adb command to search the filesystem Is there an adb command similar to "locate" or "grep" that would help me find a file on my Android device?

I'm curious about adb specifically, not a search app.

EDIT: "find" has been suggested, but on my ICS device:

hydrangea@turnsole:~$ adb shell find / -name *maps*
/system/bin/sh: find: not found

On my Gingerbread device it works, though. (Except I haven't rooted that device so it lacks permission.)

hydrangea@turnsole:~$ adb shell find / -name *maps*
find: permission denied

The find command works well in adb shell. The syntax is find /path -name file_name. For searching read only areas you will need root. If the find command is not available on your particular device, you might need to install BusyBox (search the Market.)

For example,
adb shell find / -name *maps*
will find all files that contain word "maps" across the entire file system.


Chrome opens PDF files only through Google Drive, other apps work fine Bug: pdf files from Chrome open only in Drive app directly, disabling Drive gives me "cannot open file" error.

I can open them from Adobe PDF app or FBreader app directly but that is annoying.
Selecting file in File Commander also brings up app chooser correctly and respects default settings. But Chrome insists on "Drive or nothing"
Firefox works fine too

How can I get the "choose app" dialog in Chrome and Downloads app to work?

Device: Xperia Z4 tablet, Android 6.0, chrome latest, non-rooted, updated to 32.1.A.1.185

Reinstalling drive, reinstalling chrome, reinstalling adobe pdf, resetting app defaults for all apps does not help.

Try clearing defaults for BOTH of these apps. This should be in Settings > Apps > Chrome/Google Drive.


How does this app know I've used it before? There is an app that has a paid service. It allows you to use a free trial 3 times for 1 hour before it detects that you have used your 3 trials and blocks you. I tried various things, but each time it knows I have used my trials:

un- and re-installing
clearing app data
creating backups with titanium backup and restoring it
creating a new user account on my phone (android M), installing the app separately

How is this app detecting it? The only way I can reset the trials is by resetting my phone, but I can't keep doing this. Is there a way I can monitor the files the app creates/reads/writes?

Without knowing which app you are using, it's hard to provide feedback. If you have given file access to the app, it could have stored the trial usage somewhere on internal storage or on an SD card (if present). The best you can do is to search through files until you might find something.

It could have also associated itself with your Google ID. Did you ever accept a dialog asking you to choose which Google account you want to use? If so, you can not use the same Google account for a trial on any phone, and would have to use a different account.

That being said, if you have used your three trials, it seems that this is a product that you want to use, and it may be worth paying for. Keep in mind that a developer/company wrote the app, and may be providing infrastructure for its use, which costs them money. Sometimes, there are no free alternatives, and you'll have to pay to use a product or service.


How is the default PATH set? On another linux system I might expect to find a .profile file, or something in /etc used by default. I'm unable to determine what sets the system path for processes not running in a shell.

It appears to be defined in /init.rc, at least on my device:

export PATH /sbin:/system/sbin:/system/bin:/system/xbin

I don't think you can edit this file directly though, even with root access, because it is part of the read-only boot image, not the /system partition. If you want to edit it then I guess you would have to unpack, edit and re-pack the boot image as described here:

http://android-dls.com/wiki/index.php?title=HOWTO:_Unpack%2C_Edit%2C_and_Re-Pack_Boot_Images

I haven't tried this though.


Forward calls to messenger Is it possible to forward network calls on an Android mobile phone through a messenger, like Telegram or Whatsapp, to a set contact?

Could IFTTT be used for this?

Call forwarding is a telephony or carrier function. It works amongst voice networks or some VOIP sites. For it to work with messenger apps:

They should mutually allow it, which is unlikely given the revenue models of voice calling (at times call forwarding is a paid service even for voice networks) .
Security concerns - for example, if the calling number cannot be identified across messaging apps, it would not be permitted. There could be more such scenarios.
Encryption. Voice calls of WhatsApp are encrypted. Same is the case with
Telegram.
They would not like to expose or let others use their proprietary encryption.

There may be more reasons too. Only after it is legally and financially viable a messaging app will expose an API that can be used for this. Till such time this is possible, automation is ruled out irrespective of the app


Shaking notification bar On an Asus Transformer Prime, my notification bar at the bottom of the screen will randomly start dancing up and down, and sometimes just scramble then go normal. When it does either one of these behaviours, I need to restart my Android to get it to stop. When it scrambles, the rest of the screen is fine, and I can click on areas of the bar that are messed up as if it wasn't, and access their functions (i.e. Back, Home, etc)

Asus released an update, and it's been 2 weeks since it happened


sending a group message on my galaxy s3 When I send a group message on my galaxy s3 software 4.3 other people in the group message receive the message as an individual message. How do I fix this so that all the people in message receive it as a group message.

You may be better off using Whatsapp messenger, it deals with group messages much better than using SMS.

Using Whatsapp everyone can reply to a message that you've sent and all participants can see each other's replies.

You can download it from here:

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


How to deal with link2sd? I installed link to sd and moved apps without creating the 2nd partition , do I must unistall my apps (I can't move them to internal storage),If I can do a recovery please tell me how!

Download DU Speed Booster. It has some handy features such as move to SD and Safe Uninstall and will help you out.


What happens to CPU frequency when Android downloads a large file with screen off? For example, I start downloading system update file and hit the power button to dim my screen.

What happens to CPU? Does it lowers its frequency or change its governor to powersave? Or does CPU frequency stay the same when I had screen on?

Some cases:

If it's downloading 1 file from 1 site - barely works: it's offloaded to modem.
If it's downloading via torrent - might work harder; decrypting, hashing, etc.

Basically, downloading takes little CPU.

I assume the reason you're asking this is because "Why does downloading eat my battery so hard?"

If that is the case, then think of your Cell (3G, 4G, etc) and WiFi as giant flashlights that you can't see (technically, sort of what a transmitter is). Network connections at high speed need:

High power
High frequencies
Many other math'thy thingers I shall spare you


Keep app from opening when clicking a link I forget what setting I've turned on, or when, but whenever I click a link to the New York Times website, it opens the New York Times app. I don't want it to do that. I could remove the NYT app, but I want to keep it. (I find it useful.)

Is there a way to change this behavior? Even better, get Android to ask me which I want when I click the link. Changing the default web browser is not desired.

This is in both Nougat and Oreo®.

In Settings → Apps → NYTimes → Open by default:

Open Supported Links: set it to Ask every time
tap Clear Defaults

Tested on Android 6.0.1 and Android 7.1.2.

In Android 8 (Oreo®) you can also reach that setting via:

Settings → Apps & Notifications → (Advanced) → Default Apps → Opening links

You can alternatively stop using Chrome since Firefox, for example, does not let you choose an app to open such links (if I'm correct).


How to revoke the authorization to view my Google account for an app (e.g. Feedly)? I recently installed Feedly on my phone. It asked me the authorization to access my Google account. Now I want to revoke this authorization, but I don't know how to do this.

I searched on my Google account (via web) under the Security part, but Feedly is not listed there.

I have an Android 4.3 stock ROM and, if important, my Google account is not a Google+ account.

You need to go to the 'Connected sites and applications' section on the security page and click 'Review Permissions'. From here you should see Feedly listed like this:

Click the "Revoke Access" button and Feedly will no longer be able to access your account.


Android video and audio playback speed is nearly double Yesterday I was showing a video to a friend of mine and something weird happened. As he went to grab my phone while I was holding it he had a few fingers on the screen and something flashed up and flashed away in the time span of about half a second so I wasn't able to exactly read what popped up. Although, since that happened it seems all my video and audio is being played at a high playback speed, I'd say around x2 the normal playback speed.

This isn't just limited to one app either. This occurred in an app called BuzzVideo, but the playback speed is global, in the YouTube app, YouTube Red, etc. I tried a combination of gestures on the screen while on that BuzzVideo app, but nothing seems to change the playback speed.

Do you have any suggestions?

What I've tried:

Restarting the phone
Rebooting the phone
Resetting the data & cache for the app that caused the issue

Go back to the same video through the same app and hold it again the way you were- perhaps the dialogue will pop up again and you can catch it this time. I imagine you simply long-pressed for an options menu to come up. Just be ready to let go (or not) when you see it. Should fix your prob.


Force debug in safe mode via USB? I did something so stupid I'm almost kind of proud of it. I rooted my LG Optimus T (Froyo) using Gingerbreak, cleaned out a bunch of stuff, and accidentally deleted the home screen launcher. No big, I'll just install a new one... but I have a chicken and egg problem now, that requires debug mode to get out of. I can't just open settings on my phone to set debug mode. And the phone only starts up in safe mode.

So the tl;dr is this: I need to force my phone into debug mode via USB, in safe mode. If I can't do this, I will have to buy a new phone. Please help me!

The easiest way to recover your phone is to flash the original factory firmware on it.

After much searching I found a thread at XDA which explains how to do this for the LG Optimus series phones including the P509 (yours).

You can obtain the original firmware by following these directions (substituting P509 which you have for P500).

After you recover, remember that the first thing you should do after rooting a phone is to install a custom recovery (usually Clockworkmod Recovery) as this gives you access to tools to manage situations like this.


What happens if I disable Google app? If I disable Google app (which came preinstalled on my phone and which I don't use) will that have an effect on other apps by Google like Google Maps or Gmail?

I want to disable it for privacy reasons but I don't want other apps to be affected.

No, it won't have any affect on other Google apps. I have it disabled in my phone.
Here are the things I can't use anymore:

Search widget at homescreen. I have removed it anyways.
Google assistant.

I've basically never missed anything with the Google app disabled. Maps, Gmail, contacts sync and everything else works as they should. I don't see them having any connection with Google app.

However there will be issues if you disable Google Play Services app.


High data usage by OS Services (on Nexus 4) Since the update to Lollipop last week, OS Services on my Nexus 4 has been using a really large amount of my mobile data (when I'm connected to mobile data).

I've tried the following actions but the it still consumes a large amount of data (about 150MB for 10 mins browsing):

Disabled auto backup
Cancelled auto synch of all my accounts
Cancelled auto upload of any photos / videos

Any idea which OS Service could be using all this data?

Any help with this would be appreciated, its getting to the stage where I can't use any mobile data as I'm going to go over my usage limit.

Thanks,

try to delete App-Data for Google Play Framework
Cfeck if in Browser some Preload is activated (and if its disabled for mobile connections if you can)


Update won't install. How to fix (or should I bother)? I got a tablet from a friend.  It's a Nexus 7 running Android 6.0.1.  The first thing I did was reset to factory settings.  After setting up, I saw there was an update to install.  But it won't install.

Currently going to "System Updates" in settings shows "Android System Update Downloaded and verified..." and states, "This software update will improve the security of your Nexus 7 with the February 2016 patches.  Downloading updates over a mobile network or while roaming may cause additional charges."  And also, "Update size: 1.5 MB".

When I tap "RESTART & INSTALL", that button changes to "CANCEL INSTALL" and I see "Rebooting to install in 10 seconds..." which counts down.  Then it shows, "Rebooting now..." but nothing happens.

If I wait for the screen to turn off, and press the lock button to light up the screen, I see it hasn't shut down.  Unlocking it I find the screen with the "RESTART & INSTALL" button just as if I didn't tap it already.

I'm completely new to Android (though I am a Linux sysadmin if that matters or helps).

How can I get the update installed?  Alternatively, is this even something to worry about?

Googling around turned up nothing useful, although I did find a forum thread from 2012 showing a similar issue with 4.2.1—but no solution.

(Note that as I'm completely new to Android, if there is some "default" advice I should know about such as there is for Mac, "if you can't figure it out take it to the Genius Bar," then please tell me as I don't know it.)

How can I get the update installed?

It is possible that the device has been rooted or tampered with by your friend, such that it no longer passes the integrity check before OTA updates. Whether this is the case is trivial; if you want the update regardless, you will have to resort to flashing a factory image which requires you to unlock your bootloader and lose data on the tablet in the process.

However...

  Alternatively, is this even something to worry about?

Nexus 7, even the 2013-released version you have, is long obsolete as seen by Google, and therefore misses out on a large amount of security patches since its last official update in 2016. Updating it to a Feb. 2016 patch will not change how vulnerable it is by much.

To get an up-to-date security patch, unlock your bootloader, flash a custom recovery then a recent custom ROM such as LineageOS, which would bring you to both a newer Android version and security patch at the same time (Android 7.1.2 and patch set Oct. 2017 at time of writing).


How to display cell info display (CID) on screen? Does Android OS have an option for showing Cell Info Display (Name of the cell Tower) on home screen ? (Without using external apps)

You will not be able to display this on the Home screen without 3rd party apps.

You can use this app called CellID Info from Google Play Store, you may find other apps that display this info too. The CellID Info doesn't say if it has a widget (i don't think it does) but some of the other ones might.


ALL google widgets are gone! I accidentally disabled my google app, and therefore the search bar widget disappeared. Since then there are NO "google search" widgets available at all... Any ideas? I have a galaxy s7

Answer is Samsung-centric since the device is a Galaxy S7 (Other devices most likely similar).

If you truly just disabled the app, you can re-enable it from the Apps Manager in the right-most tab/column labelled either 'Turned Off' or 'Disabled' or something similar. Re-select the app, select 'Enable'.

Once re-enabled, return to the place you would like it and hard-press on the screen until the opportunity to select 'Widgets' appears. Select and place.

Possibly another option: the appearance could be Launcher-controlled (like Nova). In this case, select the settings or options of the Launcher and re-enable the Google app.


CM7.2 Viber installing problem I'm on HTC Wildfire S

With my stock ROM I can use all versions of Viber

But on CM7.2 I can't install newer version than 2.0.x.xxxxxx (I didn't try every version, but the 2.2. and 2.1. installing exit with the app didn't get installed message.

Please help me to solve this problem.
Thanks for your time

This is a member of the Viber R&D Team.

Viber is not fully compatible with custom ROMs yet.. :/
However, please try to download from the following link:

Viber Knowledgebase

Let us know if the issue persists. :)


Xoom - images for recovery When fixing or recovering Xoom as described in How to Restore and Relock a Motorola Xoom Tablet to Stock using fastboot one needs to do following:

fastboot erase boot
fastboot erase system
fastboot erase recovery
fastboot erase userdata
fastboot erase cache
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot flash system system.img
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot flash userdata userdata.img
fastboot erase cache

For this one needs images boot.img, system.img, recovery.img and userdata.img. Given Xoom is old now, I have serious trouble getting those images, links I have found so far are no longer working. Are there any recent and working links, if not for stock images, then for some alternatives?

There's a sticky XDA-Developers thread for that: [INFO]Stock Images & Other Links. I have clicked and verified that the MediaFire links are working, downloadable and contains exactly the files you wanted:


Can't flash custom TWRP recovery image on Motorola Moto G7 Power phone I've got a brand new Motorola Moto G7 Power running Android 9.

I also have Ubuntu 19.04 running on my desktop.

I want to root the phone.

I've managed to unlock the bootloader using Motorola's online instructions and the adb and fastboot utilities that come with Linux.

The next step is to flash a custom recovery application on the recovery partition.

I'm trying to flash twrp-3.3.0-0-river.img, a new image that I grabbed from here.

When I tried to use fastboot to flash the image, I got this error:

After this failed attempt, I attempted to put my phone into recovery just to see what would happen.

What I got was a screen displaying the Android mascot on its back with its chest plate opened and a black exclamation point inside a red triangle.

The words "No Command" were displayed underneath the graphic.

After waiting a few minutes, the phone, on its own, booted normally.

My phone's OS seems to operate perfectly fine.

I can only surmise that whatever was originally on my recovery partition from the manufacturer has been wiped and there is now nothing on the recovery partition at all.

So, I decided to see if I could boot into the TWRP image directly without flashing it.

So, I ran this in the terminal window: fastboot boot twrp-3.3.0-0-river.img

I received this as a response:

There didn't seem to be any errors.

The phone, however, switched from the bootloader screen to the Motorola splash screen, and then just shut off with no further response.

So, what am I missing?

How can I flash this image onto the recovery partition of my phone?

G7 Power, being a new device, has the new A/B partition layout, requiring new installation procedures that differ from standard A-only devices. This is clearly outlined in the thread where you got your image from:

  This device has 2 "slots" for ROMs / firmware. TWRP will detect whichever slot is currently active and use that slot for backup AND restore. There are buttons on the reboot page and under backup -> options to change slots. Changing the active slot will cause TWRP to switch which slot that TWRP is backing up or restoring. You can make a backup of slot A, switch to B, then restore the backup which will restore the backup of A to slot B. Changing the slot in TWRP also tells the bootloader to boot that slot.

  Decryption only works when TWRP is permanently installed.

  Installation

  To temporarily boot this recovery:

  fastboot boot twrp-version-build-river.img

  To permanently install it:

  Temporarily boot TWRP
  Put the TWRP image in your external SD Card or, in case you don't have one, push it to /data with adb this way: adb push twrp-version-build-river.img /data/
  Tap Advanced -> Install Recovery Ramdisk -> Navigate to /data or /external_sd and select TWRP -> Swipe to Install
  If you previously installed Magisk: Select Fix Recovery Bootloop from Advanced to fix/avoid recovery bootloops
  Done! Optionally you can delete TWRP from /data or from your external SD Card now.

Read more carefully next time...


How much disk space (GB) does Android 5.0 OS take up? Is "System memory" the OS? Is 5.5GB typical? Can I free any of it? I've been a proud owner of an Android for all of ~6 hours now. I just upgraded from my dumb phone, to a smart phone, for the first time ever, this afternoon. I know, a little later than most...

I have a 16GB Samsung Galaxy S5 from Verizon.
Phone Name: SAMSUNG-SM-G900V
Model Number: SM-G900V
Android Version: 5.0
Kernel Version: 3.4.0
etc etc...

I put in a 16GB micro SD card, turned it on, configured it, installed a half-dozen apps, took two pictures, moved over all eligible apps to the SD card (via Settings --> Applications --> Application manager --> SD card menu), then I looked at the memory usage.

Settings --> Storage shows only 7.13GB free on the internal memory, out of 16GB. This seems pretty shocking to me. The only things that stand out are: Applications, 2.45GB (ok, I suppose I understand that...), and "Miscellaneous Files", 5.47GB. Of the Misc. Files, 5.46GB is "System memory."
What exactly is "System memory?" Is this the Android 5.0 OS? Is it normal to be this large? (I would have expected the OS to be more like ~2GB, and certainly < 4GB). Is any of it space I can free up?

With normal usage, installing another couple dozen apps over the next couple yrs, and trying to store all photos externally on the SD card, do any of you foresee me running out of memory really soon?

Thanks for any insight.

PS. Here is the info exported from the DiskInfo App, per the request in the comments.

 Internal Storage (MMC)

System [mmcblk0p23] (/system) [ext4]
Used: 2.5 GB, Free: 455 MB, Total space: 2.9 GB
Cache [mmcblk0p24] (/cache) [ext4]
Used: 32.6 MB, Free: 991 MB, Total space: 1 GB
Data (userdata) [mmcblk0p26] (/data) [ext4]
Used: 4.6 GB, Free: 5.9 GB, Total space: 10.6 GB

 SD Card

External SD [mmcblk1p1] (/mnt/media_rw/extSdCard, /storage/extSdCard) [vfat]
Used: 204 MB, Free: 14.5 GB, Total space: 14.7 GB

 Memory

RAM
Used: 1.3 GB, Free: 421 MB, Total space: 1.7 GB
Swap
Used: 966 MB, Free: 313 MB, Total space: 1.2 GB

Firelord gave me the tools to answer my own question, by asking me to post a screenshot of DiskInfo, which I have now added below my question. Corrections (if any) to my answer here are welcome.

Looking at my DiskInfo, according to my understanding of Linux, I'll make the following deductions:

Android 5.0 (ignoring the SD card) consists of the following 4 partitions:
1. mmcblk0p23, for System, 2.9GB
2. mmcblk0p24, for Cache, 1.0GB
3. mmcblk0p26, for Data (userdata, incl Apps), 10.6GB
4. Swap, 1.2GB (equivalent to the Windows "virtual memory" file, for instance)

Partitions 1, 2, and 4 must be what comprise "System Memory," which is what I asked about in my question. Their sum is 2.9 + 1.0 + 1.2 = 5.1GB
My "System Memory" however is 5.46GB. Why the 0.36GB difference?* I'm not exactly sure, but I've answered my question essentially: Android 5.0 is 5.1GB if you use these "default" partition sizes.

*Answer (thanks to @user1958698 below): Android uses true, base-2 memory size, where 1 GB = 1024^3 = 1073741824 bytes, whereas DiskInfo uses the rounded off base-10 memory size, where 1 GB = 1000000000 bytes. The ratio is 1073741824/1000000000 = 1.074. DiskInfo's sum (base 10) is 5.1, so multiply by 1.074 to get the base-2 equivalent, and we have 5.1 GB x 1.074 = ~5.48 GB, which is almost the same as the 5.46GB of "System memory" reported by the Android Storage settings. Now, the minor discrepancy between 5.46GB and 5.48GB must certainly be due to some rounding error in the initial 5.1GB value reported by DiskInfo.

Can it be shrunk? Sure, you could shrink Swap, and and shrink System by <455mB, but it's prob. not worth it. Shrinking Swap could reduce performance, and shrinking System could require expanding it again the first time there's an upgrade.

Update, 13 May 2016:

FYI, I've now run out of internal storage memory for apps, and I have cleared all the cache. It turns out the 16GB version of the phone is NOT big enough for my needs. I will now figure out how to get apps to install onto the SD card by default, so I can free up internal space. This will probably require repartitioning the SD card, using gparted on a Linux computer, and/or rooting the phone. We shall see.

Nevertheless, here is a key piece of information for Android 5.0 users: once you get down to <~600MB free space on internal storage, you will no longer be able to sync gmail, update apps, or install new apps. You will instead consistently get an error that says, "Insufficient storage available." Therefore, ~600MB seems to be the magic amount of free internal storage that must be available for stable operation of the phone. Note: for some small apps, I was able to get down to 200~300MB free and still update them, but to update my bigger apps, like Facebook, gmail, Google Photos, etc, I had to free up to ~640MB or so before they would update.


Screen locks itself after call I have a Samsung Galaxy SII GT-9100 with Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2 XXLS8. I am using a PIN for my screen lock. If I make a call while my phone is unlocked, when the call is ended the screen goes to the lock. It is really annoying. How can I fix this?

Try disconnecting the call before the other side hangs up.

I've noticed a similar behavior in ICS 4.0, where if I disconnect the call first the phone does not lock.


Why does GPS not work in a train? GPS signal strength is Zero while I'm in a (electric) train.

Why is does my device not get a GPS fix in a train?

In some trains you sit like inside an Faraday cage, as they even metallized the windows -- thus no signal can get through. That's also why you have special "mobile phone" zones in some trains: Here they placed something like a little "repeater" inside this section of the train, capturing the signal from outside the cabin (and transmitting it back the same way, of course). However, they don't do that for GPS.


Silk Browser's full screen option has gone on Kindle Fire HDX? Am I going nuts (well, yes, but ..), or has Amazon Kindle Fire HDX removed full screen from the silk browser? I can not find the full screen button now, just a sort of menu button in the navigation bar right hand side.

Nope. Not nuts. Yup. They rolled out a version without full screen for some reason.

From an e-mail inquiry:

  Note: As part of this redesign, we have temporarily removed the Full Screen feature. We plan to bring this feature back in the coming months and apologize for any inconvenience.


Wifi hotspot from connnection So, I have 2 samsung galaxy S4s. Dont ask why. One is running CM13 and the other Stock. Since you cannot put a phone into both master and slave mode at the same time, I would like to connect my stock s4 to wifi and use my cm13 s4 as a hotspot that uses that connection. Bluetooth tethering doesn't seem to work, so how would I go about using my stock phones slave-mode wifi to create a hotspot on my other phone?

Both devices are rooted, and the reason for wanting this is I would like to not haul my laptop with me on trips.

In that case you have to configure two interface in the device. Basically the wifi and the hotspot use the same resource, I did using my data mobile but using wifi you have to look how to configure an access point. With my PC using Windows you can do it but using your device please check if you have this Settings available:

Settings > Wifi Setting > Mobile AP


I recently performed a factory data reset on my device and now the play store is not working. No app is being downloaded Play store is not working at all. The downloading of an app starts and never actually shows 1% and only the box shows null download.

I'll take a shot in the dark....

IF Google apps (including google settings, WhatsApp, youtube, etc.) in general, are not working/are missing (perhaps you are even trying to re-acquire these),

and/or IF settings > accounts and sync no longer shows your Google account & you can't just add it.

THEN
    I may know what's going on (from personal experience, also in GB)....

Your problem may be that Google doesn't recognize your phone without the Google apps and *especially* without the Google account it expects to be on/associated with that phone. This despite that your device's ID #s haven't changed.  (pretty sure this is a safeguard against 1) spoofed device-id numbers, 2) the fact that the usual reason to factory-reset a phone is that the phone is going to be returned/sold to someone else)
Your solution (in only the case I have guessed) would be to acquire a "gaaps" package (yes, that's short for 'google apps') from a release date, platform appropriate to your device. (i.e. don't try to install the current lollipop apps on your GB device). This should include Google's sync and account settings background app and one-time-init (for initial set up upon purchase).
 If this sounds like your situation, just search for gapps or gaaps.zip.
 If this **doesn't** sound like your situation, just follow the advice above and provide more details. (did you just root/switch ROMs would also be relevant)
    good luck
    **-R**


Nubia Z9 gives error on starting camera I bought the nubia z9 mini last year November.

About a week ago this message appears when using the camera:

"camera error"
"Please make sure no other applications occupy the camera, or try to restart the phone. "

I tried restarting but the same error. As requested, I've run adb dumpsys:

> adb shell dumpsys media.camera
Camera module HAL API version: 0x100
Camera module API version: 0x100
Camera module name: QCamera Module
Camera module author: Qualcomm Innovation Center Inc
Number of camera devices: 2 Vendor tags left unimplemented.
Camera 0 static information:
   Facing: BACK Orientation: 90
   Device version: 0x100
   Device is closed, no client instance
Camera 1 static information:
   Facing: FRONT
   Device version: 0x100

I put the New version V3.67 Android Version 5.1.1 [ROM], the error is same.
Can you help me?

I was able to solve the problem (thanks to Firelord):

While "being debugged", the camera is turned on. For that, I've simply did the following:

the ADB setup and command ready in PC
device connected to PC in debugging mode.
run adb logcat > d:\dmp\device.log
run the camera app. Disappeared the error, the camera turns on


How can I stop my text messages going into my email on my Galaxy S7 My text messages are suddenly appearing in my email inbox.  There are several places to turn off sync.  I want my calendar, email etc to syn but not my text messages.  How do I turn that off on a Galaxy S7 model?

You have to go into the Email app, select More, select Settings, select your account under the Accounts heading, scroll down to Exchange Active Sync settings and turn off Sync Messages.


Application setting not work I have Micromax canvas gold a300 and its application setting not work when I try to open it show setting unfortunately stopped.
So I cant open application setting on my mobile phone.  Please help me

I'm afraid it may be a fault in Micromax's firmware. I suffered from the same issue on a Canvas Fire. Do a backup and a full wipe. If issue persists, contact your nearest service center or try installing a stable custom ROM.


What can I do to fix the volume button back onto my Moto M? Heres a set of pictures depicting the problem.

Any form of help will be much appreciated !!!

Your best option is to take the phone to an Authorised Motorola Service Center to get it repaired, but it may be possible to attempt it yourself.

As there are no iFixIt guides available currently, your only other option would be to refer to videos a video on YouTube, where the screws on the bottom of the phone are removed to access the internals (and volume button)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CmvQPpTgfc


My apps close when I try to minimise them. How can I fix it? I have xperia xz (F8331) with 6.0.1 system. Phone is not rooted and developer options are active.

When I press the sauare button on the bottom of my screen as shown

And I go to another app This app restarts itself instead of running from the point where i left it. What I want to do is minimize the app and then come back to it. Sometimes it will happen, but most of the time as I said the app restarts itself. It is especially annoying when I play games. Is there anything that I can do to make sure the apps stay minimised and not closed. Thank you.

As you enabled the Developers options, you could've enabled the Do not keep activities mistakenly. Check it and disable it.

Check the screenshot, options may differ since the image is from Samsung Galaxy.


Error trying to access my tablet from my PC While trying to transfer files over Wifi from my PC to my Android tablet I use the Files Manager app, which opens a server in my local network with the IP and port http://192.168.0.5:5544.

But when I try to put this address in any browser I get
Error: The connection has timed out.
What is the reason for this ?

Router: ADSL router Netgear DGN3500

In most cases the communication might be blocked by the firewall, on router or on the PC, confirm if port 5544 is allowed in firewall settings.

Second check if your browser uses proxy settings, which allows traffic on a different port altogether (most VPN softwares usually set up proxy connections). In this case either add the server IP as a local address and allowing bypassing of proxy for local address.

Thirdly check if Network Discovery and file sharing  is enabled on both devices.

Ping and check if addresses are reachable, and set up DNS if needed.

In most cases this should resolve connection timed out or not reachable errors


Why doesn't my Macbook see my phone (droid incredible, cyanogen)? I an Android newbie and software developer.  I just got this used HTC Droid Incredible and installed cyanogen on it.  I read that when I plug it in to the laptop with a USB cable I should see a notification at the top of the phone's screen, and then be able to copy over music, etc.  But I plug it in and nothing happens.  What's wrong?  What can I do?  The first thing I wanted to do was load some music.

It was the cable.  The store gave me a new cable, but it was power only.  I didn't know some cables were power, but no data.   I'll be returning that.   Thanks to Matthew for his suggestion in the comment.


How do I access my phone (not my SD card) from my computer? I have an MyTouch 4G from TMobile. It's running android 2.3.4. How do I put put a file and delete files from the phone itself, not just the SD card?

You could install the Android SDK on your computer. This would give you the possibility to access your device's storage via the command line using e.g. adb push and adb pull. If that's not the level of comfort you want, there are also graphical tools utilizing ADB:

ADB FileExplorer is a minimalistic frontend to copy files from/to the device. It's freely available from the XDA developers (simply follow the link). It is written in Java, and thus should run on nearly all operating systems used on desktop computers.

If you want a little more comfort, then there's also ADBBrowser. Available for Linux and Windows (32-bit and 64-bit), it offers also an app-browser. And last but not least, there's QtADB available for Linux, Mac and Windows (again 32-bit and 64-bit), full of useful features like file manager, app manager, device information, SMS, shell, screenshots, logcat, backup/restore... Take a pick.

Of course, there are many more possibilities. If your device is rooted, there are several apps available on the Playstore which permit full access to the local file system remotely.


What package name should I use for a Cyanogenmod theme? I want to make cm11 theme.

But one problem: package name.

How does it work? Dialer package has com.android.dialer, so my package could have name eu.mikroskeem.colormelt?

I don't know about CM themes in particular, but Android app package names are based on Java packages, which means they have to start with a web domain you own, in big-endian order. That is, if and only if you own the domain mikroskeem.eu, you can use any package name starting eu.mikroskeem.

There's no way to enforce this convention, but following it makes sure that package names are unique.


Can android smartphones (with Wi-Fi enabled) be detected by other WiFi devices? So that the other Wi-Fi device knows an android phone (with wi-fi enabled) is nearby?

When you say that Wi-Fi is enabled I'm taking you literally: that Wi-Fi is enabled but is not actually connected to an access point (hotspot).

So the answer is no.

Just enabling the Wi-Fi on your phone does not make it visible to other devices.  It just sits there listening passively.  No one around you can see your wi-fi or get it to respond.

If you set your device to be a Wi-Fi hotspot (typically for tethering purposes) it will emit a signal called a beacon that allows other devices to see it.

Also, if you turn on Wi-Fi Direct then it can be seen, but this is a new feature in Android 4 that is not widely used yet and I don't know much about it.


how can I get into download mode of Cube Talk7x (U51GT-W)? I tested all 4 methods in this article. But I still cannot get into download mode.

The second method get me into a factory mode:

  SECOND METHOD

  Power phone off
  Plug USB into Computer
  Plug microUSB into phone
  Hold pwr + vol up + vol down
  When Batt icon goes away, release pwr, still holding vol up + vol down
  Yellow /_\ (triangle, Downloading, Andy shoveling, Do not turn off Target!!! symbol)

  You should now be in Download mode.

Edit:
turns out there is no such mode. The adb shell default is root shell. To root the device, I can simply adb pull <system partition>, then mount on PC to add su and other stuff, then just flash it back.

Download mode is a Samsung exclusive partition that only exists on these devices to allow Manual ROM installations from The ODIN PC client. Other devices do not use the download mode you are talking about, including the device you are using this method on.

To elaborate,

ODINs a samsung-only partition that allows form the installation of ROMS and bootloader updates via PC. It can serve Installations to many, many devices at once via bulk download (Which can support 50 at a time, I think. Of course, you probably do not have 50 USB ports) It is primarily used by Samsung when flashing new ROMS for shipping (the software was made by Samsung, after all) and Samsung users who want to root their phones and tablets in a "technical" way (even though the hard work is done by the the Root package Devs, mainly Yabbot, who is better known as Chainfire)


How to enable picture in picture mode in Samsung Galaxy mobiles? I have enabled the picture in picture mode option in Youtube App settings though unable to utilize the Pic in pic option. Am I missing anything to enable?

Source

Picture-in-picture is turned on by default for all devices running Android 8.0 (Oreo) and above.
To turn on picture-in-picture:

Navigate to your Android settings > Apps & notifications > Advanced > Special access > Picture-in-picture.
Tap YouTube.
Toggle "Allow picture-in-picture” ON.


Link2SD working issues I have installed the Link2SD application on my Samsung Galaxy Ace, everything is in place, now I dont understand how it works. I have allotted 1GB of space to my second ext3 partition, I have 2 doubts:

Whenever I link my application, those space does not gets deducted from internal memory, I checked in Settings → Manage Application
When I move the application to SD card, still I have some space occupied in internal memory

I don't understand the exact use of Link2SD: if I allotted 1GB of space for the apps, then why my internal space is being used -- and if Link2SD does work like this only, then I would better use force move application using adb shell, which even does not require rooting. Can anyone please clarify my doubts, and let me know how can I use Link2SD, so that everything is moved to SD Card and nothing remains in internal memory?

An application files consist of apk, dex, lib and data files. Link2sd can only move the first three types of files to your SD card. Program like Google+ has huge data files so even after using link2sd they take up precious space of internal memory.

When you move app to sd, only the apk file(in Android 2.2) and only the apk and lib files (in Android 2.3) are moved.


Can `Phone Calls` application permission allow developer to read my contact book? I wonder if other people can read my contact list when the app permission(s) has Phone Calls permision like below snapshot.

Not quite: this permission allows the app to read the IMEI of your phone, your phone number, your network operator, and to know whether you are making a call. It does also let the holder of the permission know the number at the other end of the call, but not any of the contact data associated with that number. These uses are described in the developer documentation for TelephonyManager.

A good use for this might be to disable some ongoing process while you're in a call, or show an indicator, or to help you report your device as stolen. A bad use for this would be for invasive ads to track your identity across different apps, in order to push targeted advertising at you; or to record your phone number and those you call, to make nuisance calls to you afterwards, maybe claiming to be from your network operator.

Reading your contacts is controlled by the permission called read your contacts.


Phone keeps restarting while system updating My samsung galaxy core 2 got a system update so I installed it. Eventually it kept going to 90% until it said error and then restarted the whole process. It kept doing the same thing get to 90% say error and restart and continue the cycle. I cant even use my phone anymore. Please help me.

Try a factory rest, and install the update again.

How to Enter Recovery Mode on Galaxy Core 2 and how to do a Factory Reset

1) Take your phone and turn it off.

2) From your smartphone press and hold (at the same time) the power, volume up and home buttons for a few seconds.
Recovery mode should be eventually displayed on your Galaxy Core 2.

3) Release held keys when the Samsung Logo appears on the screen
Then select from Recovery Mode menu "wipe data / factory reset" using Volume buttons to navigate and Power button to confirm.

4) Choose "Yes -- delete all user data" to confirm the whole operation.

5) You can return to Android by selecting “Reboot system now”.

Images used are not mine but are taken from this webpage


Python on android (not the usual solutions) I'm trying to get Python 3 to run natively on android. By "native" I mean native Linux, just Androids variation of it. I'd like to be able to simply open a terminal and type "python /path/to/script.py" so Kivy and Qslide will not work (to my knowledge, feel free to prove me wrong :) ). Normally Termux would do this but I don't like the terminal app just the Linux packages it supplies, prefer to use another called Terminal Emulator by Jackpal(typo or maybe just wrong?).

I've tried booting into TWRP (I don't have root otherwise) and copying the necessary Python binaries and lib folder n the Termux data directory to /system/bin and /system/lib but Python fails saying it can't find "libandroid-support.so". I realize Termux's Python is probably modified in some way to account for the driectory structure requred by an android app and therefore couldn't find the .so even after I copied it to /system/lib.

So my question(s) are: How might I make the solution I tried work? or Are there any other ways to get Python installed as a native Linux app*?

*like I said I want it to be just like on a desktopn LInux where I can open ANY terminal app and use python just like any other command.

Fantastic, I believe the solution for you is this awesome project called Python-for-Android (Py4A) . not only does it allow you to run scripts on your android device. You can go one step further because the project include simple draft instructions on creating a standalone, downloadable Android APK package.

First, I would start by going to the readme section of Py4A. There is a recipes (script) that will fit your needs. The python3 recipe that allows Python3 to run as a "Stand alone" on Android.

This excerpt from Linuxjournal explains script installation on your android device:

  "Running on a Smartphone

  To run a Python script on your physical Android device, install SL4A together with Python for Android on your handset, then transfer your script.

  To install SL4A on your physical Android device, enable the Unknown Sources option in your device's Application settings. This setting is required to enable the installation of non-Market apps on your phone. With this done, you can follow the same steps you used when installing SL4A and Python on your emulator. To speed things up a little, install Barcode Scanner from the Android Market and use it to “read” the QR Codes from your desktop screen.

  Transferring Your Script to Your Handset
  There are a number of ways to get your script onto a real phone. I've found the success of using something like Bluetooth connectivity or USB cabling arrangements can very much depend on the hardware on which you're running. What works on one handset, doesn't on another, and so on. Your mileage may vary depending on your actual device. When I need to transfer a file, I've come to rely on a solution that works no matter which handset I use (as long as the handset can talk to a local Wi-Fi network). What I do is switch on the OpenSSH server on my development PC running Linux, then use the AndFTP file transfer app on the handset to scp files from the desktop to the phone. AndFTP is available from the Android Market as a free download and installs in minutes. Once I connect to my desktop with AndFTP, I can navigate to a directory of my choice, mark the files that I want, then download them to my SD card on the handset.

  AndFTP works well, and I've come to depend on it for all my Android file transfers (see Resources). Just be sure to transfer your scripts to /sdcard/sl4a/scripts on the phone to ensure that your script names appear within the SL4A list of scripts.

  With your script file transferred to your physical device, start SL4A as before, tap your app's name and tap the run wheel. As expected, your app runs just as it did on the emulator, only faster! I haven't included a screenshot of the app running on a real phone for two reasons. First, it looks exactly the same as it did in the emulator, and second, it's running on your device, so you can take a look at it there!

  Creating an APK
  There's one further kink to SL4A that might interest you. The project includes draft instructions on creating a standalone, downloadable Android APK package (see Resources). Once created, the APK file bundles your custom Python script with information that allows other Android users to install Python for Android automatically onto their handsets and then run your app from the smartphone's main menu of apps. Describing the process of creating the APK likely would take another article, so I leave it to the brave among you to try out the instructions on the SL4A Wiki"

Python-for-android website.


Google Assistant opens music settings instead of spotify I'm trying to set up my Google Assistant to play some Spotify music. I've linked Spotify in the settings, and when I say a command like 'OK Google, Play Some Music' it responds 'OK, Playing music on Spotify', but it won't actually start Spotify app, it just opens the Music settings.

It does display a link to open Spotify app if I manually select it, but surely it should open Spotify itself?

You can see it recognises my command. But then it opens this Settings screen instead:

Incidentally, I can just ask it to 'OK Google, open Spotify' and it will open it that way, but it won't if I ask it to play any music.

Is there a setting somewhere that I'm missing?

This is on an S8+ so it's pretty up to date.

I don't exactly have a proper solution to this, but I had the same exact problem. And it was fixed by restarting my phone (Pixel). So that might be worth a try.


How can I disable Google Voice Commands on an Android phone? I prefer not root my phone, but I'd be willing to, if it's necessary.

Google Voice keeps popping-up Search and Voice Dialer randomly (about twice a minute). They enter random commands into Search bar and I can't turn them off.  The problem might be caused by inexpensive headphones.

I'd like to just completely remove the software from my phone.  If I can't do that, I'd like to get them to stop randomly popping up.

Here's how you can turn this off in most Android builds:

Look for an app called "Google Settings." By default, the icon will look like this:

From there, choose "Search & Now" → "Voice" → "'Ok Google' hotword detection" and turn that setting off.

If that doesn't apply to your phone's OS, you'll need to provide more info. If you are running the OS that came with the phone, provide the make and model. If it is rooted, provide the name and version of the custom ROM.


How to see YouTube video title in landscape mode? Scenario: Playing a mix playlist in car dock in landscape mode. Like current song and want to see name.

How do I do this?

Things I've tried:

Collapsing the video just shows the mini player in the corner with playlist in background, no video info.
Onscreen menus have no choices that show video info.
Tapping while playing also shows no video info.

Workarounds, sort of:

I can turn the device to portrait and info shows. Not convenient when in dock or while driving.
I can share the video with myself via email then scroll down and read the email body without sending it. Also inconvenient and stops the song since YouTube can't play in background. (And, philosophically, this is a goofy way to do this.)

How can I see the name of the video (song in my case) currently playing? I'm sure there is a simple way that I am just missing.

Android 4.4.2, and whatever the latest version of YouTube is at the time of this writing, with the new fancy red top bar.

At least since 4 April 2016, YouTube app was updated to v11.13.56. Now, you just need to tap the screen while on landscape mode, and it will show the title, the uploader and the total views.

Now, the video title can be shown on landscape mode


How to run an SFTP server on my CM9 RC2 Galaxy Nexus I want to run an SFTP server on my GSM Galaxy Nexus (Cyanogenmod 9 RC2). I plan to connect to the Galaxy Nexus from a Kubuntu 12.04 PC via USB cable (not wireless).

It is my understanding that Dropbear does not include SFTP at this time. What are my other options? If anyone knows how to do this, I would appreciate a tutorial or a link to a tutorial. Thanks.

I realize this question is a bit old and therefore the original poster may no longer benefit from this answer, but I'ma try anyhow, just in case anyone else has this exact same question.  I have this working flawlessly (as far as I can tell) on devices running versions of android ranging from 2.2 up to 4.3, all using DropBear, however it took a bit of searching to find the solution.  What the problem is, put simply, DropBear (as included in most Android app markets) does not apparently include the binary for sftp-server for some unfathomable reason. The (somewhat) simple fix was found in the discussion thread for Issue #1 at the droidsshd Google Code project. I will now explain that solution step by step for future visitors to this question.

Install droidsshd or dropbear app from your favorite Android market app.
Configure appropriately so that it is working fine for normal ssh connections.
Try sftp root@<your droid ip address> to confirm it as non-working and to get an error message telling you where it is expecting to find the sftp-server binary at.
Download the sftp-server binary found in comment #6 of the aforementioned Issue #1 discussion.
Use whatever available means necessary to get that sftp-server binary into your device's sdcard.  (I prefer AirDroid personally, but your favorite method will work equally well I'm sure.)
ssh into your droid device and copy that binary into the appropriate folder from the error message above in step 3. (You may need to create a folder or two if they don't exist yet. I did.)

ssh root@<your droid ip address>
mkdir -p <path to expected folder>
cp /mnt/sdcard/sftp-server <path to expected folder>
If the previous command failed, try "mount -o remount,rw /" to mount the appropriate partition as read/write then try the previous copy command again.
rm /mnt/sdcard/sftp-server

By this time you should be in a position to restart the DropBear server and then enter an sftp://root@droid/ style address in Dolphin (or whatever similar method in your file manager of choice). This method has worked for me (on four different devices thus far). I hope it helps you, too.


Why does the screen show vertical lines? I have a small tablet, but my sibling dropped it. Whenever it is turned on, the screen is just covered in vertical, multicolored lines.

Any ideas?

It's probably broken inside. I'd suggest you send it to a service center for checking.


Huawei mate 20 lite bootloader-unlock doesn't work due to FRP I've got two huawei mate 20 lites in front of me, and I have the bootloader codes to unlock them.
But when I use adb fastboot to unlock them I get the message "Cannot unlock bootloader, you need to unlock FRP first" not with those exact words, but something like that.
How can I unlock the bootloader with the codes that i have without entering the phones settings to enable usb debugging? I feel like I've scanned the whole internet by now. Thank you!

have you enabled allow OEM bootloader unlocking in settings, it is in dev options
Here's some steps:
(optional, to enable dev options):
settings >> about phone >> (tap build no. 7 times)
enable oem unlocking:
settings >> system >> advanced >> developer options >> allow oem unlocking(turn it on)
Screenshot:

(mine is disabled as I have a unlocked bootloader)


ADB Backup does not work for Skype App I have a Nexus 5 with Android 6. The ROM is stock and not rooted. My bootloader is locked too.

When I try to save the Skype data files (chats, messages...) nothing will be saved.

adb backup -noapk -f Skype.ab com.raider.skype

This command will be used to save the data like messages and more.

My question: How can I backup my Skype data?

I Think you need to connect  with pc and need to take backup as mentioned in the skype doc

this is not poosbile with android

https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA413/how-do-i-back-up-my-configuration-and-instant-message-history?platform=android

this is for windows
https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA413/how-do-i-back-up-my-configuration-and-instant-message-history


How do I move the clock back to the right in Android Pie? I have just installed Android Pie and the clock has moved from the right of the status bar to the left. Is there a setting to move it back?

This is a problem encountered by many that has upgraded into Android Pie or bought a new one with Android Pie. Luckily, this could be fixed but rooting the phone is necessary. Someone I know tried this and it worked. May this also help you,
https://www.xda-developers.com/status-bar-clock-tweaks-android-p-root/


Google Play Store downloads won't start I ran a speed test and I'm getting a full 4Mb/s. However, when trying to download an app, it's stuck on the indeterminate progress"Downloading" bar. 20 mins later it gives me an error saying it couldn't be installed. It's not just one app, it's EVERYTHING I try to download.

You could try the following steps to troubleshoot the issue:

Ensure components used by Playstore are not disabled

Check if download manager, Google play services or Google services framework is not disabled or frozen by package disabler apps.
Freezing/ or disabling such can result in failed downloads.
Re-enable them as necessary

Removing and re-adding Google account

Sometimes perfoming this this step acts as a way of "refreshing" Google Apps including Playstore and may fix failed downloads.

Uninstalling Playstore updates.

You can try removing Playstore updates and then update to latest version which can solve the issue, as a certain version can have bugs. Do this:

  Reinstall Play Store updates

  Open your device's main Settings app.
  Touch Apps or Application manager (depending on your device, this may be different).
  Touch Google Play Store > Uninstall updates .
  When prompted to change the Play Store app back to the factory version, touch OK.
  Open the Google Play Store app Google Play .
  Go back to your device's home screen. As long as you have a strong Internet connection (Wi-Fi or mobile data), your Play Store app will
  update to the latest version within a few minutes.

Clearing Playstore data

You can restore Google Playstore to default by clearing its data, which can hopefully solve the issue of failed downloadsn

  Clear cache and data

  Open your device's main Settings app.
  Touch Apps or Application manager (depending on your device, this may be different).
  Touch Google Play Store > Clear cache > Clear data .

Source: Google Playstore Help - Play Store won't load or download apps


How to enable root on my Device without using a computer I've been try my hardest these past couple months to figure out a way to root my Device without a computer(Got wet in April) and no success. The problem is , my Device is a BN Nook HD and Unknown Sources is blocked since software version 1.4.1 . So I can't use Kingroot etc. and It appears I can't do anything without a computer.

Any Help or Advice would be largely appreciated.

Actually You don't need the Computer to Root using kingRoot just download KingRoot Apk from Open link to Download and Just network connection is enough to root the Device It's easy one click root and it works ;)


net::ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT The message in the title appears at the bottom of my screen every minute and goes away after a couple of seconds. It's very distracting when I'm trying to read and I can't for the life of me figure out what is actually timing out!

I can't remember exactly when it started but it's been at least a few weeks, I've been ignoring it but it's started driving me crazy now.

Google suggests it's a problem with Chrome. But even after making sure it's fully up to date, all tabs closed, force stopped the application, rebooted phone. Still does it! Even when chrome isn't running. So I'm not convinced it's a Chrome issue.

It continues to happen regardless of what app is in the foreground.

My phone has plenty free memory and storage and a good connection (I have a strong 4G signal, also tried on WiFi connection with a fibre line, the message continues regardless) these were things my Google search suggested to check, so I did just to rule it out conclusively.

How can I figure out what is causing this message to appear? I consider myself literate enough to follow complex instructions but I am not intimate with the android OS, so please be detailed with any debugging suggestions.

It conveniently appeared while I was getting a screenshot of my versions for this post.

I should note, for clarity, that I am NOT experiencing any connection issues. It's just this message appears every minute and I want to identify the reason.

Since you are not facing any connection issues, this toast message, on the face of it looks not related to connection .

As a first step, install toaster and notification history to find out the source of that toast. Second app covers system also IIRC, whereas first is only for installed apps.

Let's find out what is the source and next steps would follow - if it is an app causing it uninstall it - OP found the culprit app and uninstalled


ODEX file: Does every app has one and if yes where are they stored? I know that .odex files are optimized .dex files.

I have seen a lot of .odex files below the path /system on my phone. I am just curious if there are also .odex files for my installed apps.

I searched the file system but I wasn't able to find .odex files for my installed apps. But I assume that they exist - the question is just where they are stored.

BTW: My phone is a rooted Samsung Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.1.2

When your ROM is booted up for the first time, Android's Dalvik goes through every apk and extracts the dex file from it.  It places the dex files in the cache folder - located at /data/dalvik-cache.  This is the directory that gets cleared when you clear the dalvik cache in your recovery tool


How do I run two programs at once in split-screen? I have a Nexus 10. I want to split screen to do two things at the same time. Is that possible in Android? 3rd-party apps are acceptable too.

As of this writing, only a few Android devices offer multi-window functionality out-of-the-box.  Samsung built this feature into 4.1.2 OS version for several of their Android tablets (Galaxy Note 10.1 and Galaxy Note 2, for example.)

There are some major drawbacks to this. First, it's a proprietary Samsung feature that only comes with their TouchWiz overlay, and therefore is not compatible with "vanilla" Android OS. Second, apps must be specifically written to support this feature.


How to boot an HTC Cha into Safe Mode On my HTC ChaCha I've been having problems with the bottom menu keys being periodically flakey and non responsive for which I wanted to try booting into Safe Mode to see if that fixes things.

Does anyone know the key combination  needed to  boot HTC ChaCha into safe mode?

I tried a generic HTC instruction I found online i.e. hold volume down key during reboot. But unfortunately that did not work.

Any other ideas?

Edit:

Android Version 2.3.3
HTC Sense: 2.1
Software number: 1.20.720.1

Kernel: 2.6.35.10-g28523b8

Some instructions say hold Volume Down + Power 5 seconds to open the boot menu. On a ChaCha with software version 1.57.161.3 opens the boot menu immediately; I just hold Volume Down and get the boot menu within a second.

Booting works differently depending on which Android and ROM version you have. Open Settings, About this phone, Software and add in your question which version you have. On another ChaCha with software version 1.54.401.3 I get re reaction at all with holding Volume Down, but maybe the button is physically broken.

Update:

So 2.3.3, and presumably original ROM installed?

HTC did release updates from Android 2.3.3 to 2.3.5 -- see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_ChaCha
Which phones got that update was supposedly Carrier-specific. I've seen mixed info on forums and official. On 12th June 2014 I tried (manually) to access the update servers listed in the ChaCha device props files (the ones used for OTA = Over The Air/half-automatic updates), and it is possible that OTA no longer works for ChaCha.

(I've seen the Facebook button start making trouble, and that slows down the phone to almost unusable levels -- and then it needs either repair or if you install a ROM that ignores the Facebook share button.)


USB not working in Lineage OS 15 Nexus 7 2012 (grouper).
Was running stock ROM (4.4.4), could connect via USB (e.g., as MTP for file transfer) and use adb).
Installed Lineage OS 15 (8/O). (Couldn't install any GApps at all because the system partition is too small.)
fastboot works as it should when booted into the bootloader.
abd works when it's booted into recover.
However, adb does not work when the tablet is started up and running LineageOS.
Nor does it appear as a disc drive.
In fact it doesn't even appear in Device Manager.
Windows doesn't make its noise when the device is plugged in (it does make its noise when connecting it in the bootloader and in recovery).
Developer options enabled:

Android debugging is on,
Root access is ADB only,
Select USB Configuration is MTP.

It has to be something to do with LineageOS.
Any ideas?

I have same problem when I install Lineage 14 try tablet on another fresh windows pc that this tablet never connected before if tablet worked in MTP. Then try this steps:

Go to Windows Device Manager
Check View hidden devices from view
Find installed drivers from tablet and uninstall them all.

This is demonstration gif:


Is it possible to uninstall the Google Play Store without affecting Google Play Services? I have a rooted Samsung Galaxy a50 with a stock ROM installed. However, after using an app (System App Remover) to uninstall Google Play Store (I removed the Google App also) — many apps simply crash on load, and I am familiar with the

  App won't run without Google Play services, which are not supported by your device

error. Perhaps I've forgotten something else that might come into play (I rooted this device a while ago) but reading around it seems these apps are somewhat tethered together and the way to separate them is not entirely clear.

I am confused because I still have GmsCore.apk, GoogleServicesFramework.apk (not Phonesky.apk) in /system/priv-app, so I'm unsure as to exactly what the problem might be.

I'm aware that to do this right will almost certainly require a re-flashing my phone, but at this stage I still feel I'm just firing into the dark so if anyone has some light to shed on the right path it would be very much appreciated.

TL;DR:

I want to remove the Google Play Store without affecting apps that rely on Google Play Services. Is this possible/reasonable to achieve with a stock ROM on a rooted phone?

Some apps are dependent on google play store links...

They have to be installed separately (or the link must be broken)

My method: install from alt APK source (like aptoide)
you can patch the apps with a good app manager to "break play store link" (thats the command option in said app manager)

However... Some apps yet require license validation.
This requires a patch. "Lucky patcher" is good at this...

And since im sure some disclaimer is needed... Lucky patcher can be used to pirate apps, but serves many functions, and if you own a license to said app... you are not "breaking any rules"


How to track total time using for any app? To track time on Android, I use Time Meter, which supports Tasker. But in the configuration screen of Time Meter plugin in Tasker, I don't know how to put the foreground app name to it. Do you know how to do this?

Variables can be used in those fields. The variable for the running app is %WIN. You can create a profile to check if the name has been assigned to the variable:
Profile > Event > Variable Set: %WIN

LINK TO TASK:
A1. Flash %WIN


Reset password on Galaxy Player I have a Samsung Galaxy Player 4.0 and I haven't used it in ages. With that being said, I forgot my password. When I tried to unlock it, it told me to put in my email, but I forgot my password to that as well.

I want to know if there is a way to reset it, or just figure out the password to my email. Now my device doesn't let me try to put my password in because I tried too many times and failed. Is there a way that I can reset it?

Olright mate you will have to wipe/ reset the whole device to do this Remove the battery. Replace the battery but do not power the device on. Hold down the Volume Down + Menu buttons then press the Power button. Hold the Power button for 2-4 seconds and release it without releasing the Volume Down or Menu button. Your phone will boot into hboot mode. Use Volume down to navigate the options and the Home Button to select Choose "Clear Storage" (sometimes named 'Wipe Data / Factory Reset') Confirm your choice and wait for the device to do the work.  Let me know if it works buddy.


How can I used my old whatsapp account with new sim Good day,

My old sim is expired and I bought  new one , I forgot to change my number in whatsapp before I formeted it...

It is possible to retrieve my old whatsapp account?

Thanks

Yes you can, only if you have access to the number with which your WhatsApp account is associated. Your question does not give all the necessary details.


twrp recovery not launching I installed a custom ROM two weeks ago, since then, i cant get to recovery mode, if I try booting into it, my phone get stuck on the oneplus logo.
I tried flashing it with fastboot,

C:\Users\juanhh\AppData\Local\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools>fastboot flash recovery recovery.img

target reported max download size of 442499072 bytes

sending 'recovery' (18964 KB)...

OKAY [  0.580s]

writing 'recovery'...

OKAY [  0.144s]

finished. total time: 0.726s

And also I tried flashing it with the TWRP app, it gave me an error telling that I have already intalled.

What is the problem?

Pd: I am not a native speaker, so sorry if i have a ilogical phrase.

You can reboot to TWRP using adb commands from your desktop.

Connect your android device, navigate your cmd to C:\Users\juanhh\AppData\Local\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools and type

adb devices

It will show list of connected devices. If not, then you probably need to install universal adb driver.

To reboot into TWRP recovery, type

adb reboot recovery


Why are the speakers on my HTC One so quiet? I just got a new HTC One, and while it is brilliant, the speaker volume is awfull. Headphones sound really good, but even with the media volume all the way up, the speakers are too quiet. This means that I often miss navigation directions, etc.
Is there a hidden speaker volume?
EDIT:
Ideally, I do not want to install a custom rom, or root my phone, but any suggestions would be useful

I recommend you to check with another identical phone(from a friend, or from the store) Your phone might a defect


'Could not validate certificate signature' error (Antennapod, Gingerbread) I am using Android 2.3.6 (Gingerbread) and AntennaPod Version 0.9.9.5.

When I am trying to access gpodder.net, either to login or search podcasts, I get the following
error message:

An error occured:javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: org.bouncycastle.jce.exception.ExtCertPathValidatorException: Could not validate certificate signature.

I tried to clear the cache, the data, and ultimately uninstall and reinstall the app from the Play Store, but the problem persists.

Any hints about what I can do here?

There is nothing you can do, except making your device not use ssl. Either there's a problem with the website, or a hacker is modifying your connection to the website on-the-fly but has problems.


Where does Havoc Os store update files? I am relatively new in HavocOS.

I am seeing an update has arrived in my OS, it is downloaded already.
But I can't find the files downloaded in the mobile.

I want to manually update with TWRP recovery to install the Upgrade.

But where does HavocOs store its downloaded upgrade files?

I have found a solution here.

Hold tap near the changelog button and you'll see an export option pop up.
Click on it and it will export zip file in internal storage in a folder called Updates


Obtaining app storage details via ADB TL;DR:

On-device, we can navigate to Settings › Apps, and for each app separately can call up details on storage used: by the app itself, by its data, by its cache. Is it possible to obtain those details from the command line, ideally via ADB – and without having root access?

In detail:

I've already searched the web, but found no information on this. I've already tried walking the package list (pm list packages), obtaining the path to the APK file (adb shell pm path $pkgname | awk -F':' '{print $2}'), and getting the file size of that (adb shell stat $path | grep Size) – but that has a series of disadvantages:

it only gives me the size of the APK (for updated system apps, only of the latest update)
even if scripted, it takes ~2s per app to obtain even that. As today's devices already ship with far more than 100 system apps, it would take "ages" even if only a few user apps were installed (almost 6 minutes on an almost virgin Wiko Sunny 3 where I just tried that)
details on data and cache are completely missing

Ideally, Android has already somewhere collected those details; it doesn't take that long via the GUI. Maybe there's some database one could query without having root privileges – or some XML to parse, or some shell command I missed?

PS: if you know about a root-only solution, that'd be "better than nothing". Please indicate that in a comment then so I can come back and ask you to make that an answer if there are no non-root solutions.

My first instinct to dig out such information which is often available via programming route  is to go through dumps of various system services. One such service is diskstats whose only purpose is to dump the status of the disk. Looking into the java code of DiskStatsService.java for various Android releases, I noticed that the information you are looking for is available since Android Oreo. Among other things, the dump shows all the package names, their package sizes, their app data size, and their cache sizes. That information is also dumped into the file /data/system/diskstats_cache.json but this file cannot be accessed without root access though.

The dump is pretty ugly so I wrote a bash script to show data neatly. Run this script in your Linux.

Here's the script (and it does not require root access too):

#!/bin/bash

USRDIR="$HOME"
F_DISK_STATS="$USRDIR"/diskstats.txt
F_PKG_NAMES="$USRDIR"/package_names.txt
F_PKG_SIZE="$USRDIR"/app_pkg_sizes.txt
F_DAT_SIZE="$USRDIR"/app_data_sizes.txt
F_CACHE_SIZE="$USRDIR"/app_cache_sizes.txt

# ADVISE: do a check whether ADB is working fine or not
adb shell dumpsys diskstats > "$F_DISK_STATS"

# Separating data into relevant named files
sed -n '/Package Names:/p' "$F_DISK_STATS" | sed -e 's/,/\n/g' -e 's/"//g' -e 's/.*\[//g' -e 's/\].*//g' > "$F_PKG_NAMES"
sed -n '/App Sizes:/p' "$F_DISK_STATS" | sed -e 's/,/\n/g' -e 's/.*\[//g' -e 's/\].*//g' > "$F_PKG_SIZE"
sed -n '/App Data Sizes:/p' "$F_DISK_STATS" | sed -e 's/,/\n/g' -e 's/.*\[//g' -e 's/\].*//g' > "$F_DAT_SIZE"
sed -n '/Cache Sizes:/p' "$F_DISK_STATS" | sed -e 's/,/\n/g' -e 's/.*\[//g' -e 's/\].*//g' > "$F_CACHE_SIZE"

# Printing package names and their sizes
ttl_apps=$(wc -l "$F_PKG_NAMES" | cut -d ' ' -f1)
count=1
while [ $count -le $ttl_apps ]; do
    pkg=$(sed -n "${count}p" "$F_PKG_NAMES")
    pkg_size=$(sed -n "${count}p" "$F_PKG_SIZE")
    dat_size=$(sed -n "${count}p" "$F_DAT_SIZE")
    csh_size=$(sed -n "${count}p" "$F_CACHE_SIZE")
    echo -e "Pkg Name: $pkg"
    echo -e "\t Pkg_size=$pkg_size bytes"
    echo -e "\t Data_size=$dat_size bytes"
    echo -e "\t Cache_size=$csh_size bytes"
    echo -e "\t Total_size=$(($pkg_size + $dat_size + $csh_size)) bytes\n"
    count=$(( $count + 1));
done

Output when tested on OnePlus 6 (Android 9):

Pkg Name: org.xbmc.kodi
     Pkg_size=144297984 bytes
     Data_size=55771136 bytes
     Cache_size=54341632 bytes
     Total_size=254410752 bytes

Pkg Name: rikka.appops
     Pkg_size=10330112 bytes
     Data_size=1740800 bytes
     Cache_size=163840 bytes
     Total_size=12234752 bytes

Pkg Name: com.a0soft.gphone.aSpotCat
     Pkg_size=16228352 bytes
     Data_size=1101824 bytes
     Cache_size=163840 bytes
     Total_size=17494016 bytes


System update on restart takes to TWRP I guess everyone got notification for downloading update for android 5.0 lollipop on nexus 5. When the download is complete and the phone is restarted, it takes me to TWRP screen and I could not figure out what to do next. How could I update now ?

If I restart according to following screen, it takes me to TWRP.

You need to flash stock recovery to install stock OTAs without computer-based intervention.

Alternatively, you can download the relevant OTA for your version of KitKat, put it somewhere on your Nexus's internal storage and flash it in TWRP  like you would any other flashable zip. Although you may want to note that xposed doesn't work with Lollipop yet, and rooting is a little bit more involved than it was on kitkat.


How can I change my pictures' and videos' date on my phone by their filenames? Yesterday, I moved a bunch of old pictures and videos to my phone, using a FTP server I installed on my phone. Everything went fine, but today I discovered that the date of all the copied photos and videos was set to yesterday. As a result, my photos and videos are now showing up in the wrong order in the Gallery app.

(Click image to enlarge)

Luckily, the date and time is still preserved in the filenames. Right now, I want to restore the photos' and videos' date using their filenames.

I'm interested in a way to do so. I don't really care whether it's by using an app or script or something else.

I'm aware of the fact that I can copy the files from my computer to the phone again using a different protocol, but that is not what I'm looking for.

I ended up writing a rather dirty script to do this. For this to work, I'm assuming you have a rooted device, and the directory that contains the pictures and videos is /sdcard/DCIM/Camera. If otherwise, change the script.

Download BusyBox and install it. This is needed for executing Linux shell commands.
Create a script called script.sh, containing this block of code, and put it on the root of your sd card.

cd DCIM/Camera
echo "Navigated to `pwd`"

ls

for f in *.jpg *.3gp *.m4v
do

  [ -e $f ] || continue    ## testing if the file exists
  NEWDATE=`echo $f | sed 's|IMG_||g' | sed 's|VID_||g' | sed 's|_||g' | \
  sed 's|.3gp||g'  | sed 's|.m4v||g' | sed 's|.jpg||g' | sed 's|........|&\.|g'`

  echo "Touching date $NEWDATE into $f..."

  touch -t "$NEWDATE" "$f" ## using touch to insert the new date into the file

done

Start adb shell, and execute:

su
mount -o remount rw /sdcard

to make sure you can actually edit the files
Move to your sd card:

cd /sdcard

Execute the shell script:

sh script.sh

Now start the Gallery app, and wait. Especially if you have a large file collection, it may take Android a while to sort everything and update the cache.


Google play license check I've Komodo 10 chess engine in my old Smartphone but when I shareit with my new Smartphone I've received this message:

  Application Not Licensed
  .
  This application is not licensed. please purchase it from android market.
  Exit BuyApp

What I've to do now!?
(there is a problem here, I can't buy any app from google because, it is not available in my country)

If the app came with your phone, it's only licensed for the phone it came on. The phone manufacturer paid the software author for the right to use it on that phone only. If you want to use it on your new phone, you'll have to buy it this time.


Does Swype have custom auto replace? I love how Swype works but there are a few rather long phrases that I need to enter quite often, and wish I could enter faster, such as my email. I know the user dictionary will let me add custom entries, but that still requires me to Swype out all the characters.

I'm looking for a way to have a user defined phrase pop up as a suggestion when another, shorter, user defined phrase is entered. For example, I could then Swype E to M, and have my  email as a suggestion I can tap.

Is this possible?

You can tap for those words, Swype's autocompletion will use your personal dictionary to finish the rest.


Phone slowdown after Jelly bean update I have Sony Xperia P phone which is updated to Jelly bean when they rolled out the update. It came with Gingerbread and I updated it to ICS, as soon as I got it. It was running great.

But it's started to give me problems since I updated it to Jelly-bean. Even the recent minor release didn't fix the slow down issue.
To give the example of slow down, I am getting Slow FPS and sometimes frozen screen for half a second whenever I play a game. Slow FPS is universal for all the apps. When I had ICS I could play games like Subway surfer without any problem, and now I can't play it due to low FPS. Sometimes the System UI gets killed, whenever I start any normal game (such as Samurai v/s Zombie defence).
I don't know if it's a universal problem or just my bad luck, but one of my friend who bought the phone with me, is facing the same issue too. Any idea how can I make my phone run fast again?

There are some bugs reported in the Xperia P Jelly Bean update 6.2.A.0.400. Even if it is suggested to perform a factory reset, the problem has not seemed to have fully solved.

So your problem will not most probably be fixed until Sony releases a new version with bug fixes (and it might take some time)

Note: Since you are mainly concerned with your gaming apps, you might need to check the incompatibilities from the Google Play Store.


Playing instead of streaming M3U files (media playlist) on Android I have Xperia Z3 running on Android 6 (Marshmallow). The phone is rooted and Xposed.

I need a way to play .m3u or .m3u8 files on Android, not streaming them, and I want to be able to shuffle the songs.

Tried "MortPlayer Music", but the interface is terrible and there's no shuffle feature.

Are there any ways to do this?

These apps can play the M3U files:

Poweramp Music Player: A little messy too; Having storage glitches on an i9505 TouchWiz.
Personal score: 8/10

MortPlayer Music: No shuffle, disorganized, ugly interface.
Personal score: 5/10


Why does my notification bar get stuck on Galaxy S? The notification bar on my Samsung Galaxy S with Froyo has a nasty habit of getting stuck.  When this happens and I try to pull it down, the (I don't know what to call it) "dragging bar" appears, but I'm unable to pull it down.

I can access the notifications bar by going to the home screen, tapping the left button and tapping "notifications", but I can't access it any other way.

Is there a way to keep this from happening?

Is there any way to unstick it, other than restarting the phone?

This is the screen before I try to pull down the bar:

This is the screen after, with the notification bar stuck:

(I actually took the screenshots in opposite order, which is why the clock is out of order in the two pictures).

I HAVE FOUND A WORKAROUND!!!

First some details. This happens on the Galaxy S when you try to open the notification bar during high load. A reboot will reset it. But if you don't want to reboot:

Do this QUICKLY: Tap the notification bar, just before releasing it tap on the bottom half of the screen, release the finger from notification bar, release the finger from the bottom half of the screen.

This will trigger the notification bar to FULLY OPEN ITSELF!


Disable badges on Samsung Galaxy devices I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 with Android 4.1.2 JellyBean.

When I get notifications in SMS or from Facebook, I see a red notification with number (notification badges) on the application icon on home screen.

Is there a way to stop that? I stopped all notifications from Facebook app but I still get notification badges on home screen.

I found this article that explains how to disable it on the Galaxy Note i717. I don't have a SG phone but I imagine the solution would be similar for yours.

Go to Settings > Manage Applications > swipe laterally through the top tabs until you reach "All"
Scroll down to locate BadgeProvider and tap on it
Click on the Disable button and confirm that you would like it disabled.

This will disable all badge notifications as there is no per-app setting interface.


How could I fix google play store with new gmail account? I was using google play store with gmail. But when I remove that mail account from the google play both the Google play and gmail apps stop working. How could I fix this?

What I have done when I experience a similar issue was this, put ALL of your (ever precious) music photos and files in a SD card, and do a complete factory data reset. Try this if you haven't fixed it by now and let me know how this works for you.


Reboot problem in my S3 GT-I9300 I got S3 GT-I9300 and it requires to restart the device to update the software and when accept that it says will reboot for a while , I leave it for two hours and its keep frozen on Samsung logo , I tried the hard restart with up volume + home button + power button and try the factory setting but it still give me the same result , when press the volume down + home + power , its asked me if I wish to continue and I said yes and its still downloading but it take a while now , what should I do to get my phone working back again .

You may have to re flash the firmware. There is a program called ODIN you can use to do this.

First of all install ODIN and the firmware for the S3 and your country on this site http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/ (search for GT-I9300). You will be able to find many tutorials online on how to use ODIN but it is relatively simple. Here is a good YouTube tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CANyNo5qNE (It's quite hard to hear him over the music but it should help). He uses the S2 but it is the same process.

OR

Use the written instructions on sammobile (note this is the firmware for Germanu, so don't use this firmware unless you are in fact German) http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/3/?download=29037.


How do I mute the sound when opening a folder in the home screen? I have a Galaxy Note 2, running Android 4.1.2.

Everytime I open or close a folder on the home screen, I hear a click sound. How can I mute this?

I have a Samsung Galaxy S4, but see if you can find something similar to this: Settings > My device > Sound > Touch sounds.


Note taking app with a hand guard/hand recognition feature? I have an Asus Transformer Eee Pad. I recently purchased a stylus that allows for pen-precise writing and wanted to utilize my tablet as a note taking device.

I have found several apps for this purpose, but none of them allow for recognition of my hand, which confuses the screen. If I rest my hand on the edges of the tablet I am fine, but that only works if I am writing on the outer edges of the "sheet", and I would ideally like to utilize the whole page for notes.

Does anyone know if there is an app for Android tablets out there that is capable of this functionality?

My friend's iPad had an app that allowed him to designate a "dead" area of his screen so he could rest his hand on it and the iPad ignored input from that area, allowing him to take notes with ease and I admit I was pretty jealous. I'm hoping there is some similar app out there for Android. Thank you in advance for any help you may be able to provide.

The general rule is to make sure you touch your device with your stylus first then rest your palm, it helps big time. Unfortunately, I have not seen an app with a dead area, but that means its not the "whole page".

Samsung are the leaders for true stylus technology on android with their new Galaxy Note phone/tablet which may be the best choice for this kind of thing.

May I ask what stylus you purchased? I have not seen any with pen-precise writing, it does not seem possible with the capacitive touch screen when you compare it to Samsung's stylus tech with pressure sensitivity and separate Wacom sensor.


how do I get most of my standard linux utilities and commands on Android 3.1? by standard, i mean just what users often get by default with one of the popular distros.

for example, uname, finger, vim, tmux, etc.

I have a galaxy tab 10.1 (android version 3.1, already rooted)

Also, I read somewhere about setting up a chroot on android to run full-fledged linux distros, such as debian. Is that possible?

BusyBox for rooted devices gives many of Linux's standard utilities.

In terms of a real Linux distro, there are tons of How-Tos found on the web with a simple Google search.  Specifically, here is a step-by-step guide from XDA-Developers forum on building a Debian image for, and installing it on, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet.


Is there a shop like Cydia on iOS for Android? Most apps in the Google Play store have a free version and a paid version. On iOS there is a shop called Cydia, where you can try out most apps for free before you buy them in the App Store.

Is there such a store for rooted Androids as well?

I know of the store F-Droid for free software

  F-Droid is an installable catalogue of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software)

While there are Android markets offering pirated versions, (not try before you buy which is signified usually by Demo or Lite) as the other users have mentioned, installing them is very risky. I would recommend being involved in the development community. As a developer I share keys and am invited to test apps often by frequenting XDA forums and Reddit.com/r/Android.
Developers will discount or give away versions of their apps and being involved in the community will help you learn more and score you some software deals.

Update:This answer does not really address the question.


I have multiple Google accounts on my phone. How can I delete some of them? I have an annoying problem with this Samsung Epic 4G touch. I set up a new Gmail account, which I use for Google Talk and the Android Market. However, I logged in to YouTube under two usernames at various points. I am not logged in and when I click Market it defaults to one of the YouTube accounts instead of my Gmail account. Under accounts, it shows all three. How do I delete the two YouTube accounts? I don't want them to access the Market and it does every time even though I no longer log into YouTube.

From the Home screen Menu | Accounts & sync should list all of your accounts on the device. Tap the account you want and then tap the "Remove Account" button.


Why Gallery and Music app are unable to read SD card storage while a file explorer can? I checked my phone after a while (after 3 hours), and I found that all of my photos and songs were not there anymore. I checked my ES file explorer, because by default, I have  Google files (which is not a good way to manage files). I saw everything was fine in ES explorer.

I rebooted the phone a couple of times and even pulled out and reinserted my SD card but it didn't work.

How can the problem be fixed?

Since you can access your music and pictures just fine from your file explorer, that usually means that it is being ignored by a .nomedia file.

Try to delete the .nomedia files from /sdcard, /sdcard/Music, /sdcard/Pictures, and /sdcard/DCIM.

If you have access to a terminal app on your phone, try the following commands:

cd /sdcard/ #Or  cd /mnt/sdcard or  cd /storage/sdcard0 if that doesn't work
rm -r ".nomedia"

(Note  that the above commands will delete ALL .nomedia files from your phone, so other files (from app caches) will also appear.) Alternatively, you could put your SD card in your computer, use the file manager to search for .nomedia, and delete all the .nomedia files it finds.

After deleting the .nomedia files, your Gallery and Music apps should see your pictures and music.


Motorla Defy+ being not possible to root. Script commands throwing errors when rooting android 2.3.6 It's getting very hard to root a Motorola Defy+ (mb256).

My cellphone is accepting non android market apps, and USB debugging mode is enabled.

I tried:
- using z4Root app.
- doing the scipt commands one by one with adb tool.
- using superoneclick
- using UnlockRoot.

Basically all the scripts I tried returns the same error. Seems like the file system of my android is protected, so can't mount folders, can't change permission of files, etc.. at the end, the Android is not rooted.

These are some prints of the problems occurred:

Content of the Easy Root script showed bellow here.

I solved!
I flashed a hacked chinese sbf. This sbf let me use z4root.apk to get root access.
Sorry about don't put the file name, that's because it does not have a meaningful name, it's just firmware.zip, I found it in xda-developers forum.

Be careful using the files above, you can easily brick you cell phone.

The Chinese hacked firmware is this: Firmware Part 1 and Firmware Part 2.

The application who enables rooting is this z4Root.apk.

*Sorry, I don't know how much time the links will be available.


I Can No Longer Access My Hotmail Account On My Android Device Since moving from Hotmail to Outlook I can no longer access emails on my Android device. I have installed, removed, and reinstalled the Outlook app, but despite my receiving emails daily my inbox is blank. How do you get to use your Hotmail account on your mobile device?

Usual solution is to remove and re-add the account, on your mobile Outlook.com.
Generally that works.
(Obviously you will lose any mails and unsent outgoing mails (manually save unsent outgoing mails first with some file-manager app, if you need them)).

Be warned: Outlook.com's Android sync is very brittle, and their support is nearly non-existent.
Beware of taking over-the-wire Android updates.


Youtube app black and laggy transitions. S5 plus g901f Maybe someone know where is the problem?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34Z5zNCSlyc
As you can see, video box is all black and transition is not smooth.
Even on my old s3 it's smooth as a butter.

Looks perfectly fine to me. Not sure what you're seeing as a problem. The app works, plays videos and seems to transition just fine. In any case, try uninstalling the app and installing it again to see if that suits your needs. Good luck!


Can't copy files from Windows to Android? I have a Galaxy 5s with a 32GB external card, which I connect to my Windows 7 x64 PC with a USB 2.0 cable.   I can copy files from my phone to the PC all day long with no problems.  Copying files to the phone from the PC is virtually impossible, however.

I can open the phone's card in Windows Explorer, and look at all the files.   But trying to copy anything onto the card hangs explorer.  Right now I'm trying to copy a 42MB MP3 file from my PC to the phone - it's telling me "27 minutes to go" and it's already taken half an hour.

I checked this question from 2013 which seems like the same problem, but basically the answers were "you can't get there from here."   Was wondering if anyone had a solution for this.

As a fast solution I would recommend FTPServer as mentioned above.I had a similar problem and that was the drivers from Samsung.Maybe a little driver upgrade would solve your problem . Google USB Driver


Google calendar force closing after OTA update (SM-G930A) I have a G930A, un-rooted, running AT&T's version of Oreo (8.0.0). I received an OTA update over the weekend and cannot use Google Calendar since--app force stops.

I also cannot do a calendar insertion from Tasker.

I have, of course reinstalled, cleared system cache, twiddled permissions, even factory reset, but am getting nowhere. Wife's phone has same update, but calendar is working fine.

Baseband G930AUCS8CRK1

Build R16NW.G930AUCS8CRK1

Security patch level November 1, 2018

Any thoughts?

Ended-up flashing the old firmware (links on xda) and redoing the OTA upgrade. Worked fine this time, which makes me think the first OTA file was munged. Doesn't AT&The have any error-checking built-in to their upgrade script?!


How to add new contacts to an outlook.com account in an Android device? My contacts are all stored in an outlook.com account and I would like to continue storing them there. To access and use these contacts (say to make a phone call), from my Google Pixel device, I have my outlook.com account added to the phone settings > accounts.

This works as it should. All my outlook accounts are accessible from my phone.

When I want to create and save a new contact, the options exist to create the contact from Google's Phone App and the Contacts App. When I click save, to save the contact, the contact doesn't get saved. No indication is given that the contact is not saved. Only when I check my list of contacts do I know the contact is not saved.

Is there any other way to save a contact to outlook.com from an android device?
Alternatively, does the above method I use to save contacts from Google's phone or contacts app work for any one else?

The current workaround I use is to visit the outlook.com website using a web browser, and then create and save new contacts. When Android periodically syncs the contacts, I get to see the new contacts on my phone. This workaround usually works better if the desktop version of outlook.com is used. The mobile version is not very friendly for saving new contacts to outlook.com.

There is another workaround which involves a handy third-party tool- Contact Editor Free.

  This editor is a replacement/alternative for your native editor and
  it's invoked in the same way. It will be started whenever you try to
  edit or create a contact (and you select "Contact Editor Free")

When you use the regular Contacts app to create a new contact, it gives you the alternative option to use this application, which gives you the option to add either a gmail.com or outlook.com contact essentially overcoming android's limitation to add outlook contacts.

One user mentions a minor drawback:

  The only drawback to the Contact Editor Free solution that I've found
  is that I can't delete contacts from the outlook.com account this way.
  That's a pretty minor problem, however, since deleting contacts is
  something I do a lot less often than adding them.

Acknowledgements

How to add contacts to my outlook.com account