Some apps change their notification importance Some apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram have an extremely annoying behaviour reguarding notifications on Android 8.0.0.

If I head to the Settings app > Apps & notifications > App info > WhatsApp > App notifications, then set Message notifications to be of importance "medium", the setting will stay that way and not change. That's to be expected. Now if I receive a message from someone, the setting appears to be completely ignored, as not only does my phone vibrate and ring, it also reverts back the importance to "urgent".

I do not want my phone to notify me of everything that it might receive, especially instant messaging which is of very little importance most of the time. People can phone me if they need me. The only fix I found so far, is to completely disable notifications for that app, but now I do not get to see whether I received new messages or not by giving a look at the status bar, so I have to unlock my phone and open the app to see if there's anything new.

What could be the reason for this, and most importantly is there a way to fix this?

My phone is a Sony XPeria XZ (F8331) running on Android 8.0.0 (currently the latest update).

Sony XZ has the tendency to change behaviour in the middle of nothing. Try downgrading the Android version and it will work as smooth as you want to see it.


Is it possible to use Google speech recognition in the Google Translate application for Android while offline? Is it possible to use Google speech recognition in the Google Translate application for Android while offline?

When I try, it says that Google voice typing can't be used "in this field", and the built-in speech recognition in Google Translate doesn't work when offline.

Google voice typing does work in other applications when I'm offline, as I download the speech recognition model:

From Google forums as of September this year

  You cannot translate voice offline.


How to get acces to offline YouTube videos downloaded to my Android 9 Cellphone? I use to download youtube videos so I can watch then offline. But I don't like the "YouTube video player". So, how could I have access to the offline youtube videos so I can open them using my video player of choice?

I have a Android 9 cell phone.

The offline videos in YouTube app can only be played within YouTube. You cannot play them in an external player.

Your alternate option is to download those videos as MP4 files and then playing them in your favorite player. But do remember that downloading videos are against YouTube's terms and you won't find more help on that topic over here.


"Failed to detect compatible download-mode device" on Mac Lion with Samsung Galaxy S2 Hi I'm using the cyanmodgen wiki to install it. but I'm stuck on the first step.

Whenever i do sudo heimdall flash --kernel zImage
I get :

Initialising connection...
Detecting device...
Failed to detect compatible download-mode device.

The device is booted in download mode, and everything else is exatly like the wiki
except that my s2 is still on android 2.3 and not ICS.

Thank you for any help or hint.

I had the same problem. Looking at the source of heimdal revealed that this message is send when no USB device is attached.

And this was in fact the case. lsusb showed that the kernel is not aware of any USB device related to the Galaxy S:

flo@flo-pc ~/data/cm9-sgs $ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 046d:0990 Logitech, Inc. QuickCam Pro 9000
Bus 003 Device 069: ID 1a40:0101 TERMINUS TECHNOLOGY INC. USB-2.0 4-Port HUB
Bus 006 Device 002: ID 046a:0023 Cherry GmbH CyMotion Master Linux Keyboard
Bus 007 Device 002: ID 058f:6254 Alcor Micro Corp. USB Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 007 Device 005: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)
Bus 007 Device 004: ID 046d:c521 Logitech, Inc. Cordless Mouse Receiver

After I used a different USB cable and a different USB port, my Galaxy S appeared on lsusb while it's in download mode:

flo@flo-pc ~/data/cm9-sgs $ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 016: ID 04e8:6601 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd Mobile Phone
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 046d:0990 Logitech, Inc. QuickCam Pro 9000
....

And heimdall was able to flash a new kernel!

So I have two suggestions:

try another USB cable, I suspect the original Samsung USB cable to be of low quality
try another USB port, ideally without a USB hub between the devices


Re-lock and unlock bootloader on the Nexus 5X for Android Pay A very recent change in Android Pay means I can no longer use it on my Nexus 5X that has an unlocked bootloader (http://www.androidcentral.com/android-pay-no-longer-works-if-you-unlock-your-bootloader-and-thats-good-thing).

I don't have root, and I don't actually use my unlocked bootloader at the moment, but I like that it's unlocked, because it gives me the option to get root later without wiping the device.

Is there any way to re-lock the bootloader, and then unlock it again without wiping?  Or is that impossible by design?

Currently, No.

Locking the bootloader actually requires a wipe as well now so you would have to back up your device and then restore after locking.

I was in the same scenario with my Nexus 6P and as I didn't need the bootloader unlocked any more i have locked it. I used a combination of adb backup, copying files manually off my device and the built in backup/restore functionality.


How do I take very long exposure photos? I would like to take some long exposure photos using my Android phone (Moto DROID v1 running Android 2.2.2) of the night sky.  I experimented with the settings for the default camera app, and I found that I can set the focus to infinity, but the exposure time has only three settings: 0, +1, and +2.  If I  set the exposure to +2, I can get a recognizable photo of a full moon, but I am unable to capture a field of stars.

Is there any way to extend the exposure time beyond +2?

You cannot do this from with Settings of the default camera.

You could look at another camera app like Camera Streak (Blog).

Or you could roll your own, here is the relevant details you need to change:

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/hardware/Camera.Parameters.html

setExposureComponent()


Google Photos did not compress a few items, even on high quality mode As the title suggests,

My settings on my Android app is high quality, not original size
Most photos are getting compressed, very few photos are left uncompressed
Most videos are left uncompressed
The uncompressed items aren't eating into my Google Drive space
For checking, I uploaded with these individual files on another test Google account and found out that they are getting compressed.

I want all items to get compressed since it's the algorithm is best of both worlds - retains 99.99% quality and reduces space by >50%.

I can't delete these items from the cloud since that would immediately delete it from my phone, not allowing another attempt of uploading. What can be done to compress these missed items?

It's best to forget about it since the storage for the uncompressed items isn't coming out of the 15 GB Google Drive limit anyway; although the unlikely wish of downloading the items would mean downloading uncompressed items - a very small price to pay for a free service.


Can I install more apps if I get more internal memory/storage? Most modern top-level Android devices, e.g., Samsung S4, has:

2GB internal RAM
16/32/64GB internal memory/storage
up to 64GB exernal/removable memory/storage

Does the amount of internal memory/storage make any difference - for instance how many apps you can install or does the size of the storage only affect the number of images/music pieces/... you may download to the device?

I agree with the answers on the performance part but what the number of apps?

The answer is...It depends.

As a rough equivalent between Android and Windows PCs:

RAM = RAM
Internal Storage = C: drive
External Storage = D: drive etc...

Allocation of RAM works differently in Android, vs. say Windows or Unix. The usual notion of more is better doesn't necessarily correlate here.

As I understand it, it's diminishing returns once you go beyond what's required. Android basically tries to keep the apps/files you use most cached in RAM. Swapping in and out as it finds necessary. Once you're beyond what's needed, then it seems like Android just starts caching random and useless things. That's why if you use a Task Manager on your phone there always seems to be "stuff" running that you might feel inclined to just kill and free ram...But there's a lot of debate that says you should leave it alone and let the Android OS handle it.

As for Internal Storage, I personally go for the biggest I can get in my budget. The Android OS files go there, all your settings, music, photos, and apps by default are installed here. Nowadays though internal storage offerings from manufacturers are larger and larger and options to put files on external storage are getting better and better.

Considering today's offerings and requirements, I'd personally suggest when buying a new phone to get:

At least 1GB, 2GB preferred (As new apps with more bells and whistles come out, their RAM footprint also increases. 2GB is still probably way more than most average people need, but it's quickly becoming the standard on newer phones anyway.)
Internal Storage at least 16gb (Again, as new apps come out with more bells and whistles and cameras with higher megapixels and recording High Definition movies, they all keep demanding more space. The more you have now, the less you'll have to deal with later if you have to start cleaning up or moving things off to external)
Get whatever the cheapest option offered with the phone (if it's offered) (Buying the external storage from a 3rd party is much less expensive and likely faster and more reliable).


Do 4.3 JellyBean apps work on 4.4 KitKat? I am an android developer and would like to upgrade my Nexus 7(2013, JellyBean 4.3) to KitKat 4.4.2.

My apps are all developed to work on 4.3 fine. I'm just wondering if my 4.3 apps will work when I upgrade. Does anyone know?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT - I upgraded and all apps work fine, thanks for answers :D

EDIT 2 - Actually, one of my Bluetooth Low Energy Apps does not work. Any Help? I have changed the targetSDK version to 19, but should I install the SDK for 19 as well?

There's no gurantee that they'll work, but API compatibility when upgrading is a standing tenet of Android. The odds are very high (above 90%) that they'll work no problem.

In the end, whether they work or not depends on you, as the developer. As an Android developer, you should probably read the documentation released with new API's for the features and methods you use.

One way or another, you may need to upgrade to 4.4 as soon as you can - in order to address potential bugs that may pop up for your users.


Setting Protonmail on default email mobile phone app On my android samsung edge s6 I added a new protonmail account. The phone alerts me saying the server doesn't answer.

Here the configuration I tried:

IMAP server: 127.0.0.1,TLS,port: 143
SMTP server: 127.0.0.1,TLS,port: 587
--------------------------------------------
IMAP server: 127.0.0.1,SSL,port: 993
SMTP server: 127.0.0.1,SSL,port: 465
--------------------------------------------
IMAP server: 127.0.0.1,SSL,port: 1143
SMTP server: 127.0.0.1,SSL,port: 1025

I has been always alerted that "it is not possible to connect with the server".

The app email manager is the samsung's default one.

Protonmail does not work on Android in third party Mail applications (because the ProtonMail Bridge application is not available for Android). You have to use the web interface or the ProtonMail app.

Cite from the ProtonMail help pages:

  At this time Protonmail does not integrate with third party email clients (IMAP/SMTP) on Android due to the technology ProtonMail utilizes within web browsers to encrypt and decrypt your messages. [source]


What is CSC Fastboot Mode, and how to get rid of it? I am trying to access my Zenfone Go's fastboot in order to unlock its bootloader, but it seems to have been replaced with something called "CSC Fastboot mode".

In this mode, I just see the ASUS logo, a "CSC Fastboot Mode!" text, and I am unable to enter any input. It looks like this:

Since I cannot enter any input, most communication with fastboot.exe is impossible. I somehow managed to have fastboot.exe correctly detect the device, but any command that requires confirmation on the phone is impossible (ex: fastboot flashing unlock), fastboot.exe just waits forever. I tried inputting the commands on the phone anyway, in case there was an invisible menu or something, but didn't work.

What I tried:

Turning off my phone, then "Power Button + Volume Up Button" until it restarts. It goes directly to CSC Fastboot Mode.
Turning off my phone, then "Power Button + Volume Down Button" until it restarts. It goes into Recovery Mode. Then I select "reboot to bootloader". It goes to CSC Fastboot Mode.
Accessing my phone through adb, and using the "reboot-bootloader" command. It goes to CSC Fastboot Mode.

What is CSC Fastboot mode? What is it caused by? And how to reach a usable fastboot menu?

Model Number: ASUS_X013DB

Android Version: 5.1.1

Build Number: LMY47V.JP_Phone-13.0209.1705.116-20170621044040677_2015122901270020000400001

Install ADB and Fastboot tools in your PC (two tools as parts of Android Studio)

Connect device through USB and open terminal/command prompt.

In terminal/command prompt, type:
fastboot devices
fastboot continue
fastboot reboot


Stop the Auto replacement Hi I have an HTC One a9 I want too keep the word prediction but I don't want the auto replacement I used to do that with Samsung but with HTC I can't find the solution for this problem . Please advice..

For me, you go Settings > Language & Input > [Button below "Current keyboard" that has your keyboard name] > Text correction > Set "Auto-correction" to off.


Which component controls the "universal" app background On Gingerbread, which component(like SystemUI.apk) controls the universal background?

To better explain myself, here is a screenshot

I'm referring to the blue background with the gradients

This is actually a system theme. Any app that is written to run under the theme of the device (unless you're root your devices theme is not changeable) will grab backgrounds, etc from that theme. It is like how most apps on the Nexus devices run with the Holo theme.

Edit: Just to clarify I am saying this is not an app, it is just a theme.


Sense 4: How to add items to pull down menu? I just received a HTC One S with Sense 4 installed. I've seen on other Android devices that the pull down menu contains different settings, such as a Wifi button.

Is there a way to add these buttons to the Sense 4 pulldown menu?

I cannot check you image (corporate proxy forbids), but I take it you mean those "toggle buttons" to switch on/off things like Wifi, Bluetooth, etc. In this case, you can do so e.g. with Elixier (first picture1) or Notification Toggle (second picture2)

Some Custom ROMs also come with something similar pre-installed, as e.g. CyanogenMod does.


Is the save data for Angry Birds still there even if the app isn't? Recently I've been playing around with the Cyanogen nightlies on my N1. Nightly cm7 1-8 were fine but then one day I lost the home button so I had to backup and then wipe and then eventually everything was fine. But after the wipe Angry Birds was gone and even after I restore I don't have Angry Birds installed. If I install it is the save data still there?

Side note, when you do a backup with one Titianium, does it backup the save data too? Is that only if you have root? How would a non-root user do a backup? And why is the save data not just a database file somewhere that is easy to backup? Is the integrity of scores at risk or something?

I believe you backed up from Recovery, correct?  If that is the case, then the backup should contain everything that was on your phone before the backup -- apps, saved games, etc.  So restoring the backup should have restored Angry Birds and its save data, as long as that was present before the backup.

Titanium can back up the app, the app's data, or both.  It does require root.  Non-root users have to deal with Recovery backups, which are not as flexible since you can't restore only bits and pieces -- it's all or nothing.  Of course, the SD card is easy to back up (plug it into a computer) and some apps may allow you to export data.

You'd have to ask Rovio why they chose not to use a database, but I'd guess it's because the save data is so simple.  If you open the file it's almost human-readable text.  Even easier to back up than a database.


How do I flash SuperSU to my encrypted Wileyfox on COS 13.0.1? Yesterday my WileyFox Spark+ came in, which is still equipped with COS13.0.1, based on Android 6.0.1.
When I tried rooting the phone though, I got stuck at the point of using the TWRP recovery for flashing SuperSU.
I until then, I had succesfully followed the following process:

-Enabled 'OEM Bootloader allowed to be unlocked' in Developer Options
-Installed USB drivers and such on PC
-Enabled USB debugging, apps from unknown sources, ADB install unsigned apps allowed etc.
-Enabled fastboot by holding correct buttons and enabling it after
-Flashed TWRP Recovery to phone like this in CMD:

fastboot devices (my phone showed up)
fastboot flash recovery twrp3100.img

-Booted into TWRP recovery

A few folders were present there, but almost all were empty. TWRP even said no OS was installed when I wanted to reboot.
I was confused for a while, only to discover the OS was still there after booting into System.
In tried to flash SuperSU from ADB, but that also didn't work. I issued the following commands in CMD:

adb reboot recovery
(ticked adb sideload in TWRP +wipe dalvik & cache)
adb sideload supersu279.zip

TWRP said it executed succesfully, but failed to access /data and /cache.
Turned out the phone was encrypted already from the box. I never considered this an option.
It's weird though, because I believe I have heard that flashing SuperSU from ADB should work even with an encrypted phone.

Now the interwebs and Wileyfox themselves say encryption is disabled when you factory reset the phone:
https://twitter.com/wileyfox/status/685884111551115264
And so I did, but it just booted into TWRP with the same circumstances.
Few folders, almost all empty. SD-card not visible.
I tried sideloading SuperSU again, but without result.

Any idea how i should progress further? Did I miss something? 'Cause I have run out of ideas.. :(
I also can find very little about Wileyfoxe phones, so that doesn't help either.
Is it possible to flash SuperSU via fastboot or ODIN or anything?

Anyway, thanks for the help.
Cheers.

NB: I don't care about my data being encrypted or not, so decrypting the phone is not an issue for me, if possible/helpful. I'd rather have it gone.

TWRP allows you to format data, this will clear the encryption and ALL your data of course, then you can mount the clean partition with mtp pass zips and flash the usual way.


Broke front camera on Nexus 5 and can't use any camera app I just repaired a screen on my broken Nexus 5 but I also broke the front camera module. Now I can't get the camera app to work (for the back camera) or use Snapchat.

Is there a way to disable the front camera so these apps will open using the rear camera without trying to connect to the front camera and sending an error message?

I could get the back camera working before updating the phone when I went online so could it possibly be a software update. Any solutions would be much appreciated.

It was an issue with the default camera app being out of date after an OS update, this inhibited it the rear camera working on any camera app problem resolved itself once the default camera app had updated


Privacy effects of disabling notifications through Android settings Assumption
My question assumes the following situation, that is what I could understand about Google's push notifications system. If I misunderstood anything, please correct me here.
When a web service wants to send a notification to a user who installed its app (client), it sends the notification content to Google's push notification server. The server then contacts the user's device instructing it to show the notification.
This system prevents user's device from continously checking for notification, that would cause battery drainage and other annoying side-effects. However, some privacy concerned people point out that it allows Google to access all the notification contents, including for example private messages.
Question
If I have an app (client) that manages* notifications on my device for a web service and doesn't have an option to disable them, the only way I can prevent them to be shown is through Android settings.
To my understanding, if I do so the web service (that doesn't know my Android settings) will still send notification contents to Google's server, thus allowing Google to know notification content, but the server won't send it to my device. So, disabling notifications through Android settings wouldn't have any effect on privacy. Is that right?
*I use the word "manage" because usually the notifications are shown if and only if the app is installed and it often has settings for them (sound selection, vibrate and so on); however, I don't know how much notifications depend on the app and how much on the system. Anyway, it looks to me that it is not very important for the question (but I might be wrong of course).

Push messages - what do they contain
What data each app receives via Firebase push notifications can be very different.
Some apps receive the complete message content as Firebase push notification to the user's app. In such a case Google can of course see the complete message.
Apps that handle privacy related content should use push notifications not as data transmission system. Instead they use push notifications just as notification for the app that new data is available on their own WhatsApp/Signal/... server.
Therefore for messenger apps I would expect that the push notifications may just contain e.g. a number the app processes and then knows that new data is available on the server.
Disabling notifications for an app
Regarding the question what happens if you disable notifications of an app in settings this also depends on the app:
The app itself can check if you have enabled/disabled a certain push channel. Therefore it is possible for an app to disable the notifications on server side so that no push messages are sent at all if you have disabled notifications for that app.
However a lazy app developer may not implement such a check. In such a case I would assume that all notifications are sent as before but just ignored by your device.


ADB Interface driver for Sony Xperia M4 Aqua I have Sony Xperia M4 Aqua. I'm trying to connect it through data cable with my HP laptop having Vista OS. When I connect like this, laptop search for ADB Interface but is not able to find. I tried searching all around google bur couldn't find anywhere. Please help me locate the site from where I can download exact driver.

The google search for "xperia m4 aqua adb drivers" shows this XDA forums page as the first result, and it has download links to ADB driver packages for your phone.

Windows Update may download them automatically
Use Google's own ADB drivers
Use Universal ADB Drivers
Use Sony's ADB Drivers (see XDA post for attachment)
Use Flashtool to install ADB, fastboot and flashtool All-In-One


Share via option on Android 5.1 When one selects the option to share a file on Android 5.1, there is list of apps populated by the OS.  Is the order of the list populated by Android based on most used apps? I have noticed this keeps changing time and time again. Can anyone help out as to what is the default criteria of order of this list populated by android. Thanks.

This is different in different roms, but in most cases apps will initially be sorted alphabetically and then by last used. The last used options will be at top.

Is there a specific reason you're asking this?


Is there any Android browser which lets you control page refresh? I like to read the news when I take the subway. The problem is that there is no internet connection on the subway, and thus my strategy is to preload in different Chrome tabs all the articles that I'd like to read, and then cross my fingers that when I access the tab in Chrome, it won't try to stupidly refresh the page and then give me a "no connection found" page instead of just keeping the pre-loaded page (this is what I call very dumb; it seems to me that a properly designed software would not just kill the content of a page when trying to refresh and there is no connection). Sometimes it does not try to refresh the page, sometimes it does -- I have not succeeded to figure out the pattern. Note that I have a Samsung Galaxy S5 mini with 1.5 GB RAM and so I don't think it is a RAM issue (it also does that even if I just rebooted the phone and have only 2-3 tabs open in Chrome).

In any case, is there any tweak, plug-in, whatever, I can do in Chrome to be able to prevent it to refresh pages when I don't want to? If not, is there any other Android browser that implements this feature (a "do not refresh any page" button or something like that would do)?

Thanks!

I don't know about chrome, but UC
Browser is definitely an answer for your question. You can preload the pages and then even if the data connection is off, you can read the articles (in your case). Just make sure you don't kill the app itself.


How do I install, update, and remove apps for multiple devices in the Google Play online store? I've got several Android devices. I like to use the online Play store to manage installs because it's much faster than doing so through each device. However, I do not see a way to determine which apps are installed on which device without clicking through the following links, once per app:

  Apps → My Apps → [specific app] → Installed → Choose a Device

How do I quickly do the following, without going through the process above?

Review per device installations.
Select apps for installation, update, or removal, per device.

Unfortunately Google play Web app doesn't allow you to the following things:

Update your current apps (It can only be done from your devices)
See a list of apps install in a specific devices (It only tallies all of the apps you ever downloaded into one list)
Remove any devices which were previously added to your Google account

Hopefully we can raise awareness through this question so that Google finds that enough people will like a lot more functionality from the web app. It is sometimes very functional specially if you work in a computer all day.


how to move contacts from phone to Google account I have contacts stored locally on my phone and also I have contacts on Google.. But in kitkat I'm not able to sync these internal with google account like on android ICS

If you export the local contact of your phone to a file then you can import that file on google contacts: www.google.com/contacts


Better folders, which support drag & drop: is that even possible? I've tried three different folder widgets for Android 2.3, but I noticed none of them supports adding applications via drag & drop, like the native folders do.

Is that even possible to do?

I guess it isn't, or those application would be pretty stupid not to support it, but you never know.

The only interactions presently supported by app widgets on the home screen are simple click events.  So the answer to your question is no, drag & drop isn't available with widgets.  The reason the native folders can do this is because they are just part of the launcher activity so can be programmed to do more complex things than the widgets can


What is the best way to read PDFs on Android? What is the best way to convert PDF's to some kind of format that is easily readable? For example can you convert it to ebook format?

PDFs are easily readable, in my books.  Adobe's Reader app is actually pretty good, not bloated like the desktop version.

As for conversion, Google probably does a better job of giving you info that I could.  The first result for this search is a site that will convert to the ePub format, for example.

Adobe Reader for Android:


How can I root my Sony Xperia Tipo Dual without a PC? I need to root my Xperia Tipo Dual, but I can't connect the phone to a PC, Is it possible to get root without connecting it to a computer?

You may want to look at this question: How Can I Root my Sony Ericsson Tipo Dual?

The short answer is no, you need a computer.


Can I block calls based on a specific number prefix or pattern? Is it possible to block calls starting with a specific number? For instance, I want to block calls from numbers starting with 1408 as they are all spam calls. The digits following these four, keep changing.

If you're looking for a free and ad-free/in-app-purchase-free app, you can use the open-source NoPhoneSpam, which is available on F-Droid (though not Google Play). It supports blocking calls from individual numbers and from numbers that match a pattern with wildcards.

This is especially useful for blocking "prefix spoofing" calls, that appear to start with the area code and exchange (next 3 digits) of your phone number, but really are from random law-breaking telemarketer bots.


How to install a pre-installed device specific app on another device? I don't know how to explain, so let me give an example,

Suppose I have a samsung device and a HTC device,
And I extract the apk file of music application from my HTC device, and install it on my samsung device it does not work.

So is there any way to make application from another manufacturer to work on some other device?

You cant just normally install device specific APKs to some other device (especially from different vendor).

This is because it needs to be ported. Device specific apps use styles and layout and classes which are defined in that particular device's framework (in your case HTC). So to use that app in Samsung you will have to pull out all those classes and layouts from HTC into Samsung and merge with code. And this is a very difficult task.

However, if you still want to try your luck, system default APKs dont install like normal APKs. We just push them to /system/app and st permissions to 755 or rw-r-r and restart phone. This method works regardless of device (but again, I really dont think music app will work even this way. It needs to be ported as told in above paragraph).


get webpages from command line How can I get the contents of a webpage from the command line? On my mac I use the curl command, but there is no such command for the android command line. what command do I use?

There is a port for cURL for Android:

http://thesoftwarerogue.blogspot.com/2010/05/porting-of-libcurl-to-android-os-using.html

But I think that your best bet for this one is the git repo:

https://github.com/jahrome/curl-android

                             _   _ ____  _
                      ___| | | |  _ \| |
                     / __| | | | |_) | |
                    | (__| |_| |  _ <| |___
                     \___|\___/|_| \_\_____|

  README
  Curl is a command line tool for transferring data specified with URL
  syntax. Find out how to use curl by reading the curl.1 man page or the
  MANUAL document. Find out how to install Curl by reading the INSTALL
  document.
  libcurl is the library curl is using to do its job. It is readily
  available to be used by your software. Read the libcurl.3 man page to
  learn how!


Change Screen Dim TimeOut When the phone is idle, the screen turns off after the configured time. For ex: if time is set to 30 sec, first the screen will dim after approximately 25 seconds and then after 5 seconds it will turn off the screen completely.

How can I increase that "5" seconds time to 30 seconds or any other value?

If you are using a custom ROM (like CyanogenMod) or stock Android go to Settings>Display>Automatic backlight. Click on enable and select the window length option to change the time according to your needs.


help I need to root my android due to "no memory space" but dont want to loose anything I want to root my andriod as it keeps saying my memory is low it wont let me download anything even tho there is memory there ?? Will rooting delete pictures apps music or contacts ?? If so is there a back up I could do on everything ?? Please neeed hellp

Rooting your android device is completely safe as long as you follow the instructions correctly. Rooting won't free up internal memory by itself. It does enable you to remove any unwanted system level apps. You could then use applications like link2sd to free up additional space. Do a quick search about how to root your device model at xda-developers.com. Hope this helps.


What is the location of the DCIM folder in the internal storage on a Xiaomi Redmi 4X? I would like to make adb pull but I'm not able to locate this folder. I suppose it's in the /data folder but it says Permission denied. Somewhere I read if I try the full path it might work. Thank you.


How secured is password protected Memo? I have Samsung Galaxy Star (GT-S5282) with 4.1.2. I wanted to store my bank and credit card information in password protected Memo. How secured is password protected Memo? Is there a way to crack the password of secured Memo? Is it possible for someone to root the phone and get the file/database of memo and get the details stored in password protected memo?

In general it's not a good idea to store sensitive data on your mobile phone, but back to your question.

S Memo is storing your password as a clear text in /data/data/com.sec.android.provider.smemo/databases/pen_memo.db > CommonSettings > PREF_APPLOCK_PIN so if your device is rooted you can use Root Explorer to read it.
Which means that this application is not secure. You can use KeePasDroid to encrypt passwords or other sensitive data. I am using it on my laptop and on my Android device.


How to unbrick my smartphone I rooted my android 4.4.1 jellybean custom built smartphone so i could delete some malwares/adwares that installed themselves as system apps. Now i guess i got too "over-excited" deleting the malware/adware apps, that i mistakenly deleted a clean system app. Now my phone doesn't pass the boot stage and hangs after playing the intro animation. I hope you guys can help me since i didn't totally wipe off everything. Plus the phone is exactly like Google Nexus 5X.

To flash a new ROM, you need to install a Custom Recovery such as ClockWork Mod (CWM) or Team Win Recovery Project (TWRP). These are what will allow you to flash back to a stock ROM- which you said above was 4.4.1 jellybean. That is actually an issue, because jellybean is 4.3, and kitkat is 4.4.1. Just make sure you get the right one, and you should be good (just wanting to bring that to your attention!). I won't go through all of the details, but the gist of the process is: install your Custom Recovery first, then get the stock ROM onto your SD card (Plug into computer and drag/drop zip into phones internal storage). After that, boot into Recovery mode (which will launch the Custom Recovery you installed earlier) on your phone, find the zip and mount it. I won't go too in depth because there are some great articles that explain it way better than I could even try, but here's a start:

Custom Recovery:
http://www.addictivetips.com/mobile/how-to-install-a-custom-recovery-to-an-android-phone-device/

Flashing stock rom:
http://lifehacker.com/how-to-flash-a-rom-to-your-android-phone-30885281


Constant " Download unsuccessful." notifications I'm constantly harassed by these "<Untitled> Download unsuccessful." notifications.

After taking the above screenshot, I cleared the entire notifications list. Within the next three minutes (usually even less), the list was already overflowing again.

I've learned to manage the symptom by navigating to the Download Manager application settings; hitting FORCE STOP, followed by CLEAR DATA, and CLEAR CACHE. Although the notifications slowly start showing up again. Just one at first, but gradually increasing in number with each occurance. Within a day or two, the numbers are usually back out of control.

I have no idea what it's supposedly attempting to download, or why. But whatever it is, it's not instigated by myself. I could just disable download notifications, but I'd rather identify the underlying problem and kill it directly. Needless to say, I'm not too keen on my devices automatically trying to download random mystery files from the internet. Any ideas? Thanks.

FYI: The device in question is a ZTE Blade L5 smartphone.

I think I solved my issue with constant "download unsuccessful" notifications. In the Puffin browser I went to settings and the download icon then erased all. Haven't seen an instance for quite awhile.


List of devices with screen parameters Possible Duplicate:
  Where can I find a comparison of Android devices?

Is there any list with devices and their params? I'd like to know if this device is ldpi/mdpi/hdpi and what screen it is small/normal/large/etc.

For now most important for me is to know how Galaxy Note is described by those params?

I couldn't find a list, so I made one myself with DPI :

http://blog.blundell-apps.com/list-of-android-devices-with-pixel-density-buckets/


What are the *technical* reasons preventing connection to 4G? How can I diagnose myself? I have an EVO Shift, and often see an icon similar to 4G! (see enclosed picture with red arrow) in my android status bar.  I have consulted with my carrier ad-nauseum, read the manual, rebooted, updated firmware, updated profile, updated PRL... all to no avail.

The HTC manual says that this icon means that 4G is available, but I am not connected.

This problem can happen at any time; in fact, sometimes it is literally ten or twenty feet from an area where I had max 4G signal strength.  In fact, the last time I took the phone into the carrier's store, the tech saw the 4G! icon, clicked to "scan for 4G service" and the phone suddenly came up with maximum 4G signal strength.  This screen capture is after walking less than 30 seconds outside the door to the carrier's store, where again the phone cannot connect to 4G service.

I am an engineer and love to understand the details of how things work.  So my questions...

I hope to hear from people who understand the intimate details of Sprint's 4G technology and/or the innards of the HTC Shift, and can elaborate on why these erratic 4G connections could be happening (other than low signal strength).
I already know I can use the iproute2 family of commands from a non-root terminal shell; but this is only giving me ip address and link up/down info.  Can I get signal strength measurements in dB?  What about signal-to-noise ratio, logging, or a list of available 4G tower ids?
What apps or Android native APIs I can hook into for better diagnostic information?

This map shows exactly where I had the problem, and Sprint's own coverage map indicates that I should get maximum connectivity here:

While I'm not intimately familiar with Sprint's 4G or your phone (sorry) I have found in my own CDMA troubleshooting that the built in HTC diagnostic tools can be very useful. I found this guide over at XDA as one of the better lists of Sprint CDMA diag codes (even though it's not for your phone specifically). I recommend trying ##33284# or ##3282#, one of these should bring up a utility that lists very specific information about your cellular network connection.


Android Micro SD Card Show Wrong Size I have a 32GB Lexas Micro SD card in my Samsung Galaxy S2 i9100. For some reason, the card consistently shows 12gb as the size of the card. It just randomly started doing this about 2 weeks ago.

I have done an on-device format (as it has prompted me once or twice to format), a format with an SD card utility through the SD card group, and a Windows formatting. It still shows 12GB.

Any solutions?

it seems you got a fake memory card that was discussed here in detail. Unfortunately, there are no way you can check if a memory card is fake or genuine until you get them and try your hands on it. But you still can check if this is fake or real by checking using method suggested by bestmicrosdcard.com here


How can I free up Google Photos storage usage from Google Drive Google Photos (previously Google+) automatically backs up your photos from your phone to your Google+ / Google Photos account.

They give you the option to backup a compressed version which is unlimited and free, or you can backup at full original quality but it uses up your Google Drive storage quota.

I have always believed I have had this setting turned off, but I noticed I am using 8GB of my Drive quota due to Google Photos. Which makes me think it had been backing up the full versions for some time previously - Right now the option is set to the free compressed version.

(I am assuming the 8GB is due to the original uncompressed option being turned on at some point? Unless theres another thing that would use up this space?)

Is there a way to identify and remove all of the high resolution photos from my Drive / the Photos that are using my Drive storage, but still keeping scaled / free version of the photo.

I have just noticed you can choose an option to show a Google Photos folder in your drive of your Google Photos. I have just done this hoping I could somehow filter by size or quota used but this doesn't seem possible.

I just want to try and identify what is using the 8GB

I have just found the real correct way to combat this problem. There is no actual way you can easily see which photos are "original" quality vs "high".

Google provide a slightly hidden feature to convert all your "original" photos to "high".

On Google Photo Settings Page @ https://photos.google.com/settings
Click Recover Storage button to Compress Original Size Pictures!


Cancel sending a message to group in WhatsApp I mistakenly pasted a message in a WhatsApp group. I noticed that immediately and turned off my internet. The message was still not sent (single tick did not appear), and I deleted that message and turned on the internet.

Will this stop the message from getting sent to the group?

The single tick means the message was sent to WhatsApp servers and, once it gets there, you can't cancel it.

Your only chance to cancel a message is when it still has a clock sign on the bubble -- meaning it didn't reach the servers yet. To do that, you press and hold the message and then delete it.


Default launcher app hangs at boot up. Unable to do anything with phone (NexusOne) My NexusOne's builtin launcher is suddenly hanging at bootup. Since the main lock screen is hanging the screen touch is not working, soft buttons are not working -- I am just completely unable to do anything with the phone. When I tried calling the phone the call comes through, and I see the "Activity Launcher is not responding. Force Close?" popup, but when I force close it and the call ends, it goes back to the hanging lock screen and once again I am able to do nothing.

Since it is stuck at lock screen there is literally nothing I can do to kill it or try other apps or settings or anything else. Even connecting USB cable didn't work since I need to enable USB storage from the notification bar and the hanging lock screen wont allow any touch response anywhere...

What can I do or try? I guess hard reset is an option to try, but I want to keep it as a worst case option.

Have you tried booting in safe mode?

Nexus One Safe Mode

1) Turn off your Nexus.

2) Remove the battery if it cannot be done the normal way.

3) Press the power button to start your phone, and right when the logo appears, press and hold the trackball.

You should also be able to hold down the touch sensitive Menu button at this point, if you prefer that.

4) Keep pressing until you see the lock screen, and you should now be in safe mode.

While in safe mode, see if the problem persists. Uninstall recently installed / updated apps that you feel may be causing a problem and clear app caches / data caches.

To exit Safe Mode, just reboot your device.


Is a PIN reducing the security of a fingerprint based encryption? Many smartphones and programs are using fingerprint's to secure the phone or encrypt data. In many cases, those programs want a PIN as backup authentification method.

A PIN just got 10000 possible combinations, while a fingerprint got many more. So an encryption isn't safe if there is a backup pin, is it?

The same question for a phone lock-screen: If there's a 4-digit PIN, people could just bruteforce this pin instead of bruteforcing million of fingerprints, couldn't they?

Welcome to the community ☺

A backup plan is always necessary in case the fingerprint sensor doesn't recognize fingerprints or gets broken or something that it doesn't function as expected
Coming to app locking system, it totally depends on the app lock system if it has limit of trying PINS then you should be safe but if it doesn't YES it can be bruteforced if there's no limit on no. of wrong attempts
Coming to Androids PIN lock feature, it doesn't have limit of only 4 digit PINS so you can make it more secure by making large complex PIN
Assuming 4 digit PIN, AFAIK Android wouldn't allow you to attempt 10000 wrong PINS infact it will allow only few and then will lock up itself


Wrapping text after zooming in Google Docs When I pinch zoom the page in Google Docs to make the text bigger, the text does not reflow/recalculate the wrap, so I cannot read the document without panning left/right to view the whole line.

This is an issue as I would like to use Google Docs on my tablet for presentation notes when I present.

Workaround: Select all text and set the font size bigger (20pt worked for me) then zoom out so the whole line is visible.  The text will still be quite large.


what happens if you plug a non QC 2.0 device into a QC 2.0 charger? So I recently got a external battery pack for my phone that has two power outputs - a Quick Charge 2.0 output and a 5V / 3A Max output. It is my understanding that Quick Charging only works if the device supports (eg. a Samsung Galaxy S7) it so what happens if you plug in a phone that doesn't support it (eg. a Samsung Galaxy S4)?

From Qualcomm FAQ :

  .... Quick Charge is compatible and interoperable, a certified adapter can be used with a non-Quick Charge device, though the fast charging benefits of Quick Charge will not be available

(Emphasis supplied)

QC chip is integrated within the device in enabled devices, and negotiates with the QC charger to vary the voltage and or current. In devices which are not enabled with QC, this negotiation cannot happen and normal charging takes place

If a cable/ charger that does not support fast charging is used, there is no harm caused -  charging will be normal charging instead of fast charging. In the case of cable, it is because it may not be designed to carry adequate fast charging current, which is usually higher


Phone is rooted but has no SU application and can't access SU command on adb shell? All this time, I thought that once I've rooted my phone, it means that I will also have SU access to it. This is true for the first device I rooted. When I rooted it, a SuperUser application appeared on my phone. I was also able to use the command su on the adb shell.

However, just recently, I tried to root a different phone. After rooting the phone, I check my applications for the SuperUser app but it's not in the applications. And so I downloaded the SuperUser app on the market. But when I opened it, it says, there is no SU binaries installed on the phone. Also, when I inputted su on the adb shell, it can't determine what is su.

What could be the problem?
How can I gain SU privilege?
I thought that once a phone is rooted, it is automatic to have an SU application or at least access to the su command. Am I wrong with my assumption?
How can I use the su command?
What is the real state of the phone I rooted? Does it mean the phone is not really rooted? Or is it still rooted?

Thanks!

Your device isn't rooted at all. Without su binary, you can't assume command as root.


My GT-I9192 device keeps rebooting to "GALAXY" logo, even when trying to go into Recovery Mode I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini that turns on just to the "Samsung GALAXY S4 mini GT-I9192" logo and keeps rebooting to it..
even when I try to go into recovery mode it just reboots to this logo and restart again
I download its firmware from sammobile.com and tried to flash it with ODIN. ODIN said everything went successfully, but the problem won't go away
I also tried to install CMW recovery, it went successfully too in ODIN... but I still can't go to recovery mode

Please, what would be the best solution?

That happened with me too, sorry, but your phone is probably bricked. I fixed my S3 by purchasing an un-bricking device off ebay/Amazon. They look like so:

(If your phone is rooted, make sure you have the right root file (International or For a carrier) I corrupted mine because I had the international root file when my phone was sprint.)

Hope this helps!


How many people can use the same card on Google Wallet? A company of 120 developers would like to purchase one credit card, deposit some money on it and give it to their employees on usage.

Employees will use it solely on Google Play to purchase applications.

Does anyone know what is the max number of accounts that can use the same credit card?

Here's my direct experience with something similar on a much smaller scale:

My girlfriend and I setup a joint Google account so we could share purchased apps. I added to it a card of mine that was already on my own Wallet account. The new account was IMMEDIATELY frozen and I couldn't make any purchases. After digging into it, I was told that if there's any suspicious activity, especially on a new account, including adding a card that already exists on another account, they automatically freeze it for an unspecified period of time.

In my case, about 48 hours later it unfroze.

I realize this doesn't confirm what would happen if you did this for 100+ accounts, but from experience they did react rather dramatically to it being added to only ONE additional account. I suspect I was unfrozen on goodwill as the account didn't exhibit any other suspicious behavior. The card being added over and over to dozens of accounts would likely trip higher-level oversight and lead to a problem.

One note: I've actually had good experience with Google's phone support when resolving a Wallet-related problem with the Play Store. The person I spoke to was helpful and was able to contact a higher-up for policy information, and provided me with an accurate solution. Supposedly this number is a direct line to their support. I'd recommend getting an official statement from them before making any major decisions.


Are there earphones with support for buttons similar to the OEM earphones? I have a Samsung Galaxy SII plus. In the package I also got earphones from Samsung. The problem is that those earphones are in-ear, and they don't fit me well. I was wondering if there are 3rd-party earphones with the same capabilities (a pause/play button is what I like the most, but volume control and a microphone are also welcome) that is not too expensive.

I could only find earphones with that capabilities for iPhones, so is there a way to some transform this input so android can read it?

I would really like your advice on this matter, thanks in advance!

Search for "android headphones" at Amazon.com


I can not use my play store app I want to log in my play store app but it's not letting me log in instead it's asking me redeem your code:

Make sure you have internet connection. Such screen appears when there is no internet connectivity. As I can see from the screenshot, that you are connected to a WiFi, make sure internet is available from that source.

I have recreated the similar situation. Connected my device to a WiFi which has no internet connectivity; Opened Play Store and this is what I got.

Screenshot (click for larger variant)

So, just connect to a stable source of internet and you will be good to go :)


Charge Sony Xperia M4 Aqua with damaged charging port My Sony Xperia Aqua's charging port is damaged, and I am unable to charge my phone. I have already ordered one for replacement, but until it comes I cannot use it. Is there a way to charge it?

As your phones charging port is damaged, and wireless charging is not supported for your phone you are left with just a single option to charge your phone.

Remove your battery and put into other supported device that can
accommodate your battery and charge the battery. This however would
be challenging in your case as your phones battery would not be
removable.

I would recommend you to wait for your parts to arrive and
   fix your phone.


Can one achieve directory permissions on Android? On any android device 99.5% of the apps want the permission "Write / Read contents of SD card" in a combination with "Full network access".

Theoretically these 2 permissions are enough for the app to read all of my personal files (cloud storage) and send them to their server. Is there a way to only permit apps access to their folders?

Why do all apps have access to all folders? Why is such a basic concept not implemented?

Folder level permissions are not a good choice for sdcard (whether it is emulated or external). It makes things more complicated.

By default, sdcards are mounted noexec, no binaries are able to execute from sdcard. Needless to mention, many external sdcards at the moment are formatted with fat32, permissions arent an option for them.

Every app has their own uid/gid. If an app has to have exclusive read/write permissions (preventing other apps to read that content) onto a folder on sdcard, then chances are that the folder is inaccessible to other apps. This kind of situation breaks things.

For eg, Music files go under Music folder on sdcard. If that folder has exclusive permissions to only a particular music app, then U cannot have multiple music players on your device.

Another example is a third party file manager cannot even access all the content on sdcard, which makes file manager pointless.

If at all such concept is available, chances are that android/google enforces sorting of files/folders on our sdcards. I wouldn't prefer that. I would rather like to have files/folders sorted the way I prefer, not the way someone enforces me to.


Is there a way to prevent background application updating on both wi-fi and Mobile Data? For mobile there is an option to prevent it but I would like to block the updates and background data on Wifi also because I am connected to a Hotspot that uses Mobile Data from another mobile phone.

You can define that hotspot as being a "mobile hotspot", so Android would deal with it as if it were using mobile data:

Open Settings
Go to Data Usage
Tap the "overflow menu" (the 3 dots in the upper right)
From the menu opening, select Mobile Hotspots
Put a check-mark next to the hotspot you're using.


Is ROM Manager compatible with the Galaxy Nexus? I looked a ROM manager called ROM Manager but it is listed as incompatible with my Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

Does ROM Manager support the Galaxy Nexus? If not, what are the alternatives?

The Galaxy Nexus is supported from a device/hardware standpoint, but it may not be available in your region for some reason. If that's the case, you can instead get ROM Manager directly from the developer's website. There are also ClockworkMod recovery downloads on that page.

If, for whatever reason, ROM Manager proves to be unusable or unsatisfactory, there are a few alternatives currently available:

GooManager Beta
ROM Toolbox


How do I switch my Android device's SD card without causing problems? I just got a new 32GB SD card for my Nexus One. On the old one I have a bunch of apps installed and store the data there because the internal memory doesn't handle it.  So now I want to switch SD cards, but how do I go about doing that without causing any issues?  Do I just simply copy-paste everything, or is there another way to do it?

I'm on stock firmware on the Android and using Mac OS X Lion.

Unless you did some App2SD magic with ext4 partitions on your SD card (if you don't know what I'm talking about, you didnt), the SDCard will only have a simple FAT32 partition.

So all you have to do is copy all the data from old SDCard and to a new one and everything will be fine.

Easiest way to do it is to plug the phone in your laptop, put the card in the card reader (with help of an adapter which is usually bundled with new SD Card), copy everything over and swap the SD Cards in the phone.

EDIT: Android stores applications that were moved to sdcard in a folder named .android_secure which is hidden on OS X Finder and Linux Nautilus by default. Don't forget to move that :)


When I press and hold volume down button with screen off, the phone beeps twice. How do I disable it? When I press and hold the volume down button on Huawei Honor 6, it beeps two times, even if the device is in silent mode. Between the beeps I see logcat message like this:

D/VARecorder(13631): RecorderThread XXXXXXXXXRECOGNIZER_LOCAL dataRead1200
...
02-13 03:45:08.630 D/SoundManager(16318): playRecognitionStopSound()

I suppose it looks like some voice command feature. How do I disable this (or at least its beeps)?

Workaround: moving away /system/priv-app/HwVAssistant.* disabled the feature.

Similar feature of pressing double volume-down => taking insta-photo persisted.


How to remote control using Droid VNC Server via USB? I have installed Droid VNC Server on my Android phone 2.2 (CyanogenMod), but it is not clear how to control now my phone via USB.

When I start the server on the phone it gives me an IP but I cannot ping to it. I cannot neither connect using the browser at the specified address nor through VNC client.

I have root access.

Can someone explain me the steps to follow?

There's no manual or FAQ I've found for the program so I'm not certain if this is the way they intended it to be used. It does work, though, and I can't see an alternative method of using USB.

You need ADB installed along with the proper drivers for your device. This varies with platform and phone, so check Google or XDA.
Enable USB Debugging on your device -- Settings > Applications > Development > USB debugging
Plug in, start droid VNC server
On a command line, run these commands:

adb forward tcp:5801 tcp:5801
adb forward tcp:5901 tcp:5901

Visit http://localhost:5801 with a browser or point your VNC client to localhost:5901

I do notice that performance isn't any better over USB vs a 802.11g, so I'd only recommend going to the trouble of this if accessing your device via WiFi isn't feasible.


How to disable autostart of an app on LineageOS 14? LineageOS used to have a function in the settings to activate and deactive the auto-start of apps inside Settings -> Apps if I recall correctly. I no longer find it in any setting option.

I'd like to avoid installing an extra app if there's a native function. The app in question is a RSS reader which I don't want to uninstall, but just not have running at every start.

I'm using LineageOS 14.1-20180203-NIGHTLY-titan.

Even since LineageOS was known as CyanogenMod, it offered a deeper way to manage apps' permissions than the one introduced by Google from Marshmallow onwards. This feature, known as Privacy Guard, can be accessed from within Settings -> Privacy.

To restrict it from starting on boot, hold on the target app in the list that's displayed, then find the Start at boot entry and flip its toggle. Even system apps can be restricted this way, provided you choose to display them via the menu located in the top right corner.

Note that this will prevent an app from firing up at boot, but that, if said app can receive push notifications and you use Google Services or microG, then it will be awakened to display the notification. microG offers a way to disable yet this mechanism.


Unable to adopt SD card as internal storage on my j7 prime with android marshmallow I recently upgraded to 6.0.1 Marshmallow on my Galaxy J7 Prime and I would like to adopt an SD card as internal storage. but it doesnt give me an option to this

I formatted the SD card, there is no "Internal" option, only a "Portable" option.

Most of OEM's doesn't offer in gui option for adoptable storage. So you have to do it via ADB. Here is how click

Here it is:
NOTE  all data on your SD card will be lost.

Make sure USB debugging is enabled in developer options under settings and then connect your phone to PC via USB cable.
Open terminal or command line on PC ( make sure you have ADB installed if not then download minimal ADB and fastboot, you can find it on Google click ) type command "adb devices" to make sure phone is detected, then type "adb shell"
3.Type 'sm list-disks' to list the disks available, the result should be something like "disk:179:160"
To make SD adoptable use command "sm partition disk:xxx:xxx private" where xxx:xxx is replaced with result from previous command, in some cases there is _ instead of : so watch out for that. If you want to use only half of SD as adoptable then use this command "sm partition disk:xxx:xxx mixed 50" and that's it.

If you want to move your data (pictures, videos etc) you can go to settings>storage>SD card>more and you will have there option "migrate data" hit it and let it go.


How can I recover an Android device after a factory reset? My two-year-old was playing with my (locked) Galaxy Nexus, and when she eventually handed it back to me, it was at the "Welcome" new phone setup screen.

I'm guessing that she managed to hold down buttons and eventually end up at the factory reset option.

So I guess my first question is, was the phone definitely factory reset?  Is there any other case in which the phone would boot up to this screen?

Second, assuming it was a factory reset, and I have never setup any backup software or anything like that, what are my options for recoving pictures and SMS messages?

I assume that my only real option is to somehow snapshot the raw disk device(s) onto my computer and from there run file recovery software on the image.  Is that the case, or are there other options?  If so, how do I copy the raw disk device(s)?

Thanks.

Simply you can't.
If you have made an nandroid backup, you can flash that one in recovery and you will get your data back


Updating apps in multi-user environment? When you have multiple users, you have a different app collection for each one. However, it seems there's some intelligence to installing apps from the play store, in that the same app is only installed once, and the multiple users only gain access to that same app.

When you update an app, does the app also get updated for every user using that app? Does every user have the access to update those shared apps?

How does this work with apps installed manually from .apk files, or by some other app store system?

Shared apps are stored only once on the device (with just the data and settings part being specific for each user), so whenever one user decides to update a shared app, it gets updated for all users (Source: Heise.DE). As usual with some of the real important details (see: Google Backup), there are no details (or even manuals) describing exactly how it works. However, the announcement page holds:

  Users can install and uninstall apps at any time in their own environments. To save storage space, Google Play downloads an APK only if it's not already installed by another user on the device. If the app is already installed, Google Play records the new user's installation in the usual way but doesn't download another copy of the app. Multiple users can run the same copy of an APK because the system creates a new instance for each user, including a user-specific data directory.

(emphasis mine)

It's left open at what point this applies. But if it applies at the initial installation, it will certainly be the same with updates (as the Heise article linked confirms; to those who don't know Heise: it's one of the leading tech magazines in Germany, and well trusted).


Nexus 6 E: Unable to mount Storage error in TWRP Before I ask, I have very limited knowledge of ADB and have been using "interface" like programs for all my Android root/flashing/pushing.

I bought a stock Nexus 6 and knew I wanted a custom ROM.  I settled on Cyanogenmod.  Somewhere during the process I messed up and had to start over.  I must have unchecked/checked a box I should have because I kept getting the E: Unable to mount Storage and cannot see my phone in Windows Explorer as an MTP device.  So I did a complete factory reset, flashed the stock ROM and it seemed to resolve the error.  I then flashed CM 12.1 again and started the daunting process of reconfiguring my phone.  I chose not to restore my backup because I wasn't sure if the error would come back too (n00bie, I know).  Then I also made the mistake of allowing the OTA CM update.  Well I lost root as a result.  So I attempted to root again but it got stuck at the boot logo.  In a panic I booted into TWRP and dirty flashed CM 12.1 using ADB sideload.  All was good, I re-rooted again successfully, but now I am getting the same E: Unable to mount Storage error again.

So I guess my question is, how do I do a backup so I do not have to reconfigure everything again and still be able to flash the stock ROM.  Or do I even need to flash the stock ROM again, can I do a factory reset and flash CM 12.1 or will my error not be resolved?

Thanks in advance.

This question is a little old and may be solved now, but the simple answer is: you don't have to do anything.  If your clean install of CM12.1 does not trigger this error, then that is the solution.  Do a clean install of CM.  Root is built into CM.  There is no compelling reason for you to be rooting your device, or even installing thing like SuperSu.   You can toggle root settings in Developer Options.


Create several Gmail accounts anonymously using only one Android tablet without letting Google know that they are created from the same single tablet? I would like to anonymously create several Gmail accounts using only one Android tablet (but not phone) without letting Google know that the accounts are created from the same single tablet.  I do not want Google to know that any two of the accounts are related to each other.

If my ISP (Internet Service Provider) cooperates with Google and informs Google of the true identity associated with the IP address with which I connect to Google to create the Gmail accounts, then Google would know exactly who I am.  However, assume that this is not the case.

If the Android device were a phone, then Goole might uniquely identify the Android phone by IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity), ICCID (Integrated Circuit Card Identifier of SIM chip) or IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity); hence, Google would know that these accounts are created from the same Android phone.  However, this is not the case; I am talking about an Android tablet without phone.

First of all, I would like to make sure that Gmail accounts are free and that there is no need to provide Google with my credit card information, my billing address or my real name.  Is this correct?  Please provide an answer to this specific question as well.

So, with the above three assumptions (my ISP does not inform Google of the true identity associated with the IP; the IDs associated with phone are unavailable to Google; Gmail accounts are free, and hence Google does not ask for billing information), does Google obtain any information that reveals my true identity, when I create Gmail accounts using an Android tablet?  (If it does, what are they?)

Even if Google cannot obtain the true identity of the person whom the Android tablet belongs to, can Google uniquely identify each Android tablet?  (If it can, how?)

If Google cannot obtain the true identity and cannot uniquely identify each Android tablet, then I have further questions.

Assume that there is no account on this tablet yet.

Will Google know that the two Gmail accounts are related to each other if two Gmail accounts are created by the following steps?

Create a Gmail Account A using an Android tablet.
Disconnect from the Internet, that is, switch to the off-line mode by turning off Wi-Fi.
Turn off the Factory Reset Protection ("Settings" > something that says "Security" or "Screen" > set "Screen Lock" to "none".)
Remove Account A from the Android tablet.  (The account will remain intact on the Google server.  See "What will happen when I remove my Google account from an Android tablet?".)
Perform a Factory Reset ("Settings" > something that says "Backup" or "Reset" > Factory data reset).
Using a different IP (by going to another location for example), connect to the Internet (that is, turn on Wi-Fi).
Create a new Gmail Account B from this Android tablet.

If these steps successfully prevent Google from knowing that the two Gmail accounts are related to each other, then let me ask the following.  Are all these steps necessary?  Are any steps omissible to make the process simpler?

Note that Factory Reset deletes all of your precious files; but the law enforcement authority is likely able to recover them later.

Instead of Factory Reset, does it suffice to delete all the regular cookies and EverCookies that the account-management app creates?  How can they be deleted?

What you're talking about is not sufficient. As seen in answers to this question, some tablet devices do have IMEIs even though they don't have a SIM card slot or telephony capability. Besides, all Android devices come with some extra unique identifiers. Both the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi hardware include a MAC address, which is used in those network protocols to uniquely identify the device. These can be read by any app with the appropriate network permissions, including the pre-installed Google apps.

They can be overridden in software, but the true values are part of the hardware, so the OS can read the true values anyway. (And of course a factory reset would undo the override anyway.) The OS can also read the unique identifier that's a part of the CPU itself and can't be overridden. If you really don't trust Google to this extent, you need to install a custom ROM (which still leaves open the possibility of a malicious binary driver).

  I would like to make sure that Gmail accounts are free and that there is no need to provide Google with my credit card information, my billing address or my real name. Is this correct?

Yes, that's correct. You'll be offered the opportunity to add your credit card details when you sign up, to enable buying apps on Google Play, but that's not mandatory. They'll also pester you to add a phone number or "backup" email address, to aid in recovering a lost account and for confirmation after an unusual login, but again, this isn't mandatory.


Why is it that Android still can't be installed as regular OS? Are there any technical or others reasons why Android is still a firmware and not an OS which can be just installed without a lot of hassle?

Why there is no universal image which could detect appropriate drivers (kernel modules), partition NAND in some standard way and configure boot loader to boot updated OS version?

What stops Google from making a real (less firmware-like) OS (an OS for small ARM, x86 etc. devices)?

What stops Google from making a real OS (an OS for small ARM, x86 etc devices)?

It is a "real" OS.

  Why there is no universal image which could detect appropriate drivers

How do you detect drivers that don't exist?  Someone has to write them.  Unlike PCs, phone hardware varies wildly, largely because it isn't feasible for end users to construct their own from parts and size constraints.  Customized parts instead of interchangeable ones and special chipsets mean very specific drivers are needed, and an OS can't just ship default ones.  Imagine the bloat as well — someone with a cheap HTC phone with 20 MB for apps doesn't have room to host drivers they don't need.

  and configure boot loader to boot updated OS version

Bootloaders also vary wildly between devices; you'd have to get all the manufacturers on board in order to use a single one, and manufacturers are unlikely to want to give up their power in that area.


How can I save a file rather than open it? I want to change a URL somehow so that it prompts my HTC Sensation to save the file rather than open it.

Is this possible?

I take it that you want to download some media (e.g. .mp3, .wav, .jpg) from a link, which for certain sites will try to open via browser.

Try long-pressing on the link for the menu, then select 'Save Link'. It will then save the content to /sdcard/download as  Bryan Denny♦ commented.


Is there really no true FM radio without earphones? I am looking for an offline FM radio without antenna.
It was definitely possible on older devices with Android Jelly Bean, but I look for a non-root solution.
I know that FM radio requires a 75 cm antenna, that's why the stock FM radio app is forcing me to plug in earphones. But I need another app which ignores this physical requirement.
I see no reason why it shouldn't work for Android 7. But all the offline UKW/FM radio apps I found in Playstore are lying, these are just online radio apps, not using the built-in fm radio hardware.

The Redmi Note 9 radio works without earphones plugged in.
Does not do much else like work as a phone but the radio works.


Andriod 4.4.2 "optimizing app x of 50 android" after flash Gapps I've flashed Gapps for kitkat in my andriod 4.4.2, and now when I turn on the phone, The problem is that always said "optimizing app x of 50 android", the which take much time. (I also happened to this with a cell phone jellybean after flash Gapps)

I've tried advance factory reset from TWRP but this not change, also reflash other Gapps..

Note: I dont wanna update kitkat to Lollipop because lollipop have so many bugs in my phone (Azumi A50+)

Help me please, thank you very much

I guess you have a stock firmware, this might lead to an incompatibility with the existing Gapps.

Try downloading the minimal Gapps,  nano or pico package from here


A random floating ad is always on top In the following image, you can see a floating ad and it looks like an average ad by Google. Problem is, it's always on top. In the image, you can see it over my Settings app.
(Click image to enlarge)

I did not install any new apps on to my device (OnePlus One running CM12s - Android 5.0.2), and the single ad keeps popping up randomly in different positions on the screen. (Since today morning.)
Following is a screenshot of the webpage that opens up, when I select 'opt out'.

From where did this come from, and how do I get rid of it?

You've got some kind of adware. Check your running apps and stop any apps that are unfamiliar-looking. Be sure to checked cached processes as well.


How can I forward texts to my  tablet and reply back? I have a tablet running Android 4.0.1, and a cell phone running 2.2.

When I'm working on my tablet, I would like to be able to see my texts and phone calls get forwarded to the tablet, which doesn't have a SIM card, and be able to interact with them as if I was on my cell phone, preferably over wi-fi and/or bluetooth. Is this possible? Paid solutions are acceptable as well.

If you're in the USA, use Google Voice - it allows a user to make voice calls while on WiFi and also allows sending / receiving SMS.

Also look at Tablet Talk for your SMS needs at least. In early development, there's also Phone Link

If you're working on your tablet, I believe the simplest solution for voice calls is to have a bluetooth handsfree paired with your phone so you can make and receive calls.


Can't update apps nor install apps I have a Galaxy Nexus with the stock firmware, it's a device that has been powered off for a long time. Currently I can't update any existing apps nor can I install new ones. I have tried with Chrome, Firefox Beta and Opera Mini, I also tried updating existing ones with no luck. Also there are apps that have updates available but Play Store doesn't offer the option to update (for example the version of Firefox is 16), others (actually just one) are listed as having available updates.

There are two different behaviors that occur.

When trying to install  Chrome

The Google Play says that the app is not compatible with the device, i don't think is the case. The same happens with Firefox which is listed as a supported device in the mozilla page

When trying to update an app or install Opera Mini

When trying to update an app with updates available or installing Opera Mini my device is recognized as supported but after clicking install and accepting the permissions an error occur, it says:

Error retrieving information from server. [RPC:S-3]

I have already deleted the Google Account and recreated it (password works)

Android version is 4.1.2 build number JZO54K. No carrier and no SIM, connected over a working wifi (I can surf the net with firefox)

Any ideas?

Did you try clearing the app-data of play store?
If not, try clearing the app-data, and/or any updates installed by play store, and allow it to install a Play Store update again (it will do this automatically), and then try using Google Play Store.


number of pattern matching attempt in android 2.3(Maxx msd7) When i start my phone(Maxx msd7),i am getting "number of invalid pattern matching attempts" error in android 2.3.I am trying to perform factory reset at starup.

I got the recovery menu at startup by pressing volume - button but i am not getting Factory reset option over there.

TEST ITEM
TEST ALL
CLEAR FLASH

options are there.

What should i do.?

Solved....

Select clear flash option,It will restart phone and menu will be displayed at startup.


Out of memory errors on S2. Safe to delete all dumpstate files? My Android S2 is out of memory and unable to update apps.  Specifically it is currently using nearly all of the paltry 2gb partitioned for apps.

I'm reading that you can issue *#9900# in the dialer, and select menu 2, that this will clean the dumpstate files.   I get Unable to process request.

My phone is rooted so when I go to terminal and ls -l on /data/log, I'm showing no .log files but several dumpstate.tar.gz files.  Is it safe to nuke these tar.gz files?

Data in "log directories" should generally be safe to delete, as they are mainly intended for debugging purposes. The files having an .tar.gz extension simply means they are archived (see: tar (computing) at Wikipedia); if you copy them to your computer for investigation (e.g. using Winzip on a Windows machine, or the command-line tar xzf <filename>) will probably show those files contain *.log files.

If you want to be on the safe side, make a backup first. But I very much doubt you'll ever need those files again.


How can I diagnose the battery issue? My phone's OS is cyanogenmod 12.1 with Android version 5.1.1.

Recently I found a battery drain. I set up the airplane mode but after a night the battery went from 100% to 41%. I viewed Settings->Battery and found that the sum of battery usages of all apps was much lower, approximately 20%. I need to know how to fetch a verbose log for the battery usage in order to diagnose the issue.

Thanks very well.

Don't know about the verbose log but for the battery drain issue, i may suggest you to try the 'Battery Calibration' app(requires device to be rooted). I own a Samsung galaxy S3, had similar issues but found significant improvement after following the steps detailed in the app.


Change Play Store (web) device order My device order in Play Store web is currently like so:

I haven't even powered on the Nexus 4 in a month. How do I make Note 4 the default without disabling Nexus 4 altogether in Play Store Settings?

The list is sorted by last used date.

Go to the Play Store on your phone, maybe download or update an app, and the last used date should be set to the current date. And next time, it should be at the top.


How to change the ringtone for SMS in Samsung Galaxy Y? Is there a way to change the ringtone for SMS in Samsung Galaxy Y, Gingerbread v2.3.6?

Open My Files.
Create a new folder (e.g. Notifications)
Copy MP3 files to newly-created folder
Go to SMS message
Select Menu > Settings > Select Ringtone


Chrome: "Failed to add bookmark." I am running Google Chrome 56 on Android 4.4.4 and starting today I am no longer able to add bookmarks. Every time that I click the star a nessage pops up that says "Failed to add bookmark.". I do not know what is causing this.

Note that:

I am NOT using syncing, so syncing is not the cause of this problem.
I do not want to use syncing.
I tried rebooting, but that did not fix it.

How do I fix this?

I believe this issue is caused by using the same chrome login for both desktop and Android and adding a bookmark on desktop. That folder is used for subsequent bookmarks but for some reason, the Android app doesn't know where that is. It could be that it saves a booking folder that was deleted. Anyway, here's what I did to fix this issue on Android:

1) Load an existing bookmark.

2) Press the bookmark star.

3) Change the bookmark's folder to another folder that exists.

4) Change the bookmark back to the original folder.

5) Navigate to the site you were trying to bookmark.

6) Bookmark it. The previously-used folder should now be set correctly.


Live wallpaper has entirely taken over phone One of my customers says my live wallpaper has completely taken over the screen. They tried restarting the phone, but all they can see is the live wallpaper. No way to unlock the phone.

Are there any steps that can be done to start the phone without the wallpaper started, so they can uninstall it?

It's a Galaxy S6 and I don't think it's rooted.

(I'm in email conversation and will add details as I get them.)

With the information available , it is recommended to put Galaxy S6 in safe mode .

In safe mode installed apps are inactive and the wall paper app can be uninstalled . Restarting the phone gets it out of safe mode

  Turn the device off
  Press and hold the Power key
  When the Samsung Galaxy S 6 logo appears, release the Power
  key, then immediately press and hold the Volume Down key
  Hold the Volume Down key until the device finishes restarting.
  When 'Safe mode' appears in the bottom left, release the Volume Down key
  Uninstall apps that cause problems.
  From the Home screen, tap Apps.
  Tap Settings.
  Under 'Device,' tap Applications.
  Tap Application manager.
  Swipe right to the DOWNLOADED screen.
  Tap desired app, then tap Uninstall.
  Tap Uninstall to confirm


Check Email on Time / Turn on Wi-Fi on time I really need this piece of advice, I've been tortured for months now and don't really know how to solve this.

The problem is I can receive working emails at night. But I don't want to be waked up at 5am. Still, I don't want to wake up at 7am if there were no emails at night. I had a temporal solution which was to use apps for automatic turn on of wi-fi. It would sometimes turn on wifi on 7 am, so my Gmail app would check emails. But these apps fail once in a while so you are never quite sure if it's working or not.

Some people suggest using different audio profiles, but it won't help since, for example, if there was a letter at 5 am and audio profile starts working at 7 am it won't ring again, because it was already in my inbox.

Please, your suggestions are very appreciated. I'm tired of sleep deprivation. If you know any mail apps that can check email in specific periods of time this would be perfect.

Some smartphones come with "Do not disturb" functionality. You can use this function to mute all calls and alerts, apart from your selected exceptions on the time range that you set.


How to fix "Oh no! Your login temporarily failed" in Snapchat? Every time I try to log in to the app I get a message shown in the image below.
Yes, I've tried what the link tells me, and yes, I have tried the Xposed framework as well but no luck. I have a rooted OnePlus 2.

Snapchat only gives out a login token without Xposed.

Uninstall Xposed, log in to Snapchat, and install Xposed again.


Tuning tablet into e-book reader? Since I often need to read PDFs, I figured I should get an e-book reader from eg. Kobo or Pocketbook, but I was told it's not a good idea because e-book readers have a tough time rendering PDFs.

Alternatively, are there good tablets and hardware/software that can reduce the amount of power used by the screen and somehow make the the screen easier to read?

Thank you.

Aside from the usual battery-saving tips (like disabling data / Wi-Fi), you could use an app like Screen Filter to reduce the brightness of the device; this reduces power consumption.

If available, you might also invert the colors in your reader app. For example, ezPDF Reader has a Night mode feature which makes the background black and the text white (as opposed to the standard black on white). Of course, this is only applicable to PDFs with actual next, not scanned images.


Play RTSP stream from stock Android video player? Is it possible to configure the stock android video player (Galaxy S3) to play an RTSP stream as defined in an .xpsf file?

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<playlist version="1" xmlns="http://xspf.org/ns/0/">
    <trackList>
        <track><location>rtsp://192.168.8.108:554/live/ch00_0</location><title>Full resolution</title></track>
        <track><location>rtsp://192.168.8.108:554/live/ch01_0</location><title>Half resolution</title></track>
    </trackList>
</playlist>

If you have successfully performed this task, please state this in your response and any lessons-learned.  Thank you

You can simply place one of the url from the .xpf fileand run it in browser.It opts you to choose media players from device and selects one of them.The stream runs smoothly.


Can't set default app? I have a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, and I was trying to open a Tumblr link from Facebook messenger. When the popup to choose a default app showed up, I accidentally chose Chrome.

I tried resetting the default settings on Chrome, but when the popup to choose a default app shows up again, Tumblr is no longer on the list. It just lists Chrome and another browser that I have.

I tried everything I could think of. I've reinstalled both Chrome and Tumblr, I cleaned out caches, and I've restarted my phone. I also tried to manually set Tumblr as default but selecting "via this app" on the "go to supported URLs" setting. When I disabled Chrome and uninstalled other browsers, a "can't open link popup shows up when I try to open a Tumblr link. This is driving me nuts!

Go to Settings > Apps in your phone. Find Chrome. You will find an "Open by Default" option for anything you have asked it to open earlier. Clear it.


Download apps without google account for work device I need to setup an android device for work. I've never done this before (for a work environment), so I was wondering: is there a way to use the playstore (the new owner will probably need whatsapp and other apps) without a google account?

Should I make a new google account for every device?

We don't use gsuite.

To connect to play store you need a google account. But you need not have separate accounts for each and every device. You can connect to many devices from one account. In this case all you have to do is logout from your account and tell the other user to connect with his/her account. Then the user will be able to use whats-app etc.


unknown_error when installing couchdb on android I was able to install CouchDB fine on my Samsung Captivate android phone using the app in the market. When I try and install it on my Samsung Galaxy I update the binaries, then I get an error:

{"error":"unknown_error","reason":"badarg"}

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling but no luck. Any suggestions?

Thats a strange error, currently there are 2 common problems with the CouchDB install,

is that it isnt currently supported on 2.3.3 and above
is that your external storage isnt mounted on /sdcard/ (or it is currently mounted as a drive)

are either of those true? if so then they are already on https://github.com/couchbaselabs/couch-android-launcher/issues and I will update there when they are fixed, if not if you could run adb logcat it would be extremely useful

Cheers
Dale


How to fix missing wishlist icons in Google Play Store? I have noticed that some of the time, the Add to Wishlist icon is missing from some apps within the Google Play Store.

Some apps show the icon, some don't.  Grabbing a different device shows the same issue: some apps show the icon, some don't.  But across devices, it's not the same apps.

What I've tried:

Clearing the cache for the Google Play Store
Clearing the data for the Google Play Store
Clearing the local search history in the Google Play Store
Completely emptying the wishlist in the Google Play Store
Reverting the Google Play Store to an old version, and allowing it to update itself

None of these techniques yielded any positive results.

What can be done to improve the Google Play Store to consistently allow the wishlist icon to appear for every app it displays?

(BTW, if you post a WFM comment, please also include your Google Play Store version number as well as the number of apps on which you verified the wishlist icon was visible.)

If you ever installed some app adding it to wishlist isn't available for that app anymore.


Storage space running out and I have tried EVERYTHING I have a cheapo Wayteq xTab-700qci tablet. It just gave me the dreaded

  Storage space running out. Some system functions may not work.

message. I tried every solution that I could find but none of them works. These are the parameters:

Internal storage: 1 GB

Available: 68 MB
Apps: 863 MB

Google Play Services: 478 MB
Google App: 46 MB after deleting data but it automatically grows back to 69 MB
Adobe Acrobat, Google Drive, Firefox, FolderSync and iRealPro are the only other apps I have installed besides system apps. All of them take up under 40MB on internal storage because I've moved each to the internal 5.6 GB SD card where it was possible.

I've cleared data and cache for all apps.

The 'System functions may not work' part is true. App updates usually fail because of insufficient space and I'm now getting used to getting 'Google Play Services has stopped' and 'android.process.acore has stopped working' messages right after startup.

What should I do? Is rooting the only solution? Is Android such crap that only by hacking its bowels can I make it usable?

A temporary solution is to uninstall Google Play Services. It will be reinstalled (at least it was, for me) when you open the Play Store, but in my case it was only 170 MB after reinstallation, so I reclaimed a lot of space.


How do I get the Google Plus app to ignore videos I loaded onto my phone? I recently loaded some videos from my PC to my phone (running Jelly Bean) and got the most recent Google Plus app. I was going to turn on 'Instant Upload' so that it backs up my photos quickly, but realized that it also wants to upload the videos I put on my phone.

Is there a way I can get it to not upload videos from my phone (or have it ignore things in a certain directory on my phone)?

I don't think there is any way to stop the Google Plus from auto uploading video if you have instant upload turn on.

The work around I can think off is to use a file manager like "Astro" to move all your video file from /DCIM/Camera folder to a different folder in your sdcard.  I believe Google Plus will ignore the folder outside of /DCIM/

EDIT: Re-read your post, looks like you were uploading video from your PC to your phone which you probably just placing those under some folder in sdcard.

You can try this app StudioKUMA .nomedia Manager and set the folder that contains video with .nomedia and perhaps the entire folder will be ignore by Google+


Upgrade with encrypted storage I would like to upgrade my cyanogenmod to the latest M build. but my storage is encrypted, so i guess this will lead to some problems.

First of all i cant even seem to make a backup with CWM.

ClockworkMod Recovery (CWM) doesn't work with encrypted devices. You'll have to use TWRP: http://teamw.in/project/twrp2


Factory reset a rooted 4.4.4 and lost the keyboard I factory-reset my Android 4.4.4 phone and lost my Swiftkey keyboard, which upon installing originally, I erased the standard Samsung keypad.

Now only only voice is available, and I cannot get into my Samsung or Google accounts to get things going again, because saying a password is impossible. All I want is access to a keyboard. What can I do?

A factory reset removes user apps and data, leaving the system partition alone.  It sounds like you removed the system keyboard and had a user keyboard erased.  You could sideload a keyboard with adb or something, but based on your comment that the OS is not working in general it would probably be better to flash a ROM (presumably whatever ROM you're already using, whether the original software or a custom build).


How to use multirom with Android M I can't seem to find a kexec-hardboot patched kernel compatible with CM 13 for the Nexus 5. Is there such a thing? What should I do to getmultirom working on Nexus 5 with CM 13 as the main rom?

Use ElementalX kernel. Works on my Nexus 5
http://elementalx.org/devices/nexus-5/


Screen going black when I press dial button in Lenovo P770 Android 4.1.1 After press call screen goes inactive

When I press the dial button in the mobile screen the screen goes inactive but the call is in-progress at back end, It does not come back on when I move it from my face, only when the call has ended by the called person. I cannot check call waiting, internet, contacts, call duration, use speaker phone or anything during a call.

Before the problem when I press the dial button the screen is active condition when I place the head set near to my ear the screen is in-active i.e. screen light is off then I bring the head set out of my ear suddenly screen is active i.e. screen light is glow THIS OPTION IS NOW NOT WORKING, How I can overcome this problem.

NOTE In Simple

My screen goes black when i press call button & Screen works again only when the call is finished. I know about the feature when you put the phone on ear it goes black and the second you remove the phone from your ear , the screen turns on again. But now is different

My phone model is Lenovo P770
OS Version - Android 4.1.1

Check this Call settings-> Auto screen off/on during calls

or just clean the proximity sensor with cloth


Part of touch screen is not working This is a weird touch screen issue as only part (2 blocks) of the screen is not working. I tested the touch functionality via "Touch Test" and observed that 2 red zones are not responding to finger tap (see screenshot). Where there are 2 thin gaps (actually 2 lines) are responsive. This happened after an app update (15 apps). I didn't drop the phone during this period. So I am suspecting this might due to a software issue. What could cause this issue?

I might be late, or maybe not. I confirmed (here) this issue being adressed into a firmware where the asigned screen size was bigger than it was supposed to be. In my case, a 7" tablet flashed with a 10" screen size tablet, downloaded straight from the tablet's company support page, for my specific tablet.

The guy from the link applied a solution by himself, using pieces from another firmware so the screen size matched the desired one. You can either do this or try another firmware, if it exists.


Microphone gone from my keyboard? My microphone (voice to text) option has disappeared from my keyboard.
I'm using a Galaxy X-Cover4.

Thanks in advance.

Go to settings, Language and input, manage input methods and activate Google Voice Typing as an input method and it will show up again

If there's no any voice input method. That means you should install a relevant voice typing keyboard. Like Google Voice Typing from the store.

Rarely but sometimes keyboards can have a native support for speech recognition. Identify the app that you're currently using for alphanumerical typing and access its settings from language and input settings and try to see whether there's an option for activating voice typing. If it is there good, if it's not, the previous is your only option


How Do I carry out an Upgrade? I want to upgrade from Android 4.1 to 4.3 on my Sony Xperia SP smartphone.

Please, how do I go about it to have a successful outcome without losing what I have already on the phone?

There are a number of ways to upgrade your android device.  If your carrier has provided you with an update, you can go under Settings>About Phone>Software Updates.  This will see if there is an update available.  You can then choose to download the update and it will upgrade your device.  I have not heard anything about updates from carriers wiping data.

Method 2 is the unofficial but also beneficial method.  If you are rooted and have an unlocked bootloader you can download stock android 4.3 (or custom ROMs also running on 4.3) and 'flash' the software to your device.  You will need to back up your data before doing this as most ROM developers recommend doing a factory reset when installing.  You can use a number of apps to back up data, but my personal favorite is Titanium Backup.  If you choose to 'flash' a custom ROM, make sure you make a nandroid backup from your recovery before flashing!*


How can an Android user know which Project Mainline modules their device supports? Project Mainline (officially "Modular System Components" - https://source.android.com/devices/architecture/modular-system) introduced a set of OS components that Google can update via Google Play system updates.
Some of these modules are mandatory for OEMs to support depending on the version of Android that the phone ships with, but some of these modules are optional. OEMs can choose to add support for more modules when updating to a new version of Android, as well.
As the title states, how can an Android user determine which of these modular system components their phone actually supports?

You can run /system/bin/pm get-moduleinfo --installed to list all installed modules with their package name and package label. Running /system/bin/pm get-moduleinfo --all lists all available modules (possibly some that are not installed) currently known for that Android release