Chrome browser closed after receving a call I started an online transaction on Chrome (under Jelly Bean). In between, I had a phone call and the browser closed automatically. It disconnected from the web sites, and I had to start the transaction again.

Is there any way to keep Chrome running in background and keep all the connections open?

This is really a big problem for now. I fear starting any online transactions on my Jelly Bean device.

Is there any other browser which will keep the connections open?

Google must have come across this issue.

This is probably because of the amount of RAM on the device you are using. It sounds like the system gave the RAM that was being used by Chrome to the phone app. It saw that Chrome was no longer the active app and the phone app was requesting more RAM so in order to free up the RAM it had to close Chrome.

If Chrome was using a majority of the system RAM, and a new app requested access to the RAM, the system needed to free some up.

Since you did not specify what device you have though, this is really only a guess.


4.4.2 SDCard directories - help have Samsung s5, rooted.
I need your help to understand something..
Here is my directories related to storage SDCard

/sdcard -> /storage/emulated/legacy (SymLink)
/mnt/extSdCard -> /storage/extSdCard (Symlink)
/mnt/sdcard -> /storage/emulated/legacy (Symlink)
/storage/sdcard0 -> /storage/emulated/legacy (Symlink)
/storage/extSdCard mounted to the SD-Card
/storage/emulated/legacy mounted to the internal storage
/storage/emulated/0 mounted to the internal storage

So only /storage/extSdCard is the real sdcard.

It is not seems to be right.. how can Applications know where to write to?
For example, Whatsup cannot find the SD for some reason - I believe it related to this issue..

what do you think of it?

Applications don't have to care where the storage is. They just ask the Android system to give them a "pointer" to it. There are specific API calls for this, like getExternalStorageDirectory(). For details, you might check on our sister site: Get the right external storage from Android devices.


Download some video from the Facebook application Is it possible to download some video from the Facebook application?

You can use the site SaveVideo, insert the link of the video and download the video


Disabled screen lock - don't want to clear credentials I am using Samsung Galaxy Note 3 N9005. In order to use the university WiFi network I need to install an authority certificate (WiFi credential). To do so, the device made me installing a look screen (Pin or Password), any other lock screen choice is not available and grayed with a message "Disabled by administrator, encryption policy or credential storage"

I need to change/cancel the annoying pin lock screen, without needing to clear all credentials in order to keep using the university WiFi.

what can I do about this?

The certificate is stored in Credential Storage, which requires a pin/password to be set for use in encrypting/decrypting the certificate. The nature of the problem is documented here on code.google.com and you can star the issue, so hopefully Google will address it in future.


Why does Dalvik virtual machine need to run in every process? JVM and DVM both provide virtual environment.
JVM doesn't need to be in every process.
why DVM need to be in every process?
Thanks.

Neither DVM nor JVM runs on every processes. Natively compiled applications (e.g. the ones you see inside Terminal Emulator) are not associated with any DVM or JVM.

And even when you only count Android "apk" applications, the overhead of having JVM/DVM on (nearly) every process' address space is minimal since they are a shared dynamic library so Linux will smartly load them once in a copy-on-write buffer for the whole OS.


What is the "Launcher" application and why are there alternative apps? Several questions have mentioned launcher.  What is it responsible for, and what kinds of features do the alternative apps in the Market provide that the basic android launcher doesn't?

Launcher is a replacement for the Home application (the app that your phone switches to when you press the Home button).  It is basically the application that lets you switch screens, launch apps, view widgets, etc.  Other apps offer more home screens than the default, or different toolbars at the bottom of the screen offering different ways to quickly launch applications.  These were very popular with the initial Moto Droid since it was basically the stock Android 2.0 OS which only had 3 home screens.  With Android 2.2 and the custom interfaces that handset manufacturers add on, the usefulness of these launcher apps may not be so obvious or necessary.


Repair SD card removed from phone without unmounting? I have a Xiaomi phone and I'm using a microSD card to store photos and other data. I wanted to copy photos to PC so, with the phone turned on I just removed the sd card from the phone.
Putting the card into PC doesn't work, it asks me to format it and putting it back on the phone it seems it's not recognized and when I click 'install SD' it just gives me an error.
I ran Easeus Data recovery and all data seems to kinda be there so it probably just needs to run like a 'chkdsk' for android SD cards :)
How can I repair this card so I can read the files normally on Windows and/or works again in Android without formatting and losing data?

tesdisk can probably also fix this (it detects the partition also) but I ended up using DiskGenius to fix the partition table and save it, all data come up and it's working 100%. Easeus Partition Magic wasn't able to recover the partition in case anyone gets into the same trouble.
On DiskGenius:

First insert your SD card into your PC and run DiskGenius;
Click on Partition Recovery, Whole Disk and start the scan, it can take a few minutes to run;
While scanning, select Reserve for all partitions that appear;
Hopefully DiskGenius can find your missing partition that will appear in Green on the left Tree menu under your SD card;
If you are happy with the partitions found, just hit Save All and changes will be saved to the SD card

I was able to follow these steps and recover 100% functionality of the SD Card without formatting or losing any data. Be aware that DiskGenius is a paid app. I can guess the free testdisk can also achieve this but I was afraid to do it with the more 'manual' steps required by testdisk.


How can i turn off charging when my phone connected to my computer? I have Android device Samsung S4.

Is that possible to turn off Battery Charging when my phone connected to my Computer via USB Cable.

Any ways to turn off or disable it from settings?

Why would you want to do so? I don't think it's possible, at least on an unrooted phone. You can refer to the below discussions, they might come handy:

https://superuser.com/questions/429097/how-to-disable-usb-charging-of-external-devices-in-windows-7
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/15993635/how-to-stop-the-phone-from-charging-via-usb-programmatically
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=787641


Dual SIM device : How to configure data usage on per app basis (Rooted device) My Moto X Play (6.0.1, rooted, Xposed installed ) has dual SIM options, which I usually don't use. Recently, I had a need to use two SIMs, borrowed one with generous data allowance and second (personal ) SIM which was halfway to hitting the data cap.

My need was to configure data usage on a per app basis so that :

I don't exhaust data on my personal SIM while being able to use mobile number linked accounts like WhatsApp, Uber, banking accounts etc.
For all other apps , use the data from borrowed SIM

I couldn't find an app  to do this, as is evident from this similar question, which has no responses yet -Is there a way on a DUAL SIM Android phone to configure on a per-app basis, which app uses which sim card to access internet?

How do I configure SIM data usage on per app basis ?

(This is a self answered question to share one way of doing it. You are welcome to post alternate solutions )

Requires Rooted Device, Xposed framework installed,  latest version of GravityBox Xposed module and an automation app - I use Macrodroid

Create a macro in Macrodroid

Trigger:

Application Launched → select from the drop down list, all apps you want to use on SIM card linked to banking, WhatsApp, Uber etc (5 apps in example below )
Application Launched → select from the drop down list, all apps you want to use on second SIM card (16 apps in example below )

( Make sure that apps don't appear on both lists !)

Actions:

If → +  → Trigger Fired  →
Application Launched 5 apps
→
Tap End If and add this action - Launch Shortcut  → GravityBox actions  → SIM settings  →  SIM 1 for data

Repeat this for second set of apps and choose SIM 2 for data

Constraints:   Leave blank

Done !


Deleted Google Play Settings... Help! I was trying to make room on my cell which is a Huawei Ascend Y215 and I deleted Google Play Settings, Now my Google Play won't work. Please help!

Follow the instructions on this website to reinstall Google Play on your phone.

http://www.androidauthority.com/install-google-play-store-312812/


Buy Android phone, install Android from source, have Nexus S -like experience? I'm new to Android. I understand that although the Nexus S is built by Samsung that it has a stock standard Android image (whatever that means) and so it considered a "pure" Google phone. If I were to buy any Android phone and install a clean Android image from source (I assume this is possible... I heard it is fully open sourced) then do I effectively get a "pure" Google experience a la the Nexus S? Compared to the Nexus S, would I be lacking anything (software-wise)?

In short, you can't just install a stock image from the Google source on any phone because to produce an image, you need all the drivers for the individual phone's hardware. If you can get hold of these, then it is possible to build a stock image but a lot of manufacturers don't release them.

For simpler solution (if you don't want a Nexus S or Nexus One) get a phone that can run Cyanogen and flash the Cyanogen image to the phone. This is pretty close to the pure Google experience, in that it doesn't have carrier or manufacturer modifications on it, but does have some Cyanogen extras included.


How to unbrick a non responsive Gio I downloaded ROM Manager today onto my Samsung Galaxy Gio, and after several attempts to back up my ROM in its current state I tried to reboot my phone into recovery mode through the app. It immediately died, and responds to nothing I do.

I've tried booting it various ways, yet it remains as dead as a battery-less phone (no, charging doesn't do anything, although my battery was low at the time). The phone has been quite stable up till now. I don't have a custom ROM, it is rooted, and everything else is backed up. Is there anything I can do that will work?

If you can't get the device to even turn on, then this will not really help...

From XDA post about unbricking this device:

Prepare ODIN with the firmware you want to flash (in my case was Gingerbread 2.3.4) and get it ready to go.
Remove battery, wait for a bit. Insert battery again.
Flash a recovery with your specific filesystem (EXT4 or RFS)-(If you have EXT4, download ext4 only, don't get ext4+rfs)
Enter recovery & Wipe | Format:

System
Data
Cache
Dalvik Cache

Have ODIN ready. Connect phone to PC.
Reboot to Download Mode

Hold Volume down + Power + Home button at the same time.

At this point Odin should have detected your Galaxy Gio (Yellow rectangle should appear).
Insert the Stock Rom or Custom Rom.
Click Start button in Odin and wait about 5 min.
Reboot and wait

The post has other options like using a tool called "one click unbrick" but I have never tried that tool.


When enabling Bluetooth, is there a way to prevent it from attempting to connect to the two most recently used devices? Device: LG Nexus 4 (16 GB)

Android version: 4.2.2

I connect my phone via Bluetooth (A2DP) to three devices on a daily basis. Since Android only tries connecting with the two most recent devices, I have to go into the Bluetooth settings and manually select the device I actually want to connect to.

Also, while the first two are attempting a connection, I'm unable to select the third device. I have to wait until those connections fail before it lets me manually choose the other.

Have any of you found any ways to get around this or automate it?

If you are using ICS or Jelly Bean, there are free apps called Bluetooth Auto Connect and Auto Bluetooth that will automatically connect to devices you specify. From the looks of it, it was designed because some devices don't auto connect to any Bluetooth devices (let alone two). It will likely work for your phone as well, if you are running Android 4.


Hide or autohide top bar Is it possible to hide or autohide the top bar which is still present on the top of Android screen? My version of Android is 2.2.

The top bar is distracting for me while reading. I'm using Aldiko, ezPDF Reader, Infinity for reading. Most distracting is the wifi icon which is changing when something happens with the connection.

And the top bar is using space on a small display which can be better utilized (e.g. in Teamviewer)

Some video players can hide the top bar (default Video player) and some can't (Act1 Video player - which I like more but don't use because of the top bar).

Thank you.

You can hide the top bar if you use a different launcher like @CustomiZer stated, but it will Only hide it when you are on the home screen. When you open apps, if they are not Full Screen apps, the top bar will still be present.

This is part of "core" android, and it is not something that can be changed, currently, via a setting or 3rd party application.


Side effects of Android CarrierConfig reporting a foreign network as ”not roaming” Android has a system app, CarrierConfig, which sets certain network parameters based on the carrier which supplied the currently inserted SIM card. Among others, the CarrierConfig app can tell Android that certain networks (identified by the MCC/MNC pair) should not be considered roaming even though the MCC/MNC differs from that on the SIM. (See this answer to a previous question of mine for details on its inner workings.)
I am wondering if this mechanism can be used for EU roaming. As of last year, EU carriers can no longer charge roaming fees for use on other EU networks, as long as the majority of usage is in the “home state” of the SIM card, or the subscriber can demonstrate some ties with that state (e.g. residence, work, study or family).
The idea would then be: for every EU carrier, insert a list of all EU MCCs into its list of non-roaming networks (omitting the MNC makes it a catch-all for every network with that MCC).
As I understand the mechanism, the effect would be that, with a SIM from an EU carrier, the phone would then assume to be on its home network. Roaming restrictions (such as disabling mobile data) would then only apply outside the EU. For example, if I disabled data roaming, my phone would still have data connectivity in Austria, France and Italy but not in Switzerland.
I suggested this to the LineageOS folks the other day and was told this was not going to happen, as in their opinion EU roaming is still roaming and such a rule would break it. Unfortunately they did not elaborate on that, so I don’t know if there’s some undesirable side effect I’m missing.
The only side effect of the “EU-to-EU = not roaming” ruleset that I can see is that the user can no longer make settings à la “use data services on network 232-07 only, but not on other networks even in the EU”. Whether this constitutes a relevant use case is debatable.
Is there anything else I have missed (i.e. functionality this change will break)?

I can not add a comment in your question because I have not the neccesary score to do it. So, the only way is doing a new answer
As I explain you in the other question you could add to any network, any other network of other country for that it do not behave like a roaming.
I am going to explain my point of view about the problem to develop this feature. It is true that although roaming in europe is free depends on some factors as you said, for example:

As of last year, EU carriers can no longer charge roaming fees for use on other EU networks, as long as the majority of usage is in the “home state” of the SIM card, or the subscriber can demonstrate some ties with that state (e.g. residence, work, study or family).

If LineageOs develop this feature and for example you have a French SIM and you live in Italy, there will come a time when the French operator will start charging a plus for the roaming.
And it could be a problem, because if the user have not activated data roaming, the user won't know that the operator could do that.
The user need to know that it is possible that the roaming may produce an extra cost on your bill.
It is possible that you has a French SIM because you are french, and you live in Italy because your work is in Italy, and you could think, "Ok, the European single market should allow me to use the same SIM in different countries at no cost" and that was the original idea of the end of roaming.
But some operators (the big carriers) complained that people could buy SIMs in countries with cheaper rates to use them in countries with higher rates.
So, summarizing, I think that it is possible the feature that you want (technically talking) but it is not recommended.


How to have a clipboard functionality for multiple copy-pasting? I want to know if there are slots of option in copying:

copy1 copy2

then paste1 paste2

I love surfing many websites but need to login on them. I'm tired of typing every time my email address and password.

Because there is email & password there must be  two or more slots:

for the copy-pasting documents
slot for email
for password
for second email account
for 2nd extra password

but the password must contain 4pin no. to paste

e.g:

save as copypaste 1?
save as copypaste 2?
save as copypaste 3?
save as copypaste 4?
save as link1 --add website link & title
save as link 2
add another slot

The category of app you are looking for is called Clipboard Manager.
Well, I have been using the app called Clipboard Everywhere which keeps a history of clipboard items and can be used very easily to recall the items copied before the last copied item.

Alternatively, you can use Clipper

I recommend Clipboard Everywhere as it consumes less ram.
Best of luck.


Do devices with a fingerprint scanner secure access to the bootloader/recovery Pretty simple question but as I have never owned a device with a fingerprint scanner... basically I was wondering:

If you secure your device with your fingerprint - is it possible to access the bootloader or recovery without it?

I have tried searching but did not come up with any results answering my question. I'm asking because I thought it would be kind of clever to secure the bootloader and the recovery. If your device gets stolen / you loose it, then the thief/finder could not flash a fresh rom/firmware onto your device making the device useless for him.

If the bootloader and the recovery can't be secured like this - do you know why?

Thanks for your feedback!

In answer to your first question, I'd say yes. If there was a serious error with the fingerprint sensor hardware or a glitch with the software, you'd need to somehow recover your device. And if something isn't working, then where are you left?

And in answer to the second question - the fingerprint software is pretty high-level and out of fastboot's (the general Android bootloader. Samsung use another one, called Odin) control really, however I guess it could be implemented if it's necessary. However, it would also be unnecessarily complicated to implement this in the bootloader, and would require quite a lot of communication between both fastboot and the Android system whenever the device gets turned on to make sure both software layers use the same fingerprints, etc.

I do see your point with protecting recovery with a fingerprint - TWRP is Linux based and so could theoretically support it, but then someone could simply overwrite it with a stock recovery image.


Sound volume randomly changes I'll be listening to music or a podcast, when for no reason that I can tell, the sound will sometimes change. Fortunately, it seems to always go down, not get super loud and blow out my ears.

This happens in any and every audio program, so I don't think it's app specific.

I'm using Android 4.0.4 on a Samsung Galaxy S2. The phone is rooted.

How do I prevent the sound from making random adjustments?

Many others have had this problem and have overcome it by loading the Persist app from Google Play:

Audio management made easy - Persist puts you in complete control of your audio with a variety of volume controls and settings.

Presets
Volume Locker - Prevent volume changes
Silent and vibrate modes

...


Why can't my laptop detect my S3 phone? I want to upload pictures from my S3 to laptop.

There is no problem with my cable and laptop because my phone was able to charge when I connect my phone with the laptop. However, my laptop didn't detect any device when I connect my phone in with the cable. Hence, I am unable to upload images / add songs to my Samsung Galaxy S3.

Samsung has very bad connections on that line of phones (S3, N2) I know this because I have a Galaxy Note 2 and about 6 months ago it was doing the same thing, then eventually it stopped charging all together. I also have a friend with S3 and the exact same thing had happened, except it wouldn't charge(luckily his was still in warranty).

You need to check if it is being detected in another PC, if not, the connection is broken.If you really really need to be able to plug it into a PC, you will have to buy a replacement charger dock port.

Or you can use airdroid to wirelessly transfer files to an from your PC over a wireless network.


Nexus S - Can't copy to SD card When I connect my Nexus S to my computer I can see various files (media, LOST.DIR, DCIM...). If I copy a file here, I can't find it on the file manager (ASTRO) on my phone? How do I access these files on my phone?

Make sure you've disconnected from the computer and the phone has remounted the card, then navigate to /sdcard/ or /mnt/sdcard/.   (On other Samsung phones like the Galaxy S, you would go to /sdcard/external_sd/.)


Can a blocked contact see any number changes? I would like to ask, whether a blocked contact will receive an information,if I change my Viber phone number?
Is it possible to make the change by only informing a selected group of contacts or everyone I had previous communication with, will get the notification of me changing the number?

Thanks

They will not notice it unless they try to make contact with you after it is done. But things can become awkward if you are both a part of the same group chat. You won’t see their messages but they will see yours. And as a rule, if they are blocked, they won't see any changes of yours.


Disabling SwiftKey autocompletion on Asus Transformer Pad is there any way to disable completely the autocompletion (guess it's called SwiftKey) ?

Especially with the Gmail/Email apps the 'intelligent' autocompletion ends up slowing me down!

Many thanks in advance.

SwiftKey simply is a keyboard app. You might want to check in Settings→Language & Input→Keyboards and Input methods which keyboard is active/checked, and check its configuration. Many keyboard apps allow to turn off autocorrection: so does the default keyboard on my Wildfire (running CM 9.1/Android 4.0.4).

If your keyboard does not support this, you might want to check for an alternative. Hacker's Keyboard is a good choice here (I use it on my tablet), and for sure allows to turn off autocorrection (I use it this way). You still get the word recommendations and can tap words for auto-complete -- but nothing gets replaced anymore without your explicite consense.


"Internet not availabe" Error on Samsung Galaxy A3 (2016) I have a Samsung Galaxy A3 (2016) model.

My mobile Wi-Fi keeps connecting and disconnecting; showing that the internet isn't available, this usually happens when my roommate connects to the same Wi-Fi network, as he starts using Wi-Fi, my mobile starts disconnecting, he has a Samsung Galaxy A7(2016) model.

When he resets the mobile Wi-Fi setting, my wifi works normally for some days then agin this problem starts.

So, my question is described above, and your solutions are welcome.

If the same thing doesn't occur on public networks (i.e. School or coffee shop networks) then I would imagine it's a problem with your router.


Cannot boot Android-x86 on PC - Emergency remount I have a 10.1 inch notebook with Linux, but would like to dualboot with Android x86. The ISO file works perfectly in VirtualBox, VMware, and on Live USB. I have tried both install from the Install program and copying the .img files onto a partition, then adding the boot entry to /etc/grub.d/40_custom. I get the following displayed on my screen when I select the boot entry.

Detecting Android-x86... found at /dev/sda2
[     3.697517] sysrq: SysRq: Emergency remount R/0

Then it reboots to the GRUB menu.

How do I fix this, and boot Android-x86?

I have an HP-e010nr with an AMD A4 dual core@1.0Ghz, 2GB ram, and I am trying to start Android-x86_64 7.1 on a 32GB partition (no fake sdcard).

I have stored everything in the parition in an "Android" directory.

My boot code is:

set root = (hd0,2) #/dev/sda2 in the partition where Android-x86 is located
kernel /Android/kernel quiet root=/dev/ram0 androidboot.selinux=permissive buildvariant=userdebug SRC=/Android/
initrd /Android/initrd.img

(I ended up installing LineageOS x86 14.1 instead of Android x86, however, these instructions should still work for Android x86)

After trying to find my answer, I ended up removing my partition for Android-x86 and installing the LineageOS 14.1 .rpm. On Debian Linux (or Debian-based, like Ubuntu) install it with:

sudo alien -ci cm-x86_14.1.rpm

where cm-x86_14.1.rpm is your Android x86 package. If you are told alien is not installed, type sudo apt install alien before repeating.

After a while, it will convert into a .deb and then install. However, you will get the following messages:

/boot/grub/custom.cfg: No such file or directory
/boot/grub/custom.cfg: No such file or directory

In order to add the boot code that failed to be added, put the following in /etc/grub.d/40_custom:

menuentry "Android-x86 14.1-r2" {
    search --set=root --file /cm-x86-14.1-r2/kernel
    linux /cm-x86-14.1-r2/kernel quiet root=/dev/ram0 androidboot.selinux=permissive buildvariant=userdebug
    initrd /cm-x86-14.1-r2/initrd.img
}
menuentry "Android-x86 14.1-r2 (DEBUG mode)" {
    search --set=root --file /cm-x86-14.1-r2/kernel
    linux /cm-x86-14.1-r2/kernel root=/dev/ram0 androidboot.selinux=permissive buildvariant=userdebug DEBUG=2
    initrd /cm-x86-14.1-r2/initrd.img
}

(I got the boot code from the cm-x86 postinit script)

Replace cm-x86-14.1-r2 with the location of Android-x86 (for example: android-x86-7.1-r1), and replace the 14.1 in Android-x86 14.1-r2 with your Android version number (like 7.1 or 8.1).

Then, reboot and select Android-x86 14.1-r2 to boot Android.


How can I add a system service to Android? Me and another person are attempting to enable NFC on the Verizon Wear24. The watch itself has a PN548 NFC chip inside of it and was missing the kernel drivers as well as the NFC service.

We have found some older answers on SO.com about adding system services (which is what we need to do) but these were written in 2011-2013 (6 years ago as of writing this) and specific to Android 2. Most of the things these answers refer to don't exist on our ROM.

One issue is that we don't have any source to build from -- WearOS is closed source. We can only edit the existing ROM contents.

You need to build a system application if you want it to be permanent..  Their is other ways to implement the service, like using init.d and some shell commands to be run at each boot ..

However the easiest method would be to build a simple Auto Start application that starts the service.

I found this answer on SO about building an Auto Start application that also starts a new service...

  Answer on SO

It's fairly easy to build... Once you've built the application, try to install it in the system/app folder and see if everything works... You may have a locked system and can not modify the system apps...

So you will need to use a command list that is run on each boot,... Init.d script should do that.


Xiaomi Mi Unlock "Not connected to the phone" I am going insane here and I need help now.

I am trying to unlock my Xiaomi Mi Note 4's bootloader since almost 2 weeks, but I am stuck in this problem where the Mi Unlock tool can't recognize that my phone is connected.

Yes, I already have applied for and received permission from Xiaomi to unlock my device. Yes, I have waited for more than 4 days already.
The problem here is that the Mi Unlock tool simply can't see my device in bootloader mode. And it is connected, as I can see it in the Device Manager:

Mi Unlock simply can't see it:

If I click on the gear icon on the top, it says that the drivers aren't installed:

But if I click to check, it says they are installed:

Fastboot also sees the device:

What's going on here? I really need help.
I am on Windows 10 Professional 64-bits, all latest updates installed.

All help appreciated.

I had the same problem, figured it out eventually.

Just extract the Mi unlock tool files into a new folder directly in the C Drive.

Hope this helps.


VNC viewer shows only black screen, but sends events to droidVNC I am using a VNC server on my Android device (droidVNC it is called.)  I have tried using multiple VNC viewers and each one has the same results:

the viewer window is a black screen (sometimes a blue screen.)
clicking on the viewer correctly sends the events to the phone (I can see the screen change, etc.) but it is just blind clicking and pretty unusable.

I think that since this is the same problem on multiple different viewers (TightVNC Viewr, RealVNC Viewer) that it is a problem with droidVNC server.

Do you think the problem is actually with the VNC Viewer?

Has anybody experienced something like this before, and are there any tips you can give to make the droidVNC server run faster/better?

I think the problem is with droid VNC server. I have faced the same issue recently and the project seems to be abandoned (app last updated on June 11, 2012).

Then I tried different options under Settings->Display Access Method. The default option is auto-detect. I changed it to Framebuffer. Restarted the server and I could see the display on my viewer software. You should try all options till it works.

Tested on my ancient phone GT-S5360 running Android 2.3.5 (Better options available for recent android versions but they don't work on 2.3.5. So, I needed to find a solution by any means)


Had to reset my android tablet and my google play app appears on the home but when I tap it it says app not installed!! I can not  open google play store on tablet. app shows when tapped it says app not installed. I have tried going into settings and the app does not appear there to try to reinstaLL it. I have tried factory install also with no luck.

Firstly you’ll need a copy of the official Google Play Store apk file to install on your device. You can download this on your PC and move it over to your handset or download it directly onto your handset, in which case it will appear in your download folder. Either way is fine. You can download it from here.Get latest version from it.
You’ll need to enable the installation of external apk files before you can install the Play Store file. This is done by checking the “unknown sources” box in your devices settings, which will allow you to install apps from unvetted sources, in other words from outside of the Play Store. This option can usually be found under settings > security, but may also appear under settings > applications on certain devices. You can always uncheck the box again after installing the Play Store.
You go to path where you store Google Play Store APK adnd then tap on it to install it and you are done.


How do i transfer my game data from my old android to my new android phone I want to transfer my pvz heroes data to my new android i didnt have an account when i start playing pvz so I don't know what to do at first i did have one then the little icon stopped showing up.

If you created an account on Google Play Store then all of your data should be saved. Just log-in to your new account and then download PVZ. If that doesn't work then contact PVZ. I had to do the same thing with Clash of Clans and they sent me an email with a questionnaire about when and where I created my account, etc.


If I set my phone to "vibrate mode" and I then receive phone calls, can the vibration damage my device? Do you know if it's a good idea to set the vibration to be almost continuous on my phone when I receive calls?

I am asking this because I am worried about breaking the device.

I don't think continuous vibration while the phone is ringing can destroy a phone. It can drain battery though. I always set mine to vibrate, and it's still fine.

Some phones or custom ROMs let you adjust how strong the vibration is.


View live GPS tracking online during race Are there any apps that will allow me to share my current location in real time?

I'm doing a half ironman triathlon  and I want to run/bike with my phone
(GPS enabled) and share my progress in real time.  Is there any app that allows this? I'm thinking my friends/family could go to a particular website and see my progress on a map in real time.

I am aware of apps like endomondo, runkeeper, etc. but they only record GPS data.

If I enable location sharing in Latitude, that comes with Google Maps, all my friends with whom I have enabled sharing can see me either from their phone or logging in to Google Maps.


How do I view and manage the list of Intents that launch what apps in my phone? How do I unregister these apps? During the day I notice that many of my installed apps run themselves automatically. For example, FB all of a sudden asks my GPS data or reads my contact list, without me launching the FB app.  FB does not have a persistent notification icon, so I do not expect it to be a background process.  Yet using Intents, apps do what it wants when it wants.

I want to be able to know -- then stop or control -- what apps launch by themselves in my device. I hope that's a fair thing to ask.

If you are rooted, install Autorun Manager. Make sure you've Busybox installed and use Advanced Mode of Autorun Manager. It displays all receivers of an app as well as intents to which receivers are registered. From there, you can disable a receiver of an app, too. But, you'd need pro version if you want to disable more than two receivers.


Android X86 – No Mouse Cursor in Oracle VirtualBox I have recently installed AndroidX86 (android-x86_64-6.0-r1.iso) in VirtualBox 5.1.12 r112440 (Qt5.6.2) following these instructions.

But I see no mouse cursor on the screen. Do I need to set some special preference?

The solution is change Pointing Device type to PS/2 Mouse:

Make sure the VM is not running (powered off)
Click on the VM name in the list (e.g., Android X86)
Click Settings
Click on the System category
Make sure you’re on the Motherboard tab
Change Pointing Device to PS/2 Mouse

Detailed instructions are here: Android X86 – No Mouse Cursor in Oracle VirtualBox.


Is there a way to back up Amazon Market via Titanium Backup without 2Gb backup file size? I was trying to figure out what was taking to much space on my SD card, and found out the following file in Titanium Backup directory:

com.amazon.venezia-20120409-052438.tar.gz    - 2,020,523,913 bytes (2Gb)

This is obviously a backup of Amazon App Store.

I am guessing the size is so large because for some reason, the Amazon App Store app stores a copy of ALL the apps installed through Amazon App Store (including several very big games, thus 2G size).

Questions:

Is this theory correct? (the file being 2Gb tgz file, I'm somewhat hesitant to gunzip and untar it to investigate the internals).
If so, is the size due to storing a copy of installed .apk files in Amazon App Store itself, or the cache? (I suspect the former, since cache backup is turned off in my TitaniumBackup  preferences).
How can I back up just the Amazon App Store app and not all the apps downloaded from Amazon with it (since, obviously, those are backed up separately by Titanium Backup anyway)

Amazon app store downloads APK files to a folder that Titanium Backup considers external app data. You can regularly clean out this folder or choose one of the following:

Create a label, and add Amazon Appstore to it. Now go into settings and under Backup external app data choose.
"Enable for apps outside of choosen label" now pick the label that you added Amazon too.
Inside TB's settings under Backup external app data choose "Enable if it's smaller than choosen size" and enter a value that you're comfortable with.


Power saver or shutdown - which conserves charge better? If I want to leave my phone undisturbed for a few hours but want to conserve as much charge as possible, should I leave it shut down or in Android's power saver mode.

Also say I want to check the time every half an hour, would it be better to leave it in power saver, or shut down, and start the device every time I want to see the time (or make a short call at the most)?

P.S. I'm using Jellybean, but answers for other OSs can also be posted for reference.

Power save conserves better battery since rebooting or switching the device on typically drops battery charge by a minimum of 1 to 1.5 % , as you can test yourself. This is  hardware related and pretty much independent of OS version

Restarting the device twice an hour (to check time), puts the loss in the range of 2 to 3 % , if not more

Device running in power save doesn't consume that much power as you can verify yourself using battery monitoring apps on play store. In addition, you can reduce power drain by adopting measures mentioned here What is the best state to leave an Android device in?


Stop old posts from reappearing in Facebook News Feed I've recently been given an update of the Facebook App on Android and I have noticed that in my News Feed old posts are appearing. Some as old as a week or more. Obviously the point of a News Feed is to see new things, not old stuff.

How can I turn this off so that I only see new posts appear in the News Feed?

The problem is that Facebook wants to be smart and recommend posts for you.

If you just want the most recent posts you can press the button top left of the app (some stripes on top of each other), this will open the menu for you. To the right of the 'News Feed' button, there is a gear wheel button, click on it and choose 'Most Recent'.

PS: could be that this is not completely the same in older android versions, I'm talking about 4+


Sync contacts on android device with G+ information I have a contact on my phone that doesn't show anything but a phone number.  When I review that contact on my Gmail Contacts on the G+ section it shows their address, work address, phone, work phone, etc.

Is there a setting in Android or Gmail I need to adjust in order to get this to sync with my phone?

On Gmail, make sure that contact is associated with the google+ profile. On the top right corner of the contact page, you should see Connected Profiles and below it a Google+ link.

I the account isn't linked and it doesn't suggest it. Add the person's Google+ Profile address as a URL

You can find the Add option on the left side of the contact page, right below the basic info.

Another option is to go to Circles under Gmail Contacts itself, locate the contact you want and merge it with the other Contact (in case they are not 1 already)

Finally, on Android, Install Google+, if it isn't already installed, and on your Android Device under Google+ Settings make sure Keep contacts up to date is enabled. Then You may need to start merging contacts inside the Android contacts. (When I got mi phone, it did a poor job detecting and auto merging contacts)


When will my device get the Android 5.0 update (Lollipop)? Android 5.0 (Lollipop) was officially announced on October 15th, 2014.

You can review the high-level changes at the Android website and the announcement on the official Android blog.

Of course, not all devices will get this update right away and others won't get it at all. Each manufacturer and carrier often choose to add their custom modifications which tend to delay the official release.

When will each device get Android 5.0, either officially or unofficially, if ever?

See also:

When will my device get the Android 4.4 update (KitKat)?
When will my device get the Android 5.1 update (Lollipop)?
When will my device get the Android 6.0 update (Marshmallow)?

This community wiki will list all of the known and rumored dates for devices. If you have an update make sure to follow the format that's been established, and the following guidelines:

Keep devices in alphabetical order listing the manufacturer and model
Specify if the date is confirmed or rumored and link to the source
If there is an unofficial release, link to the site where it can be downloaded

Phones

HTC

Butterfly 2: "January-March" (confirmed)
Butterfly S: "March-May" (confirmed)
Desire 816: "March-April" (confirmed)
Desire EYE: "January-March" (confirmed)
One E8: "January-March" (confirmed)
One E8 Dual SIM: "January-March" (confirmed)
One Max: "March-May" (confirmed)
One Mini: "March-May" (confirmed) Not receiving update
One Mini 2: "March-April" (confirmed) Not receiving update
One M7: "within 90 days" (confirmed), "GPE is late November-December, Sense based devices is January-February" (confirmed)
One M7 Dual SIM: "January-March" (confirmed)
One M8: "within 90 days" (confirmed), "GPE is late November-December, Sense based devices is January-February" (confirmed)
One M8 Dual SIM: "January-March" (confirmed)

LG

G2: Will follow the G3 update (source)
G3: Q4 2014 (source, source2)
Nexus 4: 2014-11-14 (official, confirmed)
Nexus 5: 2014-11-12 (official, confirmed)

The Nexus 5 is also one of the two devices for which there is an official developer preview image

Motorola

Droid Maxx: Yes (official)
Droid Mini: Yes (official)
Droid Ultra: Yes (official)
Moto E: Yes (official)
Moto G (1st & 2nd gen): Yes (official)

2nd gen / unlocked: 2014-11-11 (confirmed)

Moto G with 4G LTE: Yes (official)
Moto X (1st & 2nd gen): Yes (official)

2nd gen

unlocked: 2014-11-11 (confirmed)
Verizon: 2014-11-25 (confirmed)

OnePlus

One: Yes (rumor)

Samsung

Galaxy Note 2: Never (confirmed)
Galaxy Note 4: Yes (source)

Exynos variant: 2015-02-11 (confirmed)

Galaxy S 3: Never (confirmed)
Galaxy S 4: Probably, early 2015 (rumor)
Galaxy S 5: December, 2014 (source)

Sony

Xperia Z Series: Yes (confirmed)
(Xperia Z, Xperia ZL, Xperia ZR, Xperia Z1, Xperia Z1S, Xperia Z Ultra, Xperia Z1 Compact, Xperia Z2, Xperia Z3, Xperia Z3v, Xperia Z3 Compact)

Tablets

Asus

Nexus 7 (2012 & 2013): "In the coming weeks" (official)

WiFi versions: 2014-11-12 (official, confirmed)
The Nexus 7 2013 Wi-Fi is also one of the two devices for which there is an official developer preview image

LG

G Pad 8.3

Google Play Edition: 2014-11-29 (confirmed)

Nvidia

Shield: 2014-11-18 (official)
Tegra Note 7 (aka Advent Vega Tegra Note 7, Xolo Play Tegra Note 7, eVGA Tegra Note 7, GAZER Tegra Note 7, Gigabyte Tegra Note 7, HP Slate 7 Extreme): Yes (confirmed)

Samsung

Nexus 10: 2014-11-12 (official, confirmed)

Sony

Xperia Z Tablet Series: Yes (confirmed)
(Xperia Tablet Z, Xperia Z2 Tablet, Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact)

Other


Almost all memory is used up by files symply classified as "Other". How do I fix it? Currently using an HTC Desire 510 with Android 4.4.3
It has a total of roughly 3.8 GB interal storage (not counting application storage). But about 3GB are occupied by what the phone considers "Other files", not letting me see which files those are.

When I connected to a PC through USB I did find a file named ".thumbdata" in DCIM/.thumbnails weighting over 2GB, which I immediately deleted. The empty space in my phone remained unchanged, so I restarted it a couple of times. The file reappeared, now weighting just 30MB, but the source of those used up 2GB is nowhere to be found. What can I do?

.thumbdata is nothing but the thumbnails of the images in your gallery. They are cached into the .thumbdata file.

Other than that, most of the space will be occupied by Apps installed in your phone.

Try clearing the cache of every app that you use and uninstall the apps that you don't need.

Try using ES File Explorer to analyse the files in your phone and get a detailed view of large files, duplicate files, junk files, etc.


Where are drafts saved in gmail android app? I wrote an email in gmail android app and saved as draft. Then I accidentally pressed send, although I have no connection (roaming). The gmail android app annoyingly doesn't allow the message to copy anymore. Now I need to access this message. Is there a way to copy it? If not, where can I find it in the file system?

Menu -> Go to labels -> Drafts. It's really just a label.


Where to place a binary file to make it executable from all apks on device? I have a binary that I want to make executable by all Applications on my Android device, just like the commands in /system/bin (ls, etc.).

What is the best way of doing this? Does it have to be in the /system/bin folder and does the device have to be rooted?

I cannot fathom what you're trying to achieve by doing this but you must mark the binary permissions executable for all. You can do so by using any Terminal App from PlayStore. Download any of them, fire it up, type chmod +x your_file_location

Otherwise, you may use ES File Explorer app from PlayStore, place your binary wherever you want, go to its properties, and change the permissions by selecting all x boxes.

And, you need to have rooted device if you want to place your binary into any folder other than of SD-Card or Internal Storage.


Can every Android device be updated to the most recent Android version? I never dealt with Android devices before so I'm completely newbie at it, please comment if something is too simple.

Say I purchase Android Galaxy Player S WiFi 5.0, that has got Android Froyo 2.2 installed in it.

If there is a new version of Android released tomorrow or next month, will I be able to update it (like I will be able to update my iPod Touch 4 to iOS 5)?

No. Its up to the manufacturer to release new Android versions for their devices. Some devices will never get a new Android version. Only the devices from Google (Nexus One, Nexus S) will get the latest Android versions early and OTA. The others may get the new version, but it is the decision of the manufacturer.

Custom ROMs may provide a newer Android version, as the last official version that was released by the manufacturer. But this often only applies to popular devices.


Multiple time zones on Nexus 4 - Android 4.2.2 Is it possible to set two different time zones on nexus 4-android 4.2.2 version?

I want to set-up EST (Eastern Standard Time) & IST (Indian Standard Time)...

Thank you

Of course.

Open the clock app. On the bottom bar you'll see three icons, one for alarm ,one for place and one for menu. Click the middle one. Select the cities you want and those time will be added to the clock.


How to move application to SD card in samsung galaxy s duos How to move application to SD card in samsung galaxy s duos.

I have tried some application from Google Play but did not succeed.

Plz help me

According to our tag wiki, the Duos comes with Android 4.x -- which natively supports to move apps to SD:

Settings→Apps→Manage Apps, sroll to the app you want to move, tapp the "Move to SDCard" button.

If the button is grayed out, the app does not support being moved to SDCard. See Unable to move few Apps to SD Card for details on that.

Questions (and their answers) you might want to check for further details:

How to install APK files on SDCARD?
Other than portability, are there any other advantages (or disadvantages) to storing apps on external storage?
Can I force move to sd card applications that don't want to be moved there?

EDIT: Googling around revealed several technical reviews stating that app2sd is not working on the Duos. Only known working solutions include either rooting the device, or using the Android SDK, see e.g. How to move almost all Android apps to SD card (no root required): here a comment reports to have successfully accomplished the task using a terminal emulator instead of the SDK. Putting things together, a How-To could basically look like this:

install a terminal app from the playstore (e.g. Android Terminal Emulator)
start the app
enter pm set-install-location 2, followed by the Enter key (if that throws an error other than "permission denied", try pm setInstallLocation 2 instead. In case of a "permission denied", you would need to root the device)

To my knowledge, this would only set the default installation target to the SDCard, but not move any apps itself. The howto there further describes one could then move apps manually. I have not tried this (I don't want to move things to SD), and so cannot confirm anything -- but it might be worth a try.

And again, the comments there are not all clear. While one claimed success, another user writes:

  I can confirm this procedure cannot be done for Samsung S Duos.
  Even checked with Samsung Customer Care and they confirmed that Android 4.0x will not support movement of apps from the phone memory to External SD.

Same is, btw., claimed by LG support (something like "not our fault, blame Google"). But as other users say they can use app2sd fine on their 4.x devices, I cannot believe that it is ICS's fault, as the options are still shown fine even on my 4.1.x devices.


Tab 2 recovering data from hung device Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 stuck on logo screen during reboot. I did go through several threads on this and other sites, and pretty much all of them suggested a factory reset, and not a single one said it was possible to recover data later. (I beg your indulgence and patience.)

I did make the cardinal mistake of not backing up my data. I'm new to tablets, Android, everything.

Recovering some of my contacts, notes and photos is as important to me (if not more) as being able to use my device again.

Does it make any sense to try and wipe the cache only, and do a reboot?
OR
If I do a factory reset, I gather only /data is wiped. Is there a chance I can recover some files from /cache later?
Which one do I need to try (first)?

There is also a software called Android Data Recovery, which claims to have had success in post-reset data recovery. Any thoughts on this?

Firstly, data on your SD card will not be erased. Then there's a chance, that your contacts are already backed up on Google's servers, so you don't loose them either.

I don't know if the app will help. Harddrives don't delete anything, they just stop indexing the files and then rewrite the sector with new files, but (I'm not 100% sure) I don't think you can do the same with SD memory.


Incoming Call UI is not showing up When i get an incoming call, the ringer rings but the incoming call UI do not show up, instead the following notification is shown in the notification area:

.

So in order to answer the call i have to open the Phone app select the 'Return to call in progress' option, see the Screenshot:

Fixed: Cleared the storage and cache of the Phone app. Now it is working fine.

I cleared the storage and cache of the Phone app. Now it is working fine.


What is the differences between RR images ARM / A64 / ARM64 / system? When downloading Resurrection Remix GSI images, there are a lot of options to choose from, namely:

A64
ARM64
ARM
system

ARM64 is self-explanatory. ARM could probably 32-bit version for armv7 CPU. What is the other 2? I cannot find any explanation anywhere on their website.

Sorry that no one has answered this question. I'm answering this question so people may come across it like myself.

A64 is the short hand for arm32_64binder. It is basically 32bit for armv8 CPUs which are capable of 64bit. The software is 32bit with a 64bit binder for 64bit capable hardware. An example of a phone running an A64 firmware is the Galaxy A6 2018. It is running an Exynos 7870 that has support for 64bit but the software installed is 32bit.

"system" is not an arch it's just a name added to some GSIs for whatever reason.

Hope that answer your question, I tried to make it as simple as possible. If you are installing GSIs and you want to know what type of GSI to choose then install an app called "Treble Info" from the play store.


What's the difference between Wanam Xposed and Wanam Kit? Is there a difference between Wanam Kit and Wanam Xposed?

Wanam Kit is for AOSP roms, Wanam Xposed is for Touchwiz according to this video from XDA developers (official youtube channel)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U273PvWKrVs


problem installing Xprivacy : where is the install button? I try to install Xprivacy but I cannot find the install button.
When I click on the app logo on my phone, I get the below screen.

Clicking on check for root, gets me the new message "Device is rooted"
even if I am quite sure it is not.
Probably the missing check mark means that it is not rooted (a bit confusing).

I assume that I first need to root the phone

Correct ?

Your device need to be rooted for Xprivacy to work, be installed properly. Even before installing it, you must install Xposed framework which requires root.

From Xprivacy Github page:

  XPrivacy is built using the Xposed framework, which it uses to tap into a vast number of carefully selected Android functions.

  Root access is needed to install the Xposed framework.

The process is:

Root your device.
Install Xposed installer.
Install Xposed framework.
Install Xprivacy.


I am unable to see recent calls,dailed calls after installing 5.1 I am unable to see recent calls,dailed calls after installing 5.1.
Any idea why it is.Which default apps are responsible for this? I stopped few default apps like google news,music etc.

Regards,
Vijay

Issue resolved after i took backup and reset to factory settings. Even i got my contacts back.Thank god.
And even the version remain same as 5.1 only but everything fine. But i didnt find how to set to vibrate or silent in this.


Unable to confirm installation on program from unknown source I have a few programs I want to install that come from "Unknown sources" (The latest Humble Bundle to be precise).

When trying to install the application, I get the normal "Do you want to install this application?" followed by the list of permissions required.

At the bottom, I can either "Cancel" the install, or proceed by pressing "Install".

Unfortunately, in my case, the "Install" "button", is not a button at all. It's a completely inactive text, and no matter if I tap it multiple times in different locations or long press it, it reacts in any way at all. Cancel works fine.

I've tried disabling the setting allowing installation from unknown sources and re-enabling it, and I've tried restarting the phone. Neither helped.

I've tried several of the humble bundle applications, and the issue is the same with all of them. Since the confirmation dialogue is a part of Android, I assume the issue is unrelated to Humble Bundle.

Turns out this was caused by Twilight, which had an option that can fix the install issue.

With "Auto-pause in specified apps" ticket, and "APK Installer (button fix)", the problem goes away.


Can a device be tracked if bluetooth is enabled but visibility disabled? Is it possible to track a Bluetooth signal of Bluetooth enabled Android phone with disabled visiblity? Here, tracking refers to detecting a nearby device. As an application, if an attacker has many tracking devices all across the city (e.g. public transportation), they could always know when you pass these points.
I have heard of professional tracking devices, which are able to track/locate Bluetooth devices, even if their visibility is turned off.

By design, it's not supposed to be possible to actively get the address of a Bluetooth device (which is then used to identify the device for tracking purposes) when it's not in discoverable mode, as it won't respond to inquiries. However, if a device is actively communicating with another device, it will be transmitting information that can be used to track it passively. Exactly what information is available depends on which BT features the device is using. Later BT versions include security features that can make address detection, and thus tracking, harder, though these features are generally optional, so newer devices may still be as easy to track as older devices.

In older BT versions, part of the address, the LAP (Lower Address Part; assigned by the manufacturer and unique to the device) is broadcast in cleartext in each packet. Frequency hopping can make it hard to capture packets, but specialized receivers can counter this. Newer BT versions can generate (and periodically change) a random address instead of using the device's; this behavior is called LE Privacy1.

Another part of the address, the UAP (Upper Address Part; part of the manufacturer's ID assigned to the manufacturer), is used for various algorithms, such as error correction and inter-packet timing, and can be calculated2.

A device also sends its full address in cleartext when authenticating with another device. An attacker can try to capture this by disconnecting the devices (using spoofed packets with a specialized payload) and then listening for the reconnect.

Note all of these attacks require that a device is connected to some other device. If a device is undiscoverable and unpaired, it won't be transmitting and can't be made to transmit. Even then, some types of tracking are possible.

An app on your phone can use its greater access to leverage Bluetooth to track your location, not based on info from the phone's own data but on nearby BT devices. Google's Android location services3 gathers info on nearby BT beacons (even if not paired) and sends it to Google. Note that this is a different type of tracking than the other techniques allow.

Reference:

Understanding Bluetooth Security; M. Loveless; 2018-01-09
Discovering the Bluetooth UAP; M. Ossmann; 2014-06-10
Google can still use Bluetooth to track your Android phone when Bluetooth is turned off; D. Yanofsky; 2018-01-24
Hacking Bluetooth; E. Chai, B. Deardorff, C Wu; 2012-12-09


A friend gave me a backup he used for his Samsung Galaxy On5, How do I use these files to 'restore' my Samsung On5? boot.emmc.win
boot.emmc.win.md5
data.ext4.win
data.ext4.win.md5
data.info
recovery.log
system.ext4.win000
system.ext4.win000.md5
system.ext4.win001
system.ext4.win001.md5
system.info

So I'm using Arch linux, I'm familiar with flashing using the heimdall utility(currently using a rom for an On5 that isn't the same as my phone so I can't get audio/camera usage). Also I have TWRP installed. How do I use these files to restore my phone?

Boot in TWRP and hit Restore. It will show a list of backups, select one and you'll see a list with  System, Data, Boot. Make sure all the boxes are checked and swipe the bar to restore. The restore will take a few minutes, but when it’s finished, you can reboot your phone back into Android. If it asks you to root, be sure to tap “Do Not Install” if you don't wish to.

Flashing a zip file:

Tap on Install . browse to the location where you saved the file 2016-09-21_twrp_on5ltetmo_system_data.7z.
Now at the bottom of the screen, do a swipe on the Swipe to confirm flash option to begin flashing. Reboot the device when finished.


unable to boot into recovery mode I have unlocked bootloader of my moto g3 6.0.1 and have installed the twrp recovery too but unable to boot into recovery mode. every time I make an attempt to open the twrp it shows no command on my device. I have tried many tWRP files... but  can't complete the process.

To successfully flash the TWRP you must enter it at the first time boot after flashing. Otherwise it will be overwritten by the standard recovery and all your efforts will be wasted. Also check this question.

Only first time matters.


Black background on Trebuchet On my current phone (HTC Wildfire S), with a AOSPA (Paranoid Android) 4.45 ROM, I installed Trebuchet, because Launcher3 lacks features, and other customs lauchers takes a lot of battery, while my current battery is already going down fast.

Here you can see a screenshot of what it looks like:

The background is black.

But it isn't supposed to be black:

How can I show correctly my background?

Edit: Sometimes it show correctly on the bottom:

...
The APK I used was for the OnePlus One and had a MD5 of 2fd1a3e8f5a6ef44d1f14752b4caa5c9.
I installed another APK, coming from this ROM, and everything fixed itself (the MD5 was different: 3f465ccbfe8566479f863582671575c2)

The two APK had the same version number (1.0) and OnePlus One's was 1.97 MB while the working one was 1.9 MB o_0

Akward


how can I move my whatsapp account from an old phone to another without having the old phone to verify? I need big help please, my parents have taken my phone and there are some whatsapp chats they must not see, is there any way I can delete my whatsapp account or move it to a new number without having my sim? Or a way to delete the chats from elsewhere?
please hurry, I don't have much time

Delete your phone remotely with Google theft service.


How to Get More Stable Notifications in Xiaomi MI 2 Band when Pebble and Android 6? Known situation: How to force reset the Band? when using Pebble smartwatch too
Complications: Phone MI app cannot connect to the band, I do not get any notifications about my emails, ...

Phone: Samsung Galaxy S4
Phone OS: Cyanogenmod 13 (Temasek's unofficial Rom)
Activity band: Xiaomi MI Band 2 (unstable here)
Smart watch: Pebble Classic 1 (stable notifications here)
Pebble firmware: 3.12.2 (newest 9.8.2016)
Pebble hardware: V3R3

The Mi:2 is quite new, so it might not yet be mature. But you could try an alternative Android app for that: Gadgetbridge has Initial support for Mi Band 2 and always welcomes testers. I'm using it with my Pebble Time Steel and am really satisfied. If you're willing to give it a try, you can install the app from F-Droid.

A few things to note on Gadgetbridge:

GB is privacy focused. Thus it e.g. doesn't request the Internet permission (and probably never will), which means that watch apps/faces requiring that won't be able to do the corresponding jobs unless they come with a companion app. However, there are plans for an internet enabled addon which might add that feature for those who want it.
at the moment, multiple Gadgets cannot be connected to GB at the same time. Again, this is something being worked on.

Gadgetbridge is a quite active project, so don't give up if you miss something. Also, it has a pretty good Wiki you should make sure to check (and you're welcome to contribute to that: I've meanwhile covered most of the Pebble part – but not having a Mi I had to leave the gaps open in that section ;)


Install Arabic language on Android ICS I have Samsung Galaxy S2 running Android ICS. How can I install the Arabic language on my phone keyboard as it is not listed?

Step 1 :

Download and install Language Enabler.

  ' Need Root ACCESS '

Step 2 :

and, add Arabic language for Menu.
Then go to Language and Input from Settings.
Tap "Configure Input Methods."

Step 3 :

Uncheck the "Use System Language" check box. This unlocks the other active input methods for use.

Select the check boxes for the keyboards and/or voice input methods you wish to add. This adds them for use during text input, as long as you use the standard Android keyboard.

Step 4 :

then add Arabic Language, and enjoy.


Send an email setup as a file Is it possible to send a file that would contain settings for a phone to set up an email account such as set up a POP3 account on a phone.
So I could send it to a user on the network and then they just have to enter their credentials for that email account.
I have tried looking but mostly I've found people who cannot connect to their mail account.

You could send a text file that contains the relevant server details, and username and password, with instructions, but there is no file extension, which when clicked, automatically creates an email account.


insufficient storage error while updating installed apps Possible Duplicate:
  What can I do to manage my phone’s internal storage?

I recently purchased a new Android mobile (Samsung Galaxy Y duos), running on Android 2.3.6. It have 8 GB microSD as external memory.

I installed quite a few application and unfortunately now I'm facing memory issue. While updating Facebook app (around 13 MB) or installing any other app with 10mb+ memory requirement, I got error message Insufficient storage.

I checked available storage, which is as follow:

SD card
Total space: 7.39 GB
Available space: 6.90 GB

System storage
Available space: 22.47 MB

There is lot of space on SD Card but yes system space is low. What is the efficient tricks/best practices to make sure system utilize more SD Card storage and less system storage so that I can install few more apps.

Is there any way to shift few installed apps from system storage to SD Card storage, un-installing and installing is also acceptable for few apps.

Why?

You said: System storage Available space: 22.47 MB And Facebook app size is around 13MB. So why doesn't it update? It's because NOT ALL of the system storage is available for your Apps. Some space is reserved by Android. So unfortunately, you can't install Apps in that space.

About the space in SD card,

a. Facebook App is phone memory only app (Annoying!)

b. Mostly, your apps will be first downloaded to phone memory and then you can move them to SD card. So even if the app is movable to SD card, you will need phone memory to first install it!

Solution:

Now the solutions. Try these steps:

1) Move all apps (that can be moved) to SD card. You can do it from Settings or use App2SD for the same.

2) Clear cache. Again I would suggest to use App2SD for the same. This should free up good amount of space.

3) Uninstall apps that you don't need anymore.

Another suggestion I have is to install a custom ROM that takes less space on your phone.


Clearing user data for Google Play Services I am using Samsung Galaxy On7, Android 6.0.1.

My phone internal memory is quite small, 8GB. Moreover, apps like MS Word and Excel, which can be moved to sd card, come inbuilt, as a result of which I cannot move them to sd card. So, I clear user data for apps as much as possible, so that space can be freed up.

Now, I see that Google Play Services is using up 68MB of data. I want to clear this data, but as this is one of the basic apps on which the phone runs, I want to know what might be the ill consequences of clearing this data. Will apps no longer run or I'll face grave troubles if I clear this user data?

From experience ;
You won't face any grave troubles or troubles for that matter -worst case being you may be required to log in again into Google accounts. But this isn't going to fix your storage problem as it gets recreated
But don't delete Google Services Framework data. Your Google based apps will stop working and you may need to install apps all over again or do a factory reset / flash  ROM again ( this was the option I chose when things turned troublesome )
Thanks to Izzy for additional inputs on Google Services Framework

Google engineer explains why you shouldn’t clear Google Services Framework data | TalkAndroid.com. That would essentially reset the ANDROID_ID assigned to the device, so a lot of apps will feel like "factory reset". Especially those using GCM might behave strangely then (need to re-register with the corresponding servers as the ID changed)
ANDROID_ID is set on first start and usually lives until you do a factory-reset; details can be found in my (Izzy's) article Android Identifiers: How Android devices and their users are identified.


Recover wiped NANdroid backup - is it possible? Before wiping after a long time I moved the TWRP folder on my PC. I realized only later that the backup was an older - a lot older - one, because now it seems the backups are hidden in the normal USB Storage mode.
Is it possible to recover the most recent, but wiped, NANDroid backups, or at least part of the data pre-wipe?

Thanks for any answer.

The possibilities for this will definitely vary depending upon the phone model as Android phones differ in hardware and what is affected when the phone is wiped/formatted/overwritten. If the phone is rooted, and/or if a new ROM was flashed to the phone, that will make things yet more uncertain. If it is a Samsung, older model Motorola or older model HTC, there might be a chance of recovery. It is less likely with LGs due to hardware. The only way to try and recover the pre-existing data is to have a tool to be able to image the phone's entire memory and then scan it. Cellebrite offers a tool that can do such imaging but it's quite expensive so you'd be better off contacting a data recovery company with strong mobile device capabilities. Many offer free evaluations so you can hear back if they think it's recoverable and how much it would cost before anything else.

Bottom line is that yes, from the little information here I can say there is a chance it's possible, but from your description it may be slim. That's as far as I can guess without actually having it looked at by one of our engineers.

It sounds like a tough situation so good luck!


My Google Pixel 2's touch screen suddenly quit working--how can I fix it? My Google Pixel 2's touch screen suddenly stopped working. The screen itself works fine and shows everything perfectly, but the touch sensor is not working anywhere on the phone screen! It cannot detect my touch gestures. I was actively using my phone and noticed the battery was at 1%, so I quickly plugged it in. I was too late, however. As I plugged it in, it started to turning off due to low battery, and it did an automatic soft (proper) shutdown. With it now plugged in and charging, I turned it right back on and attempted to type my unlock password. No luck. The touch screen wouldn't respond!
I held down the power button for like 10 seconds or so until it automatically did a reboot and I saw the "Google" name in color on the screen again, indicating it was turning back on. The touch screen was still totally unresponsive. I did this about 9 or 10 more times over the next 45 minutes--each time unresponsive.
How can I make the touchscreen work again?

I got it to work again!
What DID work for me: press down on the screen with both thumbs to ensure the screen connector (circled in yellow below) is in firmly, and the capacitive touch grounding strip (circled in cyan below) is in good contact with the phone's ground plane.
I am a DIY kind of person. I replaced my battery and screen myself a few months ago, following these battery replacement instructions, and these screen replacement instructions.
When I was done, my phone worked perfectly with zero problems until today. After many hard phone reboots by holding down the power button, with no success to get my touch screen working again, I remembered this image:

...from this tutorial. This is what the phone looks like just underneath the screen and touch panel under the screen. Notice the connector I circled yellow in the image above, and the rectangular grounding strip I circled in cyan underneath it. The yellow-circled item is the connector for the screen and touch sensor to connect to the phone, and the cyan-circled one is the grounding pad for the capacitive touch sensor. The connector has a plate/cover on top of it (shown here) which screws down to hold the connector in place, so it is unlikely to move or lose contact, but perhaps may. The cyan-circled grounding pad is likely very critical to the phone's touch sensor operation, since personal electronics experience making capacitive touch sensors work with Arduinos (ex: see the touch lamp video at the top of my website article here) teaches me that capacitive touch is very sensitive to grounding issues.
I thought maybe pressing on that connector and grounding pad would help (truth be told: I actually was just thinking about the connector, and had forgotten about the grounding pad until after I had done this). So, I pressed firmly but carefully down on the top of the screen near that connector, and then near that grounding pad. I then repeated this process, pressing with both thumbs, moving down the screen lower and lower from on top of that connector and down, until I reached about 1 inch from the bottom of the phone. I couldn't remember where the connector was exactly at the time, so I pressed in these several places, with both thumbs at once. Then, I tried the phone again. Voilà! Magically it worked! Touch sensor seems fine now. It must have just re-seated that connector better is all, or: even more likely: regrounded the metallic strip from the capacitive touch sensor to that grounding pad circled in cyan/bluish. I hypothesize that the adhesive-attached grounding strip connected to that pad had come loose, so that the instant I touched my charge cable to the phone to charge it, the electrical potential of the phone's ground got altered (charged or discharged) by the charge cable's ground, causing the capacitive touch to quit working. Re-grounding the capacitive touch grounding cable to that ground pad underneath the screen must have fixed the capacitive touch sensing system (I think)!
If this doesn't last long-term, I'll buy this replacement screen again for $40 (same one I bought before and have on the phone now) and replace it again (note: I used this iFixit toolkit and this iFixit iOpener heating pad--this heating pad is waaay safer and better than a heat gun!).
If this "pressing on the center of the screen trick", followed by another screen replacement, doesn't last, I'll upgrade to the latest brand new Google Pixel. But, I really hope to hold off for 2 more years or so to get the full life out of my current one (goal is to replace my phone only every 4 years).
Other notes (ex: the phone can be used withOUT the touch screen, using a standard keyboard and mouse)
1. Use the phone withOUT the touch screen by using a USB OTG adapter and standard computer mouse (and optionally: keyboard too)
Note: if you need to use the phone until you can replace it, I was able to plug in a standard mouse into the phone with an OTG (On The Go) USB adapter and continue to use it just fine, albeit it was a pain of course.
Here's some good OTG adapters that will work. You can plug in a standard USB hub into the USB port on the OTG adapter if you want to use both a computer keyboard and mouse at once. Once you plug in the mouse and begin moving it, a cursor will show up on your phone just like on a regular computer. I was able to type with the mouse too just by clicking on the visual keyboard in place of touching it. A keyboard, of course, would be better.

USB C OTG adapter with charging port AND USB plug, $12
Standard USB C OTG adapter, 3 pcs, $8
Or, if you have a micro USB OTG adapter already on-hand, you can convert it to USB C with one of these: micro USB to USB C adapter, 8 pcs, $7. This is what I did.

2. Try rebooting into "safe mode" too to see if the touch screen problem is somehow software-based
Once I had my mouse plugged into my phone so I could click around, I was able to reboot into safe mode to see if the problem might have been software-based and due to an interfering app or something.
Here's how I rebooted into safe mode, again, using my computer mouse and OTG adapter to click on the phone since the touch screen wasn't working:

Press and hold the power button until the power/reboot screen comes up.
Tap (click with the mouse) and hold the power off icon until it gives you a safe mode reboot option.
Choose the safe mode option and wait for the device to reboot.

Safe mode didn't fix the touch screen problem, making me think it was probably a hardware issue. That's when I found the "fix" above by pressing on the center of the phone screen to jostle the hardware and apparently re-seat the connector, or (more likely) re-ground the capacitive touch sensor to the phone's ground, or something.
Other References:

Once I figured this out, I also put it on my website here: https://gabrielstaples.com/google-pixel2-touchscreen/.


SIM card, saving space, contacts Does it take up less space to save contacts to my SIM card or device? My phone only has 8MB and I wanna do whatever saves more space.

The best practice is to store important contacts to SIM card so that even if you change phones for some reason the contacts remain with you.

Doing this you can distribute the amount of memory, taken up by contacts, between SIM and phone memory.


Do all android phones store videos with rotational metadata? Do all android phones store videos with rotational metadata?
For example, I just recorded a video on my 'phone', holding it in portrait, and using the front-facing camera (used the front facing camera so I can easily see what I am recording, with me on the same side of the 'phone' as what I am recording).
C:\blah>mediainfo VID_20210106_215520866.mp4
.....
Rotation                                 : 90°
....
C:\blah>

There's rotational metadata there so instructing video players to rotate it 90 degrees clockwise for it to be oriented the right way up.
I'd rather a phone that records it the right way without rotational metadata.. so I was wondering if it was phone specific or something to do with Android.
I thought the problem may be unique to my Moto G7 Power, as I asked somebody else that had the same 'phone' and they claimed that they didn't have that with theirs(though I doubt their claim).  Then I got another 'phone', an Oppo. And it too did the same thing.
I then ran into this webpage which suggests that it's actually an Android feature.
Do all Android phones place rotational metadata on videos they record with 'phone' in portrait position?
While I normally get that so eg if it were recording a person, then their feet on the right, their head on the left.(hence 90 degrees clockwise rotation required), funnily enough i've also had videos come out oriented 90 degrees the other way and so have rotational metadata of 270 degrees e.g. if it were recording me then my feet on the left my head on the right, requiring and having metadata instructing 270 degrees clockwise  / 90 degrees anti-clockwise rotation.

Videos recorded using mobile devices contain a lot of metadata.
One piece of such data is the rotation metadata.
This data is used by browsers such as Chrome and Safari and by video players like VLC and QuickTime to display the video the way it was shot: portrait or landscape.
The rotation metadata is stored as an integer, it represents degrees, and has 4 possible values: 0, 90, 180 and 270. Here are the values for each device orientation for both iOS and Android:


What percentage of screen power usage is healthy? Using GSam, the screen uses about 50% of power compared to apps. Is this normal/healthy?

Yes, this is completely normal especially on high-resolution devices.  It takes a lot of juice to produce all that light, switch colors, etc.  Activities like watching videos will exacerbate this.

The only times you will usually see the screen not use the most battery is if you have the screen off for a long time, or if you play a really intensive game.


Authenticator app is not working I'm choosing option to add MFA in the Google accounts, scanning barcode, secret is added. Name of the account in the Authenticator is correct. However, when I try to enter the generated code - Google says it's incorrect. The same on all attempts.
Ideas?

UPD I've tried syncing time from the Authenticator - still getting errors

UPD2 Can it be the reason that I previously had Authenticator installed on another phone with different email?

Have you tried the following (taken from Google Authenticator site:

  My Google Authenticator codes aren’t working (Android)

  This might be because the time on your Google Authenticator app is not
  synced correctly.

  To make sure that you have the correct time:

  Go to the main menu on the Google Authenticator app
  Click Settings
  Click Time correction for codes
  Click Sync now

  On the next screen, the app will confirm that the time has been synced, and you should now be able to use your verification codes to sign in. The sync will only affect the internal time of your Google Authenticator app, and will not change your device’s Date & Time settings.


Having an issue with my contacts on my Blackberry Priv I just got a Blackberry Priv, coming from a Blackberry Classic, both on AT&T. They imported my contacts from the old phone and they seemed to have moved onto my Google account. But for some reason the majority of my contacts don't have any information associated with them, just the names. When I go into my contacts list I see all the names, but most of them don't have any numbers. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to which came over with numbers and which didn't.

What is really weird is that when a contact that doesn't have a number associated with it texts/calls me I still see the correct name come up. For example, I don't have Kevin's number listed in my contacts, but when Kevin texts me it shows up as Kevin just fine. And even weirder yet, when I click on the "People and options" selection in the text thread it brings up a contact card with Kevin and his number.

Any idea's what the issue could be? How can I get my contacts with their numbers back?

Thanks for any help!

I had the same issue. The solution that worked for me was to open contacts and choose all contacts (top left 3 bars - Action Overflow brings up a menu where you can choose which list of contacts to use). My Priv was only using a subset of the contacts.


Can not answer phone after enabling Google Voice I Have a Sprint Google Nexus S.  Was working fine.  Enabled Google Voice - set up my account, options, etc.   All incoming calls require pressing "1" to answer.   This worked for a while.  Now, when a call comes in, I am pressing "1", but the call does not answer - it goes to voice mail.   Ideas?

ler

If you have not yet rebooted your device since this problem started, do that first, then try the following if that still doesn't correct the issue.

Log in to the Google Voice site and go to Settings -> Calls and turn off Call Screening.

Now see if a call will go through, you wont have to press "1" because you are no longer screening. If you do want call screening, Try to now turn the call screening back on.


Application manager for Android Is there an application manager that would easily

kill/close an application from memory
install applications
unstall applications

Platform: HTC Desire and Android 2.1.

If you are running Android 2.1 or 2.2 you do not want to use app killers. It actually hinders performance and could cause more problems because Android has built in app killing functionality into the OS.

No app currently exists that can do all three of those. You can get an app that can do the first one, there are lots of those but I wouldn't recommend any of them. Or you can get an app that can do those last two...

Native Marketplace
Uninstaller
AppBrain App Market
My Market
App Center - by AndroidPit


Latency spikes regularly spaced on a OnePlus5 phone, reproducible on both ATT & TMobile I'm seeing latency spikes consistently spaced. I'm using packetlosstest.com to check latency (also experiencing the issue with real-time apps). Normal latency is ~100ms, at regular intervals I experience latency spikes from 2-5x (200-500ms latency).
I have not noticed this problem before today, the most recent change is that I added a 2nd ATT SIM, so I now have two SIM cards (ATT & TMobile). I experience the same result on both networks. A restart of the phone made no difference.
Since I can reproduce the problem on two networks, the problem seems likely to originate on the phone. Is this familiar to anyone?
The results of the latency test are shown in the accompanying image.

Root cause identified: Having two sims in the phone causes the problem. When I removed the 2nd sim, no reboot even needed, the problem disappeared. Wow OnePlus, wow.


Bootloader frozen on Nexus 10 My Nexus 10s bootloader is stuck, it keeps saying "Downloading... Do not turn off target!!" and fastboot commands have no affect on it. I also can't use the volume rocker to boot into recovery or reboot the bootloader. If I try to boot it shows the Google logo and then the android boot-animation, which continues on indefinetly.

When this happend I was trying to flash the new system image onto it. I had already unlocked the bootloader without problems, but it may have been accidentaly disconected while running the flash-all script.

Can I restet my bootloader or flash android in a different way?

You need to hold Power until it shutsdown, then you need to hold Power and Volume - and + until you see the fastboot screen


How can I prevent my phone from vibrating when service is lost or re-acquired? I find it annoying when I'm in an area with poor service, that my phone vibrates every 15 seconds to tell me that service has been lost, or re-aquired.  How can I disable this vibration?

I have a Nexus 4 with CyanogenMod 10.1.0 (Android 4.2.2).

EDIT: As noted in the (so far) only answer, I can disable all vibrations.  I may resort to this, but this is not really what I'm looking for. I'd like to continue with vibrations for other notifications, if possible.

Check under settings > sound, there will be an option of vibrate on notification turn that off may be this is the possible solution.


launch application by name in android phone How can I launch some android application by name on android device? Like in Linux, I pressed alt+f2 and typed name of application. May be it is some alternate launcher.

Gesture Search will do something similar. It finds apps, contacts, bookmarks and music tracks.


legitimate version Android 2.3 available for developers? I have seen a bunch of posts online saying that you can download some hack of android 2.3 on your phone..are these safe to use?

or better yet, is there a legitimate version that I can download and use from the android dev site?

There are many custom ROMs that are perfectly legitimate. They are built by dedicated people who put a lot of effort into the work. I wouldn't disparage them by calling their work "hacks".  CyanogenMod is the most popular, but there are plenty more.

There is not an installable phone image available for you to download from the Android Dev site.  Those are emulator images only.


How to test multi-user feature of 4.2 JellyBean on Nexus 7 tablet emulator? I know multi-user functionality is available in Android 4.2 JellyBean:

I have gone through THIS and THIS.

But I want to test this feature on my emulator and not on the actual device.

My Questions:

Is it possible to test multi-user feature on an emulator?
If yes, how it can be?

The Android emulator doesn't currently support this, unfortunately. There is a configuration file in the build system that determines whether or not to enable the user accounts feature, and it is disabled in the emulator images distributed by Google. You can star this issue on the bug tracker in the meantime.

However there are two alternatives you can look at:

You can alter the configuration file and build a new emulator image from the AOSP source and use that in place of the system image that the AVD uses by default. The file in question is in /frameworks/base/core/res/res/values/config.xml within the Android source. There should be an option named config_multiuserMaximumUsers which needs to be set to a value greater than 1.
You can try the Jar of Beans emulator package. It has experimental support for multiple user accounts. Note, however, that this is an x86 emulator, not an ARM one.


ADB not finding device with Galaxy S8 and Windows 7 I'm trying to get my Galaxy S8 to work with unity for gear VR development but I cannot seem to get ADB to find the phone.

I've enabled USB debugging in development options and also have the latest version of Android Studio and the SDK, I've also installed the Android 7.0 package in Android Studio and the windows USB drivers from that, I've also reset both the phone and computer after one suggestion, one person even suggested updating the USB drivers for the phone in device manager on windows to the drivers(Android_winusb) in the SDK folder but it says it cannot find any relevant drivers, also have tried adb kill-server and adb start-server.

Nothing I do seems to help at all. Also I really don't want to have to root the phone as that voids any warranty but from everything I've read there's no need to do that in order to get this working.

I suggest you to connect your phone to your PC, and on your computar to go on Device Manager in control pannel and remove devices related to your smartphone.

Then, disconnect the smartphone from you PC.

Restart your PC and your phone.

Connect again your Phone to your PC.

Another try:
Simply disable USB Debugging, while connected to PC.
Re-enable It and connect to your PC.


Does Google publish search trends for the Android market? Does Google publish the searches on the Android market? Is there any way to see top searches or anything?

You can still get some trending information about android apps. For example  http://www.google.com/trends/?q=angry+birds


Android 5.1 : Cannot install, but I can Cancel I have a tablet named Samsung Galaxy Edge Max, I need to download and install Minecraft , and Install button doesn't works, while Cancel Button works in Android 5.1.

Do you have any screen dimming App running? if yes its probably that this app generates a overlay and send all presses through the overlay and the Install button is protected against such clicks. Or you didn't enable the Unknown Sources in your Settings


Locked out of a Samsung Galaxy S2 My phone was stolen recently, and I'm trying to use my wife's old S2 as a temporary replacement.
She had a password screenlock, and she can't remember what it was. When I put in my new SIM, the screenlock is still there. Is there a way to get around it?

This might work:

From your computer, open Play Store:Android Device Manager.
Log in from the same Google ID which you used to set up your phone.
Click on Install and select the locked phone. In few minutes, your Android Device Manager will be installed on your phone.
Now open Android Device Manager with your computer.
There will be a button named Lock. Click that and set up a custom password and finish by clicking Lock.
The screen lock will be replaced by the custom password you just set up.
Voila! Use the password and unlock your phone!


Defragmenting my Android Phone I just received an email from the vendor of a well known de-fragmentation software package suggesting I can make my phone go faster by plugging it into my PC and using the packages "consolidate free space option" on the drive that shows up from the phone.

What do people feel about this? Is this a good idea or are there risks?

Edit: I see they have blogged about it now: http://blog.raxco.com/2012/02/07/fix-your-slow-android-smartphone/

Defragging a normal Windows machine with a normal "spinning disk" hard disk drive rarely produces a noticeable speed improvement, certainly nothing like a lot of the 3rd party companies advertise, and even in edge cases where people are regularly creating and deleting extremely large (yet irregularly sized) files, you'll rarely notice any improvement from running it any more often than every 6 months or so. It's more of a psychological placebo benefit in most cases. SuperUser:Does Defragmenting really help?

Phones don't have spinning hard disks, they use a variety of flash memory, this has massively faster random read speeds than a disk that needs to rotate until the right piece of data is under the read head. Also the controller circuitry in flash memory arranges the data itself as the data is written, allowing it to "write-level" across all of the flash disk and avoid problem parts of memory. See these SuperUser questions on that topic for more info Do I need to run defrag on an SSD?, Is it bad to defragment a USB Flash Drive?

In addition from Honeycomb (Android 3.x) onwards, the Android OS by default doesn't give an attached PC full access to the internal file-system, instead of mounting as a USB drive it uses MTP to control how the PC can access the memory, and only the SD card is allowed to be mounted as a normal USB drive. As far as I'm aware there's no way for a PC to get enough access to the file-system to do a defrag over MTP.

Tl;dr the way that flash memory works means that a defrag actually does almost nothing, and may have a slight side-effect of slightly reducing the life-span of your phone's storage.


HTC One M8 GPE unable to run Android 5.0 or 5.1 Attempts to install Android 5.0 and 5.1 ROMs from various sources result in a device that doesn't boot properly. Among side effects:

it doesn't display the boot animation (just a static Android logo)
takes forever to boot
WiFi cannot be turned on

This is due to incorrect firmware, but the device is S-ON and installing any available RUU .zips fails with a signature check error.

The trick is to install the firmware-only RUUs rather than the full RUUs. While the full RUUs are tampered with and therefore won't pass signature checks on non-S-OFF devices, the firmware RUUs provided on http://www.graffixnyc.com/m8.php are authentic, and will install on S-ON devices.

Make sure you update in stages:

Install firmware 3.11.1700.5 (for Android 5.0.1) — look for file with MD5 a3e2bd4b51c0ceff46e52f521e9454be on the GraffixNYC page
Install firmware 4.04.1700.4 (for Android 5.1) — look for file with MD5 6ac5701060b4e15adb0cef7f13eddccd on the GraffixNYC page

If your device is unlocked (not S-OFF, just unlocked), you might need to temporarily relock it before you can install RUUs:

fastboot oem lock

Installing RUUs is done with:

fastboot oem rebootRUU
fastboot flash zip firmware.zip


Remove ransomware-like malware I downloaded android-6-marshmallow.apk from

  marshmallow-google(dot)com

(Warning, ransomware fake malware! Do not install!)

It was a fake application and I couldn't delete that because of the screen below, and I can't go pass through this screen.

How to remove it?

I will start this with the most funniest thing the malware developer did. The developer who created this malware with label Android 6.0 Marshmallow, version 6.0(6) and package name com.xtrlee.fiehan, didn't bother with an Activity or an overlay (was trendy) or with a lock screen (the latest trend as of now) either. They decided to employ a full screen Toast (you read it right). Here's what dumpsys window windows and dumpsys appops reported on Android 5.1 (tested on Android-x86).

That explains to me why the view was not constant but flickering.

Now, contrary to the permissions a typical ransomware would need, this malware comparatively didn't demand anything significant. The dangerous permissions it requested consist of listing out all the files available in your external storage (both internal and external SD card) and listing out device information, such as Android ID, IMEI and other information to uniquely identify your device.

The app is targeted at SDK version 21 (Android 5.0, not 5.1) and would work on Android 2.2 and above (the author must have planned to subdue the whole world). The user's data in my opinion would never be touched by this app as it didn't ask for the permission to write external storage.

Interesting components

As far as what I understood, the malware is definitely not a work of art. It has one main Activity which is responsible for showing the app's icon in app drawer. It also acts funnily. If you launch the app the very first time, the user would be shown a dialog to make it a device administrator. If you cancel the dialog, it would spawn again. However, if the user doesn't act under the next 10 seconds, the dialog is immediately dismissed and the main Activity is disabled.  Automatic disaster aversion, so cool.

This is how that dialog looks like:

The rest of the components are various receivers which helps in device administration and starting the app once boot process completes.

The solution

So, you made a series of terrible mistakes and you think your data is held as hostage. What do you do to save the data and get rid of this supposed update-cum-ransom? Follow any of the approaches noted below:

USB debugging already enabled and authorized

Using adb and root access, you can find the apk under /data/app/, remove it and reboot the device. You can also achieve this from a custom recovery as well. Alternatively, with adb alone, you can force-stop the app.

adb shell am force-stop com.xtrlee.fiehan

If the above command doesn't help, in Android 5.1.x, you can have appops deny the malware permission to show the toast.

adb shell appops set com.xtrlee.fiehan TOAST_WINDOW deny

Use this window of opportunity to go to Device administrator settings and deactivate the ransomware. Post that, you should go into application manager and uninstall that malware.

USB debugging not enabled or authorized

If your device doesn't have USB debugging enabled, your only hope seems to be to boot into safe-mode. Fortunately, the app doesn't obstruct the power menu (not at least in Android 4.3 and above) so you can long-press Power button → long press Power off → tap OK when asked to reboot into Safe mode. Once the device boots into safe mode,

you should open the security settings which usually comes down to Settings app → Security → Device administrators → deactivate the ransomware. If you're shown any dialog that the data would be wiped, ignore it. It's not going to happen anymore at this stage.
you should remove the app from application manager which is more or less the Settings app → Apps → All apps → tap the app's entry → Uninstall.
you should do a  reboot to boot the device into normal mode.

And that's how I removed that malware multiple times on this day.

Recommendation

If you're not a power user, do not venture into the unknown territory. This comes down to

not side loading any app;
keeping Unknown sources setting always disabled;
never granting Device administration privilege to any app (even to ones installed from Play Store) until you've certain the app is safe to use;
taking a minute the report the malicious page/site if encountered to your favorite web search engine. For Google, you can report here.
using your head before the fingers jump in.