How to reinstall an accidentally uninstalled app through ADB? Yesterday when removing bloatware from my phone, I accidentally uninstalled an app using the adb command:

pm uninstall -k --user 0

I suspect the culprit to be com.sec.factory.camera, as since that unfortunate event, the camera app crashes every time I try to launch it.

I tried reinstalling it using either of these two commands

pm install com.sec.factory.camera
pm install --user 0 com.sec.factory.camera

but they returned me a "can't open non-file" error message.

I tried as well downloading the APK on my phone and installing it from Android, but at the end of the installation process, I got a "not installed application" message.

Your help would be really appreciated to get my camera back.

My phone is an unrooted Samsung s7 Edge running Oreo 8.0.

Technically the command adb shell pm unistall -k --user 0  does not uninstall an app from the device. Instead it just removes it from a user.

There are a couple of ways to get the removed app back to the user. One way is. Through an adb shell with the command:

adb shell cmd package install-existing <package_name>

Or an extreme way would be through a factory reset of the device.


Problem with my thumbnails in gallery I have a problem with images in my gallery. The thumbnails of my photos are not the actual images when I view the image. The thumbnails are the photos which I have deleted or my other images in my phone. What might be the problem why the thumbnails are not the actual images? Is it messing with my caches?

A comparable issue happened to me twice. The first time my audio files database was empty after a synchronization that went wrong. The second time my pictures application was never able to load the thumbnails. Each time the solution has been the same: clear the multimedia database.

To do so, go in "Settings" -> "Applications" -> "Manage applications". Then make sure you set the filter to see all applications. Find "Media Storage" in the list and then press "clear data". After that, you will need to wait a little bit for the database to regenerate, you may even have to reboot the phone to trigger the database generation.

This should correct your issue, and many more issues related to the multimedia database under Android.


Running older windows versions on Android Read about running Windows 95 (blog post seems to be 9-12 months old) and 98, XP (XDA has few threads) on Android. I'm interested (because of mind mapping software I use on Windows) but don't really have time and 2nd device to test this. Has someone here tried this and can give a overview of what's possible. Do these versions just run? Or can you

easily install and run  a .exe
swap data from android filesystem to Windows
use internet connection

I guess you could try running windows 95 or older versions inside DosBox.

Of course this would require some knowledge on MS-DOS stuff and some patience and skill..

Here's a good tutorial on how to boot win95 on DosBox. http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=24936 I would suggest you try this first on a desktop machine with dosbox.

Another way would be to run it using QEMU for android http://www.mobilephonetalk.com/showthread.php?63990-QEMU-for-Android-Runs-Any-OS


Video Player App for MKV? Having trouble finding an app that will smoothly play .MKV (matroska video) files. (For those unfamiliar with the format, MKV is commonly used for HD video.)

The popular QQ, Mobo, Mvideo, and MX players result in choppy, un-synced play. These apps do the same on my 2.1 device.
I am using Samsung Galaxy Ace with Android 2.3 and these QQ, Mobo, Mvideo, and MX players are not able to play .mkv file smoothly.

VLC media player beta for android was just released today. You can take a look at it. I am not sure if it works fine on Ace though


moto G MTP not connected on windows XP My Moto G MTP is not working in windows xp for any files transfer from pc to device. I tested the same device on Windows 7 and ubuntu, and it worked like a charm . Does Windows XP needs any special drivers to detect the device MTP ?

The MTP driver was bundled with Windows Media Player 11 on Windows XP. To get Media Player 11, you must download it from the Microsoft site here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/download-windows-media-player


Disabling Android Device Manager location notification on Galaxy S4 I have a Samsung Galaxy S4. When you use the Android Device Manager to locate your phone it shows a notification that it was utilized, which is stupid in my opinion as it tells the bad guys/gals what you are doing.

I went to Settings, Application Manager and All and tried to locate the "Android Device manager and Device Manager" to disable it as was indicated by another responder, however I did not see either to be listed.

I would like very much to know how to disable this notification.

The "location accessed" notification comes from Google Play Services. (You can find out what app a notification comes from by long-pressing it and then selecting "app info.")

To disable notifications from Google Play Services, open Settings > Apps > All > Google Play Services, and then untick show notifications, then accept the prompt.

Note: After disabling these notifications, you may not receive certain alerts from that app, like updating Google Play services.


Sony Xperia Z3 (Compact) Battery life after update to Lollipop If you already updated your Sony Xperia Z3 (Compact) to Lollipop, what is your experience (and what we can expect) with the battery life in Stamina mode while the phone is idle?

Xperia can have couple of days of light use when on Stamina mode and Hangouts/LocationHistory off in KitKat.

Is it comparable, does it get noticeable better or worse after upgrade to Lollipop?

Screenshot (click for larger variant)

I can't speak to Stamina mode since I don't use it often, but I had great battery life in regular mode on KitKat. With light talking, texting, and browser/FB use, I could easily go more than 24 hours without recharging my phone. Since upgrading to Lollipop (4-5 days ago), my phone goes from 100% charged at 7am to 7% charged at 5pm -- with very little use -- terrible!  I hope there's a patch for this, b/c I am so disappointed. No real visible upgrade to Lollipop, so frankly, I'd rather go back to KitKat.


Lost password on Galaxy S2, can't shut down My new Christmas Galaxy Tab S2 7":
I was prompted to download an updated OS. I did so successfully and was prompted to restart. Okay, now I need my password.  That is ONLY the password works, since the fingerprint won't work until the TAB is restarted after the update.  But what WAS my password???  The information on the web says I can factory reset easy enough, but step one is to shut it off.  I can't do that without getting past the password input stage.  So far my Galaxy is a lovely-to-look-at, high tech paperweight.

So how do I either force it off so I can continue with a factory reset (including password) process, or go from where I am (at the password input stage) to a factory reset?  (I think the password was among the Christmas wrapping that went as smoke up the chimney.)

To force the Galaxy Tab E to restart, hold the power and volume down keys for around 20 seconds. This has the same effect as physically removing the battery. If this does not work, attempt holding all four physical buttons for 20 seconds. After the device is turned off, start it up in the recovery mode by holding volume up + home + power. Highlight Wipe data/factory reset with the volume keys and select it using the power button. Select Yes and the tablet will be restored to factory specifications. Finally, select Reboot system now to restart the device.
During the setup process, Factory Reset Protection may kick in. Log in to the Google Account previously used on the device to disable it.


retrieving and classifying Notes with time and date of creation I wrote hundreds of messages in 'Notes' of my smartphone (the system app), and I would like to retrieve them and put them in a CSV file, (or Excel) with one column for the content of the message, and another with time and date of creation of the note. Is it possible?

My device is Huawei Y330-U01

Android 4.2.2

It is possible (at least in my device)  and I've provided a generalized idea using my Mediatek device running Android 4.2.1.

The idea is very simple. Most of the notes apps I tried so far stores the notes inside a .db file located in their personal space under /data. We have to get the relevant .db file(s) and then export it into a .csv file.

For a non-rooted device

Find the package name of your "Notes" app. You can use ADB command by launching the app in the foreground and entering the following ADB command from PC:

adb shell dumpsys activity | grep mFocused | awk -F 'u[0-9]+ ' '{print($2)}' | cut -d '/' -f 1

The output shown for my device was:

com.mediatek.notebook

It is possible that the aforesaid command may not work for your device, so either you troubleshoot it by yourself, or install an app like OS Monitor → launch your "Notes" app → launch OS Monitor → locate your "Notes" app amongst the processes and tap on it to see the value corresponding to Process.

Suggested by Izzy -- If all else fails, then try App Browser or Adebar to find package name. I tried the former and it does the job nicely.
Take backup of your "Notes" app by issuing the following ADB command:

adb backup <PACKAGE>

where <PACKAGE> is the package name of the app whose backup you want to take. The file will be saved as backup.ab in the directory from where ADB is executed.

In my case, I ended up with the backup file backup.ab (~1.7KiB) in my Home directory of GNU/Linux using the command:

adb backup com.mediatek.notebook

This step is needed because I'm unaware (as a non-root user) of any other way to get my hands on an app's internal files residing in /data.
The .ab file cannot be opened in my PC so I used Android Backup Extractor (see usage in its README.txt) to convert into .tar archive which then can be opened by any archive viewer (like Ark, WinRAR, and so on).

Some other methods to unpack the .ab file are mentioned here.
Open the converted file (.tar for me) and locate .db file under apps→<PACKAGE>→db→<.db>.
Open that .db in an SQL viewer like DB Browser for SQLite. You can then export the file into .csv using File → Export → Table(s) as CSV file.

For a rooted device:

You can either follow all the aforementioned instructions, or copy the .db file(s) from /data/data/<PACKAGE>/databases/<.db> into your PC and proceed with aforesaid step 5.
You may try SQLite Editor to view the database(s) directly on Android if you only intend to see the content of your "Notes" app, since data and creation time probably would be visible in .db file.

We're good to go now!


Any hack to get rid of the "Too many password attempts" lock? My kids often play with my phone which has a pattern lock screen, and it gets locked due to many attempts, then the phone is locked out and requires a password.

I use 2-step verification, so in order to unlock the phone, I must get a connected computer, and regenerate a password and reconnect the email and other programs in it.
This all process is redundant to me and very annoying and frustrating.

Is there any possible way to disable this nasty "feature"?

p.s., my phone is rooted of course, if that says anything.

The simplest solution would be to remove the lock screen but that leads to a whole new set of problems.

I would recommend switching to another type of lock screen such as PIN input or password input. That way the OK button must be pressed in order to submit a password attempt.

The most effective solution of course - don't give your smartphone to your kids. :-)


What is HTTP and socket in opera mini and what is the difference between them? What is the HTTP and socket option in android version of opera mini?
There is two options: HTTP and Socket/HTTP

The default is HTTP and Socket/HTTP.
In addition what is the different between these two options?

The socket connection keeps the connection to the sites. The HTTP selection will search for the site, each time searching for the site's IP address.

If you can't get a connection through the socket then switch to HTTP.
This choice is available when you’re using extreme-savings mode; use the "O" button and go to the savings summary.

The Socket/HTTP browser setting is faster and more cost efficient,
whereas HTTP is a fallback when your operator does not support socket/HTTP.


Protecting you handset from FROST attacks? I'm going through the process of securing my HTC Desire 610. While reading various articles, I found this page: https://www1.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/frost. It details how to gain access to an encrypted android phone via freezing the phone, reseting, and flashing a custom recovery that searches for the key in RAM.

I don't see a question about this exploit specifically, how does one go about protecting oneself from this attack?

Looks like my answer was on that page all along:

  15) Flash the frost.img file from our download section to the phone: 'fastboot flash recovery frost.img'. For this command to work, the bootloader must be unlocked.

So, to other semi-paranoid android users out there, know that protecting against cold boot attacks is as simple as locking the bootloader (if you haven't already). You can do so via fastboot.


After using lock screen 3x I decided I don't want it I cleared all certificates from settings, lock screen.
Not sure how to proceed since I can't get certificates back. I changed to a 30 min delay for lock screen but it is still inconvenient to type in every time I want to use phone.

It is possible you are confusing "Lock Screen" with "Screen Timeout".

Lock Screen will provide security to enter the phone.

The Display Timeout will turn off the Display to conserve battery. This seems to be the one to which you have chosen 30 minutes. On my phone this is the longest natural timeout for the display, though you can possibly exceed it (I have) with an automation tool like Llama or Tasker (maybe).

To disable the Lock Screen, see Settings > Security > Screen Lock, or possibly even the shorter path: Settings > Screen Lock.

Select "None" to eliminate the need for a PIN. You may have to provide the PIN one more time to accept as a credential.


OEM Unlocking iVOOMi Me5 I have iVOOMi Me5. its with Android 7.0, 2GB RAM and 16GB ROM.

In its Developer Options, there is an option to enable OEM unlocking.
If I enable OEM unlocking and USB debugging,

please let me know, what I can expect?

Will I get root access?
Will I lose all data and installed application?
Will I be able to use my phone in the same android and applications?

With Regards

FewL

OEM unlocking toggle

What this does:

Allows you to run the fastboot oem unlock command from fastboot mode and hence root your phone.

What this does not do:

Wipe your phone
Delete your applications
Clear your data, photos or media
Change your Android version
Root your phone
Anything else

Why you would want to enable this:

If you're rooting your phone, updating the OS or just unlocking your bootloader.

USB Debugging

What this does:

Enables full access to your device from a connected computer (security risk)

What this does not do:

Wipe your phone
Delete your applications
Clear your data, photos or media
Change your Android version
Root your phone
Anything else

Why you would want to enable this:

If you're making use of the adb program to communicate between a computer and your phone. More info.

Final judgement (TL;DR)

I recommend you keep both of these toggles switched off unless you are a developer, are helping a developer or wish to root your phone.


Is an android 5.1 adb backup incompatible with android 6.0? I recently loaded Cyanogenmod 13 on my nexus 4.  Prior to flashing, I did a full adb backup and an app data backup for com.king.candycrushsaga.  The only thing that seems to need restoring is the candycrush data, but adb restore doesn't seem to do the job.  It simply creates an empty folder in /sdcard/Android/data.

I used the abe.jar expander app to extract the .ab contents to a backup.tar file to see what was really in the backup, and there's an extensive set of files there, but they are all relative to apps/com.king.candycrushsaga.  I can't find any apps/com... structure on my phone now.  And since there's no 'data' component to file paths in the adb backup, it would seem that Android 6 stores app data in a different location than 5.1 did.  Is that true?  And if so, can I just use my .tar backup to restore the data to the correct location?  Or rebuild the .ab with a new top level directory?

ADB backups usually do not contain system apps, unless explicitly specified by you while performing the backup process. If this is the case, you can certainly restore safely without any problem. But some apps may be incompatible with 6.0 as such. So they may not work after the restore.


What is `/system/app/AutomationTest_JBUP.apk`? For backing up data from and repairing a stock Samsung Galaxy S2 (see How to copy / modify data from a soft-bootlooping Samsung Galaxy S2 (GT-I9100)), I used a recovery ROM (PhilZ-cwm6-XWMS3-FOP-5.15.9-signed.zip, SHA256: 406a617e8b378384bde40dd2dc6234c0660a1b4f592b6c25b3be6b6f078b9eec). This recovery ROM works without having to re-install the stock firmware (which, on this phone, is normally required). As a side-effect, it also installed the "Superuser" app, making it possible to become root.

After turning on the phone a few times, I was asked whether I want to allow "Automation Test" to gain super user privileges. What application is that and where does it come from? It seems like it is stored here: /system/app/AutomationTest_JBUP.apk.

According to this thread from Xda-developers, AutomationTest_JBUP.apk is listed among the apps that can safely be removed from a Samsung Galaxy S2. That will mean it comes installed by the manufacturer as default app.

Its package name is com.sec.android.app.DataCreate and analysis of a subsequent version shows that it is from Samsung. I have no idea of its purpose.


How do I completely mute the sound in phone calls? I don't mean I want to mute the ringtone, and I don't mean I want to mute my own microphone. I want to mute the sound of the other person on the call.
When I use the volume control during a call, I can put the slider all the way down to zero but the call is still audible - either the slider only acts on the ringtone, or the slider is capped at a minimum (non-zero) volume level. How do I make the call completely silent?
(For context: I make calls using a relay service, where I type, and a remote assistant speaks and types the response back to me. This service involves making the call on my phone, so I still get the sound of the people talking - I want to silence this.)

Indeed there is a minimum output volume for the audio coming from the call.
There might be a hidden settings, although it might be difficult to find or to apply to some phone models or Android verions.
There is also an option that is probably applicable to all phones: you can plug any headphones using the audio jack (assuming your phone has an audio jack, which perhaps all Android phones still have).  This redirects the audio to the headphones, and if you don't wear the headphones you will not hear it.  Which is what you were asking for, isn't it?
Notice: if you plug a headset (headphones with included microphone), your phone will most certainly use the headset's microphone, which may or may not be what you want.  If you plug headphones (without microphone) your phone will continue to use its internal microphone.


WhatsApp messages not delivering I am using Micromax Bolt A064. When I send some message in WhatsApp either in a group or for a single contact, it is just showing a clock symbol and not delivering.
I am using WiFi and I am able to receive hundreds of messages successfully. I can change the display picture & status without any issue.
This issue started once I sent some 10 messages to 10 groups at a time, is that the reason?

I've had the same problem. Reinstalling WhatsApp solved it for me.


"Reject with message" disappeared from the incoming call screen on Samsung S2 Plus? I have Android 4.2.2 running on Samsung S2 Plus. I suppose that an update modified the configuration and now, when the phone is ringing for an incoming call I don't see anymore the option "Reject call with message".

For example: see screenshot below, you would find the  option "Reject call with message" option:

Screenshot - Incoming call (Click to enlarge image)

Any idea on how to restore it?

The "Reject call with message" disappeared since I turned off the "Messaging" app (i.e., the standard SMS app) because I was using a different SMS app (Textra).

Re-enabling "Messaging" the "Reject call with message" is back.

Maybe this trick can be used if you want to disable the "Reject call with message" feature.


Vibrate function on my Samsung Galaxy S3 doesn't work though it is turned on. What is the cause? I have had this phone for a few months and only now did I try to start using the vibrate function.  When I choose "Vibrate" from the drop-down bar it never vibrates when I receive texts though sometimes it works when I use the Facebook messenger app.  I went into settings and enabled everything that has the word "Vibrate" in it.  Also, my phone is on power-saving mode; does that have any impact?

The vibrate function is supposed to notify you of incoming notifications but by vibrate, yes?

Is it a hardware problem?

OS: 4.1.1
Model: SGH-l747M

Power saving mode (by default) turns off some vibration, but it should only turn off the "haptic feedback" vibration (vibration when you touch certain UI controls). You can change that by going to Settings, Power saving mode, and unchecking "Turn off haptic feedback". That's the mode I run my SGS3 in all the time.

To get vibration working for text messages, you also need to enable vibration in the settings of the Messaging app itself (I'm not sure which settings you were referring to when you said that you "went into settings and enabled everything that has the word "Vibrate" in it"). To do that, go to the conversation list in the Messaging app (not an individual conversation), hit the menu button, then select Settings. Look for the "Notification Settings" section and check "Vibrate".

To get vibration working for incoming calls, there is a similar setting in the Phone app. Launch the Phone app, make sure you're on the Keypad, Logs, or Favorites tab, tap the menu button, select Call settings. Then select Ringtones and keypad tones and select Incoming call vibration. The Device vibration will let you modify the vibration pattern used (so you can tell an incoming call from a text message / email).

To get to the Phone and Messaging apps: Press the "home" button at the bottom of the phone (the physical button in the middle). That brings you to your home screen. The touch the "Apps" button (it looks like 9 square white dots, and is usually on the lower right of the home screen). That will bring up a list of all applications installed on the phone. Scroll through looking for an app named Messaging (or Phone). The icon for the Messaging app looks like a white envelope with a yellow piece of paper coming out of it. The icon for the Phone app looks like a green square with a white phone receiver on it. Tap the app icon, then follow the instructions for each app above to activate vibration for text messaging and incoming calls.


Phone on, No Display So my aunt told me to fix her android phone and here's the problem. After the android logo and text splash screen during the boot up, the screen is all black but I can still open applications ( just by randomly tapping the screen ) and I know they work.

Is it a hardware related problem?

I think you need to flash stock rom in your device , the working of applications ensures that your device is not bricked.You might not be able to boot your phone in recovery mode which will not allow you to Factory Reset(you woun't see any content displayed due to splash screen) so you need to flash stock rom by third party applications from PC such as SP Flashtools,Odin,etc according to your device.


My Android phone stuck at optimizing apps again and again My Yu Yureka with Cyanogen Mod is Optimizing apps again and again but not starting. Is there a way to fix this?
Is tjere a way I can somehow enter safe mode and delete few apps??  Please help.

I found a solution and thats when the apps are being optimised..when the phone reaches to optimising last 1 or 2 apps (for example: optimising 99 of 100) press and hold volume down key untill the phone starts; the phone boots into safe mode and we can remove a few apps and take data backup to PC. Now when rebooted it starts normally..
Thanks everyone for response..!


Uninstall via adb without root I own an Asus Zenfone Go Z00VD running Android 5.1.  It came preinstalled with TrendMicro Dr. Safety, which I absolutely have no use for and do not want running at all.  This app starts itself periodically, and there is no option to uninstall nor disable it.  I'm not sure that it's a system app but I assume it is.

I've done some research and found the following options:

Root the phone and uninstall the app.  This is the most obvious solution, but this is a last resort.
Remove the app via adb without root.  Not sure if this is even possible, I've seen some claims that it is, and more claims that it is not.
Install an app manager to kill Dr. Safety processes as soon as they start.  From the answers on this Stack this seems like a bad idea.

This question is about option 2.  Is it possible?  Is it safe (little chance of bricking the phone and won't open security holes)?  If the answer to either is "no" are there other non-rooting options to disable the app?

I found instructions here:
http://hexgears.blogspot.com/2015/06/android-remove-system-apps-without-root.html

but I'm doubtful that they'll even work, let alone work safely.

Since it is Android Lollipop, you can setup adb in PC and execute this command:

adb shell pm hide PACKAGE

PACKAGE → package name of an app. To know the package name of an app, follow the answers to the question: View app's full package name?

If I'm correct, this app is exactly what came with your device and which you aim to get rid of. Although you should verify the package name through your own means, I find the package name as com.trendmicro.freetmms.gmobi from the linked URL, so your command would be:

adb shell pm hide com.trendmicro.freetmms.gmobi
adb reboot     # reboot the device

Note: Execute the command at your own risk. I cannot guarantee that it would not soft-brick the device but it would make sure the app do not run again until your unhide the package. To unhide the package, replace hide by unhide in the aforesaid command.

If something goes wrong, such as the Android ends up in a boot-loop  or with recurrent crash messages, then you should either unhide the package (provided that you can) or do a factory reset which means you should backup your data before hiding the package.

As for the instructions in the link, ignore them. The author doesn't know what they wrote. Let me simplify few things there. First, the device is rooted and the title is deceptive. They are using a kernel which is not stock. A stock kernel (production build) should never allow adb deamon to be restarted with root permissions but they were able to do so using adb root. If a kernel allows this, then it is considered an insecure kernel and unfit for consumer ready devices.

Also, the steps there about removing the system apps are risky. Huge risk. Only a re-flash of stock ROM or a backup of system partition would be able to fix the device.


Infinity loading of centrain Google Apps on Italian SIM I have OnePlus 5 (Android 8) phone and I have 1 SIM slot with my home SIM and 2 SIM slot with Italian Prepaid card with internet data.

I am getting infinity loops when I am using centrain Google apps. For example I cannot login into YouTube, Search on Google Play, or download emails. I am always getting infinity loading. When I am on Wifi its ok and working.
Only on first or second card I am getting this problem.

What is going on? Is google blocking access to some accounting servers from different locations? I am originally from Czech Republic and now I am on vaccation in Italy.

Fixed by clearing cache and data of all Google apps...
Seems apps where setuped for different country.
I am now back from Italy and SIM data alsos topped working so I did clear again and it works now.


SD card suddenly damaged I'm using Xperia C. My SD card works perfectly fine but after I power down my phone and turn it back on, suddenly it says that my SD is damaged and I have to format it. I can't even mount it on my phone cuz when I do, it just unmount it again. This is not the first time it happen. Last time, it was with my first SD card and now, my second. What should I do?

I just had this problem less than an hour ago on my Acer Iconia a500. I've had it happen with multiple SD cards on different devices. This is how I overcome this problem everytime. The only way that this wont work is if the card is fried

To the problem of your "damaged SD card", what's most likely going is corruption of the file system. Something on the phone made an invalid entry.

Plug your SD card in the reader
Run Mini Tool Partition Wizard (MTPW)
Select Partition Wizard, other is Data Recovery
Pick the SD card in the list
Right click for drop down menu
Scroll down and click on Check File System
Let it finish, then exit MTPW
Unplug and re-plug SD card into reader
When "Do you want to scan and fix" pops up, check both
When finished, unplug from reader
Mount in your phone and enjoy.

I know it's a late answer,  but knowledge is power.


Enable/Disable automatic SD card installations in android phone i don't know why, but in recent 3 day, my memory card goes crazy! and sometimes (3 times in a day) notify me : "damaged memory card, do you want to format it?"and when i format sd card, some applications corrupted and can't run, because it says : "this application not installed in your phone!"is there a way to disable or disallow android from installing or storing any data related to application installed on phone?phone Specs:

model : samsung GT-I9100G
Build number : Gingerbread.JPKK1
android version : 2.3.6

What you describe is a mix of multiple problems. First, your apps becoming "unavailable" is most likely due to Apps2SD being used, and you installed those on your SD card. See:

How to undo Apps2SD

Second thing is your card itself (hardware, the "thing you put inside your device"). If it goes broke that often, this rises some hardware related questions. Most likely possibilities:

Your card is broken
Your devices card adapter is broken
Something with your card controller is broken

You can check 1. easily in different ways:

A. check whether your card causes problems in other devices
B. check whether other cards cause the same problems with your SGS

If (A but not B) => use a new card (case 1.)
If (B but not A) => have your device checked (for either 2. or 3.). Hopefully you've got some warranty left.

Other useful Q&As on this site which might prove helpful to you include (but are not limited to):

Why has my micro SD card suddenly stopped working in my Samsung Galaxy SIII?
Micro SD card physically damaged?
how to fix damaged sd card?
Fix a damaged microsd card?


How do I get my Samsung Note 3 to be recognized by my PC? When I plug my phone into my PC (which is running Windows 7 OS) only charging takes place. When I view my phone in Device Manager, it says that Samsung Android files are not installed. But I installed those and also tried with Samsung Kies 3 but it's still not getting connected.

First, what you want to do ? Transfer files to the phone or make something with ADB and stuff.

Good that you have Kies 3 installed.
If transfer files. Check this: when you connect the phone there is a popup on the upper bar, sometimes you need to click it and change it to 'transfer files' - then the phone will go into MTP mode which allows you to view it in "My computer"

If make something with ADB: first try to install maybe Naked Drivers (it worked for me note 1 on win7):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/development/adb-fb-apx-driver-universal-naked-t2513339
, then enable debug in settings. When debug is enabled when u connect the phone it should ask for driver.
Also in bootloader and fastboot there is another driver needed but it sgould be in Naked or Kies drivers, also Android SDK have drivers.


Google Calendar sync works only when Google Calendar app is uninstalled I couldn't get Google Calendar to sync on my Galaxy S3 (with web version of Google Calendar). I did all things recommended on this help page but it didn't help. I also tried removing Google account from the phone and adding it again.

However, during one of the reinstalls (as recommended in Google help page) I suddenly got a notification about an event in my calendar that was created in the web version.
The sync worked perfectly fine when the Google Calendar App was removed from my phone. When "Google Calendar App" was uninstalled the pre-installed "S Planner" showed me the notification because the sync kicked in.

I rechecked it both ways from Android app to the web version and vice versa.

I prefer Google Calendar app to "S Planner" but this issue renders Google Calendar app unusable.

I also sent feedback message from the app.

Edit to add: it worked fine until one of the updates of Google Calendar.

Update: user RossC suggested to disable S Planner and test sync, but unfortunately I can't disable it (see screenshot).
Disabling related applications (with words calendar, samsung and sync in the title) did not help.

full screenshot

You could try and root your phone and download an app such as App Master from the app store to uninstall SPlanner altogether, as this would remove all of the Samsung calendar syncing issues you are having (hopefully - don't quote me but this worked for a friend of mine when he was having issues with his calendar syncing).  Hope this is of some help :)


Allow rotate into portrait mode but do not rotate external display To avoid this question being flagged as a duplicate, I have included a list of similar questions at the end of this post with an explanation about why my question is different.  Please read these reasons before you flag this question as a duplicate!

I'm trying to work out how to get my Nexus 5, in portrait mode, to display on an external monitor, in portrait mode (connected via SlimPort/HDMI).

In landscape mode everything is fine:

However in portrait mode, the signal is still output as if it is meant to be displayed on a landscape screen, which doesn't work at all if the screen is in portrait mode:

You can see here that in both landscape and portrait mode the phone is outputting the same 1920x1080 signal, except in portrait mode the screen content is being rotated by the phone's GPU and displayed as a 607x1080 image in the middle of the 1920x1080 screen.  (It is not, as some people have suggested, outputting a 1080x1920 signal that the monitor is centering.  You can verify this because changing the phone between landscape and portrait shows a nice rotation animation and the monitor does not lose sync as it would if the resolution changed.)

Since the phone, when in portrait mode, is rotating the picture sent to the external display, I want to disable this, so it is just output as-is with no rotation.  This will of course appear wrong on a landscape monitor, but when you rotate that monitor into portrait mode it will be fine:

Is there any way to disable this rotation, so that an external display in portrait mode can display the phone's content when it too is in portrait mode?

Similar questions have been asked before, but none are after the same solution:

35402 - Show Fullscreen Portrait Layout with Miracast is very similar, except the question is about using Miracast wireless display whereas this question is about wired displays, in this case via SlimPort.
37887 - HDMI output mirroring in Portrait mode is asking how to prevent apps from being forced into landscape mode when an external display is connected - my question is about apps that do not get forced into landscape mode
67648 - How to change Android default-natural orientation? asks how to change the default rotation of an app, it has nothing to do with the image sent to an external monitor
100196 - Is there are way to change Android's default screen orientation? asks how to make apps default to landscape, as the external screen is landscape (in my question the external screen is in portrait)
101305 - Force portrait mode on device is about forcing a specific app into portrait mode, and is not about adjusting the picture sent to an external display

Try these instructions, using a computer with adb installed and your phone connected:

Android Jelly Bean (4.2) locks HDMI rotation by default. You can unlock by the instruction of this commit.

  Add special mirroring modes for demonstration purposes.
  Assume rotation of HDMI display is portrait.

adb shell setprop persist.demo.hdmirotation portrait

  Don't lock rotation while HDMI is plugged in.

adb shell setprop persist.demo.hdmirotationlock false

  Hide secondary displays from apps but continue mirroring to them.

adb shell setprop persist.demo.singledisplay true

Source: https://community.freescale.com/docs/DOC-97740


How do I uninstall an unofficial app from my S3? I have installed my first non-Google Play app but I want to uninstall it.  Where and how do I go about deleting it since  for the official apps I just uninstalled them at the Play store.  Should I use an uninstall app or is there a better way?

4.1.1
S3

Settings > Apps > Downloaded > { app } > Uninstall

OR

Open the app drawer, find your app, long-press the icon and drag to the "Uninstall" icon.


My Huawei u8160 is restarting automatically I have a Huawei u8160 running Cyanogenmod 7.2 that always restarts automatically.

My phone is clocked to 122-600 while my phone's CPU's Max frequency 558.

I'm using the SMARTASSV2 governor and it mostly restarts when it is sleeping.

So I want to know what restarts my phone automatically?

Summarized Answer:

The main issue your facing is that you're using SmartassV2/ondemandX that was developed for stock kernels. But you're using it with a non stock kernel, the CyanogenMod 7.2. See bellow a summary for each of them.

Useful reading: A Beginner’s Guide to Android Kernels

SmartassV2/ondemandX governors

Stock kernel is the factory firmware. If you're using SmartassV2/ondemandX governors, they are modules for phones with stock kernels because they don't have 'smartass' or ondemandX' governors:

XDA Developers Forum :: SmartassV2/ondemandX governors for Rooted/stock ROM | 2012-02-24

Last updated: by AnDyX; 16th May 2012 at 07:47 AM.

  This modules are for people with stock kernels because they don't have 'smartass' or ondemandX' governors.

  Differences between this modules and build in stock kernels:

  allows to set max CPU freq when screen is off (to save battery),
  allows to set starting CPU freq when phone awakes (to speed up awake process),
  allows set/change almost all aspects of governor (to suite needs),
  should be a bit more responsive when parameters are well chosen for smartassv2 governor.

CyanogenMod 7.2.0-RC1

The current CyanogenMod 7.2.0-RC1 U8160 Port status is stable, but there are some known issues reported.

Already fixed reboot related issues:

v0.9 (20120203):

Hotfix 4test5 [21 Feb]: Revert longterm patches due to random reboot issue.

v0.7 - 22 January 2012:

Kernel stability fix (disabled SCHED_HRTICK due to instability/random reboot issue).

Note: Check your version. The latest is v1.3 released at 2012-06-25.

Use the link bellow to get detailed information about the development and what users are reporting. If you've got a version above v0.9, consider reporting your issue, thus allowing the developer to deal with it. If your version isn't the latest, consider changing to it.

XDA Developers Forum :: Huawei U8160/U8180 CyanogenMod 7.2.0-RC1 U8160 Port

Latest release: v1.3
Last updated: by psyke83; 25th June 2012 at 01:57 PM.
Thread responses: 3830


Using micro USB port as audio output So, the audio output jack of my Samsung Note 5 just broke and it costs too much to get it fixed locally.

Would I be able to use the micro USB port as a replacement for my audio jack assuming I had a micro USB to AUX adaptor?

Phone Model SM-N9208
Android Ver. 7.0

As said in this XDA post,

  Clearly the Note 5 supports USB audio, but it appears to not work properly.

So you can be sure it is, but also you should be aware of potential incompatibilities with your USB audio peripherals.


How to clear Stock Browser cache when browser isn't installed? Edit: This question was made when I assumed that apps put their web cache into the stock browser's own cache. This is not the case. Apps usually put this data into their own app_webview folder. I'll keep this question up though since Izzy's answer is a good one.

I have a Sony Xperia E3 running Android 4.4.2, and after using AppInventor for some time the inbuilt browser (aka the stock Android browser) has taken up a large amount of storage space with the cache.

Since the stock browser technically isn't installed I can't access the menu to clear the cache.

Is there any way to clear the cache without factory resetting/rooting?

As a side-effect of clearing all caches of all apps: boot into recovery-mode, and select "wipe cache". That wipes caches of all apps, but keeps your apps and data themselves intact.

If you have usb-debugging activated and adb available to use, there's a command doing the very same:

fastboot erase cache

This comes in handy especially for devices where you cannot access the recovery-mode.

Hint: you might be tempted to suggest adb shell pm clear com.android.browser for the very same purpose, restricting the purge to the specific app. Note that this is not only clearing the cache, but all the app's data as well. And it requires "elevated permissions" (i.e. root) to be executed – which is probably why it returned "failed" when you tried. The full command would then read:

adb shell su -c "pm clear com.android.browser"


Where does twrp keep the internal storage backed up? I have chosen to backup everything and all extra partitions on my twrp backup. When browsing the twrp backup folder, I renamed the .win extentions to .tar and unziped them using linux but I cannot find where twrp keep the internal storage contents. eg. emulated/0/

TWRP does not backup internal storage, like your photos, videos, music, ebooks, etc. (things in /data/media), that is why you can't find it.
As noted in the TWRP's FAQ from their official website:

Creating a backup of the user data partition will NOT include
/data/media (your internal storage)! That means if you save photos or
data on the internal storage (e.g. some apps will save data there as
well) those will be NOT included in a TWRP backup! There are many
people thinking that this is the case but due to a decision taken by
the dev team this is the current way of how it works.
To be absolutely clear when you do something like this:

Creating a full backup in TWRP (including /data partition)
Factory resetting your phone
Restoring your previously taken full backup
Result: all your saved data will be there but your data on the internal storage gets LOST!

Source page of quote


linux kernel not seen from android filesystem? I'm reading 'embedded linux' and in chp.6 "filesystems" there is a figure that I do not understand.

here it says that the 'linux kernel' is not seen from android filesystem. This give me some confusion:

-> The linux kernel image is definitely stored in a storage attached to the device. So when this figure says 'not seen from the android target filesystem', does this imply that the filesystem seen from the 'linux kernel' and 'android framework' is different?

In other words, if the kernel is to do its job, it needs to be able to see and access all the files available to the system. On the other hand, since android is practically a 'user' from kernel view, its scope is limited? And it does not have access to the actual linux kernel image due to this reason?

The linux kernel for an android device will be built separately from the vanilla AOSP.
Of course, one can configure to include the build of linux kernel inside the Android build process.

The kernel will be compiled and compressed into an image along with the ramdisk image. This is essentially what constitutes the boot.img which will be placed in the boot partition.

BTW there are several partitions divided inside whatever storage is used for the target android device.

While the linux kernel resides in the boot partition inside the boot.img, the android system will be stored in system.img which will be located in the system partition.

For a typical android build, the root account is inaccessible to the user(android system). Thus, a typical android user will not be able to check out the root directory.


Weird Bluetooth Behavior, difficulty reconnecting to paired device - Galaxy S II I had been having this weird behavior with my BT - Headset, that it works fine if I pair manually, but when I try to reconnect to a previously connected device, it would connect, and then just fail, and I would need to unpair and repair manually every time.

I have verified that this same headset works as expected with other phones - ranging from iPhone - Blackberry - Nokia Symbian S60. The device itself is over a year old, and this is when my previous device failed. However the fact that other phones are able to handle it, negates the possibility of this being purely due to age.

I tried to get Samsung Customer support to take a look at this, but they refused to see the problem.

Until recently I had just resigned myself to pairing it every time I want to use it, however recently, I seem to have discovered a pattern. If I disable the "Phone" Setting from bluetooth settings, this problem occurs. However with both "Phone" and "Media" options enabled, it seems to work as good as new!!

I also came across Bluetooth Auto Connect which seems to be tackling a similar problem, but I don't think it is quite the same.

So basically my question is, is this a known/common issue with GSII? Is there a fix for it? My device is rooted if that helps.

If this is a purely software issue as I now suspect, will a new rom help?

I have similar issues with some headphones on my Galaxy Nexus, though it is only intermittent. While I do not have an actual solution, I have found that turning Bluetooth off and on again while the headphones are on is much quicker than navigating all those submenus, and does cause the headphones to reconnect.


How an app can detect my device's uniqueness? If I install an app, uninstall it, finally install it again at a later time, how the app can detect if it was installed on this device earlier? What are the device unique id's that it can detect?

Android device ID: I changed it with device ID changer (now removed from play store, can't give link).
google advertising ID: changed that too
didn't login into the app with any accounts earlier used.

What other ways the app an app can use to detect if it was installed earlier on the device. I do give internet access to the app.

No IMEI, I'm using a tablet.

As RossC said, yes it depends upon the developers how they keep the logic to detect the uniqueness. As I am too a dev (Windows App) and my preferred way is to keep the device id's over the cloud. So whenever the device gets internet on, it syncs with our servers for prior installations and it becomes easy for users to use it on multiple devices. Other easy ways are to put some file inside the android system folders like data , usr or wherever.


Why is the SSH server not working on Android 4, are the ports being blocked? I am having difficulty ssh'ing into my new Android 4 (Samsung Nexus) phone.

I have installed various SSH Servers but in in all cases the ssh connection just hangs (i.e. I don't get as far as username/password).

As an example, using SSHDroid:

Verbose SSH log from my linux box :

joel@pepper ~ $ ssh  -p 2222 root@192.168.1.65 -vvv
OpenSSH_5.8p1 Debian-1ubuntu3, OpenSSL 0.9.8o 01 Jun 2010
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config
debug1: Applying options for *
debug2: ssh_connect: needpriv 0
debug1: Connecting to 192.168.1.65 [192.168.1.65] port 2222.

The output from nmap does not look right. A status of filtered on the port implies a firewall is blocking it:

joel@pepper ~ $ sudo nmap -sS  192.168.1.65

Starting Nmap 5.21 ( http://nmap.org ) at 2011-11-20 21:29 GMT
Nmap scan report for android-63731d6ebec9e01.lan (192.168.1.65)
Host is up (0.019s latency).
Not shown: 999 closed ports
PORT     STATE    SERVICE
2222/tcp filtered unknown
MAC Address: A0:0B:BA:B4:5F:59 (Unknown)

As far as I know, the default ssh port IS 22 on Ubuntu, just as "Lie Ryan" pointed out.  You might want to check your sshd_config files on your PC, if you want to take a look at this article, it specifies on how to change the default ssh configuration on Ubuntu--as well as the official documentation.  Beyond that, check your current firewall settings, you might be able to open that specific port temporarily to ssh-type service if you want to confirm that it's not something else.

Aside from that, it seems to me that this question was asked more than 6 months ago; if the OP hasn't figured it out by now, I doubt he'll be interested to pursue it further.  I suggest either accept an answer, provide update on the situation since, or perhaps close the question.

EDIT: depending on your android ssh-server app, and whether or not you're running it with su privileges, this is from the "QuickSSHD" website:

  non-root users are limited to ports < 1024 and the QuickSSHd application user, which CAN read and write to the SD Card.


Device in Bootloop using encryption I have yu yureka android device which has octa core snapdragon 615 processor, 2GB of ram, 16GB internal storage.

Recently I migrated to snapshot release of Cyanogen Mod 12.1 (android 5.1) plain without any Google Proprietary Apps.

I thought of using device encryption feature. There is no lock screen password/pattern set. There are no secondary users. There are no so many apps installed. My /storage/emulated/0 doesn't contain any media files (completely free).

So, I entered Settings > Security and selected Encrypt Device . It showed some boot loader icon for a couple of minutes and then Settings > Security showed Device Encrypted.

Is it really encrypted, since it took very little time and not having lock screen password. The device was fine on rebooting.

Then, i created 2nd user and protected it with lock screen pattern. Then rebooted, device was fine.

Then I created lock screen pattern for the 1st user (Owner). It prompted to ask for this pattern at device boot up and I selected Yes. I then rebooted the device. At first, it asked for pattern, I entered the 1st users lock screen pattern. Then the device rebooted and was in boot loop now (continuous boot loader animation) for 45minutes.

Was it encrypting the storage now or the process of encryption somehow corrupted??
Did I not do the encryption correctly? Is it must to have lock screen pattern before starting encryption?
The device is relatively faster and I guess it should not take so long for encryption. With my device specs how long can encryption be??
I have a 32GB external sdcard formatted with fat32. Is it going to encrypt that as well?
What happens possibly if I pull out the battery, apart from loosing data?

Please help..

After 2 hours of waiting, I long pressed the power button for 15sec which gives battery pull effect. Then I rebooted to recovery. Tried to format /data sparing /data/media which gave the error unable to mount /data. Then tried formatting /data including /data/media and it was formatted.

Then rebooted and first set a lock screen pattern and then tried encryption. This time, it got successfully encrypted in around 10minutes. The device asked for pattern on every boot, and it takes couple of minutes for every reboot.

So, I think the issue was doing encryption without lock screen password and then adding password later.


Facing some problem with my android mobile I'm using android 5.1 lollipop, the issue is when i turn my data ON,am not getting instant notifications from few apps like hike,Twitter, Instagram. In the mean time am getting notifications instantly from WhatsApp and Facebook ,I checked my running apps and I found that those applications are not running in my RAM. So someone please help me out.

So if I understand correctly you say that your apps don't run in the background and reload new notifications.

This might be because they are blocked from auto starting. To allow them to auto start go to Setting > Security > Auto-start Management Then allow those apps to auto start. One the top of the screen it should say how muck are allowed and denied auto start.

Also if you are rooted and you have an app like battery doctor that blocks auto start and disable that service. Or any other app that does the same thing.

This will allow you app to start and run in the background and it should reload any new notifications.


Is there an app for Flash support for Android 2.1? Currently I am using Samsung Galaxy 3 (i5801) with Android 2.1. Is there any app available to support flash video ?

There is an alternative browser, Skyfire, which purports to support at least some Flash videos on Android 2.1.

It should be available in the Market.


Is it possible to perform a complete reinstall on an Android smartphone? I occasionally perform such a reinstall on my Windows PC. I repartition my hard drive, format the partitions, and then install Windows on a blank partition. Can this be done on an Android smartphone? (I have an unlocked Sony Xperia S.)

Yes, it's very possible. Basically you can flash a ROM (custom or stock) very easily, and this is equivalent to a full format and reinstall.

Basic steps would be:

Acquire preferred ROM and transfer to SD card / internal memory
Reboot into Recovery (Hold Volume Up as you power up the phone)
Flash ROM

This is covered more in depth at these links (XDA is a great resource):

Overall "guides" for the Xperia S

"Guide" to flashing the Xperia S (it's a fairly light-on-detail guide though, it is a very simple process)


Hide rooting to an application I'm currently using a custom Android 5.0 ROM on a Sony Z1c and thoroughly enjoying the freedom.

Looking forward to a point very soon when I can install MultiROM and have the Ubuntu Touch installed aswell.... having OS specific for applications makes good sense.

However.... one thing I need someone clever to help me with is to write me some code I can install to Android that will allow me to hide the fact that I have root access so i can continue to benefit from using the incredibly convenient Barclays Banking app. I've unfortunately discovered that it is patched to check for root access and tells me it is 'unable' to work on rooted devices.

My current ROM is CyanogenMod 12 which has the ability to 'disable' root access, but even so, the banking app can tell that my phone has the access to root.

Hoping someone clever would appreciate the challenge of working out how to 'cloak' my root access ability and allow me to get the app working again on my phone and save me having to go the very long way around via browser login to my online bank account. I think Barclays is being unduly 'Paranoid Android'.... :-)

Whatever you need I can send..... having ES File Explorer installed allows me to pluck anything from the system

See if this app RootCloack can help you...it can hide root for a specific app you can choose by hiding binaries apks and other ways...it should work


Android TV Google Play Services Keep Crashing | Raspberry Pi 3 On my Raspberry Pi 3, I am running Android TV 6.0 Marshmellow (From this tutorial), and gApps from This post (Second Post Down), but for some reason, Google Play Services keeps stopping. I've tried clearing the cache for Play Services, but that did nothing. BTW, if I have to do some ADB code, that's fine :). Thanks for any help.

I just had to uninstall the updates, and re update it from the Play Store.


Application for automatic synchronization of remote folders? Possible Duplicate:
  Complete dropbox implementation for Android

I'm looking for an application that will synchronize folder automatically from my computer to Android device. Application should run in background.

I've tried Dropbox but it requires to manually download each file.

Any suggestions about such kind of Application on Android Market?

EDIT: For 'Remote' I mean my computer that is on the internet (not in the same network).

EDIT: Another key feature is that I want to synchronize my Folder with multiple Android devices.

EDIT: All suggested applications don't run continuous synchronisation from remote to local. Do you know any Dropbox implementation that will automatically download files from remote on Android device?

I use SugarSync. It does exactly what you are looking for and you get 5 gigs of storage on the free account.


How to force TRIM on Android device? With 4.3 enabling the support for TRIM (though I read that it was present since the first JB). I was wondering if there is a way for me to force TRIM on my device? Is there an app that I can sideload and have it issue it? I have a rooted chinese Tablet running on 4.2.2 JellyBean release.

Just to add, it's a PiPo M1 Max tablet.

There is an app called LagFix, which can let you trim your device literally.

It can only run if the device is rooted, and since your device is already rooted then it is perfect for you.

And here is the thread on Xda developers about LagFix.

I hope it helps.


"Lucky try" & "Recommended" shortcuts always appear on homescreen, how to remove it? I am getting shortcuts in my home screen. I try to delete it, but it is appearing once again. Shortcuts names: Lucky try, Recommended.

Looks like a spammy app. Check the ones you've installed last before this trouble started:

From your home screen, go to the Android Settings › Apps
scroll the list to find above mentioned apps. For each app:

open its entry
scroll down to the end of the page opening, where you should find the permissions listed (which the app has requested)
check if the app has the permission to create shortcuts

Alternatively, use a Permission Checker – aSpotCat is a good candidate for this, CRAM App Analyser seems to be capable of the same: showing you all existing permissions, and on selecting one of them, all the apps requesting it.

aSpotCat and CRAM App Analyser (source: the resp. Playstore page; click images for larger variants)

The related permission goes by the name INSTALL_SHORTCUT, and most likely will be titled "Install Shortcuts" or something similar.

Once you found the possible culprit, get rid of it: uninstall the app (if multiple, only one a time) and see whether the issue goes away. If the whole racket ended, you've got the troublemaker eliminated – and in case you've uninstalled other apps before on this road, it should be safe to re-install those as they were most likely not causing the issue.


How many tabs are open in chrome browser? (Above 100) When the number of tabs reaches 100, the tab counter turns into a smiley face like so :D

I wish to know how many tabs are open, without doing the manual count. Is there a way?

This is an Easter egg coded 4 years ago
From this XDA post- you need a rooted device  ( you can't access /data/data/ without root )

Download a root explorer capable app such as ES file explorer

Navigate to chromes profile directory, mine was at /data/data/com.android.chrome

Open the app_tabs folder

You should now see a single folder labeled "0"

Select it and open its properties, under file count deduct 1 and that will be how many tabs you have open currently, deduct 1 because 1 file in there is only an overall tab state file

Verified on my device  ( Moto X Play, 6.0.1, Chrome 52.0. 2743.91) when the tabs open are 4 = Files (5) minus one


How to check the VPN setting created by an app on an Android device? Many VPN apps would create VPN profiles on the Android device. Unlike VPN profiles create by the user, they cannot be edited, and therefore the user cannot see the setting of said profile. With a rooted device, is there a way to hunt down such profile and read the setting in file?

On iOS devices, the VPN settings are saved in /var/preferneces/com.apple.networkextension.plist file. What is the path to an Android VPN settings?

I know this was asked a while ago... but I am working on this right now so I thought I'd share what I learned so far.

In iOS, a VPN profile defines settings that the OS uses to then initiate a VPN connection.  Everything is managed by the OS, so it would make sense that all of the VPN profiles would be in one location.

In Android, developers can create their own vpn clients instead of using the OS's.  They call into Android API's to raise a virtual adapter that redirects all traffic to their VPN service which they develop and configure to do whatever they like.  VPN connection settings depend on the app and any locally stored data would be part of that app's private data storage.

An example of this can be seen with the OpenVPN client for android.  All of the settings for your VPN connection will be in an openVPN config file that you can load from within the app and you use the app to initiate the connection and change settings.


Adding account to android device running android version 2.3.6 Had this old phone lying around. I thought I re-purpose it for some IoT stuff. It an old Micromax A50 Ninja (running ginger bread 2.3.6). I want to make an app on this device that communicates with arduino. However, I cannot sign into the device. I re-checked with my credentials else where, and they checkout to be fine. But on this device, the sign-in still fails.

Is this because the OS is outdated? Well, can I do anything on this phone, now that this is the state of the device os?

The best solution seems to be to add an app password: https://myaccount.google.com/apppasswords


What color was the first android phone? I'm doing some research on the first google powered phone, but I can't find out what color it officially shipped with first. Black or white?

I believe this was the first widely-available Android phone.  As you can see, it's brownish.


How to recalibrate the OS for an external battery? I recently bought an external non-standard 7000 mAh battery for my Samsung Galaxy S3 but the phone doesn't seem to recognize it.
Is it possible that the phone needs to be reconfigured or recalibrated so as to recognize the difference in the battery capacity?

That is most definitely an INTERNAL batery, and I am also curious as to what you mean by "doesn't seem to recognize it". I'm not sure how you could install that externally as you imply. Did you follow the manufacturer directions EXACTLY? Did you charge it completely before powering yor device on? I am most curious becouse I plan to purchase the s5 version of the same battery. I'll try to keep you posted as to my results.

This is the most complete calibration method that I could find. I hope this helps.

How to format a new Li-Ion battery.

Plug in the charger but leave the phone off. charge your phone until the the charge is 'full' not just 100%. Then at least on the first charge leave it another 30 minutes to an hour to make sure it is full/full.
Unplug, and pull out the battery. You need to press and hold the power button for 1 minute to discharge any current left in your phone. This current is needed to store data in your phone’s RAM. If there is any corrupt data in the RAM it will stay there even if the phone is off as long as current is still available. In reality, even if you press and hold the power button for a mere 30 seconds the current will be discharged. It is however best to do it for a longer period of time just to make sure.
Put the battery back in and boot in recovery mode using the following method.
While phone is off Hold down the Home and Volume Up keys.
Press and hold the Power button while still holding the other keys.
As soon as you see the Samsung logo, release all keys/buttons (May need to continue holding volume up and home).
When blue screen appears use the Volume Down key to scroll down to Wipe Cache Partition. (Wipe dalvik as well if possible)
Press the Power button to select it.
Press the Volume down button to highlight "Yes" and press the Power Button to select it.
Wait for a few minutes for the phone to clear the data.
Then press the Power button to select reboot system now.
Wait for your phone to reboot.
Connect the phone to the charger with the phone powered on, and allow the phone to charge until it shows "full".
Disconnect the phone from the charger, and power it off.
Pull out the battery. You need to press and hold the power button for 1 minute to discharge any current left in your phone. This current is needed to store data in your phone’s RAM. If there is any corrupt data in the RAM it will stay there even if the phone is off as long as current is still available. In reality, even if you press and hold the power button for a mere 30 seconds the current will be discharged. It is however best to do it for a longer period of time just to make sure.
Reconnect the phone to the charger with the phone powered off, and allow the phone to charge until the battery indicator shows "full".
Disconnect the phone, power it on, and use it.
Use the phone till it shuts off by itself due to exhausted battery.
(1st time ONLY, turn on and drain battery until phone shuts down [repeat until you are unable to turn the phone on- this step is very important because we need to drain the battery completely])
-Charge till "full" before turning back on.
Repeat step 17 - 6× for ZeroLemon, or high capacity battery (3× for standard battery). (This step takes DAYS.)

You should only use this sequence one time.

Note: The easiest way to calibrate your battery is to allow it to fully discharged (until it turns itself off), then plug in the charger but leave the phone off. Charge it until "full" while the phone is off. When it hits "battery full", unplug it and turn it on.

Recommend is do not continually drain battery below 10%, battery calibrates itself via onchip. Generally, using the phone for a week will recalibrate it. Previous steps are only recommended for a new battery.
Personal suggestion is do NOT repeat step 17 any more than the manufacturer recomends. Completely discharging,  or keeping a Li-Ion battery at "full" charge WILL place undo stress on the "chemical" battery and reduce longevity.
Also it does seem to make sense to get the most accurate possible reads for 100% AND 0%, especially with a new high capacity battery.


Storing passwords on your phone? I'm considering switching to a service/app like 1Password, Keepass, LastPass, etc. but before deciding on which to use, I was wondering if anyone else had experience with one of these services and using it on their Android phone?

Ideally, I'm looking for something that is very accessible to use on my phone.

I use LastPass and the Dolphin Browser Add-on on my phone and the desktop app with Chrome and FF extensions on my computer.  I really like the way it works on the desktop.  With the Dolphin Add on it is very easy to fill in login info, however there is no easy prompt to save the password like there is on the desktop version (and like the Dolphin Browser does by default).

The other drawback is that I have set a very complicated master password which is a pain to type in Android.  I have set lastpass to save my master so it's pretty easy to use but not as secure.  The main app has a cool feature that lets you set a pin for the mobile use but this doesn't translate over to the Dolphin Extension.

The other benefit to LastPass is that they just bought Xmarks which is a good service, and I like keeping things consolidated when I can.


How to turn off shutter sound on LG G5? How to turn off shutter sound on LG G5 with latest official firmware (Android 7)? "Do not disturb" sound mode does not working for shutter sound.

Phones with a Korean SIM, or sometimes Korean phones with any SIM, do not allow the user to turn off the shutter sound for legal reasons. I don't think there's any reasonable way around this.


Phone not booting up I was using my android device and suddenly it turn off, and when I tried to turn it back on I received  then It turn on for couple of minutes and after that it turn off and now the phone is not responding whatsoever, and it's not turning on.........can anyone help me with solving this problem, and I also read the documents from android and found nothing useful regarding this problem, all I found was some explanation about the causes but nothing on how to solve it.

Your software must have been corrupted, I suggest that you GOOGLE instructions on how to re-flash your firmware depending on your device, of course.


Fastboot command stucks and goes to disk sleep I am trying to flash recovery in my Poco F1 but fastboot stucks when running fastboot flash recovery recovery.img. Also while running fastboot oem device-info for a second time gets stuck.
➜  ~ fastboot devices
c7ca2666    fastboot

➜  ~ fastboot oem device-info
(bootloader) Verity mode: true
(bootloader) Device unlocked: true
(bootloader) Device critical unlocked: true
(bootloader) Charger screen enabled: false
OKAY [  0.001s]
Finished. Total time: 0.001s
➜  ~ fastboot --version
fastboot version 30.0.5p1-android-tools
Installed as /usr/bin/fastboot
➜  ~ fastboot oem device-info

this is where fastboot gots stuck when I ran fastboot oem device-info for a second time.
When trying fastboot flash recovery recovery.img gives error [Failed] fastboot flash failed no such device. If I try flashing after using fastboot --version, it stuck as described previously.
I tried with both Linux and Windows (Intel CPU) and the problem persists. I have already unlocked bootloader and previously(few months ago) flashed TWRP.

I finally discovered the source of the problem - another process had apparently claimed the USB device. In my case, fwupd was automatically connecting to the device, attempted some kind of USB transfer and failed. However, it didn't release the device, which is why fastboot was stuck and waiting for it to be released.
Stopping the fwupd daemon, fixed the problem.
I've opened a bug report with fwupd here ( https://github.com/fwupd/fwupd/issues/3187 ). Meanwhile, if you want to be able to use fastboot, make sure no other process is using the device.


CM9 skips to the next song, even on short presses I have a Motorola Defy (MB525), running Android ICS (4.0.4), CyanogenMod 9-20121116-NIGHTLY-jordan, and the option to skip to the next / previous songs on a long press of the volume buttons is active.

It is intended to skip to the next song only after a long press, but even after (very) quick presses, it skips to the next song, and my only option is to disable it completely.

In short: it seems to be considering any press on the volume key as a long press, regardless of the duration.

Is there any sort of fix?

The only recommendation I can give is to upgrade your firmware. You could try a newer version of CM9, as then you don't have to wipe data. If you want a fairly stable newer version, 4.1 works really well, and 4.3 somewhat. Go to quarx2k.ru and select the 2nd-boot folder for them.


How to fix Google Play Store Update Error in Android 4.0.4? I hope this question is not a duplicate of other related questions. In my Samsung Galaxy S duos mobile (Android 4.0.4 OS) I received frequent notification to update my software. Though I updated(Re-booted) it after receiving that notification I hate that notification so I disabled that. After disabling that when I tried to open Google Maps App its showing me an error “Google Play Store Update Error” and I was not able to open Map App as well as other Apps. I thought this error happens only because I disabled that software notification and I tried to enable that notification but I’m not able to enable that one.  So how to fix Google Play Store Update Error and how to enable that software notification?

Since this app is a Google native app which handles its own updates by itself, maybe the update went wrong. At the moment you could clear its cache, data (you will have to reenter the credentials later again and configure the playstore including notifications and update handling), or uninstall the updates, so it will go to the initial version (can be done by going in Settings -> Applications -> All -> Google Play Store). It should update later automatically.

In case you have a rooted phone, make sure you haven't done any changes in the system lately, or other apps are not interfering (any "freezers", "killers", or similar ones). Also, check if you haven't forbidden mobile network access (Settings -> Data usage, there you can click each app and check/uncheck "Restrict background data"), but even if this was checked, it should work on WiFi.


How do I edit my home address for Google Now/Maps/Latitude? I just upgraded to the Galaxy Nexus. In the new Google Now, the traffic for my home destination is listed incorrectly. I also noticed that the Home address for myself under the People listing is incorrect. If I try to edit my local profile, there is no field for address. Long pressing on the address only allows me to copy it.

How can I update my Home address?

Update May 3rd, 2015:

My previous answer was for a much outdated platform (latitude doesn't even exist anymore as far as I can tell). Here are some steps for current Google Maps.

Open the Maps application.
Navigate to Settings.
There should be an option to Edit home or work address.

Previous answer below for historic purposes...

I finally figured out how to do this and thought I would explain (since it is not very obvious).

Open up Google Maps or Latitude
Click on yourself (the tag that shows your name, last update time, and city)
You should be able to click a Location history option
With the history open, click the settings button in the lower right corner
There are options to change your home and work addresses!

Hope this helps someone in the future.


How to install an app on sd card I have some apps on my SD card and I want to install them on my phone but the Android or apk symbol does not appear on my phone...so how can I change the apps to apk so that I can install them.

Possibly the files have been stored as .zip files or without any extension. All you have to do is rename the files. Just download any File Manager from Play Store and rename the files.


Froyo - Gmail - Can you delete by message, or only by thread? Running on a out-of-box, unupgraded T-Mobile G2, which is running Froyo, if I'm correct.

This version of the Gmail application has a delete button, which is undocumented in their web help.

When I use it, it appears to delete the entire thread/conversation, rather than a single message. Is this the expected behavior?

UPDATE:

Found the verison number -> "Version 2.3"

I'd say it's expected behavior. I mean, the big "Delete" button in the Gmail web app tosses the whole conversation to the dust bin. You have to dig a little deeper on the individual message to delete it out of the conversation. (Also, unlike the web app there is no option to view individual messages like a classical e-mail client.)

By the way, have you downloaded the latest Gmail app from the Market? There are quite a number of significant improvements over the stock app.


Change default music app to Spotify Whenever I use Spotify over bluetooth and try to use my car's controls it, simply pauses the Spotify music and launches the default music player.
The Spotify music plays just fine, however, when there comes input from the Bluetooth, it pauses and starts the default music player.

Spotify is not listed in Settings -> Apps -> Default Apps -> Music, only Google Play Music and the default music player is listed on my Huawei P7.
I've tried using several softwares including Default App Manager, Better Open With, A2DP Volume and Bluetooth Connect and Play - however none work.

It would seem like when I click on the car's input it transmits it to the phone over BT, however, since the default music player is the default player it starts that app instead of Spotify.

You can ask Google Assistant to "change the song". It works perfectly.
Start a random song on Spotify.
Say "Ok Google" and wait for Assistant to pop up.
Say "Play the next song"
And she does it.
Works like a charm, as long as your phone's microphone works properly.


Record video and send it to server I want to record a video, and stream it directly to the server while recording (i.e. the video should be saved on the server, not necessarily locally on the Android device). How can this be accomplished? The built-in camera app does not seem to offer this feature.

A simplistic solution to your problem would be the following:

Set up any one of the IP Camera apps on the Play store.
Access the IP Camera app's web interface via the server.
Set the web interface to record the video feed to its storage.

This would work; but you haven't specified if you own the server or not, what type of server it is, or whether you are on the same WiFi network as the phone.


Screen rotation lock won't work for landscape mode For some reason, when I put the phone in landscape mode and enable the rotation lock, it just sets the screen to portrait mode and then locks the rotation. I want to be able to keep the screen in landscape mode, is there a way to do this? I am using a Samsung Galaxy S7, with Android Nougat and the TouchWiz launcher. I am happy to switch to Google Now Launcher if it lets me lock the screen in landscape though.

Modified from one of my previous answers:

  Use apps like Ultimate Rotation Control - with proper settings, it seamlessly integrates with system rotation toggle, and on top of that you can enable/disable any rotation direction, force apps that don't usually rotate to rotate, and set per-app rotation behavior.


How to choose the appearance of the Gmail app? In Android, Gmail released an update, and it asked me for Default, Comfortable or Compact appearance.

I chose the Default, ofc I don't like it, I miss the old red bar already..

Now I want to try the Comfortable appearance in the Gmail application. How to?

For the Android App, click the 3 horizontal bars (top left) -> scroll down to Settings -> General Settings (the top option) -> Conversation List Density (Default / Comfortable / Compact.)

It took me forever to finally find this setting! It was driving me crazy.


Optimal Linux Distro to Install to SD card to use as USB-Bootloader for PC? Many people install Linux-based distros on USB drives to use for, largely, basic PC troubleshooting.  Has anyone tried installing such a thing on their Android phone's SD card?  That way instead of carrying about both a USB drive and a phone, one could simply plug their phone in, boot the PC from USB, and set about performing whatever actions are necessary.  Does anyone have any recommendations for particular flavors of Linux which are best suited to this task?

As far as I know, there is no Android device that can be put into a USB-mass-storage-thumbdrive-compliant mode (to use the nontechnical term).  The phone would need to have a special mode where it emulated a USB drive and handled reads/writes to the SD card and that sort of thing.  I can't imagine any manufacturer modifying the hardware and writing the software necessary to support this when the expected return on investment would probably be 0.


Call blocking with spoken message? Does anyone know of a call blocker that will let you create a voice message for blocked calls?

What I want is to block calls from hidden numbers. This is almost always salespeople so I want to just block them, but maybe once in a while someone with no ill intent might be calling from a line with a hidden number.

So I want the app to actually take the call, but not tell me about it. Then it should play a sound file that I make and then hang up.

This will let me tell the person at the other end, that I just blocked them to get rid of salespeople and that if they are not such a "person" then they should just use SMS.

I know that some of the apps will let you type in a text that will be sent to blocked callers, but as it will almost never be a cellphone, but an old land line with blocked number, then that will not help a lot.

If no one knows of an app that will let me do this, then I will just have to make it my self, but I thought I'd better ask first.

I found one that does just this last week. Check out http://www.youmail.com. It's an app you download, but can manage it from their website. You can record different greetings for different people; family, business and the main reason I got it.... the number has been disconnected for people I REALLY don't want to talk to! I also have a msg just for Blocked Called IDs, telling them I dont accept them and to unblock their number. And...it's FREE :)


Turn off screen but still let video and streams running Sometimes, I want to listen to streams or videos while I'm on the go, but I can't put my phone in my pocket because that would press buttons on the display. Is there any way to turn the screen off and still let the stream/video running like it does with music players?

Download MX Player
Play YouTube/Sdcard video using MX Player.
Press Menu button (or the 3 dot icon), and then select Play
Make sure "Background Play" is checked
Now, you can press Home Button and listen in lock screen.

There is also a shortcut for enabling Background Play, which is tapping and holding the Play button, instead of just tapping it to play a video

Update:

  Only For Rooted:
  You can install Xposed Modules Installer and use Repository called Youtube Background Play

Copied from my own answer on this post


Setting "phone ringing" sound for outgoing calls When I place a call I hear the traditional rotary dial phone ringing sound until the person at the other end, whose ringtone most likely is completely different, answers. What I was wondering is, can I set a ringtone for the person placing the call to hear until the other party answers? If so, can such "ringtone" be set differently for every person called?

I believe what you're asking about are similar to the Verizon ringback tones, right?  Ringback tones are not set from a phone level, they are a feature added and managed by the carrier.  Your wireless carrier could probably change it for you, but there is no way you could manage it all from your phone.  I know Verizon offers ringback tones, if that's the feature you're looking for you could ask about that.

Would be a cool feature, if it were possible.


How do you backup your stock recovery from an unrooted Android device? TL;DR

Okay, so for the past month I have been researching how to do this, either on Windows or Linux..

I have yet to find a direct answer, or anything which is relevant.

I am a lot more comfortable doing this on Linux than I am on Windows, as I am a lot more familiar with Linux than Windows.

I'm relatively new to this whole thing(as well as Stack Exchange).

Question

If there is a relatively universal way of backing up your stock recovery from an unrooted Android device (on Snapdragon and MTK chipsets) that would probably be preferred, unless that is something that is dependent.

Afraid there is no such thing:

stock recovery itself doesn't offer any backup options
other means of backing up a partition (and we're speaking about the /recovery partition here) always require root, as no other user has the required low-level access to file systems

Creating a real complete backup of a virgin device before attempting any system modifications (such as root, flashing custom recovery) is a hen-and-egg issue: you cannot create images of the device's partition without root – and the partition ends being "virgin" as soon as you root the device:

to create images from partitions other than /recovery, you'd need a custom recovery (to run dd or do a nandroid backup)
to create an image of the (stock) /recovery partition, you'd need to root the device (in order to run dd from within the running Android system)

To sum up: if you want complete stock images, you'd need two similar devices. One you root to obtain the stock recovery – and the other you flash a custom recovery to obtain images of the other partitions. Hen and egg get a little bit smaller only, though, as in many cases1 installing a custom recovery again requires a rooted device.

1: there are exceptions to that, but I can't give you a complete list. To my knowledge, e.g. Samsung kies seems to permit flashing alternative ROMs and recoveries. Plus some stock devices seem to accept update.zip files to flash from recovery even if those are not signed with the manufacturer's key.


How to keep my screen light on during the call (Nexus 4, Android 5.1.1) I have a Nexus 4 (Android 5.1.1). My proximity sensor does not work well. I don't have any cover. The distance it detects is always 0 cm.

One solution I found is turn on "Power button ends call". However I
need use my keyboard during the call.
I also tried some proximity sensor reset apps, but they do not work
on my phone.
One
solution
I found is to keep the screen light on. But I don't have this
setting on my phone.

Is there any other way to keep my screen light on during the call or other solutions? Thanks

I had the same issue and had to replace the sensor (I gave up on software solutions).
The sensor is very easy to replace but you need to buy it (I received it from a broken Nexus 4, which had the sensor working fine!)


Screen lock settings won't change on Ice Cream Sandwich with MS Exchange Email I have a Samsung Galaxy Nexus running Android 4.0.2. I have a corporate email set up to Microsoft Exchange. My sys admin said we use the default mobile policies for Exchange, but he doesn't know the details.

My phone's Screen Lock setting is set to None and I cannot change it. If I select PIN, it asks me to enter and confirm a PIN, then returns to the Security settings page and shows my Screen lock is set to "None"

After reading http://boingboing.net/2012/03/13/the-scary-consequences-of-a-lo.html I thought it best to at least have a PIN, but right now I can't set one. Any suggestions?

--- update

I just did a test (with my sysadmin's help). We set up a Nexus One with Android 2.3 and the lock screen settings worked fine. Is there something in ICS?

Well. First, I deleted my Exchange account. Then I was able to change the screen lock settings and the change would be displayed in the settings page, but when I locked the screen, no PIN or pattern was required to unlock. Then I power cycled the phone. After that I was able to successfully use Screen lock settings. Then I added back my Exchange account, and the phone continued to work fine.

I have no idea what the root cause of my problem was, but it is all working now.


64gb SDXC Cards in Galaxy S2, or 64gb SDXC cards where only 32gb supported I spent hours looking for a solution to my issues with my 64gb Micro SDXC card that my girlfriend purchased me for my birthday.

From what I understand only capacities up to 32gb are officially supported. But thread after thread informed me that users of my phone had successfully used one. When I first plugged in my SD my phone said "Preparing SD card" and then, after a brief pause, "SD Card safe to remove". The card wasn't mounting.

I tried inserting it into my SD adapter and formatting in NTFS on my laptop. Side note - whoever designed SD adapters and ports can go straight to hell. I was terrified of damaging my expensive new card since it got stuck in the adapter, and the adapter left 1mm of space outside my laptop. Holy crap.

After formatting in NTFS the phone informed me it'd have to reformat the SD card. Progress, I thought, until after the formatting message I had the same issue.

I thought maybe my firmware was the issue and spent a couple hours trying to figure out how to jailbreak. Long story short I gave up.

The Solution: Thanks to the guys on This Thread I figured it out. I also used the same tool they described, Minitool Partition Wizard, though I'm sure you could use any partition tool.

In windows on an SDXC card you can only format in ExFAT and NTFS. With a third party tool, you can make the card a FAT partition. Once you do this, the card is recognized in my S2 with no issues. I assume this will work with other phones that have "grey" support for large capacity SDXC cards.

Hope this helped y'all!


How do I purge the gallery on my Samsung Note 3 All of the pictures I ever took with my old phone were automatically backed up to my google account, thousands of pictures of stupid things, receipts, flight schedules and private pictures.

With my new phone, a Samsung Note 3, all of these images are now in my gallery.
I can find the offending images on picasaweb, no way I could find them on google+

So, what I would like to do, is purge wherever the files from my online pictures are downloaded to, remove the backup pictures from picasaweb and let the phone sync again.

TLDR

Where are the picasaweb/google+ images downloaded to on this phone?

With the Note 3 do the following:

Open
-settings

-General

-accounts

-Google

uncheck'Sync Picasa Web Albums'

The "gallery" button is found in General> applications manager

Select All

Scroll down and select Gallery

Tap Clear Data


Any apps that will allow me to set a profile that only allows emergency calls through? I work third shift so I sleep during the day but I get calls all day long so I shut my ringer off.  I would like to be able to set a couple phone numbers that can ring through no matter what.  Using Google Voice to do this won't work because I get calls directly to my cell # as well as to Google Voice.

The Setting Profiles app can do that. From their site:

  What if I don’t want to miss an important call while I’m on mute?

  You can overwrite current sound
  settings with a rule based on Incoming
  Call condition. Here is how to:

  Create a new rule
  Add Incoming Call condition and set it to your preferred contacts group (like VIP or Family)
  Add Activate Profile action to activate the profile where sound is On and/or some custom ring tone specified

  That’s it! Now even if your phone is
  set to mute, it will still ring in
  case of a call from someone from
  Contact Group you have set up in step
  two.

They currently have two versions of the app - a Lite and Full. I would try the Lite version to see if it has this feature first.

QR Code for Setting Profiles Lite:

QR Code for Setting Profiles Full:


PLEASE HELP E: failed to mount /cache (No such file or directory) I have a problem every time I turn on my phone (Karbonn Sparkle V) and I tried to google to solution and I couldn't find any

E: failed to mount /efs (No such file or directory)
E: failed to mount /system (No such file or directory)
# MANUAL MODE #
-- Appling Multi-CSC...
E: failed to mount /system (No such file or directory)
can't mount '/system' (No such file or directory)
E: failed to mount /cache (No such file or directory)
can't mount '/cache' (No such file or directory)
E: failed to mount /cache (No such file or directory)
E: can't mount /cache/recovery/last_recovery
E: failed to mount /data (No such file or directory)
E: Can't mount /data/log/recovery_log.txt
E: failed to mount /system (No such file or directory)
E: Can't mount /cache/recovery/log
E: Can't open mount /cache/recovery/log
(These errors then repeat in various order)

Please do help as soon as possible!

Your phone is a Mediatek device. So you need flash files with Scatter and SP Flashtool for flashing. You can get all here

Edit:

Steps below are for flashing Mediatek devices using SP Flashtool and a Windows computer:

What you'll need:

Download your device ROM files. You can find it here
Download SP Flashtool. Can be found here
Download Mediatek drivers, or here (for Windows 10)

How you'll do it:

Downloaded files should be ziped (rar, zip or 7z format), unzip then proceed by installing the drivers and . Also unzip SP Flashtool and the ROM file to somewhere you can access quickly - say in the Desktop.

Go to the SP Flashtool folder and launch it. SP Flashtool opens on Download tab. On Scatter-Loading field, click on Choose.
This will open a file selector dialog. Browse to the folder where ROM files are located. Select the scatter file. Flashtool should load all files now.

Click on the drop-down list and choose Format All + Download

Now power off the device. Click on Download then connect the device to the computer with a USB cable.

Flashing should start and simply wait for the software do its things.

The flashing ends when the green check mark pops up.

Note: This can be also solved by flashing a custom recovery, such as TWRP and manually mount the partitions.


Is it possible to have the alarm sound in Max Power saving Mode? My Samsung A3 has a function called Max Power Saving Mode which I assume is Samsung's version of Ultra Power Saving mode. I find it very helpful sometimes but when this mode alarms dont go off. Is there any way to allow alarms ( set in the clock app) to go off in this mode? I've checked through the settings for this mode and I can't find anything which allows it. I've searched the web and I couldn't fine anything about this though I did find some stuff on UPSM but the settings didn't seem to match.

I discovered the answer literally 1 minute after asking the question so I thought I'd answer it myself in case it's of any advantage to anyone else.

There's a very simple ( but quite odd in my opinion ) solution to this. Simply adding the clock app to the the shortcut screen of Max Power Saving Mode ( by clicking one of the plus signs ) solves the issue completely.

With the shortcut added - the alarm sounds. Without it - silence.


How to screencap the smaller display of Samsung Galaxy Fold using ADB 'screencap' command? I'm trying to take a screenshot of Samsung Galaxy Fold's smaller display.

I use

shell screencap -p /sdcard/testss1.png

but it only captures the main display ― which is off ― and gets a black image.

How to change the display used for capturing?

The screencap command can be configured to capture a specific display using the option -d.

  -d: specify the physical display ID to capture.
  See dumpsys SurfaceFlinger --display-id for valid display IDs.

The output of dumpsys SurfaceFlinger --display-id is a bit longer, therefore you can filter out the display ids:

dumpsys SurfaceFlinger --display-id | grep display_id

On my device I only have one display with display_id=0.

Therefore the final command looks like this (just replace display_id):

shell screencap -d <display_id> -p /sdcard/testss1.png


Galaxy S3 is unable to transfer files over USB: "USB device not recognized" I have Galaxy S3 with baseband version I9300XXLFB and I'm having problems when it is connected to the PC. I cannot transfer or retrieve any files or data over USB.

When I plug it in to my PC, it tells me USB device not recognized and the S3 does not appear anywhere for me to access it. I've tried different cables and PCs and they all seemed to exhibit the same issue. How can I get this working?

You may need to use Samsung KIES (software for PC), or get your PC to recognize the 'new' "MTP" USB mode.

further background:

Ice Cream Sandwich supports USB mass storage after all, Galaxy Nexus does not

Wikipedia >> Media Transfer Protocol

Samsung >> SUPPORT >> Kies 2.0

Also see: Can I disable MTP mode and just have a regular USB connection?


Can APK Editor be used to increase the location/GPS Fix Interval? I want increase location fix updates for Google Maps location history (currently 10-15secs) and other location calls on my android Marshmallow device. Can this be achieved by something like APK Editor?

Whether you want to modify the APK depends on your use case.

You can simply have another app which has a higher location fix frequency, and Google Maps is likely to have fast location updates as the "fastest interval" setting makes it possible to use the faster location requested by other apps.

If you do want to change the behavior of Google Maps, you can go with either Soot (Jimple modification) or ASM (Java byte code modification, which is better for highly obfuscated code like Google Maps). However, this can be a painful task. Thus, I would suggest you go with the previous approach unless you really need to modify Google Maps.