android apps not getting dowloaded from playstore today i tried to download an application from play store. but instead it showed the error message not enough store space in device memory. i tried to search the solution for it on net.
so i did few things like.
1. go to settings> all application> then Google play services clear cache ,clear data , force stop it.
2.  and then do the same thing for Google play store.

but they also didn't work. what should i do.

Maybe simply there isnt enough storage as stated in the error.

Apps are installed in data patition not your internal sd card. Dont be misleaded by that. There are /cache /data /system partitions .Preinstalled system applications are in read only /system partition. When you install app from play store it will be installed in /data partition and its limited. My 16 GB phone has only 2GB data partition

Try to clear some other applications data


USB connection unreliable while tethering Device: Galaxy Nexus
Android: CyangenMod 11.0 (Android 4.4.4)

The IT department of my company doesn't support access of Mac devices to its network, but it does for Android devices. So I would like to connect my macbook (Mac OS X 10.9.4) to the internet by tethering my phone's Wi-Fi connection. Bluetooth tethering is reliable, but rather slow (max 200KB/s download speed, in reality it is rather something like 80KB/s).

So, I tried to use the USB tethering with the help of HoRNDIS (release 5), which is magnitudes faster (22MB/s) than Bluetooth tethering. However after a while (some minutes), the connection is lost. To restore it, I have to unplug the USB cable, plug it in again and retick the checkbox 'USB tethering' on the 'Tethering & portable hotspot' page in the 'Wireless & Network' settings.

In order to solve this problem, I tried the following:

Enable 'Android debug mode' & 'ADB over Network'
Screen always on

Unfortunately, these attempts didn't work.

Does anyone have a similar problem or workaround?

I faced similar lost internet connection issues with galaxy y tethering. Had to unplug and plug in the cable; again select tethering. However, i noticed that orientation of the cable just outside the socket mattered. There is room for movement even after usb is plugged in the phone. In this instance, when i so arranged that the usb cable is as lateral as possible to the phone midline(had to use anatomy); there was no lost connection.


Synchronize with multiple calendars I have 2 Google calendars, associated with my account. But after synchronisation, android shows only one (the first).
I've review Google calendar settings and found, that only the first has field "Owner", filled with my account. The second is seemed to be shared and I am not owner, but simple member.
How can I make my android (Samsung Galaxy Tab) synchronize with both calendars?

I recall having this issue with some calendar not showing up. If I remember correctly it had to do with having some calendar disabled/hidden in google calendar at the time of the first sync; the calendar app would then not bother looking for other calendars.

Try going in Settings > Accounts and Sync > Auto-sync and uncheck it.

Go to google calendar on the web, make sure all your calendar are visible.

Then in Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > All > Calendar Storage > Clear Data

Back to Settings > Accounts and Sync > Auto-sync , check it.

When you next open your calendar, it should be empty, but you should be able to select all your calendars.


Where does Google Music store offline songs? I have a song I want to use for a ringtone, but the Google Music app doesn't let me set it.  I've checked on my sdcard/internal storage for a music/google/gmusic etc folder but can't find anything.

Where is the music file stored on my phone?

The Google Music Apps cache is at

/<external_SD>/Android/data/com.google.android.music/cache/music

which is usually

/sdcard/Android/data/com.google.android.music/cache/music


Android 8 delayed notifications Every once in a while my device get "stuck" - I send an SMS or Email, and they are received only after 10 minutes or later. The device can be "stuck" even when the phone is on, and running other apps.

I tried installing Push Notification Fixer apps, but they do not help.

When I send the test and the phone is not "stuck", I get a notification after about 10 seconds.

However, I do receive notifications for Google Voice and WhatsApp when phone is in "stuck" phase, so it does seem app specific issue. Also I have noticed that these 2 apps have permission receive data from Internet , which the Gmail app does not. Seems to be related to what type of push notification is used. see documentation.

Also I noticed the Google Play Store is unable to install/uninstall apps in this "stuck" phase.

Here's a list of things you can try:

Make sure you haven't disabled the app by force quitting on it
Make sure power saving mode isn't on
Check Data usage to see if Background Data is enabled for the App
Turn off battery optimization from Battery Usage option for the App
Make sure that there isn't any third party overlayer that you've utilized which is utilizing the app sync permissions ( certain launchers/ addons may do so)
Clear cache for that particular App
Factory reset the Google app by selecting the Uninstall updates option
Install this app and set your heartbeat rate to 5 minutes. It's a quick fix for the issue. It's most probably a network driver issue which the company needs to patch up and in the meantime, you can use this app to ensure normal functionality


Control an Android phone remotely from the computer I have a Nexus 4, I've had it for 2-3 years running in Cyanogenmod rooted with no problems. It fell many times but nothing bad ever really happened to it until yesterday.
It fell and had a tiny crack in the screen, then the screen was no longer responsive. I've seen many people with cracks in their screen able to use their phones but I guess that wasn't the case for the Nexus.
Now since there's nothing wrong with the phone beside the screen, is there a way to control it from my PC? I find a screen replacement would cost as much I bought it.

I have found another app called Droid Explorer on GitHub. Download the required setup (x86 or x64) and install it.
After installation, follow the video of ANDROID Controlled from PC (How-To Remote Control ANDROID Phone) by MobileTechVideos. The video shows the complete procedure of using Droid Explorer.
Requirement: Android SDK


How to permanently delete data on an android phone including images videos and etc..? I have and android phone and I usually delete images and also delete them from trash . But I always can recover deleted items by using third party recovery apps like diskdigger and all deleted files can be recovered by doing this way .
I was wondering If there is a way to delete anything on my phone permanently which cant be recovered ?

I don't know if your phone it's rooted or if you know terminal but rm it is a badass delete command even in Linux it is really hard to get information from, deleted whit rm but not impossible if you want to don't have to factory reset your phone for delete something you can over write on it, like delete it whit
rm -rf myfolder/to/delete

okay and then over write the space left on the device like
dd if=/dev/zero of=/sdcard/some_file_name.txt bs=1024 MiB=space_left_on_megabites

this will create a file of the size of the space left on where you want to overwrite the sd or the internal storage you must be really carefully whit the dd command  "space_left_on_megabites" it is the amount of megabytes left on the device if you have 6 gb it must be MiB=6000 etc..
you will get the notification of running out of space on the device don't worry you would get it back
ones the dd command finish it will take some time it's writing whit zeros on all the space left, then you delete the /sdcard/some_file_name.txt whit rm
rm -rf /sdcard/some_file_name.txt

then you have wipe ones you available space if you what to make it harder you must repeat the process like 5 times and then it will be really really impossible to recover it! but whit one time does app you mention it wont be available to get it back


I can not find informations about Hisilicon kirin 650 I want to know if Hisilcon Kirin 650 is a heterogenous or a homogenous processor!!
(working all 8 cores or  4 by 4, not in the same time )
Please answer to my question !!

This is a Chinese review of Huawei G9 Lite, which has K650 built-in. As can be seen from the AIDA64 screenshot below, all cores are of the same arch, and are online at the same time, albeit at different freqs.


Facebook contact pictures not updating Some contact pictures from Facebook are never updating, while others are working fine. The "google" part of the account have no picture set, the one showing is an old Facebook picture.

This problem appears both in the contacts, and in the Facebook application itself when you look at the contact list. Visiting the contact's personal page shows the correct picture, though. The Messenger application for the Facebook messages is showing the correct pictures.

I've tried to clear the cache (not the "data") of the Facebook application, to no avail.

Vanilla Android 2.3.6 on an unrooted Nexus One.

Any clue?

I would suggest clearing the data. Also, are you sure that the contact is actually being synced by the facebook application. The facebook application may not think that the contact is the "same person" that you know that it is.

I would clear the data and reset up the syncing for the facebook app. There maybe something in there that is preventing the image to update. Maybe a corrupt image, or data.


How to resolve "Video too large" error message with MMS video attachment I have a short mp4 video clip of an old cartoon I keep on my phone and occasionally send via MMS.  The video is only 5 seconds long, 480x360, the video file size is 204kB.  I sent this video file dozens of times using the default messaging app on a T-mobile Android 4.1.1 Prism II without error.

I now have a T-mobile Adroid 5.1.1 LG Leon and this phone refuses to send the video file via MMS using the default messaging app.  When I try to attach the file, the LG Leon responds "video too large."

Note that is NOT an attachment file size limitation.  The MMS attachment file size limit on this phone is 1024kB.  The video file I am trying to attach is only 204kB.  The error message for exceeding the attachment size limit is "attachment size limit exceeded."  That is NOT the error message I'm getting.  I'm getting "Video too large."

I tried reformatting the video: AVI, 3gp, MOV, lower resolution, different bit rates, The LG Leon refuses to attach the video file to an MMS message.

Any ideas?

Try resolution of 320 by 240.
It is what works on my Leon.

Also... Try this...
Start a message.
Click attach.
Click from camera.
Shoot a short 10 second video.
Send the video.
Then examine the video's details ...you will see it is 320 by 240
Best regards. Hutch.


Why is there no network in my new Samsung Galaxy S2 when I insert my Prepaid Sim Card? I bought a new Samsung Galaxy S2 and insert my Prepaid Singtel Sim card. When i turn it on, it doesn't have any network and states 'no service'

Summing up from the comments:

Your device is most likely sim-locked by your provider (even more likely if you bought it there for a discount, or got it free with your contract). So it will only work with SIM cards from that specific provider. If you want to use it with a different (pre-paid) card, you need to have your device unlocked first.

While it is generally possible to do that yourself, it will not only cost you time to figure out how, but you might also risk "making a mess" of it (as t0mm13b put it). So best is to go to some shop offering this service, and pay a little fee having them doing the job. Saves you at least some headaches.

See also:

“SIM card doesn't allow a connection to this network” ERROR
Questions tagged "sim-unlocking"


Google play: one account multiple devices I have paid for an app on the Google Play store and I've downloaded it on a device (my Android smartphone). Now I have a tablet, should I pay again for the same app? Or will logging in with the same account allow me to download it to my tablet "for free"?

Differently from question Can I use multiple Android devices with a single Google account? I'm more focused on app for which I've paid to download them, and not simply in app sync.

Since if this is possible, could it be a cracking mechanism? Meaning if a "buyer" account become public (username & password) anybody can use it and download paied app for free.
This could apply for example in a "family" environment for example, one accunt that pay for app and all people having the same account on their device.

It depends of app developer.
Some apps like Evernote, Avira antivirus premium charge once for all devices, whereas others like Icon packs will cost you on individual devices.
This totally depends on the service or app you are talking about.
Good luck


Save an image in Android browser When I save an image from a WebPage in android browser, can you please tell me where does that go? Which directory does that file go?
I tried mounting the phone to my computer, but I can't find that file.

Please help.

Thank you.

Use a file manager such as ASTRO File Manager. I'll use my file manager quick to check though.

EDIT: So on my Galaxy S2 the directory is /sdcard/download. /sdcard is the root directory on my phone and not actually an sd card. It's the 2GB of app storage on my phone


Change predefined SMS messages as a reply to being busy Can predefined SMS messages that you can select when not being able to pick up the call be somehow configurable? Can we change them somehow?

I know there's the last option of writing a custom SMS message, but I would rather change and localise existing ones to suit my needs and to not repeat the same typing over and over again.

You can edit them by going to:

Dialer (Phone app) -> Settings -> Quick Responses

I have tested it on Android 4.0.4 CyanogenMod 9.


Android LCD Broken, Screen Locked, Device Unauthorized I have an Android device whose LCD is broken. The unit functions and receives call, messages and gives the usual audio notifications.

However, in order to synch back data, I need to access the main memory.
However, the screen is locked via a pattern.  ADB does see the device, but as unauthorised.

Also:

macbopr: adb shell rm /data/system/gesture.key
error: device unauthorized.
This adb server's $ADB_VENDOR_KEYS is not set
Try 'adb kill-server' if that seems wrong.
Otherwise check for a confirmation dialog on your device.

How can I overcome this block?

If you need to unlock the screen, you can use the adb shell input command.

This link is a script that you could modify.  I haven't tried it myself, but it looks like it should work.  You'll have to tweek it for your specific device, and enter in your password.


Harden adb on Android 2.3 Actually I was never thinking about leaving my adb debugging enable on my cellphone when going outside.
Now on cyanogenmod 10 and newer, it asks me to verify the rsa key of the host, which makes really sense.

I have a htc desire z / g2 here which doesn't ask me.
It's running Cyanogenmod 7.2 as this is the newest stable, with no gappsm with Android 2.3.

How can I harden it? I know it can be disabled when the screen is locked, but that's not enough.

There is no way to get Gingerbread to prompt the host to verify RSA key as that is found in newer versions of Android (Jellybean 4.1 and upwards).

The only true method of hardening ADB in the sense of prevention of communicating over the USB is to modify the kernel for that appropriate device and disable the USB functionality within it in such a way that when plugging in the USB cable, the kernel does not register it and ignores it as if nothing has happened.

Knock-on side effect - if your device starts boot-looping or mis-behaving, and you want to fix it, it will be trickier to get at it since USB functionality is disabled.

Since OP mentioned its HTC Desire Z, the kernel source should be available on CyanogenMod's repository.

TL;DR: Recompile your own kernel and remove the USB functionality.

Caveat Emptor I am not responsible for any damage if you go down this route in modifying your own kernel.


When will Nexus 6 get Android security updates? I am using a Nexus 6 with H2O wireless network. The July 1st 2016 security patch has been out for several days (since July 5) but my phone still doesn't get it. Do Nexus phones get updates directly from Google or through carriers? When can I get that update?

It can take up to two weeks or so for the full rollout. I just received the July update this afternoon on my Nexus 5X.


How to make Android 2.3 to use voice recognition without the need of internet? On my Samsung Galaxy Y Duos, GT-S6102B, you can press a button to talk something instead of writing it. It is a wonderful behavior, but it functions only when using a internet connection - well, I see it functioning only with Wi-Fi connection...

But I would like to use it offline... Any idea?

I use a third party app which can handle recorded voice tags.
I use Cyberon Voice Speed dial for which voice tags can be records for contacts or programs.

For bluetooth headset/car conenctivity i use Bluetooth Application Launcher.

This is set to open Voice Speed dialler when i press the blue tooth button to connect.  Holding the blue tooth button for 4 seconds disconnects and closes the app.  (i have to configure it futhter since disconnecting doesn;t yet hang up the phone though...)

Sorry - i just realized you needed to dictate to your phone.  Maybe there also a third pary app that does that.

Benzene


Prestigio Multipad USB debuging I am having troubles with Prestigio Multipad PMP3370B. I enabled USB debuging in Settings, but when I plug in my device to a computer and start adb devices, it does not recognize it. Does anybody have any similar issues? I am using Windows 7. Where can I find Windows driver for that device?

You can find USB drivers for the Prestigio Multipad PMP3370B (aka Prestigio MultiPad 7.0 ULTRA) in the manufacturer website

Just click the download link for the .zip file corresponding to your model, as seen in the screenshot.

At the time of this answer, the file name is PMP3370B_20121217_V1.0.8.zip, this file is ~224 MB size and it does contain USB drivers for Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 (32-bit) and Windows Vista/7 (64-bit), besides firmware update image file, upgrade manuals (in English/Russian, 32/64-bit) and other tools. I can tell it because I downloaded it myself and looked inside.


In app subscription with credit card I'm using an app that allows the user to sign up for a subscription. Doing that in the app the user is asked to type in their credit card  information.

Is that allowed for a Play Store app? In Play Store terms it's stated that:

  In general, the terms of Google Play allow you to sell in-app subscriptions only through the standard payment processor, Google payments.

I asked the app developer about this, but they replied with instructions for doing a subscription on iTunes (without having to type in credit card info).

It's not clear from your question or the app description exactly what a premium subscription gets you, so I don't know if this applies to you, but there's an exception to the rule you quote. Purchases of goods or content that isn't just accessible through the app don't have to go through the in-app purchase system or Google Pay.

Quoting Google's Developer Policy Center:

  Developers offering products within another category of app [other than games] downloaded on Google Play must use Google Play In-app Billing as the method of payment, except for the following cases:

  Payment is solely for physical products
  Payment is for digital content that may be consumed outside of the app itself (e.g. songs that can be played on other music players).

If the subscription this app offers is for videos or music, or it's also available through their website, they don't have to use Google Pay.


Stock Browser splitting HTTP POST requests into separate TCP segments I am currently testing different web browsers and devices for compatibility with a web interface that has been developed.  We have realized we have an issue with code already in production.  The bug is hit because any HTTP POST requests sent from the android browser (on both a Galaxy Nexus (running JB) and a Galaxy Tab (running ICS)) are split into two TCP segments at the boundary of the HTTP headers and the HTTP POST data.

Interestingly enough Chrome for Android does not exhibit this same behavior, rather the entire request is sent as one packet.

We are not even close to hitting the MTU, so that is not an issue.

My questions are:

Is there any configuration that can be changed to prevent this?
I know that both the built-in android browser and chrome use Webkit, which I was under the impression that it was built into the android OS, so why the different behavior between the browsers?
Finally, what is gained or what is the intent behind this?

The browser doesn't directly control that; it's the kernel's choice, since the kernel is where the TCP implementation lives.  However, one way the application can influence it is by setting the TCP_NODELAY option on the socket, which requests that the kernel disable Nagle's algorithm and send each chunk of data as soon as possible.

This may be an optimization:  since many HTTP requests contain only headers and no body, it's better for the kernel to send a packet with the headers immediately, instead of waiting a little while to see if the browser produces any more data that could fit into the same packet.


Unknown icon on my notification bar A notification has started appearing on my Huawei Ascend Y300 that I do not recognize. I searched on Google but couldn't find what it means. My device is running Android v4.1 (Jelly Bean).

Here's a few images of the icon. It's the one to the far left in the first picture.

I cannot find any official documentation on this icon, but various sources across the Internet suggest that it means you have "Power Saving" mode enabled on your device. It looks like this is specific to Huawei's devices, and can be disabled in your settings.


Cut and paste not working on Samsung Note 10.1? I recently bought a Samsung Note 10.1 tablet. It has Android 4.0.4 (model number GT-N8000 / N8000XXLGA). All is fine, but I cannot understand why the cut and paste do not work. Is this a known problem? Can I update to a newer version or something...? Every application in which I try to copy/cut & paste from just crashes.

This is extremely annoying and I've been trying to find a solution online for about a week now.

Any ideas...?

An upgrade became available yesterday. Once I upgraded to 4.1.1, the cut and paste functionality started working again! :)


Is it possible to identify where apps come from? I have a new tablet that I installed CM12.1 and Pico GApps on. Here is a picture of the app screen:

I'd like to understand where each app comes from (either AOSP, CM or GApps). Is this something I can deduce from the apps' location on the filesystem, or the apps themselves perhaps ?

I have tried to find the information on the relevant sites for AOSP, CM and OpenGApps but have so far drawn a blank.

EDIT: Gathered additional content from the comments.

CM will list the package name of the apps in Apps Info. Those with com.cyanogenmod, org.cyanogenmod, cyanogen and com.cyngn (thanks @Izzy !) are certainly Cyanogen-specific, those with com.android are possibly AOSP-based and those with google are from Google. Alternately, list package names via adb shell pm list packages and find out the app name of a certain package (e.g. using adb shell 'dumpsys | grep -A18 "Package \[org.cyanogenmod.audiofx\]"').
For launcher entries that are parts of other apps, dragging them either to Apps Info or Uninstall will reveal what parent apps they belong to.
Explore your Pico GAPPS zip package to see what it installs. The apps might not be in APK format (OpenGAPPS compresses them in tar packages) but the filenames are still recognizable. Every app not in the package is part of CM itself.

As for which CM apps are based off of AOSP... I'd say it's hard to definitively find out without digging into CM sources.


Recover photos and videos from s3 (no sd or root) Basically someone deleted photos from my dads phone. He doesn't have a sd card and his Galaxy S3 is not rooted. Is there any way to get them back?

I am not sure if you can recover data from internal memory, normal recovery softwares require the device to be in USB/ Mass Storage Mode for it to detect the device to scan.
There is one method but it requires the phone to be rooted and it's a long process. If you are interested here is the link to it


Where is Privacy Guard in Cyanogenmod 10.1? The setting seems to be missing My phone is the Google Nexus S and I am running the latest stable Cyanogenmod build (10.1.2-crespo).

I have installed Cyanogenmod especially because of the Privacy Guard feature, but now I cannot find and enable it anywhere in Settings > Apps.

Is it possible that this feature is not included in all official Cyanogenmod builds?

The Privacy Guard is not available on stable builds, only on nightlies.

Source:

  Privacy guard probably won't make it to the stable build until the
  next major release (10.2).


Jelly Bean search - only contacts and apps? In previous versions of Android, the Google search widget allow you to choose what you want to search.
I always configured it to search only contacts and apps. this way the Google web search results doesn't push down the phone search results, and still I can use the widget to search Google.

It seems like in Jelly Bean you can't remove the web search results and they always push the phone search results down (an sometimes even hide them under "Phone Search").

Is there a way to remove the web search results from the widget search?

If not, do you know any efficient search widget/app the can search the phone?

The Universal Search function had to be limited on newer Android versions due to one of Apple's lawsuits. Thanks to this, the search behaviour had to be modified and can't be restored without rooting the device.

For rooted devices the situation is somewhat better since you can replace GoogleQuickSearch.apk with a modified version. You can see the steps on XDA. As always with modifications requiring root, use caution. I'm not certain if the APK is device-dependant.


How to avoid email/gtalk notifications when logged in in both, PC and Mobile? Is there a way to avoid double notification, both pc and mobile, when logged in in both? IE, my work mobile is Android based and at work we use gapps, so even if i am at my pc i get the email notification even though i'm logged in, the same with Gtalk.

Thanks!

I think this is as designed. When an initial talk request comes in from one of your contacts, Google don't know which screen you're paying most attention to at the time. Once you reply to the message from either the PC or mobile, further notifications in that conversation should only appear on the device that you replied from.

You can totally turn off notifications on one clienmt or the other, but that doesn't sound like what you're after?

To turn off notifications totally on your mobile, open the Talk app, press Menu then select Settings, and take the tick out of "IM Notifications: Notify in status bar when IM arrives". The Google Talk application and web app are blocked on the PC I'm using at the moment, so can't give exact directions, but there should be a similar option to disable notifications there.

See also How do Gmail (desktop) and Talk (Android) chats interact?


ebay://, tel: etc not working out of browser I'm using Opera as browser. I can remember that in the past, when I googled a restaurant, I could dial the phone number right from the search results.

Now, I see in the title bar tel:<number>, but the dialer doesn't open.

In addition, I just noticed that an ebay:// link does also not open the Ebay app but does nothing.

Any idea what I have configured for achieving this behavior? And even more interesting: how can I restore the original behavior?

When weird stuff starts to happen, I suggest to uninstall Opera, reboot your device, and reinstall Opera.

First, check the version of Opera that you have installed, in case you want to reinstall that version, rather than the latest.  You can alway find the older version on a mirror like apkmirror.com.


Please help for whatsapp plus I tried to install whatsapp plus on my Gionee M2 but it shows some error as it says something like; files existing with the same name, I rooted my mobile and tried to unistall the app with titanium backup also but still the problem is persisting, please help, I am really keen to use the apop. Thank you.

Delete the Whatsapp-related files on the SD card ?


WhatsApp not working with mobile data service After upgrading to Lollipop, I am facing the following problem with my Nexus 5 phone. Apps like WhatsApp, Hike, Messenger are not not working while mobile data is on, but there is no issue with my internet connection. But all these apps are working perfectly in WiFi environment.

I have not changed any setting tried rebooting the phone in safe mode with no result. Any suggestion will be highly appreciated.

Go to  settings>more connection settings>data monitor>data control  or the equivalent of these settings on your phone. Once in data control check whether those apps that are not working are blocked and if so enable them to use network. This worked for me.


What file systems can I use for a 128GB sdcard on Android 7.1, used as portable storage I can't find an answer to this on StackExchange. I have a phone running beta LineageOS 14.1 (Android 7.1), and a 128GB SDXC card which I want to use as portable/shared storage between devices.

I know that the built in Settings -> Storage -> "format SDcard" chooses a default file system (FAT32 with large clusters or exFAT?), but if I wanted to, could I manually format the card via Terminal to use a proper journalling file system for better data safety?

If so, what file systems could I use and what would the appropriate commands be? Would there be any other benefits or disadvantages? Would it still be portable or would I have to do something to stop ACLs/permissions being set up by default that would prevent it being swapped to other devices?

Update

Regarding comments below, it sounds like more context would help.

I'm not looking at NTFS/apple NFS as other file systems. My main "other devices" for portability would be other Android 5.1+ devices and Windows 8.1/10 (via microSD USB adapter). I'm comfortable that Windows would need an ext2/3/4/other driver or to host a Linux VM in order to read or write a microSD card that isn't in FAT* format. (I'm much more comfortable about adding ext* handling to a Windows machine than to add NTFS capability to Android, and its also simpler and less likely to give me problems because Windows would only need to access it for file management/copying, not via multiple apps of various generations on Android)

The point underlying the question is that portable storage uses FAT32/exFAT by default, without offering alternatives, and these don't have any especial data integrity provisions such as journalling, that would be integral to (and included by) several other file systems.

So its a natural question whether, by using a different file system from the default - which would of course require manual formatting and perhaps manual permissions setup - I can get the effect of universal read/writeability and portability (as with FAT*), but also gain in addition, enhanced integrity via journalling in case of crash or other data issue, which FAT* doesn't provide.

If 'journaling' is a requirement, then the EXT family (preferrably ext4) mighy be your only choice. Otherwise exFAT is the best. Just FYI, data safety depends more on your hardware rather than software (assume there's no malware), including filesystems. Any FS on a bad drive fails, and any FS on a good drive makes few differences.

It is definitely sure that if you format it to ext4, you'll have to frequently chmod -R 777 and chown -R 0.1028 (which is actually root:sdcard_r) to ensure apps work fine. Different apps have different UIDs & GIDs and upon creating a file, the owner groups are set as the app's U&G, while permissions are set according to the effective thread's umask.
Another notice is that Linux ACL is not supported by Android, whereas SELinux is, which can cause.
The FAT family is better for not having permission support, thus preventing "permission chaos" from happening. exFAT is my personal preference for shared storages. There's no regular maintenance required.
Since you're asking here, an Android community, I'm not going to discuss NTFS & Apple's HFS as they can hardly be recognized by a common Android device. Of course you can add the support for those by yourself, but it's mainly a concern of developers.


Samsung Galaxy Tab 7" 2gb Android upgrade is it posable I have a sch-i800 galaxy tab and I wouldlike to up grade the programing so I can use some of the newer programs out there is this posible?

hardware version i800.0.4

firmware v 2.3.5

baseband v S:i800.0.4v.ei04

kernal v 2.6.35.7

Build # sch-i800.mc2

http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/P1c_Info

get some cyanogenmod running on it. Follow the link above

The latest stable version is linked below.

http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?type=stable&device=p1c


Is there a way to check when my Android screen was on and off? Is there a way to check when my Android screen was on and off? I am doing a medical control of when I go to sleep and when I wake up and the screen on/off is a great way of doing it.

You can setup an automation app to log those events in a file. Tasker and MacroDroid, both are capable apps that can do this


Is it possible to extend a local bluetooth connection over the internet? I want to play a game on my phone with a friend who lives in a different city.  The game supports local "ad hoc" play over bluetooth but does not support play over the Internet.  Is there an app that can do this, with or without root?  Or is there a device that my friend and I can purchase that can "extend" a local ad hoc bluetooth network over the internet?  Or is it possible to install an application on both of our computers that will do this?

I think the answer to your question is "maybe", depending on the exact implementation details, and my solution is rather complicated...

Assuming the app uses a Bluetooth PAN*, which Android recognizes as a network device (i.e., one which would you can bridge against)

You could connect both devices to the same VPN, bridge the PAN and the VPN, effectively putting both devices on the same bluetooth network, then connect the two games.

You and your friend may need a custom kernel to enable bridging support (CONFIG_BRIDGE) (looking at the two devices on my desk, neither of them supports bridging out-of-the box) (Busybox has a brctl applet, but I've never used it on Android)

On the other hand, it may be easier to just write the Dev and ask for internet play. :)

If you do this, let me know how it goes!

*It's probably how I would do it, but there are other ways


Angry birds loads, plays, but does not save I have a TOMCAT with Android 2.3 Angry birds loads, plays, but does not save. When I restart it starts from the beginning and it does this from the first time.

I recommend the basics - first try clearing the app's cache:

Settings > Applications > Manage Apps > All > Angry Birds > Clear Cache

Then if that doesn't work, try re-installing the program.


Chrome 65 doesn't allow screenshots in Incognito mode Seems that in Chrome for Android, version 65, a "feature" was introduced which doesn't allow you to take a screenshot in Incognito mode.

When attempting to take a screenshot, Android will now show an alert saying "Taking screenshots isn't allowed by the app or your organization."

     /**
     * Sets the attributes flags to secure if there is an incognito tab visible.
     */
    @VisibleForTesting
    void updateIncognitoState() {
        WindowManager.LayoutParams attributes = mWindow.getAttributes();
        boolean currentSecureState = (attributes.flags & WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_SECURE)
                == WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_SECURE;
        boolean expectedSecureState = isShowingIncognito();
        if (currentSecureState == expectedSecureState) return;

        if (expectedSecureState) {
            mWindow.addFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_SECURE);
        } else {
            mWindow.clearFlags(WindowManager.LayoutParams.FLAG_SECURE);
        }
    }

Source: chrome/android/java/src/org/chromium/chrome/browser/incognito/IncognitoTabSnapshotController.java

This is imposing rules you can expect to have in a enterprise environment on a personal phone.

  The operation system UI should make clear when and how other apps are
  recording the screen. As an app developer, I should not be bothered
  with avoiding screen captures. Breaking this functionality breaks the
  lowest common denominator of data sharing: Taking a screenshot. One of
  the reason to make a screenshot is just because an application misses
  a proper data export functionality.

Source: HN Discussion

Is there any way to disable or prevent this behavior?

This appears to be a side-effect hiding incognito tabs from the recent apps list, which is intended as a privacy feature.

They also added an --enable-incognito-snapshots-in-android-recents switch to change this behavior, but unfortunately that's not easy to pass on Android, and there isn't an entry in chrome://flags. I didn't find anyone requesting a way to make it (easily) optional; I suggest filing a bug report about the screenshot-blocking side effect; that switch should at least be exposed as a flag.


Is there any way to root the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1? Is there any way to root the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1? I found some instructions on rooting the 7 inch version but I'm not sure if that matters. Also the instructions include flashing UK firmware. I'd prefer to do as little changes to my device as possible so I can get a backup as close to the way it came as possible.

These instructions are pretty hard to follow but should work: root insntructions


Why won't my android video player display media in the correct aspect ratio I'm using a Samsung Vibrant (Galaxy S) and when I play M4V video files, ostensibly formatted for IPhone, the device stretches the image to fit the screen rather than letterboxing.  I can't find any option to change this.  Is there a better media player or a hidden setting?

I use RockPlayer and it has a button right on the display to toggle aspect ratios and zoom levels--very convenient.


Android ADB Shell Recovery Mounting *Question:
I need assistance mounting an Android phone's internal data using the Android ADB Shell while the unit is connected via USB and in recovery mode. How do I form a proper mount command? See below for more detailed information.

*FYI:
I have experience developing with the Android SDK using Java/XML. I have found little documentation for the Android ADB Shell for my purpose.

I have a Samsung GT-i9000 Android phone with a smashed screen. Screen is black, and unresponsive to touch. The phone does not have USB debugging enabled or USB auto mount enabled. I cannot simply plug the phone via USB to access the desired files (photos, and other internal data). I unfortunately cannot confirm the OS version. The phone has no SD Card, all the desired data is on the internal board. The phone is not rooted.

*What I've tried:
Doing some research I have booted the phone into recovery mode using the three button method (VolUP + Home + Power) and managed to access the device using the "adb devices" command on my Win 7 machine. It displays as "recovery". This is the only way I have been able to make the computer recognize the device via USB. I've tried Kies, and androidscreencast with no success.

I have been able to use the "pull" command to access all the Android system files from the phone. I presume this is because recovery mode only mounts the required system files for updates/repairs and doesn't bother with the internal data. Using the mount command I can see what I consider to be the paths to the files I am looking for:

$ mount
mount
rootfs / rootfs rw 0 0
tmpfs /dev tmpfs rw,relatime,mode=755 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,relatime,mode=600 0 0
proc /proc proc rw,relatime 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs rw,relatime 0 0
none /acct cgroup rw,relatime,cpuacct 0 0
nodev /tmp tmpfs rw,relatime 0 0
/dev/block/stl6 /mnt/.lfs j4fs rw,relatime 0 0
tmpfs /mnt/asec tmpfs rw,relatime,mode=755,gid=1000 0 0
none /dev/cpuctl cgroup rw,relatime,cpu 0 0
/dev/block/stl9 /system rfs rw,relatime,vfat,llw,check=no,gid/uid/rwx,iocharset=
utf8 0 0
/dev/block/stl3 /efs rfs rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,vfat,llw,check=no,gid/uid/rwx,
iocharset=utf8 0 0
/dev/block/stl11 /cache rfs rw,relatime,vfat,llw,check=no,gid/uid/rwx,iocharset=
utf8 0 0

All my efforts to mount fail, usually with a usage suggestion:

$ mount rootfs / /mnt/ rw 0 0
mount rootfs / /mnt/ rw 0 0
Usage: mount [-r] [-w] [-o options] [-t type] device directory

ls -l /dev/block/platform/dw_mmc/by-name/

to find the path to user data partition. Then

mount -t ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p10 /data

Check the correct file system type as well as mmcblkXpXX from first command.

If successful, /data should be mounted correctly


Nexus 6 display performance, PWM and flickering Does anyone have any information about Nexus 6 (and its "brothers") real display performance? I'm worried about PWM/flickering, that usually exists in AMOLED displays and makes them completely unusable for me. (For example, all recent Samsung phones have flickering issue and because of that they are unusable). And Nexus 6 has AMOLED, if I understood right — but I couldn't find any details about it on the Internet yet.
It would be especially great if you have proofs (high-speed camera recordings, for example).
A good article about what is PWM and how to test it: http://tftcentral.co.uk/articles/pulse_width_modulation.htm
Update
I've found this test result in a review:

It implies that above 30% brightness level the flickering must be (almost) absent. But it's not a complete answer, because

it's unknown what's the real brightness at 30% and how much it differs from 100%, and is PWM completely inactive when brightness is above say 40% (the graphs show that at 30% there are indeed pulsations)
is it possible to lock the brightness setting in such a way that it's forced to stay ≥ 40% for example

Either steer clear of Amoled, or at 40% brightness use a screen filter app like Twilight to further reduce brightness without flickering. Contrast and colours may suffer though.


How can I check second partition of SD card is of which type ex2, ext3 or ext4? I have partitioned memory card,but I forgot my second partition type I had selected at the time of partitioning memory card.One partition is of FAT32. I want to know my another partition is of ext2,ext3 or ext4?

I would suggest using this app, Disk Info:

  DiskInfo is a unique app that lists all partitions and all mount points on you device. It shows disk usage and very detailed partition and storage information.

This app will be able to help you identify what filesystem is being used.


Remove additional date from notification and lock screen In my Samsung Galaxy S8, Android 9, I see an additional date, showing in parentheses, both on the lock screen and in the notification bar when I roll it down. For example, right now it says "16:58 Mon, April 8 (FAR 19)".
I'm attaching a screenshot of the lock screen, but it also appears in the notification bar.

I checked within all the apps I could think of, also looked to see that I don't have any "other calendar" or "alternative calendar" configured. Also, I found out that FAR is a Persian calendar which makes no sense for me...

Tried already contacting Samsung chat support but the couldn't help (they did ask me to reset my phone configuration and to clear caches and other stuff).

I found out that it's not something that can be changed via settings - it come's like that out of the box when the device is meant to be sold in a different market.
In my case, every time I insert a new SIM card into the phone and restart it I got a notification saying that in order to set new settings for the phone I must do a factory reset. So when putting back my own SIM I also got this message. Once I did that suggested factory reset phone started fresh with a factory configuration that matches my region, making the Persian calendar disappear and also enabling other features that weren't enabled before, such as native call recording
(worked on both Samsung Galaxy S8 and S20)


Unwanted Toast Notifications Android 4.0 3. HTC Sense 3.6. I have some app installed on my SD card (1 of 195), that pops up a toast notification on boot/SD mount that says "Have a good day!" And lasts for nearly a minute. Does anyone know an easy way for me to figure out what app is causing that? Since toasts aren't a permission, an app like addon detector won't work. Cheers!

Sounds like there's an app that is listening for the permission android.permission.RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED and firing the toast much to your annoyance.

You need to check with yourself by asking yourself those two vital questions -

When did this happen?
What was the last app you installed?

And backtrace it to the offending app. For an example, check out this and narrow it down to that aforementioned permission and see which one is it and un-install it.


not able to install Google Fi I subscribed to Google Fi for transferring my American phone number to this service.

I have Google Pixel 3a XL, which has esim.

To activate Google Fi service I need to install Google Fi App.

This service is available only in USA.

I have American address and American phone, but right now I'm in Canada.

So when I try ti install it, I get error:

  This item isn't available in your country

Okay, I installed TunnelBear VPN, but is having the same error.

Should I try different VPN or change some setting on my phone?

UPDATE: Following this article, I installed VPN Unlimited on my other phone (Windows phone) and connected my Pixel to this phone by hotspot.

I cleared cash on both phones and set location off.

Now browser show me weather for Los Angeles. But Google Play still gives me the same error.

Btw, I have US Profile in Google Play.

Still should to try Fake GPS, but may I should drive to USA to activate Fi.

Change your country setting in Google PlayStore Account settings. You'll get a notification that you can only do this once a year blah blah blah, but right after I changed mine from New Zealand to USA I was able to download and activate the app.
Cheers


disabling sms content and just seeing name on the lockscreen I have an htc one. Is there a way to disable the sms content in lockscreen and just see the name, without using any other application?

I do not have an HTC One, but I use Go SMS Pro which is a third party SMS/MMS app that has a easy setting in there to only show a "New Message" notification instead of actually showing the message's contents. You said you didn't want another application, so you might be able to look through the settings of the default messaging app on the One and see if there is something similar.

If not, I highly recommend Go SMS Pro to solve this issue and several others.


Android Google translate update September 2017 So the latest android update to Google now automatically translates a Web pages. It allows you to either never translate page or never translate language. Thing is, I'm learning the language so I want to translate the page only when I'm not sure if what is saying! Before I could choose to either ignore the translate pop up or use it. Now it translates the pages straight away, which in some cases screws them up so I can't use the menus, even after going back to the original language. Why fix something that wasn't broken!

Each app update generally should improve functionality/add new features or fix bug. If youre a fan of Google Translate you would've noticed that the new feature was already available in the web version. Since they're implementing this feature now in android, its not totally with bugs like the one you encountered.
So my suggestion is that you disable the translate webpage option and activate "translate copied text" option which was available in prior update. When the need arises to translate, just copy and a poo up would should for you to translate. [This is however not as fluid as the webpage translation though ]

Hope I helped... Lemme know


How to install a file manager to Xperia L WITHOUT internet connection? It's a big shame that this phone does not have any file manager by default.

I have the .apk installer of the file manager on my PC, but how to install it on phone offline? (offline = no internet connection)

Help

Plug the device into the computer, drop the .apk into the sd card and use the web browser to go to file:///sdcard and open the .apk file to install it.


Always get android updates instantly A Nexus 5, for example, receives the latest android updates instantly.

Is it possible to get this pure version of android on any custom android phone (like Galaxy S3)?

Do note I DO NOT mean:

Something like Cyanogenmod. While it does eventually give latest android update it is not instant like on Nexus devices. Default google apps are also not installed out of the box or updated automatically.
A solution that keeps requiring manual install (like a custom mod maybe) everytime a new official version of android is out. I am looking for a solution where after manual intervention once, stock android will be installed and I will receive android updates instantly.
A specific solution to Galaxy S3. I'm just looking for the term used to have instant automatic updates on your device, I'm very new to Android sorry.

No. When new Android versions are developed by Google, they use the Nexus devices to test and develop them. They co-operate with the vendors of the different hardware and software components inside the device so that all the necessary driver changes will be ready for the new version, and they only announce it when the updates are already available for Nexus devices.

Google works together with the leading handset manufacturers to give them early access to the new Android version and to help them make the necessary changes to support it, but even so, there's always going to be a delay between when the new version is announced and when manufacturer updates are ready.

Third-party ROMs like Cyanogenmod are another option, but as they're made by volunteers without early access to Google's code, they usually become stable much later than official ROMs are released.

So if you're not happy with the timeliness of updates for Samsung devices (or any other manufacturer), your only option is to not buy devices from that manufacturer.


Error deleting Google account from Samsung Galaxy S4 I recently upgraded my Samsung Galaxy S4 to Android Lollipop (5.0.01).
I created a new Google account and then added it to the device; when I triee to delete the old Google Account from the device I didn’t succeed to access to the google account. I went into settings>accounts>google account, and an error popped up: "Unfortunately, Settings has stopped." Is there any other way to delete the Google account from my phone?
Thanks in advance.

In case nothing else helps, you can always factory reset the device, that's gonna do the trick for sure. Keep in mind that this will delete all of your data and everything else, too, so just use this as a last resort.

The only other thing you could try to do is to delete the data of the settings/account related apps, but that's also potentially risky, so make a backup of everything first.


Photos and videos visible on phone., but impossible to import to a Mac I have a Moto G 2nd gen, with android 6 (marshmallow).

It appears that the phone contains some photos and videos which I can see through the Gallery, but I am unable to import to Photos.app on OSX.

The camera app is setup to store images on SD.

I have tried connecting the phone as a camera (PTP) and nothing shows up.
I have also tried connecting the phone as a media device (MTP) and use the android transfer app, but the pictures do not show up in DCIM/ under "internal storage", and the "sd card" file list doesn't contain a DCIM/ directory at all.

I have tried wiping the cache partition, ejecting and re-adding the sd card but nothing worked, I cannot find these files.
Where are they, and how do I get them out of the phone?

If the physical transfer does not work, you could try an app like WiFi File Transfer

It uses your WiFi to transfer files, so that might be worth a try.


How-to unlink the main Google account from android device without a factory reset While setting up my HTC Hero phone, I have entered my gmail account in the setup. But now I want to remove it (I don;t want to change with another account). How do I do it ?

I have searched a lot on Google and everywhere I found that I have to do factory reset but this is not my favoured option.

If there is another way, please let me know.

What do you mean,  by 'delete it' exactly? Your phone needs to be linked to a Google account, no matter what (as far as I know). If you do wish to change the "main" Google account your phone is linked with, a factory reset is the way. I've had to do it myself a few times.

If you just want to stop receiving Gmail notifications, go into Settings > Accounts and uncheck the "sync" option for the account you no longer wish to have Gmail sync with.


Completely disable hardware and software buttons I want to completely disable the three on-screen buttons (Back, Home, Recents) and any other hardware button. I am aware that I cannot do this from the application since that would be a major security flaw. How would I do this to a device assuming that I have the device on hand? Gain root access and then how would this go?

Ps: What I am trying to do is to have the app run on my tablet on a kiosk and I do not want the users to pressing any buttons.

Full!screen has a (paid-for) feature where you can automatically hide system bars in certain apps and unhide them in other apps, but there is a free version without the automation.

Alternatively, you can hide them completely over ADB (source) with:

adb shell
su
pm disable com.android.systemui

Or (if you're writing your own app) you can use this code (source):

private void hideNavigationBar(){
        try {
            Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("su");
            DataOutputStream os = new DataOutputStream(process.getOutputStream());
            os.writeBytes("pm disable com.android.systemui\n");
            os.flush();
            os.writeBytes("exit\n");
            os.flush();
            process.waitFor();
            //////////////////////////////////////
        } catch (InterruptedException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

Kiosk Browser Lockdown also has a feature where you can disable all system dialogs (volume, long-press power etc.)


Looking for an alternative to Smart Statusbar Is there are way to reveal the notification bar in a full-screen app?

I have been using Smart Statusbar, which is a great little tool that reveals the bar with a gesture. Unfortunately, the app has a bug that renders some part of my phone's (Xperia Neo V) screen unresponsive. I have already emailed the developer but it seems he's no longer interested in the project. I'm now on the lookout for a perfect substitute. Any help?

I have Android 2.3.

Try Bird Bar.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mikedg.android.bar.lite

And now, for the rest of my 30 characters...


Can I install a ROM made for a different device? I own a MicroMax A100. I want to install the latest version of a different ROM (Samsung or Nexus).

Is it possible? If so, can you tell me how?

If not, can I install a ROM made for a different device, but from the same manufacturer? For example, could I install a ROM for the MicroMax A110, which is the successor of A100?

Short answer:
You can only install ROMs compatible with your device
Longer version
Different Android devices use different hardware, which requires special drivers (e.g. the camera). Those drivers are sometimes/often proprietary (take e.g. Sony, which almost made it into the AOSP project -- but had difficulties due to those proprietary parts and thus had to back-out again: AOSP only allows for non-proprietary, Open Source code, like its name suggests: Android Open Source Project). Installing an incompatible ROM, in the best case, makes components of your device unavailable (they are simply not working). In the worst case, you might "brick" it (it won't even start up).
You might want to check the question Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device? to find ROMs compatible with your device. Most times, there are several choices available to meet the user's requirements: Less "bloatware" but more performance, more fancy stuff, custom enhancements... So you still can make your pick.
Other recommended readings on this topic:

Are the custom ROM different for different phones?
Is there an official Android “Google” ROM?


my contacts have dissapeared and i can't recover them with google backup i bought a new Galaxy Core Prime about 2 weeks ago. After some time, some of my contacts dissapeared. I didn't delete them, neither switched any settings with contacts. Still i had 102 contact in my sim card and now i have only 48 and i didn't delete any of them. I tried Android Data Recovery, Google Backup but none of them worked.
Can anyone help me?

my advice is you should use "GT RECOVERY " APP in your android .but its need ROOT so first root your device  with KINGO ROOT. this is very easy.


Auto Backup / Instant Upload of other folders Is there a way, natively or through 3rd party app that I can define folders to watch on my phone that auto backsup photos to a particular album or to the autobackup section of my Google+ account.

I dont want to use other services such as dropbox etc, I want to know if theres an option to keep it all with Google.

As of Google+ 4.3 you can select which local folder are included in auto backup.


I can't factory reset my device I forgot my password and accidentally typed to many wrong passwords. I finally remembered it and manually changed it. But now it says that I need to reset the paasword via an email that I will get:

It's been a long while and I don't have any email, not even in the spam. Please help I really need to reset my device!

It is asked to you to reset your password from the Samsung site! Open a navigator (chrome, Firefox), go to account.samsung.com then reset your password using your actual Gmail email address.


How do I connect to 802.1x EAP Wi-Fi network from an Android 10 device? My Wi-Fi uses 802.1x EAP with TLS. It works well with the old Android devices, but an Android 10 device pretends that it's trying to connect, and a few seconds later marks the connection as disabled. There is absolutely nothing in the Radius logs about any failed connection attempt.

The configuration is quite the same between this device and the older ones, with two differences:

Security field is unavailable, unless I chose to manually add the network, in which case there is no “802.1x EAP,” but only “WEP,” “WPA/WPA2-Personal” and “WPA/WPA2/WPA3-Enterprise.” I suppose that I need to chose the last one.
Domain field is added between CA Certificate and User certificate. I tried to keep it empty or enter the domain name of the company; the result is the same.

What can I do to understand why doesn't the device attempt to talk to the Radius server before marking the connection as disabled?

Before the client (aka supplicant) can talk to the authenticator it must first establish a TLS connection.  The failure might be occurring in the EAPOL START before a user authentication (TLS auth) can occur.  This might be why you do not see any authentication attempts on the Radius server.

Yes you must select WPA/WPA2/WPA3-Enterprise in order to do EAP-TLS.  You need to specify both the CA Certificate and Client certificate in order to complete the EAP TLS Flow.

Are you familiar with Android Logcat?  You could start looking there and filtering on wpa_supplicant or EAPOL to see if there are any certificate validation or related errors.

Guessing why here but, it's possible your older devices will work with the same CA/Client certificate depending how old they are.  Certificate validation has improved (strengthened) in android over the years and it might be why its failing on new devices and not older.


s6 won't fast charge or connect to pc so i have an at&t s6.

suddenly stopped fast charging. and when i say "stopped fast charging," i mean charges slower than molasses now. takes literally about 4hrs to charge from 80% to 100%.

tried multiple known good chargers and cables and verified with both another s5 and s6 activ. found that the computer won't recognize it anymore magically.

i am rooted and have uninstalled a bunch of bloat. shouldn't matter right?

also in developer options- i can check usb debugging, but then in the secret menu (*0#*0) or whatever, mtp+adb is unchecked. if i check that, then go back to developer options, usb debugging is unchecked.

I even pulled apart the phone and put in a new daughterboard in case the thing port is broken and put in a new battery both to no avail.

Had the same problem.. sm-920v
 Solved: Just cleaned the usb-charging port.. pc detect and fast charge working again..
Note: cache partition erase didn't work


How to manually restore Call Log from adb backup on OnePlus One? (SMS already restored) I ran adb backup with all the backup flags on my OnePlus One (which I had gradually upgraded from 44S to 05Q). Then I wiped it, reimaged it with a fresh image of 05Q, and tried to restore my SMS and call logs.

I managed to restore the SMS history by copying back the  /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases folder to my new phone and setting the permissions appropriately. But for the life of me I can't figure out how to restore my call logs -- I can't figure out which folder to restore from and I can't figure out where to restore it to. It seems to me that the two might be different because I originally upgraded the phone from a slightly older version of Cyanogenmod whereas the fresh copy is completely new, but either way I can't figure out how to do this. I have a nagging feeling that the call log might not have even been backed up, but that would be strange because the SMS log was...

Any ideas?

Note: OP already knows the answer but the following info is for those souls who might be troubled with the same issue.

Disappointment!
CM11 in OnePlus One (be it 44S or 05Q update) doesn't have any provision to get the Contacts and Call logs get backed up and restored using ADB.
So unfortunately, the answer is simple: your contacts and call logs were  not backed up by ADB because the developer(s) of CM11 didn't allow it, and so, you should look for other ways to restore them (hint: Google Contacts Sync).
Also, if it matters:

/data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases is where you'll find the database for SMS/MMS
/data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/ is where you'll see the Contacts and the Call logs

You can now stop reading if you're satiated by the answer, and I recommend to  get busy in finding some recovery methods to regain access to Contacts and Call logs.
However, some souls want a reason for an event no matter what, so here we go with one such reason!

Why SMS/MMS were backed up and not the Contacts?
Why is that private content such as SMS/MMS were backed up but not the Contacts?
You've to note that since Jelly Bean was launched this has not been a common behavior exhibited in Android Open Source Code (AOSP) and neither by most of the stock ROMs to allow backup of said private content by ADB, i.e. both Telephony Provider (has SMS/MMS database) and Contacts Provider (has Contacts and Call logs) are usually developed to not to participate in backup and restore infrastructure of the Android system. However, CM11 has some changes which allows SMS/MMS to be backed up but leave the Contacts and Call logs in the dirt.
What are those changes?
My finding states that in CM11, a flag named android:allowBackup="false" was eventually removed from Telephony Provider  but remained untouched in Contacts Provider. This flag is always introduced under the app's AndroidManifest.xml.
Google here has to say this regarding that flag:

android:allowBackup
Whether to allow the application to participate in the backup and restore infrastructure. If this attribute is set to false, no backup or restore of the application will ever be performed, even by a full-system backup that would otherwise cause all application data to be saved via adb. The default value of this attribute is true.

(Emphasis mine)
However, for some reason, CM12 reverted back this decision and now, both  the apps doesn't allow backup from ADB at all.
If you intend to to see the source of the said packages, then take a look at AndroidManifest.xml of Telephony Providers for:

CM11 -- no such flag under <application ..
CM12 -- has that flag under <application ..

But for Contacts Provider both CM11 and CM12 has the flag untouched.
You can further verify this information from the AndroidManifest.xml of both the packages that you've in your CM11. You would find that the flag is present in one app and not in the other.
Note that the default behavior as mentioned in original source code of Android is to disallow backup in both apps for Kitkat release.
As for why CM11 developer(s) made such changes, I would advise asking them directly.
Done for now!

You may checkout my similar answer mentioned here for the question: Backup/Restore SMS/MMS via ADB on a non-rooted device?.


Reset my android device password using android device manager I'm android Marshmallow user. and I want to resent my password using android device manager. I signed in my google account and went to google's android device manager and it's not showing any option to reset the password.

I went through some tutorial on google and they've shown this option with screenshot. But i'm enable to find it right now. can somebody pls help

thanks in advance

Resetting pattern / password using ADM is possible for devices running 4.4 or lower only . Also see this on Google forums

Your way out is to reset your device after logging out of the Google account to prevent factory reset protection issues or keep guessing the password till you get it right


Why is the screen acting weird while charging? I noticed that when I charge my phone with a cheap charger that I bought from Ebay, the screen acts strange:

It suddenly can't position my taps correctly and
It detects swipes as taps.

After a fast googling the reason is most likely that the charger has a bigger voltage output that the phone expects and that causes the trouble.

Why does a bigger voltage output cause a behaviour like this?

Problems with ghost touches on the screen while charging is very common when using third party chargers or cables. It is caused by electrical discharge in the form of either current or static charge. I'd toss that charger and/or cable away and buy an original one. Damage might have been cause already though which will most likely be seen by unusual battery draining (it can mess up the  calibration).


Hide onscreen buttons of back, home & recent apps in Keyboard apps on Moto G5 Plus I have Moto G5 Plus. I have enabled One-button navigation in Moto Actions using which I can use the swipe actions on home button to replicate back/home/recent apps buttons. This hides the onscreen buttons of back, home & recent apps.

But when any keyboard app is open (SwiftKey, GBoard) then these buttons appear onscreen. How can I hide these buttons when keyboard app is open?

Or go to settings > display > expanded desktop and hide the navbar for your keyboard apps.

If that doesn't work, use tasker to hide the navbar when a keyboard is open.


How can I hide irrelevant contacts in Go Contacts? When I was using stock contacts and sync with Google, I could put relevant contacts in My Contacts group which is the only group synced by Google. I have installed GO Contacts and it now displays all groups except My Contacts.

What I want to do is to group irrelevant contacts somehow and hide them from my phone contacts or ignore them in sync. Please note that I do not want to mess with My Contacts group in case I decided to go back to stock Contacts.

Not sure if this will answer your question, but there is a Settings (button) called "Contacts Account" which lets you show or hide the following contacts:
- Phone
- Google
- SIM
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Show contacts with phone numbers only


SMS message text absurdly large My LG Optimus Fuel (running factory-installed, non-rooted KitKat) is displaying SMS and MMS message text in the Messaging app at a very large size, as seen below.

I have looked through the app's settings and System Settings, to no avail. System text size is set to "Normal", but this problem still occurs, and only in this app.

Any solutions?

I've found the solution. I was easily able to fix it by using pinch gestures on the screen. It works the same as viewing a webpage. Pinch apart to zoom in, pinch together to zoom out.


SD card supported by Android 4.2.2 I bought a HTC 310 Desire running Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean) and would like to format my SD card (SDHC 32GB) so to be able to contain files larger than 4GB.
I tried formatting the card exFAT, NTFS, ext2, ext4 (using the utility of my Windows PC, of a MAC and using MiniTool PartitionWizard) but when i place back the card into the phone, the phone keep saying that the card is damaged and propose to reformat it. If I accept the card will be formatted as FAT32 (i.e. no file larger than 4GB possible).
Do you know what can be done? Possibly without rooting the phone?
Is there somewhere a list of the file system supported by my phone?
Or is there something special to pay attention to in the card formatting?

I have looked into this issue before, and as it stands at the moment, native android does not support exFAT or NTFS.

Support for additional formatting types are included in some ROMs because they have been specifically coded to do so such as AFAIK which I believe supports NTFS.

I think you are stuck with FAT32 unless you wish to root and flash a ROM that supports alternative formats.


Any way to disable Slide to Call/Message? Is there a way to disable the Slide function to call/Message contacts in Phone on Lollipop 5.1.1?

My phone specs:
SM-G925F
Android Lollipop 5.1.1

Thanks in advance!

There's a hidden option on the newer Samsung devices.

Open Dialer, then select Menu -> Settings -> Contacts then uncheck Swipe to call or send message.

Hope this helps,


Difference between Samsung Galaxy I5800 and I5801 What exactly are the differences between the two apart from Orange branding? Also I read that I5801 is the Orange branded one, but the phones in India are not Orange branded but still show as I5801 in 'phone info' in 'settings'.

Besides a few visual differences, the look to be the exact same device. The only differences I see between the 2 spec sheets is the dimensions and weight.

I5800 Specs
I5801 Specs


Dim the back light to low battery level Even when I set the backlight onto its dimmest, it is still very bright when using it in the dark. However, when you have low battery it appears even dimmer, so I know it is possible to get it to that level.

Is there anyway to set it to this reduced level?

If it makes any difference, I am using a Galaxy Ace (2.3.3).

I'm currently using Screen Filter. It reduces the brightness of your phone below the level of what Android OS provides. Works for me and is a good battery saver. Hope this helps.


How to connect a different phone to the "Nexus One Desktop Dock" The original HTC/Google Nexus One Desktop Dock is a bluetooth device and has audio line out. I would love to still be able to use this with my new phone. Anyone know how to connect this with a Galaxy Nexus?

against common sense, Google and htc decided that the dock and n1 phone would use a proprietary method to set up the Bluetooth connection. but if you can work around that annoyance, it's still a simple Bluetooth connection.

here are the steps http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=43401809&postcount=25

(I won't copy here because I'm on mobile. anyone feel free to edit it)

It involves using the Linux shell on your n1phone. sorry if you can't do that I doubt there's a solution. (I may write an app if a see myself doing that often tho :)

as a final lesson, don't buy stuff from those companies again if you want standards, convenience and interoperability.


How to backup Windows 6.5 /HTC HD2/ data and transfer it to Android 4.2 /Samsung Galaxy S4 I have a HTC HD2 / Windows 6.5 / several years. A week ago I got a Samsung Galaxy S4 / Android 4.2 /. My question is what program I could make a backup of the old phone, so I can restore them to the new. Thanks in advance for all the help.

HOW TO TRANSFER/BACKUP DATA FROM WINDOWS MOBILE TO ANDROID
To make backups and transfer that data to your Android device, you'll need to install PIM Backup on your Windows Mobile device.
Go to www.dotfred.net and download the PIM Backup CAB file for Windows Mobile 6.5 (direct link: http://www.tinyurl.com/PIMBackup65).
Move it to your HTC HD2 and install it.
Contacts:

Make a backup of your contacts with PIM Backup and save it as a CSV file.
Copy the file to your computer and go to Google Contacts. Click on More -> Import.
Choose the CSV file and press Import. Once your new phone has a proper connection to the internet, it'll automatically synchronise with the Google servers and you'll see a complete list of your contacts in the Contacts app.

Calendar/Appointments:

Use PIM Backup to backup all of your appointments to a CSV file. Copy that CSV file to your computer.
Go to Google Calendar and click the mechanical wheel and click Settings.
Go to Calendars and click Import calendar.
Choose the CSV file and press Import. Once your new phone has a proper connection to the internet, it'll automatically synchronise with the Google servers and you'll see your appointments in your Google Calendar app.

Text Messages/SMS:

Use PIM Backup to backup your text messages to an .xml file. Transfer that file to your phone to /sdcard/SMSBackupRestore.
Install the free app SMS Backup & Restore on your Android device.
Start it and restore the XML file.

Call Log:

Use PIM Backup to backup your call log to an .xml file. Transfer that file to your phone to /sdcard/CallLogBackupRestore.
Install the free app Call Logs Backup & Restore on your Android device.
Start it and restore the XML file.


Facebook Messenger always crashing I have a Dell Venue 8 tablet with Android 4.4.2. Today the Facebook Messenger application started to crash whenever I try to open it.

The crash doesn't happen in my phone (a Moto G running Android 4.4.4 and the same version of the FB messenger). From what I understand, libhoudini.so is the ARM emulation layer (this tablet is a x86 device).

No other apps (not even the main Facebook app) seem to present the problem.

I tried cleaning its cache/data and uninstalling/reinstalling it but didn't work. What else besides resetting the device can I try?

Well (almost 1 year later), apparently this doesn't happen anymore. I installed Messenger back a while ago and haven't had any crashes.


Can I get an app package name as a Tasker Variable upon a package updated event? I'm trying to use Tasker to create custom notifications with AutoNotification with the Event Context of "Package Updated *". But what I really need is to know if when a package is updated, does the updated app package name get passed to a variable? I already know about the intent of Package_Added from this other question, but it doesn't say anything about having an intent of Package_Updated.

You can always employ adb at your service to do the hunting on your own. For example: after a successful update of an app if you immediately execute the following command and follow the section ACTIVITY MANAGER BROADCAST STATE (dumpsys activity broadcasts) you would come across the intent android.intent.action.PACKAGE_REPLACED. You would also observe that the data in that intent contains the much sought package name.

adb shell dumpsys activity

Relevant demo output:

#0: BroadcastRecord{dec5090 u0 android.intent.action.PACKAGE_REPLACED}
    act=android.intent.action.PACKAGE_REPLACED dat=package:com.koushikdutta.backup flg=0x4000010 (has extras)
    extras: Bundle[{android.intent.extra.UID=10185, android.intent.extra.REPLACING=true, android.intent.extra.user_handle=0}

As for using the information in Tasker, setup your profile and tasks like this:

Profile: Event → System → Intent Received

Action: android.intent.action.PACKAGE_REPLACED
Scheme: package
leave the rest untouched

Task: (Actions):

Variables → Variable Search Replace

Variable: %intent_data
Search: package:
tick One Match Only
tick Replace Matches
Replace With: leave this untouched since we want to delete the match

The package name alone would now be available to the value of the variable %intent_data (a local variable). Use it wherever you want.

In order to get the app label, you can either use Tasker's inbuilt functionality or use aapt (latter requires root access)

App → Test App:

Type: Package Name
Data: %intent_data
Store Result In: %label

The app label can now be retrieved from the variable %label.

See Accessing Intent Data for more info on intent handling in Tasker.

Homework: if you follow the output of dumpsys activity carefully you would note that the information that the app has been updated can actually be retrieved from android.intent.action.PACKAGE_ADDED alone.

Related: Get new installed app name with Tasker


How to save an HTML page from a web site using Chrome I have a web site that has some simple HTML pages with no images, no external CSS or JavaScript references. So the whole HTML page is a single self-containing file that has HTML code, together with inline CSS and JavaScript code. In other words, once I copy the HTML file into my Downloads folder on my mobile device, I can use it (while being offline) by loading the following into the Chrome browser:
file:///storage/emulated/0/Download/my_page.html
The problem is that I cannot download the web page from my web site into the Downloads folder using Chrome on my mobile device: When I go to:
https://my-site.tld/xxx/my_page.html
and display the page in the mobile browser, I can use the download (⭳) button on Chrome browser's tab; however it creates an .mthml file instead, with a name like this:
Title of My Page.mhtml
When I try to open this file while my mobile device is offline, none of the interactive content on the page (e.g., buttons, input boxes, etc.) is enabled. Note that my page contains interactive content that is processed locally by JavaScript contained in the page.
Currently, the only solution is to connect my mobile device to my PC (using USB for example) and copy the .html file from my PC to the mobile's Downloads file. Once I copy the .html file and open it on my mobile device using the file:///... URL as given above, the page's JavaScript works as expected (contrary to the .mhtml version).
Assuming that the .html page on my-site is updated frequently, it is tedious to download it to PC and copy over my mobile phone when I need an update. There must be a more direct way.

The simplest thing I can think of is to open the file you want to save as source code, which you can do from Chrome Android by prepending view-source to the URL, like so.
view-source:https://my-site.tld/xxx/my_page.html

You can then either copy and paste this code into a local file, or use the share button to open it with a compatible app of your choosing.
If this seems like too much of a pain, you might consider doing something like using PHP to determine whether the file should be viewed or downloaded. For example if the IP address of the request matches your phone, download instead of displaying the file.
<?php
/**
 * File url: https://my-site.tld/xxx/my_page.php
 *
 */

$remote_address = filter_input(INPUT_SERVER, 'REMOTE_ADDR', FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);

if ($remote_address === '56.57.58.59') {
    header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"filename.html\"\n");
    header("Content-Type: text/html\n");
}

?>
<!-- Begin actual page content -->
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en-US">
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    ....

Conversely, you could also simply create a separate page to allow a download regardless of the requesting IP address.
<?php
/**
 * File url: https://my-site.tld/xxx/my_page-download.php
 *
 */

header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"filename.html\"\n");
header("Content-Type: text/html\n");
readfile('path/to/file');

Additional information about the Content-Disposition header may be found in the Mozilla Developer Docs. It's not the only resource, of course, it's just my personal favorite.


How to search the Play Store by permissions? How do I specify that I do not wish to see apps that require for example internet access? Or to only show apps that use a specific permission?

A specific repository with search on its webpage? An app that provides searching the Play Store?

How it currently CAN be done
During my morning routine reading my RSS feeds, I stumbled on a review at N-Droid, discussing an app named APEFS. This app is developed by German students (hence its description on the Playstore is in German, even if you set the language to English). But for our non-German readers, a short description here:
Basically, APEFS is an alternative front-end to the Google Playstore. You browse the playstore as you do with the original app, and search it the same. But when on the results list1, an advanced filter2 comes into play:

As the second screenshot shows, you can select what permissions your wanted app is permitted to have (checkbox marked), and what permission it should not have (checkbox unchecked).
However: While this can be used to filter out apps with unwanted permissions (e.g. show only apps whitout the Internet permission), you can not restrict your results to the opposite (e.g. show only apps with Internet permission). The app clearly targets at users concerned about their privacy/security -- and according to the review (I just found it a couple of minutes ago, so I could not test it yet) it does a very good job.

EDIT:
As it's already a year ago, and the promise on the APEFS Homepage (GTransed to English, as their own English version doesn't have that statement in the first paragraph) seems not to be fulfilled anytime soon (the app is still offline): Please consider the web-based solution from my other answer as an alternative meanwhile.


How can I upgrade my "obsolete" Pixel to a current/secure version of Android? I have a first-gen Google Pixel.  It came with Android 9 (Oreo), then after I'd had it a while, upgraded itself to 10 (Pie).  Just about the time Android 11 (Q?) came out, I was notified that Google would no longer supply updates (not even security updates, it seems) for my phone -- then not yet quite two years old.
Sure, most people buy a new phone as soon as the purchase agreement runs out on their old one.  I, however, bought the Pixel originally with the idea that, if I was going to spend $750 for a phone, I'd make it as future resistant as possible.  I bought the best camera, fastest processor, and largest storage (128 GB) that I could find, which is how I wound up with a Pixel (Apple wasn't in contention, because Apple).
Now, however, I have to choose between buying a new Pixel 4a (for less than half what I paid for my original Pixel), essentially the same phone I have but with very slightly upgraded specs (camera hardware supports longer exposures, CPU is slightly faster), in order to get two years of updates on a new Android version, buying a Pixel 5 or something else to get a significant hardware upgrade (and paying as much as I did originally) -- or continuing to carry and use my original Pixel, which still works fine, holds charge well, and is nowhere even vaguely close to full.
The only reason I have to think about this is that I'm apparently no longer eligible for security updates, meaning there's the possibility that a flaw that's been fixed for years in newer versions might let someone take control of my phone, steal my photos and storeds passwords, take over my email, etc.
Is there a way to upgrade manually, legally, with a non-rooted phone, and have the upgraded system work correctly with my hardware (camera etc.)?
The phone is on Verizon, if that matters (not sure why it would, but not sure it wouldn't).

You could install LineageOS for Pixel 1 (sailfish).
However as Google does not provide updated kernels (and drivers) the updates will only affect problems in the Android system itself.
The disadvantage is that the whole system is no longer genuine regarding Android SafetyNet check so that certain apps (especially payment/banking apps) may refuse to work.


How can I build the TextSecure app from source code? Unless I’m mistaken, the TextSecure app (which provides encrypted text messaging—both over the wire and on disk) was pulled from the market a while back, leaving no way to install the app is readily available from the Market. Just today, however, the source code was released to the public. How can I build the app from source code and get it onto my phone?

I know nothing about Android development, so keep that in mind. Following various instructions online, however, I was able to build the source and put it on my phone. Perhaps someone who knows what they’re doing can come along and explain how it really should be done. Until then…

Install and configure the Android SDK. Make sure you add the SDK tools to your PATH. I’m building this on Linux, but if you know what you’re doing it should be possible to follow along on Windows.

You may need to run android and install various platform software for the build to work. I did this a while back, so I don’t remember exactly what I had to do. Sorry.
Download the source code (requires git):

git clone https://github.com/WhisperSystems/TextSecure.git

Enter the source directory and build the app.

cd TextSecure
android update project --name textsecure --path . --target android-7
ant release

Cross your fingers. Hopefully the build succeeds. If it does, we will need to sign the newly built .apk file, textsecure-unsigned.apk, before Android will let you install it.

cp bin/textsecure-unsigned.apk bin/textsecure.apk
keytool -genkey -keystore mykeystore -validity 10000
jarsigner -keystore mykeystore bin/textsecure.apk mykey

Running keytool will prompt you to enter a bunch of information, as well as a password. Enter whatever you please, as it shouldn’t matter.
Copy the apk file, textsecure.apk, to the SDCard on your phone. Install it like you would any other non-Market application.


Stuck on welcome screen & language selection I installed custom ROM before this I ported it. The rom is amzen 5 kitkat  but I have problem with welcome screen. I can't choose language I can switch between languages. Is it possible to modify to not show welcome screen and instead of it show home screen and in settings you can choose language?

Own answer

Auto rotate helps.

More concretely the landscape orientation because you see in the bottom half of button without text (i.e no 'go next' or something else) and can go next so I clicked but I don't know why UI is so big. I suppose the author built UI big. That's why you can not see button next in portrait orientation


Connect JUST as charging With ICS my phone now ALWAYS mounts my SD card as an external drive when I plug it into a computer. Sometimes I just want power, especially if I am trying to play a game that's on my SD card.
Under the previous version I had the option to connect JUST for charging, without talking to the computer at all. Is there a way to get this functionality back w/ an ICS device?

Answer

With Android 4.0 ICS, charge only mode is no longer available.

Unfortunately there's no app to deal with this issue AFAIK.

You can try, but I believe that this isn't possible with your phone, but for future readers, placing the phone in "media transfer mode", allows access to SD cards on both phone and computer.

Further into this matter

One can always disable the "automount" feature from the host OS:

Windows 7

Click "start";
At the search box type "autoplay";
Select "AutoPlay" from the search results list, should be under "Control Panel";
Find the "Mixed content" option and select "take no action" from the selectbox.

This will effectively disable Automount for devices like mobile phones. By my tests, the phone doesn't ask to "turn on USB storage" either.

Ubuntu

Using GUI:

Access the "Software Center";
Search for "dconf editor";
Install and after, open it;
Navigate to "org" -> "gnome" -> "desktop" -> "media-handling";
Un-tick "automount" and "automount-open".

Using Command Line:

Open the terminal;
Type gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.media-handling automount false.

Use true to enable it again.


Finding data created by a certain application? I'm looking for the data-store of a certain application so I can take backups of some files that are important to me. Connecting the phone to my computer and browsing the file-system I get revealed a surprisingly empty file-system.

Is the a generic way of locating data created by a certain application on the phone? Since Android tracks the storage use on a per-application basis, I assume there is a register somewhere, but I don't know where to look.

Android can't/doesn't keep track of arbitrary data created on the SD card.  If you're looking for regular app data such as settings, it's located at /data/data/qualified-app-name where the name is something like com.rovio.angrybirds for Angry Birds, for example.

As eldarerathis notes you'll need to be root to view the data partition; it's protected to prevent malicious apps from stealing your data (etc.).


How to pull mmcblk0 to a windows pc? So here is what i want to pull : mmcblk0 whith it's size 15.7 GB.

C:\adb>adb shell
shell@android:/ $ su
su
shell@android:/ # fdisk -l /dev/block/mmcblk0
fdisk -l /dev/block/mmcblk0

Disk /dev/block/mmcblk0: 15.7 GB, 15758000128 bytes
1 heads, 16 sectors/track, 1923584 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16 * 512 = 8192 bytes

This is what I tried:

C:\adb>adb shell su busybox cat /dev/block/mmcblk0 > C:\1.bin

I only have 1KB output with content inside said "unknown id". Also tried with pull but seems also doesn't work.

What should I do to get this 15.7 GB mmcblk0  ?

Try: dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/sdcard/something.bin
You can do that in a Terminal Emulator or ADB shell.
It requires only root access.
You can then pull this file to your desktop. I don't know of a way to do it simultaneously.


Limit Access to Safe Mode, Android 8.0+ I'm a parent, using an accountability app (MMGuardian) to limit access to certain games and apps on a Nexus 5X. The child phone is running Android 8.1.0. MMGuardian can't stop a child from rebooting into safe mode for 7.0+, and the child using this phone has figured that out.

I'm looking for a solution that either holds the child accountable, or prevents access to safe mode altogether. Here are ideas I've thought of:

Custom lock screen that sends the parent pin to the OS when the child pin is entered. When rebooted in safe mode, lock screen wouldn't start and the child wouldn't know the parent pin.
Some kind of app that sends an sms to the parent phone when the child phone reboots. If possible, include whether or not the child phone was previously in safe mode. (Nine Mail app turns off all sync functionality if the phone was rebooted in safe mode. How does it know!?)

Unfortunately, since I'm not an android developer I don't know if apps like that exist or are possible to write.

Does anyone have suggestions for apps I can install or settings I can change that would either

A) Prevent starting in safe mode.

OR

B) Notify me, when the child phone has started in safe mode?

you can use any number of kiosk apps to do this. I'm really not sure what they require or how they work, but they're designed for companies to lock down features for employees etc. as such they're somewhat spendy for Android apps, but I did see at least one for $30/year including tech support.

sorry I can't give you more info, but look in the Play Store for "kiosk" and take a look. I'm currently researching the same thing.


Buying and Reading Books without Kindle or Nooks apps I want buy an e-book (theleanstartup.com)  and read on my tablet (Samsung Galaxy Tab) .  Ebook is available for kindle and nook.  Also there is an Amazon link (probably kindle version).  There isn't pdf download option,  ofcourse.

Kindle and Nook's Android apps isn't downloadable for Turkey.

How can i buy and read this book?  Any ideas?

You can get the Amazon Appstore from here and install it directly, and install the Kindle app from there instead of from the Play Store.


Taking raw photos using Android devices I have a Samsung Galaxy S4. Is there a way in Android or an app that can take raw photos? I.e. have the raw camera data to process in a program like Photoshop. I am using Android 4.2.2.

Now it's possible to take raw photos on some Lollipop devices, like Nexus 6 and 5, among others.

Why is this possible? Because Lollipop includes a lot of new APIs to work with the camera (Camera APIs v2), so any developer today can use them and take the most of the device camera.

Nowadays, Camera FV-5 is the best app to do this (although it is compatible with older versions of Android, raw format only works on Lollipop devices). You can try it or buy it.

Note: Raw capture only works on paid version.

This is another useful link!


How do I mirror my screen to the TV (cast screen) using Chromecast I own a Moto G running KitKat and a Chromecast, both are on the same network. The chromecast works for almost everything (Netflix, Youtube, etc) but I can't get the screen casting feature on my Android to work.

If the Chromecast is turned on, I can see a "Cast Screen" button on the android drawer, but upon clicking on it I get an error message that says "Casting Screen to Chromecast Name has failed"

I read a few articles some weeks ago saying that screen casting / mirroring was coming to Chromecast, so when I bought one and it downloaded a firmware update and the feature showed up on my android's screen, I assumed it had been released to the public.

How can I find out why it isn't working?

Casting your Android device to Chromecast is not officially supported. The Cast Screen tile shows up in certain conditions but at the moment it is not possible to cast your screen.
From the original article:

The Cast Screen tile seems to pop up for users of Nexus and newer Motorola devices when certain Chromecast apps have been used, for example AllCast. It's triggering something in Android related to an incomplete casting feature – that's all we can say for sure.
No one has, to our knowledge, gotten this native screen casting feature to work on a stock device – it just crashes when trying to connect to a Chromecast.  (...) Presumably Google will fix this and expose it to users eventually, but right now all you're seeing is a stub of a future feature.

UPDATE - At Google I/O 2014 they announced that screen mirroring is coming in a future update of Google Play Services. It is expected that this will roll out in the next few weeks.


Preventing charging while USB debugging - One X I am often using my device to develop, so I'm a little bit worried that the constant charging might fry the battery. Is there anyway to use USB debugging while not charging the phone?

As far as I know, batteries won't fry on constant charging. They chips in them that control overcharging and low charge. So they won't die easyly. I am using my desire just like you explained for almost 2 years and it is just like the first day, I need to charge it every day :)


Samsung S7: stuttering during slow motion video recording When I try to record slow-motion video on a Samsung S7 (running Android 7.0), there is often stuttering. This has ruined some otherwise amazing footage I acquired.

What can I do to ensure that there will be no stuttering?

So far I have tried:

Recording to internal storage instead of the SD card (although the card I use, SanDisk SDSDQXP-032G, is rated for 90 MB/s write)
Making sure that "Power saving" is off
Closing all apps (using the Overview button, then Close All)

The stuttering will occasionally noticeable even when not recording video, just having the camera app open in slow-motion mode and quickly moving the phone from side to side. Of course, it is harder to notice it this way because everything is happening much faster than during slow-motion playback.

Note: I am making fairly long recordings, with playback times as long as 5 minutes.

I am experiencing the same issue on my Samsung Galaxy S7 (Exynos).
The stuttering in slow-motion video is awful and there is nothing I can do about it.

I have also tried without SD-card, no difference.

The best way is to minimize the number of installed apps. It will not remove stuttering completely, but might reduce it a little bit. It is somehow the intrinsic structure of Android OS that apps are always running or in standby, i.e. consuming memory and some small amount of CPU power. Any, even the slightest, extra CPU load will cause massive stuttering.


Toshiba AC100 running Android 2.2 wakes up by itself My Toshiba AC100 running Android 2.2 wakes up by itself after an hour or so.

Is there a way to find out which app is waking it up, or to disable waking up system-wide?

Apparently its a known issue accordingly to this Modaco thread specifically posting #8

  Still have a standby bug, (it has a "self wake up")

Perhaps Toshiba has released a fix by now, or, try another custom ROM, perhaps on xda maybe...