What exactly does "rooting" mean (for a new device that has no ready-made tools yet)? Disclaimer: The question is not meant like these:

How do I root my device? – Take tool X/Y/Z!
Where do I find tool X/Y/Z for rooting? – Link, Link, Link!
What is "root"? – Full permissions on Linux, UID 0!

The question I have is this: When a new device with a customized Android gets released, what exactly do the "root release crews" do? And why does it differ for each device? Aren't all "Androids" across the different devices with the same x.y version identical? Yeah, OK, most have custom brand programs (because everyone wants user data these days, or for device-specific sensors and so on), but all have the same kernel and core tools (which handle the permission system).

Let's say I buy a new device and want "to root" it fully myself (without ready-made tools/images from others), where would I start? Do a full dump of the flash memory and change some bits?

A rooted system is a system that has a working su binary, that is, one that allows the user and/or processes to attain full root rights. So, in order to root a device, you "just" need to get that binary in place, and you're done. (In practice, it's not as simple; most superuser applications ship with a daemon that is actually responsible for giving apps root privileges, and they might also apply patches to the SELinux policy so processes can get root rights).

How you root device depends on the model of the device. There are devices that can be "unlocked". That usually means that it will disable the checks the system has in place to ensure that the device only boots an operating system supplied by your manufacturer. So, with the checks disabled, the easiest option to root your device is flashing a custom recovery (which is basically a stripped down OS, used to update the actual Android OS and for other tasks like backups). This recovery will then run with root rights, so it can also place a su binary on the device.

If your device cannot be unlocked, the process is much more complicated. In this case, the developers try to find exploits in the software that can be used to attain (temporary) root privileges, which can then be used to install a su binary. Obviously, since this process involves finding flaws in the device's security, it may take a long time for it to happen, or it might not happen at all.

This process of finding exploits is different for different devices, but you may find that some root exploits work for similar devices. Not all devices run the same operating system, or the same hardware. Device X might ship with a modified version of software component Y, which is vulnerable, while device Z doesn't ship with it, so you'll have to find another exploit.


How can I clear the cache of the Android Facebook app? My phone (T-Mobile Pulse/Huawei U8220 with Android 1.5) doesn't have much on board space, so I quite often run into the low disk space warning. Looking through the list of apps, I see the facebook app has about 2.5 MB of user data. I suspect most of this is a photo album I looked at recently. But I can't seem to find any option to clear that cache ...

Does anyone know how to? I'm happy to use a file manager and go into the filesystem to delete stuff if I can find it and someone can reassure me that I'm not going to stuff up the facebook app at the same time.

And I don't want to uninstall and reinstall because nothing will install any more.

Here are the instructions for Android 2.2, not sure if it will work for 1.6, but you may want to give this a try.

Home Screen
Menu --> Settings
Applications
"All"
Select "Facebook"
"Clear Cache". If you want to delete ALL data, choose "Clear Data"

These instructions work for all apps, not just facebook.


Popup virus warning received from ninaxu.com Recently started receiving a popup overlay screen from ninaxu.com - Google logo appears behind the overlay screen. Says my Android has 13 virus most likely received from visiting porn sites, however, I have never sought out porn sites (not judging others from visiting those sites, but I wouldn't introduce my phone to such a risk).  Anyway, a 2-min count down appears saying the SIM card would be damaged if Googles' antivirus isn't installed.  I can't back out when this popup occurs and have to reboot my phone.  The first instance of this popup occurred when I clicked on a link from my email subscription to "Mutts."  I ran and regularly run, AVG and no virus were detected.  Anyone else encounter this problem?  Suggestions? Thanks.

You can tell this is nothing but a fake (trying to make you take the bait) by just some basic rules:

a countdown: "If you don't act within 2 min, the virus will X". Interesting: How do they know that will happen in exactly 2 min? Nothing but panicking you.
the SIM card would be damaged: nonsense. Never heard any malware attacks the SIM card. Or the battery, which those messages often claim as well.
"Google's antivirus": Apart from the fact that there is no such app, Google definitely wouldn't chose an approach like that.
"13 virus": LOL Name a single Android virus (hint: there is none. Especially not 13. The term "virus" is completely mis-used on the Android platform, most obviously either as a "scare word" or because people are used to that kind of "software" from their Windows machine. True, there's malware – but no virus. Read the Wikipedia article on Computer Virus on this, and take a special close look at the end of the first paragraph: "the defining characteristic of viruses is that they are self-replicating computer programs which install themselves without user consent" (emphasis mine). Malware on Android is usually installed by the user himself)

So after explaining the background, I can only agree with Andrew:

  It's just a scareware popup by suspicious websites/ads. If you didn't follow the link on that popup, you're clean.

And you usually get out of that by pressing the back button multiple times, closing the relevant browser tab, or closing the browser altogether.


Does selecting "delete thumbnails" actually delete "save as" images from your phone?I I just started using "save as" on Firefox for Android and I saved a lot of important images that meant a lot to me. Then unrelatedly my phone started acting weird, it became very slow and laggy. So I installed ccleaner and since it couldn't do much for my healthy and not crammed full system I simply selected Delete thumbnails and let the app do its work. Minutes later looking for my photos they only came up in Download history and when touched it says the file is gone. Did CCleaner "delete thumbnails" actually delete all my recently downloaded jpg??? If not, where are they? I've been in Gallery, searched files by name, everything. I don't use an external memory card and I'm using a Samsung J7.

Since you use Save as instead of Save target as, the image actually getting saved is the view created by firefox which is  of very low size that is less than 50kb.

So, some cleaner apps consider images with less than some size (say 60/100kb) as thumbnail and remove it.

Here, the same happened to you.

Next time, consider save link as or open image -> (and  when full image is loaded) Save image


No USB storage mode for Asus MeMo Pad 7 to do Android development I intend to develop with an Asus MeMo Pad 7, but I can't set it to detect as a normal USB storage device.

In the Storage menu I have 4 options:

MTP - to transfer images
PTP - to transfer images
USB charge mode -no USB, just charging
CD mode - a CD image

I enabled Developer mode and set USB debug. I still can't see the tablet as an USB Storage.

What mode should I use for Android development?

I based my opinion on the phones I've used so far, but it seems, new devices don't care about USB mode, they just work. I used MTP and my Android IDE recognized the device. It made my day.


Choose account for Google Play Store Say I have multiple Google accounts (A and B) on my Android 8 smartphone. I have already installed some apps in the past with account A and I'd like to continue using this account. But now somehow, when I open the app, it asks me to accept the terms of use with account B. If I decline, the app closes, so I can't switch accounts from within the app without accepting with account B, which I'd like to avoid. Am I missing something?

Go into settings  → apps  → play store  → storage  → clear data.

Now when you open the play store, it will default to your primary account, where you have already accepted the terms and conditions.


Alternatives to the Android Market Possible Duplicate:
  What are the alternative Android app markets?

I've had issues downloading paid applications from the Android Market and it seems I'm not the only one. I've set up my account correctly (I've been billed) but the download sticks on "Authorizing credit card...". I've tried cancelling and rebooting, but without success. I see that some in the linked thread got it working after leaving it on overnight, I left mine on for more than a day and still no joy.

For the particular app I was after I found it at slideme.org, but their selection is very limited. I'm looking for other sites that will allow me to purchase paid apps that have a comprehensive selection.

I am using AppBrain.com and I am happy with it.


TeamViewer Android: how to connect in a unattended way? My grandma is 89 years old, and I have installed TeamViewer on her Android tablet in order to remotely assist her.
But it is a problem for me to teach her understanding the screen messages, even when it is a single "Accept incoming connection? Yes/No" .
Is there any way to configure TeamViewer for Android to connect to it without any intervention on remote side?

Free(gratis) options preferred.

I believe the way it works is for you to install TeamViewer for Remote Control on your device and install TeamViewer Host on you grand mother device to allow unattended access. Test it after installing. Reading the comments, it seems it does not work on 100% on all devices.


control shield with phone I am thinking about buying an NVidia shield for my TV. Can I control this shield with e.g. my android phone or an android tablet using something like this app: com.google.android.tv.remote?

According to the reviews on the app you asked about and from searching a little bit on google. Yes. You can control the shield tv from your phone. According to Nvidia, the shield tv comes with the controller which can of course control it as well.

Edit Adding a link to the app in question. Which can be found here.


Is there a way to create virtual memory? I'm curious if there's a way to create virtual memory for an Android phone. I have a 4gb mirco sd card in my phone.
Any ideas?

Yes.  You can partition your SD card and add a swap space to it; I have this on my G1.  However, it's fairly complicated voodoo. (link is for G2, but instructions should be good for most phones; however, you should probably search XDA for whatever your phone is to be sure)

Swapper 2 from the market will do this for you, apparently.  I haven't tried it myself, I use a custom ROM that has it built in.


Email won't stay deleted I mostly use my computer for email, but obviously when I'm on the go it's good to have my email accessible at all times. That's what the email app is for, right?

So I have it set up to download emails, but to never delete them from the server. Essentially this is the same as I have on my laptop. Only my main computer is set to delete emails from the server when I delete them from my inbox.

The point is, while this works fine on my laptop, my phone will keep downloading the same emails, even when I hit the "Delete" button to remove them from my phone's inbox. Strangely, though, it will only do this a few hours after they were deleted (the mailbox is set to update every 15 minutes), and usually only when I receive a new email or two.

In other words, when I get a new email, the phone will start downloading some old emails seemingly at random.

What gives, and how do I fix it?

There are multiple approaches to this problem. The first an most effective is to switch from POP3 (which I assume from your question you are using) to IMAP, where mail is handled on the server instead of client-side -- so you can delete a message when you decide to delete it (and not when client X is retrieving it, as handled by POP3).

Second might be trying a different mail client (again, I do not know what you are currently using). For Android, I'd recommend K-9 Mail -- which is capable of handling POP3 as well as IMAP, and even Exchange (the latter via WebDAV).


Can apps be installed to or otherwise use the external SD card of the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0? I have a Samsung Galaxy 2 7" wifi only tablet using ICS 4.0.3. Samsung states that all apps on ICS must run from internal storage (8Gb). I have a program that requires more storage for the data files than can fit in internal storage. I have a 32 Gb external microSD card installed with sufficient room for the data files. Is there a way for the app to be associated with the data files on my external storage card so that I can run the app?

Use Samsung Kies to successfully connect your tab to PC, Samsung Kies supplies the drivers for your tab to be recognised by PC, when connecting you will also have the usual window pop up to give you access through explorer to both the card and the main tabs "drive", you can select through Kies where you place your media, internal or external. Hope this help.


How to unhide a contact address in Google Maps? I accidentally hid a contact on Google Maps, thereby removing his/her address on the map. How do I undo this action?

According to solutions given Google Maps Help forum, you can try deleting the contact and then re-adding it.

  It is presumed that these settings are  stored in the Contacts App on your
  phone, not the Maps app.

Thus perfoming the above mentioned workaround will then override the "hide" option.

Additionally you may need to resync the information to Google servers.


Can I clear out broken/uninstalled apps that still show up in the app list? I had some apps stored on my SD card that I have since wiped. The apps still show up in my app list in Settings->Manage applications. How do I refresh this list?

Rebooting the phone doesn't help, and clicking on one of the entries causes the Settings app to crash. I even tried wiping the Dalvik Cache, but the missing apps are still listed.

One special thing to note is that I had used Link2SD to link the apps onto a second partition on the SD card. This is different from the built-in Android method of moving to the sd card. Link2SD creates symlinks so that any app can be moved, and the SD card can be mounted on a computer without temporarily disabling the app (because they are on a second, unmounted partition). I don't know if using Link2SD changes my situation.

Note that these uninstalled apps do not show up in another application's app list, such as Titanium Backup.

I also had this issue.

I found that if I use link2sd to uninstall the app, it should remove the entry from the app manager.


What is a "partial application install" via adb? Android's adb has a "partial application install":

$ adb install
Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.32
...

  adb install [-lrtsd] <file>
  adb install-multiple [-lrtsdp] <file...>
                               - push this package file to the device and install it
                                 (-l: forward lock application)
                                 (-r: replace existing application)
                                 (-t: allow test packages)
                                 (-s: install application on sdcard)
                                 (-d: allow version code downgrade)
                                 (-p: partial application install)

Notice -p is "partial application install".

What is a partial application install?

It is my assumption that the -p: partial application install is for installing packages that are an update to an existing package but are not standalone in itself, sort of how Play Store updates an app using delta or smart updates.

-p requires a base package to exist and its name passed next to it, else it will throw the error

Error: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Missing inherit package name

If the APK you're passing is not an incremental update to an existing package (PACKAGE), you would end up with

Failed to finalize session
Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_INVALID_APK: Missing existing base package for PACKAGE]

I do not have any incremental update so I can't verify my own claim, neither I have any other solid evidence for the whole claim other than these two:

A comment in Issue:1134353002 thread

  Splits are not normal .apks, and they can only be installed via "adb install-multiple"

And, this code snippet mentioned under the source code of PackageInstallerSession.java

else {
  // Partial installs must be consistent with existing install
  final ApplicationInfo app = mPm.getApplicationInfo(mPackageName, 0, userId);
  if (app == null) {
      throw new PackageManagerException(INSTALL_FAILED_INVALID_APK, "Missing existing base package for " + mPackageName);
  }


Pixel phone privacy. How to exempt data sharing with google Does anybody knows if a pixel phone is able to profile, based on the user's data although a VPN is always active on the phone.
I am also not using any Google apps. I am wondering if the profiling is done on the mobile platform, then sent to Google's profiling analysis servers.

You will need to install another ROM that does not have Google Play services such as LineageOS or GrapheneOS.

I am also not using any Google apps.

It does not matter which Google apps you explicitly use or not, this process is a core part of stock Android.

VPN is always active on the phone

This cannot be guaranteed unless the phone is rooted as some connections might be made before the VPN is setup.


How to prevent two-factor code being exposed on lock screen in messages notification? On Lollipop, the text message notification on the lock screen includes some of the content of the text message. For two-factor code text messages, this will display the two factor code to anyone holding the phone even if they cannot unlock it. This seems like a security issue.

There seems to be a setting that more carefully hides the contents of notifications on the lock screen but that makes many of the other notifications useless it is hides data which I feel is useful and harmless to share.

I guess the options are:

Hide the content and put up with the inconvenience on other apps in the name of security.
Disable notifications from the messages app but then I have no way to know if there are new messages without manually checking.
Hide the content and petition other app makers to not respect that setting if the content isn't sensitive. Though I can easily think of examples that I might not consider sensitive but others might.

Are there other options available here? I'd love it if the messages app had a setting to control that behaviour. I'd be happy with the text message sender being displayed instead of the content.

I would say the first notification in first image would serve as a good replacement for the first notification in second image.

(Click an image to enlarge it)

Given that an SMS usually contains information considered private in nature, I would suggest you setup an automation task which would remove the notification created by your default messaging app but instead place a new notification with sender's address only. Opening that new notification would open the default messaging app and if needed, perhaps the particular thread as well.

Following is a successful demonstration performed using MacroDroid:

MacroDroid defines a set of trigger(s), action(s) and constraint(s) as a macro. You would be needing two macros here.

Macro 1:

Trigger: Empty Trigger
Action: Launch Application → select your messaging app
Constraint: ignore
Name: Launch messaging app

Macro 2:

Trigger:  Notification → Notification Received:

From: choose your default/preferred messaging app
Text Content: you can play with this but I suggest you begin with blacklisting any notification from messaging app. For that, select Any to trigger for any notification.

Action:

Clear Notifications → Select Application(s) → select your messaging app
Display Notification:

Icon: change as appropriate
In the first text field write: [not_title]

[not_title] corresponds to Notification Title (the title of the notification which acted as the trigger).

You may be interested in dealing with further information from the notification. For that, tap the button next to the text field and see the information for yourself.
In the second text field write anything that you need. As an example, you can write: Double tap to open the message
Tick Invoke macro when pressed and select your first macro i.e. Launch messaging app

Constraint: Device Locked/Unlocked → Locked
Name: as appropriate to you

This is how the said macros works: whenever any notification from your selected messaging app would show up when the device is locked, the notification would be immediately removed and a new notification from MacroDroid would be generated with the same title and your custom text. If you single/double tap the notification your selected messaging app would be launched.

(Click an image to enlarge it; the two macros I created)

It is possible to easily make a similar automation task using Automate app.


Using PIN instead of a password for encryption on Galaxy S5 I have a brand new Galaxy S5 with Kitkat (4.4.2) and am required to encrypt it for work. I greatly prefer to use the PIN lock screen instead of the password due to the annoyance of having to type in the password every time you want to check your phone.

My phone will ONLY allow me to choose "Password" for the lock screen type when I go to encrypt. However, my friend has the exact same phone as me, and is able to select both "Password" and "PIN" (whereas mine is grayed out and says 'Turned off by administrator, encryption policy, or credential storage').

I have restored the phone to its factory settings, and there are no 'Device Administrators' or user credentials installed.

What exactly has caused my phone to no longer accept the PIN? Was there some update to the security settings? Is there any way to restore the PIN functionality?

To be clear, I am not asking about separate passwords for encryption and unlock, I know that this is an Android issue that has not been addressed by Google, and I am not looking for Pattern, Swipe, or None, which don't work with encryption on any make or model.

You can choose a password that exists of numbers only. I've done that with Jellybean, and was annoyed when starting up the phone, and not having the number pad. It worked with Jelly Bean, and I hope it works with KitKat as well.

Only thing I would prefer is to have a password for startup, complex with letters and numbers, and a PIN for unlocking the phone. That is possible as well I've been told, but you need to root the thing for this to work.


Importing contacts from old dumb phone My mom uses an ancient Samsung SGH-C140 dumb phone with a mini SIM that has 150 contacts capacity. However all her contacts are stored on the phone, and there are around 400 of them. After all these years I have finally managed to convince her to allow me to buy a new phone for her (that too only when the keypad of the old one has given way)!

Now the problem is that the new Android phone uses a micro SIM, and I'm at a complete loss as to how to go about transferring those 400-odd contacts to it.

The only option I could think of was to go get the mini SIM cut to micro SIM size, then repeatedly use the Copy All Contacts to SIM feature to transfer from the old phone to SIM (while using the outer mini SIM sized bracket), and then from the SIM (without the bracket) to the new phone. The problem with this method is that the Samsung phone doesn't allow me to select the contacts, and always copies the same set of 150 contacts to the SIM before complaining about lack of space. (Aargh, which idiot made this phone's software?!)

Since I simply can't afford the loss of any of the contacts, what do I do? Do I really have no other option than to sit and manually read and enter all those contacts again?

P.S. I thought briefly about checking on some sort of PC software for the ancient phone, but even if it exists and can run on Windows 7/8.1/10, I have no clue where I'd get the required phone-to-PC cable from at a reasonable price.

Edit: OK, so the UK site for the phone mentions Samsung PC Studio Image Editor and Samsung PC Studio Internet Access. I assume the latter is the one that might support contacts export, but aside from the cable issue, there's the additional problem of how I would even export those contacts using the software to a format that Android would understand. If the software supports export/import of contacts using some proprietary format only from/to the phone itself, then there's obviously no point using it.

One possible option, if you can be sure which 150 contacts are being copied to the SIM in the old phone, is to transfer 150 contacts, copy them to the smart phone, and delete them from the old phone.  Then, next cycle, you'll get the next 150, and in twenty minutes or so you'll be done.  The trick is being sure you're deleting the same contacts that were transferred to the SIM.


Android music organization. How do I avoid splitting albums on the default music app? I have a Galaxy S7. I am trying to organize music in the default music app and running into some issues. For example, no matter how much I try and group music in to one album or to one artist (on both the phone and my computer) songs are split up by each individual contributing artist to an album.

Attached is an image of my problem.

Fill in the "album artist" field and make it identical for album fragments you want to see as one.


What does "H" mean in the signal indicator? I understand that the colour of the signal indicator tells me whether or not I've got a connection to Google servers or not, but what is the "H" that sometimes pops up?

Usually my indicator says "3G":

But, in addition to having an "H" now and again, sometimes it has no letters at all:

I assume this is telling something about what kind of data network I'm on, or not on, but what exactly is happening?

Let's state all the possible letters in the signal indicator, in descending speed (indicated speeds are roughly theoretical maximum):

5G = 20 Gbps
LTE+ = 300 Mbps
LTE = Long Term Evolution (commonly and falsely known as 4G), 100 Mbps
H+ = HSDPA Plus, 10 Mbps
H = either HSDPA (3.5G) or HSPA+ (3.95G), depending on your network provider, 2 Mbps
3G = UMTS (3G), 384 kbps
E = EDGE (2.5G), 40 kbps
G = GPRS (2G), 14 kbps
(no letter) = voice only, no data connection, 2.4 kbps

and also:

R = roaming (this means you're not on your home network)

(source for some of this.)


How to tell if idc file was used? I have an IR touch frame device which I have to configure using the idc file, however I am not sure if it is used at all.

I have changed the device type to pointer which should show a cursor on the screen when operated, and it is not happening.

From dmesg:

[   76.937599]  [0:          khubd:   40] usb 1-1: new full-speed USB device number 2 using xhci-hcd
[   76.952845]  [0:          khubd:   40] usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=1ff7, idProduct=0013
[   76.952907]  [0:          khubd:   40] usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[   76.952955]  [0:          khubd:   40] usb 1-1: Product: FC49WH00DL-CT-B2-10P
[   76.953002]  [0:          khubd:   40] usb 1-1: Manufacturer: Touch Device
[   76.953045]  [0:          khubd:   40] usb 1-1: SerialNumber: 1000
[   76.969757]  [0:          khubd:   40] input: Touch Device FC49WH00DL-CT-B2-10P as /devices/usb.25/ff600000.dwc3/xhci-hcd.0.auto/usb1/1-1/1-1:1.0/input/input5
[   76.976113]  [0:          khubd:   40] hid-multitouch 0003:1FF7:0013.0004: input,hiddev0,hidraw3: USB HID v2.00 Mouse [Touch Device FC49WH00DL-CT-B2-10P] on usb-xhci-hcd.0.auto-1/input0

The file I've created is: /system/usr/idc/Vendor_1ff7_Product_0013.idc.
How can I make sure the file will be used?

Is it enough to reconnect the device to "reload" the changes in the file, or would I have to reboot the device?

Thank you

You can verify by this command: adb shell dumpsys input. This will list out all your input devices supported. In the dumpsys output look for Configuration File under Event Hub State->Devices->Go to your device name. Here you find your answer. For me it works.


Solution for "ghost touches" - Procedure to disable a small portion of the screen from being sensitive to touch? So I ordered a cheap Chinese phone (umidigi) as a secondary device and the unit I got, out of the box, was afflicted with a faulty display. Troubleshooting it I have diagnosed the problem precisely:

There is an intermittent false touch input occurring in the bottom right, very far bottom right part only of the screen
Lowering the brightness appears to minimize the presence of the false input
Is likely to require disassembly of the device to remedy the issue

I alerted the seller I bought the phone from, and they're sending me a new unit pronto, and told me to just keep this one. Yay.

So, Id like to eventually permanently resolve this phones issue and open it up myself, but in the meantime I'd like to get some use out of it. But, with the ghost touch using the phone with anything other than a Bluetooth mouse is maddening.

The area effected is at the very, very bottom of the phone and may occupy 15px or so at most. I attempted to use a few apps, one called 'Partial Screen' and some others like Screen Shift. However, the adjustments to the display only result in cosmetic changes and do not desensitize the adjusted portion of the screen to touch input and thus the false input creating problems.

Can anyone point me to a procedure, adb input or otherwise, that could ensure that some specified portion of the touch screen will not respect any touch input?

Thanks.

Connect your phone to a PC via ADB and use this command: adb shell wm overscan left,top,right,bottom where left, top, right and bottom are the coordinates upto which your screen works properly.

For example, if my phone with a resolution of 480px × 854px, would have had this problem, I would write adb shell wm overscan 0,0,0,839 to disable 15px at the bottom of the screen.


Can I locate my android phone? I brought a new Samsung Galaxy Y inbuilt with Android 2.3.5 some month ago and sold it recently. But after selling I noticed that in that Android I left my email ID (email ID that is used to log in to android for the first time).

I don't worry about the my email ID as I have changed its password but Can I locate my android device with that email? or by any other way? on any Google Maps like service?

No, you would need an application like "Where's My Droid" installed on the device and know the phone number for the device.

If you sold the device, the new owner probably did a factory reset on the device so your information is no longer associated to the device.

In the future, before you sell your device, you should go in and do a factory reset so you are not giving the device away with any of your information.

I want to add my opinion on these apps that claim to help you find your device (including "Where's My Droid") if it is lost or stolen. They are great if you lost your phone in your house (or somewhere "safe") but if you lost it at like a bar or if someone actually stole it, chances are you will not even be able to use this software. A factory reset can be done on any device rather quickly, which would remove your "locating software" and remove any "tie" that your accounts may have to the device. Also, they require the device be ON, so if someone does steal your phone, all they have to do is turn it off, and when they have a chance, do a factory reset. My best advice I can give you is to remember that these are ~$600 devices (what you will pay off contract, or for a replacement) so treat it like it is a ~$600 device and don't leave it laying around. I am not saying that I would ever take someones phone or anything, but I could have the device factory reset by the time I got to the door to leave. It is as easy as Menu -> Settings -> Privacy -> Factory Data Reset.


Accidentally spill iced water on galaxy note 3 neo I spill water on my galaxy note 3 neo. I then remove the original flip cover and wiped the water. It turns out that the water doesnt go through too far in the battery area.

My main concern that the water go through inside the home button.

What should I do after I wiped all the visible water?

My best advice would be to remove all phone covers and leave in a well aired place to dry.

Also look at this it contains some useful advice


Change boot animation on Samsung Galaxy S8 G950F I have a Samsung Galaxy S8 with TWRP recovery and it's rooted, I've tried tutorials of changing a boot logo but none worked, I tried .qmg files and I also tried bootanimation.zip, but neither worked, any ideas/help?

Greatly appreciated

I think you haven't yet seen or tried this article. If you have already followed these steps, I'm really sorry. Else, go to the link below, and read the Part 3 of the article ..

https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2195858

Maybe, this will solve your problem ...


ADB over TCPIP connects, but no command works after connection has been done I'm developing an Android app.

The so-called app is being developed inside a Windows 7 Pro X64 VirtualBox machine which has a bridged connection with the host machine (a Windows 8.1 Pro X64).

In the other hand, I've installed Genymotion Android emulator.

When I run the following commands, everything works fine until I want to perform a adb install:

adb tcpip 5555
adb connect 192.168.1.5

If I perform a adb install X.apk (where X is the name of the whole package), the command never ends.

Also, I've completely disabled Windows Firewall in both host and guest machine.

Finally, if I perform a adb devices command, it says the device is connected:

List of devices attached
192.168.1.5:5555        device

I can't figure out what's going on...

After 3-4 days of trial-error I've found what's the source of the issue...

It has something to do with virtualized ethernet adapter hardware. When I switched to Virt IO and I installed the driver in my Windows 7 guest machine, ADB has started to work as expected!

Conclusion: if you want to debug Android apps from a Windows guest to an emulator or device, configure you VirtualBox machine to use VirtIO (paravirtualized) network and you'll be fine!


How do I switch from Chrome Browser to Chrome Beta (FOR GOOD)? I'm using: Huawei Nexus 6p with Android 6.0.1 and stable version of Chrome Browser.

How do I completely switch to Chrome Beta without having two browsers installed on my phone? Is there a way to do it?

* UPDATE *

My phone IS root'd & w/out any mods.

As root, you have full access to your phone's System partition, hence you'll be able to completely uninstall Chrome. Here, I'll describe two procedures for doing so.

Via a Terminal Emulator
By using an app known as a Terminal Emulator, you can manually remove Chrome and any leftovers lying in the Data partition. Firstly, you'll want to issue:
su

to gain root privileges. Next, execute:
mount /system
mount -o remount,rw /system

to remount the System partition as readable and writeable. Then, issue:
temp="$(pm path com.android.chrome)"
temp="$(temp#p*:}"

in order to retrieve the path of the Chrome app, and store it into a variable called temp. Finally, do:
rm -rf $temp
rm -rf /data/data/com.android.chrome

in which the first line will remove the actual app, and the second will clean up its data. The full script follows:
su
mount /system
mount -o remount,rw /system
temp="$(pm path com.android.chrome)"
temp="${temp#p*:}"
rm -rf $temp
rm -rf /data/data/com.android.chrome

Via Titanium Backup
If you don't like to type too much, your alternative is to download an app called Titanium Backup. Even if its main purpose is to... backup, it is also capable of uninstalling system apps, providing that you grant it root permissions when asked.
Firstly, launch it and grant it the abovementioned privileges. Next, tap the central tab (Backup/Restore), and then find the app you wish to remove. Once you find it, tap its tile and select Uninstall.

That's it. Remember that it's generally recommended to wipe both the Cache partition and the Dalvik Cache after uninstalling a system app. Otherwise, you may incur into really funky side-effects.


How to modify display on/off behaviour in non-standard ways (e.g. keep it from ever turning off) Firstly: my phone is rooted, I am not afraid to use the terminal, modify source code and compile everything myself, I can provide logs, command outputs etc etc, I just need someone who knows where to look and what to modify. I will happily add any necessary info you need to help me.

I have recently replaced a broken display on my OnePlus One running LineageOS 15.1 (Android 8). Allegedly it's an original replacement part, but it is buggy. It often (read: most of the time) won't turn on when I press the power button, double-tap the touchscreen or any notification or call comes in. The system does unlock and the touchscreen does work, as I can hear the unlocking sound and interact with buttons whose locations on screen I remember. But the display doesn't light up - only sometimes, randomly. I can't figure out when it does or doesn't. As long as the display doesn't turn off, it will keep working indefinitely. And whenever I shut down and cold reboot the phone, it also immediately works. Since I'm unwilling to do the whole replacement procedure again including spending another 50 bucks on a part that might not even work (the seller conveniently refuses to accept returns after you use parts in DIY repairs), here's my actual question which is actually multiple questions, in order of my preference if I could choose a solution:

Does anyone know if there's different ways the phone tells the display to turn on? How do they differ between bootup and screen unlocking, since the former way reliably works? Can I somehow force my system to ALWAYS use that method, so that I can once again rely on a working display whenever I need it?

Failing that, does anyone know how to stop the display from turning off altogether, except on system shutdown? I'm currently using an app called "Screen  On" that keeps the screen running, dimmed down. But the magnetic flip cover still turns it off, also it means I can't ever lock my screen with the power button because that would also turn it off. I would like my screen to go to Daydream when it normally would turn off.

I would like to be able to use Daydream on battery at all, but the settings menu only offers "when docked" and "when power cable is connected". Using dumpsys I found that there's a variable called "mDreamsEnabledOnBatteryConfig" and I would like to set it to "true" or "1", but 'dumpsys power set mDreams....' simply does nothing (yes, I am root). I also can't find the config file that I would need to edit.

Please refrain from suggesting I buy a new phone or send it in for professional repair.

Using a app called privset you can change the dream settings to work on battery also, search for dream. Additionally, check out tasker, you can hijack the power button to daydream


How to copy system files and other data files in internal storage When i have access to recovery only? i can Only boot phone to screen Where there Is logo.

i can go into recovery.  there Is fastboot. adp. and install from microsd options.  factory reset. Clear cache.

i Found cwm recovery Is too old for New phone.   mine Is asus zenfone 4 pro.

if you have instruction on How to copy internal files. Let me know.  i can follow them.   so take some data before factory reset.
Thanks

I know your issue has been sitting here unanswered for months now, so you might not need this information, but in case someone else comes around with the same problem:
I've had a similar issue - phone just went into a boot loop and I had some critical files to recover from internal storage.
Unfortunately, I'd never switched on debug mode in my phone before, so no ADB commands were an option, but Fastboot worked fine, and that eventually led to my solution.

For your phone, you'll need to use this TWRP recovery image and follow the instructions on that page - except for perhaps one instruction:
Where it says to type fastboot reboot I opted to rather manually power it down and then disconnect. Then, I used my phone's Recovery Mode button combo to boot into TWRP. The reason for this, is that my phone's (and supposedly many other phones') system will automatically replace the internal Recovery upon boot. So, if you flashed it with TWRP and typed fastboot reboot it'll go back into a boot loop (and also - invisibly to you - quite likely replace the built-in Recovery, meaning you'll have to repeat the flash operation).
So, in summary

Download TWRP
Start phone in fastboot mode (you'll have to Google to check how to do this for your device)
Flash TWRP to Recovery partition using fastboot from a PC (this is the fastboot flash recovery twrp.img command after confirming that fastboot works and communicates with your device via fastboot devices)
Power down your device
Insert a large enough SD card to perform your backups
Use the button combo to boot into Recovery mode (remember to not start up normally, otherwise you'll very likely have to flash TWRP again)
Use TWRP's tools to backup your system (SEE CRITICAL NOTE BELOW)
When you're done, power down, remove SD card (and make a copy of it somewhere else, lest you lose it)

CRITICAL NOTE:
The built-in backup on my device's distro of TWRP does NOT backup your actual user-generated data like downloads and pictures, BUT, the TWRP file manager does allow you to browse to all the different folders and manually copy those to another place, e.g. the SD card

I really hope that helps!


How do I install a custom recovery on a Note 3 from OS X? I have a Note 3. I want to install CyanogenMod on it, so I will need a custom recovery. My computer is OS X.

http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_hlte says:

  If you've applied the 4.4.x update to your hlte device, it is possible heimdall will have communication issues with your device. This is a filed bug already on the heimdall page and this warning will be removed when it is resolved. In the meantime, ODIN still works.

My Note 3 has had 4.4.x ever since I got it. I tried to use heimdall, but it fails as the warning suggests. It's this issue.

Is there any alternative to heimdall on OS X for installing a custom recovery?

All I know is to use Odin on windows. If heimdall doesn't work, you will have no chance from osx.

But there might be one solution:
Unpack your umage until you have a recovery.img file. Put it on your rooted device.
In the device shell as root type if=/pathtorecoverymimg of=/dev/block/platform/,,,,,/by-name/recovery
Sync,  reboot

To do a backup of the partition first is always a good idea. Just do it the other way round to get a backup in a file.

Some devices automatically restore recovery on boot. Try to reboot directly into recovery ( eventually disable automated recovery recovery using cwm recovery :)


Samsung Galaxy S disconnected during Kies firmware download The phone will not work at all now and only shows an icon depicting the phone and a pc connected with an exclamation in the middle. I have taken out the battery etc but to no avail. The PC now doesn't recognise the USB connection.

What do I do now?

From the comments it sounds like you've gotten back to Download Mode, so that's good.  If not, try different button combinations in conjunction with battery removes and being plugged/unplugged into USB.  Something should get you there.

Once you're in Download Mode you're probably going to need Odin to fix your device.  You can use my instructions here for Odin.


Can't update Nexus S. Stuck at "waiting for download" I want to upgrade my Operating system (Nexus S I9250) which currently is Android 4.1 . My cell is not rooted and I have never tampered with the android system shipped, always upgraded it though. Right now, it says "Waiting for Download" but the progress bar never goes ahead.

Restarting your phone should resolve the issue.


Galaxy Pop Gt-S5570 Is Stuck At Samsung Logo After Installing Cynogenmod 10.1 I tried to install Cyanogenmod 10.1 on my galaxy pop gt-s5570 using clockwork recovery 4.0.0.5...

Installation of cynogenmod 10.1 (cm-10.1.0-RC5-GT-S5570-tass) and Gapps successfully completes but after reboot phone is stuck at samsung logo
I tried wipe Data/cache/dalvik cache but still the same problem.. please help me out..

A "release candidate" is not a stable release. You should report this error to the Cyanogenmod developers so that it can be investigated and fixed for the final release.


How would you use your ext4 formatted thumb drive via OTG on Android? Is there a workaround to use an ext4 formatted thumb drives on Android phones? Right now when I plug it (thumb drive has micro usb end and phone supports thumb drives) Android says it doesn't recognize the file system.

Android formats the microsd cards to exFat by default so I guess that's all it supports for thumb drives too? But I would prefer to have the same (ext4) file system accross all my PCs and thumb drives. Any non-painful way to achieve that?

External SD cards and USB OTG drives (since Android 6) are handled by vold which supports only FAT[N] (vfat) and exFAT (since Android 9 provided that OEM adds support to kernel) filesystems on stock Android. ext4 and f2fs are supported only for private volumes (Adoptable Storage). Public volume (secondary external storage) is not directly accessible to apps or readable as emulated filesystem. But it's writable only through Storage Access Framework APIs. For details see How to save files to external SD card?

With root access you can manually mount ext4 filesystem (on USB stick or SD card) with proper permissions (after vold fails) and read/write files there. Use sdcardfs or FUSE to emulate the filesystem for fixed permissions. But this way Android framework is unaware of mounted filesystem and Android apps won't be notified of new storage. Neither you can manage the mounted storage from device Settings.

Going Android-ish way, many custom ROMs include a patched vold which can handle NTFS, ext4 and f2fs filesystems, as well as Linux (0x83) partition type. GUID for that type was added in another patch in order to correctly identify ext4. This patched vold is also available as a Magisk module vold-posix, or you can build yourself from source code to manually add it to /system. Filesystem type might also needed to be changed in fstab if it's not auto (particularly on Android 5 and before).

Another way to access ext4 formatted USB stick on non-rooted devices is through USB host mass storage APIs. While it's theoretically possible and there exist solutions like open-source libaums (for FAT32) and closed-source like Paragon's (for exFAT/NTFS), I don't know of any stable working solution for ext4 at the moment. Related question is: How to read ext4 filesystem without mounting on a non-rooted device?


Is there any way to lock the screen without turning off the display? I just purchase a Nexus S.

Currently, to lock the screen, I need to

Press the power button.
Screen locked.
Display turned off.

To unlock screen, I need to

Press the power button to make screen visible.
Slide the touch screen to unlock.

Is there any way I can?

Press a button to lock the screen.
The screen remains visible, but get much less bright to preserve power.

Slide the touch screen to unlock.
Brightness of the screen back to normal.

I'm not aware of such an app/feature right now, but you could use the collective effect of a couple of apps to get almost the desired thing.

Lightning Bug: This is a cool free app that has
always-on display feature and shows the clock, (and weather, etc.) and
more.
Screen Filter: This app will allow you to reduce the
brightness even lower than what the Android system would allow you
to.

However, when you want to put your device into standby, you will need to open these apps to get the effect. Also, running these apps does not mean it's in "lock" mode.

I see a great potential for an app that does both of these together and also put the device into lock mode at the same time.


Nexus 5 in recovery mode not being recognized I wanted to sideload Android 5.1.1 (currently running 5.1) to my Nexus 5.
I've sideloaded before and it's really easy, but now I've ran into a weird problem I can't seem to fix. The Nexus 5 is completely stock.

I connected my phone with the USB cable it came with onto my desktop computer (Windows 8.1) with the USB driver (08/28/2014,11.0.0000.00000) installed and USB debugging is turned on.
adb devices showed me a device, adb reboot recovery worked, but then Windows didn't want to find any USB device attached.
No sound, no nothing. It did not appear in the Device Manager (also not under the "Other devices" section)

Tried my laptop (running also Windows 8.1 with the same driver), but didn't want to recognise the device either. So, exact same problem.

After hours of searching the internet, I came across several potential solutions which I've tried but not succeeded with.
Koush's universal USB driver installer & Universal Naked Driver both did not work for me.

Then I tried following the steps in this article, which tells you to change the INF file of the driver.
I've added various lines of code and installed it after disabling the driver signature check in Windows, but did not succeed.

The article tells you to add this line:

%CompositeAdbInterface%     = USB_Install, USB\VID_18D1&PID_D001

But that did not work for me. After reading this in the article:

The ID I saw in device manager against the Nexus was
USB\VID_18D1&PID_D001, which didn't turn a lot up in Google!

I found my ID in the Device Manager when the device was booted into Android, changed the last part of the line, but that did not work in the end either.

I've tried using another cable as well, though I don't think that's the issue. It's plugged in quite firm and the device is being recognised in Android and the bootloader immediately.

Who can help me out?

Edit:
I just got the update through OTA, but I still would like to know why my computers act like the N5 isn't plugged at all when in Recovery mode.

it sounds like you don't have the correct drivers installed. there is a third-party windows based toolkit that runs a setup wizard available online. makes the driver install very easy. you can download it here.


Android 4.1 Locked Out I am messing with an old Android my Little Sister had before she switched to the “darkside” (iPhone).

It has a 4 pin lockscreen (Not 3rd party) and my sister forgot the pin. I removed it from device manager years ago cause she didn’t use it, so I can’t remote whipe or anything.

Being a casual user, my sister never enabled USB Debugging, so I can’t connect to a PC and access it that way.

The WiFi is off and her service was discontinued 2 years ago so I can’t do anything that way.

Tracfone also disabled recovery mode, so holding Power+Vol+ sends it into a bootloop until I let go and it boots to Android. I tried every possible combo and even letting go and clicking them again to no luck.

It’s an LG Optimus Fuel running non-rooted Android 4.4 with the LG Optimus UI Launcher.

I assume it’s a brick, but is there any thing I can try?

You can still flash the phone by installing a new ROM, this will factory reset the device.
But I think you are doing wrong while trying to manually hard reset the phone. Follow the steps below:

Works for Tracfone LG L34C Optimus Fuel model:

It’s a little bit complicated, just follow this guide:

Power OFF the phone.
Press and hold Power button and Volume Down button in the same time for several seconds.
Keep doing this until you see LG logo appears on the screen. When the logo is appear, release both buttons but for 1 seconds only.
Remember to release both buttons just for 1 seconds before you press and hold them once again.
If you do it right, the device will boot into Recovery Mode. Now you can release both buttons.
In recovery mode,  navigate through the menu using both Volume  buttons and Power button to select.
Select YES  on the first dialog box and another dialog box will also show up to confirm your action. In the second dialog box, select “Yes” and let the factory reset process begin.
Done.


How to disable popup/heads up notifications globally in Android 9 Pie? I recently upgraded to a Samsung Galaxy S9 with Android 9 Pie installed. It has an annoying feature, each time I e.g. get a message via Telegram, a pop-up window appears over any other application I am currently using on top of the screen:

I want to disable that for all apps. I found this reddit answer:

  When you're in notification settings for an app, there's the label for
  the notification channel and the checkbox next to it. Checking the
  checkbox enables/disables notifications entirely. Tapping the label,
  as unintuitive as it is, brings you to the advanced settings where you
  can disable pop up/sound/vibrations.

If I go to e.g. Settings>Notifications>Telegram, I can tap each single chat and disable pop-ups. This is tedious, surely there is a global option to turn this invasive feature off?

My S9+ is running Androud 10 UI2 and Telegram 6.0.1
I had the same issue which I finally solved. I went all through the app settings, then i tried android-apps-telegram settings with no luck.
I finally looked in android-settings-notifications and down at the bottom it says "looking for something else?" Click on the Smart pop-up view option and shut telegram off.


How safe is the android Lock Screen with password? If your tablet got stolen, how probable is it, that the thief will retrieve data from your device if you have only the lock-screen with a 4-character password as protection?

Is it easy for a hacker to get past that? Or can I lean back and be sure, that stored passwords in Firefox etc. cannot be retrieved?

I wanted to know, so I tried entering my password incorrectly repeatedly. (Motorola Droid 3 - Android 2.3.4)

After 5, 10, and 15 attempts I was given a 30 second "cool down" where I could not try again.

On the 15th attempt I was informed that if I entered my password incorrectly 5 more times I would be forced to re-sign in with my Google Account.

So after 20 failed attempts, you can no longer try to enter a password - you must sign in with your Google Credentials.

I would say you are reasonably secure from a brute-force password log in at the password screen.

This does not take into account any other methods - just attempting to brute force.

This answer may address methods that could be used to bypass the lock screen.

To specifically address your concern about Firefox for Android's stored passwords - you can disable Firefox Sync on a lost tablet (Mozilla's Instructions) by changing your sync password. Mozilla also suggests changing all of your passwords after it.


build.prop regeneration I have tried to edit build.prop for on screen navigation keys, but, unexpectedly get cleared build.prop file and got saved. What can be done to regenerate file? Should reinstall zip should solve it? Or can I copy file(build.prop) by extracting from ROM zip.

The prop file is right there in the zip (/system/build.prop, same as the path on the phone) - you don't even need additional extraction tools to get it back.

Re-installation will also restore it, but at the cost of losing all prior modifications on /system that you made.


Ads appearing on my lock screen, cannot identify the culprit app This little treat appeared on my lock screen this morning. It seems to be intermittent, only replacing the real lock screen about one in three times. Has anyone else seen it?

It is probably and App launcher or user installed file manager. If you use something like ES explorer, buying pro version will probably fix it. Check if the ads go away by disabling any "feature" app.


test usb functionality from the handset? I am using HTC Desire HD, I have a terminal with root permissions.

Are there any tests I can do on the USB port from the handset side?
i.e. to make sure it exists and is functional.

The reason I am asking this is that my computer (Windows 7 64 bit) does not recognize my phone when connected,
however it did recognize another phone of the same brand (but with a different rom).

This sounds like a driver issue.

You should be able to download the HTC Sync for the desire HD and it should include all the system drivers you need to connect to the device.

I am thinking driver because if you have the drivers for "Google Experience Devices" installed on your system already, and the other device is running an AOSP ROM, like cyanogenMod for example, then the android sdk drivers will work with that ROM. The other device, that isn't recognized, is running a non-AOSP rom, it will require the manufacturer drivers for the device.

Again, I am just guessing since I am not sure what ROMs you are running, or what PC operating system you are connecting the devices to.


Auto scrolling PDF reader? Is there any PDF reader that does auto scrolling? I have some sheet music in PDF that I want to be able to scroll through

ezPDF Reader Pro has a feature Page Auto Flipping which auto-scroll screen every provided second.


How can I backup and restore Google Now Launcher home-screen layouts? The only times I've seen a successful restore of the Google Now Launcher home-screen layout is when it is the default launcher from the onset as the installer goes through it's motions.

Restoring a backup from Titanium Backup does not work.

I've also tried making a recovery flashable update.zip via Titanium Backup but it still won't restore the home-screen layout

Try backing up the entire Google app, not just the Google Now Launcher as it does not store any data itself.

Backing up the Google app (and you can try the Google Now Launcher) in addition to it, should work.


Effect of Background Color on Battery Life in Android App I am studying about the effect of different parameters of Android app on Power Consumption and tips for optimizing them . I came across this
paper which states that ligh background color consumes less power than dark bg color.
I wonder whether We can apply the same logic for apps. When I measured the power consumed by changing the back ground color of a mock Android App , I couldn't notice any change .
Is the change too small to notice or it didn't occur at all?

It would also vary with the type of screen, blacks on AMOLED screens do not turn on the cell, so there is no power drain. It's a bit more complicated than the paper suggests. Really the brightness will have far more effect than a colour, unless you are going all white or all black, and even then the screen type and the software rendering will have a huge impact. –  RossC Oct 22 '14 at 10:52


Backup contacts, photos, apps, remove google account, and replace with dummy account I want to unlink my main Google account from my phone and use a dummy account instead. I don't really use any of Google's services on my phone like gmail, voice, etc. For security, loss reasons and to prevent google from automagically providing me with "features" and synchronization which end up merging data in ways I don't want, I would rather keep my online Google accounts separate from my mobile phone. I have been reading through a few posts on how to backup or remove your account, but I would like to make a get some feedback to create a bona-fide plan before going forward.

I really just want my contacts, my apps & widgets (or at least their settings and fresh install of apps from market), my calendar, my music and pictures.

If I "remove my account" what will I lose? I currently have it set not to sync with gmail or talk or voice, and I believe that all my contacts are only local and not merged with gmail.

Is there any way I can just go in and copy some magic file that has my contacts, calendar, etc; do a factory reset, and then load back my files and configurations, or download the apps again and overwrite my configurations?

Call logs, old SMS, etc aren't really important to save. Anything else I might be forgetting that I would actually slap myself for later?

Here is what I have done so far for each thing to backup (For reference I am on Droid 2 Global CDMA, OS 2.2:

Contacts:

Open "Contacts" i.e. "Contacts A-Z"
Click the menu  button
Click "More"
Import/Export
Selected "Export contacts to:" -> "SD Card"

The file will then be exported to "/sdcard/00001.vcf". Every time you export it will increment. The VCF file is one of the those standard types of files and is human readable, so even if you have problems later you can at least salvage the information. Just connected by phone to PC via USB and copied.

Photos:

I am not sure about third party apps or other versions of android, but it seems all of my photos are stored on the sd card using the dcim folder "/sdcard/dcim" which is easily accessible upon connecting with USB.

Calendar:

It looks like it was using one of my account's Google Calendars, I don't know if they permit a local only option with the default calendar. I plan to just export using my private feed to the next account or dealing with this separately since its not "not on the phone" http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=37111

After backing up the above and some specific apps with dumps, I decided to just go the root route (z4root) and I am now using adb to backup files (http://jonwestfall.com/2009/08/backup-restore-android-apps-using-adb/), I might also try Titanium or make a image once I figure that part out.

I will update others as I go.


Can I report phone numbers as spam callers? Google recently introduced a feature that lets me know if someone is a suspected spam caller. However, sometimes I get calls from numbers that aren't listed as spam callers but are still spam callers. Is there some way I can report these?

Click image for larger version

Yes, you can report callers as spam.

From Google support:

  You can mark all calls from a number as spam to keep from getting any more and to report the spammer.

  Open your device's Phone app phone.
  Go to Recent calls Recents.
  Tap the call you want to report as spam.
  Tap Block / report spam. You’ll be asked if you want to block the number.
  If you have the option, tap Report call as spam.
  Tap Block.


Get notifications with text, badge, no sound I am trying to make wordfeud (and other apps) only show a text popup, update its badge and not make any sound. However, it still plays the notification sound.

I have setup no sound in the app settings of the app.

I have enabled a feature that could possibly change things, I dont know. Its called notification reminders and can be found under the Accessibility settings category. The effect will be that the notification sound it repeated every minute until I pay attention to a notification.

Will those make things different?

I found out that I can disable notification reminders per app.
There is yet another set of toggles, one toggle per app.

When I enable notification reminder for an app, I can only choose sound or vibration, which is fine because if I want neither, I just disable reminders for that app.


Does Google Maps require a compass to show the direction you are facing? On my old phone I used Google Maps a lot. One thing I found useful is the dot that indicated where you were had a little flashlight affect to show you the direction you were facing. Does this only work with phones with compasses? I ask because I'm considering getting the motrola g4 plus which doesn't have a compass.

Example: notice how triangular area points down and to right.

Yes, it requires compass or magnetometer sensor to show the direction

Specific to Moto G4 plus, maps will work but you will not be able to see direction as you guessed. See Alpha Dog Senior Moderator remarks on the device forum

  Google maps uses gps, so it will work fine.  The actual direction your phone is facing is the only thing unknown. So if you are standing still it can't tell what direction you are facing.

  Google maps has been on phones since before a compass was a sensor.

Also see Pokemon Go without compass?


How can I use passthrough/reverse-tether on the HTC One V with Ubuntu? Possible Duplicate:
  How do you set up internet pass-through (reverse-tether) on linux?

I read that the phone needs to be connected to HTC Sync, thats not available for Linux. Has anybody been able to do a passthrough?

There are several Q&As already available here which probably help you in getting started. The probably most usefuls include:

How do you set up internet pass-through ( reverse - tether ) on linux?
Use USB as network access for an Android device ( reverse tethering)?
How to set up reverse tethering over USB?

There are also some apps available on the Playstore which could prove helpful, e.g.:

Reverse Tether (requires root)
USB Reverse Tethering (requires root)

As far as it looks to me, reverse tethering alsways seems to require root. Also, if your computer just provides ad-hoc network -- without root (and some special tricks) most Android devices are not able to use that.


Error installing Android 4.3 using adb sideload Situation : My phone battery drains out completely one day and even after charging it fully the phone is still stuck in boot-loop with Nexus 'X' logo.

What I did :
Tried factory reset from recovery mode multiple times but no luck.
I tried to install factory 4.3 as well as 4.2.2 using adb sideload but constantly get the error..
"Signature verification failed".
I checked the md5 checksum for my downloaded file and it seems fine.

What am I doing wrong here ?
Amongst the images downloaded in a .tgz file what is the the file I should be using for sideload ?

Note : I am using xubuntu to run the adb command

You can't install a ROM using adb install, just like you can't install a fresh Ubuntu system with apt-get. You use fastboot to install new ROMs, when the device is in fastboot mode. Instructions are different for each device, and the ROM you downloaded should come with them.

Regardless, from the symptoms you describe, it doesn't sound like installing a new ROM will help with the problem. Before trying anything so drastic, check the boot-loop tag wiki to see some more triage/debugging steps you can try.


Can receive but not send emails I can receive emails but not send them from my Android phone. I am using Yahoo mail and a Samsung Galaxy Ace.

What are the BT Yahoo! Mail settings for outgoing and incoming mail servers?
Incoming Mail (POP3) Server: mail.btinternet.com with Port 110
Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Server: mail.btinternet.com with Port 25
Account Name/Login Name: Your email address
(including the "@btinternet.com" or "@btopenworld.com" part)
Password: Your BT Yahoo! password

step-by-step
Online step-by-step instructions to help with your email setup.


How to change privacy level of a Facebook post? I'm using the official Facebook app and I've used it to update my status. Inadvertently, I made this status update public. Is there any way within the app, or the Facebook mobile website to change the permissions of a post to friends-only or a specific friends list?

The only way I can find of doing it is to either use the full FB website, or use Friendcaster instead. (Since some of my friends have set their accounts to not allow access from third party apps, I've switched back to the official app from Friendcaster).

I'm afraid that the native Facebook app is very limited in functionality. While it has improved (quite a bit) from its initial launch, there are still a lot of things you can't do in the app.

You may be able to do what you need from the mobile-optimized website (http://m.facebook.com) but most likely you're going to need to hop over to your desktop and use the full website in your desktop browser.


How do I separate ringtone and system volume on JB? I understand that the Ringtone and Notifications have been linked since (probably about) ICS, but I seem to have managed to link the System sound settings to the Ringtone/Notification volume levels on my Nexus 4.

I recently installed a few volume control apps, and I suspect one of them is to blame. I'm almost certain that this didn't used to be the case. I've since removed the suspicious apps, but the volume levels are still linked (I'm using AudioManager to verify the different volume levels).

Are Ringtone and System volumes usually separate? How do I unlink these settings?

In Settings -> Volumes you will want to uncheck Link ringtone & notification volumes

Actual system volume can't be "tied" to ringtone/notification. If this is not what you mean, please edit your question and explain more if possible.


A Subversion client on my tablet Asus Transformer? I am a developer, but I write some novels and short stories, and I use subversion to backup and synchronize texts files between PC. I want to read and write my text files on my Asus Transformer, but as far as I can see there is no subversion client for Android. I have only found Subdroid, but it is limited to history browsing, I can't get files and commit them.

I know Ubuntu is available for the Transformer, and I already use it on PC. But it's not my first choice for this tablet.

It looks like there's been a little work porting SVNKit to Android (see this), but actual source code isn't sitting around for anyone to use yet.

It's a little bit incredibly gross, but you could try introducing another syncing setup.  Something like Dropbox to store and sync files on your phone, and then commit the changes when you get to a machine with an SVN client.  This is obviously less than ideal.


How do I change the delay between rings? I have an HTC EVO Shift running Android 2.2 (Froyo). When I receive an incoming call the ringtone plays constantly. Each cycle starts immediately after the previous cycle finishes with no delay at all. This happens regardless of which ringtone I select. Short of editing the audio files, is there any way to set the delay between subsequent ringtone cycles?

Bryan above is correct.  There's no way to add a delay, at least not without a custom ROM.  To introduce a pause between the rings find an MP3 you like and use something like Audacity to append a few seconds of silence after it.  Then use that file as your ring tone.


How to send a flag/data as an input to installed android app? Is there a way to send a flag or a single number or character to my app running on a device using android developer console or by using any other way, without touching the mobile device ?

Example :
Say I have a mobile. I install my app-test.apk in the device by downloading it from google play or by transferring it to the sd card.
Now the app is running in my mobile.
What I want is to send a message/a flag/a number/a character or anything to the app so that the app identifies it and perform some action, some sort of a trigger for some condition. Like app shows a toast messages saying "I am running".  All this without touching the device.
If it is not possible how can I achieve this by just shaking the device or pressing the volume button with device in locked state or by minimal touching the device ?
Is this possible ?

Thanks !

Yes, this is exactly what ADB is for. Part of the Android SDK, it's designed for developers but useful for any user. After you turn on "USB Debugging" in the device's developer options, it can connect to the device via Wi-Fi or USB. Depending on the particular app you want to control, you might control it by:

sending an intent the app understands, using am start
copying a file to the device using adb push
sending fake keyboard or touch-screen inputs using adb input

Find out more about ADB on the official site or the tag on this site: adb.

Another option is to use an automation app such as tasker or automate. With these tools, you can visually create something like a "script" of actions: changing system settings, and sending intents to apps. Many apps integrate with these tools, offering special intents to control them and even a nice menu to choose them from. You can set this script to be triggered directly by a single touch on the screen, or indirectly by a change in some other state: e.g. when the phone sees a particular Wi-Fi network, when it's in a geofence, or when it connects to a Bluetooth device.


Dualboot with Boot Manager on Galaxy Nexus I own a Samsung Galaxy Nexus (GSM/maguro), running AOKP with ROM Manager and ClockworkMod Touch Recovery installed. I want to try MIUI using Init2Winit's Boot Manager application and with the same data and settings as my AOKP install. Since the Galaxy Nexus only has a single internal memory partition, I'm afraid Boot Manager will not work properly because, as the documentation said, it is based on loading another ROM from external memory.

Now I can install MIUI to the 2nd slot in Boot Manager and have the option to wipe System, Data and Cache, but what will be wiped? Is it possible to use Boot Manager on the Galaxy Nexus?

I've used Bootmanager on my Nexus S without issue and I believe that you will be able to wipe the system, data and cache of your second slot without it affecting the original rom.

But this will be easy for you to test:

Make a nandroid backup of your phone.  Always make a nandroid backup!
Once this is done you can go crazy and try installing MIUI but make sure you install gapps too (or the miui equivilent - sorry I'm woefully inexperienced with MIUI but I'd imagine they also didn't distr the google apps with the rom) - (the last time I installed a ROM using rom manager I needed to hunt out a different version of gapps than the ones that come with CM or AOKP - something to do with these version being scripted as opposed to just flat APKs).  You need to install gapps as you'll need to have the market to install bootmanager again in order to change roms.  There is a way of doing this manually through the shell and fastbook, but it's not fun.

If anything messes up then restore your nandroid backup and you are back to where you started.

Have fun :)


Sharp SH7218U doesn't boot after formatting system partition I formatted /system on my Sharp SH7218U. Now it won't turn on/boot up.
The screen doesn't turn on at all, even after removing battery or plugging into PC.

PC says "unrecognized device plugged in". Apart from that, phone does not respond.
Cannot boot into recovery mode.
adb does not recognize despite it being on debugging
~~
How do i fix this? I cant find a stock ROM online for this sharp model so i cant flash it using ODIN.... unless some kind soul has a copy of a
SH7218U stock rom

The system partition contains your operating system, that is, Android. If you formatted /system without flashing a new ROM, your phone cannot load any operating system because there isn't any.

You need to flash a compatible ROM for your device to make your phone usable again.


How can I put my Nexus 7 back to factory default ? I have a Nexus 7, that I rooted and upgraded once, but it now seems that something changed it. As it is registered in Google Play, there are way too many applications that I cannot install on it. I keep seeing statuses like "This item is not compatible with your device." while it was listed as being compatible with the tablet, as it was even analyzed in a magazine for the nexus 7.

I am ready to put it back to factory defaults, as it came out of the box. Where can I find the files to put it back ? I am familiar with CWM, and ADB.

Thanks :-)

Have a look at one of these toolkits, they each have an option for installing a stock rom back on to your device. Have included links to osx, windows and linux:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1837401 (mac)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1809195 (pc)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1848036 (linux)


How to prevent accidental launch of Camera app from lock screen? I have an Archos Helium 50 phone running Android 4.3. It often activates the Camera app while the phone is still in my pocket. Plus, since it's dark inside my pocket, it activates the flash — this drains a lot of battery.

I tried to disable it but I didn't find any option in the menus which would allow me to do so. What can I try?  Did I miss some hidden menu?

Please note that the phone is not rooted; I absolutely refuse to root it.

Try Lock Screen Policy App and disable the Camera.

Disable multiple 3rd party widgets on the lockscreen. Also removes lockscreen camera access on some devices

WARNING:
Not intended for use on Android 5.x


Can the Samsung Galaxy Note II stock camera app be transplanted to a custom firmware? I've had a Sprint Samsung Galaxy Note II (SPH-L900) for 2½ years. I've always liked the stock Camera app that it came with, and I've missed having it around since I replaced the stock firmware with CyanogenMod. As it happens, due to technical difficulties it was necessary for me to reinstall the stock firmware recently, and there was my little friend again, "Camera" (v1.5). Is there any way to capture that camera app from the stock firmware and transplant it to CM 12.1 (or any other custom firmware)?

The short answer is no.

The detailed answer is - it will be difficult - very difficult.
The camera from the stock samsung firmware relies on the touchwiz framework to work correctly. Any AOSP based rom comes without the touchwiz framework - and that's one of the best reasons to install an AOSP based rom.
So what does this mean in the end?

You would need to modify the application - include the shared libraries and may have to port the framework - it won't be worth the effort. If you're not happy with the stock camera application, try one from the play store - they might even make better pictures.


Where is default navigation app (Blue Arrow) in custom ROM? I recently installed the Hyperdrive Android custom ROM version RLS12 on my Samsung S4 and cannot locate the blue arrow icon for navigation.  I do have the Google Maps installed.  Is this something I failed to check off in my install options or is this just gone in RLS12 (I had it in an earlier Hyperdrive release from around October 2013) or is it just hidden and I need a pointer?

Navigation has always been a part of the Google Maps application. The icon was essentially a convenience shortcut, but not a separate app, and was removed around July 2013 in the Maps 7.0 update. It's possible you still had the old version of Maps on your other ROM. Either that, or the ROM author added some kind of shortcut "app" to re-create the old Navigation icon or something of that nature.

If you want to use your phone to navigate somewhere, open Google Maps and type the address in the search bar, then hit the button in the bottom right (the exact text/icon may vary depending on distance).

If you really want the separate Navigation icon, you could possibly downgrade to a version of Maps earlier than 7.0. A custom launcher could also let you create a shortcut directly to the Navigation activity on your desktop, but probably not in the app drawer. Apex Launcher, for example, can create a shortcut on your home screen by long pressing on an empty space on one of your home screens, then selecting Shortcuts -> Activities -> Maps -> Navigation.


Android does not download any files from untrusted CA certificate site I work on a site that serves mobile phones and shares some file. When I publish my site in http everything works great.

But when I activate SSL and publish my site via HTTPS with my own certificate, Android doesn't download any file from my site.

I create my own SSL CA certificate via openSSL in my local  PC and not purchasing from standard seller like GoDaddy.

How do I install my CA certificate to Android?

Do I have to purchase SSL from a standard seller to solve this issue?

My android version is 4.4.4.

You can install a CA certificate very easily through Settings.
Just go to Security->Install from SD and choose your certificate.
It will be installed to your device's certificate store/secured storage and should be used automatically by all applications that rely on that certificate store (which should be like every app that connects to the internet using SSL).

You can also look what certificates are currently installed in trusted certificates where they are split into User and System certificates.


Can I update from CM 12.1 to CM 13 using OTA, or do I need to follow instructions? I've got a Nexus 9 running Cyanogenmod 12.1. Yesterday I read Cyanogenmod's announcement of version 13, which contains instructions on how to update to the new version. They write that I have to flash the image, Google Apps and vendor.img manually.

However, today I received an update notification on my device:

Can I just apply the OTA update? Or do I still need to follow the instructions (i.e. flash Google Apps and vendor.img)?

The OTA-update will only update CM itself. You will still have to flash Google Apps and vendor.img manually. If you had Google Apps installed and only do an OTA-update, your Google Apps will most likely be incompatible with your system, causing your device to get stuck in a boot loop.

I don't have a Nexus 9, so I don't know if the old vendor.img is compatible with CM13, but I would recommend to update it as well, just to be sure.


How do I export Telegram contacts to my phone? I'm new here.

My little brother accidentally touched the "reset factory"  button in settings, and now I don't have my contacts on my phone! I have 1500 (almost 400 business) contacts with more than 670 profile pictures!

I rooted my phone and used recovery tools in W7, but nothing worked for me! I just recovered 10 old contacts, so God bless the Telegram app because I saw my contacts there,  but there are no contacts in my phone app. Is there any way to import contacts from the Telegram app to my phone app?

If possible please tell me how to fix this issue. Any guidance also in programming issues like linux terminals will be accepted in my way.

(Note: I used search in this site but there was nothing for my issue,
just found a link that a buddy wrote there:

  "Just install a contact backup software from google store like "+contact backup" and after that make a back up from your contacts."

But there's no app in the app store with that name!

Just go to your accounts menu and select telegram\ accounts and then tap the current account and turn on Sync contacts. This way you can have all your contacts whom they have an telegram account.


Can an Android phone with no SIM card make an emergency call? Can an Android phone (specifically, the Huawei Honor 5X) that has never had a SIM card in it make an emergency phone call to 911?

The Honor 5X (which is GSM Unlocked) will be on WiFi and within range of T-Mobile and AT&T towers, but will not have a SIM card. Can it still make an SOS call in the event of an emergency?

This is actually independent of whether a mobile phone is Android.

In the United States, the FCC requires wireless service providers to provide 911 service to all phones, regardless of whether they currently have paid service or not.

  The FCC's basic 911 rules require wireless service providers to transmit all 911 calls to a PSAP, regardless of whether the caller subscribes to the provider's service or not.

...

  If your wireless phone is not "initialized" (meaning you do not have a contract for service with a wireless service provider), and your emergency call gets disconnected, you must call the emergency operator back because the operator does not have your telephone number and cannot contact you.


Scheduling with Google messages. What does the roll-out information mean? This news article describes the roll-out of Google's new scheduling feature for Google Messages. On my own phone, I briefly had the opportunity to use the feature before it inexplicably disappeared. The news article seems to suggest two things: first, that the brief opportunity to use the feature might have been part of a test prior to the general roll-out, and second, that "schedule send is rolling out as a server-side switch ..."
What exactly does that last part, about server-side switch actually mean. I understand the general principle of client-server relationships with things like using an email client on my PC connected to my ISP's email server, but what server is being talked about in connection with Google messages. Surely they're not talking about something that requires cooperation from every ISP!?

It means that feature will be enable by Google's server. You might already have the feature but you won't see it on the app's interface.

Surely they're not talking about something that requires cooperation from every ISP!?

It is not related to ISPs. Often due to the high number of users, some features are not "open" for all of them, but enable to users from the server (in this case Google's) slowly based on country, language, phone model, etc until all can use it.


Android battery usage (3G, HSDPA and Edge) In order to reduce battery usage I checked the Use only 2G networks from Settings > Wireless & networks > Mobile networks on my Android. Then I noticed the E icon appeared instead of H on the network indicator in the notification bar. If I am not mistaken, H stands for HSDPA and E for EDGE and the HSDPA is a 3G technology.

Now the question is: What is the relation/difference between 3G, HSDPA and EDGE? What is the best way to increase battery life between charges, but to maintain internet connectivity as well?

Your understanding is correct. GPRS < EDGE < 3G < HSPA.

HSPA = HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access + HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access)

The difference between the three lies in the bands i.e. frequencies they use to communicate with the network. Edge uses the same frequency as the phone uses to transfer voice and SMS to the network. Hence, you may notice (atleast I have), that the E symbol will disappear when you are on a call - assuming that you have selected Use only 2G networks

To answer the last part of your question, I usually keep my networks on 3G/WCDMA when I know I am going to be near a charging point. I can go nuts with my data then. However, when I am travelling, and network coverage can be sparse, I force the phone to use GSM only which in your case is Use only 2G networks. This saves a lot of battery, simply because its more battery intensive for the phone to communicate over the 3G radio, rather than the 2G.

Edge can be pretty decent, if you just need to be online on Gtalk, Watsapp, and need to reply to some lightweight emails. It does the job. 3G or HSPA, is necessary for more intensive applications like Dropbox, Youtube, or one of those streaming music services that I can't remember at the moment.


How to Root Galaxy S5 (SM-G900A) running Lollipop 5.1.1? Background:

I currently am in the process of trying to root an Android smartphone with the following device info:

  Device Model: Samsung-SAMSUNG-SM-G900A
  Android Version: 5.1.1
  Build Number: LMY47X.G900AUCS4CPA3

While I have attempted to use all of the following products, they all failed to root, leaving a message that my device was "Not Supported":

Kingo Root (Android App)
towelroot (Android App)
OneClickRoot (Windows App)

My Questions:

Given these device stats, is there ANY way for me to root my device?
If yes, how can I go about it?
If no, why not?

As in the comment by @AndrewT., it appears that AT&T have locked the device against rooting (corrected the exploits used by these one-click root solutions back with Android 5.0).

From the link in the comment:

Emphasis and comments mine

  ...the fact remains that AT&T's Android 4.4.4, released in 2014, and Android 5.0 and 5.1.1, released in 2015, have all been unrootable and no-one in the worldwide rooting community has found a root method apart from downgrading to the AT&T, Android 4.4.2, NCE, firmware/kernel... [to get] an exploit that AT&T closed off almost year ago with Android 5.0. Make no mistake, this is not Google or Samsung preventing you from rooting... it is all down to your carriers, AT&T and Verizon.

This post appears to be from a reputed member of their community, so we can be reasonably assured that even the great people at XDA-Developers (AT&T SGS5 thread here) have not managed to root this particular device (see here).

Hence, we can say that as of now there is no way to root this particular device (AT&T Samsung Galaxy S5) on this particular Android version (5.1).


Sony XPeria Arc: How force DNS resolution with a specific host? I've made my website and it can be accessed only through specific domain name.

http://my.specific.domain.name.

And of course, you have to change your /etc/hosts configuration and add

my.specific.domain.name 192.222.222.222

to make it look to the right IP.

Any idea how to do this on a Sony XPeria Arc?

You need a rooted phone for this. First get the /hosts file:

adb pull /system/etc/hosts

This copies it into your current working directory. Now make your changes. (If you're not using a UNIX system make sure that you use something that supports UNIX newlines, like Notepad++, Sublime Text, Gedit etc.)

Then we need to send it back to the device with:

adb remount
adb push hosts /system/etc/hosts

The first line remounts your /system partiton so you can write to, and the second pushes it back. Now reboot your device. As you already have a terminal open just type:

adb reboot


Why does Windows think my phone has 52 GiB of internal disk space whereas my phone sees 64 GB? From my phone:

From Windows 7 SP1 x64 Ultimate:

Your phone is showing you the total amount of storage inside your device.  This includes a bunch of partitions containing the operating system, radio image, preloaded apps, bootloader, recovery, etc.  These partitions are read-only, and many aren't even accessible within the Android OS, so they aren't exposed when connected to Windows—there wouldn't be any way to say "actually there's more space but you can't use it."  What Windows sees is the user-accessible space it can read from and write to, which is smaller than the total storage in the device.


Quick way to sync now Is there a quick way to do a sync now?

The long way is to go into Settings, then Accounts, then tap the account name then tap the three dot menu and choose Sync now, but this is a bit long winded. It would be nice if there was a one tap option to sync now direct from the launcher home page.

I ask because I use Keep for transferring text between my PC and the phone and vice versa, but Keep is sometimes a bit slow about syncing changes to notes and I need to do a sync now to make it transfer the changes immediately.

If it makes a difference I'm using a Nexus 5 with Marshmallow.

Note: This answer is not tested on Android Marshmallow.

In Android 5.0, one can create shortcut for sync using the activity com.android.settings.Settings.$AccountSyncSettingsActivity (since I've only one account in the whole device, the activity may do nothing for multiple accounts without passing specific parameters).

Anyhow, attempt to create the shortcut for sync using an app like QuickShortcutMaker or Activity Launcher or even an automation tool like tasker.

As per OP, it has  come to my notice that sync shortcut does nothing in Marshmallow. OP also mentioned that the activity for Accounts works well. So for the time being, settle with Accounts activity (com.android.settings.Settings$AccountSettingsActivity). The shortcut can be created using the aforesaid apps.


I installed another SMS application, now I get notified twice I have a Google Nexus One with Android 2.2. I didn't like the default SMS-application so I installed Handcent-SMS. Now when I get an SMS, I get notified twice. How can I fix this?

You can turn off notification in your stock Messaging application by going into the settings dialog  (Menu button -> Settings) and unchecking Notifications


What processor images to install After downloading and installing Android Dev Studio and Android SDK, a question arises:

Which System Images should one install?

For example, one would like to write a simple android game, that should be run mostly on mobile devices (e.g. pads and smartphones). I guess in this case most many Images are not needed.

Is there a good way or routine on how to choose which System Image to install? So the system is not over-flooded with unused tools.

The major problem with running Android virtual devices (AVDs) is that they are usually very slow, even on fast hardware. For this reason, consider using the HAXM accelerator which will work with a x86 image

https://software.intel.com/en-us/android/articles/intel-hardware-accelerated-execution-manager

You can still keep an ARM-based emulator for when you want to make sure it works, but while developing it would probably be easier to use the x86 Android image, as most of the functionality would be the same as the ARM version.


Can I use my phone's internet to download files in a Win95 VM in Limbo emulator? I installed Limbo emulator from the Play Store, and found a Windows 95osr2 .img file on the internet. I want to install Opera instead of IE inside the VM, and use it to download some music.

I can't use dial up when I'm using it in an app, because it's too slow. It lets me connect via proxy server. I was wondering if I could use my phone with unlimited 4G LTE (Also is my hotspot one) to download the music off the archive site on mobile data for the proxy server.

I don't think Limbo supports this. Limbo's networking support uses user-mode support inside the guest operating system, and since Windows 95 is not an OS they have explicit support for, they won't provide drivers for it.

Instead, download the songs you want from your phone or another computer, and copy them into the .img before starting the VM.


How can I see my whatsapp notifications on my lock screen? I am not getting pop up notifications when my screen is locked even though I chose the always show pop up option. How do I fix this

You can use the DashClock Widget and the DashClock WhatsApp Extension from Google Play and place the widget on your lock screen.

DashClock Widget: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.nurik.roman.dashclock

WhatsApp Extension: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.stallware.dashclock.whatsapp


Are running apps slowing down Android phones? When my phone (Xperia J) is getting slow I'll go to Setting→Apps, select running apps, and delete everything in there. Then I go back to the homescreen and I notice that my phone is faster.

So is running apps making my phone slow or it is just a coincident?

While this might appear to temporarily "speed up" your device, this kind of "Chuck Norris Roundhouse Kick" is rather contra-productive for the system, especially for two things:

your battery load
time to access one of the killed apps again

Android usually does a good job managing ram. But some apps sometimes make it hard to do so (mostly by not behaving properly: hogging lots of RAM and trying to "stay alive" even if the user wishes them to quit). So to have the same "speed-up feeling" without the nasty side-effects, you'd better identify those bad-behaving apps which you killed along the others (like the wild-west saying: "Kill'em all and let the Lord sort out the bad from the good").

I've just added two tags to your question. You might wish to consult their tag-wikis and most frequented questions for more details. To do so, simply click them (or hover your mouse over them and select the links to "info" for the tag-wiki, etc.).


No MAC address di iMX51_bbg froyo 2.2 Epad 8' I've bought an iMX51_bbg Froyo 2.2 Epad 8', but I cannot find the MAC address. Can you help me with that?

Is there any USB Modem compatible with this Android device? I've tried many and can't get them to work!  The phone works properly with WiFi, but it's annoying if I have to go to free WiFi place if I just want to surf.

You should be able to find the MAC address in your Settings.

Menu | Settings | About phone | Status | Wi-Fi MAC address


Is it possible to activate the "USB Tethering" Android setting from the command line? I would like to activate "USB tethering" from within a bash script, so is there any possibility to run a command line with adb shell to change some Android settings ?
Edit1:
The following command open the needed settings but don't change anything alone :
am start -n com.android.settings/.TetherSettings

I've found TetherSettings action name from
aapt dump xmltree com.android.settings.apk AndroidManifest.xml | less +/ether

Related, but the opposite Is it possible to disable USB tethering from command line?

Running the following command as root should enable USB tethering:

service call connectivity 32 i32 1 on Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0)
service call connectivity 33 i32 1 on Jelly Bean (4.1 to 4.3)
service call connectivity 34 i32 1 on KitKat (4.4)
service call connectivity 30 i32 1 on Lollipop (5.0)
service call connectivity 31 i32 1 on Lollipop (5.1) according to an answer by Firelord
service call connectivity 30 i32 1 on Marshmallow (6.0), untested
service call connectivity 41 i32 1 on Samsung Marshmallow (6.0)
service call connectivity 33 i32 1 on Nougat (7.0)
service call connectivity 39 i32 1 on Samsung Nougat (7.0)

The first number you see in the commands is the setUsbTethering() method's number in IConnectivityManager.aidl (this depends on the Android version and doesn't exist on Gingerbread).

(Tip: to check this file for a particular Android version, select the appropriate branch.)

So what this command does is call setUsbTethering() and pass either 1 (enable USB tethering) or 0 (to disable it).

For more information, see this related question on Stack Overflow.

If you're enabling USB tethering as part of a USB reverse tethering setup, setprop sys.usb.config rndis,adb should be more than enough to get the rndis0 interface set up.


System ui tuner not enabling in lenovo a6600 I cant turn on the system ui tuner on my lenovo A6600 no mater what i do. The system gear spins on long press but nothing happens. Can anyone help me?

There's an alternative app on Play Store that works the same as, if not better than, the inbuilt System UI Tuner.