What does Android rooting imply in terms of user accounts? I've read dozens of articles about rooting Android, all explaining how and why, but couldn't find one explaining what really happens to the user.
I don't have an Android device, I'm writing in a Linux user perspective.

Which one (if any) of these scenarios is true:

Once rooted you always log in as root. It's the end of individual users.
Once rooted all user accounts still exist as before but now have full root privileges. Created files still get the user:group of whoever is logged in.
2.1. If the above is true, can it be enabled for some users and disabled for others?
Rooting is nothing more than having access to a 'sudo'-like command. You can use it when and only when you decide. All user accounts are unchanged.
3.1 If the above is true, can it be enabled for some users and disabled for others? Is there a 'sudoers'?
If none of the above, what?

As you might have expected from the "Linux user perspective", item #3 is the correct answer. With a little adjustments: apps that come with "root features" can use the "root functionality" as well. When they try it the first time, you'll have to approve that, though:

Basically, a "clean rooting" brings in two things: a su binary and a kind of "supervisor app" (SuperUser/SuperSU). The former you can use e.g. at the shell to obtain root access – and the latter controls whom superuser powers are granted. The first time an app tries to obtain those powers, you will see a popup on the device asking you whether you confirm or deny. A check-box lets you store your decision permanently, if you wish; leaving that unchecked, the popup will re-appear the next time.


Cannot edit, delete or copy any file from /sys directory in Android? I can't edit, delete or copy any file from /sys directory in Android. How can I fix this? I have root access. I made /sys readable and writable using Root Explorer and Root Browser but that didn't solve the problem.

When I attempt to edit a text file, I just receive "failed saving text".

According to @DeathMaskSalesman, it appears the /sys partition is made uneditable at boot. So I suppose I should edit the files while in recovery mode. How can I do that exactly? Or does someone have a better idea?

Continuing my comment above. This is getting long so I'll just post it as an answer entry.

You will need to enable init.d if your ROM does not support it, for example with this tool: LINK: Google Play

After that, read up on Linux scripting and write the script doing what you intend to do. Put the script in /system/etc/init.d and set permission to 0755 (rwxr-xr-x) to allow execution. Reboot and see if it works.

Check this XDA thread for more info, as well as an example script which you can refer to.


CM11 - Cant remove the camera app I am running CM11(Nightly) on my Galaxy Tab P1000 and I cannot remove the camera app that came with it. I have tried the following command-:

adb shell rm -f /system/app/camera2.apk

But this has absolutely no effect. Please advise on how to remove the camera app because it is not working properly.

Okay I figured out how to do this. It seems since I didn't have root permission on the app therefore I was not able to delete it.

I did the following-:

First I set up ADB on Windows.
Connected my device
Typed in adb root
adb remount
adb shell
su
chmod 777 /system/app/Camera2.apk
rm -f /system/app/Camera2.apk

And voila I could delete the app.


Storage running out, can't get it back I'm looking for a solution to getting storage back on my phone because, as of yesterday, I seemed to lose almost 10GB of space.  I have a Galaxy s6 and I frequently connect it to my computer via the charger and transfer video files to and from both. After I'm done with the files, I delete them, getting my space back. But, yesterday a problem arose when I transferred video files TO my computer and deleted them from my phone. The space never cleared up and now I have (after much cleaning up with many apps) only a little over 1GB of space left. I need to get my 7-9 GB of space back and have done much research.

The *#9900# trick doesn't bring me to any options of deleting possible SysDump files and I'm not looking to root my phone. If there are any other ideas, please let me know. Thank you in advance!

If the files are really gone from the phone, your storage should reflect that. Try restarting the phone, Download a different file explorer and check the place where your files were. GO to settings/General/Storage/Internal Storage (i assume) and see how the looks look from there.


Is there a way to automatically turn off wifi? I have an LG P990, and I recently upgraded it to ICS. Since that, the charging is much slower and energy consumption is much faster. I could live with it, I charged it at work and at home too.

Yesterday however it went from 85% to empty in one night. 49% of the energy consumption is Wifi according to Battery usage.

I want to know how to periodically turns WiFi on, and after a few minutes off. Every program I was able to find did the first part, but when it found a known network, left it on indefinitely.

In the settings I have "Keep wifi on during sleep" set on "Never", but it does not help.

Before doing so, I'd consider two more things:
Finding the real cause
High WiFi usage is not caused by WiFi itself (standby), but most likely by another app constantly requesting it to "stay awake". So first check How to deal with (orphaned) WakeLocks? -- which also deals with this.
Checking your WiFi standby policy
In Settings→Wireless & Networks→WiFi, when pressing the menu button, an item named "Advanced" appears. Tap that to go into the advanced settings and check the Wifi Standby Policy. There are 3 options available:

Always: WiFi stays awake even when the display is turned off. Useful if you're streaming music.
Only when connected: Only when a power source is connected (i.e. the device is charging) -- as in that case the "battery consumption" usually is not an issue.
Never: WiFi goes to standby as soon as the display is turned off.

WiFi managing tools
If this requirement still is present after thoroughly checking above two points, there are multiple options available in this section -- enough to fill at least a small book. First, there are tools like e.g. JuiceDefender or GreenPower, dealing not only with WiFi and mobile networks, but covering a lot more energy saving stuff. Other interesting tools might include WifiBatt and many others -- just check the related apps on their playstore pages, or use Mapsaurus to find similar apps.


Cant go to last week of month in calendar I can't seem to find a way to navigate to the last week of a month, meaning 24 is the last day i see this month March 2012 (in month view), when navigating to next month, first day is 1 whilst week 13 is completely skipped.

Any idea what that can be?

Here is what it looks like:

I've found the problem.

I changed the density to a higher resolution. After resetting to system resolution, problem was solved.

I would still be glad to know if there is a solution that will allow me using the calendar at a high res. as well.


I can connect to WiFi but all websites refuse to connect I have a device running Android version 5.0.2 that connects to our WiFi network, but browsing to any website using Chrome displays a page with:

  The site can't be reached

and

  ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED

This device used to connect without a problem

I also have a second device running Android version 4.2.2 that still connects to the same network without any problems.

How can I troubleshoot the first device?

Try using a VPN, I recommend Thunder VPN if you are an Android user.

So far, this is the only solution that I thought of and that is what worked for me, but there are also other VPNs.


Samsung galaxy S3 GT-I9300 4.3 Jelly Bean to 5.0-lollipop I would like to know if it is possible to update my Samsung Galaxy S3, which is in 4.3 Jelly Bean, to 5.0-lollipop. And in this case, I would like to know :

If it is a good idea ;
Will my phone support it ;
What benefits it might bring me if it is possible.

I also would like to know the best way to proceed, to update my phone.

Thank you in advance.

Edit : I have a friend that has the same phone, and his phone updated itself. Why not mine?

Yes, it's a good idea.
Yes, your phone will support it. I've seen ROMs for the S3 (i9300) up to 5.0.2.
Benefits include: security fixes, better stability, improved battery life, new features and a lot more!

To update your phone, I would suggest

rooting it (there's a lot of information on rooting over at the XDA Developers Forum,
flashing a custom recovery like CWM, and
installing a custom 5.0.2 ROM. There are lots of them on XDA, so I'd spend a little time having a read up on the various functionality available.

As for why your friend got the update: it's possible that he has flashed a custom 5.0.0+ ROM also.


mp3 from email to player I want to download an mp3 from email and listen to it through the google music player.  I currently do it through yahoo mail and jelly bean 4.2.2.  However after downloading I have to turn off and back on phone for it to show in player.  Closing the player and restarting player does not get it to recognise the newly downloaded file.

There must be a better way?

There is. All that has to be done is having the Media Scanner run and update the index. Turning the device off and on again triggers this, but (as you said) is not a very convenient way. Unmounting/mounting the SD card would trigger it as well (and can be done via Settings→Storage) -- already a little better, but still not very user-friendly.

The most easy way would be to have an app like e.g. Rescan Media taking care for it. Rescan SD might be even more convenient, as it offers a widget. Just tap it, wait for the scan to finish, and your MP3 file should be visible from your music players.


Which app should I select when inserting my phone into the car dock? I have a Tasker profile conditional on the phone being in the Car Dock.   When I insert the phone in the dock, I sometimes get a prompt to choose which application to launch -- either Tasker or "Smart Dock", a built-in app.  (When I don't get the prompt, neither seems to be notified).  There is also an option to make the setting stick.   I want Tasker to be notified, but the built-in app to launch.   Which should I choose?

edit: I get the same prompt when removing the phone from the dock.

Tasker should be seeing the event even if the system doesn't have it set as the default handler, so you should be safe setting Smart Dock as the default. (That said, you could also have Tasker handle the launch of Smart Dock.)


Missing profile pic after repair - Android 7.0 Anyone know how to get rid of the blue profile pic circle and replace with my Google one on Android 7?

The trick used to be to turn on contact sync on Google plus and clear contacts cache, but I can't see that setting in the latest version of plus!

On my Moto G4+ which I've just had reset (as it went in for a repair).

I had the same issue on Nougat and changing the profile photo in contacts app worked for me

Open Contacts App - Settings - My Info and change your profile photo.

Works immediately, no restart needed.


Clearing System Storage & Ram Is there any other way to clear System Storage and Ram on my phone? I have a Samsung Galaxy Pocket. I can clear some Ram thru Task Manager, and all apps (that will allow it) have been moved to the sd card. Any music, photos or videos are on my External SD Card.
I dont run and widgets either.
Please help!

First, there's no need to "clear RAM" (see our ram tag-wiki for details).

Second, task-killers are rather to be avoided for all but very specific cases: they are useful when an app goes bonkers, but their purpose is not to clear/clean anything. For this topic, please see:

Is it advisable to run a task killer app on Android
Do task killers actually work?

Third, "clear System Storage" is certainly not what you have in mind literally (/system storage is mounted read-only, and basically is where "the OS" resides). Clearing storage is a different thing when it comes to the parts writeable: cache, apps you've installed (including their data), files you've downloaded (eBooks, music, videos). Now that's something which can be pretty useful. There are several apps available for Storage Analysis, helping you to find the "big chunks" to delete selectively. And there are even more apps helping you with System Cleanup directly.

Not to forget what you could do even without those helpers: Walk the list of the apps you've installed (in Settings › Apps), and uninstall those you no longer need. What's not there cannot use up precious storage, and cannot waste resources like CPU, RAM, or network bandwidth.


Is there an official dialer code resource? There are a ton of XDA forums and a decent number of answers here that refer to specific dialer codes. For instance *#*#4636#*#* will cause unicorns to spring forth from your phone or tell you what OS you're running and how much RAM you have (I forget which). I found one list of Secret Star Codes but I'm wondering if there's a more complete list? Someone warned that some codes can really screw up your phone and it'd be nice to have a good place to point people for good information on what the codes actually mean.

Though in fact *#*#4636#*#*, which was recently recommended, is fairly safe, I think it is a good practice, especially since we all start talking about fire breathing dragons when the subject of rooting a device comes up, to make sure we're encouraging folks to make sure they know what a dialer code is going to do.

This thread over at XDA seems to be a pretty good start on this kind of resource.

Edit: I just noticed that the OP in that thread admitted that most of the codes listed wouldn't work in 2.2.  Bummer.

Edit 2: Found another one.  No indication of whether these codes have been tested and if so what device/ROM was used.


Android Batterystats Report I'm working on a research project about Android smartphones power consumption. Using "adb shell dumpsys batterystats" interesting stats can be obtained. For example:

Statistics since last charge:
  System starts: 0, currently on battery: false
  Time on battery: 1h 0m 38s 51ms (99.7%) realtime, 1h 0m 38s 50ms (99.7%) uptime
  Time on battery screen off: 30m 21s 169ms (49.9%) realtime, 30m 21s 169ms (49.9%) uptime
  Total run time: 1h 0m 47s 207ms realtime, 1h 0m 47s 207ms uptime
  Start clock time: 2016-06-18-22-57-54
  Screen on: 30m 16s 882ms (49.9%) 1x, Interactive: 30m 16s 367ms (49.9%)
  Screen brightnesses:
    dark 10s 89ms (0.6%)
    light 30m 6s 793ms (99.4%)....

Estimated power use (mAh):
    Capacity: 6700, Computed drain: 298, actual drain: 335-402
    Screen: 244
    Unaccounted: 36.9 ( )
    Uid u0a90: 15.8 ( cpu=15.8 )
    Uid 1000: 9.58 ( cpu=9.49 sensor=0.0868 )
.....

As far as I know, the power_profile.xml is used to estimate the power consumption of each hardware component, and differs from device model to another.
Now I have couple of questions:
Q1: How does Android compute actual drain ?
I looked everywhere and I can't seem to find an answer. I also checked Android code, but unfortunately I couldn't identify the implementation of the method responsible for "actual drain".

Q2: How Android estimates the screen power consumption ?
the Screen's value when its "light = 75%" found in the power_profile.xml on Nexus 9:
ligh: 120.96 ( and it's in mA according to the power_profile.xml)
The report says the power consumption of the screen is 244 mAh, when it was on "light" state for 30 mins, it doesn't make sense to me ! Can you guys explain it ? I tried to check the source code in [here][2], :( again I couldn't find it.
 Q3 How accurate these values in the power_profile.xml ? I found on another Android community werbsite some reported issues for Samsung devices. But I don't know about Nexus 9.

 Thank you guys for your time.

I'm definitely not a expert on this but hopefully I can be a little help.

Usually the devices measure the voltage of the battery.
When a battery is discharged it gradually degreases it voltage level.
When the voltage level is dropped below a certain point the hardware doesn't work anymore.
This is one of the reasons why the older ipod/ipad/iphone devices didnt shut down at 0% battery but a lot earlier (If I remember correctly my old ipod touch would shut down around 11%.

EEVblog made a great video about debunking a product that claims that it can extend battery life of electronic products EEvblog Video. Too debunk the product he gives a lot of information about what happens when battery discharges and about when electronic devices shut down.

Hopefully can this information help you a little bit with your project.


Re Install android OS in Mobile Phone I am using LG optimus E 400.

Recently, I have rooted my Android phone. After rooting, it's not booting up now; just displaying white screen.

I have tried go to the boot loader by pressing (Hold POWER + Vol Down) but it's not working in my phone.

After some searching in Google, I found that the solution is re-installing the Android OS. How do I do that? Is any other recovery option?

Thanks.

Solution as per link provided by OP:

Vijesh finally was able to solve his issue using the All-In-One Toolkit, following the instructions from this XDA thread. This toolkit requires Windows. Not explicitly mentioned in the XDA thread, but most likely this means you've also to install the appropriate device drivers for your smartphone. But it looks like the toolkit offers to do that for you as well, see the item I - Install APX drivers in below screenshot:

The All-In-One Toolkit (Source: XDA; click image for larger variant)

The tool seems to be pretty self-explaining. For the installation, you simply run the self-extractor, which prompts you for a target directory. Then you start the tool, and select the wanted item (here probably 6 - LG Update Tool). Again, everything runs almost automatically -- simply follow the instructions given. The .kdz file should be flashed then to the device, and you'll end up with the fresh ROM installed.


"Failed to send message. Review message and try again" when sending SMS to short code from Samsung Galaxy Note8 When trying to send SMS to short code recipients like 567676, 56161, etc. from Samsung Galaxy Note8, I got the following error message:

  Failed to send message. Review message and try again.

I've tried entering the correct SMSC number, allowing premium access, nothing has worked. I tried the SIM in another phone., I couldn't send it from there too.

I'm able to send SMS to normal phone numbers.

How to fix this?

I had the same issue, turns out the problem was due to my mobile balance. I had unlimited recharge package which always showed 0 balance hence the messages were not going out for these kind of numbers that are chargeable. I recharged my mobile and voila, the message got sent.


How do I show the upload status in the notification bar? I have an HTC One.  I recently went to Settings --> Apps and disabled "Show Notifications" on one of the apps listed that prevented showing the upload status of whatever I upload (Facebook video, pictures, etc.) in the notification bar.  I can't remember for the life of me which "App" this was - how do I re-enable showing uploads on my notification screen?  I am using 4.3.

Most apps, if not all, have the Show Notifications checkbox. I suppose you'll just have to go through all your apps, and see which one was unchecked and check it again.


How does an android factory reset work? When performing a factory reset, does Android remove all the added applications and user data or does it completely reflash an image of the OS

I am running on jelly bean 4.3 stock

When performing a factory reset:

/system is untouched since it's normally read-only anyway
/data is formatted
/cache is formatted
/sdcard is not touched unless you specify. Note that apps on the sdcard will still be erased.

So, to answer your question, the system is not reflash end, but instead the data and cache partitions are formatted.


Where can I find a good comparison of available custom ROMs? I'm looking for a good comparison of custom ROMs' features and quality.  I would prefer a comparison that is actively maintained.

The Android Release Matrix at AndroidSpin is pretty comprehensive.

There is also the PDAdb.net Rom Respository, although I don't think it's as user friendsly as the AndroidSpin db.

Last (and least relevant to your question) is theunlockr's list of Android Roms (I just thought it was worth mentioning).


Long press textmenu editing I am very new to apply codes. Sorry my disturbunce...

I am english learner. I am reading english newspaper. When i long press on a word textmenu popup and i need to push translate button but its in hidden side and i need to press three dot to open it.

How can i find this textmenu area in an app on apk editor?
How can i get long press menu fixed in view on an app.
Or at least how can i change order long press menu copy,share, select all to other order..
Thank u in advance. Any mistake please delete my message and forgive me...

You cannot change this order because Android devices this order internally.


Bug report and Settings crash on Nexus 4 My Nexus 4 is rooted with stock ROM (version 4.4.4) and custom recovery TWRP. Recently it automatically generated some bug report: one is a png image (just a blank screen in black) and another text file in 9MB. Since it's a huge file, what should I look for in the text file?

Also there is another problem on my Nexus 4: Settings keeps crashing when an app is selected under Settings/Apps with error message : "Unfortunately, Settings has stopped." It's described in details here. I'm not so sure if the two problems are related. I've tried to re-flash the factory image of 4.4.4, but the problem remains.

Don't know about Settings issue but the bug report thing is pretty popular: Google's devices do a report now and then (don't ask me why.... maybe those reports are sent to Google to keep everything under control or to check if something goes wrong) so just don't worry.
On my Nexus 5 I can even make a bug report everytime I want (just by pressing power+volume up at the same time) and you should have the same feature.
It basically depends on the activation of USB Debugging: if it's active, then the bug report creation is active.
You can disable it by simply disabling USB Debugging or by going into /system/bin and renaming bugmailer.sh to bugmailer.sh.bak or deleting it. Then just reboot and no more bugmailer.
Let me know if this helped you someway :)

P.S.: for the Settings issue just try the simplest thing: go into the app drawer -> long press on "Settings" app -> move it to the upper side (App Info) -> clear data.
I feel optimistic and think the problem will disappear ;)


get back root with custom rom Not long ago I upgraded my Samsung Galaxy 3 (GT-i5800) with Kyrillos' rom v10.6

It appears to use CyanogenMod 7.3.0-RC3
Android 2.3.7

Some apps I often need to use, like SSHDroid, Terminal and Midnight Commander, often get "has been denied superuser permissions"

I see mention of a root option, to Enabled for ADB and/or Apps , but no way to get to such a settings page despite various suggestions.
http://www.cyanogenmod.org/blog/security-and-you

The SuperSU bundled with CyanogenMod 7 was somehow inaccessible to user root access requests, like with SSHDroid, Terminal Emulator and Midnight Commander, as I've mentioned.

Forums confirm superuser permissions being denied to everything, and inability to get to its configuration. This was a later CyanogenMod design decision.

What finally worked for me was copying the latest CWM-SuperSU-v1.93.zip over to my SD card, rebooting into the "recover" mode CyanogenMod provides, and flashing from that ZIP.
http://www.adbtoolkit.com/rooting/su/zip/#.UxmWtNxdVeQ

Now, I can finally do things like clean out large files from /data/dalvik-cache/*.dex when internal space is badly needed temporarily, or other UNIXy things.


What limitations does rooting and/or installing a ROM put on my phone? I have an Evo and I'm kind of frustrated at the space limitations on the internal memory, the crapware that came pre-installed (Blockbuster and Nascar, Really?) and some performance issues.  I was thinking that the right ROM might solve those problems.  It seems like I read somewhere a while back that rooting/ROMs cause some dealbreaker problems that I didn't want to have.  I can't find that article again, so I figured I'd ask you.

If I root my phone and install a custom ROM, can I:

Use the Android Market like normal?
Use the standard GMail, Google Maps, GTalk, and other social networking apps without a problem?
Use the Google Voice app fully integrated like I do on the stock ROM?

I know this will void the warranty.  Are there any other limitations I should be aware of?

I can't speak for the Google Voice App being fully integrated - I only use it for the voicemail feature.  However I have a fully rooted Evo (Fresh Rom 3.5) and I still have access to the market and all the normal Google Android Apps.  In fact I find that rooting gives me more features like free wireless tether and with Fresh 3.5 the power manager is integrated into the notification drop down (which I find really cool).  Google Voice still works perfectly for voice mail.

As far as I know the only limitation is the one you have listed: it will void the warranty.  However if something goes wrong there is a huge community over at XDA to help you out or you can unroot and see what happens when you bring your device in to Sprint ( I haven't had to do this yet so I can't speak on that part).

Rooting (for me) has also made my battery life WAY better and gotten rid of those Sprint apps that I don't want.

Edit:
I can't comment on eldarerathis's post otherwise this would have gone there: I had forgotten about hardware limitations of using AOSP Roms like CM.  eldarerathis is correct though that with certain roms HDMI and 4G won't work.  When I had the HTC Hero and first loaded CM I think the Camera didn't work but in time this was fixed and this is why I have avoided the CM Rom so far for my Evo.

If you want the HTC Sense experience though don't go with CM or AOSP roms - these are essentially stock Android.

Hope this helps


How do you set up internet pass-through (reverse-tether) on linux? I have an HTC Desire S that has the option to connect through usb, and use the computer's internet connection. This works fine on Windows, but I'm struggling to set it up in Ubuntu.
When I plug in and select internet pass-through from the usb menu, the usb1 device is created and I can ping it's ip address. I have tried various iptables configurations and setting up nat, but I'm not sure if I'm doing it right, or if there needs to be some additional configuration...

Thanks for any help.

The following works for a while, but only for the browser.

When you plug in your phone via usb and choose Internet pass-through, you should get a new RNDIS device (usb0 or usb1).
For ubuntu, edit /etc/network/interfaces and add the following lines:

iface usb0 inet dhcp
iface usb1 inet dhcp

This will assign an IP automatically when the device is added.
If a network address is not assigned automaticly to usb0 or usb1 you have to do it manually.

Then you need to set up NAT on your linux computer. Something like:

sudo iptables -A POSTROUTING -t nat -j MASQUERADE
sudo echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

You also need a DNS server:

sudo apt-get install bind9

This works for a few minutes, but after a while the phone gives up looking for HTC Sync and disconnects.

For rooted phones

You can connect permanently if you have a rooted phone (fre3vo worked for me).
Execute the following with adb.

Enable usb mode for network and adb:

adb shell echo 6 > /sys/devices/platform/msm_hsusb/usb_function_switch

Assign an IP to the usb0 device on the phone:

adb shell ifconfig usb0 192.168.99.5 netmask 255.255.255.0 up

Add a default route. The IP should be the IP assigned to usb0 in linux:

adb shell route add default gw 192.168.99.1 dev usb0

Set the DNS server. This is google's open DNS server, but it can be the IP of your linux computer if you have a DNS server:

adb shell setprop net.dns1 8.8.8.8


Deleting images from Google Photos without deleting them from the device I've created a folder in Google Photos with images that were in other folders. I want to delete the images from the other folders without deleting them from the device. But when I delete them, they get deleted from the new folder and the device.
Is it possible to only delete the images from Google Photos without deleting them from the device?

You can go through the web interface https://photos.google.com/, download all your photos in order to have a backup, then you can delete the needed ones.
In case the deleted Google Photos from the web interface delete also the ones in the device, you can restore them to it using USB connection (Folder: Internal Storage/DCIM or External Storage/DCIM if you have a SD card).


Can I really edit my Telegram messages only with the desktop client? I use Telegram both on my desktop and my mobile phone. On the desktop, I can edit messages I've sent, but on the mobile Telegram client I can't find this option anywhere. Does it really not exist or am I missing something. Or - should I look for an unofficial client for this feature?

Note:

If I tap a message in a Telegram conversation view, the 'Message' context menu only has "Reply|Copy|Forward|Delete" - and no "Edit".
My client version is 4.9.1 (1361) arm-v7a

A simple tap on a message you sent recently will bring up the action menu containing "Edit".


Find lost device without Gmail account configured and without SIM card I recently misplaced a phone that did not have gmail account configured and did not have a SIM card in it either. Is there any way I can track it ?

All of the tracking apps either require sending an SMS (needs SIM card) or OTA install(needs Gmail account).

I do have the IMEI number of the phone.

No, there is no way to track it without having it configured in some way to connect to a wireless source of data.  Without a SIM card you can't do that via a service provider and without having the Google account configured (and thus an authentication token that identifies your phone) you can't do it via WiFi (if you have it turned on).


Easiest way to automatically pause music when removing device from Dock? I'd like the music on my Droid 4 to automatically pause when I pull the thing out of the dock, no matter what. I don't need it to auto-play again later, just go to pause and stay there.

What's the easiest way to do this? I'm willing to buy an app if it makes this simple.

I normally use the built-in music player, but again I'm willing to try something else if it would help.

If it's relevant, I have the phone set to not go into the dock app for desktop use.

As I've mentioned in the comments already (and which harbichidian thankfully approved), this can be done using tasker:

Condition: State → Docked
Task: (put something here you want to be done when placing the device in dock, or substitute some dummy like "Variable Set: %DUMMY = 1")
Exit Task: Media Control → Pause

There might be several other approaches to this. I still hold Tasker being at least one of the better solutions (if not even the best) is you can do so much more with it. Just check the questions tagged "tasker", or follow the links in our tasker tag-wiki to get an idea.


Can I install an MTK6577 ROM on a Star W007 6575 MTK? I have a Star W007 single core MTK 6575. I downloaded a A8809 Jellybean for a MTK6577 dual core. Can you install this dual core rom on a single core. Most MTK stuff is interchangeable or are the drivers completely different?

No, you can't install a ROM on a different device than the one it was compiled for. Even devices based on the same SoC usually need differently configured ROM files, let alone ones based on different SoCs such as these two.


Where can I see what the screen dimensions are of an Android mobile phone I have a Samsung Galaxy S mobile phone, I can't seem to find the dimensions of the screen (apart from looking it up on the internet of course).

But in general: can you somewhere see the correct screen dimensions of a mobile device's screen ?

Here is a chart with most devices specs to help find the resolution. Source matt :)
in a response on what-size-should-images-be-for-android-wallpaper?


How to save and recover icon and folder positions? How can I save and recover the position of icons and folders?

They get wiped every time I patch Android.

I am using Go Launcher Ex Home launcher which saves the current configuration and we can restore it whenever we need. If you have a different launcher check for Backup/Restore configuration settings.


"system" reboots my device after I allow it to in SuperUser? Today, a random SuperUser request from "system", with UID 1000, appear. I figured that it was nothing, so I accepted it. A couple of seconds later, my phone rebooted, or at least that's what I think it did. I saw the T-Mobile screen flash by really quickly; the Samsung screen did not appear. So, what happened and should I be concerned?

If you've installed any task killer application that has super user permission granted, this might be killing all the tasks(including system critical processes) which might result in a restart.
An eg. for this would be ZDBox.
Try checking if that's causing the problem.


Rename a bluetooth device? Android doesn't seem to offer a way to name (or rename) a paired bluetooth device. For example, if I have two identical Bluetooth headsets, I can't readily tell which is which.

Do you know of any way to rename a paired bluetooth device? Perhaps an application?

The bluetooth device names come from the device itself, so unless there's a way to do this from your headset, this isn't possible, at least on stock Android. A quick google search revealed a thread that claimed CyanogenMod 7 can do this (it creates an alias for the device, doesn't change the name itself).


Cannot get a G2 to connect to anything via USB I just bought a G2 on craigslist. It came rooted and with custom recovery. Whenever I plug it into my computer (tried my mac and two other PCs) the phone does not recognize it's plugged into a computer (just gives me a regular slow charging warning). On windows when I plug it in I get a malfunctioning usb device error. I have tried many cables.

I have USB debugging enabled.

I also tried putting it in download mode, but it still gives the malfunctioning usb error and the progress bar never goes anywhere.

I think the device is missing a recovery partition (might be something I did while trying to fix it) because I can't seem to get into recovery.

Is this a hardware issue or what?

Have you tried checking the device manager on your PC? you might need to install some software to have it work.  However you just use Wireless Storage and type in \G2 in networks to access it.


Saving image from gmail app I have downloaded some images from an email using my gmail app . I tried to find it in my gallery and also in my storage but i couldn't find it either in my gallery or in my storage

In your Gmail app go to settings, then click on your your target email address (where you want to get image attachments downloaded) , then untick the option which says "Auto download attachment to recent messages via Wi-Fi" try again to get your image.

It seems attachment downloads are restricted to wi-fi (default) but option is not clear at all as it seems to imlply a different thing. So disabling this option implies both data and wi-fi are considered (although the option is a bit misleading) It however fixed the issue.

Edit

Downloaded images are saved in downloads folder of sdcard or here /storage/emulated/0/Download

credits: beeshyams


Accidentally enabling Google voice input, how to switch back to text keyboard? I have a Vodafone (VFD 610) Android phone - I seem to have picked up Google voice input (microphone next to the text box), and so I have no keyboard and I can't send messages. It's never happened before, and I don't know what to do.

I have restarted the phone several times, but the problem is still there.

I don't want to try and clear anything without knowing what I am doing, in case I disable something and don't know how to reinstate it.

How to switch back to text keyboard?

Turn Voice Input On / Off - Android™
The voice input feature:
 - enables hands-free keyboard use by tapping the microphone located on the onscreen keyboard.
 - can't be turned off on some devices.

Using Google™ Keyboard/Gboard

From a Home screen, navigate: Apps icon > Settings then tap 'Language & input' or 'Language & keyboard'.
For Oreo OS, navigate: Apps icon > Settings > System > Languages, input & gestures.
For Samsung devices on Oreo OS, swipe up or down from the center of the display to access the apps screen then navigate: Settings > General management > Languages and input.
For Pie OS, swipe up from the home screen then navigate: Settings > System > Languages & keyboard, input & gestures.
From the On-screen keyboard, tap Google Keyboard/Gboard.
Google Keyboard/Gboard is pre-installed on some devices, or download and install the app from the Google Play Store by searching for 'Gboard'.
Tap Preferences.
Tap the Voice input key switch to turn on  or off .

Using Device Keyboard

If your device doesn't offer these steps, use Google Keyboard/Gboard to manage voice input.
 1. From a Home screen, navigate: Apps icon > Settings then tap 'Language & input' or 'Language & keyboard'.
 2. For Oreo OS, navigate: Apps icon > Settings > System > Languages & keyboard, input & gestures.
 3. For Samsung devices on Oreo OS, swipe up or down from the center of the display to access the apps screen then navigate: Settings > General management > Languages and input.
 4. For Pie OS, swipe up from the home screen then navigate: Settings > System > Languages & keyboard, input & gestures.
 5. From 'Keyboards...', tap 'Virtual keyboard' or 'On-screen keyboard'.
 6. If presented, tap 'Manage Keyboards', then perform one of the following as appropriate:
 - Tap Google voice typing to turn on or off.
 - Tap  keyboard then tap the Google voice typing key switch to turn on or off.
For more info on the Google Keyboard/Gboard app, view this support article


Black status bar icon on Marshmallow making it unreadable on dark wallpaper Even though the title enunciates the problem, the question is about a solution or workaround to this behaviour.

As I have found, Marshmallow normally colors the status bar icons (Wi-Fi, Battery, Clock) on the launcher (home screens) by taking the colour of the topmost region of the wallpaper currently set and tinting the icons to a darker version of it.

This is all well and good if you have the sky there in your wallpaper, or something light-coloured; but if you have a night-time cityscape as your wallpaper, it colours the icons to be "Darker Than Black" (pun intended). So, magically, your Wi-Fi, Battery, Clock and everything else just disappears from the status bar. Only they haven't disappeared. Set a light wallpaper or a dark one with the top region light, and they're back.

I don't think that this is a problem with the launcher, as I use both Nova Prime and Google Now Launcher, and both have this problem. I also checked the System UI Tuner options for such settings relating to this tinting mechanism, and they're nonexistent (The settings there include what statusbar icons and quick settings tiles to show, battery icon customization, demo mode, and that's it).

I know of 3 possible workarounds to prevent this behaviour:

Disable Nova Launcher's transparent statusbar option under "Look and Feel", but I don't want to do that.
Use Xposed+FSCB (Flat Style Colored Bars) or similar. Well, Xposed on Lollipop 32-bit was unstable. Marshmallow ARM64? (I really have no idea, but I'm definitely not willing to take the risk.
This was a no-brainer. Use a light wallpaper. (Well, then I wouldn't have asked this question, would I?)

The question is: "Can I have the best of both worlds (i.e., my dark nighttime cityscapes as wallpapers and visible statusbar icons)?"

The solutions I'll prefer can involve root but not Xposed, and not 1 or 3 above. Also, it's preferable if the solution tints the icons to white on a dark wallpaper but preserves the stock behaviour otherwise, and doesn't affect apps other than the launcher, because my problem doesn't affect apps other than the launcher.

Background:

My HTC Nexus 9 16GB, Wi-Fi, flounder/volantis running Marshmallow 6.0.0 MRA58K rooted with TWRP 2.8.7.0 ElementalX 4.02

Some pictures:

Click images to enlarge

Light wallpaper:

Dark wallpaper:

Dark wallpaper with light top region (Whaat?):

What I want ( This is from my phone, same Nova Prime, 4.4.2, (Lollipop signal icons courtesy GravityBox KK)):

Based on reddit (and I have tested it myself), apparently it's a feature of Nova Launcher on Android 6.0 Marshmallow called "Dark icons". It seems it's enabled by default for existing users after updating the app (on my case, new installation will have to turn this setting on manually).

The setting can be checked on Nova Settings - Look & feel - Dark icons. Note that this is a new feature of Marshmallow, allowing an app to have black status icons for light status bar, and thus, the setting is only available on Marshmallow and above.

As for why it also affected Google Now Launcher, I actually have no idea, since I couldn't reproduce the issue on Nexus 5 running Marshmallow 6.0. Even if I leave the option enabled on Nova Launcher, changing the home setting (on Settings - Home - Google Now Launcher) and pressing "Home" button will revert the whole launcher to Google Now Launcher with its default white icon.


Should I upgrade my Moto G4 to Nougat? I my personal phone is a Moto G4 (2GB RAM, 16GB storage). I have bought it mainly to learn how to develop apps for Android (currently, marshmallow is working very well for me).

I've seen that my phone has an upgrade ready to download - the new Android 7.0 (today, he is 6.0.1, Marshmallow). I usually don't upgrade to newer versions unless I'm sure my cell won't be slower/somehow damaged by it. So I would like your advice, specifically to my phone.

Will it run ok with my 2GB of memory? (today, my phone is really fast, I don't want it to become one of those phones that makes simple tasks, like reading whatsapp/SMS slow).
Will it use more storage space than Marshmallow? How much it will use, approximately?
Is there any known problem (incompatibility, apps that stopped running, unusable phone resources)?

Thanks in advance

I've just upgraded my Moto G4. Here are my impressions:

The systems are pretty similar, no big difference.
Nougat seems a little bit faster than marshmallow (might be due to some apps I was always keeping in background, which were closed during the upgrade)
No data loss (at least didn't notice anything until now)
I had to reconfigure my dual-sim call/sms selection (it has apparently changed - more options - on 7.0, but I could configure with the same settings I had before, which were working for me).

Summarizing, I am happy with the upgrade :)


How to use dirty cow exploit? I got Sony m4 aqua with locked bootloader, android 6.01 and july 1 2016 security patch, no DM verity...
I would like to freeze few factory apps via adb's pm disable command (or any other way possible).
I've tried to run "su pm disable package.name" but the su command is not recognized for some reason.
I am Linux noob but I got android studio with SDK and NDK installed on lubuntu machine (got it also on win7 machine).
Can someone explain me the steps to take in order to gain root shell access with DirtyCow exploit (or any other way) to be able to freeze apps?

The reason the command isn't working for you is because "su" is a binary that gets installed by rooting your device. Without a proper root you have no "su" command.

In order to use the dirtycow exploit you have to compile the binary for your device's architecture.

Head over to https://github.com/timwr/CVE-2016-5195 and download or git clone the files.
(Optional) If you do not know your device architecture then on the phone install the "Droid Hardware Info" app from Play Store, open it, and swipe left to get to the System tab. Next to the label "Instruction Sets" will be your supported architecture.
On your computer open a terminal and navigate to where the dirtycow files are (extract if needed). Then simply type "make (insert architecture here)" without the quotes. This will create two binaries inside the folder at libs/(your_architecture)/ called dirtycow & run-as. Alternatively, if you have USB Debugging enabled then simply attach the device and type "make root" and it will push the binaries into your device at /data/local/tmp, then automate a few ADB commands to exploit and grant you a limited root shell.
If you don't see the terminal user icon as # and instead see a $ then the exploit didn't work at some point. Since the files are still on the device I would suggest to then try and manually patch run-as by using adb shell and typing the following...

chmod 777 /data/local/tmp/*

dirtycow /data/local/tmp/run-as /system/bin/run-as

/system/bin/run-as

If this doesn't prompt you as root user (#) then the exploit won't work for your device in this fashion and you'll need to do some digging why not. If this happens try opening an Issue on the Github repo, it's still pretty active so you should have an answer before long.


How do I make my kid’s Android phone ring even if silenced when I call him? Sometimes my kids forget to put their phones on ring mode and then I can’t reach them. I’m looking for a solution that will unmute their Galaxy S7 when my or my wife call them.

It might not be applicable if your kids are older, but my kid just got his first phone and I manage it with Google Family Link. Even when the phone is on silent I can make it play a sound and get him to answer a call or message. It's worked out really well for me, the one thing I don't know is if you can have more than one family device managers to manage the family's devices. It might be worth checking out at least.

I can also use it for managing screen time restrictions and other parental controls that I really felt were missing in cheap, stock Android phones.


Modifying android system apps Does anyone know a good articles or tutorials explaining how to go about it?

Do I need to recompile android sources after modifying system apps and then install them on my emulator device somehow?

Or maybe the process is much simplier than I imagine? (What I mean is just creating an apk and then just installing it on the phone?)

Thanks a lot in advance!

If you've got the AOSP source, then just import the app into Eclipse/Studio from packages/apps in the source tree.  Then you can modify it an run it on one of the emulators (a/k/a AVDs) or a real device connected via USB.

If you want to replace the system app in the build, then put your modified code back into packages/apps and rebuild the system image.  Otherwise you can just install and run it alongside the 'real' app.

FYI, if you get into this and have more involved programming questions, you should probably post in StackOverflow with an Android tag.


Switch ROMs, still seamlessly use Apps and its data I am presently using a rooted LG P500 running stock 2.3.3. I am very fond of trying various ROMs and recently got hooked to unofficial CM10 Android 4.1.1 (JellyBean).

Working with such unofficials or even official nightly builds has a problem of receiving frequent update. When ever such update comes I have to wrap up all my app and its data using Titanium Backup (TB) and for safety backup my present ROM completely using CWM recovery.

After installing the new ROM, I will download TB alone and restore all my apps.  Though the TB has batch mode for "Restoring all missing apps and its data", TB asks for confirmation before installing every app and prompt for "Done/Open" after installing every app.  This kills the purpose of running a batch.

Now my questions:

Is there any way I can switch between ROMs but keep the apps (with its data) installed in a common location for all ROMs
Automate the restore option (in new ROM) such that with one click and a wait of few minutes should get my phone back with all apps and data intact?

My dream use case with either question will be like: While I am in 2.3.3 ROM I would simply backup the present apps and its data to SD card and install the new ROM. When the new ROM is installed, I would like to have the apps that where backed up in my 2.3.3 ROM to come back with its data by doing something that is not daunting, but ready to wait for a while.

Any suggestions?

The pro version of Titanium Backup supports batch restore without user interaction. It's worth it.


Can I use the Nexus-S GPS as an external GPS for another device (via Bluetooth)? Is it possible to use the Nexus-S GPS as an external GPS for another device (via Bluetooth) ?

Have you tried these apps:

GPS 2 Bluetooth v.2
Bluetooth GPS Output
Tether GPS Lite
GPS Tether


How to sync music bought on Google Play back into iTunes I have the Google Music manager set to watch my iTunes folder, so if I buy music on iTunes, it'll end up in my Google Play Music.

What about the other direction?

When I buy a song on Google Play, how do I set things up so that it will be added to my iTunes collection on my Mac?

I've bought one album on Google Play Music and because I've set in Preferences that I want monitor my iTunes folder, everything new in iTunes is uploading to GPM.
When I bought this album it started downloading to my iTunes library automatically but when I deleted in on iTunes (I needed to free some disk space) it hadn't appeared again. So I have to download manually whole album using Google Play extension in Chrome and add it to iTunes.
So I assume there is no "sync" or "push" to iTunes in GPM.

Recent introduction of Apple Music brings more confusion. if you are Apple Music abonent then:
1. When you buy some album on GPM and it will go to iTunes.
2. If you turned on iCloud Music Library the album start to upload to iCloud and songs start to being matched by Apple.
3. As long as you are subscribed to AMusic you may hear this album "from the cloud" on all your PC and iOS devices with exception of Apple TV for now and Android phones (will be possible in fall 2015).


Is it possible to receive an incoming call while tethering on an Android phone? Is it possible to have a 3G tethering session and receive an audio call at the same time? Is this the function of the phone or the mobile OS or the carrier-network?

It depends:

You are on a CDMA network (Verizon, Sprint) you can't call and use Internet at the same time (exepect if you use Internet over Wifi) - This is limitation of CDMA only networks
You are on a GSM network (AT&T for US and almost all other operator worlwide excluding Asia). In this case if you have 3G connectivity you should be able to use 3G and call at the same time, if connectivity not 3G but only GRPS/EDGE you can't have a call and internet at the same time (because GPRS/EDGE use voice channel)


Words are not clear on my Samsung Galaxy Y phone? I recently bought a Samsung Galaxy Y phone and I noticed that text is a little blurry in the phone. I compared it with my Samsung Galaxy Ace phone and the difference is quite clear. The displayed text on the Y is ugly.

I have also attached an image of the phone below.

Why is text displayed blurry on the screen of my Samsung Galaxy Y phone?

The Samsung Galaxy Y is a low spec phone and most importantly this can be observed with its display.

Some common models in comparison (by resolution, pixel per inch, screen size, price):

Galaxy Y: 240x320, 132 PPI, 3.0in, 110EUR
Galaxy Ace: 320x480, 165 PPI, 3.5in, 190EUR
Galaxy Nexus: 720x1280, 316 PPI, 4.65in, 410EUR

The text is blurry because there are much less pixels per inch to allow it to display text beautifully. You most probably can see individual pixels without a magnifying glass in comparison to "HD" displays like the Galaxy Nexus' and such.


How can I duplicate an event in the Microsoft Outlook Android application? How can I duplicate an event in the Microsoft Outlook Android application?

To duplicate a calendar event in Outlook is not straight forward. There is no copy or long-press to copy an event. You have to copy the description on the existing event, create a new event, paste the description, select the attendees and time, etc.

The feature has been requested in Uservoice since at least 2016. However, Microsoft has not implemented it yet.


Can system apps be enabled/disabled directly from the filesystem? System apps can be disabled by using pm disable [appname] and re-enabled in the same fashion. But is there a way to accomplish the same thing by editing some file(s?) somewhere?

Context: My Android-x86 virtual machine is on boot-loop caused by disabling the Google App. That's the main reason I'm asking this question.

Whether an app is enabled or disabled is stored in a single file /data/system/users/0/package-restrictions.xml.

I took the following steps to re-enable the Google App and solve my bootloop problem:

Boot the Android-x86 virtual machine in debug mode (i.e. append DEBUG=2 to the GRUB entry)
mount the filesystem:

su

cd /dev    # these are necessary to "refresh" the environment
cd ..      # otherwise the following commands wouldn't work

mkdir temp
mount /dev/block/sda1 temp

Edit the package-restrictions.xml file with vi:

vi /temp/android-6.0-rc1/data/system/users/0/package-restrictions.xml

Find the entry containing <pkg name="com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox" enabled="3" enabledCaller="com.android.settings">
Move the cursor to the end of that line (Line 13 in my case) and press a to begin editing (see Basic vi commands)
Remove the enabled and enabledCaller attributes. The resulting line should be <pkg name="com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox">
Press Esc and type :wq and press Enter to save and exit vi

Type exit and hit Enter (twice) to boot to Android normally.


Is there a way to create location shortcuts for navigation I often have to navigate to the same places with the google maps navigation. I use speech to enter the address. Is there a way to create shortcuts, which i can chose on the touchscreen to navigate to an often used places? F.e. i dond't want to enter my home address everytime, instead i want to save it as "home" and have the ability to chose that.

You can create a screen shortcut for "home" or any location you use often. Long-press on the home screen, select the Shortcuts option, and scroll down to get a Directions option. You'll be prompted for an address, which can be either specific or general. Choose car, public transit, or walking directions, ensure "Turn-by-turn navigation" is checked, and give it a short name, like "home". Now you have a shortcut which will quickly get the directions you want from wherever you are.

You can also "star" locations on the map that you use often.

You can also use contacts to quickly get addresses for navigation. Were you to have a "home" entry in your contact list, you could simply use the voice command "Navigate to home".


Cannot uninstall an app from adb I am trying to uninstall an app which came to me with the phone ( an app for senior users - sort of launcher).

My device is : LG L70
Android version : 4.4.2
However I cannot uninstall it from the phone by dragging it from app screen. I've tried to uninstall it from the adb:

adb uninstall "package name"

but I get:

Failure

as a response.

When I list all my aps from the adb:

adb shell 'pm list packages -f'

I cannot find the app on the list.
The only way that helped me to discover the package name(in order to uninstall it) is by using "System Info for Android" app...

What can be done in order to remove this annoying app?

I've rooted the device and did a factory reset...

Any help will be appreciated.

Do you have to uninstall it from adb? If you have a rooted phone you can remove it from the device itself. There are a lot of apps that you can do this that are in the playstore. I personally use " system app remover (ROOT)". Just search for the app name and uninstall it.

PS: Did you try ading "su" at the begining of the command to use root?


Use an Android phone as a dongle with a home router I'm researching the possibility of 'tethering' a spare (rooted android) phone to my home router, to act as a 3G/4G dongle and give my home internet via the phone.

I have found USB to Ethernet adapters on Amazon, but these seem to try to give your phone wired internet from your home network, not the other way around.  Perhaps it's still possible to use these?

Another option is to use an OTG USB cable and connect it to a compatible router directly, the ones which allow you to use a USB socket for a 3G/4G dongle.  Does anyone have experience of this?

There are a few similar questions on here but none are clear or have clear answers.  Thanks.

My router (Technicolor OEM from TIM) has the possibility to connect a dongle with a SIM in it (It must be TIM though) and use it as a tethering device.


(how) can I install android on an iphone 4? Possible Duplicate:
  Can I install Android on my non-Android device?

I know it is possible to install Android on an iPhone 3G.

How about the iPhone 4? Is it possible to run Android on it? If yes, how, and what are the risks?
If no, is that a "not yet" or a "can't happen, because of X"?

I'd say "not yet", at this moment.

My suggestion is to keep your eye on this page: http://www.idroidproject.org/wiki/Status

As you can see from the Wiki table on the iPhone4, the iDroid project participants aren't even sure exactly what hardware is in it yet. So writing code for it without that knowledge is a bit of a challenge.

Seeing as iDroid doesn't even run on iPhone 3GS, I would guess that it's gonna be a while before it runs on the iPhone4. Although, they do have it listed on the Wiki, so the iDroid devs are probably considering it at some point "down the road".


How to connect more than 1 device using tcp connection with ADB over wifi I have 5 devices.No one is rooted. I want to connect 2 devices using USB and 3 using tcp over wifi with ADB at same time. Please help me.

Thanks

You can connect multiple devices via USB. You just need to specify that device when you connect with adb by calling commands like this

> adb -s _device_serial_number_ [adb-command]

you can also connect multiple devices over wifi by using the following command

> adb connect xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:5555

this is the IP address and Port of the device that ADB is listening on. Now you setup your connections on your PC.

> adb connect 192.168.1.51:5555
> adb connect 192.168.1.52:5555
> adb connect 192.168.1.53:5555

check if they are all connected.

> adb devices
> 192.168.1.51:5555 device
> 192.168.1.52:5555 device
> 192.168.1.53:5555 device
> _device1_serial device
> _device2_serial device


What useful Android Shell commands do you know? There are questions pertaining to the use of the Android Shell or to finding a documentation of the Shell commands on Android. Since I haven't found anything convenient, I would like to use this thread to compile a list of "useful" Android commands. I am going to add commands as they are posted.

App Management

Use Android package manager pm

usage: pm [list|path|install|uninstall]
       pm list packages [-f]
       pm list permission-groups
       pm list permissions [-g] [-f] [-d] [-u] [GROUP]
       pm list instrumentation [-f] [TARGET-PACKAGE]
       pm list features
       pm path PACKAGE
       pm install [-l] [-r] [-t] [-i INSTALLER_PACKAGE_NAME] [-s] [-f] PATH
       pm uninstall [-k] PACKAGE
       pm enable PACKAGE_OR_COMPONENT
       pm disable PACKAGE_OR_COMPONENT
       pm setInstallLocation [0/auto] [1/internal] [2/external]

Examples

Install the package com.twitter.android-1.apk from the SD card

pm install /sdcard/com.twitter.android-1.apk

List installed packages that contain the term twitter

pm list packages | grep twitter

Show the install directory of the twitter package

pm path com.twitter.android

Processes

top

Lists all running processes / apps with live updates showing CPU usage, PID,...

ps

Lists all running processes / apps and allows filtering using grep

Examples

ps | grep apps

Lists all running apps on your phone

Mounting

mount -o rw,remount -t "filesystem" "Device" "Mount Point"

Allows you to remount your partitions for write access or to mount images.

Examples

Write access for the root filesystem

mount -o rw,remount -t rootfs /

Write access for your /system partition

mount -o rw,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock4 /system

Write access for /system using busybox

busybox mount -o remount,rw /system

Mount the contents of myimage.img, viewable in the folder myimage

mount -o loop /sdcard/myimage.img myimage

Other

getprop can show interesting details from the device configuration, such as DNS servers, gateways, GSM details, running services, build parameters, version info etc.


Incredible 4G LTE: Things I need to do after getting s-off I went through the tutorial found here and was able to unlock the bootloader, get s-off, get CWM installed, and superuser. Here are the questions I am having now.

Should I relock the bootloader after getting s-off? Will that prevent me from doing anything?
In that tutorial under the facepalm instructions, do I need to do step 7 if I already got s-off using facepalm?
How can I remove * TAMPERED * from the bootloader?

Should I relock the bootloader after getting s-off? Will that prevent
  me from doing anything?

No. You can't flash unsigned ROM nor alter ROM (e.g. get permanent root). Source.

  In that tutorial under the facepalm instructions, do I need to do step
  7 if I already got s-off using facepalm?

Yes. It is needed so you can flash the /boot partition from recovery. The stock HBOOT blocks access while in recovery. Source.

  How can I remove * TAMPERED * from the bootloader?

UPDATE 2013-08-16: From OP: After following the steps he mentioned in the guide, TAMPERED is gone and has been replaced with the -- DirtyRacun -- label. There also is nothing that says UNLOCKED anymore.


Android 4.4 OTA system update hangs on Nexus 7 (2013) I got a Nexus 7 (2013) with Android 4.3. Some time ago the system reported that system update to 4.4 is available, but I did not install it because I use the device for developement and wanted to finish development cycle under 4.3. All this time notification bar was displaying an icon for the update. As far as I can remember the message was that the update is downloaded and ready to install.

Today I noticed that the icon disappeared. I opened system settings and then About tablet ->  System updates. On the screen there is the message:

Android 4.4.2
System Update
Downloading 253.2MB
Via Wi-Fi only until Dec 14

The problem is that the progress indicator is frozen at something about 10%.

The questions are:

Does someone know if the 4.4.2 is a cumulative update including initial 4.4 release, and if it's not - how can I "tell" the system to install 4.4 first?
How can I nudge the downloading and installation process? I already switched the device off and on, and this did not help. I'd prefer to make the update via Wi-Fi.

The issue is solved. AFAICU, there was possibly a problem with Android update hosting site or somewhere on a trace to it, because the device was connected to and was capable of browsing Internet without a problem, including google.com. After some time, even without updating the progress indicator, the device displayed Install & Reboot button. After this all goes well. So, the answers are:

Android provides cumulative update to 4.4.2, at least for Nexus 7 (2013).
Android should improve the way how it shows status information. If it encounters some problems with downloading an update, it should output something like "Connection timeout, trying to reconnect..." instead of just "Downloading" all the time. Also the progress indicator may have a bug preventing it from proper UI update in similar sitations.


Keepass and Chrome Mobile? is there a way to use something like ChromeIPass on Android for the Chrome Mobile Browser?
I installed the KeepassDroid App but I couldn't figure out a way to integrate it.

Greetings, Steven

Lastpass works, but is quite annoying to use.  (It's still better than nothing, though).

In case you didn't know, Chrome for Android will sync with Chrome for desktop.


Moto G LTE (1st) gen - where are system version updates downloaded? My personal phone is a Moto G LTE 1st gen (XT1045 - peregrine). At some point it stopped receiving network signal, so I re-installed Android 5.1 using a zip from XDA. I also rooted the phone.

Now my system version is 23.21.37.peregrine_retus.abc.xyz, whatever. I got a notification that I can install a new version, and I accidentally downloaded it. The problem is that I don't want to install it, but I keep getting reminders and I always postone. Where can I find the downloaded file to delete it? I didn't find anything in \cache in the internal storage. I looked in a lot of places using ES File Explorer, but I couldn't find the file that would be used for the update.

Location is /cache usually, but for explorers even with root enabled cannot browse certain locations (not sure if you are using systemless root, in which case ES doesn't get root permissions )

Booting into recovery and using TWRP file manager (Advanced tab) allows you to browse and delete the update file as confirmed by OP

Regarding the other problem of update installation messages popping up, one way is to identify and "freeze* those /system components responsible for searching updates. You would need to search for indicative names. On my device (Moto X Play), freezin
configupdater,SEpolicy update,Motorola update services did the trick. I use ROM Toolbox to freeze . Other alternatives like Titanium Backup should also work


Does Titanium Backup break 'Sleep As Android? Whenever I hit the button to start tracking my sleeping, Sleep As Android warns 'Titanium Backup' may break sleep tracking!

I was wondering under what circumstances does this happen and how to prevent it? It's kind of really important to have an alarm.

I found a little information on Google Groups.

This appears to be because you can schedule backups within Titanium Backup, and when backing up the 'Sleep As Android' app Titanium Backup may/will kill the application in order to perform the backup. By doing this the app will no longer track you sleep or wake you up at the required time. I don't think that simply having Titanium Backup installed will break the sleep tracking.


Insufficient storage when installing app on Android ICS phone My Android ICS phone has 42MB available (according to Settings->Storage). I am not able to install some new apps (e.g. O2 wifi, size 4MB) or update some existing apps (e.g. TouchPal X, size 19MB) though I have been able to install other small ones (e.g. Terminal Emulator, size 1MB and Cache Clear 5MB). I've tried using Cache Clear to clear the caches. I've tried 'pm set-install-location 2' to default the install location to external storage (currently it's 0 i.e. auto) but it's rejected it with the comment 'killed'. I've moved all the apps (that I'm allowed to move) to the sdcard. I'm not able to root the phone (ZTE V790) as I haven't found any instructions & software that works. I'm at a loss what to do.

On an older phone of mine this was an issue with the app store. Insufficient storage error was fixed after an update. One app, HuffPost, had poor coding and gave me that warning. Many updates later they fixed it.

You can use Gemini App Manager to move app to the SD card that Android won't allow you to: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.seasmind.android.gmappmgr

Edit: Found a root guide. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2138234


Google+ instant upload screenshots I just switched to using Cyanogenmod 9 on my HTC EVO 4G (and it works very well!). In CM7 and with other (stock included) ROMs, when I took a screenshot, it was automatically added to the Instant Upload reel in the Google+ app.

I liked this.

After switching, the screenshots no longer upload, even on forced "Upload All". I suspect it is because they are being saved to a location which is not scanned by the G+ app for instant upload. So does anyone know how to force a folder to be included? Or to change the default screenshots folder?

EDIT: Note, my screenshots are being saved to Pictures/Screenshots/, which, to my knowledge based on Zuul's post, is included in the MediaScanner. Still no screenshots uploading.

UPDATE: Found this talking about a .nomedia file, and tried to scan the Screenshots folder, but there is no such file to be found.

The default Android external SD file structure

You should have a default structure used by Media Scanner to collect data present on your system, that gets stored on a database, allowing it to keep track of all the media content present on the device:

  Music/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as user music.
  Podcasts/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as a podcast.
  Ringtones/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as a ringtone.
  Alarms/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as an alarm sound.
  Notifications/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as a notification sound.
  Pictures/ - All photos (excluding those taken with the camera).
  Movies/ - All movies (excluding those taken with the camcorder).
  Download/ - Miscellaneous downloads

Adittionaly, when taking screenshots, by default the folder used is:

  Pictures/Screenshots/

The media scanner service

When your device boot's up, the media scanner service is launched and runs through the entire external storage to find if there is any new media content.

If new media is found:

It adds an entry of that media content into the content database
Each entry in the content database contains the media meta-data (name, date, file size, etc...)
When changes are made to a media content, the database needs to be updated, otherwise, third party applications will not be able to access that particular media content.

Applications make use of the public class MediaScannerConnection, as to "force" Media Scanner to perform an instant scan. That's with applications like Instant Upload are able to work properly.

  MediaScannerConnection provides a way for applications to pass a newly created or downloaded media file to the media scanner service. The media scanner service will read metadata from the file and add the file to the media content provider. The MediaScannerConnectionClient provides an interface for the media scanner service to return the Uri for a newly scanned file to the client of the MediaScannerConnection class.

Google+ Instant Upload

  With Instant Upload enabled, photos and videos taken with your phone are automatically uploaded to a private album on Google+.

For this APP to work, make sure Sync Instant Upload is enabled on your phone:

Go to your phone's Settings > Accounts & sync.
Touch the account you'd like to enable sync on.

Learn more about how to Configure account sync options, where you can:

Configure general sync settings
Sync information manually
Change an account’s sync settings

Possible Solutions

After the above introduction on how things work, in order to try and solve this issue, one can:

Check for the Pictures/Screenshots/ folder presence.

e.g., using a file manager.
Check if Instant Upload is Enabled and set to sync with your account.

If all checks out but still no avail, try rebooting the device to see if Media Scanner will properly recognize and add the missing media content to the database.
Not likely, but a recent update or crash may have disrupted the Media Scanner service.


Toast message with Chinese characters, is it a virus? I recently received some updates today from the Play Store. Every so often a pop notification, one of those bubble ones at the bottom of the screen with Chinese characters.

The most recent update I've noticed is the ES File Explorer. I wouldn't mind, but my device is rooted and so I am at risk. I have a screenshot of the notification.

My device is the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 9.7 and I have stock ROM installed.

What my question(s) are: Do I have a virus (it's not being picked up by Avast) and if I do, how do I remove it?

Based on the information given, it's indeed caused by the latest update (9 July 2016) of ES File Explorer. From some of recent reviews,

This new version has a new issues, whenever I open the ES file explorer it's showing some errors in Chinese language. It's affecting other apps too... (link)

Latest was a series of Chinese toast notifications being displayed even when not using the App. (link)

new problem raised while using app some chinese lang messeges display which is distracted the main usage (link)

Latest update now causing messages in Chinese to popup near the bottom of the screen. (link)

and many more...

I don't think it's a virus. It supposed to be kind of "helpful" messages to the user (who can read it).


How does blackberry security features differ from standard android? How does the security features differ from standard android phones? Is the only difference the apps that can be just as well installed on a standard android phone in the play store or are there some additional layers?

Well, it depends on what you mean by "standard Android". There are some non-exclusive features and some special.

BlackBerry provides monthly security updates. This is not exclusive, for example Google and Nokia provide security updates, too. Some other vendors provide regular updates for a subset of their portfolio. Maybe some of them are even faster than BlackBerry. But BlackBerry phones are still much better than average there, because many vendors completely ignore security updates.

BlackBerry also provides state-of-the-art security features like verified boot, downgrade prevention, encrypted filesystem and so on. I am not sure about others in the industry, but at least, BlackBerry is likely not worse than others. I believe that some of those are now requirements and some are done voluntarily, so I guess BlackBerry is slightly above average there.

BlackBerry has also some visible exclusive feature: DTEK. Please don't confuse DTEK app with DTEK phones, BlackBerry makes some mess in naming. DTEK  is some security suite that contains not only a security checklist (that might advise you, for example, to require PIN for boot), but also allows you to manage permissions of all the apps (and revoke them even for pre-Marshmallow apps) and watch their usage (e.g., find apps frequently accessing location in background, or even be notified when some app accesses location in background). Of course, this is not just for location, one might be also concerned about other permissions.

AFAIR, BlackBerry has performed some kernel hardening, but I don't remember details.
Overall, BlackBerry seems to be a reasonable choice if you want a reasonably secure Android phone. It is not the only reasonable choice, as there are some other choices that might be good, too.


Recover data from unbootable android 5.0 note 3 I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 3, which was weeks ago fully functional but had some glitches like it couldn't run games such as clash royale without an external power supply; in this case I used a power bank. After every use of apps, I would restart my phone, to prevent slow performance. Then, one time I used till the phone auto-shutdown due to low battery power, after it was charged to full I turned the power on. Unfortunately, it couldn't boot up, it was stuck in samsung logo. Now it is unbootable, though I can navigate to recovery mode but not safe mode. I want to recover data from the phone and I know one or two things about adb and CWM. Can anyone take me through step by step in order to recover data from device storage? I'd appreciate any opinions. Thanks

If I understand correctly, you can only boot your device into the fastboot mode and nothing else, right? Did you try OEM (Samsung) stock recovery by pressing UpVolume+Power button and had any success?

If not, then here is one way to recover your data, but you'll need one thing for this: You should have the CWM (ClockWorkMod) recovery image for your device, or you should be able to download it from somewhere. Assuming that you can do that, here is what you can do:

Boot into the fastboot prompt and connect it to your PC's USB port.
On the PC, ensure that ADB drivers for your device are installed correctly (If you were able to run adb/fastboot commands, that's enough).
Use fastboot command to temporarily boot your device using the CWM image:

fastboot boot /path/to/CWMRecoveryImage.img

Once inside CWM recovery, adb will start working!
Just pull the files/folders you need using the adb pull command:

adb pull /sdcard/foo/bar/myfile1.dat
adb pull /sdcard/foo/bar/myfile2.dat
adb pull /sdcard/foo/baz/*

Alternatively, you can use a tool like DroidExplorer in step 5 to recover your data more easily. Hope this helps.

edit

I found this XDA link where some CWM recovery images are available for the Galaxy Note series, but be careful that you select the one for your exact model.


How do I root my Dell Venue 3830 tablet? I went here:

http://opensource.dell.com/releases/Venue_8_3830_CloverTrail_plus/developer-edition/

and did all this successfully: http://opensource.dell.com/releases/Venue_8_3830_CloverTrail_plus/developer-edition/Dell%20Tablet%20Install%20Instructions.pdf

Note the last step
"13. Now you are done and the bootloader is unlocked and YOU HAVE ROOT ACCESS. "

Then I adb shell & su at the shell prompt:

shell@yellowtail:/ $ su

and I get this:

CANNOT LINK EXECUTABLE: could not load library "libbinder.so" needed by "/system/bin/su"; caused by "libbinder.so" has u
nexpected e_machine: 3

I repeated all of the above again just to make sure I did it correctly.
My questions:
Do I (as the Dell Doc'n says) or do I not have root access?
If no how do I get it?
If yes, how do I get it?

I rooted my 3730 using MyKitBatch from social-design-concepts on XDADevs. It is just a root, not a ROM so it is model agnostic. It hasn't been updated in a year but it works with the 3730 and 3830.

If it doesn't work the OP/dev of mykit created this which they also claim has 3830 support, I have never tested it.


Galaxy S2 ICS 4.0.3 Wi-Fi connecting but not able to browse In my new Galaxy GT-I9100 Android version 4.0.3 everything expect WI-Fi is  working fine. When I am connecting my wireless it's getting connected, but not able to browse the internet. I tried changing from DHCP to Static IP Address, restarted mobile/Wi-Fi router, removed the battery and checked, it's working for only a few minutes and again the same issue.

Have you enabled the MAC Filter on your Router?

If you've then you should disable it or enter the MAC Adress of your S2 in the Routerconfig.


unexpected root request for mksh when turning wifi on or off Since today, I see the following root warning when turning wifi on or off:

Superuser Anfrage / Superuser request: mksh (1000)
Angeforderter Benutzer / Requested User: ROOT (0)
Befehl / Command: ip route add 224.0.0.0/4 dev wlan0

My phone is a HTC One V with Android 4.0.3 and SuperSU installed as root app. It was running 8 months without this prompt. My last install was Power Toggles 1 week ago. Does anyone know about this? I'm afraid it's something dangerous...

mksh(1) is “just” the system shell on Android (has been for a few versions by now). The request basically means that some other application is trying to run a shell command with root permissions, which the dialogue then attributes to the shell instead of the program/library actually requesting it (on whose behalf mksh is operating).

There are several very long threads acting on it; this one has got a good summary, out of which the most important points are:

the "ip route add" command comes from libChange.so in HTC Sense ROMs (thanks to chrisch1974 for finding it), which itself is already running as a system component
the command itself is not malicious, but there's no clear reason why HTC Sense should run this command
the reason it shows up in SuperSU v0.97 and does not show up in older versions is because v0.97 no longer automatically grants root to the shell and system processes
224.0.0.0/4 is the standard IP multicast range - this command just forces multicasting out of the wifi interface (since AFAIK cell carriers don't allow multicasting on their data connections). This prevents multicast traffic from attempting to use the mobile network connection and failing.
If you have used the adb shell command on any previous phone and got the root prompt, #, instead of the user prompt, $, by default then your shell has been this way before. I've seen it come and go.

In the end, most people agree that saying Yes here seems to be harmless.

Disclaimer: I’m the mksh maintainer.


push app from root adb terminal So i have a rooted ms690, but su keeps crashing, the recovery is just a hard reset, I have no sd card, and metroweb is gone. The problem I want to solve is metroweb. I have the apk, and the only way I can get to root anything is this:

adb shell
$ su
#

What do i do from here?

And what to do before that, also important. OK, short guide – assuming your .apk has the name metro.apk, and you're in the very same directory on your computer where that file resides:

PC> adb push metro.apk /data/local/metro.apk
PC> adb shell
$ su
# pm install /data/local/metro.apk

What I'm just wondering: What makes you think you need to be root for that? Taking the shorter road:

PC> adb install metro.apk

Saves a few steps :)

OTOH, if you're talking about a system app, things might look different:

PC> adb push metro.apk /data/local/metro.apk
PC> adb shell
$ su
# mount -ro remount,rw /system
# cp /data/local/metro.apk /system/app
# exit
PC> adb reboot


Trash Folder is Empty but shows Emails I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 running the Lollipop OS.  My ISP is Verizon and my email is run on MS Outlook.  Since the Lollipop upgrade, the Trash Folder indicates that I have (for example) 35 emails, but when I open the folder is is correctly empty.  The only fix I've read is to delete my email account and then reinstall it.  I tried this but it only worked for about a day, and then my empty Trash Folder once again started indicating that the folder is filling up.  Any ideas?  Thank you.

I've been having the same issue, seems the only way to reset it, is to delete the acct. on your phone and then set it up again, I've started to observe what I am doing to contribute to this, and discovered if I delete a message without opening it, it causes the numbers to raise, If I open each email before deleting it, the trash will not display a number


Missing of contacts from android mobile I am using moto g with android 5.0 version. I have turned off the auto syncing mechanism of contact. Then i added a new contact tagged by the same google account. Since the synchronization is turned off, its not saved in the google account. But where is the contact? Is it in the phone? If so, what happen if I delete the google account from the mobile? Will that newly added contact remain in the phone itself?

I have checked this condition. But once i deleted the google account the newly added contact is not in gmail account and not in phone also. Its completely disappered. Why is it so? Is there anyway to retrieve it?

I don't understand what you are trying to do here, but anyway, here is an explanation:

When you create a contact on a Google Account, that contact is assigned to that Google Account, so that it syncs. When you remove that account, Android associates that contact with the Google Account, and removes it from the phone.


Google Now "not eligible" after switching from personal account to G Suite account I switched an Android phone (Google Pixel) from using a personal Google Account to a G Suite account and everything seems to be working fine except Google Now which shows the following error when accessing it:

"This account is not eligible for the feed".

Switching back to a personal account makes it work again, but of course that's not an option.

I found a few references online to countries not being eligible but this is not applicable in this case as I am in the U.S.

From Google Product forum help     How to Enable Google Now for Google Apps for Work??!!

  Question: ....Can someone help me to Enable Google Now for our Google Apps for Work account?
  I am an Admin.

  Best Answer: I got the actual answer from Live Chat support, and it is totally different from what the support docs say. Here is where to find it:
  Admin console > Device Management > Mobile > Device Management settings > Android settings > Enable Google Now (also applies to iOS)

Note: Google Apps for Work is repackaged as G Suite

Trust that solves


Download or get the Instagram video I saw earlier Device: Samsung Galaxy S3

A person I followed had a cool video they posted on Instagram, but then deleted it later. I was wondering if there was a backup of the video in the temp folder, since I watched it earlier?

The location of the Instagram cache is storage/android/data/com.instagram.android/cache/video
However, when I look on my device, it seems that the files are not stored in a traditional video format. You should be able to find the video there, if at all though.


FM radio for Xperia arc S with CyanogenMod? How do I listen to radio on an Xperia arc S?

I use CyanogenMod (version 7.2.0), which does not include an FM radio app.

The programming support for the FM radio service that is in place within CyanogenMod 7.2, is probably not compatible with the chipset used in Xperia arc S. Hence the omission of the FM radio, it supports only Broadcom BCM4325, Silicon Industry 4708 and 4709, and lastly Texas Instrument WL1271.

Looking at pdadb.net for the specification of the handset - the chipset is not documented, so it's proprietary in which case CyanogenMod 7.2 has no support for it, hence the omission of the FM radio.

The best bet would be to find the original stock ROM dump of that here on XDA, extract the radio app (could be called FMRadio.apk) from it and push that across to your handset.

Edit: As confirmed by the OP, there are dead links galore on XDA. However, I found another linky that may do it (Post #72). (That's err... ICS ROM dump... it might be worth a try.)

Edit 2: Here's the radio stuff, you need to install it in this fashion.

After unzipping the archive, there are two files, FmRxService.apk, and Radio.apk. Plug in the cable to the handset and enter the commands,

adb install FmRxService.apk
adb install Radio.apk

The radio should now appear in your applications drawer, fingers crossed and good luck. There is no guarantee it will work either...


Forgot login pattern on my tablet I have forgotten the Patten to get in my tablet. It is an Android system. The brand is IMPRESSION, model no.: i10-LE.

Suppose your tablet is in WiFi or in airplane mode? And you can't unlock it without? There's a way to solve this:

Windows PC
Install android SDK (http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html)
Connect the device with USB cable
Install USB drivers

Open CMD:

Change directory to the android SDK platform tools (for example C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools)

Type following commands in CMD:

adb devices (verify device is identified by pc. If not reconnect
device and try again. it should display “device” with a serial no)
adb shell
cd /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases
sqlite3 settings.db
update system set value=0 where name='lock_pattern_autolock';
update secure set value=0 where name='lock_pattern_autolock'; (for
some devices update “system” is enough but I had to update “secure”
too)
update system set value=0 where
name='lockscreen.lockedoutpermanently';
update secure set value=0 where
name='lockscreen.lockedoutpermanently';
.quit
exit
adb reboot

Now your device should be unlocked. If not do this step too:

adb shell rm /data/system/gesture.key


Is there a way to know if the installed Android is official? I know that if one has access to the firmware files, one can check if the firmware is the official stock firmware or not by looking at the SHA1.

Now, suppose that Android has already been installed on the device. Is there a way to check whether or not the installed Android is the official stock version or not?

Maybe there's some information that can be found in another identical device running the same Android version that can be compared?

Look at the bootloader screen, there is a field that says Software Status, if it says "Official", well, then it's official.

You can access the bootloader screen by powering off, then hold Vol Dn and Power until together until the screen appears.


Why I have problem downloading iso file in android? Background: Our company monitor the network data usage and give warning to employee with high internet data usage. What I want to do is download the big file in my android phone because I have a unlimited data usage plan for it.

I wanted to download some linux iso from the internet but I want to do it in my phone. I had downloaded some big files ( 200-300mb, exe files ) back in some weeks and they are successful. I just click the link inside Dolphin Browser HD and it automatically popped up a prompt-to-save.

Today I tried to download some linux iso files ( 600-700mb ) and they were not successful either by clicking the link directly or put the link into a downloader app. But I can download them from my PC without problem ( of course I didn't download it actually ).

Dolphin Browser HD's progress bar stopped at about 1/10 and keeping loading, finally said "Web Page not available".

And the downloader said cannot connect to the server.

Do you have any idea? Here is one of the file I need to download:

http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/17/Live/i686/Fedora-17-i686-Live-Desktop.iso

It's entirely possible that your carrier's network has noticed you downloading large files and throttled or shaped your bandwidth - particularly if that file put you over 2GB of data for the month, which it sounds like it would have.


Can a Sprint-branded Samsung Intercept be flashed to Virgin Mobile? I am getting a Sprint-branded Samsung Intercept that was rooted and flashed to MetroPCS and runs Froyo. Can I flash it to Virgin Mobile?

If you unlock the phone (as presumably you did to get it on Metro PCS), you should be able to flash the Virgin ROM and activate it on Virgin.  However, you should call Virgin and ask!  They can best answer this question, and you'll need them to activate the phone on their network anyways.


Can I use a modern Android phone with no phone plan? I'm new to the Android platform, but am looking into doing some development for Android 2.x, with the hope of publishing an app to the Android App Market eventually.  I'd like to be able to test my app on "real" hardware, but I already have an iPhone, which is plenty expensive itself, and I don't want to pay for an entire second cell phone plan just to test my code.  So my question is, is it possible to buy an unlocked Android phone and operate it entirely over wi-fi?  If so, what features (besides the obvious, like making calls), will I be missing out on?

Yes, it is possible, but it might be tricky depending on the phone.

For instance, I bought a T-Mobile G1 (not the Android Dev Phone version) and had to have a SIM card in it.  You can either borrow a friend's or you can do what I did, which was buy a prepaid-SIM card.  It cost less than $40.  If you have a friend's SIM card that has a data plan, then you can activate the phone.  But if you don't want to have to have a SIM card in the phone anymore, you'll have to root the phone and install CyanogenMod on it.

Now if you bought a pre-paid SIM card, then you can activate the phone over wifi by following these steps (this is specific to the G1).

A G1 is probably the cheapest phone you can get if you're only wanting to use it as a hardware testing device. On ebay it is around the $100-150 range.


Installing Orbot as a remote SOCKS server for other computers? I installed Orbot on my Android device and I want to make it a remote SOCKS server so that other computers can connect to it.

The TorFAQ – Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki suggests that for Tor on Windows, the user should edit Tor's directive file torrc. So I did the same thing with Orbot on my device. Here is the contents of my torrc file on Android:

SocksListenAddress 0.0.0.0
SocksPort 9050
SocksPolicy accept *
SafeSocks 1
Log notice stdout
ControlListenAddress 127.0.0.1
ControlPort 9051
CookieAuthentication 1
RelayBandwidthRate 20 KBytes
RelayBandwidthBurst 20 KBytes
AutomapHostsOnResolve 1
TransListenAddress 127.0.0.1
TransPort 9040
DNSListenAddress 127.0.0.1
DNSPort 5400
HardwareAccel 1
SafeLogging 1
TestSocks 1

I added the first and third lines to the original file. However it doesn't work. The SOCKS server refuses the connection all the time.

Can anybody help me please?

This solves the problem:

SocksPort 0.0.0.0:9050


Is it possible to get root permission using Magisk in Work Profile? I had flashed Magisk in the recovery, but when I run Magisk Manager in Work Profile it says Magisk is not installed. Does this imply that there is an independent recovery for Work Profile as well? Is there any way to gain root access in Work Profile?

Choose User-independent option in Multiuser Mode Settings of Magisk app.

User profiles and multi users are managed inside OS, nothing to do with recovery.


Google Maps consuming battery I've recently updated Google Maps to version 9.16.2 and it is draining battery like anything.

I tried disabling it but it starts again and again and consumes battery

Screenshot (click to enlarge)

Normally it will not consume battery after disable. I don't know much about the  Map version 9.16.2.

Can you try with force stop the Map app.
Please check the link below how an app is disabling

http://www.howtogeek.com/195786/how-to-closestop-a-running-app-on-an-android-device/