~/.android/adb_usb.ini).
I've tried pressing the volume up/down button and power button in various combinations from the logo screen, with no result.

I don't have access to the battery, so I can't disconnect it. The device appears to be heat or glue sealed, so I can't disassemble it to access the battery (without making it unreturnable). Currently I am trying to fully drain the battery by leaving it powered on in its current state (stuck at logo screen).

Since I'm new to this, here are a few questions: Am I correct in understanding that this state a "hard-brick"? Why would adb reboot bootloader cause this? Is there anything more to try beyond the battery drain I'm currently doing? (I will just take back to the store and exchange if I can't get it booting again.)

FYI, the manufacturer's site is pretty much devoid of information, but what would you expect from a company that sells tablets for 30USD?

Fully draining the battery will unbrick an Azpen A746HD in this situation.

I did further testing and was able to repeat the conditions for bricking and unbricking the tablet:

Running adb reboot bootloader will render the tablet unbootable as described in the original question (hard-brick).
Fully draining the battery will clear out whatever issue was preventing boot, unbricking the tablet.


How to recover files from a phone with a broken/unresponsive screen running Android Marshmallow? I recently dropped my Nexus 5 and the touchscreen stopped working, no matter what I do it won't function. I have files on this phone that I didn't backup (I know, real smart of me), and I'm wondering how to get them back using my computer and a USB cable, considering it's the only way possible since the screen isn't working.

The catch is that with Android Marshmallow, came the feature in which when you connect your phone to a PC, it won't get recognized right away. You have to unlock your phone and swipe down the notification tray and tap on a "USB Enabled for Charging" (Or something similar) and select "USB for File Transfer" (Or something like that...). Since my screen is broken, I can't complete the aforementioned process.

What can I do to recover my files? The screen is completely broken, it registers some touches when I put pressure on it but it's just random taps all around the screen that make it go crazy. I have no pin or any form of security enabled, so I can just press the screen a bit and it'll unlock (with some luck and several tries), but beyond that any action is impossible to realize.

Thanks in advance!

Turn off phone using power button.
Boot into recovery mode.
Connect it to the PC and most probably it would be connected as MTP. If not, then recover your files via adb.

Edit: As pointed by @Firelord this will work on custom recoveries only.
The other method is as follows.
If you're connected to a Wi-Fi network, then find the IP address of your phone, most likely from the router setup page. You can then use ssh to copy files from the device. If ssh is not an option, then boot into fastboot mode. Flash a custom recovery for your phone and then follow the original answer.


Random screen captures in Galaxy Tab 10.1 I have a recent issue with my Galaxy Tab 10.1 where the screen capture function randomly activates, and it is driving me crazy. I did a factory reset and the problem persists.

It is more than accidental touching of the new quick reference key. It is completely random, most noticeable while whatching a movie etc.

Other than the factory reset, is there anything else I can do? In communication with Samsung, their only suggestion is to conduct the reset.

What have you done after the factory reset -- installing everything you've had installed before? Best way to figure out where the problem is located is:

Backup as much as you can
factory-reset the device
do not yet install/restore anything!
check for a reasonable time whether the problem re-appears

if it does right after the factory-reset, your device needs go to support (or they need to send a firmware update/fix)
if it not re-appears, continue with 5.
if it does re-appear, you've found the app causing the issue. Break here, see below.

re-install/recover ONE app. Repeat from 4.

If above steps resulted in an app being the cause, you've got multiple choices:

re-configure the app and see if you can make the error go away
uninstall the app and see if the problem goes away
if none of the two works, start with step 2. above and skip the bad app.