Using old Android phones as multi channel dash cam Now a days the Android phones are having quite a good computing power and good optics. I have heard and used my daily driver Android phone as my dash cam.

I have also heard about dedicated dual channel dash cams which can record from two cameras (ideally one placed to record what is happening at car's front and another on rear and combine those to into one single video).

With few spare Android phones lying around I thought of building myself a dual channel dash cam purely using old Android phones.

The challenges I have:

The separate feeds from both phones should be merged to show side by side.
Can the phones be kept on and recording 24x7 even when the car is parked?

Advantages:

It also acts as a CCTV for my garage area recording all activities.
Android phones take considerable time to start up.  And in this mode the recording will be available continuously. Also the dash cam app need not be auto started during boot.

Disadvantages:

Not sure about its impact on battery life.
Not sure about its impact on phone's and camera's life.

Overlaying the latitude, longitude, speed, date and time information on video.
Retain videos for later use on tap of the screen.  Usually these kind of dash cam apps will run in loop erasing the previously recorded video so that it will not run out space. On tapping the screen during some moments to preserve it copies the current recording block as a new file so that it is available for future use. In front only dash cam scenario this works well.  How can i do this in front and back dash cam so that the rear dash cam also preserves on tapping the front cam?

Question:
Is there any solution that addresses this need? If not any partial solutions to the challenges?

I know this sounds like a good question for a project on Instructables, but this involves considerable Android software and power user's experience.  In case if this sounds a bit of out of topic, please let me know in comments.

Most of your requirements can be met by either a custom software or some apps on the Play Store.

May be not merging video. You will need to upload chunks of video periodically, be it hourly, daily or weekly, to some central location that knows about all devices. (Some server in the cloud? your home PC? May be you can set the save location of the apps to a OneDrive/Google Drive folder)

I don't think there's any harm to the camera on devices on atleast most devices. I've seen people use droids for home surveillance for a while.

Although you'll have to make sure the device isn't placed in direct sunlight and not exposed to extreme summer heat. Most devices can shut down automatically when the heat is more than it can handle, though it is mostly to prevent heat damage from an overloaded/misbehaving CPU, not the heat from the environment.

Battery Life

Main issue would be the battery life. Even when simply recording by using a charger from the car (usually 1A. May be 2.4A if you're really lucky to get one of those charger adapters.)

Your camera won't last more than a hour or two under it's own power. (Even the latest devices can only last 5-6 hours with screen on) You can may be attach a battery pack which uses solar panels to charge.

I don't know the effect on the battery when its connected to a constant power supply. Many new units can handle a good amount of abuse, but older ones may have issues. Although this isn't an issue for you as long as you have a way to constantly power the device.

Things may become a bit simpler if you only need to record when the car is running. This will reduce the battery issues significantly.

Due to the openness of the question, you may have better luck posting this on a discussion group/forum or something like Reddit.


how to use downloaded firmware from firmware Finder I have jsnL21 C432 4/64 version

I upgraded my phone by 3 button method from 8.2 to 9.0.1.158. Using Firmware Finder, I found a newer version of my firmware in 9.0.1.162 which has a lot of improvement and battery optimization. I want to flash it on my device. I downloaded the firmware but it has 2 files:

Update.zip 2.24GB
Update_full_jsn_l21_hw_eu.zip 643MB

I know I should extract update.app into dload folder but the problem is I have 2 zips and inside of each files has a separated Update.app. How to upgrade with these files?

Firmware Finder

You must use both files to update your device.
First use Update.zip which is the full firmware image, then Update_full_jsn_l21_hw_eu.zip which is the data file.


Why can't I have flash_image working? I've rooted my device (Omega T107) and i cannot install any recovery (tried cyanogenmod adn amon_ra)

When I use flash_image as root it never ends

Screen link:

Uhhh, you're going about this the wrong way.

You do not adb push the flash image onto the handset itself then adb shell into it and flash from there.

The two reasons being is that

From the adb shell it cannot "see" the recovery partition and does not know anything about it!
There is limited space within the /data mount point which could have contributed to the endless stalling...

The correct way to do this is from the PC side, put the handset into fast-boot mode or boot-loader mode, plug in the cable into handset and use the fastboot flash recovery recovery.img then reboot the handset via fastboot reboot, holding down the volume down key to get into recovery mode.

The windows equivalent of the fastboot command would be fastboot-windows IIRC.


How can two apps access the microphone simultaneously? If an app tries to access the microphone while the microphone is already being accessed, it fails.

How can I make two or more apps access the microphone at the same moment?

Simply you can't. because microphone just like camera is a hardware part of the phone and it's drivers connects to only one source, there is a way to make this work but it will be difficult, by using an app to transfer the audio came from microphone and stream it to another app.


Can I use my android as a wifi bridge via USB? I have a broadband connection to my computer, but no wireless router. I would like to know if I can connect my android as a wifi bridge; using my broadband connection instead of my mobile internet connection.

I am thinking of turning off mobile network, connecting my phone to my computer with a usb cable, selecting internet pass through, then turning on wifi hotspot.

Does this work, or will the phone default to the mobile internet connection instead?

I have icecream sandwich on an htc one x

Setup the phone as a modem. Still most android phones can be setup as a WiFi hotspot.

Following URLs may help you

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=658&Itemid=38
http://blogs.computerworld.com/smartphones/20726/android-wifi-hotspot


Plot twist: could a rooted device be actually safer than a non-rooted one? For almost 10 years, I have been using Linux based operating systems, so I know very well how giving root access to applications may be a security issue.

However, from my searches regarding Android, I have found the following information, relevant to this question:

If you root the device yourself, you generally install SuperSU too, which will ask you whether it should allow root access to applications when requested.
There are malware which can root a device from inside, and will use su without you ever knowing. I remember the first time I rooted a device, and it was an APK which would exploit security vulnerabilities.

So, by taking into consideration the two presented points, in the case that  a malware is successful in rooting my device, and I don't have SuperSU installed, wouldn't my system be more vulnerable, since now any application can request root access without my knowledge?

You misunderstand the logic of su binary.

Android doesn't have an su command like other Linux distros do. The su binaries we use on Android are added to the /system (for pre-6.0 versions) and they are customized to work with the GUI application (such as SuperSU)

So when you run an application that wants to run as root, it sends out a call to su binary. Binary checks the list generated by the GUI app to see if you have a preset choice for the application such as allow, deny or prompt. If you don't have a preset choice for that specific app then it checks your default choice and acts accordingly.

There isn't one universally accepted su binary. Any developer that develops apps like SuperSU or Superuser (GUI apps) crafts their own su binary in a way that it'll work with the GUI app.

So if a malware flashes its own su binary, it will be customized in a way that it won't ask or notify you in any way whether you are rooted before that or not.

You can check my other answers from here, here and here for extra information about root systematics of Android.


How can I get the fastboot command? I'm trying to root my KF 6.3 following this article.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1568340&page=1

Now I'm in Kindle Fire screen (fastboot mode) but fastboot is missing.

hieund@hieund:~/Downloads/KF/RestoreRootFor6.3$ fastboot -i 0x1949 flash bootloader u-boot.bin
fastboot: command not found

I am on Ubuntu 12.04 and have adb installed.

Fastboot is a binary and protocol used to communicate with Android devices in the early boot stage. It allows to change of the boot target and therefore is often used to install custom boot-loader (TWRP, clockworkmod, etc.) and ROMs.

The binary often comes with the Android SDK, for example on my linux system it is installed at /opt/android-sdk-update-manager/platform-tools/fastboot. There are also build instructions for fastboot on the official android page.


How to add a pin / marker in Google Maps? I met a new contact from another city and quickly wanted to add his contact address in maps (so that I can find it quickly when I drive down there).

Even after a lot of fiddlying, I couldn't find an easy way to simply add a "Pin" to the map. I could select places / businesses by long pressing on them and starring them. But I couldn't add my own places/pins/markers on the map.

I am using Google Maps on Asus Transformer with Honeycomb 3.2, with all updates installed.

Google Maps for Android allows storing places/locations by starring them, this should also work for every place on the map, not just places and businesses.

Long press on the point on the map you want to star
The Address will load, press it
In the upper right corner is a little gray star, select it

These stars are also synced on maps.google.com if you are logged in with your account. The star will be named after the nearest address, but it will be exactly at the point you selected.


Xperia X8 flashtool error: ERR_DYNAMIC="SIN header verification failed" this is the log from flashtool v0.6.8.0:

17/016/2013 20:16:47 - INFO - <- This level is successfully initialized
17/016/2013 20:16:47 - INFO - Flashtool Version 0.6.8.0 built on 2012-02-26 19:26:25
17/016/2013 20:16:47 - INFO - You can drag and drop ftf files here to start flashing them
17/016/2013 20:16:52 - INFO - Device disconnected
17/016/2013 20:16:55 - INFO - Selected E15_nAa-13_2.6.29.6-nAa-13.ftf
17/016/2013 20:16:55 - INFO - Preparing files for flashing
17/016/2013 20:16:55 - INFO - Please connect your device into flashmode.
17/017/2013 20:17:06 - INFO - Device connected in flash mode
17/017/2013 20:17:06 - INFO - Opening device for R/W
17/017/2013 20:17:07 - INFO - Reading device information
17/017/2013 20:17:07 - INFO - Phone ready for flashmode operations.
17/017/2013 20:17:07 - INFO - Start Flashing
17/017/2013 20:17:07 - INFO - Flashing loader
17/017/2013 20:17:07 - ERROR - ERR_SEVERITY="MAJOR";ERR_CLASS="SECURITY_CLASS";ER R_DYNAMIC="SIN header verification failed"
17/017/2013 20:17:07 - ERROR - Error flashing. Aborted
17/017/2013 20:17:07 - INFO - Device connected in flash mode
17/017/2013 20:17:08 - INFO - Device disconnected
17/017/2013 20:17:11 - INFO - Device connected in flash mode
17/017/2013 20:17:12 - INFO - Device disconnected

I get this from S1TOOL:

Welcome to S1 tool.

TO CONNECT NEXT PHONES
X10 Xperia,E10 Xperia Mini,E15 Xperia X8,U20 Xperia Mini Pro
LT15 Xperia ARC,MT15 Xperia NEO,R800 Xperia PLAY
PRESS AND HOLD "BACK" BUTTON...

PLEASE ATTACH TURNED OFF PHONE NOW

RUNNING S1_EROM VER "R8A029"
SOFTWARE AID: 0001
LOADER AID: 0001
FLASH ID: "0020/00BC"
LOADER VERSION: "R4A045"

MODEL (from GDFS): E15i
SOFTWARE VERSION: 1236-9291_2.1.1.A.0.6
CUSTOM VERSION: 1242-6780_R5B
FILESYSTEM VERSION: WORLD-1-2-5_2.0.1.A.0.47
SERIAL NO: BX902AVHMC

SEMC SIMLOCK CERTIFICATE
Elapsed:10 secs.

Why can't I flash my Xperia X8? How can I fix it?

FlashTool has been updated and is hovering near the 1.0 milestone, dated 5th June 2013, presumably its updated.

That aside, the .ftf image is either corrupted or the incorrect SIN header was accidentally linked in, intending for another Xperia device.


Can I play 1080p HD video on a phone which supports only 720p videos? I have a phone (Micromax A089) which supports any 720p HD video or movie. But when I try to play any 1080p video then the video runs well but there is no sound.

I am using the latest version of MX Player. I also tried many other players but still got the same result.

Is there any way to play a 1080p video in my phone with the help of an app?

Your sound problem is most likely caused by missing the codec needed to play the sound. Try VLC player app.


Will Samsung Pay still work on the Gear S3 if you root your Samsung phone? Specifically on a Note 5 5.1.1. Knox IS tripped, but I'm hoping I'll still be able to use Samsung pay on the watch since you install it as an applet using the gear app rather than the actual Samsung pay app. I've seen posts saying it works with Samsung pay on non-Samsung phones, but haven't yet found out if it will work in my case with a knox-tripped Samsung phone. Anyone have one that can confirm/deny?

Thank you.

In my specific case, yes it worked out perfectly! I was able to open Samsung pay thru the gear app and set everything up no problems. As a note, I did unroot via superSU before trying anything, but Knox is still broke of course and I haven't removed any other root artifacts. I also plan on restoring root tomorrow.


How to clear the unlock code off my htc desire an the factory reset isint working I have a htc desire I got from my sister an there is a 4 digit pin code on it an she doesn't know it. I tried all the take the battery out an stuff to do a factory reset but it doesn't fix the problem does anyone know how or what to do?

Back in the day, some of the phones would do one of two things if you entered the wrong pin/password too many times, It would either factory reset the phone or it would ask you to login with your google account. So lets hope for the second option. So if your sister remembers her login info, it would be worth a shot at the very least.


Some location based mobile sites not working in chrome I'm getting a message from some websites (m.yelp.com and nextbus.com) they do not have "permission to access your location". I have my location permission turned on for chrome in the app manager and set to "ask first" in the site settings tab of the chrome settings. These sites are not blocked in site settings.

The location works fine on some sites, ie maps.google.com. I get a message asking if I want to give my location information and once I approve it works.

Am i missing something, is there somewhere else I need to grant permission? Is anyone else seeing this?

I'm running marshmallow on an htc m8.

It seems that starting with the April release of chrome for android, only sites using https can request location information.

https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2016/04/geolocation-on-secure-contexts-only?hl=en


Syncing photos across Android devices What is the best way to ensure that the photo album is synced on a daily basis between my 2 Android devices (Samsung Galaxy S5 phone and Samsung tablet)?

The best way in my opinion is via Google Photos, since its allredy built into android.
https://support.google.com/photos/answer/6193313?co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid&hl=en


Turn off notifications of Google Maps requests for information Google Maps is requesting information of places I've visited. For example: Google Maps - Starbucks - Answer quick questions to help others. How can I turn this notification off? I just want to disable these notifications, not all notifications from Google Maps since I think it provides notifications during navigation as well.

Open Maps
Open the left panel (swipe left -> right)
Click on 'Settings'
Click on 'Notifications'
Click on 'Your contributions'
Toggle the 'Questions about places' setting (and/or any others)

The options i have available can be seen in this screenshot:

Click image for larger version


Galaxy S2 Philz Touch 5 Bootloop My girlfriend's phone is a Galaxy S2. The battery was crap and the phone started bootlooping. We've replaced the battery but it is still happening. I can get into recovery mode, but I don't know anything about Flashing Roms. We're trying to avoid Factory Reseting the phone, in order to save the data. I have tried wiping the various caches. Is there anything I can do? The recovery screen also has a Philz Touch 5 menu, I believe the phone is rooted (although honestly I know nothing about it, I never rooted my phone).

It's definitely rooted..
So it's better to completely wipe the phone..

But as you need your data, you can try and run it in safe mode.

As soon as you boot your phone , press down the volume down button, keep holding until you reach the lock screen. then press the safe mode button on bottom left..

http://www.tested.com/tech/android/3071-how-to-use-androids-safe-mode-to-save-a-phone-from-boot-loops/

In case you are flashing the best rom for Galaxy s2 is the Pound rom(Unsung Hero) or Cyanogenmod(popular)..


Accessibility Services missing I am using a Huawei tablet with Android 4.3 jellybean OS (EMUI), and for some reason I do not see any accessibility SERVICES (only SYSTEM is there) see below:

Screenshot (click image for larger variant)

  Typically under Settings → Accessibility there is SERVICES such as
  Talkback, or other applications with accessibility SERVICES etc).

Currently I utilise a workaround which uses Secure settings plugin together with Tasker to  switch accessibility SERVICES, but still the accessibility SERVICES won't appear under Accessibility in Settings, making it difficult for me to know whether the accessibility service for a certain app will be functional at a given time.

This short term fix works but is not very effective since I won't be sure if the required accessibility SERVICE will be turned on/off at the required moment or not.

Is there a way to make Accessibility SERVICES appear in Settings? I am comfortable any kind of system files modifications as long as it fixes the issue.

(Additional info: I have tried flashing different stock ROMs provided at manufacturer's website but it seems they all have the same problem)

I can't seem to find compatible custom ROMs that are free from this "bug" also the latest android version on the tablet is 4.3, nothing newer than this.

Since the bounty expired (went unawarded) and this question hasn't received an answer yet, I just decided to explain the short term workaround as it may help users facing a similar problem.

Why I needed this feature:

In order to use my productivity apps such as AutoInput, Greenify etc
To be able to monitor which applications whose accessibility settings are enabled at a given moment.
To be able to switch on or off from native interface with ease.

The pre requisites for this workaround include:

Secure settings plugin (in app add-ons)
Tasker ( 7 day free trial with option to purchase)
adb see Minimal ADB setup  and instructions

Workthrough;

First we need to grant Secure settings  these permissions:

    adb shell pm grant com.intangibleobject.securesettings.plugin android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS

    adb shell pm grant com.intangibleobject.securesettings.plugin android.permission.CHANGE_CONFIGURATION

Now we need to open Tasker to create a task for toggling the accessibility service of a certain application.
Go to Task tab and select "New Task + "
You can name this Task anything (e.g Enable AccServ).
Click "+" to add new Action
Code → Plugin → Secure Settings ,[Configuration: {System+ Actions → (select target App to enable(or disable) accessibility service e.g Autoinput:service.ServiceAccesibility}] Tap on "Save"
Tap back to exit from this task
Repeat the proceedure to disable (or enable) accessibility service of the target app (or create a new one).
Exit all the way back to home screen, and long press home screen to activate widgets, swipe and create a shortcut widget which activates (or deactivate the accessibility service of target app).
You should be good to go.

Cons

The major back backdraw is that you are not able to monitor (in real time) the state of the accessibility service of a certain application, you have to rely on switch the toggles back and forth).
It is also generally difficult to control
While this a better workaround than nothing, it is usually time consuming to set up the tasker profiles to handle this.
It clutters the home screen with too many widgets
Relatively battery consuming than using built-in feature in UI.
It requires some paid apps mentioned above

Nevertheless this is a fully functional workaround, which I hope can help users with similar problem


Accessing Tor on Android device via a virtual wifi network I've hosted a wifi network using a virtual router, with which the local area connection is sharing it's internet with. My Android device can connect to this wifi network and can access my laptop's internet.

Now comes in Tor. On my laptop, Tor can be accessed on 127.0.0.1 via a Socks5 protocol. I'm trying to connect to this network from my Android device. I figured that all I need to do is acccess my laptops localhost from my device. Since my phone is connected to the laptop's wifi network, I should be able to access localhost by using my laptop's ip address (192.168.xx.x). Unfortunately this does not work. Any idea why?

Is there a better way I can access the Tor running on my laptop from my device via Wifi or USB tethering?

Windows 7 (Ubuntu 12.04 is available if a solution demands it), rooted Android on CM9.

Orbot is not an option since it's unable to connect via the wifi's proxy.

Local is a separate interface on your laptop, just like your ethernet adapter and Wi-Fi adapter.  Just because a program listens on 127.0.0.1:1080 (localhost SOCKS proxy) does not mean that it will listen on another interface. "Access the laptop's localhost from my device" is not possible.  Proxies, that are not intended for public use, normally listen only on localhost for security reasons.
If you MUST connect to the laptop's localhost SOCKS port, you need "TCP tunnel" software running on your laptop to listen on a reachable interface and redirect it to the local interface.  Realize that you are creating a security risk if you do, because the Tor client on your laptop won't be able to tell whether it's you connecting to the local socks proxy port.  It's been a decade since I last looked for "TCP tunnel" or "TCP proxy" software, so I don't know which to suggest -- you'll have to research it.


Why does my nexus 6p goes black after call is answered when I make or recieve a call as soon as I click the call or answer button the screen goes black. And I can't hear anything thru the ear speaker. However, when I put it on speaker it stays normal. What can cause this issue?

Thank you for your help guys

Your phone has an hardware issue. The proximity sensor is broken or is covered.

But before, did you put a screen protector, such as tempered glass, may it doesn't have  proper cutouts.

As a workaround, I'd suggest you set up the power button to end calls (Settings -> Accessibility -> Power button ends call).

You should consider taking the phone to a repair center if the above don't work.


android browser with 3rd party image blocking capability? For Firefox 4 for Windows there is for slow connections a really useful image block addon

https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/quickimage/

Unfortunately Firefox mobile is pretty slow and the addon doesnt exist for it. Most browsers can turn off image loading in options/settings. But often this causes horrible site look. Blocking only 3rd party image sources really makes browsing on 64kB/s mobile connections alot faster, generally you dont need things like Opera Turbo Mode, its not like dsl speed, but sites load within 5-10 sec.

So is there a android browser or a way to block 3rd party images per default. Tools like adblock dont show images with distinct path (, but download all images per default?). Im not looking for something like opera mini or opera mobile turbo mode. I know these options.

I found a solution for firefox (built-in config setting). I keep the question open, as someone may find to do the same thing on dolphin HD or Opera. Than dolphin would become my standard mobile browser.

Found out that Firefox mobile can do this by going to

about:config

in adressbar and setting

permissions.default.images         3

1=load all images, 2=no images 3=only images from current url

Saves a lot of bandwidth (e.g. User Avatars on Stackexchange not loaded, while with "no image loading" one doesnt see voting arrows). I just don't like mobile views of sites that much. Add-on would be nice to easily switch this config setting for single website like quick image addon on Firefox Desktop.

If dolphin hd had this feature it would be unbeatable. Unfortunately Firefox is lacking speed and tap gestures of Dolphin.


Strange Glitch with Youtube on S4 i have a strange glitch on an S4 phone
the screen goes "crazy" when the video tries to play

Device : S4 I9500
version : 4.4.2 NC1
Youtube : 10.02.3

see the following video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcZG82aUcZc

any ideas to what the problem is?

This happened to my S3 and I got told to uninstall YT, reboot and install it again.

Try that maybe?


How to get a mouse cursor on screen? I can get the mouse to work with my phone just fine; attach it through a simple adapter. Clicks register, movement registers - but I have to guess where the click will land, because there's no cursor.

How can I get the phone to display the mouse cursor?

It's pretty simple if you're using Android 4.0 or later. Just go to Settings > Developer Options > Show Pointer location (or Show touches, whichever works) and toggle that on.

Note: If you don't see the developer options, you need to go to Settings > About Phone and tap on Build number several times.


Recover nexus 5x with locked bootloader and TWRP I bought a used nexus 5x and got a message saying to lock the bootloader to allow OTA updates.  So I did, not fully understanding what my situation was.  It wiped the phone and now it won't boot.  I can get into TWRP but that's it.

I tried loading a bullhead factory image (as well as a lineage zip) on a USB-C flash drive from the TWRP install menu but it failed with error 7.

I'm not really sure what to do now.  Is there any way I can get my phone flashed with a working image?  Ideally the factory image.

edit: I should add that I tried the standard flashing instructions but they all start with unlocking with fastboot which doesn't work apparently because i need to check a box in the unbootable OS.

update:
Well, for some reason poking the clear cache button in TWRP fixed it and it booted, I was then able to unlock the boot loader and install the factory rom. Not sure how to evaluate the answers now as I can't test them.

Both locking and unlocking bootloader performs a factory reset on your device on the next boot. This wiping needs stock recovery. You had installed TWRP to the device and since you locked back bootloader. It needed the default recovery to be able to wipe it, since it wasn't there, TWRP tries to wipe, boot and fail, back to TWRP on and on forever. Flashing stock recovery either via fastboot, or flasing software will help it reset hence boot again. If you feel new to this. You can request a full more detailed answer from me and I'll edit this to your convenience.

Note: Flashing software will always download in firmware regardless of the state of that checkbox


Can't download the ZIP file of CWM Recovery from its official site, why? I recently found an old phone (Samsung Galaxy S2) and wanted to download the fitting ClockworkMod Recovery.

Well, when searching for the .zip files on http://clockworkmod.com, I found out that something changed.

What happened to CWM? Why aren't the .zip files not accessible anymore through the browser, and how can I get them anyway?

Discontinued since 6.0.5.1.

There should still be (many) copies scattered around the web, including PhilZ ones, but it's still suggested to switch to TWRP as it's actively maintained, especially if you want to flash KitKat and above.


What will I lose if I manually upgrade Galaxy Tab 7" to Honeycomb 3/3.1? I have a Galaxy Tab 7" WiFi running Android 2.2.1. This particular device will be used for business purposes (I am working on developing some local custom apps for my department), and I would much prefer to use Honeycomb instead, due to the encrypt device support.

However, reading around I understand I will lose some functionality if I manually upgrade. What will I lose?

Also, as an addendum, if I upgrade but it does not work out, I assume I can do a factory reset. If this is incorrect, please let me know.

Thanks!

Jared

I realized that I'm going on and on in comments for no real reason but perhaps this is better suited for an answer.

The only Honeycomb build I'm aware of for the Tab is this one on XDA (there are two versions, GSM and CDMA). It is, for all intents and purposes, a bleeding-edge attempt to get Honeycomb running on the Tab. The developer refers to it as an "Alpha" and essentially says to expect things to be buggy.

Since there is no public source code for the 3.x releases of Android yet, the build is based on an extracted image/filesystem from the Android SDK, meaning that it is not optimized for the Tab and probably lacks 3rd party drivers (excepting any official 2.2 drivers that happen to be compatible with 3.x).

The GSM thread lists the following as "not working" under the current build, meaning this is the minimum you should expect to lose:

*Gyro (no rotation, there is an app installed but rotates wrong way)
*Settings window not appearing when expanding from the Notifications menu
*3g data nor phone abilities
*BT,
*gyro,
*hardware acceleration
*SD card on boot
*headphone audio
*mic
*GPS

In general, builds like this show up on devices when a new major release appears in the SDK but they tend to be fairly unstable and also fairly slow. The videos I've seen of this ROM appear a bit more performant (in general) than other SDK ports I've encountered, but your experience may vary.

As for restoring, the "Factory Reset" option doesn't usually touch system files on most devices, from what I know. It's possible I'm mistaken on this and that the Tab does actually restore the firmware, but I'm not incredibly familiar with the Tab. You'll probably want to do a little digging to see what a "Factory Reset" actually means (might be in your manual, perhaps).

That being said, there are instructions for getting a Verizon Tab back to stock here, and there might be similar ones floating around for other carriers. If you can get a custom recovery on to your device then you can simply back up your system before trying Honeycomb and then restore from the backup. The easiest way to do it is probably just to install ROM Manager and flash ClockworkMod recovery from there. There appear to be manual instructions about but they vary by carrier.

Personally speaking: I would not use an SDK port for anything other than showing off to people (which can admittedly be a whole lot of fun). In a production environment I definitely wouldn't risk it, and I honestly never kept them installed for more than about 30 or 45 minutes at a time to play with before restoring to a stable ROM. They were fun sneak-peaks, but I've always found them highly unreliable (though "your mileage may vary" is probably a good catch phrase here).

Edit: A word of caution to Wifi Tab users, this post on one of the Honeycomb threads indicates that the current ROMs (as of 6/19/2011) WILL NOT WORK on a Wifi Tab. I personally can not verify the validity of this statement, but this would not surprise me as other devices (e.g. the Xoom) have similar incompatibility among ROMs.


Do signal booster apps work? How? I do not have the best signal on my Galaxy S4. I have had a recommendation on downloading a Signal Booster App.

How do they work (or do they work at all)?
Are there ways to boost my signal strength without an app?

Note: I am referring to 4G Signal Strength. My signal strength ranges from -107 dBm 33 asu to -113 dBm 27 asu.

Summing up from my comments above:
How do signal boosters work?
They work by forcing the device to do a re-connect. Though the device is permanently watching its neighborhood (for the case the signal gets too weak), it does not switch for just a trifle. Instead, it tries to weight the benefits against the costs: switching to a different cell has some signalling overhead to be considered. So if it's just for a trifle, it wouldn't switch. But if the other signal source is twice as strong, for example, it would. And it certainly does switch once you lose signal, even if there's just a weak signal available to switch to.
If it switches, it always choses the best and strongest signal available. And as I said, when you lose your signal it does switch: that's exactly the concept of the booster. By going to airplane mode, it makes you lose the signal, so switching on the radios makes the device connecting to the strongest signal. If your lucky, you see one more bar. If there was just one cell available, you just wasted juice.
IMHO it's not really worth it, but everybody needs to decide that himself/herself. Improvements are rather marginal/cosmetical in most cases, if at all.
Ways to boost without a booster
Well, if you followed my above writing, you might already have guessed it: Long-press your power button, and select "airplane", then do it again. Or, open your notification bar and tap the plane icon, and repeat it. Done. The difference is you need to do it manually – while the app at least partially automates it (maximum one tap with the app, while 4 manually).
Further hints
There are apps available which track cell signals. Some do even track the neighboring cells (most of them only work with selected devices). If you find one that does work with neigboring cells and your device, you should be able to tell the real numbers – and see if it would be worth to "boost", or if it rather would be to "boast" :).


How do I check if my nexus 7 is from 2012 or 2013? I just received one as a gift and want to know if it is 2012 or 2013. How do I check?

If it has a rear facing camera along with a front facing camera, it's the 2013 version; else if it just has a (single) front facing camera it's 2012.

Simplest test.


Google Contacts Sync has stopped - Synchronisation problems with Google contacts I installed Android miui 9. When i want to start google contacts and syncronate it get the message "google contacts sync has stopped

Here's the logcat:

java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to get provider com.google.android.syncadapters.contacts.ProxyGalProvider: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: Didn't find class "com.google.android.syncadapters.contacts.ProxyGalProvider" on path: DexPathList[[zip file "/data/app/com.google.android.syncadapters.contacts-1/base.apk"],nativeLibraryDirectories=[/data/app/com.google.android.syncadapters.contacts-1/lib/arm64, /vendor/lib64, /system/lib64]]
    at android.app.ActivityThread.installProvider(ActivityThread.java:5286)
    at android.app.ActivityThread.installContentProviders(ActivityThread.java:4820)
    at android.app.ActivityThread.handleBindApplication(ActivityThread.java:4760)
    at android.app.ActivityThread.access$1700(ActivityThread.java:154)
    at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1442)
    at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:102)
    at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:157)
    at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5555)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:745)
    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:635)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: Didn't find class "com.google.android.syncadapters.contacts.ProxyGalProvider" on path: DexPathList[[zip file "/data/app/com.google.android.syncadapters.contacts-1/base.apk"],nativeLibraryDirectories=[/data/app/com.google.android.syncadapters.contacts-1/lib/arm64, /vendor/lib64, /system/lib64]]
    at dalvik.system.BaseDexClassLoader.findClass(BaseDexClassLoader.java:56)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:511)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:469)
    at android.app.ActivityThread.installProvider(ActivityThread.java:5271)
    ... 10 more
    Suppressed: java.io.IOException: Failed to open dex files from /data/app/com.google.android.syncadapters.contacts-1/base.apk
        at dalvik.system.DexFile.openDexFileNative(Native Method)
        at dalvik.system.DexFile.openDexFile(DexFile.java:295)
        at dalvik.system.DexFile.<init>(DexFile.java:80)
        at dalvik.system.DexFile.<init>(DexFile.java:59)
        at dalvik.system.DexPathList.loadDexFile(DexPathList.java:279)
        at dalvik.system.DexPathList.makePathElements(DexPathList.java:248)
        at dalvik.system.DexPathList.<init>(DexPathList.java:120)
        at dalvik.system.BaseDexClassLoader.<init>(BaseDexClassLoader.java:48)
        at dalvik.system.PathClassLoader.<init>(PathClassLoader.java:65)
        at android.app.ApplicationLoaders.getClassLoader(ApplicationLoaders.java:57)
        at android.app.LoadedApk.getClassLoader(LoadedApk.java:378)
        at android.app.LoadedApk.makeApplication(LoadedApk.java:572)
        at android.app.ActivityThread.handleBindApplication(ActivityThread.java:4752)
        ... 8 more
    Suppressed: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.google.android.syncadapters.contacts.ProxyGalProvider
        at java.lang.Class.classForName(Native Method)
        at java.lang.BootClassLoader.findClass(ClassLoader.java:781)
        at java.lang.BootClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:841)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:504)
        ... 12 more
    Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Class not found using the boot class loader; no stack trace available

What is wrong and what can I do?

You can use this Contacts sync fix app from playstore..
It might help you
this app is free. No obligation to pay.
Download the app from here - Contacts sync fix


Odin. Unplugged target while flashing I assumed something was wrong because I waited about 20 minutes and the process hadn't completed, nor did it look like anything was active. Apparently, something was and now my Samsung Epic Touch 4G will not boot into either odin mode or cwm. The only thing I get is the blue power indicator, which will blink once after a couple seconds and then go steady again.

Have I bricked my phone or is there something I can do?  Thanks!

Most often the phone simply recognizes that the flash needs to be completed, and refuses to enter most modes until it is.  So, first check and see if Odin will see the phone regardless of what's on the screen.  Otherwise:

Remove the battery, then re-insert and try to get into Download Mode again.  If that fails, then remove the battery and, while holding the key combo for Download Mode, re-insert the battery.

If that fails, plug into USB and try both of the above.

If that fails, try all 4 of the above with different key combinations.  The most common that might trigger something:

Home + VolDown + Power
Home + VolUp + Power
VolDown + VolUp + Power
VolDown + Power
VolUp + Power


You have lost data connectivity because you left your home network with data roaming turned off I get a "you have lost data connectivity because you left your home network with data roaming turned off " message whenever I turn on my 4G connection. The problem is my sim card if from the same country I live in now. This problem somehow remained since I moved, from my old sim card, and now I can't seem to get rid of it. I also see an R next to the connection indicator.

My phone is a Huawei Ascend Mate 7. Anyone have any idea on how to solve this?

I solved this by going into settings, SIM and network, and selecting SIM 1 (the phone carrier SIM in my case Giffgaff). This showed me another setting for mobile data which was switched off. Once I switched it on it found a nearby 4g source.


How does the "Format as internal storage" feature work in Android 6.0+? How does the "Format as internal storage" feature work in Android 6.0+? See screenshot below:

Screenshot (click to enlarge)

Why is it the case that "this USB drive will only work in this device"? Is it due to a partition format? I have tried to read it in Windows but the file format is RAW; is it in EXT4 format so Windows can't read it? What will happen if I insert this card to another Android 6.0 device? Will the other device able to read it?

If you use this feature, your external SD card is replacing your internal storage. In the process, it will be encrypted. You no longer can "simply unmount" the card to read it in any other device (including a card reader attached to your PC), as in that case the file system would be unreadable in the latter (due to encryption – which is done "for security", so a thief cannot simply remove the card to circumvent your device's lock screen and get straight to your data).

Reference: Android 6.0 can treat SD cards as internal storage… at a cost

Choose internal storage and the microSD card will be reformatted and encrypted. Once this is done, the card can only be used as internal storage. If you try to eject the card and read it on a computer, it won’t work. All data on the card will also be erased, so you may want to back up anything important first. Android does provide an option to migrate it, but early reports suggest it’s unreliable.
[…]
You can still choose to have apps installed to either the true internal storage or your microSD card that’s been formatted to behave like internal storage. But if you had a phone with 8GB of storage and a 32GB microSD card, you’ll only have 32GB of space for music, movies, games, or other files, not 40GB.

Reference: Adoptable Storage: Android Marshmallow’s hidden feature that your phone probably can’t use:

Notice that the space is not increased by the size of the sdcard, but to the size of the sdcard. You’re basically swapping out your internal storage (which is typically eMMC, which is fairly quick), with your sdcard (which is typically slower than the built-in storage chip). You’ll be trading speed for capacity. In some cases this is a fair trade.
There is one more interesting tidbit: with a little bit of work, adoptable storage extends beyond just microsd cards. You can technically mount any USB OTG device as adoptable storage. In theory, this would let you have a 1TB hard drive attached via USB OTG. Of course you’d never be able to remove that hard drive, so the uses are very limited – but very interesting.
If you’re interested in forcing “any” storage device connected via USB OTG to become adoptable storage, here’s the command you’ll need to know. We haven’t tried this, so proceed at your own risk.
   adb shell sm set-force-adoptable true

Where AndroidCentral in Inside Marshmallow: Adoptable storage continues:

   adb shell sm set-force-adoptable true

But you probably shouldn't.
Once a storage device is adopted, it becomes part of the system and is no longer removable. Sure you can physically remove it, but you'll be prompted to put it back while apps and services crash on your phone or tablet. It's adopted — taken in and loved by the system, and made part of the whole.

An interesting comment there reads:

Glad I read this, I was thinking adoptable storage was a great idea and I could buy a 16GB phone and simply throw in a big microSD card and beat the system. But, probably not a good idea now that I understand more of how it works.

Plus, to underline what I wrote about factory-reset:

You can remove and reformat the card whenever you like, but doing so will force you to factory reset your phone.

Plus:

I opted to keep it as normal external storage. At least that way if the phone has a failure i still have access to my SD card files. The other way keeps it encrypted and if the phone were to experience phone ending glitch the card would be useless as its encrypted and the only device to see it is dead. No taking it out and inserting into a computer to recover my pics or vids or music.

According to Android 6.0 Marshmallow tip: ‘Adopt’ your MicroSD card as internal storage [Video], there is a "way back":

Thankfully, it’s not completely permanent. If you decide you’d like to use it just to store media, you can change it back by heading to Settings>Storage & USB, then selecting the card, hitting the top right menu and then select ‘Format as portable’.

But read between the lines: Format means all data on it will be erased. So if you want to do that, you'll need to make sure having secured your data beforehand. No easy "USB card reader" way here, you'll have to copy everything via USB or network.1 And if the card breaks, no way to use the card reader and some recovery soft to rescue at least parts of it; encryption makes that impossible. If it's broken it most likely won't even mount on the device anymore – so everything you haven't backed up elsewhere will be "gone for good".

As long as the card is "good", there's some interesting pointer found in Decrypting Android M adopted storage (emphasis mine):

Android M allows for adoptable storage, which is implemented similarly to internal storage FDE -- using dm-crypt with a per-volume, static 128-bit AES key, stored in /data/misc/vold/. Once the key is extracted from the device, adopted storage can be mounted and read/written on any Linux machine. Adoptable storage encryption is done purely in software (at least in the current preview build), so its performance is likely comparable to encrypted internal storage on devices that don't support hardware-accelerated FDE.

Further readings:

Understanding Adoptive Storage in Android 6 (Marshmallow)
How SD Cards Work with Android Marshmallow / M / 6.0 (YouTube)
Corrupt SD card formatted as internal storage (incl. tut on how to decrypt it)
How to decrypt adopted storage?
How to split adopted storage?

1In Storage › Internal Storage you should find "migrate data" which will move your stuff back to internal – if you got enough space left there. (thanks to Barleyman for pointing this out)


What will happen to my apps when i switch phones? When I get a new android I would to keep the apps I have purchased. I will keep the same account but I was wondering if I will have to rebuy my games?

No.  Android apps (as well as anything else (books, magazines, movies, etc.) sold in the Play Store) are linked to your google account, not to your physical device.

All the apps and games you previously purchased will be available for download.


SD Card and Sony Xperia E3 I recently purchased a 16gb SanDisk SDHC card by mistake (the website said it was a normal SD card, not SDHC.) I put the card in and it seems to be working fine, but I was curious if there could be any damage to the phone or to the data I save to it if the phone isn't compatible? The phone description says it takes up to a 16gb SD card, but doesn't support SDHC cards... and I can't find 16gb versions of the SD card.

NO,It will not harm your phone

Since, operating speed of SD is less than SDHC.Data transfer will occur at same rate which is supported by your mobile phone.
So it will not harm your phone.


Autopublish album in Google+ photos Okay, in spite of the hate being heaped on by iPhone elitists, I have installed Instagram on my Android phone and have started playing with it a bit.

How can I get my Instagram photos to automagically appear in a public album in Google+ Photos?

Felicia Day, for instance, has a public Instagram album.

I can see, on my phone, an Instagram album (which was automatically created by the app), but there is no such album in my Google+ Photos. The options for the phone album do not include a "make public" option, and there's nothing in the Instagram settings. At best, the photos are appearing in the default "Photos from your phone" album.

I know that I can manually share them, either through the website by making a public album and moving/copying them there, or using the Share features on my Android, but I'd rather have something automatic.

Is this possible, or just a pipe dream?

(Cross-posted at Web Applications.)

Someone posted a how-to recently to do exactly what you're asking for.

  You'll need a few tools to get started here, and luckily they are
  available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. This method uses Dropbox and
  Picasa3 to keep things synced up, and a side benefit is that photos
  are available from anywhere -- not just the device that took them.

  To get started, you need to install the Dropbox client on your home
  computer. If you already have a Dropbox account, you can use the same
  login and you'll find that having Dropbox installed on your computer
  is a good thing anyway. Just visit this link and download the correct
  version for your computer platform. Install it, and you're done with
  the first step.

  Next, you'll need to install the Picasa3 program from Google. It's a
  pretty good photo organizer and viewer, but what we're interested in
  is the way it can sync a folder to your Google+ photos. This is where
  the magic will happen. Visit this link and download the appropriate
  version, and install it. Windows and Mac users have it easy, but if
  you're running Linux you'll need to install Wine 1.3 or higher, and
  use winetools to install the bits from ie6 to get the account Oauth
  working. There's plenty of tutorials on the net for this, and if you
  hit a snag, holler at me.

  Got those installed? Good. You're just about finished. The next step
  is to visit Instadrop and setup the Instagram to Dropbox sync.
  Instadrop is a web-app, running on Google's appspot engine, and is
  what makes this all work. You'll link the Instadrop app to both your
  Instagram account and your Dropbox account, and anytime you post a
  picture to Instagram it will get copied to a folder named "Instagram
  photos". All you need to do is link your accounts, and the app does
  the rest. You can do that here, and if you're the suspicious type, you
  can inspect the source code on Github and see exactly what's going on.

  A couple final steps setting up Picasa and your Google+ album. Open
  the Picasa program, and click File > Add folder to Picasa. In your
  Dropbox folder, find the Instagram photo directory (if it's not there,
  upload a picture to Instagram to create it) in the tree and mark it to
  "Scan Always" (the blue circular arrow). This means that Picasa will
  hit that folder each time it scans for new content, and automagically
  import any pictures it finds. Click the OK button.

  Now in the Picasa program, look in the upper right. You'll see a spot
  to sign-in with your Google account. Do that, and make sure the Sync
  to Web switch for the Instagram photos folder is set to on. Open your
  Google+ page, and make sure the Instagram photos album is set up to be
  shared with the folks you want to share it with, and that's it.

  What's happening is that anytime you post a picture to your Instagram
  stream, the Instadrop web-app pushes it to the Instagram photos folder
  in your Dropbox. When your computer is on, Picasa uploads it to your
  Google+ album. Is it perfect? Not by a long shot. But it's a way to
  get that content merged without waiting for Google to have a public
  API for content posting and sharing on G+ from third party apps.

  Note that these pictures aren't shared to your Google+ stream be
  default. Until we get some sort of G+ API from Google, that's not
  going to happen (at least not easily). But if you share your album,
  people can visit and check them out, and of course you can easily
  share a photo from the album yourself. Click on it and hit the Share
  button in the bottom right.


Some games force use of gamepad controls instead of touch controls I recently bought a new smartphone, it's a LG Q7 and it's running Android 8.1

With it I tried running various games, of which, two of them are gear.club and Implosion - Never Lose Hope. Although I wasn't able to play gear.club on my previous smartphone, I was able to play Implosion albeit a bit slowly and I know I can control the character via touch. In regards to gear.club, my brother played it on his phone and he was able to use touch but on my phone, those two games, when doing the tutorial, they show the buttons for a gamepad/controller and won't respond to any touch input I give them. I haven't yet connected any device to this smartphone.

What I tried:

Going into settings and search for an options about controllers, couldn't find anything.
Disabling the LG Gaming Extension but it does nothing ( it's used to change resolution and framerate)
Contacting gear.club and implosion support to no avail

This question might be similar but both in gear.club and Implosion there is no option to change from gamepad to touch controls.

K. Try looking into the web View application. Is the Q7 using Chrome as web View or Google's web View from the play store?
They are different. You could be stuck in the web View or you've got an overlay app that you have to manually find by uninstalling one app at a time, checking to the if it works after each time. The update on Nov. 1, 2019 should have probably solved the issue. I like the increase to 9.0 system. Good luck. PS These phones are tanks! But, the framework leaves much to be desired.


How can I edit Office documents on an Android tablet and keep compatibility? In our office, there's a new Eee Pad Transformer. It was supposed to replace a netbook for giving presentations and editing Microsoft Office documents on the go (e.g. Word, PowerPoint, Excel).

There have been some issues:

The office solutions they currently tried can only read Microsoft Office files (like Documents To Go)
Polaris Office with write support produce Microsoft Office files that fail to open in Office 2007 Claim by the owner of the device, I can't try it.

The questions are:

Is there any way to produce PDF files from such documents? This would at least make it possible to just export presentations to PDF in order to share them.
Is there a (preferably free) office solution that guarantees compatibility with Office 2007/2010?
Any other workarounds?

I have MobiSystems OfficeSuite 5 for my Android (phone, not tablet though).  But I have never had any problems editing files, saving them and then opening them in Office 2007 & 2010.  It does not have a save as PDF, but it does let you save in either .doc or .docx formats for word, xls & xlsx for Excel, and .ppt & pptx for Powerpoint


Stop recommending GMail Contacts When I got my LG Tribute, I put in my Google account, and it immediately downloaded all 1700 GMail contacts from my many years of e-mail.

Obviously I don't want all those contacts, so I went to Accounts&Sync and told my phone to not sync contacts with GMail, and then hid all the contacts.

Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to truly get rid of them, so they are all in Groups > Other Contacts, taking up space.  More importantly, when I want to type a message or contact someone, there's a search bar that makes recommendations that I select from, which I always use.  But now those recommendations are from my GMail contacts, since they're still on my phone even though they're not in my main contacts list.  so i.e. if I want to talk to my friend Selena and I type "Se", I'll be recommended the e-mail for "ITS Server Admins Group" where I want the contact.

How can I get rid of them once and for all, or at least have them stop showing up everywhere?

i have a samsung, but the steps should be quite similar:

Settings > More > Applications > Go right to all apps > scroll down to "Contacts Storage"

Then click on contacts storage > Click Clear Data

Hope this helps


Screen angle and brightness I experienced the same on some Android devices: when changing the angle the screen is looked at, I see that the image gets darker or brighter.
I would like to know if it is so on all devices or just some of them.

This is affected by the manufacturer of your device, as well as your own device settings. Different manufacturers use different types of screens for different devices. Some of the different types are: TFT-LCD screens, as well as different kinds of AMOLEDs. I have had one Sony and one Samsung, and have noticed that even though the Sony has higher pixel density and brightness, it cannot be viewed from certain tilts and when natural sun light reflects on the screen, its content goes practically invisible until shaded.


new samsung tab s3 connectivity I've pre ordered one of the new samsung tab s3's. Since placing the order, I can't find any mention of a sim card slot or 4g.
Do any of you folks out there know if its wifi only, please?

Totally depends on what you purchased.

This device follows the simple naming convention of many Samsung devices:

Ending with 0 means WiFi
Ending with 1 means 3G (mostly deprecated)
Ending with 5/5Y means global LTE
Ending with 7 means carrier-based LTE, with the carrier indicator letter right behind it (A for AT&T, T for T-Mobile, etc.)

Find a model number (SM-Txxx) from your order, then see the above rules to find out.


How to turn off USB sharing on Android (Archos 70) - Installing Android Market I'm trying to install the Android market to my Archos 70.

1. Load the update.img to the root of your A7HT.
2. Turn off USB sharing and you will be prompted to install an update.
3. Click install and A7 will reboot
4. Install the update and eventually go back to the setup screen
5. Go into settings, turn on WiFi and connect to your router
6. Once it is connected:
a. Open any of the Google apps (market, Gmail, Calendar)
b. Go through the Google setup screens.
c. Upon completion install: contacts.apk and GoogleContactsProvider.apk.

http://wiki.archosfans.com/index.php?title=Archos_7HT_Firmware_Knightsdominion_V3_Google_Market

How do I turn off USB sharing? I've disconnected and unmounted the Archos from my machine but it doesn't ask me to update; I've also tried rebooting it.

You shouldn't need to do this for the Archos 70.  Do you have the Archos 70 Internet Tablet or the Archos 7 Home Tablet?  The link you have is for the Archos 7 Home Tablet, which is an older model.  If you in fact have a Generation 8, Archos 70, here's the link you want: http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=42067  All you have to do is open the apk file on your tablet.


Moto E Won't detect Thumb drive I have a Motorola Moto E, and according to USB Host Diagnostics, the stock OS and kernel claim OTG USB support, and the proper classes are present, but it won't detect a thumb drive connected via OTG cable.  I can't find a stock rom image for download, so, until I can, rooting is out of the question...Any suggestions?

A Forums Manager on Motorola Forums said:

  Moto E will not support OTG.

See the full thread here.


Disable booting into Safe Mode on damaged S3 I have a rooted i9300 (Samsung S3) that is damaged, and only boots into safe mode.

You can read about some people with the same problem HERE and HERE.

Took the device to Samsung Tech Center, they wanted to replace the motherboard. That's 2/3 of the secondhand price of the device. Big NO.

There is also this question that may be related, but to me the why is already settled. Damaged motherboard. Now...

After this debrief, Here goes my question:

Is there a way to make the S3 NOT boot into safe mode? Disable booting into safe mode? A ROM that can do that?

I know it sounds stupid, but its better than throwing the device out.

Install the MIUI for S3. I have the same problem with mine. I tried all there is to try and finally this is something which worked for me.


How to use two different numbers in the same phone via WhatsApp? My phone just went broken last night, and I have another but I don't want to change the SIM card, so I'm wondering if it's possible to run 2 numbers on the same phone.
I have heard there is a chance of creating a new user and installing WhatsApp again under that new user, will this work? I don't want to lose a couple of work groups that are important.

There are multiple possibilities:

Some stock/custom ROMs (e.g. MIUI) let you create a new user with a non-zero ID by utilizing the Multiple Users / Work Profile feature of Android. You can switch between accounts and almost all installed user apps can be duplicated with unique settings/data for each user.
You can use some dual account app; a kind of OS-level virtualization or containerization. There are numerous on Play Store like Parallel Space. But personally, I don't recommend this option as these apps are a burden on resources and may slow down the device or reduce battery timing. Most of those require too many permissions, seem focused on ads, user stats, analytics, and tracking for monetizing. Shelter is an open-source (FOSS) app if you go for this option.
Another option is to use a modded WhatsApp with a different package name e.g. GBWhatsApp. That will work in parallel with the official WhatsApp release. Be aware of illegality and malware when going for non-official apps.


i9300 bootloop and cannot install GApps? I was trying to install Resurrection Remix ROM on my GT i9300 but I am stuck in a boot loop.

What have I done to my phone so far?

Rooted my phone using CF-AutoRoot
Installed CWM
Did a NANDroid backup
Factory reset from "Settings"
Factory Reset from CWM Recovery
Installed Resurrection from recovery (success)
Installed GApps from recovery (failed, status 7)
Reboot

I got the boot loader animation on reboot, an "Updating Apps" popup and then a bootloop.

How do I solve this?

I did try flashing Resurrection from Recovery again but it did not help

Update:

ROM VERSION:

[ROM] [5.0.2] [LOLLIPOP] [i9300] RESURRECTION REMIX 5.3.9[CM12-BASED]

GAPPS VERSION:

gapps-lp-20141109-signed

ERROR LOG:

Installing files...
Cleaning up and setting metadata...
set_meta_data_recursive: some changes failed
E: Error in /sdcard/0/gapps-lp-20141109-signed.zip
(Status 7)
Installation aborted.

This is on Other Resurrection Remix ROM's is normal.You're right, i had the same problem with that.But try this (i fixed with below after two try) :
Just like this ; (it maybe take a ten minute or more)

Download the latest build of Resurrection Remix ROM
Take a nandroid backup
Flash ROM usingrecovery
Flash Gapps (Latest build, availabe in here !)
Wipe cache
Wipe dalvik cache
Reboot
Enjoy.

But please remember, ask this question from Developer for Bug fixes or More information.
anyway, hope this helps.


On my Note 4, even when I set the lock screen to fingerprint, if I turn it off and then on, I can unlock it by swiping. Please advise I set the unlocking to fingerprint. I set 3 fingerprints. I activate them. Then I can unlock my phone by swiping. What is the use?

Often there is a settings which sets a Timout for a locked phone. By default I think it is set to 5 seconds. That means, that when you turn your screen off your phone waits 5 seconds before activating the lockscreen security. Try searching the settings for this timeout setting.


Hacker keyboard emoji button While in Discord on Android 5.0, Hacker Keyboard puts an emoji button instead of enter, putting enter to be accessed only by going to the special buttons(numbers and the sorts). I have to note that the keyboard is used in portrait mode with "4-row Gingerbread layout" for which I need an answer, 5 rows has the enter in its place.

My question is, is there a way to disable the emoji button and put the enter where it belongs without going to the special characters? Going through the settings I could not notice any option that would help me do so.

Thanks in advance.

In most phones, when you are using a Messaging or SMS app, that button changes to the smiley button by default.

You can long press that button and swipe up (or left - differs from keyboard to keyboard) in order to access the Enter button quickly.

Try using your keyboard in some other apps. If the problem persists, you may need to change your keyboard app.


Unlocking Samsung Galaxy S7 with broken screen plugged into computer The screen on my phone is broken, and there are a few files I'd like to get off of it. I don't care about the phone at all, just the files. I know the password, I just can't enter it on the broken screen.

I can plug the device into my computer, and it recognizes it, but I can't unlock it, so my computer cannot copy files off of it.

lsusb lists it as Bus 001 Device 097: ID 04e8:6860 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd Galaxy (MTP).

adb devices unfortunately doesn't recognize my phone, presumably since it's locked.

It's possible there's more damage to my phone than just the screen, not sure though since it won't turn on.

Any advice would be appreciated, I don't even really know where to start.

A bit late to the party but you can unlock your phone with find my phone
That wasn't enough in my case.

Most recovery tools require you to have usb debugging enabled before you break your phone.


Force all WiFi traffic through VPN? Is there any way to force Android to route all (but only) public WiFi traffic through a PPTP VPN?

My phone basically has three connectivity scenarios:

AT&T's HSPA+ or LTE. I don't want to use a VPN with this.
Public WiFi. I don't ever want to send anything that isn't tunneled through a VPN over public WiFi. If I just connected to WiFi right now, I don't want Android to instantly launch into all of its pent-up WiFi tasks until I'm connected to the VPN. Ideally, I'd prefer that Android not even broadcast the notification that I'm now WiFi-connected until after the VPN is up. If the VPN drops, I want the traffic to be blocked (or routed over AT&T) until the VPN is re-established.
My home WiFi. I could live with VPN'ing this if it's impossible to distinguish between "my WiFi" and "all other WiFi", but I'd prefer to not VPN it either.

I know that Tasker can theoretically achieve most of these goals, except for one problem: AFAIK, nobody has written a Tasker VPN plugin that works with ICS. Does one exist yet that I've overlooked?

That leaves the second problem -- leaked traffic during the interval between the time the WiFi connects and the VPN is established, and traffic leaked if the VPN dies for some reason while the WiFi remains connected. Is there any way to fix this problem?

I'm using the Private Internet Access app for the same situation. It has a "kill switch" to prevent the leaking. It only works with the private internet access vpn service though.


Is a specific charger needed to utilize 25W charging? I have a Samsung Galaxy S10 5G. Is it important for the charger and cable to have certain specifications to utilize the 25W charging capability?

Yes and it's usually the OEM supplied / recommended charger. Reasons:
For fast charging, the charger, cable and charging algorithm running inside the Phone need to be able to negotiate the right power (voltage & current) levels to charge the phone as designed. If any of these is not as per design, you won't get the fast charge as advertised.

Charger: I don't know if your device supports Qualcomm or Exynos chip. If it is former, Qualcomm fast charger is backward compatible so any other Qualcomm charger would work but not fast charge. AFAIK, Exynos chip doesn't support this (Related what happens if you plug a non QC 2.0 device into a QC 2.0 charger?)

USB cable needs to be of right capacity as explained here, else you may not get the right charging speed.

TL:DR Go with OEM recommended charger and cable if you want fast charging.


How to make alternative app markets perform automatic updates? I have tried F-Droid and the Amazon App Store, but I had to confirm every update manually. Is there a way to make any alternative app markets (i.e. not Google Play Store) auto-update in the background, without prompting me?

None of them other stores will be able to auto-update your apps unless you are rooted.
Other apps cannot install new apps without root access.

If you do have root access,
1Mobile(1mobile.com) store has this feature. Mobogenie is out there, too, but it has more ads.


Cannot enable GPS  on G510 I have an Android G510 running 2.3.4 but cannot access the GPS. In "Location & Security" there is no GPS item, just "Use wireless networks".

Can anyone help please

Is there any test I can do to check?

Here is a site that has the specs for the G510, and it does say that it supports GPS. Maybe there is a problem with the hardware on the device that the GPS chip doesn't work or something, and the software doesn't see the chip so it doesn't show the option.

You can try using the "Power Control" widget if you have it (i think its part of stock android). It has a toggle for GPS, and you can see if it lets you turn it on/off.


How do get SMS messages off a damaged Android phone (Samsung J2 pro) I dropped my Samsung J2 Pro and damaged it this morning. Only part of screen responds to touch commands now. So it's almost certainly time for a new phone, but I'd like to get photos and SMS messages backed up first.

Photos were easy; I have uploaded all my photos to my computer via the USB. I'd like to do the same for my SMS text messages, but can't find them in the file system.

I downloaded the app "SMS Backup & Restore", but cannot run it because the "Get Started" button is near the bottom of the screen, and pressing it does not work (groan).

So is it possible to directly access my SMS messages via the USB port, without running a special app? Or is there some other app which makes them visible?

It's been suggested I post what I did. Note this is for a partly working screen (i.e. some regions detect touch, some do not). There are answers for a completely broken screen here: How do I backup data (SMS/contacts) from a device with a broken screen?

Anyway, what I did:

Download Vysor to my (Mac) computer. (And "Android File Transfer" if it's not there already). Start up Vysor.
Vysor needed USB debugging to be on. For that, on my phone I went into: Settings -> About Phone -> Settings, and pressed Serial Number several times "to become a developer". Then I could go into Settings -> Developer Options, and turn on USB Debugging. In both of those cases, I was lucky in that I could find a part of my screen which worked to select those options. The link above has a away to do this for a completely dead screen.
Plug USB cable into phone and press "Allow" to allow data access to it. Again, I was lucky that "Allow" was on a part of my screen which worked.
Click "Find Devices" in Vysor, and select the phone. I had to repeat steps 3 and 4 a couple of times for some reason, but eventually it found the phone properly, and an emulator started up on my computer.
Then, using the Vysor emulator to control my phone, and I was able to get my SMS's by downloading and running SMS Backup & Restore on my phone.


ZTE Z820 Can't bypass Google Account after Factory Reset ZTE Z820 Phone purchased in U.S. during 3 month stay. I've factory reset to unluck and for use in Ireland, but now can't bypass the Google Account. Stuck in the loop for user name and password. I have the correct account and password details, but won't recognize the password. It is the correct password, I've confirmed it.
I've viewed and tried various methods online, but none are z820 specific.
Can anyone help. Please?

Check if your 2 way authentication is ON for your google account.

If it is ON, you need to generate a password for your new android device. You can find this option in your account setting -> security.

Use new generated password for login, it should work....


Apps on SD showing as not installed, phone is constantly rebooting I've had the apps on SD card not showing issue a few times, but in the last few days anytime I use the stock camera app no apps show on the screen and when rebooting I get "no service", "service disabled" and the apps on the SD card show as not installed. My phone is now rebooting and in a reboot loop until I pull the battery.

Phone LS470 running 4.4.2

Boot into recovery and clear Cache and Dalvik-Cache, if you are rooted. If not then search about how you can boot into stock recovery and then clear Cache and Dalvik-Cache.


Why does Google Chrome on Android has so many permissions? Just found out through a connection tracking app, that Google Chrome on my Android 9 has so many permissions granted . Permissions like :-

Pair with Bluetooth devices
Access Bluetooth settings
Read your contacts
request install packages
Download files without notification
Find accounts on the device
Download files without notification

Are there permissions Normal?
When I check in the permission settings of the Chrome App, it does not show all these permissions enabled!
Have factory reset the phone too

so yes permissions:

pair and acces bluetooth - this is STANDARD for some sites in html/html5 , if browser wouldn't have this permission some website could be broken.
read contacts - it's a next html api and also can break some sites if disabled.
install packages/download files - you think that you can't download things from internet? just look at clouds, github (and other similar sites), pages for converting media types, etc.
find accounts on device - for logging in to your google account which can be use for f.e. : tabs and bookmarks

and if you think that sites doesn't require some permissions look at my game : https://hacknorris-notyetbanned.github.io/glitched.github.io/game/index.html (yes it's self-advertisement but it'd answer your question i think...)
and a few sources with these and a few similar permissions and API's for use by YOU : https://www.w3schools.com/js/js_api_geolocation.asp ; https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Contact_Picker_API ; https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_Bluetooth_API ;
and if about not showing these permissions in system - it may be due to ROM on your phone.


Android not hanging up when hangup button is pressed Phone: Galaxy Note 2; I605 (Verizon- Unlocked)

Carrier: T-Mobile

Rooted: Yes

I have this problem with Android Lollipop where when I cancel a call, the hangup button disappears and the phone says "Hanging Up" but never hangs up. Navigating away from the dialer screen destroys the UI but the calling process still runs in the background to the point where it either goes to voicemail if the other party doesn't pick up or hangs up in case of interactive calls.

This only happens with Android 5.x.x. What could be the problem? Has anybody encountered this and what was your solution? Thanks.

Make sure your system applications are updated in the play store. the store will contain the latest updates which might have the bug fixes for the above issue.

Android lollipop would have the notification type alert. are you getting it properly? is it possible to hang up the call there?

If still problem persists, then wipe partition cache might solve the issue.


Wi-Fi Video Conferencing My daughter will be in Japan soon, studying abroad. And she just got a Macbook Air. Meanwhile, I have Android 2.2 and a Samsung Galaxy Tab. I don't mind paying for an app, but am not too keen on monthly service bills. I want to be able to have video conferencing with her on Wi-Fi only. I imagine SIP would be the way to go.

So what is the best app out there for Android right now for doing Wi-Fi video conferencing between a Mac and a Samsung Galaxy Tab, and which lets me do unlimited calling, not charged by the minute? I don't mind paying even up to $50 for the app on each system, just to not have to pay the monthly fees. I looked at the Tango app, but it said it only installed on iPhone and Android. I didn't see a Mac or PC version for it.

Another option will be ooVoo.

The free version allows 2-way video chat between Android and Mac (plus many other platforms)

They are expected to release a version for the Galaxy Tab in February according to this http://www.cnet.com/8301-19736_1-20025684-251.html


How do I distinguish apps with in-app purchases from completely free apps on Google Play? As far as I can tell, Google does not provide a mechanism for searching for completely free apps in Google Play.  When using the FREE filter, you get both completely free apps and apps with in-app purchases, where some elements are unavailable without paying, so they are not completely free. In some categories, most of apps' content is available via in-app purchases only, so it's misleading to have such apps in the free list.

In the Google Play application, I am able to detect that an app isn't completely free If I open the details page and see "In-app purchases" on the left side.  It is inconvenient having to open every app page just to verify this, but at least it's a workaround.  Is there some way to include that criteria into the search function?

Additionally, when searching Android apps through a desktop browser (Chrome) instead of the Google Play app on the device, "in-app purchases" does not appear to be displayed, even in the details page of the app.

The question: How to detect or filter out apps that are not completely free, on Google Play?

I'd say we've waited it out – as meanwhile this issue seems solved:

Screenshots (click to enlarge)

As the first screenshot (top of the page when visiting with the web browser) clearly shows: If an app offers in-app purchases, it is marked such (look where my arrow points to). At the bottom of the page, you can even see the prices per item (second screenshot).


Android 11 - Audio on Pixel 3a wired headphones very quiet I've just updated my Pixel 3a to Android 11 beta

and listening audio from Youtube using the original device's headphones
I noticed that, even with media volume set to maximum,
the sound is much more quieter than before.
I tried to disable absolute volume, w/o any result.
Any workaround? (I'm not gonna root my phone)

I'm a bit late to the party but I have the same issue. I installed a volume booster and it seems to be doing the trick just fine. There are a number of them on google play, not sure what the best is.


Why are files sent through Gmail renamed? Why is it if I download an image sent to me through Gmail the filename of the image was changed into downloadfile? Is there a way that the filename won't be changed after downloading it from Gmail?

Samsung Galaxy 5, if it matters.

The newest version of the Gmail app supports file downloads, rather than previews.  If you're using the website I would think that Foley is correct.


Problem running z4root on Galaxy S GT-I9000 I installed Z4root on my Galaxy S (the original, not the S II) after reading this post, using the APK file attached to the post (can't find it in market). The thread leads me to believe that the process is as simple as installing, switching USB debugging on and pressing the root button. Not in my case.

Results:

First time, the app didn't get further than the "running root exploit" message (waited 30+ mins)
After rebooting the phone out of desperation, when I press the permanent root button it gets as far as the "acquiring root shell" message and the app either just disappears (with no results) or the app stops working and I get the force close window.

I've tried this many times with reboots in between, both plugged in and unplugged and no different results. Do later SGS models have some anti-root hax built into them? Have I missed something obvious about the process?

Extra info:

The phone does not have three button recovery mode
The author of the app claims to be from the same country as me, and his phone is also SGS running Froyo. If we are cursed with weird "international" hardware I would've expected the same to happen to him.
The thread talks about a superuser app being installed after the phone reboots. I already had Superuser installed (but never been able to use it because I haven't successfully rooted ever). I uninstalled the app and tried z4root again, but nothing different happened.
The thread suggests using adb logcat to get debugging info, but logcat spews an endless stream of info that is much longer than the examples I've seen in the thread (long enough that my terminal buffer loses the top info before it finishes). What I can see doesn't seem like it is related to z4root.

That wasn't working for me neither, but when I tried the SuperOneClick it worked perfectly and very stable, but you will need to use a PC to do it.


Why does my phone use Google Public DNS? I was just curious to know what DNS server my phone used. So I launched a terminal emulator and I entered:

$ cat /etc/resolv.conf
nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4

As you can see, my phone uses 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as DNS servers (Google Public DNS servers).

At home (Wifi), my router is configured to give OpenDNS' servers through DHCP. But, on my phone, cat /etc/resolv.conf returns the same output. Same thing with 3G. And, even if I disable both Wifi and 3G, and then reboot the phone, it still uses Google's Public DNS servers.

I don't remember having changed resolv.conf or installed any application to change it.

My phone is an HTC Desire with CyanogenMod 7.2.0.1 (Android 2.3.7).

Can someone explain me why my phone uses Google Public DNS? Is it a common configuration for any Android devices, or CyanogenMod ROM?

According to Steve Kondik, this is essentially old code that is leftover from older versions of CyanogenMod:

This was only here for apps that were statically linked against uclibc in old CM versions. It can likely just be removed.

However, he also goes on to note:

Also, this file is NOT written when connecting to a network as /system is readonly. The actual DNS servers are read from system properties.
I also just verified that the DHCP supplied servers are actually being used, so this issue is invalid unless someone proves otherwise.

So the values in /etc/resolv.conf actually don't reflect your DNS settings. What you can do instead is use getprop to find your DNS values. You can pare it down rather nicely if you grep the output like so:
getprop | grep dns

Also worth noting: the /etc/resolv.conf file appears to have been removed completely in later versions of CyanogenMod. I don't have one on CM10 at all, but getprop does correctly show my DNS settings.


Why does the YubiKey Neo only use Firefox, not Chrome? I want to use the YubiKey NEO with Chrome, and when I tap the NFC sensor to the phone, the only app I can use is Firefox.

I would like to have SSO work with Chrome, but not sure how they were able to make Firefox listen for NFC events.

Have you tried clearing your defaults for your browser? If you have Firefox set as your default browser, anytime anything on your phone makes a request that needs to be handled by a browser, Firefox will start up by default with no other options.

You can easily tell if Firefox is set by default by tapping a link in another application, such as email or Facebook.  If you are presented with a list of apps to choose from to open the link (e.g. Firefox or Chrome) and 2 buttons - one to use the chosen app every time to open links moving forward, and one to open the link with that app just this one time only - you have no default browser set.  If instead when you click on the link Firefox opens immediately, Firefox is set as your default.  This could be what is happening here with your YubiKey.


How do the various tools to convert a system image to f2fs work? Recently I've been trying to install a f2fs compatible rom to my old and slow nexus7. I got as far as flashing a new recovery image and reformatting the device partitions to the new file system, but after trying to install a couple of supposedly compatible ROMs (cm11 and slimkat) and having the tablet stuck at boot I had to revert to the stock image I was running. After some googling it seems I missed a step: "converting" the ROM image to f2fs. There are tools to do that, so I was wondering how do they work actually?

Looking at the tool described in this howto it seems that it's a simple matter of replacing the boot.img with somethink compatible with f2fs and doing a bit of text search and replace on the unzipped image, replacing the strings

format("ext4", "EMMC", "/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/system", "0", "/system")
format("ext4", "EMMC", "/dev/block/platform/sdhci-tegra.3/by-name/APP", "0", "/system")
mount("ext4", "EMMC", "/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/system", "/system")
mount("ext4", "EMMC", "/dev/block/platform/sdhci-tegra.3/by-name/APP", "/system")
mount("ext4", "EMMC", "/dev/block/platform/sdhci-tegra.3/by-name/APP", "/system")

with

run_program("/sbin/mkfs.f2fs", "/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/system")
run_program("/sbin/mkfs.f2fs", "/dev/block/platform/sdhci-tegra.3/by-name/APP")
run_program("/sbin/busybox", "mount", "/system")
run_program("/sbin/busybox", "mount", "/system")
run_program("/sbin/busybox", "mount", "/system")

respectively. (The strings may vary for different devices).

I've tried unzipping a cm-11 and a Slimkat image and the source strings are actually there so the above should work, but I had no such luck for a lollipop factory image, which after unzipping has only .img binary files.


Default browser doesn't play embedded music from a website Today I came upon a situation where I had a website which had an embedded player in it which plays sample music. To my surprise I came to know that the Android 2.3 default browser or Opera web browser didn't support it. But I was able to play the music on my iPhone. Is there a way I can make it work on my Android, or is there any other software available for this?

In browswer's setting check if you have made the "plugin load on demand". If so, try "always load".


Why isn't my HTC Hero upgrading? Located in China I've been waiting forever for the HTC Hero update to Android 2.1. However now everywhere around the world people are getting it.

I do get the occasional update, and then I get prompted to reset the phone, however when I reset it the update does not get installed (missing update.zip on SD card?)

Or maybe I have to relocate to England? Could I fake this with a VPN/proxy? If so how could I set this up?

Cheers

Does China have an extra Android version or do you have either the US version or the European version?

To let my own European Hero install Android 2.1 I had to tell it to manually check for new updates.


How to tell current frequency band? I have a Samsung Galaxy Ace, with quad-band I believe. It is possible to see the current connection network type, e.g. UMTS, EDGE, etc, by going to Settings -> About Phone -> Status. But it does not tell which frequency band it is on. Is it possible to find out which frequency band (either exactly, or just which of the four major bands) that I am using?

Based on avirk's hint, I found a way. First press the code *#0011#

GSM example:

GSM900: IDLE
T: 10, B: 10
Rx Pwr: -94, Rx ual: -
Rx Lev: 21, Tx Lev: 0-
Speech VER: AMR EFR FR
VOC: AdaptiveRate
TS: 0
Temp: 68 Batt: 71 LNA: 0
Service: Available

It is obvious that it's using 900MHz band, from the "GSM900".

UMTS WCDMA example:

WCDMA: Idle
Rx CH: 10612, R: -94
Tx CH: 9662, Tx Pwr: -
EdIo: -6, RSCP: -98
SpeechVER: AMR EFR FR
RF: Sleep2
L1: PCH_Sleep
Drx cycle: 64, PSC: 392
Temp: 67 Batt: 69 LNA: 0
Service: Available

UMTS can use two different physical layers (low level radio) UMTS-FDD and UMTS-TDD. Android just shows WCDMA, which I think is the same as UMTS-FDD, but perhaps it can refer to both of them. By looking up the channel number here you can tell the frequency bands and whether it is UMTS-FDD or UMTS-TDD.

In the above example it is using UMTS-FDD, the down-link channel (Rx) is in the 2100MHz band and the up-link channel (Tx) is in the 1900MHz band.


Android 5.0 “updating contact list” error After updating my android 5.0 (lollipop) phone (Samsung Note 3 N9005) my contact list couldn't open. When I want to open my contacts there was always a process like "updating contact list" and I couldn't open my contacts. Also my Whatsapp contacts were always refreshing when I open whatsapp and click my contacts and it takes long time.

I resolved the problem like below:

Go Settings->General->Cloud->Sync Settings
Tap to "Sync Contacts"
Then go back Settings->General->Application Manager->ALL section
Select "Contacts" then Clear Data and Clear Cache.
Select "Contacts Storage" then Clear Data and Clear Cache (All contacts removed).
Go Settings->General->Cloud->Sync Settings
Tap to "Sync Contacts" to bring your contacts again.


How to define a custom sound for Whatsapp? When receiving mails or a whatsapp message, the same sound notification is played. I want to be able to tell those events apart and would like to define custom sounds. How can I achieve this?

I really would like to avoid a third party application, or if there are no other ways, I prefer a paid app over one with advertisement.

Open WhatsApp, either press the ... overflow button in the top right corner of the screen, and select Settings, or press your phone's Menu button, and then select Settings.

Then select Notifications, which should be the bottom option on the list at the moment, and tap Notification Tone. This will let you browse to find another sound file to use for your WhatsApp notifications.


How to backup app in adb without using "backup"? My Nexus 6 has a completely broken screen, but other parts of the phone seem to work fine. It is rooted, CWM recovery installed and USB debug enabled. Now I want to copy some of my old data to my new phone. The problem is:

I cannot unlock the screen since the screen is broken, so booting normally doesn't work. adb devices -l shows nothing since the phone is screen locked.
CMW recovery has a touch interface, so I cannot use that either.
I managed to enter the stock recovery mode and I can pull data using adb. But I can't run adb backup because it asks for confirmation on the screen.

Does anyone have any idea what should I do? Is there a way to backup without using "adb backup"?

Copying data/data did work. But it seems that copying the files to my new phone caused some permission issues. I fixed this by backing up and then restoring in Titanium Backup.


How to know how much battery in terms of hours and minutes is left on my phone? I want to know the remaining time of my cell phone battery. Android only gives me how much battery in terms of percentage has been consumed since the last charging.

However, what I want is to know how much more time I have before my phone goes off? How can I get that information?

Battery Indicator Pro or a similar alternative might help. In addition to showing the remaining battery in numbers, it also tries to "guesstimate" the remaining minutes, depending on light/medium/heavy usage.


How do I perform a full pre-rooting backup of an Android phone? The question arises because the best-rated backup application (Titanium Backup) requires root. So what would one use instead when getting a really complete backup is essential? Is there a file manager-type application available that enables copying the whole file system on the phone somewhere (to SD-card, online or wirelessly - doesn't matter which?)

(Samsung Galaxy S9000)

As far as I know, you can only make a full/complete backup of the phone with root.  Because you need root in order to run Titanium Backup (which only backs up apps and their data) or you need root in order to flash ClockWork Recovery which lets you perform a Nandroid backup (full image backup of the entire device).


Android 9, google accounts without using google account? i need help, with google contacts.

The phone is using google contacts and dialer (Android 9). I want to import contacts TO PHONE, but google contacts app allows only import to gmail acc.

Is there some solution? I do not want to use google servicies for syncing and storing my contacts, calls and messages.

Thank you

e.g. something like local account on windows 10
was helpful but apps are very old and not updated Add contact without using "Google account"?

i have had this problem on some Xiaomi devices. even when added contacts offline (with MyPhoneExplorer) it switched automatically into google when device goes online. i bet it is the contacts app per design not allowing local contacts.

i ended up with 3rd party contacts app (like com.simplemobiletools.contacts)


how to transfer a file from within system partition on android to desktop background

I'm developing an app that downloads files to the device.. some of these files are acting out and to trouble shoot I want to actually transfer these files to my (mac) desktop and go through them.

So this is what I did:

i rooted my device
i know exactly where my file is:

$adb shell
$su
cd /data/user/0/com.app.name.dev/files/34234/
ls

here i get the file name.. let's say it's called
file_name.txt

the problem is when i go to my desktop and do something like

adb -s $device_id pull /data/user/0/com.app.name.dev/files/34234/file_name.txt

i get the error message

remote object '/data/user/0/com.app.name.dev/files/34234/file_name.txt' does not exist

when i know it does!

I also tried using scp from within the android shell command.. but scp doesn't exist there
i tried running adb root and got

adbd cannot run as root in production builds

any help?

it turns out that i simply should use the cp command from within my root android shell.. and copy it to /mnt/sdcard.. the rest is obvious after that


How can I record phone calls on Motorola Atrix 4G? Possible Duplicate:
  Is there a way to easily record a phone conversation in-progress?

I'm using a Moto Atrix 4G (MB860) running Android 2.3.6 bought from AT&T, and have tried a wide range of call recording apps but have yet to find one that actually works on my device. I notice that some apps explicitly explain that they don't work on Moto phones. Is this a hardware problem? Can I do anything to make it work?

I would like my phone to automatically record all incoming and outgoing calls, and save them in a common audio file type in the SD card or internal storage of the phone.

I've search the website, but the posts I found about call recording are neither specific to Atrix nor Motorola, which I believe are the key to the problem I currently have.

(Despite that I bought the phone from the U.S., I live in a country where call recording is perfectly legal to the best of my knowledge.)

Simple answer: No, you can't.

Longer variant: While you can recording your own voice, the system prevents you from recording the remote voice (the person you called or who is calling you). This already frustrated a lot of developers who tried to write some "answering machine" apps. So there seems to be no way without hacking the entire system...


Apps launch automatically after update in Google Play Store I am using Samsung Galaxy S4 I9505 running on Android KitKat 4.4.4. If there are 5 apps to update, all the apps open automatically after the update. My Google Play Store's current version is 5.3.6.

Why does this happen and how to prevent it?

As answered by devconsole in the comment.

  If you want to find out which app is responsible run adb logcat, look for ActivityManager: START u0 {act=android.intent.action.MAIN ... from uid xyz on display 0. Note the uid number, then run adb shell "dumpsys package" to find out what app that uid belongs to.

My case was Mr Jump game.


How to shut down (and start up) Moto X without lock button? I have a Moto X and my lock button on the side has broken. Is there any way to shut down the phone even though the button is broken? Will this allow me to start it back up too?

ADB: Once you have the Android Debugging Bridge (available with the Android SDK or packaged separately) installed on your system and authorized on your device, you can simply run this command from a terminal: adb reboot -p
Replace the missing button with a Pressy clone that plugs into your headphone jack. You can then use it with an app like KeyCut to configure what it does.


Is there any android epub reader supporting epub3 with audio/video/javascript? Hi i just developed an epub format ebook (containing a video and a javascript animation).It is working fine on iphone/ipad (running on ibooks)..I was wondering if I could read the same ebook with an Android phone/tablet ?

Take a look at Infinity Reader. It supports audio, video and all ePub3 features. The reader comes with a free book, which contains youtube video. Moreover, you can download a lot of free books.


MS Office Client for Android Possible Duplicate:
  How can I create and edit Microsoft Office documents in Android

I just bought a new Galaxy Tab P1000 and I want to open my office documents like Excel, Word, and Powerpoint.

Is there already a client like Microsoft Office for Android?

There is a great app called DocumentsToGo which lets you open MS Office files. If you want to be able to create new ones and edit them in your mobile phone, you need to buy a licence for their app, but otherwise you can use it for free.