Is it possible to have a root-running app on no-root android? I have an app which needs su privileges, But my device should not be working on rooted. I want to know if there is any way to take the access to just one app. For instance root the device, set the privileges for that app, unroot the device. Is it possible?

Firstly let me clarify something.

Being rooted is not a binary situation where you are either rooted or not rooted. Process of rooting is adding custom binaries to system partition. These binaries, depending on the way they are coded, can answer suid calls from apps so those apps can have the right to execute orders not with their own UID but with the UID 0 that is the root user.

Secondly, can you run apps with su rights without adding those binaries?

It can be possible but even if it is, I don't know of such a method. Maybe there are workarounds but I never heard of them. So I think I can say no to that.


How do I stop Play Store from randomly opening when I'm in other apps? Play Store is randomly opening when I'm in another app. It is simply showing me an app it thinks I would like, even though I haven't initiated any action on Play Store. I'm running Jelly Bean on a Motorola Razr Maxx.

Are you clicking on ads inside apps? Because they would pop-up Play Store immediately. Remove all those apps which pops-up ads very frequently. If no - try signing out of the Play Store and stop it forcibly using App Manager. Then start it and login again. Post what happened.


I hard bricked my phone, now what? So today I hard bricked my week old Iocean X8, as soon as my phone arrived it came stock with a jellybean ROM so I flashed it to the KitKat ROM provided by Iocean which all worked fine but I decided I wanted root access so then I attempted to flash to the super user ROM and that's when everything went downhill.

As far as my knowledge goes a hard brick is were the phone will not turn on and the PC will not recognize the phone. I also do not believe Iocean X8's come with a recovery mode.

I have sent an email to Iocean asking for the next steps to take but they are taking a little while to reply.

Have the Android Enthusiasts got any suggestions?

Can you turn on your phone using special sequence of buttons  like power + middle button + down volume ? I don't know what is for your device but you can google tjat quickly...see if you can turn on in download or recovery mode. If yes try a factory reset and wipe cache data and reboot.

If that not work then is time to flash your stock firmware again on it you need odin and the stock firmware image you can search on xda developers forum for your device both the stock firmware and the guide on how to execute.If you not find on xda developers forum then try google but be careful don't download the first thing you see try to get the firmware atleast from a trusted source.

Your phone is not hard bricked it is soft bricked you bricked the software not the hardware but stay calm the above steps if done right should make your phone reboot again.

You will lose all your data if you want do to a backup you can try an backup via ADB you can google for "backup via adb android" follow all the steps with calm and carefully and you can make your phone reboot again without lose nothing.


How to disable airplane mode switch when phone is locked When I display the quick settings panel, there are shortcuts to enable some functions (wifi, data connection ...)

When my phone is locked (pin code), the location switch disappears, (for security reasons AFAIK).

But the airplane mode switch is ever displayed, so a thiefer could easily enable it, and disable location by the same.

Is there a way to disable the airplane mode switch when my phone is locked ?

Locked :

Unlocked :

Note:

The following solution is tested on COS12 (Android 5.0.2) and Carbon ROM (Android 5.1.1).
For this answer, you would need ADB setup in your machine, USB debugging enabled in the device and connected to PC.  Alternatively, for rooted devices,  terminal app like  Terminal Emulator for Android can be used.
Root access is required (see exception at the bottom).

The tiles that you can toggle in the Quick Settings are assigned particular names and are stored as a value for the key sysui_qs_tiles under the table secure (both key and the table may differ for your ROM) of settings.db (Settings Storage app).

Note:

When using a terminal emulator app, enter su and then follow the commands without the prefix adb shell.
For each stage, two commands are mentioned. Both are alternatives to each other here.
For the usage of settings and content, enter adb shell settings and adb shell content respectively

To find out the value stored in the key sysui_qs_tiles, enter the command

adb shell settings get secure sysui_qs_tiles
adb shell content --query content://settings/secure --where "name='systeui_qs_tiles'"

The output would be like:

wifi,bt,cell,rotation,flashlight,hotspot,location,airplane

airplane is for Airplane mode. If you remove it from the value, the quick tile would instantaneously vanish.

Example,

adb shell settings put secure sysui_qs_tiles "wifi,bt,cell,rotation,flashlight,hotspot,location"
adb shell content update --url content://settings/secure value:s:"wifi,bt,cell,rotation,flashlight,hotspot,location" --where "name='sysui_qs_tiles'"

It must be noted that you should not use the aforesaid value but only the one which you got from your query.

As for hiding/removing the Airplane mode on the lock-screen and adding it back when the screen is unlocked you can use an automation tool, such as Tasker or MacroDroid.

Instructions for Tasker

Create a task named "Screen unlocked".
Add an action as Code → Run Shell, and add these details:

Command:

settings put secure sysui_qs_tiles "wifi,bt,cell,rotation,flashlight,hotspot,location,airplane"

Use the key-value relevant for your device. Also, as an alternative, you can use the content command, if you would like to. This info remains valid for further instructions as well.
Check Use Root

Create an another task named "Screen locked".
Note: If you configured lock-screen settings so that the screen doesn't lock right after the device gets to sleep, but after XY seconds (such as, 30 seconds), then create an action as Task → Wait and set those XY Seconds. Alternatively, sleep XY command can also be used.
Add an action as Code → Run Shell, and add these details:

Command:

settings put secure sysui_qs_tiles "wifi,bt,cell,rotation,flashlight,hotspot,location"
Check Use Root

Create a profile named "S-unlocked" under Event → Display → Display Unlocked, choose Highest Priority, and link the task "Screen unlocked".
Create an another profile named "S-locked" under Event → Display → Display Off, choose Highest Priority, and link the task "Screen locked".
Have the Tasker enabled and behold the desired action by locking/unlocking the screen.

Should you decide to use MacroDroid, install Secure Settings too because it is needed to run commands in MacroDroid's actions.

Relevant triggers in MacroDroid:

Screen On/Off → Screen Off
Screen Unlocked

Relevant actions in MacroDroid:

Secure Settings → Actions → Run Command

Use the commands learned in this solution. Follow instructions for Tasker for any guidance

Wait Before Next Action

Screenshots

Order of images as "All tiles available when screen is unlocked" →  "No Airplane tile when screen is locked"

(Click image to enlarge)

It is possible to use this solution without root access. You would need ADB running in wireless and loopback mode for that. It is not very convenient, however, it does work. For any guidance, see my answer for Lollipop hide quick settings on Lock screen.


Smart TV Stick (Android) connects to 3g dongle for Internet I am trying to explore the options of connecting a 3g dongle to the car charger. And then connecting a Smart TV Android stick into the 3g dongle to get Internet. It will be great if I can get internet from the USB connection and not have to waste Wifi (how ever little) battery between the 2 devices.

Questions

Is it possible to get internet via USB on the android stick ?
Can it get power from the USB too ?
Will starting the car have bad effects on these devices ?

You may get what you want, if you find a model that includes this functionality already (like e.g. the older Archos G9 tablets did) but it will not work out of the box for most models.

There's the autopatcher project (thread on XDA) that enables 3G dongles for modem-less tablets (but it is limited to certain custom ROMs like CyanogenMod, AOSP, rooted Google stock Android and others).

Regarding the power question: That's up to the exact model and you will need to find out by trial and error or get that info from searching Google/specs/etc. The same applies to your last question (but in general, those TV sticks are built to be plugged in and out and need to survive sudden power losses just as phones need to because they tend to run out of battery juice).


Custom Layout in Minimalistic Text? I'm using the free version of minimalistic text on android 2.3.7 and I can't seem to find any option for custom layout. There are references to it on the net but I can't seem to find it anywhere. Is that a pro only feature or have they removed the option altogether?

After you create a widget, you'll be able to customize its settings as you see in the flow below. In the 3rd image, the layout section is the 3rd tab (or whatever it's called).


How to refresh a web page in Chrome (Ctrl+F5 analogue) on a device without menu button? I have a Nexus 7 Android device with 4.2.2 and Chrome browser.

How can one perform a deep refresh of a web page - analogue of Ctrl+F5 hotkey on desktops?

Please, notice that the device does not have a menu button.

According to the only related question I've found here, the solution is to clear browser cache completely. I'd prefer more convenient and elegant solution.

I found it !!!!!!

On the left side of the URL there is an info icon (i) or a lock icon. Click the icon and then  [web site configuration].

You will find a trash icon to clear cache of the current site, and alternatively a "restore preferences" button.

Working on Android Chrome 71.


Remove Android status bar gradient Is it possible to remove the black-to-transparent gradient that, as of Kit Kat, is now behind the status bar and the home button?

I find it to be rather ugly and would rather it be gone.

Setting the status and navigation bars to have the transparent gradient is handled by applications/launchers themselves in stock 4.4. Some apps and launchers provide a setting to turn the gradients on and off.

The AOSP launcher always uses opaque bars, Google Now launcher always uses transparent bars, and certain 3rd party launchers such as Nova give you a toggle. Regardless of the launcher's setting, apps can and will override it.


As of current versions, would any of these setups pass safetynet checks? Would these pass?

OP3T + LineageOS + Kernel that doesn't show bootloader unlocked status?
and also
OP3T + LineageOS + Kernel that doesn't show bootloader unlocked status + Magisk?

I'm currently on Marshmallow and am considering upgrading to 7 (through lineage) but I want to make sure I can pass checks because some apps are a royal pain to use/install if I can't pass the check.

(I would likely not be using Xposed at this time, so I'll leave that out of the equation).

I have been using my OnePlus 3T with LineageOS 14.1 without su and with a custom-built kernel for half a year now. SafetyNet passes, AndroidPay works.


How to close all background apps at once in Android 5.0 (lollipop)? I noticed that I can press the square button on the bottom right to show all background apps, and then swipe from left to right with my finger to stop them manually.

But sometimes, I find that I have twenty or more apps in the background, so I want to stop them all at once.

I did a simple search on Google, but didn't find an answer.

Is it possible to do that?

As far as I know : no you can't.

TL;DR :

Closing all background apps is a bad practice. You should close apps that you don't use often or apps you specifically want to close for X reason. IMO, the only good reason to close all recent apps is that you feel like there are too many of them and you can't find an app any more because of the mess it creates.

--

The recent apps feature in Lollipop appears to behave differently from previous versions. First of all, as you noticed, the button to clear all recent apps is gone. Moreover, the recent apps persist through reboot (read on Android Police : The Recent Apps List Now Persists Through Reboot).

Now, you still can clear them by swiping all the cards, which I agree is tedious. But as the top comment on the AP post I quoted above explains :

  Clearing out all of the apps in recents just puts more work on CPU and
  thus your battery because you're essentially having to start from
  scratch the next time you load it. If something stays in your recents
  list and is in RAM, it loads instantly with virtually no battery or
  processing penalty minus refreshing the content via the network
  connection.

Basically, all the Android users (including me a while ago) who frequently clear their recent apps, use task killers, etc. are using their Android device the wrong way.

You can read more about Why you shouldn't use a task killer on Android (a post by cybervibin on XDA), which is roughly the same as killing the apps yourself. In short, unused RAM is useless RAM. If a large amount of RAM is required by an app, the system will stop recent apps by itself to provide the newly launched app the needed resources. No need to stop them yourself, it's the OS's job.

I also recommend the read of this question on Android Enthusiasts about What happens when you swipe an app out of the recent apps list.

--

To conclude, to this day and as far as I know, you can't clear your recent apps all at once on Android Lollipop 5.0. But you shouldn't have to do that anyway, which is surely why Google's teams removed the button.


I get error 7 while updating Cyanogen OS 13 on OnePlus I have OnePlus One with Cyanogen OS 13.0-ZNH0EAS2JK and I can't install OTA updates since I have TWRP as recovery (version 3.0.2-0).

So, for this reason I downloaded the file of incremental version (this one: http://builds.cyngn.com/incremental/bacon/cm-bacon-ced5430fc0-to-9f339bddf2-signed.zip) and I tried to install it from recovery, but I get the following error:

Click to enlarge

Here is the message i get every time i reboot the phone:

How can i solve?

I followed recommendation of other forum Cm13.1 ZCN2KAS1KN i.e get  updated cyanogen os 13.1 official full zip and dirty patched to this official succesfully. Having TWRP implies we lost incremental updates...


How is Verizon suddenly tracking my hot-spot usage on Android and how do I disable this tracking? I am familiar with how iOS devices report hot spot use by treating it differently somehow.  My understand is that Android is not crippled like this, and there is rightly no difference in traffic between hot spot data and data from the phone itself.
So I was a bit shocked when I received a text from Verizon telling me I had used up almost all my paltry hot-spot "allowance" because this should not be possible that it discriminates traffic like that.  How is this possible?  I have used my hotspot a lot before and never received this message.
I have read something about an "APN"s but there is only one, "VZWINTERNET" which can only be "reset to default" with no option to delete or create a new one.

Your phone uses a different type of connection (DUN) to send tethered data but you can make the provider treat all traffic as if it is non-tethered:
adb shell settings put global tether_dun_required 0

When enabling tethering on Android, the OS will first do a provisioning check with the carrier to determine if your plan allows tethering. You can remove this check:
adb shell su
mount -o rw,remount /system_root
cd /system_root/system/
echo net.tethering.noprovisioning=true >> /system_root/system/build.prop

However it will not be enough because carriers often spot tethering by looking at the TTL of your IP packages.

Time to live (TTL) refers to the amount of time or “hops” that a packet is set to exist inside a network before being discarded by a router. It is decremented for each hop. A hop is any intermediate router the packet passes through.

When tethering, your phone acts as a router and your TTL is decreased by 1 before reaching your ISP, which is what betrays you.
By default, Android and iOS have a TTL of 64 so you only need to set the TTL on your PC to 65.
On GNU/Linux :
net.ipv4.ip_default_ttl=65

# persistent change
echo 'net.ipv4.ip_default_ttl=65' | sudo tee /usr/lib64/sysctl.d/70-ttl.conf

On Windows:
netsh int ipv4 set glob defaultcurhoplimit=65 netsh int ipv6 set glob
defaultcurhoplimit=65

On MacOS:
sudo sysctl -w net.inet.ip.ttl=65

For now it seems to be enough but keep in mind that your carrier has other ways to detect tethering (see here) and will most likely use them in the future.


I clicked on an anti virus scanner pop up on my android? I was browsing Google when a message popped up saying something along the lines of me having a virus. Okay, I'm not stupid. I've seen these on a computer before. I also saw the word yahoo somewhere on the pop up? But, in my frenzy, I forgot to carefully inspect the thing. Anyways, I clicked "no thanks" instead of "scan now" or something, but thinking back, if this was some kind of virus pop up, clicking on either option would have been a bad idea.

After clicking no thanks, I closed the app and turned my phone off. So far, I haven't seen anything wrong, but I am still quite concerned. I have been thinking about backing my phone up onto my computer, and then restarting my phone, however, I'm not sure if that's a good idea. In the case that my phone has been infected, would it be possible for the virus to transfer over to my computer? Should I even be concerned? Has this happened to anyone else? Maybe I'm being paranoid, but I'd like to take as little chances as possible. Thanks.

Short answer
You did the right thing, and don't need to be afraid. That popup was most likely caused by some Javascript on the visited web site to make you download/install something really bad. It doesn't mean you're infected.
Explanation
There are a couple of things to consider. First, if the popup really said "you have a virus", your reacting was fully correct (and the popup bluntly lying): There are no viruses for Android, at least not "in the wild". I know, the term got mixed up, and when speaking about Anti-Virus people really mean "an app against all kind of malware". But no serious AV app would speak of "you have a virus", as that's technically incorrect.
Mixing in your "fear" from the second paragraph here: exactly that's what matches a virus definition, and makes it different from all other kinds of malware: the ability to "multiply itself". As you 100% sure have no "virus" on your device, no need to be afraid about that.
For details on the above, please see e.g. Wikipedia:

the defining characteristic of viruses is that they are self-replicating computer programs which install themselves without the user's consent.

There you see why a virus is close to being impossible: on Android, the user is always asked for his "consent" when something is installed.
Now for the last part: Who should have caused that popup? Do you have any AV app installed and active? Your question does not suggest such. So if you have no such app installed, who should have popped up that warning? Android doesn't do that. So the most likely candidate was a part of the site you've visited. That's rather so-called Scareware trying to make you install something bad. Believe me, you did the right thing – and would possibly have been in trouble if you had acted differently.


How to insert Unicode characters by their hex codes using USB keyboard on ICS? Is typing hex codes to insert Unicode characters possible when using USB external keyboard on vanilla ICS or Jelly Bean? Any root modifications available to achieve this?

Or, if not possible system-wide, are there any text editing apps that will allow such behavior?

Inserting Unicode characters such as various bullets, subscript and superscript numbers, Greek letters and so on has been very useful while studying. I normally use gedit on a netbook running peppermint distro, because it's very simple and nondistracting while typing my summaries. I've ended up knowing by heart the most used hex codes. I'm planning to replace the netbook by a cheap vanilla ICS tablet (already factory-rooted) and a comfortable, decent USB keyboard, and the described feature would be mostly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

There is a way, actually! By editing system files in a rooted device through ADB. These two pages have the answer:
First, http://source.android.com/devices/input/key-layout-files.html explains how to edit the files that map any key scan codes of your USB keyboard (or even joystick buttons and the device's physical and touch buttons) to standard Android key codes. That's an optional step, useful if there are keys in your keyboard that do nothing in Android, or to remap the ones you don't use (multimedia keys, etc.). There's an app, Key Test by Chris Boyle, that will assist identifying key scan codes from your keyboard.
Then, http://source.android.com/devices/input/key-character-map-files.html shows how to map those Android key codes to Unicode characters when typing, so you can assign, for a given keystroke and modifiers combination, any Unicode character by its hex code, or one of the "magic" hex codes below:

The system reserves two Unicode characters to perform special functions:
'\uef00': When this behavior is performed, the text view consumes and removes the four characters preceding the cursor, interprets them as hex digits, and inserts the corresponding Unicode code point.
'\uef01': When this behavior is performed, the text view displays a character picker dialog that contains miscellaneous symbols.

So to have the behavior I wanted, all that's needed is to assign \uef00 to a key combination. Sweet!


ADB bricked android doesn't connect to pc I have a bricked android BLUBOO X2. I rooted it, changed build.prop to set some settings so that I could boot in Ubuntu Touch(which didn't work). And now I can't boot up anymore at all, it is in boot loop.

I tried booting in recovery and then selected "apply update from ADB". It then says: 'Now send the package you want to apply to the device with "adb sideload < filename>" ... '. I did this once and it showed an error, but the weird thing/problem is that I cannot sideload anything anymore: 'error: device not found'.

I (think I) know it is connected with my (Windows 10) PC because it made a connection and deconnecting sound when booting in recovery.

How can I get my android to be connected or how otherwise can I load a ROM or change the build.prop back?

Well, you've just messed with the system partition, so there's nothing much to panic.. Here's a stock ROM for your phone:

http://www.needrom.com/category/bluboo/x2-bluebo/ (Choose the ROM for the SAME android version you had before bricking).

The good news is you won't need to lose your data. Everything will be safe.

Download SP Flash Tools, load the scatter file from this ROM, uncheck all the partitions except ANDROID (SYSTEM) as this is the only partition you need to rectify. Click on Download and connect your device. Your device will be unbricked without having to lose any data.


Can the default browser be upgraded without upgrading the whole OS? Can android 2.2 default browser be upgraded (without upgrading the whole OS) ?

Unfortunately, it is not available through Android market as far as I know.

You cannot update inbuilt browser even though your phone is rooted. Anyway you have some other good alternative browsers in market like Dolphin, Opera.


Google still detects my voice when I turn off Assistant After I have disabled Google Assistant in the Google settings the phone continues to show a black bar displayed with an icon of a microphone, with the words:

  Say "Hey Google"

If I say "Hey Google" it detects my voice and shows a new window. I was just wondering why this is happening if Assistant has been disabled.

Android Police blog fully disable OK Google listening android phone suggests a couple of ways :

Disable the Google Assistant and Voice Match

  .... doesn't actually stop your phone from listening for commands; it only prevents it from reacting to them

Deny Google microphone permission, which is a better option. Depending on your Android version, it will take some searching to find the app setting. It will throw up a warning, but that can be ignored. Note that Google related functionality using microphone may be affected.


Is it possible to prevent unintentional re-dialling from Call History? I often unintentionally tap an item in the Call History list and that starts to re-dial the caller. I usually intended to tap the icon to view the duration of the call, but it is all too easy to tap the name or number instead. Is there anyway of changing that behaviour so that it doesn’t automatically re-dial the caller? If that isn’t possible, is it possible to have it prompt me for confirmation before re-dialling?

If it is significant, I am using Call History with Android 2.2 (Froyo) and HTC Sense.

Try this Call Confirm app. This application is going to ask you whether to call or Hangup the contact what you touched on Call History.


Why does my samsung galaxy s4 say 'Charging Paused,Battery Temp too High'? Ok so i have already brought a new battery and done a factory reset and tried different chargers and still says it is over heating . Please anyone got any ideas or solutions?

There might be a fault with the battery temperature sensor, due to which it detects high temperature every time the battery temp rises a bit over the normal  (which is common when you use the phone too much or you're charging it).

Does the phone feel very hot when this is shown?  If not, then the sensor has to be replaced,  and take your phone to an authorized service centre.


android 5.1.x security settings missing after upgrade A friend of mine asked me for help, she currently uses a Samsung phone with android 5.1.1 and misses settings for virus security and cpu in the main settings UI. The "virus" alert should be something with red/yellow/green indicators, she said. Also there should be some settings concerning the operationg system.
The change happened during an upgrade I guess.

I cannot figure out what she is speaking about, I have been using a Galaxy 2 and 4 up to now, currently running with 5.0.1

Do you have any idea what I could search for?

I also like to ask if you know an app (no root) for these security issues!?

Based on on description, I think you might be referring to Samsung's Smart Manger. Smart manager gives an overview of the device's RAM, Battery, Clean up as well as Security (contains sn anti-malware engine).

  Smart Manager's functions are to manage storage and RAM, scan and
  optimize data usage to preserve battery levels, and protect from
  security threats, close all apps running in the background that
  significantly drain the battery, uninstall unneeded applications, and
  run malware scans.

See below:

It is most likely the OS update didn't have Smart Manager. However the good thing is Smart Manager has been renamed Device Maintenance and is available from Google Playstore as long the device is compatible


Nexus 4 is not sharing internet connection (tethering), while WiFi or Bluetooth connection is successfully established I'm trying to make my nexus 4 sharing its internet connection with other devices.

First I've tried with the portable hotspot: when it is ready I try to connect my nexus 7 2. It connects without problem to the WiFi Net but the WiFi indicators never gets blue and I'm not able to surf.
Then I've tried the bluetooth way: paired the devices and (on the tablet) checked the internet access option. This time the bluetooth indicator gets blue but whenever I try to load a page the browser loads forever.

The same happens with a macbook.

I think that for some unknown reason my phone is setting up a WiFi Net but it doesn't share its internet connection.

How can I make my Nexus 4 share its internet connection?

My Nexus 4 is running Android 4.3, as does the Nexus 7 2

Following @Shadow's suggestion I've googled a bit more...turns out that Android >= 4.1.2 prevents you from using tethering if you are served by a virtual operator (as I am).

This is a nice post http://albertomilone.com/wordpress/?p=581 explains pretty well the situation and propose a solution based on iptables.

EDIT

Looks like this problem is solved with Android 4.4.2 as stated here


Disable key shadowing? I have a Galaxy Ace (bought today) and I hate how the keys pop up as you type, iPhone style. On my Nexus S (stolen) you could change it, but I can't seem to find it on this.

I don't know if you can change that but you can always install the same Keyboard that you had in Nexus S. Search market for Gingerbread keyboard and/or Ice cream sandwich keyboard.

Those keyboard are the keyboard that ships with Android. Samsung like HTC modifies/creates keyboard that differs from stock keyboard. Samsung keyboard is very much similar to ios. But unlike iPhone style, you can always change keyboard in Android OS.


what in xposed caused this bootloop and how to prevent it from happening again? My android phone is stuck in a boot loop. To troubleshoot it I was able to boot into TWPR and use adb pull /sys/fs/pstore/console-ramoops to get some boot logs (is that even the right file?).

When opening the file in a text viewer it is very corrupted, with missing letters like in this example...

Is there another procedure I can follow to either get a correctly encoded or uncorrupted log file or fix the one I got? It was literally the only way I found of pulling some logs from TWRP terminal...

On the troubleshooting part: prior to last known good status no particular action was done... just using telegram briefly.

Then I started getting crashes of system app so I rebooted. This now is the result...

Update: it seems that adb connects during the boot animation. I was able to do adb logcat -v time -b events -b main -b system -b radio >> boot.log and i got a stream of logs, will post the result once it's done boot looping or battery dies.

Update: indeed I was able to get real-time log of the boot process. It is boot looping since my logfile is growing bigger, so it's not "stuck".

Trying to look for information in the log I found this pattern of "waited one second"... which seems to indicate that something is not running or failing to run.

Here is a screenshot of what I mean:

The figure of 838 seconds waited seems right since I had my phone logging for about 15 minutes...

I am continuing to log until something happen, but now I think I need some help debugging this problem...

There seem to be two things that are waited for:

07-01 22:58:59.863 W/slim_daemon(  951): Waited one second for android.frameworks.sensorservice@1.0::ISensorManager/default. Waiting another...

and

07-01 22:59:02.359 W//system/bin/cameraserver( 3000): Waited one second for android.hardware.camera.provider@2.4::ICameraProvider/legacy/0. Waiting another...

My conclusion for now is that there may be something wrong with camera or sensors...

This seems to be readings for temperature.. 53° is pretty hot...

Also this seems to imply that the battery stats dumping took 262k milliseconds. (?)

Are there things I can look for specifically  in the log, like some known line or checkpoints like

I would attach the log file, but how can I clean any private data that may be in in there?

Initial problem is solved

I was finally able to boot, disabling the Xposed module did the trick:

booted to TWRP recovery
flashed Magisk Manager for Recovery Mode(mm-201904040.zip)
run it in TWRP's terminal with */mm
selected m) Magic mount
selected xposed_27
confirmed
rebooted with the reboot command

It booted in safe mode, since I previously had modified some files to induce that, so I rebooted again from power menu and it booted normally.

Now I think I want to know what happened specifically so that I can re-enable xposed, since I have some modules I rely on for customizations.

Also with no configuration changes I'm still baffled at how the phone got bootlooped, i remember frequent ANRs of the system app to the point of not able to run anythng and rebooting.

Is it really xposed fault or merely disabling it removed a symptom of something else ?

So the question should be what in xposed caused this bootloop and how to prevent it from happening again ?

Bootlooping with logs this messed up probably suggests that some other process is arbitrarily reading and writing from the io stream of the log file. In layman's terms, very bad stuff.

I think your best option is to just recover as much data as you can and reflash the ROM. Something has clearly gone very wrong.


Recover Android system with TWRP Recovery Note that I am running Mac OS X.

I tried installing an unofficial version of Cyanogenmod I found on XDA Developers that supports kltemini (SM-G800F). However, I messed up somewhere in the installation, and got a message on TWRP recovery saying:

Can't install this package on top of incompatible data. Please try another package or run a factory reset

And when I try pressing Reboot into System, I get:

No OS Installed! Are you sure you wish to reboot?

In the comments, @beeshyams said that I can install from a trusted source SamMobile, where I did get the SM-G800F Czech version, and downloaded it. However, the flashing fails with:

Error flashing zip /external_sd/Android_Stock.zip

Extracting it on a computer makes a .tar.md5 file, and extracting that gives me a bunch of .img files. I read that I should compress these, and flash, but the same error showed.

Another solution could be to download a custom ROM so I can actually boot into ANYTHING, but most ROMs don't support SM-G800F.

What I can also do is go to Download mode, and download stock recovery, so I can re-install the OS over OTA, however there is a risk that I will not be able to use Recovery anymore.

How can I solve this?

UPDATE:

Trying to flash stock recovery with heimdall prints:

ERROR: Failed to send data!
Releasing device interface...

I am on OS X and I am using the CLI Heimdall to flash

I also made a chatroom for active discussion here: http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/33331/discussion-on-question

Looking at the installation instructions of the ROM you flashed, I am guessing in the TWRP/ CWM options, under Advanced Wipe , one of the options " Wipe Dalvik Cache, Cache, System and Data " (likely data) was missed out leading to the current situation.

[[ Edit

Thanks to OP for confirming that wiping data was missed out by him while installing CM. A couple of other observations made by OP are listed. These are NOT normally observed behaviour of CWM but may be occurring due to incompatibilities of ROM being " unofficial"

CM didn't start normally when data partition alone was backed up
He had to resort to wiping data to get back to normal functioning. This is also mentioned in the installation instructions of the ROM

  Flash CyanogenMod:....Note that the recovery might fail to restore the backup when you want to go back to the stock ROM (emphasis by ROM developer)

]]

That aside, as you brought out, there are two options

Option 1 Re-flash CM ROM and subsequently revert to stock if needed

Option 2 Attempt to flash stock directly

Option 1 would be preferred option since your unable to flash stock ROM and get an error message

Suggested steps for Option 1

Boot to recovery mode of TWRP/CWM
Wipe Dalvik Cache, Cache, and Data (inside Wipe -> Advanced Wipe for TWRP)
Install CM ROM
Install the GApps zip-package
Test that ROM is correctly installed by testing minimum functionality of Google play store connecting, camera and call/ SMS working

Now,assuming it is successful,use the ROM for a couple of days before deciding if you want to continue with it or revert to stock

Reverting to Stock from CM 12

Since you are using OS X and Debian, install Heimdall (am not conversant with it so will skip the details)
Flash recovery. This guide seems to explain the process well but you can suggest a better alternative with your experience http://davideddu.org/blog/posts/how-to-flash-a-recovery-image-using-heimdall/

  Additional Information that may come in handy for related issues and also to cover points raised in the comments section of question

Windows users:

Flashing Stock using Odin

Odin has different versions and some of the versions have options changed. Hence, the description in guides may differ with options available on the tool. This guide has a good pictorial description corresponding to newer version of Odin

http://androidmtk.com/flash-samsung-stock-rom-using-odin

Extracting Stock recovery from stock image

http://howto.highonandroid.com/samsung-tutorials/how-to-extract-stock-recovery-from-samsung-firmware/2/
Linux users

Instructions for flashing stock ROM ate covered here How to convert .img to .tar to flash using Samsung odin tool?

Command line instructions for backing up stock recovery from image
Can we backup the stock recovery.img in any way?


'Authorization Failed' toast message at startup Every time I reboot my HTC One M8 Google Play Edition running 6.0 Marshmallow, there is a toast message that reads 'Authorization Failed' with no other information on what actually failed.

Any idea what is causing this so I can fix it?

Improvising Firelord's comment, if you are using  Linux, execute in terminal

adb shell dumpsys window > log.txt

and then,

cat log.txt | grep 'TOAST'

Now, you can find the package name and app causing the problem.


Stop WhatsApp from being used on lost phone I lost my Android phone, but my WhatsApp is still on. How I can stop someone who is using it?

I don't have the SIM with me. The people who found it is using my WhatsApp account. When they went online, I tried to talk but they did no reply.

From Whatsapp:

  What do I do if my phone is lost or stolen?

  In the unfortunate case that your phone gets lost or stolen, we can
  help make sure that no one can use your WhatsApp account.

  As soon as possible you should call your mobile provider to lock your
  SIM card. Then, it will not be possible to verify the account on that
  phone again as you need to be able to receive SMS or phone calls to
  verify an account.

  After you have locked the SIM in your stolen phone, you can use a new
  SIM with the same number to activate WhatsApp on your new phone. This
  is the fastest way to deactivate your account on the stolen phone.
  WhatsApp can only be activated with one phone number on one device at
  a time.

  If you are not ready to activate WhatsApp on a new phone with the same
  number we can deactivate your account. Email us with your phone number
  in the full international format as described here. Please note that
  we are not able to help you locate your phone. Remote WhatsApp
  deactivation from another device is not possible.

  Important: Even with the SIM card locked and phone service disabled,
  WhatsApp can be used on Wi-Fi if you do not contact us with an account
  deactivation request.

  More important details about deactivated accounts

  When your account is deactivated, it is not completely deleted.
  While your account is deactivated:

  Your name is still on your contacts' Favorites / Select Contact lists.
  Your contacts can send you messages, which will remain in a pending state for up to 30 days.

  If you reactivate your account before it is deleted, you will receive any pending messages on your new phone and you will still be
  in all of your group chats.
  If a deactivated account is not re-activated within 30 days, it will be completely deleted.

  Note: Since your chat history is stored on your device, we cannot retrieve your previous messages.


How do I get SuperSU to update binaries after a reboot after using Ping Pong? Screen shot of popup after reboot after checking if phone has root. So the "Grant" & "Deny" button at this point are unclickable! Why?Okay so I used the latest Ping Pong root.apk from XDA to root my S6  which worked fine but yet after doing the reboot after rooting with Ping Pong and opening SuperSU it never asked me to update binaries like it's supposed to. Is that why the Root checker app says my phone is not rooted? And how can I fix it? What is causing this? Other people with my model have successfully rooted.

Model of S6 SM-G920W8
OS: 5.0.2

The problem is in a different place than you think. Looking at your status bar, you seem to have a screen tint/filter app. For whatever reason, apps like that seem to interfere with system dialogue boxes, such as the SuperSU one from your example, or the package installer. Disable the app temporarily whenever you have to deal with one of those.


Dock Gboard keyboard to the bottom I think Android pushed an update on to my Pixel 3 phone running Android 10, and now the Gboard keyboard is small and floats around.

How do I dock the Gboard keyboard at the bottom of the screen?

On the keyboard, click the three dots "..." and click on "Floating" to unfloat/dock


Android 4.1 tablet Model M736 not recognizing keyboard when connected through 4 port usb hub I am having a Belkin 4 port USB hub and an Android 4.1 tablet Model M736 made by Kocaso. I am trying to connect USB keyboard and a USB WiFi dongle to the hub and not able to see either of the devicces. Tried only the keyboard connected to the hub yet not able to recognize that a keyboard exists. But individually the devices work when connected directly to tablet. Could it be that the USB hub isnot able to support enough power when connected to the tablet.

Any suggestions

Connect a self powered USB hub and try again.

USB-OTG ports often provide little power that's suitable for one device only, but may already fail for power hungry devices like very fast USB thumb drives, wifi dongles or 2.5in USB hard disk enclosures. Your setup very probably draws too much.

You can use any 3rd party USB power bank if you need it on-the-go. Your hub may have a power input connector already. Finding the right cable might be an issue though. Here's some related info, someone asked this for the SGS i9000 which doesn't provide power at all: USB host mode not working on Samsung Galaxy S using CyanogenMod


Can I reset the contacts app in ICS? For some reason, whenever I try to edit a detail of any contact, after selecting the detail to type, my cursor gets jumped to the "First Name".

Is there a way I can reset all the settings for the contacts app and start fresh?

My OS is the stock ICS that comes with Sony Xperia S.

If your device is rooted, you can use Titanium Backup to wipe data for the contact application. There by you will reset the contact app's settings as well as the contacts. There by you can start fresh. However, if you had synced the contacts before this step, you can again sync to get back your contacts.


Identifying the correct version of Google Play Services My android phone has the following specifications :

OS Version Jelly Bean MR1 4.2.2
Architecture armeabi-v7a
Software Density 191dpi

I need to update Google Play services manually since I am unable to get an auto update.Some apps which need an updated version of Play Services to function, have completely locked me out. I understand I will be requiring Play Services with code 030, but there are so many versions available in the web, that I am getting confused. I am a beginner in this field.

Could someone kindly tell me what is the latest play services version do I need, if possible with a link to the download apk.

The easiest way is to go to the Google Play services page from the PC using your Google account (the account used on your phone). Then launch the installation for the page. The correct version for your device will be detected and installed.

If you can't do that, then this version (18.3.82) from Apkpure should be compatible with your device.


What does it mean the "WIFI" label on the market? Possible Duplicate:
  Wi-Fi icon next to apps in android market

I've noticed that a few items on "My applications" on the Android Market client have a gray "WIFI" label on them. What does that mean?

Usually means it's a large file and requires you to be connected to WiFi to download.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/mnfwa/what_does_the_wifi_label_mean_for_apps_on_the/


HTC Incredible - always on soft button lights when screen is on When I bought my Galaxy Nexus, I gave my dad my HTC Incredible to replace his aging Blackberry curve. His eyesight isn't so great, and he has trouble seeing the soft keys on the Incredible when their backlights are off.

Is there a way to have those backlights remain on as long as the screen is on? Root or no root, it'd be great if someone had a solution.

In Cyanogen ROM there are options to tweak the auto brightness levels, including the "Buttons" level. Setting it to 255 for all brightness levels should keep them on all the time. It is also possible to add or remove brightness levels.

http://chromloop.com/2011/06/how-to-optimize-the-automatic-backlight-settings-in-cyanogenmod-7/

Rooting and using a custom ROM may not be an ideal solution, but it should get the job done.


Can I get Stagefright from a friend? So let's say my friend is infected with the Stagefright bug, if he sends me a video/sound will I get the virus too? Also, can voice messages on whatsapp be infected?

No, Stagefright doesn't work like that. It's not like computer virus/worm which can spread to other device, but it's an OS vulnerability.

It depends only if your device has been patched or not (e.g. OS update/security update). If it has, then you can be pretty sure that such MMS won't affect your device (for particular Stagefright attack vector. AFAIK, there are multiple, not only one).

For further reading, see Stagefright security issue: what can a regular user do to mitigate the issue without a patch?


Battery getting very hot and draining unusually quickly on the S2, S3, and now the S4? This is a pretty unusual problem, and I've encountered the question in various forums but never the answer. I've had this problem on and off since the Galaxy SII. What happens is I'll take the phone off the charger in the morning, and it will be extremely hot in my pocket all day, then it will die about 10 hours later. This is an intermittent problem. I thought it was loosely associated with the alarm clock, but I got a new phone yesterday because the SIII died a few months ago, and I have not had this phone for more than 24 hours and already it has the same problem.

I haven't installed anything on it, and I've barely used any data. I have a 200 mb plan, so I can't even use data that often. The only other weird thing that's persisted is that the red arrow on the wifi and on mobile data seems to always be lit when I turn on the phone.

Has anyone seen this problem or know how to fix it?

On these phones, the behaviour you describe can be caused by a corrupted SD card filesystem. The media scanner runs all the time, trying to read the SD card.

This problem immediately suggested itself as a possibility as it would be natural to move the same SD card to your new phone, transferring the problem there. That would explain why it started right away.

You can check if this is what's happening by going into the device Settings, then Battery (on the More tab). If this is the problem, Media scanner will be at the top of the list.

Once you've confirmed the problem, take out the SD card from your phone, put it into an SD card reader in a desktop computer, and use the computer's filesystem check (i.e. fsck on GNU/Linux, ScanDisk on Windows) to repair any problems.

Even if you checked the battery stats and it wasn't the media scanner, that might give you a hint of what has been causing the problem.


How to 'move' sygic maps to sd card I've a new Lollipop smartphone (LG Spirit), i've Sygic Gps, but when i download maps, Android save it to internal memory.
I've moved them to sd card (cut and paste), but when i start sygic it asks again which maps i would like to download.
Is there an hack i can do to make it work ?

I guess you might have been doing it wrong or maybe  the feature to switch to sd card storage was not yet introduced yet in the Sygic version.

According to instructions given on Sygic help, try the the following:

  Depending on your device specifications and settings, Sygic files will
  install either to your SD card, or in your device's internal memory.
  If you want the Sygic files to be installed specifically to your SD
  card, please follow these steps:

before installing Sygic on your device, select the option Store new apps on SD card

or

If you already have Sygic installed on your device, you can change the storage location at any time, via the settings in the application.
Just go to Menu → Settings and tap on "Maps and Data storage" then choose the removable sd card option


Link2SD error- "mount: Operation not supported on transparent endpoint" So I just rooted my Concord II, and installed Link2SD. I partitioned my SD card with MiniTool, and made a Fat32 and a ext2, both primary. But when after opening Link2SD and giving it root access, it gives me a popup saying select the file system of your SD card's second partition (see first screenshot below), and I select ext2 and press ok. But then a mount script error popup comes up saying mount script could not be created (see second screenshot). The error is "mount: Operation not supported on transparent endpoint". How can I fix this? These screenshots illustrate what's happening:

Try with an ext4 partition.

From www.link2sd.info/faq. I had the same issue and this fixed it.


Downgrade Nexus 9 running lollipop to KitKat I'd like to downgrade my Nexus 9 to android 4.X (KitKat). Is this possible?
I'm not the pro doing something like that and I could not find something with google.

Can you help me please?
Thank you

It is unlikely, since the Nexus 9 was a Android 5.0 Lollipop launch device. There are no official (Google developed & distributed) versions of Android 4.4 KitKat for the Nexus 9.

Third party roms would be the way to go - but I have found no KitKat roms for the Nexus 9, and I personally doubt one would be developed unless there was a massive interest in it.


"Accept-Language" header sent by Chrome browser on Android What exactly it depends upon?

For example, if I have only one language specified in the Settings, but the Accept-Language header appears as:

  uk-UA,uk;q=0.8,ru;q=0.6,en-US;q=0.4,en;q=0.2

How can I remove extra languages?

As far as I tested, the following behaviours apply to both Android and Linux Desktop versions of Google Chrome:

Every time you change your system locale (via LANG environment variable on Linux; or via System - Languages settings on Android), Google Chrome resets its own language settings (and the Accept-Language header) to a pre-defined list.

For example, if you set system locale to "English (Canada) / en_CA.UTF-8" and restart Chrome, the Accept-Language header will contain four locales: en_CA, en_GB, en_US, and en.

In Chrome settings, you can adjust the list of languages, leaving only "English" (no region suffix), and after a restart of Chrome, the Accept-Language header will contain only one locale: en.

I do not know about uk / ru languages, but you could try adjusting the language list in Chrome settings (don't forget to restart Chrome) and visit https://httpbin.org/headers to examine your Accept-Language header.


How can I boost the music volume higher than the max limit? I have a Samsung Galaxy running Android. When I put music to max, it's not loud enough in my ear phone.

How can I boost it beyond the maximum volume? On Linux I can do this with ALSA; is there a way to do it in Android?

Follow up:

All of them are paid media players so FREE is almost unavailable. Using for the moment: Cubed

As far as I know audio amplifying circuits will have a fixed amplifying ratio (gain). By adding resistance (either digitally or using analog POT) on the input (or output?) signal the volume is reduced. Hence in my opinion it can't be done.

Switching over to in ear phone buds like:
instead of:  will provide better noise isolation and there by improve listening experience.  If the music is being played from files stored in the phone, you can edit them to increase volume with audio editing tools like Audacity.


How can I remove viruses? My dad's phone got infected with a virus. The virus will auto enable the WIFI despite after disabling it for a few seconds. Factory restore doesn't work too, the virus came back. I have installed antivirus such as kaspersky, norton, and dr web. They are all unable remove the virus, it re-install itself after removal. It's running on android 4.4.

Here is the screen shot of what dr web's report

It keeps downloading back these applications

Can anyone please advice me on what to do?

Like above ...

If the file is persistent or un-deletable
 (usually the associated binary files under system > bin)
You need to use a Chattr first ..

busybox chattr -ia /system/bin/viralFile

and then

rm /system/bin/viralFile

This is helpful for force removing virus or non-deletable files,  like most people on here that have used KingRoot or similar programs, it's a last option for hard to remove files !


Settings > Display > Navigation Bar > Background Color Options Suddenly Limited Shortly after buying my Samsung Galaxy S8, my Settings > Display > Navigation Bar screen looked like this:

I retrieved that image from Android Central.  Now, it looks like this:

Notice the significantly limited color selections in the "Background Color" section.  Also, the first image has a color picker, but the second image does not.  I'm wondering if a recent update eliminated these options.  Could any Galaxy S8 owners tell me if their settings are more similar to the first or second image?  Also, does anyone have a suggestion how I could bring back the color options from the first image?  Thank you.

I don't own a Galaxy S8 device, but it seems the recent update has removed or limited the background colours option. From this article it is certainly the case:

  Samsung is pushing out a new software update for the Galaxy S8 and
  Galaxy S8+ right now, and it looks like the company has decided to
  limit the customization options for the navigation bar. Well, at least
  when it comes to the choice of color for the navigation bar’s
  background, as there is no longer an option to choose a custom color
  from an RGB scale. In fact, Samsung has switched up the available
  background colors, and the worst of it is that you can no longer use a
  fully black navigation bar background.

Again here is the changelog of the update:

You could try other workarounds using apps to extend the range of nav colours as suggested with this app from play store. (NavBar App)


Change which AppDrawer is started (Google Now Launcher) I've recently installed Beautiful Drawer because I would like to categorize my Apps in the Drawer. I'm using a Nexus 5 with  Kitkat and the default Google Now launcher. My phone is not rooted.

Is it possible to change the default AppDrawer which is started when tapping on the AppDrawer-symbol on the main screen? It should start Beautiful Drawer instead of the default Drawer.

Here is a picture which shows the icon I'm talking about:

No. The app drawer is part of the same app as the home screen itself: the launcher app. You can only replace both of them at once. Some launchers don't even have a separate app drawer: the list of apps is a seamless part of the home screen itself.


Can you identify this 'N' app running in the status bar? This 'N' thing in the status bar is new and I don't know which app it is. I've looked in the applications list but can't find anything unusual. I think it also changed the wallpaper without asking.

Does anyone recognize it?

Here it is close up:

And in the context of the screen:

I don't know for sure, but could it be a variation of the NFC status icon?


How to force the mobile data (3G/4G) connection on a single app like Google voice recognition? When an android phone is connected by both wifi and mobile data (3G/4G), it will preferentially use wifi since this saves battery and mobile data bandwidth.  However, my  mobile connection is more reliable than my wifi, and there are some apps that use only a small amount of data but which I want to operate reliably.  Google voice recognition is the primary example.

My understanding is that each app has it's own preferred connection type (almost always set to wifi) at the level of the operating system, but that this setting is not not available to the user.  How can I change an app's preference to mobile data? If necessary, I am open to solutions that only work for Google voice recognition (e.g. a buried user option).

There is an app on the Play Store called "NoRoot Firewall" which may be used for this purpose.

Inside the app you can select which app you want to connect to WiFi or mobile data.


Disable "Enjoy your app!" popup Every now and then, after installing or updating an app from the Play Store, a popup with the following text appears:

  Enjoy your app! If you ever forget your password, we can help you restore access to your Google Play library and purchases. Tap "Continue" to tell us how to contact you.

I won't forget my password and I'm certainly not going to provide Google with information that might allow them to enable 2FA.

How do I disable this naggy popup?

This message is because you do not have any Account Recovery information tied to your account. This is not some Malware, or anything harmful. They will not change any of your security settings by clicking it.

Clicking "continue" will ask you for additional information to verify your account and your device. You should enter the information, it is the information if you need to perform a password reset, or if you are unable to access your account via password and 2-step authentication, this will give google another way for you to verify you are you.


Get the size of the navigation bar using ADB I want to know what is the size of the navigation bar in pixel using ADB.
Using adb shell wm size gives the complete screen size instead of only the navigation bar.
Is there any way to get it?

Enter this one-liner:
adb shell dumpsys window windows| sed -n '/Window .*NavigationBar.*:/,/Window .*:/p'| grep 'Requested'

Alternatively, if you don't have Linux/Mac, try this:

adb shell
dumpsys window windows | toybox sed -n '/Window .*NavigationBar.*:/,/Window .*:/p'| grep 'Requested'

What's happening in that one liner is this:

we use dumpsys to output all the details of all the windows displayed on the screen (irrespective of the screen on or off)

we filter the content using sed to show only those lines which have information about Navigation Bar

we grep the information we need.
You can alternatively try grepping for grep mSystemDecorRect. I don't know which one is more reliable in all circumstances.

Expected output example:

Requested w=1080 h=126 mLayoutSeq=10835

# if 'mSystemDecorRect' was grepped, then:

mSystemDecorRect=[0,0][1080,126] mLastClipRect=[0,0][1080,126]

w: width, h: height, of your navigation bar respectively.
Note: for some reason if the one-liner fails to work or gives unexpected output, filter it like this. Get the dump using that first dumpsys command, then find the entry for your NavigationBar, and within that, look for the size.
Tested on OnePlus 6 running Android 10.
Credits: Fiximan of Unix & Linux for sed command.


Old files not showing up on PC. Suggestions for Workarounds? I'm trying to transfer files from one phone to another. I connected both of them to my computer with usb. However, files that are older than 6/15/17 do not show up on the computer. I can see them in my file manager app, but not on PC.

You can use Airdroid to transfer files over local WiFi connection or use adb to pull all files.

Install adb on your PC
Turn on USB debugging from Developer settings
Use adb pull command to copy everything


Why does rooting void warranty? What is the reasoning behind Samsung being against rooting?
Why does rooting cause your warranty to be voided?
Isn't rooting a good thing for the user, since you have added functionality?
I understand that there comes security risks with rooting, but I'm sure if Samsung gave their full support to users that want to root their phone by making it an option, that they could avoid/fix security problems that come with rooting

What is the reasoning behind Samsung being against rooting? Why does rooting cause your warranty to be voided?

It is not a Samsung-specific case. Almost all manufacturers demand you to use the device as is. It is mostly about risk management. The risk of user damaging the phone is increased significantly when the phone is rooted and it would create a very big burden on manufacturers both as work force and economically. When they manufacture a series, they do it hundreds of thousands in numbers. They expect a number of problems with certain percentage of phones manufactured. If rooting is allowed, it would add greater risk and make the number of expected faulty phones unpredictable.

  Isn't rooting a good thing for the user, since you have added functionality?

Yes, as long as the users know what they are doing, but you obviously fail to see how unrelated this fact is to the question you ask. All computers have their own security-usability ratio. The reason you need rooting in the first place is because Android deliberately restricts the access of the user to certain properties. Not many people cares about getting to set CPU frequencies of the phone but many people cares about having a phone that is malware-free.

When you use a phone as is, the odds of creating bootloops, hard-bricks, security problems, usage of unauthorized software etc. is minimal and that is the way warranty-providers want to keep it. And that is not even the whole story. Manufacturers get paid to install bloatware. They don't want you to be able to delete them that easily.

  I understand that there comes security risks with rooting, but I'm
  sure if Samsung gave their full support to users that want to root
  their phone by making it an option, that they could avoid/fix security
  problems that come with rooting.

You are sure but you are wrong. You don't understand the root user concept of Unix-like operating systems. It is risky, period. You are free to use your device the way you want but you can't ask manufacturer to cover the expenses you might create by using the phone the way you are not told to do.


Media Player stuck on 00:00 (randomly) when opened My usual listening habits are to listen to podcasts with Doggcatcher sometimes followed by listening to some music (currently using PlayerPro) (on my Samsung Galaxy S4) while driving. Periodically, when I close Doggcatcher and open PlayerPro, and I select a track to play, the track looks like it is going to start to play.

However, although the timer starts at 00:00, and the Play button changes to the Pause button, there is no sound. Often the timer will tick over to 00:01 after a few seconds but it gets not further.

Similarly, if I switch to the Google Play Music app, the timer happily ticks away, but no sound comes out. Switching again to, say, N7, we are back to the same PlayerPro behaviour.

It appears not to depend on the media player, though I usually use PlayerPro. It usually happens after using DoggCatcher, but then again, it is the only app I use for podcasts.

The only solution I have so far, is to restart the device - a bit inconvenient, particularly when driving.

Has anyone else experienced something similar? Any idea what is cause these media players to 'pause'? Any tips on investigating this issue?

I had to rebuild my phone after a firmware update; in doing so, I skipped over a lot of the Junk that I'd previously installed. The upshot is that I no longer suffer this problem (nor several others that had crept in). While it could be the software update that was the solution, I suspect that it was more likely that the clean install that did the trick.

On the plus side, the problem has disappeared; on the negative side, we don't know what the solution is.


Withheld, unknown or new number filtering - by asking caller to state their name How can I make my phone do the following if the number is unknown:

Answer the phone
Play a message that says "As you are calling from an unknown number, please State your name"
Record their reply
Put them on hold
Allow me to hear their message and either accept the call, send to voicemail or hang up

Google Voice has options for this.  If you have a Voice account and someone calls you using that number you can use the Call Screening option to force them to record a message you can hear before you pick up.

Edit: Google Voice is currently only available in the US, so if you live anywhere else this solution obviously won't work for you.


Trouble understanding this Cyanogenmod PSA I've been using Cyanogenmod for over a year now, with my own modifications to the dalvik VM. I have teamwin recovery installed on my Samsung Galaxy S3, which I use to install new builds of cyanogenmod. One problem I've always had and have been unable to find an explanation for is that installing the new build of cyanogenmod would fail with some assert until I remove the assert lines from META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script in cyanogenmod zip file. I'm trying to figure out how to install cyanogenmod properly so I don't get the assert error (cyanogenmod already works for me (though it crashes sometimes, but I think that's normal), I just want to make sure I'm doing it right).
I'm reading this PSA on Cyanogenmod's website, which I was linked to from here, which I found by searching the word "I747MVLDLK4", which I found in my phone's "baseband version" in the settings menu (I was thinking I need a different version of cyanogenmod other than d2att - one which has "I747MVLDLK4" listed in its assert lines), and I don't understand a single thing it's saying.

As we march towards the 10.1 release of CyanogenMod, we have folks updating from older ICS stock builds.

What is ICS?

However, there is an incompatibility between the ICS bootloader firmware and Android 4.1 and above releases
[...]
Find a heimdall/odin or recovery-installable package of your device’s firmware, and install it.

What is a heimdall/odin or recovery-installable package of my device's firmware? Is that the bootloader firmware? Or, is it the entire "firmware" as in the way people call cyanogenmod a "firmware"? Or, are they telling me to install the default software that came with my phone when I bought it (where can I even get that?)?

To make sure your device is primed and ready for this state, the following lists the bootloaders compatible for each device:
d2att: I747UCDLK3 & I747MVLDLK4

Is this a different thing? Or is it the "firmware" they referred to above in my previous question?

Some Disambiguation:

ICS is abbreviation of "Ice Cream Sandwich," or Android 4.0.x release.

Bootloader is code that runs before the operating system even starts. See more details here:

  In literal terms, bootloader is code that is executed before any
  Operating System starts to run. The concept of bootloaders is
  universal to virtually all Operating systems that inculcates operating
  systems on your PC, laptop, smartphones, and other such devices.
  Bootloaders basically package the instructions to boot operating
  system kernel and most of them also have their own debugging or
  modification environment. As the bootloader kicks off before any piece
  of software on your device, it makes it extremely processor specific
  and every motherboard has it’s own bootloader. This is one reason that
  all Android phones have different Custom ROMS developed due to high
  variance of processing hardware present on the device.   ...   Every
  Android phone has a bootloader that instructs the operating system
  kernel to boot normally. But you need to understand one thing here
  that as Android OS is an open source OS and is available on a variety
  of different hardware, every manufacturer has their own version of
  bootloader specific for the hardware present in it’s environment.

Heimdall and Odin are tools for flashing images to Samsung phones.

The Problem:

The issue is that Samsung made some modifications to the bootloader code for their release of Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) on Galaxy S3 models. This means that custom ROMs that were created on older 4.0 base will no longer be compatible with new bootloader.  The new bootloaders, however, are backwards-compatible with older pre-4.1 based ROMs, so upgrading the bootloader will not prevent you from flashing CM9, for example.

The assert errors you are seeing are from trying to flash such incompatible ROMs.  These validations were put in for your protection, and you should not remove them from the updater scripts.

The Solution:

You should upgrade your phone's bootloader to the proper version, as specified in that blog post.

The instructions for updating the bootloader are here:

  Download the correct update:
  I747U (AT&T)
    * I747UCALG1 - Jul 1, 2012 - boot_CWM_I747UCALG1.zip - 1.13 MB
    * I747UCDLK3 - Nov 3, 2012 - boot_CWM_I747UCDLK3.zip - 1.13 MB
    * I747UCDMG2 - Jul 2, 2013 - boot_CWM_I747UCDMG2.zip - 1.13 MB
    * I747UCUEMJB - Oct 11, 2013 - boot_CWM_I747UCUEMJB.zip - 1.14 MB WARNING: Do not attempt to downgrade from this bootloader. Doing so will brick your device. Use extra caution when flashing anything via Odin, as many Odin packages will attempt to flash the bootloader.

  I747M (Canada and overseas)
  * I747MVLUEMK5 - Nov 5, 2013 - boot_CWM_I747MVLUEMK5.zip - 1.14 MB WARNING: Do not attempt to
  downgrade from this bootloader. Doing so will brick your device. Use
  extra caution when flashing anything via Odin, as many Odin packages
  will attempt to flash the bootloader.

  Depending on which type of update package you downloaded, follow one
  of the following steps:

  Flashing with Odin

  Download Odin: link
  Put your phone into download mode. Some ROMs have this option in the Power > Reboot menu,
  otherwise just hold "Volume Down" and "Home" while powering on your
  device.
  Launch Odin, then connect the USB cable to your device.
  Click the "PDA" button and select the package you downloaded in step
  Click "Start" in Odin and wait for the process to complete. Your device should reboot automatically when the flash is complete, and you're done.

  Flashing in recovery

  If you've downloaded a flashable .ZIP from above, copy it to your SD card or internal storage.
  Reboot your phone into recovery mode (you can do this by holding "Volume Up" and "Home"
  while powering on your device; let go of the buttons when you see
  "Recovery booting..." in blue text in the top left of the screen) and
  install the .ZIP as an update.
  Reboot, and you're done.
  Note: After flashing in recovery, you need to reboot before you (and ROM
  installers) actually see the new version number.

It looks like you have the Canadian S3, so you will need to upgrade to the I747MVLUEMK5 bootloader.  After you flash it, you should be able to install newer CM versions without any errors.


System update notification but system already up-to-date I've had the Google Pixel XL for over a year now (it's awesome) and I just received a notification to upgrade my OS to 8.1.0. Problem is, I already have 8.1.0 installed. I updated it a couple weeks ago. What is going on here?

This is also not the first time this has happened. I haven't been keeping track of when it's occured, but the same thing happened with 8.0.0 as well as a couple other times. Each time I've just went forward and reinstalled the udpate that I already had.

From what I can tell, there is no way to dismiss the notification and ignore the redundant update. I know that I could disable the system update notifications altogether, but I would like to have them, only just the first one.

This is not a major huge deal, but I'd be curious to know if people have thoughts about this. Thank you.

Does Android put out security updates with the same version #?

Yes. Version number changes generally correspond with new features or new APIs. Occasionally it will also be incremented for major bugfixes, but this has been somewhat less common now that Google has tried to increase their release cadence (around Android 6.0-ish or so). Security updates will change the build number, but not the version number. See the list of factory images for your device for an example of this (note all the repeated version numbers, followed by build IDs).

If you go to Settings > System > About phone you can find the "Android version" (circled blue below) and the "Build number" (circled red) of your current system. You can also check the "Android security patch level" on this screen to determine which security update you've received. They generally occur during the first week or so of each month, and they are outlined in the monthly security bulletins. Most likely you're receiving a notification for the January security update.

Picture from https://wccftech.com/android-oreo-for-verizon-pixel/


Where can I find a factory image for the Moto X 2nd Gen 2014? I went to Motorola's site and requested one, but since it's Sunday, I don't think I will receive the file until tomorrow.

You would think that someone would host the image file somewhere just in Motorola's site went down or something. Is there a place I can download it from other than the manufacturers site that I do not know about?

Email Support.

(No im serious. I couldnt even get mind until I did)


App for virtual keyboard for Windows I am looking for an Android app which provides a virtual keyboard (and mouse) for a Windows PC. These are my requirements:

run in window-less mode, e.g. as a service (nice for HTPC)
provide support for special keys and key combinations

What I tried so far:

RemoteDroid

does not run as service
does not support special keys and key combinations
does not display any connection information

AndroMouse

always displays window (does not run as service)

Gmote

runs as service
no support for key combinations, just translates the usual android keyboard
up/down/left/right keys not working

Mouse and Keyboard Remote

no service, but CurrentVersion/Run

Does anyone have another suggestion?

I've been satisfied with All In One Remote so far. It also works with other OSes than Windows. As for run in window-less mode, I can think of a couple of ways to easily hide the server window for All In One Remote. It would just take a few minutes to make in AutoIt. As for provide support for special keys and key combinations, as far as I know, I can do key combinations with it too.


Is it possible to watch Youtube videos on the Youtube App while multitasking I currently have Kit Kat 4.4. Is is possible to play a Youtube video in the background or while multitasking like checking email,  use other apps or surf the web on Android? As of right now, I have to have keep the Youtube app open and can't get the video to play in the background while I do other stuff on my phone.

Use multi task option of your phone. Your screen will be split into 2 parts, you can watch Youtube and do other stuff. You can also change the formation of the screen so 90% of the screen is browser/email etc en 10% of screen will be youtube for listening music.

I am pretty sure Android Kitkat can do that – I am doing it right now.


Is it easy to remove encryption's password prompt on boot if I don't want it anymore? As discussed here, there are some notable benefits to phone encryption, so I'm about to try it for the first time. Before doing it:

will I be able to remove the password / lock in the future, after encryption? or will it to be mandatory to have to enter a password on phone boot? I.e. if I don't want any protection anymore, will there always be a password prompt on boot or can I disable this? (btw: I read that totally disabling encryption needs a full format / factory reset)
have you noticed a lower performance after encryption, on everyday use (browsing, basic apps, etc.)?

I have a Samsung a3 2015 with android 5.0.2.

It's not quite easy, but rather complicated to remove encryption depending on how much data you have on your phone.

Removing encryption, AFAIK, requires formatting /data partition. So all you have to do is

Copy out all personal files from internal storage (assume you have a shared storage)
Make a backup, if you want to continue using the phone ASAP
Format /data
Copy everything back
Restore from backup

The encryption removal itself is, rather fast (a few seconds). The only complication is backup & restore.

Performance issues:

The encryption is done at real-time, so whenever an app wants to read or write data, enc/dec is done before reading from/after writing to disk. This, however, does not have a great impact on CPU. I haven't noticed a great performance degradation with encryption (with my OnePlus 5), so I believe it's safe to have encryption enabled without worrying about performance issues on modern phones. It has always been complained about by Nexus 6 users. You'd better stay away from it if you're using a phone with eMMC storage and a non-flagship SoC.


Is there a way to control the app and notification volumes at once on a phone like there is on a tablet? Whenever I want to change the volume for apps on my phone, I have to open up an app that makes sound. If I try to do it at other times, it only changes the notification volume with no option for others.

Like this page says, this is an option for tablets, where you can just expand the volume controls when they pop up and then adjust either one. Is there a way to get this expanding functionality on a phone?

I guess that they made it like that to save screen space, but neither a button nor a slider bar comes anywhere close to filling up my screen, and I would appreciate being able to do this.

I have a rooted Nexus 4 with Android 4.4.2 and have the Xposed Framework installed.

That depends on your Android version and device, but based on what you said it seems like you should be able to. You can try Volume in Settings, or you can download Volume Control and control various different volume levels and settings.

Several attempts to get this are posted here, but it doesn't seem like some devices have it.


How many devices Android 4.0+ can support connected simultaneously? Did anyone know how many devices connected simultaneously Android 4.0+ can support using Wi-Fi hotspot? Is there any limit?

Just to make sure that we are don't talking about 'operators tether limitations', I'm presuming that we are creating a Local WLAN with an Android device. It's like use an old Galaxy S2 as a home Intranet to connect my TV, smartphones, tablets, computers to a media server, without any outside (Internet or 3G) link.

As far as I can see, there is no software limitation, and google's page on it says nothing about that (https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/2812516?hl=en&ref_topic=3416342).  However, your phone's hardware may not be able to support that, for instance my Nexus 4 gets very hot with only one computer connected, and it will also be slow as all connections have to be routed using the phones limited processing power.


Old WhatsApp version is obsolete on January 2018, but there's no update on the Play Store WhatsApp shows a notice that the current version is old and obsolete, preventing the user from accessing the chats. It also tells the user to download the latest update.

Tapping the "download" button takes the user to the Play Store. However, there is no option to "update", only "uninstall" and "open".

How to force update the WhatsApp app?

Download the APK file directly from the official WhatsApp site and install it.

I have the same issue and this fixed it.


Error fastboot flash system Hey i have phone xiaomi mi a2 try install another OS but get this error any ideas? need faster, cuz i can't run phone stuck on android one logo

  PS C:\add> fastboot flash system C:\add\pixel.img
  target reported max download size of 536870912 bytes
  sending sparse 'system' (524284 KB)...
  OKAY [ 16.264s]
  writing 'system'...
  OKAY [  0.002s]
  sending sparse 'system' (488200 KB)...
  FAILED (command write failed (Unknown error))

First you need to unlock your bootloader and then you can flash recovery image.
If you have already done that, Check whether you are flashing the proper one.

This is TWRP recovery for MI A2.

After flashing TWRP you can flash the desired rom from it. Do read some threads from XDA, If you are not sure about what you are doing.


Help Uninstalling Stubborn Application I have the original Motorola Droid. I recently installed Lotus Notes Traveler on it (we use Lotus Notes at work). The application is giving some issues, so I was going to uninstall it and re-install it. Unfortunately, when I try to do that I get a message the message "Uninstall Not Succesful". Is there any way to uninstall an app that does not want to uninstall through "Manage Applications"?

Apparently the Lotus Notes Traveler app makes itself the Device Administrator on the phone.  You need to disable this before uninstalling it.  The following quote is from Lotus FAQ:

  You should uninstall Lotus Notes Traveler by launching the Lotus®
  mobile installer application, then selecting the Lotus Notes Traveler
  application and choosing uninstall.

  If you choose to uninstall
  manually and your device is running Android 2.2 or above, you must
  first disable the device administrator. To do so, select Menu >
  Settings > Location & Security > Select device Administrators. After
  you have disabled the Lotus Notes Traveler device administrator, you
  can use the operating system to remove Lotus Notes Traveler, by
  navigating to Menu > Settings > Applications > Manage Applications.

  You can uninstall Lotus Mobile Installer using the normal method for uninstalling
  applications on your Android device.


How do I get my Android tablet on my network without getting stuck in a reboot loop? I recently acquired an Android tablet PC (this thing: http://yourfirstsmartphone.com/android-tablet-pc/). I have not altered it at all from the factory fresh settings (in fact in attempt to solve the problem I'm having I did a factory reset) and yet whenever I attempt to connect to a wifi network the tablet will reboot, the os will load and work for about 30 seconds, then it will reboot again and the same thing just goes on endlessly. It's running on android version 4.4.2, firmware is version 4.4v2.0, kernel version 3.4.39 Ipp@Android #252. What do I do?

What do I do?

Send it back. You've bought a computer that doesn't work, and fixing the problem is the responsibility of the vendor.


Does ConnectBot supports SSH tunnel /authenticating with pubkey/? Can I connect with ConnectBot to an SSH server to SSH tunnel that doesn't uses passwords, because it's only using "ssh pubkey login"?

Thanks.

Yes, ConnectBot supports pubkey authentication and tunnels.


Disable 4.1.1 camera slide effect I've noticed since the 4.1.1 update that every time a photo is taken there's this very distracting slide effect that transitions the photo you've just snapped off the screen, replacing it with the live view.

Is there any way to disable this?

I believe this is a "feature" of the new Jelly Bean camera. You probably won't be able to change it without resorting to using another camera app (like Camera Zoom FX) or installing a custom ROM.


Problems receiving German characters in SMS I am learning German with a friend of mine, so we send texts in both German and English. I can send an umlaut (a/o/u with two dots above) to him, but when he sends to me it is replaced with a question mark. For example, when he sends me Grün, I receive Gr?n. Very aggravating.

I am using a Motorola XT1080 running Android 4.4.4 and using the native text messaging app. Can anyone tell me what setting I should look for? I think my buddy is using an iPhone, if that matters. Thanks much.

Android is Unicode-aware, and the native SMS app has no problems whatsoever in displaying German umlauts, regardless of the phone's language setting.

The problem most likely sits with your network provider and is therefore outside your reach (unless you can easily switch providers after making sure the prospective provider offers better character support).

If you have data access, what you can easily do is use an alternative messaging app. None of the major apps like Whatsapp (the most popular in Germany, so your friend might already have it) or Viber should have problems with Unicode.


Is wireless adb encrypted? When I connect my phone to a new computer's adbd - whether via USB or wireless - it prompts me to confirm the computer's RSA fingerprint. This seems to imply that there is, in some form, cryptography involved in adb communication.

Exactly what does that crypto look like? Is adb traffic encrypted? If I wirelessly pull data via adb from my phone, will someone be able to sample that traffic? Or is it unencrypted, and merely signed?

I searched around, but didn't find any meaningful results (mostly just people talking about disk encryption).


Is Screen Mirroring a feature of the hardware or the software? I have a Samsung Galaxy J7 Max running Android Nougat from Samsung. It seems that it does not support screen mirroring but supports Wifi Direct.

I want to know that those phone that do support screen mirroring like the Samsung Galaxy A3, do they have special hardware in them, or is it just enabled in that build of the kernel ?

In short, for screen mirroring do you need extra hardware or just need to enable it in the kernel/OS ?

Both.

Just a brief description of how it works:

At the core of this technology is the Wi-Fi Direct™ standard, which allows for point-to-point connections between devices without the use of a router. From there, Miracast adds a vendor-neutral wrapper that originally supported the streaming of up to 1080p video and 5.1 surround sound. It uses this variation of this technology to allow the output of audio and video.

  For the device whose screen you want to mirror, support for Miracast
  requires three things: wireless chipset support, operating
  system support, and driver support. If your device doesn’t meet
  all three of these requirements then you’ll have to buy a Miracast
  adapter and upgrade your operating system.

Users can wirelessly mirror the display of their Miracast-certified® phone, tablet, or PC to any Miracast-capable receiver

Android supported Miracast, in Android 4.2 (Jellybean) and Android 5 (Lollipop).

  On 29 October 2012, Google announced that Android version 4.2+ (from
  updated version of Jelly Bean) are supporting the Miracast wireless
  display standard, and by default have it integrated.

However, Google dropped native Miracast support in Android 6 (Marshmallow) and later, so to mirror the display from a newer Android phone or tablet, you’ll need to do so via Chromecast.

In the case that it is disabled but compatible for a particular Android device, you could edit the build.prop file in the following line:

persist.debug.wfd.enable=1

Using a root explorer navigate to your build.prop file located at
/system/build.prop

Check if the option is visible in Settings > Display > Cast Screen > Menu > Enable Wireless Display.

  Devices that are Miracast-certified® can communicate with each other,
  regardless of manufacturer.Both devices (the sender and the receiver)
  need to be Miracast certified® for the technology to work.
  However, to stream music and movies to a non-certified device Miracast
  adapters are available that plug into HDMI or USB ports.

The Wi-Fi Alliance has an official list of all Miracast source devices.

There is some evidence however suggesting one can use software based screen mirroring.

Acknowledgements

How to use Miracast to mirror your device's screen wirelessly on your TV—even 4K
5.0+ Lollipop - Enable wireless display with Miracast devices
What Is Miracast? Everything You Need to Know
Miracast


Can i run GTA Vice City on Android-x86 PC? Recently i have installed Android-x86 on my Lenovo laptop and i want to install and play GTA vice city there. My OS in android 4.4.2. 4 GB ram and 3 GB swap memory 2.4 Ghz quadcore intel i3 processor and nvidia 1 GB video card

Depends. It may have some graphical issues considering drivers and probably a few other compatibility problems. The most major spike is the drivers here. If they work and are compatible with game, your game will run. Else it wont (I suspect graphical glitches). Honestly, its almost impossible to judge like that with just that much information provided so that leaves you with only ability to try it and see if it works.

But that aside, how do you plan on playing it? Even if you have/had touch screen I can barely imagine how its possible to play it.

Bottomline-> You can test it. Although I do have doubts in mind that you will be able to play it (not only due to hardware and drivers, but also due to control mechanics).


Root - How to remove one of the superuser app? I rooted my phone a month ago and downloaded the SuperUser app yesterday.

However, when I use the app SuperSU, it is not running and it said i need to update a file. I could not update it.

What can I do? How can I remove SuperUser?

Run the SuperSU app. If you’ve uninstalled it for whichever reason, all you need to do is Reinstall it from the Google Play Store.
Click on the Settings tab on the top right corner, and then click Full Unroot. Confirm with 'Continue'.
Once this operation is done, which takes a few minutes, you can reboot your Android.
Uninstall SuperSU.( If Exists.....)


Is it possible to install already installed apps with one click? In the Apple App Store, if you have downloaded an item in the past, you can click the INSTALL button to download it in one click. However, in the Google Play Store, you have to go into the app, press the install button, accept the permissions, and then it's downloaded. It's a bit tedious if you're batch re-installing after you did a factory reset. Is there a function similar to that button in the App Store, but for the Google Play Store?

This doesn't specifically exist, however there is the Android Backup System, which allows you to reinstall all the apps from the Google server's on the inital setup of the device.

This will queue all the apps for install from Google Play. It comes on all Android 2.2+ devices, however it is very temperamental.

Other than that, you could use a dedicated backup app such as Titanium Backup Pro to regularly backup your apps, allowing you to restore them in one click should you need to.

Google Play doesn't offer what you stated. iOS offer's this because they don't have permissions to show you ;)


Google Rewards for in-game purchasing I have several gmail account each has its own rewards account. How can I use the accumulated rewards dollars for "in-game" purchases?

If you're talking about your Google Play Store balance, you can pick that as an option from the payment dropdown on your device the same way you would pick one of your credit cards, or carrier billing. However, in my experience you have to have a balance large enough to cover the entire purchase -- you can't split it between store credit and another type of payment.


Extract full system image from a Samsung Galaxy S5 with no screen I have a Samsung Galaxy S5 phone with a broken screen. I'm trying to get a full system image that I can then flash into a brand new Samsung Galaxy S5.

I know that it is possible to clone one phone's system and configuration into another phone (e.g. using the procedure described here). However, that process assumes a fully working source phone.

How could I extract a functioning, flashable system image from a phone with no screen?

FYI: the source phone has USB debugging enabled, so it is possible to access it through adb.

If the source phone is rooted you have multiple possibilities.
If the target phone is also rooted one easy solution may be a back as it is described in Is there a way to do Nandroid backup directly to pc and then restore it directly from pc also?

First connect via adb shell to the phone and get root permissions via su.

Now create backup all app files via tar:

tar -cvf /sdcard/app-data.tar /data/data

Then exit adb and copy the created file to your computer:

adb pull /sdcard/app-data.tar

Afterwards you should have a file named app-data.tar on your computer. Check it with an archive tool and you will find a lot of directories.

You may want to delete certain files or directories from the tar file.
Afterwards you can convert it to an Android Backup so that you can write back the data onto the new un-rooted phone.
Making a tar file to an Android Backup can be done via Android Backup Extractor. Note that some apps will refuse to accept the restored files (because backup is disabled).

The created Android backup can then be restored via adb backup command.


Periodic Nexus 7 touch responsiveness issue Occasionally my Nexus 7 will exhibit poor touch responsiveness. This manifests as a need to drag my finger for an inch or so before scrolling happens, and a need for a firm touch in order to register a tap, and even then it's sporadic.

I'm trying to determine if this is software or hardware. My guess is software: exiting the current app sometimes seems to resolve the issue. Putting it to sleep and re-awakening it often seems to resolve it.

This happens maybe once every day or two, and only tends to last for a few minutes when it happens. (I'm still uncertain if things I do fix it or if it abates on its own...)

As this is my first Android device, I don't have anything to compare it to. Has anybody else experienced this? Any good techniques to determine if it's hardware or software?

EDIT 30-OCT-2012:

I haven't experienced the problem since upgrading to 4.1.2, so I'm inclined to think it was a software problem that's been fixed.

You can try to diagnose the problem yourself, or at least get a little more info by turning on a couple of developer diagnostics.

In Settings, scroll down to Developer Options.
Under the "Input" section, check "Show touches".  This will cause a small (white) circle to show on the screen where ever you touch it.  If you don't see the circle (which might be under your finger, so look carefully), you know it didn't register your touch.  If you see the circle lagging, then you know it registered your touch and is just being slow for other reasons.
Under "Monitoring", you may want to turn on "Show CPU Usage" and "Strict mode enabled."

"Show CPU usage" will show you what is running as a little overlay in the top right of the screen.  The top line of the display shows the system cpu load.  See this excellent write up of what the load numbers mean.  If the load is high, your little Nexus-7
"Strict mode enabled" will "Flash screen when apps do long operations on the main thread."  If your screen flashes, then you know something is hogging the CPU.


Google+ not working with proxy server since last update Google+ on my device has stopped working since the last update. Every time, I get the message: Can't load data. Check your connection. All apps other than Google+ work absolutely fine.

My device details are as follows:
Model: Google Nexus 7 (2012)
OS: Android 4.4.2
Google+ Build version: 4.2.3.56698342

Edit: I use a Wifi on a proxy server for connection, and that's when the problem arises. When on a direct connection, the app works fine. But on proxy server, it has stopped working since the last update. Prior to this update, the app worked fine even on a proxy server.

Try Settings --> Apps --> Google+ -->Clear Data & Cache

It will solve most of the issues.


Which one is the 4G sim slot in Redmi 3s prime? I have acquired an Jio sim and I am using a Redmi 3s prime. But I don’t know which one is the primary 4G sim slot in the phone. Is it the nano one or the micro one? Or can i choose any one of them? Please help. Thanks

The Redmi 3S Prime uses a hybrid SIM slot which means it accepts one Micro-SIM and another Nano-SIM or microSD card for storage.

Unfortunately, this means that users will have to choose between a second SIM and a microSD card.

Coming to your question : Use any slot for 4G. It is recommended from my side, use the micro-sim slot for the primary sim.


Getting latest update of certificate/credential/SSL store I realize sometimes when browsing with HTTPS, it shows the certificate is not valid, "This certificate is not from a trusted authority". Clicking "continue" will just pop up the same warning. That time, I start thinking the certificate store is not updated. I try to compare with Windows trusted CA which will be updated automatically.
I think the certificate must be updated in a period of time since the validity of trusted CA is about 1 to a few years.
I cannot find this thing mention in Android anywhere. Does the way it manages certificates is different? How can I make sure I get the latest update?

The CACert Application should work; it doesn't work on older devices. You may also want to use the curated list the Guardian Project puts out: rationale here; direct link here.

Requires 2.2 or newer.


ADB Over Wifi Connection Suppose my phone is connected using adb over wifi....will I have to repeat the process of connecting the usb cable if I switch to my carrier network by chance?...or will it remain forever and I can just reconnect wirelessly by using
adb connect

Thanks in advance.

Yes,

when you switch network - you will need to do it again.

Also after turning off the phone you will need to connect it by the adb again.


Nexus 7 (2013) stutters while playing games My Nexus 7 device runs smoothly, until I try to play games with it. Whenever I try to play games such as Real Racing 3 or Riptide GP 2, it runs somewhat smoothly, but stutters randomly.

I ran some benchmarks for the device and nothing seems to be terribly wrong with my scores...although they seem to be slightly lower than average. (5-10% lower)

I'm guessing that the stutter has something to do with background processes....but there was over 1 GB of ram when I checked. (not playing the game) And I know its not a wifi issue because it stuttered with WiFi off.

Any ideas?

Try to clean cache, clean memory using some task manager. If it doesn't help, the stutters while playing games may be caused by lack of optimization of the games.

Also you can try factory reset.