Easiest way for testing the internal GPS What is the easiest way to verify that the internal GPS module of an android device works correctly (possibly before buying some expensive navigation software)?

Geotagging a foto?
Running some free diagnostic tool?

Please note that I'm referring to internal GPS, not the bluetooth ones or the A-GPS.

If by internal GPS you mean the postion fix using GPS satellites, you can use "GPS Status & Toolbox" app to get a fix and also know how long it took to get the fix.


One-Click-Root Failed On Samsung J7 SM-J700H I have a Samsung Galaxy J7 running 6.0.1 marshmallow which i tried to root using One-Click-Root methods like desktop versions of "Kingroot" and "Kingoroot". However, "Kingroot" doesn't support my device type and "Kingoroot" gives "Root Failed" without showing any error code (as shown in the image below) . I have my phone's OEM Unlocked and USB Debugging on and I use ONE-CLICK-ROOT because it is believed to be the safest method (according to a quora discussion). So my question is, why is this happening ? And what could be a safe alternative to root my phone ?

One click root methods seem not to work on Samsung devices running Android Lollipop and above. They use an exploit that is already patched by either Samsung or Google.

So, the best method still the  Chainfire's CF-Autoroot. I root mobile devices daily and this method seems to work on every Samsung devices. The method consists of flashing a modified recovery by entering the device in Download mode, no ADB here but OEM unlock should be required.

Download this file
Download Odin flasher
Open Odin, click on AP/PDA and select the file you have downloaded.
Boot the phone in download mode (volume down + power button the volume up to confirm)
Click on Start and wait.

The developer has rooting files for  almost all Samsung devices from his site.


How can I make a shortcut to the "Recent Apps" dialog? Do you know if there is any way to create a shortcut or widget on the homescreen to access to the "Recent Apps" list?
Basically, is there any way to access to this list without having to hold the Home button?

Here you go. Just move the icon to your homepage as a shortcut and you're good to go :)

MoreRecent

via droidforums.net


Where can I find SharedPRefs file on my MotoG device ? It is with KitKat BTW Generally for SharedPRefs file the path is like : data/data/com....application..package..name/shared_prefs/filename.xml.

But when I tried to navigate through the same path on my MotoG device, I don't see anything like this after

/data/..... :(

Can you guys help me please....

This is because your phone is not rooted. By default, only the application itself can access files in /data/data/com.whatever, so that casual users don't edit the files and break the app. To see these files, you need to root the device and use a file explorer tool that can use root (this is usually called a "root explorer" app or feature).


How do I identify apps or settings that cause performance problems? If I am having performance problems, what tools can I use to identify where my performance lags are coming from?  I have used a System Panel Task Manager, Android System Info, System Manager Free and some others but none of them have really identified the problem children.  System Panel Task Manager came the closest with it's historical look at CPU and memory usage but it didn't let me look at which apps were using how much resources over time.

Watchdog will monitor your phone's performance and alert you of issues. Here's a quote from the Lifehacker article on Watchdog.

  Watchdog runs in the background,
  watching for apps to start using more
  than a certain percentage of CPU power
  that you specify (with a default of 80
  percent). When it notices an app going
  out of bounds, it notifies you and
  offers options to kill the app, ignore
  it, or add it to your "Whitelist" of
  pay-no-mind programs. By default,
  Watchdog doesn't use much power
  itself, only checking in every two
  minutes or so, but you can make it run
  more real-time if you'd like to really
  pin down a problem you know is
  happening.


ADB 'su: permission denied' in recovery mode on rooted device ADB 'su' command returns 'su: permission denied' on a fully rooted device in recovery mode. I can modify folders and files that require root access on phone (when it's booted). ADB also works when it's booted - I only need to confirm a superuser pop-up on the phone.

USB debugging is enabled.

What can the problem be?

Thanks!

Most recoveries don't work in root mode - and root mode cannot be acheived, as the SU binary calls your superuser app to gain permission to use root mode.

As the su binary cannot call the app, it stops you using SU mode.

It could also be due to the fact that the su file used in recovery is the stock su file found in Android, and this doesn't let you switch to the root user (as if it did every device would be rooted).

Some recoveries allow root to be used - you will have to search for one for your device.


How to root Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0? I have been trying to  root my Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 (SM-T217S; Firmware version T217SVPUBNH4).

Since the September update I can't re-root my tablet, I have tried apps like Vroot(app), towelroot, and pretty much all the rooting apps available for Android.

I also tried programs like Kingo Root, one click root, vroot for PC, and many alike. I haven't tried flashing the TWRP or ClockworkMod Recovery. I tried a while back with TWRP but it failed.

How do I root my device?
.

Here's a way to do it using TWRP

Put the superuser.zip file in your tablet and Boot into Download Mode (Hold Vol Down +Power to turn on the Device).
Unzip the TWRP Recovery Image after downloading it below.
Connect your tablet to your PC, unzip and run Odin, click the PDA button and select the TWRP md5 file you just unzipped.
Begin holding the Volume Up button on your Tablet and hit the start button in Odin (this will ensure you reboot into the new recovery)

Once in TWRP if you select the reboot option under advanced you should be prompted to root your device if it's not already rooted. If that doesn't happen for some reason you can use adb to sideload the SuperSU zip I've attached, or put it on an sd card and find the flash zip from sdcard option in TWRP to flash it.

Download files

 Odin307.zip
SuperSU-v1.93.zip
TWRP-2.6.3.0-recovery.tar.zip


Facebook mobile website tries to open Messenger all the time On Facebook's mobile website on my sister's phone, when you click the messages tab, it first opens Play Store opened on Messenger app (or, it opens Messenger if it's installed). If you click back, the messages page is properly displayed, but if you click on a conversation the same thing happens -- Play Store pops up, but when you click back, the proper conversation page is loaded in Chrome.
Phone: Moto G 3rd gen, Android 6.0.1

On my phone the mobile website in Chrome works just fine -- there's a button that suggests installing Messenger, but I can normally browse and use messages. Phone: OnePlus 2, Android 5.1.1 (OxygenOS 2.2.1)

Is there any way to prevent the facebook website from trying to open the app? I certainly don't want to use any FB app.

Details on what I already tried:

installing and uninstalling messenger
clearing defaults and clearing data for both chrome and messenger
if you copy a link to conversation's page and open it in new tab, it opens the page properly (without jumping to Play Store), so is it a malicious script from facebook itself?

Facebook started forcing this change a couple of months ago. There's nothing anyone can do about it. I find it rather annoying myself which is why I switched to a Facebook wrapper app like Swipe
It has a workaround for this behavior. I suggest you do the same.


Vietcombank Smart OTP app says "Your device does not match security requirements. Please re-activate Smart OTP on other devices" I am trying to use the app Vietcombank Smart OTP on Android. This is the Smart OTP app of the Vietnamese leading bank Vietcombank. The app downloads fine, but everytime I start it up I get this error message:
ANDROID
Thiết bị của Quý khách không đảm bảo yêu cầu về bảo mật. Vui lòng kích hoạt lại Smart OTP trên thiết bị khác
Your device does not match security requirements. Please re-activate Smart OTP on other devices

This error message can be seen here:
https://smartotp.vietcombank.com.vn/shield/android.html?4
I have tried this with 3 different brand-new phones and I get the same error message.
Some descriptions for Vietnamese readers:
Không sử dụng được app Vietcombank Smart OTP. Mỗi lần mở app lên đều nhận được lỗi như ở trên.

After hours of trying different things, I realized the problem is that I used Swiftkey. Apparently, third-party keyboards will trigger this issue. So you have to disable any third-party keyboards and use Google keyboard or the default keyboard of your smart phone.
Sau nhiều giờ thử nhiều thứ khác nhau, tôi nhận ra vấn đề là tôi đã sử dụng Swiftkey. Có vẻ như bàn phím của bên thứ ba sẽ gây ra vấn đề này. Vì vậy, bạn phải tắt mọi bàn phím của bên thứ ba và sử dụng bàn phím Google hoặc bàn phím mặc định của điện thoại thông minh của bạn.


Do old versions of Android still get security patches? For example if a critical vulnerability is found in Jelly Bean would it get a patch, or is the expectation that users should upgrade to KitKat to be more secure?

Does Android even have the concept of individual/incremental security patches, or are Maintenance Releases (MR) the only way to get patches?

I found a comment here, but would like confirmation (with source if possible)...

https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/83852/which-versions-of-android-is-google-developing-security-fixes-for

It is generally expected that users would upgrade to the highest version of Android available to them, so Google do not release updates to previous firmware versions. However, Samsung occasionally release security updates independently of Google to older models. It's also worth noting that a number of security issues are within apps and not Android itself, which the user is able to update via the Play Store.


Samsung S3: Only retrieve "contact with number" in contact search Synchronizing my phone with my gmail account it has imported, not only the contacts, but even all the people who I just wrote one mail in my life (even without phone number).
I have hidden this contacts checking "show only contact with number" but if I perform a search  this contacts appear. How can I really delete it, and set my phone to only consider GMail contacts (https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#contacts).

From my experience, GMail won't put people you have only emailed into your "My Contacts" built-in group (See Gmail and auto-adding contacts).

Because of this, you should be able to tell android to only pull from your "My Contacts" list, which would presumably only contain  your important contacts.

The steps to do this will vary depending on your ROM. I'm using a nightly build of CM10, and these are the steps:

Open Contacts
Press Menu button, and choose "Contacts to display"
Choose "Customize"
Choose the account of interest, and make sure only "My Contacts" is
checked/selected (Or any other groups you want).

Hopefully that helps you out, or at least gives you an idea of how to accomplish this.


Nexus 10 not recognized on Debian Wheezy/mac OS/Windows 8 with adb I'm trying to connect my tablet nexus 10 + android 4.4 + cyanogen-mod 11 to my desktop computer where I have installed debian wheezy using adb. It worked until some time ago,now it doesn't anymore neither with debian linux nor with windows 8 or Mac OS. Check here :

root@localhost:/home/marietto# lsusb

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 148f:2573 Ralink Technology, Corp. RT2501/RT2573 Wireless Adapter
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0a5c:2121 Broadcom Corp. BCM2210 Bluetooth
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 05e3:0608 Genesys Logic, Inc. USB-2.0 4-Port HUB
Bus 001 Device 009: ID 04d9:1503 Holtek Semiconductor, Inc. Shortboard Lefty
Bus 001 Device 010: ID 046d:c05a Logitech, Inc. Optical Mouse M90

root@localhost:/home/marietto# adb devices
List of devices attached

The devices is attached to the computer with a common usb cable but it seems that it is not recognized. I've already enabled the usb debug on the nexus 10 configuration panel and I have installed the adb tools under debian with the following commands (taken from this site :

http://bernaerts.dyndns.org/linux/75-debian/280-debian-wheezy-android-tools-adb-fastboot-qtadb

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install android-tools-adb android-tools-fastboot

This is the version of the adb bridge installed on my debian wheezy :

root@localhost:/home/marietto# adb version
Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.31

On the nexus 10 I have enabled the root access for adb and applications. I don't know what to do

Have you tried changing between MTP and PTP. Tap the USB debugging sybol and it gives you the option.


software bricked android 7 I have a Moto G (xt1032) and few weeks ago I tried to install cm14.1. But somewhere it didn't work. Since then I cannot boot.
And I can't install a new custom rom.
I have Cyanogenmod Recovery. When I try to use fastboot/adb it did not work. because the device is unauthorized.
The only thing that is working is adb sideload. But when I tried to install a custom rom a error happend:

This package is for device: xt1032, ...
this device is .

I tried to remove the assert command from updater-script, but when I reziped the file and tried to install it, a signature validation error occurred.

As mentioned, hard-bricks are the rare write-offs.

For the vast majority of soft-bricked devices (FRP errors, blocked custom binaries, etc) the following can erase the device and reinstall the orginal firmware (Samsung example given below). Alternatively, install TWRP and latest AOSP firmware.

These instructions are for experienced technicians. Proceed with due caution.

Backup your existing firmware (optional, if permitted by brick)
Download latest version of Odin to a WIN10 computer.
Enable BL, AP, CSC, etc firmware types in Odin.ini
Download SamFirm (or visit Updato - generic firmware) to fetch from Samsung's firmware archives by providing EXACT model/provider (eg. SM-G935W8/BMC = S7Edge/BellMob)
Extract BL, AP, CSC, firmware (*.tar.MD5)  from firmware archive
Connect mobile device to WIN10 computer with USB data cable.
From off, PWR+VOLDWN+HOME to enter bootloader.
Load firmware in Odin and hit start (do NOT change defaults)
Device firmware will be erased and flashed with new firmware.


Gallery preview folder takes about 1GB, how to delete it? I've got a Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus (GT-I9105P) with Android 4.2.2 and I've got many photos. The folder with the Gallery previews (the one that stores thumbnail to load images faster) takes about 1GB of storage (815,9MB, precisely) and if I delete it, when I open the Gallery app it recreates.

Here you can see it (click image to enlarge)

"Anteprime galleria" in Italian means "Gallery previews". The folder itself is called "DCIM" and it's in the phone's memory (All my photos are in teh SD card) and it contains an hidden .thumbnails folder.

So, how can I delete it and make sure it won't recreate?

Do you really want to do that? That might lead to you no more being able to see your images in the gallery. But if you want to try:

open a file manager of your choice and navigate to the DCIM folder
delete the .thumbnails directory
create a file named .thumbnails
open the file's properties, and set it "read only"

Now, as there cannot be two objects with the identical name, the gallery cannot re-create the folder. As the existing object is a file, it cannot put its thumbnails in there, either.


No root permission after installation of ClockworkModRecovery kernel My smartphone is the Samsung Galaxy Ace 5380 running Android 2.3.6 and I want to flush it with the CyanogenMod 7.2

I'm performing the steps from this guide: http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_Ace:_Full_Update_Guide

I have done the "Installing the ClockworkMod Recovery" steps and performed a backup of my current ROM. Now I want to run a backup with Titanium but it says that I have no root permissions.

I thought the ClockworkMod Recovery kernel brings the root permission, because it sounds so by the guide mentioned above.

Is there any other thing I have to do now to activate the root permission or must I root my phone additionally with some other guide? If so, I read that after the root-procedure I have to "wipe data factory reset" and that would delete the things I want to update, but for the update itself, I need root permissions.

The root permission exists inside the recovery, but not in the normal system, you need to root it in there.

There is usually, two partitions recovery and system, as the OP indicated, was booted into the CWM Recovery which resides on recovery hence is rooted, but not the normal Android system.


Pixel 3a XL repeatedly crashes and reboots when connecting to a specific Wi-Fi network I ran into an issue with my Google Pixel 3a XL phone where it repeatedly crashed and rebooted. After looking into the issue, I remembered that the crashes started as soon as I connected to a specific Wi-Fi network.

The issue began as soon as I connected to it. I tried rebooting in Safe Mode to see if that fixed the problem, which initially disabled all networking features, but as soon as I switched them back on, the crashes started again. I was able to stop the crashes by disabling Wi-Fi immediately after the next restart, forgetting the network it was trying to connect to, then re-enabling Wi-Fi.

The issue seems to occur only when I connect to that specific Wi-Fi network; connecting to other networks doesn't create any problem. I was reading another help guide that said to reset the network settings to fix problems with it, but I doubt that will fix the issue as it just resets the saved networks. I already deleted the info about the problematic network by forgetting it, so I don't think this will resolve it.

The network is an unsecured network, and is a public network (so I don't have access to router info, etc.)

What could be causing the phone to crash and reboot when I connect to that one specific Wi-Fi network, and not any other network?

This is a known, supposedly fixed but not yet pushed into production issue for Wi-Fi networks utilizing 802.11k:
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/144381412
See also:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Pixel3/comments/f7mych/reboot_when_connecting_to_wifi/
It has been more than a year and still unresolved in end user devices. I don't understand why it is taking this long especially considering:

That they have supposedly fixed it in the code.
How widespread this must be, as all devices are affected (even if most people may not realize it has to do with Wi-Fi, it took me a while to connect the dots). I am personally experiencing the same on a Pixel 3.

Please upvote and comment on the Google Bug tracker link above so Google can finally take care of this.


App names are not shown on the home screen of Trebuchet launcher All my apps lost their text labels!

I tried rebooting, but it didn't help.

This turned out to be a setting and not an error.

Long-press on the home screen, click on Settings, and then slide "Icon Labels" to ON under both "HOME SCREEN SETTINGS" and "DRAWER SETTINGS". This eliminates the need to clear any cache or data.

Thanks to Rahul for helping me troubleshoot this.


How can I install the Google Apps Package (Play Store, ...) on my Android device? I have recently installed a custom ROM and cannot find the Play Store. It seems like all apps that belong to Google are missing.

How can I install the Google Apps Package (Play Store, ...) on my Android device?

Background

Only Android devices that are licensed by the Open Handset Alliance contain the so called Google Apps. Usually people associate apps like Google Maps, Google Play Store, etc. with Android, but because of the open-source nature of Android, manufactures can sell Android devices without Google Apps and therefore avoid to pay the license fee.

Custom ROMs

At first cyanogenmod shipped its ROM with pre-installed Google Apps. In September 2009 the founder of Cyanogen received a cease and desist letter from Google, demanding that the Google Apps not be included in the team's ROMs, since the ROM could be ported to devices which are not licensed to have the Google Apps. In turn, that would bypass the requirement for the devices to be licensed. For a few days, development on the ROM ceased, there were outcries from Android users all over the Internet, and many bloggers suspected Google had just shot itself in the foot.

Eventually, an alternate method was found, whereby Google Apps are not included in the ROM proper but the Google Apps which came with a device would be backed up by the device's custom recovery or another app, and then re-installed onto the device once the new ROM was flashed. This would therefore "Google-ify" one's ROM.

Source

How to install Google Apps?

Generally speaking:

First download the package corresponding to your version of android. Currently (november 2015), there are several "distributors" of Gapps available. Each typically offers a set of packages per android version, each package with more content. The apps in the packages range from a lite package with the basic apps (~100MB) to all of googles apps(200+MB). The applications themselves are untouched.

If you don't want to or cannot root your device:

Flash the Gapps (Google Apps Package) zip package with a custom recovery.

You may first need to flash a custom recovery (like CWM or TWRP) using a PC tool such as Fastboot or Odin/Heimdall. This flashing in turn may require an unlocked bootloader on the phone.

If root is not a problem: (See if you can root the device)

Some stock recoveries will let you "update with adb". Just install adb, then adb command to install is:adb sideload gapps.zip--assuming the package is in the adb folder and is called gapps.zip

You may also install a custom recovery like in the unrooted case.
Root typically allows android apps to flash a new recovery (i.e. without a pc).

OR

Install a ROM with the Google Framework, if it exists for your device. Though many ROM developers have followed CyanogenMod's example of separating distribution.

If you flash a Gapps ROM, it may be possible to re-flash with another non-Gapps ROM afterwards while retaining the Gapps. This assumes the android versions are compatible.
Most users capable of flashing a ROM will be capable of flashing Gapps separately.

Further References

How to install Google Apps (GApps) on your Android Device / Phone


How to make the lock-screen keyboard accept the first touch of each key? I like to use a password for my lock screen, but my podgy fingers are defeated by the kind efforts of whoever built "intelligence" into the keyboard. However hard I concentrate on being accurate, my finger may touch an adjacent key as I lift it to move to another key. The keyboard interprets this as "ah, you are SLIDING FROM ONE KEY TO ANOTHER. You must be CHANGING YOUR MIND. So instead of taking the key you touched, I will TAKE THE KEY YOU SLID TO."

While I imagine this could theoretically be a feature some people might want, I am not one of them and it only causes grief.

Is there any way to get rid of this feature? Either through settings or by writing an app? I've searched but had zero success.

[samsung-galaxy-ace-4]

You could try installing a keyboard designed for "big fingers", such as the 1C keyboard. Since you can't change keyboard on the lock screen, you'd have set it as your regular keyboard, meaning it would pop up by default whenever you are entering text. Since you reasonably has the same fingers when typing in general too, this might not be a problem.


Disable News Feeds in Google Launcher I'm using the Google launcher on my Huawei P9.  Recently it's been updated so there is a Google feed of some sort when I swipe right from the home screen.  I've been through my settings and turned off as much as possible, but I still see weather and news.  The weather doesn't bother me, but I consider it my right to choose if I'm being force fed politically biased news or violent stories.  Does anyone know how to turn this off?  I could go back to the Huawei launcher, but my plans are to move to a Google phone on the future anyway.  Not being able to turn off news would obviously mean I couldn't choose a Google phone for my future phone.

Android 9, Pixel 2

You can disable the Discover feature (the one that shows news items on the left-most screen of the launcher) by:

Go to that screen
Select three dots on that screen on the top right
Choose "Settings"
Under "Search", choose "Discover"
Turn off "Discover: see stories related to your interests on the home tab of the app"

Note that this turns off all info on that page, eg weather.


Does the Eee Pad Transformer TF101 support the APT-X audio codec? I am considering buying a Bluetooth speaker for use with my Asus Transformer (amongst other devices) but I am unable to find out whether the Transformer supports the APT-X codec, or find any information as to whether this question is actually appropriate as I may be mixing my terms/getting confused.

I am considering a device such as this:

Creative ZiiSound D5

What I am wondering is whether the Transformer will be outputting the sound using the APT-X codec or not? Is there any way to determine this?

From the specifications of the Transformer here the Bluetooth is Bluetooth V2.1+EDR.

I doubt it, since it's proprietary; Android by default only supports these codecs.  It's not required for the speakers to work though, as far as I can tell.


Tinder app won't work without Google Play services I was trying to use the latest version of Tinder 3.3.1 but each time I get the following message:

Get Google Play services
This app won't work without Google Play services, which are missing from your phone.

Since this is not covered by their FAQ and their support service ignored my inquiry, what is the reason for this happening? Why would Tinder need an active Gmail account on the phone? I'm asking since I use my Android device without a Google account, hence I'm not sure whether to expect Tinder to work correctly or not.
In other words, what Tinder functionality could possibly break?

EDIT
I also noticed an additional notification from Tinder:

Failed to Enable Push Notifications. Your Google account credentials are invalid.

Could this explain why I am not getting any matches?

I don't use Tinder, but I'm trying to answer your questions based on the provided information.

  What is the reason for this happening?

Seems you don't have Google Play services installed. Download and install it from Google Play.

  Why would Tinder need an active Gmail account on the phone?

As mentioned in the comment by Dan Hulme, "Needing Google Play Services installed isn't the same thing as needing a Gmail account, nor even a Google account." which is partially true regarding Google account (read the next section).

  In other words, what Tinder functionality could possibly break?

For Tinder-specific functionality, possibly nothing. However, as already stated from the updated info,

Failed to Enable Push Notifications. Your Google account credentials are invalid.

you won't get any push notification from Tinder (through Google Cloud Messaging). If you don't care about it, then you may just ignore it. However, if you want to have it, then you have to setup a Google account. From Google Cloud Messaging documentation,

"It uses an existing connection for Google services. For pre-3.0 devices, this requires users to set up their Google account on their mobile devices. A Google account is not a requirement on devices running Android 4.0.4 or higher." (Emphasized mine)

  Could this explain why I am not getting any matches?

As explained in your self-answer, no, the matchmaking system has nothing to do with Google Play services and Google Cloud Messaging.

Addendum: for devices which don't have access to Google services (Google Accounts, Google Play app and Google Play Services) can try a workaround to download from Amazon App Store (courtesy of Hugo's answer), which seems to be independent of Google services.


How to disable system apps, or controll which apps launch automatically? I've been having this problem where the Navigation app launches every 10 or so seconds.

I've heard this is because some pins are short-circuited.

I've tried to install 2 apps that should make this problem go away, but so far nothing worked.

I'm left with trying to control the lifecycle of these apps. They are system apps however, and I can't uninstall them.

Is there any possibility for me to hack my Android a little bit and disable the threads that control these apps?

I'm talking about a HTC Desire HD, 2.3.5. Android version

Aside from rooting (temporarily or permanently), you can't disable the system apps prior to Android 4. Your particular case may have a ray of hope, though.

Alternate app responding to Intent

If the navigation app is responding to an Intent, you could try to find a different app that responds to the same Intent. You'd get a pop-up to choose which app to open when the pins short and the Phone thinks it has been docked.

Alternate app that can do nothing

Ideally, you could find an app that responded to that Intent and did nothing as a result. Then set that as the default handler.

Task killer

Another possible option is to use a task killer (a rare good usage of such an app). There should be some that have the option of killing an app as soon as it starts; if not, the free app Llama can do that, as can other automation apps like Tasker.

Rooting

If none of the above work, you may want to root your phone. This will let you uninstall (or simply freeze) the navigation app so that it doesn't open up.

Fix/replace hardware

The last resort, and probably most useful, is, of course, fixing/replacing the hardware.


Can Android keyboards capture my passwords and send it across Internet? I use SwiftKey on my phone. I also try out a lot of custom Android keyboards as and when they are released on Google Play.

I would like to know if custom keyboards available on Google Play can capture my passwords as I type and send it across Internet? Is there any mechanism built into Android that would stop them from doing that?

Of course a keyboard app can capture your passwords as you type them, along with everything else you type: naughty text messages, credit card numbers, web searches, everything. You couldn't have a mechanism to stop it, because in a sense, that's what it's for.

It can only send this or any other information across the internet if it has the appropriate permission, "full network access." Almost all apps use this permission, though, and a keyboard might want it in order to download new language files, or to show ads if it uses that revenue model. SwiftKey, for example, has a "cloud sync" service to let all your devices share the same training data. This can only work by transmitting words you've typed, and statistical data about text you type, across the internet to their servers.

Android warns you that this is the case every time you enable a third-party keyboard in the Language & input settings. Nexus devices show a dialog with the message:

  This input method may be able to collect all the text that you type, including personal data like passwords and credit card numbers. It comes from the app Highway. Use this input method?

but as I mention in another question, manufacturers can replace the message (perhaps with one that's not entirely true) or disable it completely.


Transfering contact information from one phone to another using SIM card I have a LG Optimus L70 phone that will no longer turn on. I have a new LG K7 phone. How can I transfer my contact information to the new phone using the SIM card. Or is there any other way that I can get my contact information and pictures off of my old phone and put in to my new phone

If you installed a different contact application that isn't using the normal Google android system you would have to specify the program and someone familiar with it will chime in.

Your contact information, by default is stored in Gmail's contact.  Activating your new phone and setting up the same account on the new phone as the old phone will automatically sync your contact information to your new phone.

You make a reference to sim card, where I believe you are trying to refer to an sdcard.  Many phones, especially the newer ones, will allow you connect to an external usb drive.  You can do two things to get the data off your sdcard.  You can alternatively get an adapter for your computer (which generally cost between 5 an 8 dollars), transfer the date from the card to your computer.  Then connect your new phone to your computer VIA a usb cable and transfer the data from the computer to your new phone.


Orbot not starting on rooted Samsung Galaxy S4 (Verizon) I have recently rooted my Samsung Galaxy S4 (Verizon) using the method found here.

I am trying to run Orbot(Tor) with the Tor Everything option enabled.

The application will not get past "Orbot is starting...". I am connected to WiFi and am on Verizon's service.

Unfortunately I had not tested this prior to rooting so I am not sure if the problems lies with running on an S4 or running on a rooted S4.

I have tried to uninstall and reinstall Orbot and have not had any luck.

I have tried to connect to 4G instead of WiFi, no change.

I have tried to turn off the Request Root Access, no change.

What is causing Orbot to not connect to the Tor Network?

I just installed Orbot awhile ago, and I got it working on my rooted Samsung Galaxy S4. You need to set the proxy for your APN.

Go to System Settings > More networks > Mobile networks > APN. Open your existing APN, and take note of the settings. You need to make a clone of this APN (so that you will still have the original APN, and have another APN that goes through TOR). Go back to the APNs page, and create a new APN, copying the settings from the other APN.

Then, set these:

Proxy: localhost
Port: 8118

After that, make sure you select the newly-created APN as your new APN. Your network will refresh in a bit. Open your browser and open check.torproject.org. If it was successful, you should see something like this:

WARNING: If you use the GMail app (or in my case, Kaiten configured with my GMail), it may detect unauthorized access, and you may be asked to reset your GMail password online.


Notifications don't show up when phone is asleep - Samsung Galaxy s4 running CM12.1 Ok so this is a curious little problem I have. I recently flashed CM 12.1 on my S4 and since then I don't receive any notifications from apps like Bleacher Report, Snapchat or Instagram when I'm not using my phone. However, when I am using my phone I see notifications on Snapchat at least pop up. I tested this my sending myself a snap and voila saw the heads up notification say I had one. But curious thing is, this notification would not arrive if I wasn't using my phone and had it set down somewhere else. I have again tested this by having a friend send me a snap while my phone was set down and when I picked it up later, didn't see a notification. Same thing with Instagram. It's driving me nuts. Can anyone help me with this? I have read around and some people suggest this may be a problem that happened while restoring using Titanium backup but I cannot see why it would only affect certain apps. Facebook notifications work just fine. Fotmob (a soccer score app) works just fine. It's just SnapChat, BleacherReport and Instagram (at least those are the only ones I have noticed).

Try installing Echo Notification Lockscreen. It is a decent third party app.
Check their official site here


Can I install an app directly to my SD card? I'm trying to install a large application (EA games' Scrabble free), but I have insufficient space on my phone, so I can't complete the installation. I have plenty of space on my SD card though, but I don't see any option to install the app directly there without passing through the phone. What can I do about this?

You are out of luck sorry!

The only way to do so, is to install to internal space on Phone, then:

Tap on Settings
Tap on Applications
Then tap on Manage Applications
Scroll down looking for the appropriate game, then tap on it
Finally, tap on Move to SD Card...

You will have to free up space temporarily in order to do this.


Do I need internet/3G to use GPS? I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 that has some problems with the GPS:
If I use internet my navigation works but when I turn the 3G off, GPS does not work.

Do I need internet/3G to use GPS?

In short: GPS works without an active connection, it's completely passive.

GPS has however an addon feature called A-GPS (assisted GPS) which speeds up the startup (time to first fix) considerably. It basically warms up the receiver with GPS status data such as time, coarse location and most of all GPS satellite orbit location data (ephemeris data download). Everything of this is also included in the GPS signal but a cold start needs longer if the receiver needs to fetch it itself. With A-GPS this data is downloaded from the internet and fed to the receiver.

Note: The A-GPS data is good for some days but deteriorates over time until the phone needs longer to (once!) cold start again (or a internet re-download is necessary). You can trigger a manual redownload with some apps, for example GPS status.


Adaptive brightness is not present in notification bar and altogether does not work My Nexus 7 2013 has updated with OTA update to Android 5.0.1.

The notification bar has changed. Now when I change brightness, there is no button for auto-adjustment. It currently looks like this:

In settings, I can find Adaptive brightness settings - optimize brightness level for available light. However this does not work as expected. It just seems I have two different brightness settings. If I turn it on and set manually via notification bar to maximum, it is maximum, although the settings is ON. Then I turn it off and set it to maximum and it lets me do it too. When it is turned on, the brightness is just slightly darker than the turned OFF mode. However, it is always exactly as I set it with this small offset. It does not correspond to the external light.

It seems like it is a bug, but I can't tell. Do you experience the same with your Nexus 7 2013? Is the "auto" button missing in all lollipops? Does it mean that when you want to go to auto-brightness mode you have to enter settings and brightness via more like 5 clicks? (two swipe downs, settings, brightness, turn on)

Android has removed "Auto-brightness" in place of "Adaptive brightness" on Android 5.0 Lollipop.
From Android Police,

If you're looking for the auto-brightness switch on the Android L preview build, you won't find it. That's because it's been replaced with the adaptive brightness toggle. [...]
In short, adaptive brightness is like quasi-autobrightness. You're essentially setting a "range" of available brightness levels when this feature is turned on, so that if you have display brightness set to 50%, the phone may only actually adjust itself between 40 and 70% brightness in a given situation. This is as opposed to completely automatic brightness, which typically gives you the full spectrum of brightness adjustments depending on the ambient light. The problem with fully automatic brightness is that's it's often slow and a poor judge of what level of brightness your eyes really need. So, this adaptive mode allows you to set a baseline brightness that the phone will then adjust from based on your surroundings.

If adaptive brightness is active, it will be always active even if the brightness is changed from the quick setting panel, because it will only change the baseline brightness.
On the other hand, it's correct that there is no quick setting to toggle "Adaptive brightness" on stock ROM. It seems the only way to do that is with 3rd-party apps, but I didn't found any as of current writing.


Samsung Galaxy Note 3 SM-N9006: Chinese knockoff/clone or genuine phone? A few months ago a relative picked up a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (SM-N9006) while in China. The price was low so he didn't think much of it. The phone looks genuine and when it boots up it shows the Samsung logo and all that.

While researching a problem with the preinstalled apps - see my other question here - and looking into rooting it, and/or installing a custom rom, it was made clear that I had to be careful to pick the right rom for the device. It was also pointed out that there are clones of these phones which complicates the problem.

So, my question is, how do I know if I have a genuine Samsung Note 3 or a cheap clone?

Device Info:
Samsung Galaxy Note 3 SM-N9006
Android 4.4.2
Baseband: MT6582
Build: JSS15J.N9006ZCUBMI5

EDIT:

It was suggested that if a code in the dialer can NOT bring a debugging menu on screen then it is a clone. Well, the code worked for me. It showed a set of buttons for various hardware components like, wifi, flash, speakers etc. They did perform basic tests on a couple that I tried.

It seems that your device uses a MediaTek MT6582 chip, as seen in this line of your device info:

Baseband: MT6582

There are no Samsung Galaxy flagship devices (e.g. Note / S devices) that use MediaTek chips. Samsung uses Qualcomm Snapdragon chips, its own Exynos chips, and the occasional Spreadtrum chip. MediaTek chips just don't deliver the level of performance that Samsung wants in their flagships. I'm afraid the device is a clone.

One way to confirm this is by going to the dialer app and typing *#0*#. On a genuine Samsung device, you'll be taken to a debugging menu right after you enter the last #.

After some more research and consideration, it does appear that your device is indeed genuine. The *#0*# test you did (and passed) further strengthens this claim. (I apologize for my previous answer.)


Dual active LTE + multipath tcp + VPN I travel a lot and having a constantly reliable Internet connection is high on my priority list.  Tethering from my phone is often times spotty.  Different carriers are good in some areas and poor in others.  To further complicate things, sometimes even a good connection can randomly hike packet loss rates and response times.

I'm searching for a solution.  Something with much more reliability and consistency to tether my laptop to.  I'm willing to pay for multiple carriers.  I figure I can set something up with multiple sims that supports multipath tcp and then use a VPN connection to a AWS EC2 instance I setup and control.

So what I'm looking for is a dual active sim device that supports simultaneous LTE on both sims.  So the first part of the question is what hardware device supports this?

According to Wikipedia there's a multipath TCP networking layer for Android.  Is this standard in the latest version of Android or is this something I have to manually install?

I figure Android is a good way to accomplish this goal, but in the event that the hardware just isn't available, is there a non-Android solution that would accomplish the same thing while being as portable as a phone?  I've seen professional units that accomplish this but they're bulky and have external power requirements that wouldn't fit in my pocket.

Android's multipath TCP networking layer is only able to use WiFi and Cellular concurrently and can't use multiple of the same connections at once (as far as I know).

However. You can use a mobile WiFi Router from Huawei for example. To get a seamless LTE and WiFi over LTE connection. The Huawei router is very fast and as big as my phone so very easy to carry. It offers about 8 hours of coverage but they have models that are slightly bigger that offer 20 hours.

This way you can use for example Samsung's download boost to use LTE and Wifi at the same time to get double the speeds/reliability. I would suggest you get sim cards from 2 major different providers for extra reliability so if one is under maintenance/has low coverage you can rely on the other.

I hope this helped if you have more questions feel free to ask.

*If you want to double your speed you might also want to look into NIC teaming I think this only works on windows / pc's though


How to hardreset android phone? I'm asking how to hardreset because I googled "android hard reset" and it seems different from factory data reset but the instruction I'm getting from different sites is just the same method for factory data reset.

I'm experiencing some bugs in my phone, notification doesn't work properly, link2sd app says "couldn't obtain root access" though I'm rooted and it already worked before.

I've already factory data reset it 5 times and more, but still the issues I've stated are still there.

(This)[
http://www.yugatech.com/mobile/skk-announces-aura-edge-for-php1999/] is the phone I'm using.

If you are are still experiencing difficulties with your device even after 5 factory resets, I would suggest your reinstall your firmware again. Just download it from your manufacturer website and install, be sure to back up your personal files.

During installation follow instructions carefully to avoid bricking your device.
After reinstalling firmware, restore your user data. You can re-root if needed.

As for how to install the firmware without a PC:

You have to unzip the firmware file if not already unzipped, then extract it to root of sd card directory. Now switch off the device. Press both volume buttons together with power button SIMULTANEOUSLY, and you should boot into recovery mode choose upgrade then scroll down/up to the firmware file. Wait until it finishes installation. It will reboot automatically, you may wish to wipe cache partition before restoring user files from backup.

Note: in some Android models it automatically detects firmware files such that you don't need to press the buttons earlier, but check if this works then try using first method. In addition you need to remove your sd card, just after it finishes firmware installation to avoid repeating the upgrade.


Is android kernel same for all devices I m newbie to building roms. I have Hiawei G630 device with 4.3 kernel. My question is would it work if I use Samsung or other Huawei kernel.
Sorry form my bad english

No, kernels are device specific and contain a lot of code (not only open source Android code, but much proprietary as well) that is compiled specifically for a devices hardware.

There exists a generic Android kernel, but it lacks many features like telephony and such, so device manufacturers have to add proper code that fits their hardware.

So: No, you can't use a Samsung kernel on a Huawei device or vice versa because of the hardware modules of each individual device.


Can I automatically log in to open WiFi that requires web login/password? There are lots of wifi hotspots that are open, but require a web-based login to use. Hotels, coffeeshops, workplaces. For password-protected wifi, it's easy to set up Android phones to remember the login and password. But I'd like to be able to use my workplace's open wifi with web-based password on a regular basis, without having to manually type stuff in. It should just automatically connect to the Wifi router, go to http://1.1.1.1 or whatever, type in my password, and then everything else should just work. Is this possible?

(HTC Evo running Android 2.2, fwiw...)

The best you can do is set it up to auto-connect to the network and then manually open a browser when you're in range.  Save the username and password in the browser.  That gets it down to 2 clicks (er... touches).  Make sure Remember Passwords is on the the browser's settings.

There are some apps that claim to do what you want but I've never used them.  Here is a list.


Network Selection disabled by WiFi Manager & Wi-Fi keeps disconnecting Android 7.1.2 drops WiFi connection.
Wi-Fi verbose log says:

(network_selection_permamently_disabled)
network_selection_disabled_by_wifi_manager

I found out, the following WiFi Manager App was the reason:

  Wi-Fi Privacy Police (Prevent leaking sensitive data on WiFi)

The problem disappears whenever I disable this app. Here is how to disable it:

  (System) Settings / Memory / Apps started on boot / Wi-Fi Privacy Police / Start at boot: DISABLED

So you disabled the App's bootup autostart. Now reboot Android.
After you have Android rebooted, check again Android's Wi-Fi settings: The error message NETWORK SELECTION DISABLED BY WIFI MANAGER should have disappeared.

Wi-Fi Privacy Police was actually a useful app for long time, till I noticed the unfortunate repeated interrupted WiFi connection. Below you have a screenshot of that app's functionality:


HTC One E8 phone app lists just the top contact while dialling I am beginning to use this new device of mine, one major downside is that when I try to call someone, in my old HTC desire, I just used to type in the name and it used to list all matches, most of the times I used to select the second or third name in the list, now I have lost that flexibility.

What are my options now, is there an app I can install that will show all the matching contacts rather than the top one contact that I get now (it almost feels suffocating).

Ok after struggling for about a week, I found that selecting "Show Large Dial pad" from the menu in the phone app showed the list making it possible to call others as well.

I now need to find how I can see more than two at a time in the background list and shall update this answer once I find.


Hide applications from Apps menu I don't want to root my phone to delete some applications installed by the provider, but I would like to hide them from the menu, since I know that I won't use them often. I know that it is possible to do that with the alternative launcher, but I'm using the original one. Is there an application that can do that?

If it matters, I'm using a HTC Desire.

The only ways I know to remove it are the two ways you listed (that you don't want to do):

Root phone.  Freeze application with Titanium Backup
Install a different launcher such as Launcher Pro which lets you hide apps.

Only a home launcher can disable what is show in the app drawer.  If your current launcher doesn't support it, then you are unfortunately out of luck.


Is there a way to push the results of an adb query to a file? I have a couple of adb commands that I'm running in PowerShell. Specifically:

adb shell settings get secure bluetooth_address; adb get-serialno

Is there a way to do an 'adb push' of that data to a text file on the same tethered device?

Try the following:

./adb shell settings get secure bluetooth_address > results.txt ; ./adb get-serialno >> results.txt ; ./adb push results.txt /path/to/save/file

Explaination: The results from the first 2 commands are saved in a file on your PC, then the file is pushed to your device.


Saving a PDF file downloaded from browser I have the need of downloading and forwarding a PDF receipt downloaded from Firefox (Firefox runs in Honeycomb, not on PC!). I know that the PDF should be "protected" because Adobe Reader on PC says so, however in Adobe Reader for Android I don't have any option more than "Info on Adobe Reader" to save or forward the file in an email.

My stock ROM comes with the shareware Docs To Go that wants me to buy the full version for saving/forwarding a file.

Am I missing something in Firefox to show some kind of open/save dialog instead of directly opening the file in a reader?

Thank you

Actually, I found that all downloaded files are always stored in /mnt/sdcard/Download no matter they are "opened" or "saved" so I can grab them from there with any file manager


How do you "Share via" email & wifi option from gallery ? It's missing I recently upgraded to ICS (4.1.2) and have lost the ability to share photos from the gallery via email and wifi. The option was there before the upgrade. But not now. Is this a bug ?

After some mucking around, I discovered Google (un-intuitively) changed the way you can share photos in the gallery for email and wifi. You now need to do this

Open Gallery > Select Menu button > select "Select Items" > select the share button at the top of screen. All the icons should appear now in the share dialog window.


Remote debugging using USB debugging is not woking I'm trying to remotely debug Chrome on my Samsung Galaxy Note 4, but I can't seem to get it working.

Note - to eliminate a device problem I have also tried to use an HTC One M8, but that also would not work.

Having reviewed the requirements from the Chrome remote debugging page -https://developer.chrome.com/devtools/docs/remote-debugging - I believe I meet all of the requirements -

Mobile device - Chrome 42.0.2311.111 (Lollipop 5.0.1)
Device used for debugging - Chrome Canery 44.0.2394.3 (Windows 7)
USB Drivers - Downloaded and installed from the Samsung website

Both devices are connecting to my laptop without issue, and I can transfer files between the two, however USB debugging is not working.

According to the above guide I should see a notification entitled Allow USB debugging?  However, this notification is no where to be seen, and consequently the device inspector (chrome://inspect/#devices) is reporting no devices detected.

I've found many similar questions that advise the user to focus upon the USB driver, however I have ensured that I have my manufacturers latest version installed and I have had no success.

Is anyone able to advise on what I may try next?

Edit - I forgot to mention that I have also looked in to downloading the Google USB driver - http://developer.android.com/sdk/win-usb.html#download

However, I'm running Windows 7 x64, and it appears that these drivers are only suitable for x86 installations.

I've now also downloaded the Universal Windows ADB Driver Universal Windows ADB Driver as recommended on this site, but still no joy - USB Debugging is not showing in ADB devices

I have also installed the ADB plugin for Chrome Canery, but once installed the plugin notifies you that it is no longer required.

I found the missing pieces of the puzzle were installing the Java SDK & Android SDK.

I came across this because I couldn't connect to the "adb interface" - the Android remote debugging instruction page never mentioned installing an SDK, so I Googled "how to set up adb interface", and I found this page on How To Geek.

After installing the Java SDK & Android SDK, I was able to detect the device using "adb detect", and then Chrome was able to detect the device on chrome://inspect.

Prior to installing the Java SDK & Android SDK, chrome://inspect would not detect the device.

The version of Chrome Canary I was using was 48.0.2547.0 (64-bit).

The fact that the Java SDK & Android SDK install fixed the problem contradicts Google's own advice here:

  You no longer need to configure ADB or the ADB plugin to debug remote
  browser tabs and WebViews. Remote debugging for Android is now part of
  the standard Chrome DevTools.


Samsung Galaxy S4 broken screen ADB autharization I have an SGS4 i9500 device with totally screen broken. So, I can't see or touch anything. But device works. I had flashed it with Odin using this firmware: I9500XXUGNJ1_I9500SERGNJ1_SER.
Then I rooted it same way and flashed CWM revovery v6.0.3.3.
Now I need to install some software on it (VNC server and more and more).
So, I need to have ADB shell enabled in main system.
I connected via ADB in recovery, mounted main /system directory like this:

~ # cat /etc/fstab

/dev/block/mmcblk0p19 /cache ext4 rw
/dev/block/mmcblk0p21 /data ext4 rw
/dev/block/mmcblk0p20 /system ext4 rw
/dev/null /sdcard datamedia rw
/dev/block/mmcblk1p1 /external_sd vfat rw

~ # mount -o rw -t ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p20 /system

Then, like described here I appended /defaul.prop and /system/build.prop:

echo "persist.service.adb.enable=1" >> default.prop
echo "persist.service.debuggable=1" >> default.prop
echo "persist.sys.usb.config=mtp,adb" >> default.prop
echo "persist.service.adb.enable=1" >> /system/build.prop
echo "persist.service.debuggable=1" >> /system/build.prop
echo "persist.sys.usb.config=mtp,adb" >> /system/build.prop

So, ADB enabled in main system. But it still shows UNAUTHARIZED device status. At same link we see the solution:

cd ~/.android
adb push adbkey.pub /data/misc/adb/adb_keys

(from C:\User\user_name directory in my case)

Then restarted ADB daemon.
But it still have UNAUTHARIZED device status when rebooted to the system.
How this happens? Also, /data in recovery is same as /data in fstab when the /system isn't.
I checked multiple times: /data/misc/adb/adb_keys is same as my public key. What I missed up? Any suggestions?
Also may be there is another way to disable ADB auth? May be more options in .prop files?

UPD: It's seems like /data/misc/adb/adb_keys for recovery and for the system are different. But everything points that's not true:

cd /etc
/etc # ls
ls
fstab           mtab            recovery.fstab
/etc # cat recovery.fstab
cat recovery.fstab

# mount point   fstype          device                                  device2
/efs                    ext4            /dev/block/mmcblk0p3
/boot                   emmc            /dev/block/mmcblk0p9
/recovery               emmc            /dev/block/mmcblk0p10
/cache                  ext4            /dev/block/mmcblk0p19
/system                 ext4            /dev/block/mmcblk0p20
/data                   ext4            /dev/block/mmcblk0p21   length=-16384
/preload                ext4            /dev/block/mmcblk0p16
/modem                  emmc            /dev/block/mmcblk0p13

/sdcard                 datamedia   /dev/null
/external_sd    vfat            /dev/block/mmcblk1p1

/etc # cat fstab
cat fstab
/dev/block/mmcblk0p19 /cache ext4 rw
/dev/block/mmcblk0p21 /data ext4 rw
/dev/block/mmcblk0p20 /system ext4 rw
/dev/null /sdcard datamedia rw
/dev/block/mmcblk1p1 /external_sd vfat rw

Thanks in advance.
Pavel.

I had exact same issue on my LG Volt when screen was broken. So first thing for sure you need to have enabled is "developer options" and USB debugging turned on.

Even when USB debugging is turned on when your computer will send encrypted digital key code for authentication you have to accept on your screen.

That's for security purpose.

There was one solution for enabling USB debugging but after that you have to confirm digital key code to access ADB shell... Etc...


How to disable Google Search? Recently my phone started to lose charge faster. It just occurred to me to check Battery in Settings, and I saw that Google Search is responsible for 29%, Screen coming in second with 23%.

I set up Google Now a few weeks back, is it the same thing?

If not, what exactly is Google Search? Is it something I actually use, and Google Search is just a collective name for them? Can I turn it off?

Google Search is the package that contains both Google Search and Google Now. I think you can disable Google Now while keeping the search part by going into Now->Settings->Switch Google Now (first item).

If it doesn't solves your problem, then you can disable Google Search in Settings->Applications->Google Search->Disable.


Any workarounds for Nexus 5X lags? I'm one of those struggling with serious lags on my new Nexus 5X phone (Android 6.0.1). The issues are basically those outlined here on Reddit. I normally have ~500MB of free memory left out of 2GB with all my relevant apps up and running, so this shouldn't be a memory issue. To compare, my good old Nexus 5 has pretty much the same set of apps and works smoothly.

What I tried without much luck:

clearing the cache partition;
a factory reset;
flashing the latest factory image (MMB29P).

One thing that seems to be helping is turning on the Don't keep activities switch in the Developers options, then rebooting the phone:

So far, the lags seem to have improved, but I expect this to reduce the battery life.

Any other ideas/tricks to address this issue?

If your situation is improved by Don't keep activities, this is a strong indication that you are running poorly developed applications. The whole point of preserving applications in the background is to make full use of memory and reduce latency. If this increases latency, this means your applications are trying to do a lot of work in the background.

I would not expect battery life to be reduced by Don't keep activities, if the startup time of your applications is lower than the latency of keeping them around and switching. I would actually expect your battery life to improve by killing resource hogs immediately.

If you do not mind spending time diagnosing this, you should work on finding the culprit application(s). This may involve a substantial amount of testing combinations of applications. It may be that a particular combination of applications is creating contention for a resource that is handled differently on the Nexus 5X than on other devices. One application alone may not be the problem; it may be a bad interaction among a combination of applications that causes a major issue.

A less time intensive solution is probably a service like Greenify, described in How to prevent apps and processes from launching in background and slowing my device.

I have a Nexus 5X, and I do not any issues with interface latency. I also do not use many applications that are not stock.

In the past, I have had significant issues with latency resulting from filesystem TRIM on a Galaxy Nexus. With a recent explanation of when fstrim is scheduled to occur, I have modified my charging behavior to leave the phone plugged in and unused long enough for fstrim to run, and this helps quite a bit. I don't know, however, if the fstrim behavior for Marshmallow is the same.


push allert to my phone that will ignore silent profile How can I make my phone check my website in a background every 30s and activate voice alert that will ignore silent mode if website says for example '1'? Pushing from server to phone is also acceptable but I guess much more difficult and is susseptable to hangs when conectivity is bad. So far i;ve been using Light Flow Lite and additional gmail account - sending myself any email there triggers alarm.

You could try pushover.net, which provides an easy-to-use API for sending notifications to your Android or iOS device.

It should be very efficient, because it's already using Google Cloud Messaging to deliver your push notifications, thus it should not have any adverse effects on the battery life, unlike your proposed solution of manually doing the polling every 30 s.


Where are WhatsApp call logs stored? I know about the .db files and files that are used to store messages or so, but I need to know where are the call logs stored too. Thank you very much.

All user installed application data are stored in /data/data/package_name and database(.db files) are stored in /data/data/package_name/databases.
You need to manually find which db from /data/data/package_name/databases file is  call logs file.


Colornote 3.9.82 SD card backup .dat files are not recognized after Android refresh I backed up all my files on the SD card (Nexus 4) and refreshed my Android.
I then reinstalled Colornote and placed the files (.DAT files) in the same directory (data\colornote\backup), but the files don't show up in Colornote backup.

Now in the Colornote FAQ they talk about 'SD card backup', but this option is not available in the Colornote settings. I use the latest version on Android. I already mailed Colornote about this, but no reply for weeks.
Does anybody know how I can do the 'SD card backup' in the latest version?

I fixed it! I was missing the .IDX file, so I made one with the same name as my .DAT file. Now I was able to restore my backup. (I also turned off auto backup) Thank you Android gods and Firelord.

PS1: I tried this before but than it didn't work, after reinstalling colornote again it did work. To everybody with Colornote: make backups!


Did I have USB debugging on or off? my phone got stolen a month ago and I Don't know if I had usb debugging on or off(I had enabled developer options in the past and messed around with it a little bit that's why I'm not sure) but I remember,everytime I connected my phone to the computer I had to unlock the phone using my pin and select files or photos in the notification bar to access the files on the phone,otherwise you couldn't Mount phone as a storage device.i never had anything on the notification bar that said USB debugging is enabled when my phone was connected to the Computer. Did I have USB debugging on or off? and if I had USB debugging on could they simply remove the PIN and use the phone as is? I'm worried about my chrome data not about videos photos... Thanks alot

Having USB debugging (adb) enabled on a device is not a security problem anymore since Google introduced the adb authentication using public keys with Android 4.2 (or was it 4.4?).
Since that time adb does not work when you connect it to a PC it has never been connected before.
The device does not allow adb access unless the user has authorized the PC as allowed using the dialog that appears on the phone when connected via adb. This dialog can only be seen and answered when the device is unlocked.
Thus a lost or stolen device that is locked can not be accessed via adb.


Where does Android store the "default application for file type (open with)" settings? Where does Android store the default application settings that connects each type of content with a designated application?
I mean which application open each kind of file or content type so if I got two PDF readers and I downloaded a PDF file android will use one of them without letting the user an option to choose.

I know I can clear the default settings of an application but it's not what I'm looking for.

I want to find the table/database/file that android uses for this.
Is it in a sqlite database file? Where is it stored ?

On Jelly Bean, the preferred activities are stored in the XML file /data/system/users/0/package-restrictions.xml for the primary user. Other users have their user ID in place of 0 in that path. If encrypted file system is enabled, it starts with /data/secure/system instead of /data/system.

Other than through the PackageManager service, this file can only be accessed by root. You can see the code that reads and writes the file (and thus infer the format) in the class com.android.server.pm.Settings.


Changing calendar display When I first got my Android it gave me the monthly view of my calendar. It has switched to daily agenda. ARGH!  How do I switch it back to weekly or monthly view?

Hit the menu button.

It should then bring up the day/week/month view options.


How to upgrade Android on Nesus 6 after it`s downgrade I have an Nexus 6 phone in my company which is used for automatic testing purposes. After release of Android 6.X our framework was not ready to work with new permission system so we downgraded Nexus 6 to Android 5.X official images.

Now we have deal with permission problem and now want to make Nexus 6 run on Android 6, but inside menu Setting -> About Phone -> System Update there is no available updates. What is the best way to install Android 6 with ability to automatically be informed when new updates will be released (6.+ and android 7.+)

The best way would be to manually flash the Google factory images to get to Android 6.0.1, then all the monthly security updates will come via OTA, and when 7.0 comes out, eventually the phone would get that as well.

Google Nexus Factory Images


Unable to add restricted profile on Xperia Z2 tablet I would like to add a restricted profile. I'm on an Xperia Z2 tablet (so not on a phone, where you can't use restricted profiles) running Android 5.0.2 and I'm the "Owner".

When I go to Settings > Users there is no option Add user or profile, only Add user. When I tap Add user no Restricted profile option is shown:

Also when I tap OK no options regarding restricted profiles are offered.

According to this support article by Sony on multiple users, it should be possible on the Z2.

I tried adding a PIN screen lock for the Owner account. That did change the information in the alert shown when adding a new user, but that didn't show the restricted profile option.

I turns out that LTE versions of the Xperia tablets (tablets with a SIM slot) are treated as if they are a phone, so the option is disabled:

https://talk.sonymobile.com/t5/Xperia-Z3-Tablet-Compact/missing-restricred-user-profiles-on-android-5-0-2/m-p/956279#M455

I opened an issue at Google:

https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=180281


Find my samsung notification When logging into the "Find My Mobile" website, why do notifications appear on the phone that I am trying to locate? I don't really want someone to know if they steal my phone that I am tracking it.
I have tried turning off notifications for "Find my mobile", but they still appear on the phone. I have a galaxy s8 and s10.
Is there any way around this?

I assume that the notification is shown for legal reasons. In a lot of countries it is illegal to track user positions without their knowledge/approval.

Just an theoretical example: Let us assume there are two Samsung devices on your account, your own device and the device of your partner. Now you are getting jealous and start tracking the movements of your parter's device using the Samsung find my device system. Such usage is illegal in a lot of countries.

In your case you just don't want the notification to be visible on the lock screen. Therefore it should be sufficient to configure the notifications of the Samsung Find my Device service to be not shown on the lock screen.


How to unroot and lock bootloader in HTC desire 820? I have unlocked the bootloader with windroid, then I flashed TWRP recovery,
then I flashed supersu zip file through TWRP to root my phone.
Now I want to Unroot and relock the bootloader, but when I press 'Full Unroot' option in supersu it automatically reroots after a reboot.
How can I unroot and relock the bootloader in my phone?

I don't know if it works the same way for HTC Desire 820 @Suriya, but I have also found another procedure for unrooting.

Download Universal unroot apk for HTC Desire 820.
Connect your device to your PC using the USB cable.
Copy the Universal unroot apk to your SD card.
Once it’s been copied, disconnect your device from your PC.
Head to Menu>>Settings>>Security on your device and enable the Unknown sources option.
Open the File Manager app on your device and install the app you copied earlier to your device.
Once the app’s been installed, launch it from your App Drawer.
Hit the button marked- “Temp. un-root (keeps backup).” Your phone is now temporarily unrooted. If you’d like to make it more permanent, click the “delete su backup” button. You can then click “Restore Root” whenever you want to bring the root back.


Why do we need a rooted phone to capture screenshots on older versions of Android? I realize in order to capture screenshots of my phone, all screenshot applications require I have a rooted phone. Why is this so? Why can't we have a simple screenshot application for Android, just like we have for Windows?

The answer is rather simple, it's a permissions issue.

Android uses what is called a framebuffer for the video display. The framebuffer is located at /dev/graphics/fb0. this "file", which is basically a stream that the device writes to when changes in the user interface occur, contains ~2 frames of the screen display.

The permissions on the framebuffer file is rw- rw- ---. Note that the last "group" has 3 "-"'s. That basically means that if you are not the owner (which is root) you do not have permission to even read from that file.

If there was a system installed application, that could take screenshots, it would have permission to read from the framebuffer. Which, I believe, is how the Motorola Xoom is able to take screenshots. It has an application installed on the device, as a system app.

Reading the framebuffer, for a developer, is actually simple, if they have access to read it.


Can Android devices access an iOS file system via USB-OTG? Using an OTG cable, Stickmount, and Root Explorer, I can view files on my USB flash drives with my Android device.

On Windows, it's possible to view an iOS device's filesystem using programs such as iFunBox or iExplorer.

When I plug my iPhone to my Android device using an OTG cable, it's recognised as a camera instead of a mass storage device.

Is there a way to view an iOS device's filesystem using an Android device and an OTG cable?

No as mentioned in the above comment it's not possible.

In android only some part of Linux is used on the architecture whereas in iOS the complete os is built on it.

Android is hard coded in Java whereas in IOS you will find most of the file in XML format so as the format is different you will end up with an unrecognised file on your Android Device


Vivo v7 hotspot keeps shutting off automatically How do i resolve this issue of my vivo hotspot turning off in its own? I can't even see any additional settings

All you can do is to keep a device connected. The device turns off the Hotspot when it sees no device using it for over 2 minutes.

This is certainly a very strict timeframe. Anyhow, the setting to automatically close Hotspot is baked into the system and as such, it will not be possible to override it.


Contacts app on Tablet with ICS I have a Scroll Extreme tablet running 4.0 ICS. Previously I had a Samsung Galaxy SII which had a great Contacts app integrating contacts from MS Exchange, Gmail, Facebook and LinkedIn. How do I make the Contacts app on my tablet visible so I can add contacts or even just check a phone number or address?

Another solution - you can try my mini-application for such situation (built it for myself and uploaded it to Google Play). It's just like Shortcut for real People app:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gatherer.contactslaunch


Do external booster antennas help with 4G reception? I have a Sprint HTC-EVO 4G.  Today it's snowing, I'm in a downtown high-rise, and I'm only getting 3G.  Would a booster antenna help (either now, or in general)?

It's hard to say without knowing what specific model(s) you're thinking of, but by and large the antennas you're thinking of are probably designed for 3G/EVDO, in which case the answer is no. Sprint's WiMAX network operates on a completely different frequency than it's 3G network, so the antenna for one will not work for the other. The EVO itself has two antennas in it for this very reason. Basically, if it doesn't support the 2.5-2.6 GHz frequency range, then it won't work.

There are WiMAX repeaters/antennas out there, but I've never seen one from a major manufacturer (or Sprint/Clear). Someone over on Android Forums also managed to make his own WiMAX antenna.


Xposed as a system app And by the course of the days, memory keeps stacking and stacking up on Android, I have the habit of restoring the phone after a while (even with root, SuperSU as system app). But now I have Xposed framework, and it is not a system app (but I can change that easily). Do Xposed framework keeps working when the phone is restored? (Assume that Xposed is a system app)

Xposed Installer is not necessarily a system app; however, Xposed framework itself , mainly /system/bin/app_process, is. If by "restore" you mean factory reset (wiping /data) then it will not go away.


How can I get the official froyo ROM for SGS to use with heimdall? Possible Duplicate:
  Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?

I want to upgrade my SGS to froyo, but have given up on Kies which seems to be the most unreliable piece of software I've ever encountered. I've got heimdall running, and now I want to upgrade to the official ROM for my device (GT-I9000/optus). Is there a way of getting hold of the official ROm from somewhere?

Cheers,

Victor

XDA is the best place to look.  This thread even has Optus ROMs for the GT-i9000 Galaxy S.


How to fix "App not installed"? I have Galaxy S4 GT-I9500, plus I have much free space. Some apps have trouble to be installed which end after pressing "Install" and telling me "App not installed".

Please I need a solution for this weird issue.

This means the SD card hasn't been fully checked and mounted, and the app you're trying to run is on the SD. That's why you see the icon, but can't run it for awhile.


Can Android app run without being launched at least once? As much as I know, most apps won't ever start, unless you launch them at least once (even if they have a background service).

But what about those, that for example, have the Receive Intent Boot Successfull in their Manifest? Will that be enough to launch their code?

Yes, Android apps can start background services after system boot or intent received.
There are xposed modules (like defim's Boot manager or Receiver stop) that can prevent this behavior.


Samsung Galaxy s2 stuck on boot screen after an OTA upgrade I upgraded firmware on my Samsung Galaxy SII via OTA. My starting firmware was android 2.3.4 (gingerbread) and after two successful updates it was on android 2.3.6 . Now it prompted me for another upgrade (12.1 MB or so). I downloaded it (successfully), it installed successfully  but when the phone reboot, it got stuck on the booting screen which displays 'Samsung Galaxy SII' and the model no. I9100G . I tired:
1. Reboot
2. Hard Reset

But it still won't budge. When I connect my charger (phone turned off), the battery symbol shows up, and since it is going into recovery mode, I know all is not lost. So what is the problem? More importantly, how do I solve it? SOS.

Have you flashed the phone before and do you have any new boot loaders on it? What kind of recovery mode is it booting into? ClockworkMod? Or does Samsung have its own recovery?

If possible I would suggest maybe downloading the correct ROM for your handset from cyanogenMod and putting it on your SD card then try flashing that on. Do a clean wipe and then set up your Google account again so you have all the numbers on phone again.

On my phone I have installed clockwork mod and new boot loader so I can flash the phone again if the ROM ever gets broken. Obviously i don't know exactly how your phone is set up so i wouldn't be able to give exact instructions on how to do it.

EDIT: I would suggest flashing a ROM onto it from recovery if its not booting then what you have in the mobile world is probably a "brick". Dont see many other optuions to be honest.

Bill


SMS only fetched when I turn the screen on XPeria Z3C on Marshmallow.

Starting some weeks ago, I don't receive notification unless I turn on the screen. While that was business as usual for games and other "come check X", it started to do that to received SMS too.

The result is that, when I think about ulocking my phone, I see SMS coming, sometimes dated more than half a hour ago, usually in the range of 5~20min ago. I randomly get notified, never on time, sometimes in the range of 2~5min ago, more often 10~20min ago.

I think it is related to some power saving options that reduced (way too much) the fetching of new message when in idle mode, but the only one I found is the new "Battery Saver", which is turned off.

Relevant informations:

Rebooting didn't help.
Removing the battery is sadly not a option on this phone.
SMS notification is on Priority
Battery Saver is off
Default SMS app.

That might happen because Android 6 has a function called Doze.  Try going into Settings - Battery and look for Battery Optimization. Add there the apps that you want to make sure they sync / ignore battery optimization and see if it still happens.

http://www.androidcentral.com/inside-marshmallow-what-doze-how-do-i-use-it-and-what-does-it-do


Why do Android phones have more cores than computers? Laptops have usually at most four cores, and dualcores are probably more common. I have recently switched from quadcore to dualcore and I can confirm there is a limited number of usecases for quadcore, even with CPU intensive tasks.

On the other hands, at mobile phones, quadcores, hexacores and octacores seem to be common. Why? What tasks can utilize them?

I understand that big.LITTLE can be a part of the answer. That is, the main benefit of so many cores is not the ability to use all of them simultaneously, but rather using a core with power consumption appropriate for the current workload. However, for example, the Snapdragon 625 has eight Cortex-A53 cores, which does not seem to be a case for big.LITTLE.

Maybe the ARM architecture has a lower point of optimal performance per watt. That is, having a single core tuned for optimal performance per watt results in a lower performance on ARM than on Intel. So, more cores are used in order to deliver the performance. This is just a hypothesis.

But even in this case, I don't see what workload can efficiently use, say, eight cores on a mobile phone. On laptops, I can imagine a few like full (non-incremental) compilation of a project. But on phones?

Games can be performance-hungry, but they usually require GPU performance rather than CPU, don't they?
Theoretically, multiple cores could speed up Android Lollipop/Marshmallow AOT compilation when installing or when upgrading (i.e., the phase “Optimizing apps 3/121”). I am, however, not sure if this can utilize multiple cores. As far as I remember the code, only one app is being compiled at a time, but maybe there is some parallelism within the compilation process itself.
Also Android 7+ could utilize multiple cores when compiling. But since it reportedly compiles when idle and charging, the benefit seems to be rather minimal. At least when one charges the phone overnight – I really don't care if it takes 30minutes or two hours in such a scenario.

As you've already noted, the big.LITTLE combination strategy (technically, HMP, Heterogeneous Multi-Processing clusters) is the primary reason for so many (and sometimes overwhelmingly many) cores. A mobile device often runs into multiple scenarios, both heavy load and light load ones included.

An extreme consumer-class example is MediaTek's Helio X20, which has 2 performance-oriented A72 cores, 4 balanced A53 cores, plus 4 energy-efficient A35 cores. That's very flexible throughout different usage cases. However, I think 8 cores 2 clusters is usually enough.

There's also another desktop-like example, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 series (S 800, S 801, and S 805). There are only 4 cores of the same microarchitecture in each SoC, with 2 clocked higher and 2 clocked lower. Qualcomm made these SoCs because they were very confident of their own microarchitecture (Krait 400 and Krait 450).

For games, even if they seemingly demand GPU performance rather than CPU, they still put a heavy load on the CPU. A GPU cannot work alone without something else supplying it with data to be processed, and that's one of the major jobs that the CPU is doing while you're gaming. In most gaming cases, the GPU only renders graphics, while all other jobs like loading data, resources and assets, and calculating in-game mechanics like the system, environment and physics are done by the  CPU. You won't observe a higher frame rate if you upgrade your GPU while sticking to a low-end CPU.

A secondary reason is how Android utilizes CPU resources. Android pretty much makes their own application environment. It uses nothing but codes (and APIs) from Java, but it has its own virtual machine named Dalvik, which was later replaced by ART (API Level 21). APKs have their executable codes in a "neutral" format, much like .class files in Java. Before they're run, the codes get compiled once more into the machine's native instructions[1]. The compilation process is multi-threaded and can utilize multi-cores for a performance boost.
And when an app is running, there are several other processes and mechanics (like the Garbage Collector) that run alongside, or parallel to the app. More cores can let the supportive processes run more efficiently, as well as the main app.
1. If you use a file type identifier, you'll find that "optimized" dex files are in ELF format, while the "neutral" dex files are just in a format of their own.

Another lesser reason is that ARM cores can't work as fast as an Intel x86 chip. The Intel x86 microarchitecture can be dated back to 1976, when the Intel 8086 chip started to be designed, which means that the x86 has developed over a long time. A single modern high-end ARM Cortex-A73 core is only as powerful as an Intel Clarkdale core, taking Core i5-660 as an example (GeekBench, single-core). This is because x86 is a CISC microarchitecture while ARM is a RISC microarchitecture. You surely don't want a phone that becomes laggy with only two or so active apps. More cores will help relieve the pressure. That's why dual-core SoCs are relatively popular only on smart watches. Who needs performance on a smart watch?

Interestingly, more cores will result in less power than a single core at the same load. The relationship between CPU frequency and power consumption is more than linear, so twice the frequency will always result in demanding more than twice, or even 3x or 4x as much power, while delivering less than twice the performance (due to other resource limitations like cache). So 4 cores can easily beat a single core at the same load, providing better performance and simultaneously demanding less power.

Further Reading:

Why 8 and 10 CPU cores in smartphones are a good idea – a lesson from the kitchen
Why some phones have two quad core processors and some have similar clocked octa core. Which is better one in terms of performance?


How to clear Android browser's localStorage? I've got an HTC Evo Design 4G (Android 2.3.4), and I can't figure out how to clear localStorage in the browser. Clearing the cache, history, form data and everything else doesn't do it. Resetting the browser to default settings doesn't do it. The website (served from the local network) doesn't show up in Website settings either.

The only thing that does work is deleting ALL data from the phone by resetting it to factory defaults.

Is there an easier option, and how come this isn't done as part of clearing cache which should "clear locally cached content and databases"?

Try: Settings → Applications → Manage Applications → Select Browser ("All apps" tab) → Clear Data. This would delete all the data belonging to the app. Quite like a factory reset, but just for that app.

Be careful while using this. Make sure you select the correct application (Its called 'Browser' some phones and 'Internet' on some) in the All apps list.

You can accidentally delete your contacts and other important stuff if you are not careful


Find bluetooth version on Galaxy S3 running 4.3 Every answer I've found to this question says that under Settings -> About Phone, I should see Bluetooth Version listed. I don't even have About Phone. There's Settings -> More -> About Device, which shows me the android version and kernel version, but nothing about bluetooth. If I then click on Status (on the About Device page) I get my bluetooth address, but again, not the version. Help?

The option you are citing is the very same. Whether it says "About phone" or "About device" is usually dependent of whether it's a phone or a tablet. Obviously Samsung "thinks big".

To your main issue: You might be able to use a Bluetooth device scanner on your PC to give you details on "devices in reach". Details should at least give you clues, so e.g. "EDR" is not available before BT 2.0, SSP was added with 2.1, etc. (see Wikipedia on Bluetooth).

On the other hand, checking the S3 specs at GSMArena.Com (first address when looking for device specs) shows:

  Bluetooth: Yes, v4.0 with A2DP, EDR

Which should answer your question.


J2ME emulator that works for ICS? Is there any J2ME emulator like JBed for ICS? I've found a ton of tutorials like this but  as far as I know, all of them are exclusively for Gingerbread and below.

P.S. I already tried J2ME Runner but whenever I submit my JAR and JAD files for conversion on their site, it would hang up and send me a converted .APK with corrupted content so that cancels out that method too.

With Android's Gingerbread builds, it was built using the Java 1.4 components, ICS and later are built using Java 1.5+.

Nokia uses Symbian specific Java midlets and JAR's written using Java 1.2 or 1.3 ME edition.

And from the tutorial linky, there is no mention of specifically running Nokia's apps on it.

Rather, the impression I get, is Java agnostic JAD/JARs/Midlets not tied to any platform.

In your case, Nokia apps are specifically for Nokia which I guess is why it failed.


Why Do I have multiple dirs in /data/app I noticed that I was short on space so I checked with a disk analyser app.

I noticed that I have 8 instances of com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox-1 in /data/app and each dir is about 130 MB.

The number at the end increments.

Is this 1 app or 8 versions of the same one?

Can I delete all but one?  Which do I keep?

This is the package name of Google App as explained here What is the APK (and package) name of the Google App?

I am not sure why there should be multiple entries unless the app has been frequently updated and older versions have incremented numbers at end

In any case, you can check which is the latest using any root explorer (I use Solid explorer) to check properties of base.apk retaining the newest one ( which should correspond to the one having -1 at end, that being the package name )


Can I download whole folders in Dropbox app? Is it possible to sync whole folders in Dropbox app? I currently download file by file a slow process

Sync isn't possible and the "download folder" function is also missing on Android.

You can support this feature request: https://www.dropbox.com/votebox/2133/android-download-upload-folders


Titanium Backup vs Android data backup So somewhere along the line Android got a native "backup my data" option but I haven't gotten to use it. I used to use Titanium Backup and it was the main reason I rooted my phone, but I don't have Titanium or Root anymore.

Is there any significant difference in what's backed up between the native Android Backup from Google's servers vs the standard Titanium Backup? I mean a plain old backup, none of the freezing/bloatware melting/ect that Titanium also provides.

What do I end up with if my phone is bricked or I get a new phone and I restore from either platform?

I think you're better off using Titanium Backup if you want to ensure that when you restore your phone, you'll have exactly what you had when you performed the backup.  I find that Android's new built-in backup options are inconsistent.  For example, after re-installing some apps, some of the settings are magically maintained, however some data (usually authentication data) is no longer there.  I guess this is a good thing as storing everything in the cloud would be a bit scary, but when you use Titanium, there are no surprises: all of the data is restored.

Another benefit of Titanium is that you can do multiple backups at of a single app's data and restore any of those levels--not so for the built-in backup options.

So I'd advise using Titanium.


SignIn to Youtube (Android App) with Gmail but without adding Account I want to Sign-In to YouTube Mobile App on Android phone with Gmail Account but without adding the Account to Phones Account list , cause if I add the Account to phone then the account also shows up in the Gmail App which I don't want. I have a separate Gmail Account for Email and Sync and I have a separate account for YouTube which I don't want to be listed anywhere in phone except in YouTube App.

Is there a way to to Sign-In to YouTube App using Gmail account but not adding the whole account to Phone.

You tube is Google owned and therefore, is closely related to the purchases you make, your viewing habits which are monitored by Google (read ad and revenue generation). So, the tight coupling is inevitable as answered here
That leaves you with the option of signing out of Gmail  (of the youtube related account) or  use alternative approaches like FireFox addon or IMAP approach so that you have mail access as also youtube stand alone

It's a workaround


ADB issue while connecting through WiFi I am running adb port forwarding from computer to mobile with this command:

adb forward tcp:6401 tcp:50000

which is working completely fine (accessing 127.0.0.1) when I am accessing it through the same computer, but once I try to reach it through local WiFi (local IP 192.168.1.134) I am getting 'connection refused'. What am I doing wrong ?

First connect adb with usb then make connection in same network. Don't disconnect adb over usb. Now execute adb over tcp. If you are forwarding to some port means you have to disable firewall on that port. To disable firewall on port if you use linux. Open terminal or press ctrl+alt+t, Then try with these commands

ufw allow port_number

here replace this port number with forwarded new port number.

If you are windows user
this thread may helpful for you.
After allowing this port restart your adb server. Once the device is connected over wifi then you can remove your usb from your pc. If you need to know about port forwarding in adb see this thread.


Can I change gmail's format of displaying messages? Would like subject on top & bolded I recently updated form Droid Bionic to Droid Razr M.  Now that I have ICS, I have noticed that in the gmail app, the messages are listed with the sender in bold and on top and the subject line smaller and underneath.  This is very frustrating for me as its often the subject not the sender that I am looking for.  Is there a way to update this?

If not, is there a different app I could install that would be like the gmail app but give me this flexibility?

In Gmail app I think there is no way to change the display format. You may try K-9 Mail.
It is the good email client for Android. It's incredibly powerful and 100% free
K-9 Mail is an open-source e-mail client with search, IMAP push email, multi-folder sync, flagging, filing, signatures, bcc-self, PGP, mail on SD & more!


Is Android 4.3 the same as 4.0.3? I came across a Google play app that says version 4.0.3 and up required and I have 4.1.  So do I have to upgrade because I rather not as my old apps ptobably will not work with 4.3.  My question is whether it's a typo and they meant to say 4.3 or is my OS 4.1 good enough?

Phone: S3

Here, you can see the versions: Wikipedia about Android
4.0.x is older than 4.1.x and so on. It's explained here


How to use burst / slow-mo features on Nexus 6p? The Nexus 6p is supposed to have some cool features dealing with burst and slow-motion (high frame rate) capture, but all my searches for how to use these features are turning up an explanation that the features are there, but not how to use them.

It must not be too difficult, because I inadvertantly took a burst capture when I was trying to take a single picture.   A bit of research suggest that "holding down" the shutter button (volume button, apparently) shoots a burst, which is unfortunate if I just want to make sure I really pressed the button and only want a single picture.  I can't find out a way to disable this if I really don't want a burst of images at a particular shoot.

But I can't figure out at all how to use 120fps or 240fps capture, or even how to choose the frame rate.  How do I do this?

This is for Google Camera v3.0 and up:
Video

Open Google Camera app
Swipe from right to left for Video mode.
In the top right, touch the icons to turn features on or off:
Slow motion: Set slow motion to 120 fps or turn off slow motion.
Note: On Nexus 6P devices, there's an option for 240 fps. 240 fps produces a higher quality slow motion video than 120 fps, but requires more storage space on your device.
Flash: Turn flash on or off, or set to auto (for auto, you'll see an "A" in the icon).

Photo

You can choose what Google Camera does with your photo bursts. There are two settings you can turn on or off:
“SmartBurst”: Automatically save only the best photos in a burst.
“Auto-generate creations”: Automatically turn your photo burst into an animation or collage.
To turn these settings on or off:
Open Google Camera app.
At the top left, touch Menu  > Settings > Burst settings.
Next to each setting, touch the switch to turn the it on or off.

For full details see:
See: https://support.google.com/googlecamera/#6306661


android 4.2.2 out of space My nexus4 2G RAM and 16G ROM, android 4.2.2. Got the root privileges afte bought it last year.

The situation puzzled me these days. Each time I tried to install app from google play or somewhere esle.  Out of space error came out and suggested me Free up some sapce and try again,  Cancel or Manage apps.

In fact 8.9Gb is available, Apps(app data & media content) occupies 733m. And this Out of space error doesn't come out when I updating apps.

I did some seach, uninstalled some apps, cleared app cache(one by one), even entered recovery mode and cleared dalvik cache, but it doesn't work.

Any help is greatly appreciated. thanks!

(from an Android 4.4.4 user)

I began to have this problem after installing the Xposed module "XInstaller". I uninstalled that module and everything went back to normal.

Important: It can get easy to confuse all of these X words. It wasn't "Xposed Installer" that was the issue. The issue was the module for Xposed called "XInstaller". This module lets you change some of Android's default app installation/uninstallation behaviors. For now, I'm leaving that module alone.


How to find the application responsible for a Share menu item? I have a duplicate "Copy" item in the "Share" menu when sharing a link from Firefox:

The legitimate one is "Копировать", bottom left. The one that puzzles me is "Copy", second from the left in the top row.
How do I find which application is responsible for the "Copy" so I can remove it?
I have tried to share using the (fake?) "Copy" item. I get a toast notification saying "Не удалось отправить в это приложение" (Cannot send to this application) and the URL isn't copied.
Translations:

Недавно использованные - recently used
Все действия - all actions

This is Samsung Galaxy S8, Android 9, One UI 1.0.

Sharedr (Google Play), a replacement share dialog app, can display this information:

Install Sharedr.
Launch the Share action.
Choose "Sharedr" instead of default Android share (you can choose "Just once" if you don't want to keep using Sharedr).
In the action list, long press an item and choose "App Info". It will take you to the responsible application's settings.

P.S. Fake "Copy" menu item is AfterShip.