can't find mapping of "android.permission.INTERNET" permission to famous methods which should use it I was trying to evaluate effective permissions usage of an apk using axplorer mapping files.
During evaluation I obtained an effective use of the android.permission.INTERNET permission equal to 0.

This sounds pretty weird considering that this is maybe the most USED permission of all (android doc just tells an apk must declare this permission "In order to perform network operation"...)

This weird result depends on the fact that in axplorer mapping files there aren't mappings of famous "internet using" methods (java.net.HttpURLConnection, java.net.HttpsUrlConnection, java.net.Socket etc...) with android.permission.INTERNET permission.

I also knew that axplorer project replaced pscout project, so I took a look at pscout's mapping files either and found that in pscout's mapping files of android versions from Jelly Bean to Froyo there actually ARE mappings of java.net.HttpURLConnection, java.net.Socket etc.. methods with the permission, but for 4.11-5.11 android version, there is no mapping with these methods, and the mapping files become very similar to axplorer mapping files of android more recent versions.

Someone can help me find out why I'm seeing this strange case in permissions mappings?

I need to evaluate permissions effectively usage, but a "zero usage" of android.permission.INTERNET has really to be false... Someone can help me with that? Maybe there's something wrong in my idea?

The readme states:

  Maps are currently missing APIs with permissions checked in native code (Camera, etc.). We hope to provide these soon.

The permission android.permission.INTERNET is a permission that is mostly checked on native code level. Therefore you won't find much references to it in the API mapping files.

Update: The old mapping files that did include APIs for the Internet permission were as far as I know generated by manually reviewing the AOSP source code for permission checks. Over the time AOSP got larger and larger and the release frequency increased therefore this toot too much effort for providing those info for each and every Android release. Therefore the people who created the mapping files concentrated on the Java part which is much smaller and easier to check.


How to remove old credit card details from credit card autofill feature in Android One? Every app in my phone (Xiaomi Mi A2, Android One) that implements Credit Card auto-fill still shows my old credit card information even though I have already (a) replaced all my payment information in my google account a few weeks ago, (b) used 'Scan a new card' feature every time this auto-fill feature pops up and (c) cleared cache and storage of the app that used this feature.
Do you know where these credit card information are kept and where can I reset them?

Note: The credit card info above were purposefully blurred.
Other Notes
Out of curiosity, when I select any of those old credit cards, I get an error popup
Request failed: An unexpected error has occurred. Please try again later [OR-PMIA-18]

This is expected as I have removed them from my google account.

I was able to reset the Credit Card information by going to Settings > Google > Auto-fill > Auto-fill with Google then switch to different Google account and back again. My guess is this action clears the auto-fill cache.
You might also have some luck clearing the Setting app's cache instead but I have not tried that.


Bought a phone on eBay, want to reinstall Android, but not sure which one to use I bought a phone on eBay named XGODY 5.5" 3G 5MP 8GB, and I want it to go back to the stock version, but how do I know what is the correct ROM to install on this phone?
Here is what the "About phone" says:

There is no such thing as a "generic" phone. ROMs need drivers that are specific for the specific processor, specific memory chip, specific camera module, specific cellular radio, specific Wi-Fi radio, specific Bluetooth radio, specific GPS chip, specific LCD screen, specific digitizer, etc.
From the eBay ad you linked to, the manufacturer of your phone is XGODY and the model is X15S. Here is a link to the manufacturer's website.
Now, you need to find a ROM that was specifically made for the XGODY X15S. You can use your favorite search engines with such keywords as xgody x15s stock rom.


How to use Tasker to close app on exit I use my phone for private things such as social media and telephone banking. These apps that I won't want others to access if they had my phone and it was unlocked I have them blocked through App Lock.

However pressing the recent apps list (left touch button on Samsung s7) displays the list of apps and also gives a still image of what was happening in that app. I was advised Tasker can be used to resolve this by completely closing an app upon exit whether by pressing that event apps button or the back button or home button, so it no longer appears on recent apps list.

However Tasker is very complicated and I was hoping someone could share the wisdom of how this can be done.

After hours of researching I am pleased to inform you that I have found a way to clear the recent apps lists in Tasker

Prerequisites:

Autoinput plugin
Root

Open tasker and head to Task tab: You can name it Clear recent apps

A1: AutoInput Global Action [ Configuration:Action: Recent Apps Timeout (Seconds):20 ]
A2: Task Wait Value: 250 MS
A3: Code → Run shell → Command input tap 405.3 1198.5 and use root ( this is the x,y co-oordinates of the point on screen which will be simulated by a tap event - my device is 720x1280.
You can obtain  your x,y coordinates by enabling show pointer location/cursor position in developer options )
A4: AutoInput Global Action [ Configuration:Action: Home Timeout (Seconds):20 ]
A5: Flash [ Text:Apps cleared Long:Off ] (You may need this flash notification to know what took place)

Now for the profile;

Go to Profiles tab and choose Application (The list of "secure apps" )
Now for entry task just create Task Wait action and choose any waiting period e.g. 2 seconds
For the exit task choose the previously created task ( Clear recent apps)

Note: Try not to test this profile when Tasker is running in foreground/included in recent apps because it may crash or go into a loop. But once the profile is set it runs smoothly as required.

Credits:

how to create close recent app list
Tasker: clear recent apps command


Android Contacts no longer syncs multiple accounts? I recently purchased a new Motorola Droid Turbo 2.  My previous phone was a Motorola Droid Turbo.  I had multiple google accounts setup. Personal and work. I could add a new contact and select which account I wanted the new contact to be associated with personal or work or other.  My new MDT2 I can not do this. I have to select an account to sync and then it can not be changed. Is there any work around or recommendations? It seems rather short sighted for Android to get rid of this feature. Running android Version 6.0

First, make sure that you have added both accounts to your phone under Settings -> Accounts, and enable contacts sync on each one.

While in the Contacts app, begin adding a new contact by tapping on the "+" which brings up the "Add new contact" screen.  Directly under the contact photo, and above the contact name there is a "Saving to" box, which is a drop-down that can be accessed by tapping the down arrow to the right:

This drop-down should contain all your other accounts that are synced:

Select the account you wish to save this contact to by tapping on it, fill out the contact details and tap the check-mark on the top-right to save it.

Keep in mind that other contact management apps will most likely have a different way to save contacts to different accounts.


what does the intent filter verification service app from Google do? While updating apps on Fdroid (not sure which one because is was bulk update, could be any from Activity Diary, Editor, Simple Calendar), the firewall (AFWall+, moto x 2nd gen rooted) caught an attempt to communicate with what a whois search identified as amazon servers.  The app that tried to communicate was Google's Intent Filter Verification Service.
Does anyone know what is this app for?
I am not asking what Intent Filters are....

I used APKTool to find the following details:

It is not a Framework or a Shared Library,
It does not get backed up,
It appears to use some custom permissions (INTENT_FILTER_VERIFICATION_AGENT, BIND_INTENT_FILTER_VERIFIER, INTENT_FILTER_NEEDS_VERIFICATION)
It has a Broadcast Receiver, so presumably this NEEDS VERIFICATION stuff is happening at an OS level,
It is a Service.

I tried reading the reversed code, but I have no experience with Smali and therefore didn't make much meaningful progress.  Next, I used AndroGuard to make a Call Graph:

androcg.py --output intent-filter.gml --no-isolated Intent\ Filter\ Verification\ Service_com.android.statementservice.apk

... then I turned this into an image:

import networkx as nx
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
ifv = nx.read_gml('intent-filter.gml')
# filter out some system stuff, I think
ifv = ifv.subgraph([a for a in ifv.nodes() if not 'Landroid' in a])
# filter out some java utility type stuff, I think
ifv = ifv.subgraph([a for a in ifv.nodes() if not 'Ljava/lang' in a])
isolates = nx.isolates(ifv)
nonisolates = list(set(ifv.nodes()) - set(isolates))
ifv = ifv.subgraph(nonisolates)
relabeler = {key: key.split()[0].split('/')[-1] for key in ifv.nodes()}
ifvn = nx.relabel_nodes(ifv, relabeler)
ifvn.remove_edges_from(nx.selfloop_edges(ifvn))
nx.draw(ifvn, with_labels=True)
fig = plt.gcf()
fig.set_size_inches(18, 10)
fig.savefig('intent-filter.jpg',dpi=200)

I get this:

My suspicion from the name of the service is that it effectively takes an Intent and determines whether or not that Intent satisfies the (grammar? of the ...) Intent Filter of each publicly declared exportable component in each Manifest.xml for all the apps on the device.  This call graph seems to sort of support my hypothesis.  In particular, URL is dead center with a ton of out-going edges, the nodes in the middle-ring of stuff kind of look like verification or filtration of some sort (parsing an extended message nano, looking at a network response, pulling the data from the Intent, getting a web port, checking if a protocol is valid or invalid ...), and finally the very outer-most items that have only incoming edges kind of seem like they are either executing the Intent by passing it to a destination (e.g, HttpURLConnection ->, NetworkResponse, AndroidAppAsset, ...), or discarding it as invalid (InvalidProtocolBufferNanoException, ResistanceFollowRedirects, OutOfSpaceException, ...).

I am just an amateur sleuth and cannot claim to really know what all this means, but this is my 10 cents.  I think that the the Service forms the connection between an invoked Intent and all of the IntentFilters in apps on the device.  I think it decides what goes to which app, if something has invalid data like in a null fuzzing scenario, and if something should go to the web.  I think it also stops some sort of infinite-redirect attack.  I suspect this is an effort on the part of the Android dev team to defend against inter-component communication (ICC) attacks and app link / URI vulnerabilities.  Hope this helps!


Can't connect to mobile internet with CyanogenOS 13 On Google, I found a similar problem on Reddit, which describes exactly what I've got right now: https://www.reddit.com/r/cyanogenmod/comments/3xm0mo/mobile_data_not_working_cm13/

The problem is that, even though I do have cellular reception, and everything (WiFi, SMS, calling) works just fine, whenever I turn off WiFi (or walk outside WiFi) it doesn't connect to the internet using a data connection (3G/4G etc).

What I've tried so far (based on that Reddit post's comments)

Reboot my phone
Toggle Airplane mode on/off
Switch preferred network setting to 3G and then back to 4G
Enable Data Roaming (even though I'm still in the country this should be active)
Going to Settings>Cellular networks>Access Point Names and trying each of the available options
Check my remaining MB-credit on my subscription (I still have >100MB remaining) - this is actually irrelevant since I do not have an exclamation point at my reception-icon

The only thing I haven't tried is some kind of reinstall/rollback of my OS. My Cyanogen version is 13.0-ZNH0EAS45F

When I go to my SIM 1 status, I see that "Service status" says "Data: In service", but (even though my WiFi is turned off) the "Mobile network state" is "Disconnected". Can I force my phone to connect to the mobile network somehow?

PS: This problem has existed for about 2 hours now. Before that it worked just fine.

Update: One of these things might have fixed it. I'm not sure. It suddenly started working again, even though between the time of posting and now I did not change anything about my settings at all. I have (after it started working) reverted all changes to my settings, and it still works. I have no idea how this worked, but it works.

Clean Cache/Dalvik, System and Data and flash Your Cyanogenmod 13 ROM again


Regarding root of my device samsung galaxy star pro gt S7262 i cant root my device   after using odin drivers too
my problem is in recovery mode it is not showing the option install from zip
it is showing only 4 options they are 1 .reboot device  2. install update from adb  3. factory reset   4. wipe cache partition
 so plz help how could i root my device

The problem you are really facing is that you are still using the stock recovery. Flash a custom recovery.

With credits to ItsAnilSingh from xda-developers. He is the creator of the recovery and posted the installation steps.


Resize screen for Dead touch zone I have Star N7189 (5.5") with the lower zone of touch screen dead

The menu and back buttons don't work,but the physical home button works.

I tried to press hard on the edges of the screen, I tried to apply a twist from the short sides as if it were nothing but a wet towel. I did the hard reset but it did not work.

Sometimes pressing dead area, the phone takes it as menu button

As well as replacing the screen what other methods can I try? Is there any app, launcher or trick to resize the screen usable only to the working area?

P.S. a few hours after leaving it in airplane mode suddenly the touch had this problem but I do not remember if I inadvertently placed something heavy in that area of the cell.

A partial but possibly helpful answer, but would not work on Android 11 and above.

Note:

My solution is tested on Stock Android 4.4.2 and Stock CyanogenOS 12 (5.0), and should work for Android 4.3 and above (based on this answer).
I've mentioned wherever root access is required.

The issue in this existing answer is that it reduces the screen output from both top and bottom in my devices while I need to reduce only from the bottom. To do so I used the following  comment as the ground to work on:

The bottom 20% of my Nexus 4 doesn't work. I use: wm overscan 0,0,0,210 to have android WM not draw anything in that area so that I can operate all the drawn areas fully again.. –  Thrustmaster

##Instructions:

Enable USB-debugging in your phone.

Install ADB tools in your PC, connect your device into it, and make sure that device is getting detected in adb devices.

We need to know the resolution and the display density of the device. In the terminal/cmd enter adb shell dumpsys display | grep mBaseDisplayInfo to show display related info. The output could look like:
 mBaseDisplayInfo=DisplayInfo{"Built-in Screen", app 480 x 854, real 480 x 854, largest app 480 x 854, smallest app 480 x 854, 64.29 fps, rotation 0, density 240, 240.0 x 240.0 dpi, layerStack 0, type BUILT_IN, address null, FLAG_SECURE, FLAG_SUPPORTS_PROTECTED_BUFFERS}

The relevant info in my case is:

real 1080x1920
density 480

The most useful commands to be used are:

wm overscan [reset|LEFT,TOP,RIGHT,BOTTOM]

wm density [reset|DENSITY]
My default launcher screen without tweaks looked like:

To reduce the screen output at bottom issue the command:
    adb shell wm overscan 0,0,0,100

Note the I used further reduction by upto 0,0,0,300 and the output was like this:
[![enter image description here][3]][4]

Tweak the value to your desired needs.

You may need to correct the density since the display could look odd. My device's default display density is 480 dpi, so I tweaked it this way:
    adb shell wm density 440

and the resultant screen was like this. An app under tweaked resolution.

Note that you can use adb shell wm density reset and adb shell wm overscan reset to revert back to default density and resolution respectively.

Now that "dead touch zone" has been taken care of it's time to use virtual/soft keys (only if you need it).

Izzy has it already covered in this answer. Otherwise, you can use Gravitybox LP (for Lollipop users) or Gravitybox KK (for Kitkat users). It is an Xposed module, and require root access and Xposed Framework installed.
Install, activate and launch Gravitybox → Navigation bar tweaks → Enable Navigation bar → do a reboot, and soft-keys aka Navigation bar would be found enabled.

Custom ROM like Cyanogenmod and some stock ROMs has the option to enable soft-keys(buttons) under Settings. You can use that option since it doesn't require any root access.

After some further tweaks the final screen of my Android 5.0 looked like:

 Note that the aforesaid solution probably wouldn't be relevant for the OP, but it is written considering the objective of the bounty (offered by barro32).
Next big update possibly would be for Android 4.2.


Right swipe on contact defaulting to internet calls My problem is: right swipe is defaulting to internet calls instead of 'regular' calls.

First off, these are my relevant call settings:

as you can see I have no accounts and the internet calls are not enabled.

My contacts came from Google contacts (configured them online and then the phone got them).

After they came I used the "Mark as Default" function to select the correct phone number and emails and that's when things started behaving strangely. Doing a right swipe showed me this:

Instead of calling the contact 'normally'.

I started experimenting and was able to reproduce the bug using other similar contacts (contacts that I got from Google with 2 phone numbers + 2 emails). But if I created the Google contact locally (which would sync Ok with google) I didn't have any issues.

No other calling functions are affected: moving the phone to my ear still calls the correct number, direct dial widget still works.

My phone is a Galaxy S III running android 4.1 (but the same thing was already happening in 4.0), if that makes any difference.

What is causing this? How can I fix it?

Seems to be related to: How do I prevent "No Internet calling account" error? but I was still unable to fix it.

Mr. Portela has it right, and I figured out a way to solve the issue more quickly:

Select the misbehaving contact.
Long press the 'default' email address.
Select 'Clear default'.

Voila.

I'm not sure what will happen when you try to email these contacts from now on, but at least calling works as intended.


Voice announcement of phone calls? When my phone gets a call it announces either the number or contact of caller. Where can I turn this off or on?
I am using Galaxy S3 / Android 4.0.4.

This happens when you have Driving Mode enabled on the S3. Pull down the notifications bar, scroll to the right, and disable Driving mode.

That being said, on my S3, when I reboot with driving mode on, it comes back with it still enabled though the menu says it's not. Just enable it and disable it to make it go away then.


How can an "official" ROM be verified? I'd like to substitute the brand ROM on an huawei p10 with the official ROM one can find in the popular xda forum or alike.

I'm a bit paranoid in this regard so, in order to be reasonably sure no one tempered the "official" ROM, how can I verify it's actually the one that comes with unbranded Huawei phones since, as far as I know, Huawei doesn't provide the ROM itself nor the md5?

Most of stock recoveries has an option for verification of system integrity.

It checks your ROM and reports deleted, modified and added files or any unauthorized change.

It is labeled as 'verify system integrity' or similar in my moto phone, it should be available in your ROM.


System forgets settings and doesn't allow to install applications after reboot I have bought BLAUPUNKT ENDEAVOUR-1000 HD month ago, installed couple of games and apps, then moved them to the sd card, it was working perfect, then I turned it off and now wach time you re start, the tablet require new set up (as its brand new) and shows 0.00 KB internal memory, sd card is free, so I can't install anything and my tablet does not remember my settings, accounts etc. Should I try with the place where I have it and the warranty, or am I missing something? Tried with Root explorer, now when I connect it to the pc and try to access on the tablet, system, then the tablet restart by itself.

it's the same problem with my 1000HD in three times and, sorry, there isn't a solve. You must get the warranty and put it on ebay if it's ok after the repair.
It's not a hardware problem it seems to be a firmware problem and it will going on and on. You will get it as good as new from warranty repair an some weeks later - kawoom, same problem. There is no fun with this device. Sorry.

Best regards and so sorry for my english

Marko


USB driver for Verizon's Samsung Galaxy S4 SCH-I545VRUFNK1 I have a verizon S4 with which I plan to do some android development. Samsung's download website doesn't have a usb driver for the above mentioned model number.
I installed SCH-I545ZKAVZW's usb driver because it is for 16gb black mist devices, but android studio doesn't pickup my device.

I suggest that you modify the Google USB Driver so that it is installed for your device.

If you have the Android SDK installed, edit this file:

  C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\extras\google\usb_driver\android_winusb.inf

Otherwise, you can download the driver here and edit android_winusb.inf from wherever you extract that archive to.

Edit the [Google.NTx86] and [Google.NTamd64] sections to add these lines under both:

;Samsung Galaxy S4
%SingleAdbInterface%        = USB_Install, USB\VID_04E8&PID_6860
%CompositeAdbInterface%     = USB_Install, USB\VID_04E8&PID_6860&MI_00

Now you want to install the driver by right-clicking adb_usb.inf and choosing Install (make sure your device is connected).  It will probably give you an error about Driver Signature Verification.  Depending on your version of Windows there are different ways to temporarily disable that; here is a good guide for Windows 8.  Once it's disabled, install the .inf file and you should be good to go.


Share known WiFi networks between own devices It happens every now and then that I connect to a WiFi network for the first time on my phone, but not on my tablet. The second time I visit the place I might not have the WiFi access key at hand.
Is there a way to "share" the known network information between own Android devices?

If you want to back up and restore though Google (Drive) then perhaps you  may need to look at some third-party applications such as
WiFi Password Manager or Wi-Fi password manager (whichever you prefer as there are more or less similar)

Basically the following features are present:

  Manage your wifi passwords (add, edit, delete)
  Backup your passwords to Google Drive or to local storage
  Wifi hotspots list sorted by wifi signal strength
  Recover wi-fi passwords from system settings (ROOT)
  Connect to WiFi hotspot directly from the appplication
  Copy password to clipboard
  Share wi-fi settings

Pretty straight forward to use simply add the target wi-fi network, then back it up on local or google drive, follow the reverse proceedure to restore:


Spoof WiFi settings as 'On' but use Cellular Data (for specific apps or in total) Alternatively, can android force an app to use Cellular data?

The app in question: Amazon Video [Version 3.0.57.30110 "Prime Video for Android Software"]

**Device in use:**Samsung Galaxy Note 4 - Android Version: 5.0.1 Build LRX22C.N910TUVU1COG2 (USA TMobile Completely Stock, No Root etc)

Issue: AV doesn't allow 'download for offline viewing' of media larger than 50mb in size. The app wants to see the device is connected to a WiFi network to allow downloads.

Why this is an issue: When travelling, I use my unlimited network to download media for offline use when leaving network coverage areas (wilderness, trains/planes etc) - with an unlimited cellular plan, I don't care about what size file I'm downloading; Amazon is undoubtedly attempting to help users from inadvertently maxing out their data plans and blaming Amazon in the process (yes, those users exist)...

Interestingly, a cellular hotspot will allow download - as the app see's the device as being on a WiFi Network.

Restating the Question:
Is there a way to either, force the app into using cellular data, or, spoof the phone's wifi state as 'on' but use cellular data anyway?

Research:
Reading other threads, this problem is unique in the sense that wifi is not an option to use - assume i only have cellular data; how can i use apps that request wifi for their functions?

In order to simulate a wifi connection on 3g/4g (assuming you are rooted), you additionally need Xposed framework installed and install Hack connectivity service tool.

You then choose wifi and activate traces

See below:

This module forces the Connectivity manager  to return Wi-Fi networking info as active.

An alternative tool (if Hack connectivity service module is not working) is Fake Wi-Fi Connection module try v1.9 (beta) for lollipop+. Sometimes some applications won't work when no Wi-Fi is detected so it simulates  an active Wi-Fi connection in order for apps to get internet. It uses the same concept as the above tool.

Edit:

Another suggested option is to decompile the apk file and make

  network connectivity check always return true.

Hope this helps


How can I tell the differences between a 3G, 3G LTE, and 4G phone? I apologize if this is the wrong place to ask, but it looks like the Gadget StackExchange has been closed.

I've been doing research on mobile phones and looking at different Android devices and I'm a bit confused. Often times, the device advertises 'Speeds up to X Mbps', and lists the available networks (e.g. GSM, HSPA/WCDMA). However, as 3G LTE and 4G standards have been developing, phones are being released that are capable of even greater speeds.

How can I tell if a mobile is 3G LTE or 4G? Can a 3G LTE phone upgrade to 4G? (And for that matter, is there any difference between WiMAX and 4G at this point?)

Thanks!

First, WiMax and 4G are completely separate.  WiMax already has real-world implementation, whereas 4G does not; 4G is still in development.

Second, 3G LTE is also completely separate from 4G.  LTE also has real-world implementation.

A 3G LTE phone can only operate at 4G speeds if it has hardware capable of it.  The manufacturer will undoubtedly advertise this, so it shouldn't be hard to find out.  I know of no current phones that can do true 4G, which makes sense given that 4G doesn't really exist yet.  The same applies for "regular" 3G phones working at LTE speeds.  The Samsung Vibrant, for example, works on T-Mobile's "fake 4G" network with slightly improved speeds, but does not take full advantage of it.  The Vibrant 4G, however, does take full advantage of the higher speeds.

Currently, cell providers in the US and elsewhere are referring to various 3G technologies including LTE, HSPA+, etc. as "4G" when they are not actually 4G.  Examples of 4G networks in development are  LTE Advanced (based on 3G LTE) and WirelessMAN-Advanced (based on WiMax).

Speed requirements for 4G service set the peak download speed at 100 Mbit/s for high mobility communication (such as from trains and cars) and 1 Gbit/s for low mobility communication (such as pedestrians and stationary users).  3G LTE and WiMax do not meet these speed requirements.

The Wikipedia page on 4G is quite informative.


adb listing all forwarded ports I have forwarded machine port to emulator using following command

adb forward tcp:1234 tcp:8080

I wanted to see currently what all ports are forwarded to avoid any conflicts. How to do that ?

I think a new command has been added since the earlier answers:

adb forward --list


Keyboard shortcut to enter commonly-used email address Is there any keyboard shortcuts on Android? I want to enter my commonly-used email address  easily, because most apps require an account.

What I use is clipper+ (free, on the market) which provides snippets for reusable fragments like email addresses. It also stores everything you put on the clipboard, as ditto does on Windows, which is very useful, too.


WiFi Connection problems Samsung Galaxy S3 mini I have a Samsung Galaxy s3 mini. The wi-fi is turned on and the phone is not detecting my Trendnet 3G router at home. All my other devices e.g. laptop and BlackBery's are connecting seamlessly with the router, but not the S3 mini. How do I ascertain that the phone's wifi is working correctly. There are no other routers in range to cross reference with those.

I have had the exact problem on galaxy s3. Did everything I read on the forums from rebooting phone, router,modify router settings e.t.c. I'll cut to the chase I simply went on the playstore and installed an app called Wi-Fi fixer which resolved the problem straight away and I haven't had any problems since.
Hope this helps


Android Decrypt SD Card after Factory Reset I have a Galaxy Note2 device, Android 4.4.2, in which I have my extCard encrypted using the settings option, for a force majore I had to reset factory settings. now i can't access my important files on the SD Card and there is no option to decrypt it. I know my password but there is no option on the phone to do it.

I've tried Encrypting my device with the same password .. but it didn't work.

Any Ideas?

Yes just go to encrypt sdcard and select encrypt but dont apply it then you can select decrypt and use your password


Can Android be used in IPv6-only networks? What level of IPv4 faking is necessary? I'm using several Android devices that have Android 6.0.x and 6.0.1, and that I want to use in an IPv6 island ("private") network. The Android devices are either attached to a WiFi-to-Ethernet bridge, or some tablets even accept USB 2.0 Ethernet dongles using OTG cables. The IPv6 network has RAs signalling the IPv6 prefix to use, as well as DNS IPv6 server address, and optionally some more-specific IPv6 routes. There are neither DHCPv6 nor DHCPv4 servers available. Well, there are DHCPv6 servers in this network, but they only respond with delegated prefixes.

Unfortunately, I cannot reliably connect my Android devices to this network. For cross-checking, an ordinary Linux Raspbian-equipped Pi does immediately become connected and works correctly, using DNS and getting proper addresses.

Even when I set a static IPv4 address, my Android devices often don't correctly connect in that they don't use IPv6 DNS, albeit it is getting advertised (RFC 5006). I have to set fake IPv4 DNS server addresses to be able to set the static IPv4 parameters. But even then, the Android devices aren't properly working, either not correctly using DNS or even getting disconnected after some seconds.

What kind of IPv4 connectivity do Android devices expect?

So after some more testing, using an especially made Brouter using a Raspberry Pi Zero W, I now know from my tests that Android 5.x, 6.0/6.1, and 7.0 in fact do support IPv6-only networks. However, the caveat is that as soon as Android neither gets an IPv4 address nor an IPv6 global address, the network manager will declare this network unusable and will disconnect from it.

The reason why I was experiencing such disconnects was because I was connecting my Android devices to a test network, where I shut down the link-local router from time to time for fixing, and only after some delay restarted it. And during these spans without IPv6 RAs advertising global prefixes and without IPv4, Android declared my network dead and disconnected.

Some more background information gained over time:

Some Android versions are allergic to ULA DNS server addresses, and only deem GUAs proper. However, the same Android versions happily accept ULA prefixes. The symptom then is that these Android devices keep connected to an IPv6 network using ULAs, but cannot resolve any DNS names after some seconds. Using one of the better diagnosis apps I notice that these Android versions first learn the DNS server address, then remove it after around 15-30 seconds. It seems as if newer Android versions 7.x are less rigid in their expectations at the moment.
Some Android versions react allergic to documentary addresses, that is, the 2001:db8::/32 address range. They are ignoring these addresses, especially for DNS servers. More recent Android versions 7.x seem to be tolerant of using the documentary address block in networks.

In the end, the safe side is as follows, unless you can avoid especially Android 5.x, but also some 6.x releases for sure:

ULAs fc00::/7 are evil ;) Please note that this includes the fd00::/8 often taught as "best practice" in IPv6 courses, so be careful.
documentary IPv6 addresses 2001:db8::/32 are evil too.
stick to real global addresses, even if they're faked.


How can I play a video in the earpiece with VLC? By default, videos play in speaker with VLC. How can I play a video in the earpiece with VLC?

I don't see any option:

This answer may not be 100% because you asked about VLC, however Stealth Audio Player is able to play audios (& audio from videos)  via the earpiece.

Usually, there are two ways of playing music on Android device. You can either use your headphones or a speaker. But how about a third option?
The purpose of this app is to enable the users to listen to something when they do not have earphones and they don't want to use speakers.

This is useful not just for usual audio files, but also for podcasts, and comes in handy for when you forgot to bring headphones and do not want to disturb those around you. Stealth Audio Player enables you to make good use of the tiny speaker to listen things which should not play from the main big speaker.

Be aware that it hasn't as many options as VLC and other players.

NOTE: This is not a full fledged music player.

Disclaimer: I am not related to the app's developer(s).


How do I root my Samsung Galaxy S? How do I root my Samsung Galaxy S GT-I9000?

Enable USB debugging from settings -> Applications -> Development then connect your phone to a machine that has SuperOneClick installed. Open SuperOneClick, click the root button and...viola :)


Do We Have Root For ATT Note Edge? I have googled and have seen where you can gain temporary root, but loose it after reboot, but have dev teams been able to get full root on this device?

You can get permanent root by doing these steps:

Step 1: Once you have temporary root, download a custom recovery and install it because you will be flashing a SuperUser app along with the binaries.

Step 2: Download SuperSu from this link: https://download.chainfire.eu/696/supersu/

Step 3: If can't find any custom recoveries that support your device, then use the  FlashFire app from the Play Store to flash the zip.

Step 4: Reboot into CUSTOM recovery and flash/install the zip.

Step 5: Congratulations!! You now have FULL root access instead of temporary root!

If you are confused or don't understand something, let me know! :)


just got a galaxy few hours ago and have two questions Possible Duplicate:
  How can I check the OS version of an Android device?
  How can I uninstall applications that are locked by phone vendor?

How can one know which android version is installed on the phone?
How can i remove the 20+ apps which installed on the phone? The remove button is disabled.

Go to Menu -> Settings -> About Phone and in the list you should see Android Version
You would have to root in on order to do that since they're built into the ROM.


Where is the SMS "Drafts" folder on the Xperia Play? The manual says when typing a text, if you stop to answer a call, whatever you were typing is placed into a "Draft" folder or is saved as a draft. The thing is, that I have never seen or found any "Draft" location other then when I use the browser to go online and goto my email site, and hat isn't where its going.

I was typing a huge text and I am really upset that I will have to re-type the entire thing, knowing it is in my phone somewhere, unless the manual from Sony Ericsson written specifically for this phone is totally wrong. Even though the manual says it is saved, it also is too vague on conveying where this draft folder is.

Can any one help me? This had been am ongoing issue and this "unfinished draft" location must have 400 messages in it by now. I am totally confused. The manual said to goto the "Time Save" app but I don't even think that's correct.

There's no drafts folder per say, when you access your SMS APP, the conversations list appears:

If a draft is present on any conversation thread, you will see "draft" written in red. Tap and you're back on your draft.
If it was an SMS with no conversation thread, it is presented the same way.

Check your Phone's manual, page 39, where it reads:

  If you exit a message before sending, it gets saved as a draft. If the message is part of a conversation, the conversation gets tagged with the word Draft.


LINE lite app - "All account information has been deleted as this account has been registered with the same phone number on another device" I can't find a way to backup my chats on LINE lite. I understand there is a way to backup and restore LINE chats on the regular LINE...LINE lite though, i am not finding ANYTHING on. The methods discussed on this site and elsewhere (such as here, here and here) do not seem to be applicable with LINE lite because the file needed (Naver_line) is not present.

So what i've done is make a backup using Titanium Backup - my phone is rooted. To simulate what would happen if i later tried to restore it on another phone, i uninstalled LINE lite from my phone...clearing the cache and the data, as well as force closing the app before hitting uninstall.

I then installed it again from Google play and signed in using my email and password (same backed up  account). It then asked me to put in my number. I did that, entered the code i received through text, and logged in.

Then i went to Titanium Backup and restored only the data (3 options: App only - Data only - App+data). I go back to LINE and sure enough, my chats are all there just the way i backed them up. But seconds later, i get a pop up message saying "Sorry! All account information has been deleted as this account has been registered with the same phone number on another device" (even though its the same device - but thats not the point) and the only choice i'm given is to tap "ok".

I tap ok and i'm logged out. I have to then log in all over. When i log in, i don't see the chat. I repeat the processes with Titanium Backup, but the same thing happens. If i restore "app+data", i have to log in...and then the same thing.

Anyone has a solution for this? How can i backup and restore my chats on "LINE lite"?

Line lite app is associated with Android ID on your device.
In case you want to back up the line lite app and its data, also you will have to get the android ID from original phone.

Get the Android ID on ADB console with root account by typing the following command.
In this case, the "aabbccddeeff" is the Android ID of original phone.

# settings get secure android_id
aabbddcceeff

Backup all the data of line-lite (such as with the Titanium backup app + data and /sdcard/Android/data/com.linecorp.linelite directory) into your PC.
Modify the Android ID of target phone to original one.

How to change the android ID of target phone is as follows:

login the shell console with root account by ADB on target phone;
type the following command with Android ID that you get from original phone (for example aabbccddeeff);

# settings put secure android_id aabbccddeeff

reboot the target phone;
move all of the backed up data from your PC to the target phone ;
on the target phone, restore the line-line app + data by using Titanium backup app and /sdcard/Android/data/com.linecorp.linelite directory;
launch the Line Lite app on your target phone.

Now, you will see the chat history with line lite app on your target phone.

I think the  points are:

same Android ID is required both original phone and target phone
App+Data of line lite app by Titanium backup
/sdcard/Android/data/com.linecorp.linelite directory

I hope you will succeed in the backup and restore the all data (including chat history) of line lite.


How much battery savings to expect from SetCPU? Has anybody done any serious measurements as to effects of SetCPU (or a similar power-saving app)?

I mean, are Google and Linux developers really that stupid not to properly implement power management in-system? Especially so considering the Android's paramount problem of battery life.

The SetCPU promo video only shows how the MHz numbers jump up and down, but is it noticeably better for the battery than processor idling done by the OS itself?

In general, the slower your clock speed, the less power consumption will be used on your device. But if you're lowering your clock speed... then things will run sluggish, especially if you drop below the 500mhz range.

SetCPU has different "profiles" that controls the behavior of your CPU. You can make it run at full maximum performance (for best response times and worst battery usage), but typically you use the default one where it only "speeds up" the processor when it is actually used and needed.

You could, for example, have SetCPU lower your clock speed to something much lower than normal when the screen is off.

Kernels also matter. Some people have made "low voltage" kernels that can help with your battery life. But your mileage will vary with using kernels other than the stock one because they usually go outside the bounds of your CPU's specifications (so a "low voltage" kernel may work well on one device but not another device).

Device manufacturers want you to have a good experience with your device at stock settings. By changing the clock speed (to a lower speed), you should be expecting a degradation in performance at the cost of better battery life.


What does "Quick Upload" do? Using Motorola Atrix with Android 2.3.

When long-clicking an image in the Gallery (Galerie in German), among others there’s an option to “Quick Upload” (“Schnelles Hochladen” in German). What does this option do? It seems to do something for a while, but then it doesn’t tell me anything.

The first time I used it it asked for an e-mail address. I specified my Gmail address, assuming that it would upload the images to the relevant Google account. But I can’t find them anywhere.

It’s the fourth option in this screenshot:

I think the translation is Instant upload, and it means that it uploads the photo to your Google+ account's Instant Uploads album in the background. Check your g+ profile for this folder.


How can I move in-app downloads (e.g. Coursera videos from Coursera app) onto my SD card without rooting the phone? I've just got my first Android phone and I bought a 64GB micro-SD card so I can download videos from apps like Lynda, Coursera and Khan Academy. I've moved my apps to my SD card but when I download the videos in the app itself, it appears they are being saved to the phone memory, not the SD card like I want them to. Is there any way around this?

Here's the fix:

I didn't see the option in the Lynda app for some reason but it's there.

For those who are wondering, open the Lynda app and go Home (top left) > Settings (bottom of menu) > Storage Location > Set to external.

Similarly, in Coursera, go into your home page, tap the profile silhouette on the top left > My downloads > Menu (top right, vertically aligned dots) > Storage Location > Select your SD card.

It depends on the application in question, typically there should be an option within the app itself along the lines of "Save to External Storage" which should save the videos to your SD Card

I know Udemy has this option as I have it set to Save to External Storage on my Note 3

HTH


LG G2 D802(T) Recovery Issue I own a LG G2 D802T. I have rooted it successfully with IORoot but when I try to flash a custom recovery on it, it always fails. I have also tried AutoRec for D802T although it flashes and I am able to enter into TWRP but then phone got stuck at LG Logo and only option left is to flash a kdz through LG Flash Tool again. I have searched for it on several forums but unable to find the answer. Can anyone help me on it as how can I flash TWRP or CWM which work 100%. (Also I have tried several apps from Play Store as well).

I had the same problem with my D802T. What you need to do is that before you install recovery, copy the zip file for any rom ( i did cloudyg2 3.3). Then once you boot into recovery, wipe the cache and dalvik cache and then install the zip. Once the installation is successful, the phone will boot into the rom without getting stuck at the LG logo. Once you are into the rom you can switch off the phone and try to use the key combination ( vol down + power keys) to go into recovery. Or else download an app that lets you boot into recovery.

For more info go to this  link. Look for my comment on page 2 for more details.
Hope it helps


Micromax A120 softbricked after using a repartition app I have a Micromax A120 with stock Kitkat.

I rooted it and used "mprio repartition" app to increase the app installation space and the screen displayed:

  Partition is ready please boot into recovery and clear cache and data/factory reset

So I did that. Now when I try to power on the device it shows Micromax logo and then an Android logo, and a line indicating that a task is being performed.

This has been happening for almost 2 hrs so I removed the battery.

I decided to flash stock ROM  using SP Flash tools, but when I connect the device using the USB cable it shows only the charging light and is not detected in PC.

What should I do?

I have faced similar problem on my mediatek device.

Solution

Pull out battry
Go to recovery mode.
And Just restore the nandroid BACKUP you have made. (Hope you have made the backup)


LG G6 - "Charging blocked, moisture detected", would rooting help? When I charge my LG G6, I randomly get the error message "Charging Blocked - Moisture Detected".

I sent it back to LG, but they said I was no longer covered by warranty because the SIM card tray is broken. They said it will cost me $100+ to fix the software, which makes me think that I can fix this by changing the software on the phone.

Would rooting my phone solve this software specific issue?

Try cleaning your charging port. There might be water there.


Where does Android get its DNS information when connected to Wi-Fi? I'm hosting a server on my LAN with a port exposed publicly by the router. myserver.mydomain.com is pointing to the static IP of my router. So I can access the server from the the internet.
To make myserver.mydomain.com work when connected to my LAN I added an entry to the DNS server of my router, so it redirects to the private IP address of the server. This works fine for most devices connected to my LAN, except for my Android phone, where myserver.mydomain.com still resolves to the public IP of my router, even when connected to my Wi-Fi. So I suspect android always uses google DNS servers or something.
When I'm out and about connecting to some random Wi-Fi network this seems like highly desirable behavior, but when at home this creates the said issue.
I know I could configure my own DNS servers on my phone but I don’t want to configure that manually each time I connect to my LAN.
What would be the best approach here? Maybe I need to set up local access to my server differently?

Thank you all for the comments. They helped me work it out.
I'm not 100% sure of the cause of the behavior. It stays even when I switch off 4G and restart the phone. In the post linked to by Irfan Latif it is suggested that Android favors IPv6 dns servers. That could be the cause since my network is IPv4 only.
But the hairpin NAT provided the solution. (Called NAT Reflection in pfSense) After enabling this, things started to work.


Do all current Android versions require rooting for bluetooth tethering (PAN)? Looking at apps like "Wireless Tether for Root Users" and "tether Blu", and questions like "Are there any Android phones that allow Bluetooth PAN off the shelf?" it seems that Android would require rooting for providing Bluetooth tethering (PAN).

However another app "PdaNet 3.02" boasts that it "supports both USB Tether or Bluetooth DUN" and "does not require rooting". Also, coming from Symbian it would seem weird that what I've considered a basic feature isn't available without hacks.

I would try the PdaNet app myself, but the unfortunately it is incompatible with my phone, which is still running Android 2.2.

So what's the deal? Is bluetooth tethering available in 2.3 or will it require rooting even then?

(Apparently in some countries tethering as a concept is restricted, and thus blocked from phones. However, I live in Finland so my phone is not tethering-restricted in this way, e.g. Wi-Fi tethering (creating a Wi-Fi hotspot) is a feature available for me out-of-the-box.)

My Galaxy S with 2.3.3 has no option for bluetooth tethering, but my Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet running 3.1 has such an option. I am not entirely sure if the option comes from stock Android because it doesn't get listed on wikipedia. So I assume that it's an modification from Lenovo.

2.3 will require root for bluetooth tethering if there where no modifications by the manufacturer and I think bluetooth tethering hasn't found the way in stock android yet.


How do I turn off USB tethering or restart USB connection via computer/PC's terminal? How do I turn off USB tethering or restart USB connection via computer/PC's terminal?

Fastest, foolproof way is just unplug it, that terminates the connection and the service. Otherwise the answer above is useful, or you could just issue adb reboot (assuming you have USB debugging on). Otherwise you'd need to find the PID in your PC operating system and stop that service.


HTC Desire Z without Android Market? I bought a HTC Desire Z from UAE (United Arab Emirates) country. Surprisingly, there isn't the Android Market in the Applications list! I tried to install Market manually, but it crashes and terminates. Without Market I'm unable to install new applications or upgrade existing ones.

Do you have any idea? Thanks.

It looks like the Market is currently blocked in UAE and this has nothing to do with your phone. It may become available soon but I've not found anything with a date. I have seen that it's not so much the government blocking it as an inability to bring banks on-board.

This thread suggests that you can get around it with a dial code, but it looks like it needs a hard reset. There are also other questions here about installing the app manually, like: How to install android market app manually?


Does SuperOneClick flash a kernel? Does SuperOneClick need to flash a kernel to the phone to root it, thus incrementing the custom kernel counter in the Samsung Galaxy S2?

Yes, it seems so:

  Many (but not all) Galaxy SII are supported by installing a patched kernel.


Is it possible to sniff HTTP packets of Wi-Fi through firmware? Regarding privacy matters, I wonder if it is possible, by a party, including myself and mobile telco provider firmware (on stock distributions), to sniff all the outgoing HTTP requests of a Wi-Fi network without the need of the device to be rooted? If such is possible, can you give me an example or two of how could they do it?

I know there are similar apps like Shark for Root, but they all require the devices to be rooted.

If you're only interested in looking at HTTP requests, then it's possible to do that by installing a web proxy and configuring Android to use it. However, that's not completely reliable, as not all apps respect the central proxy settings: Firefox is an example of an app that doesn't.

A web proxy doesn't require root, but the user has to set it up by hand: you can configure it automatically only if you have root. If that weren't the case it would be a bit of a security problem in Android: a normal app could eavesdrop or otherwise interfere with other apps' network communication.

Of course, even for real packet sniffing, you only need to root the device if you want to install the sniffer on the device. To see the device's network traffic, it's much easier and more convenient to install a sniffer on a desktop Linux machine acting as a (Wi-Fi) router.


Installed LineageOs16 on oneplus5 but I get black due to wrong firmware update how I can fix it? On my Oneplus5 I attempted to install twrp and lineageOS rom. The steps I followed were:

Unlocked my bootloader
Installed latest twrp (3.3.x)
Installed firmware version 3.1.4
Installed lineage OS 16

But instead of installing the firmware for lineageos16 I installed the firmware for lineageos 15 (firmware 5.4.1), so on boot I get a black screen.

How I can reset my phone in order to get it back and start all over again?
If there's a way without reset back to square one I would appriciate that.

Edit1:
After managing to boot into revovery again by using an older twrp version, I installed the firmware version 9.0.9 and rebooted though I still get black screen.

I managed to boot into recovery following these steps:

I downloaded the oldest twrp version I could find (v 3.1.1)
By pressing Power Up+Start button I placed the device into fastboot mode.
I run fastboot boot twrp-3.1.1-0-cheeseburger.img ( twrp-3.1.1-0-cheeseburger.img is the twrp version 3.1.1) I temporarily booted into the older version of twrp.
I side loaded the firmware version 9.0.9.

You are close to fix the issue and have the lineageOS in your device. The only thing left to do in order to fix the issue is to boot into the recovery once again ( As far as I understand the twrp v3.3.1 is installed and temporaly booted into the oldest one).

Please follow the following steps:

Boot into recovery mode via pressig Volume Down + Power
Then on twrp enable the sideload.
Run adb sideload lineage-16.0-20191220-nightly-cheeseburger-signed.zip (lineage-16.0-20191220-nightly-cheeseburger-signed.zip is the latest one for now please replace it with the build of lineageos you desire as long as it is the version 16 of it)

So in other words you just need to reflash the lineageos using the latest twrp version you installed.


Android Nexus 5 knows password of WiFi he was never connected to! I just bought a new Nexus 5 after using a Nexus 4 for about a year.

After turning it on and using it at work, I go home and as soon as I turn the WiFi on the phone it connects to my home network without having to insert any password.

I have never used it before at home and I did not insert the password on that phone. To verify I went to a friend of mine's place where I had used the old Nexus 4 and tried again and voila' the phone connects to the network again.

Does anybody know if it's an expected behaviour or does it sound strange to you as well?

What could be the reason? The only thing I could think of is that Google is storing details about the WiFi you connect to on your Google account. Can anybody confirm? Is this even legal?

Did you backup/restore your settings to/from Google? If so, that's why you can connect to these wireless networks. One of the things that gets backed up is the wireless network passwords so when you restored them back on your new device it is able to connect.

Android has built in backup functionality. It offers to backup settings (including wifi settings) automatically from each device. When you go through the set-up on a new device it then gives you the option to restore these settings. If you had this configured (I think it's enabled by default) then your wifi settings would have automatically been backed up on your Nexus 4 and restored to your Nexus 5.


How do I prevent usb mount while the the mobile is OFF I know that this topic helps prevent USB mount. But there is such thing that while the android mobile is off, volume button + the power button starts the boot, and the android can be still mounted while it is off. How do i prevent this?

volume button + the power button boots the phone either to fastboot mode or recovery mode. One way to do it is to flash a recovery that does not support USB mounting. However, the thief may still flash a new recovery to access your files. At least it would be way more complicated.
I'm afraid there is no absolute way to prevent USB mount.


How to see at what time an SMS was sent? My phone runs Marshmallow.

When I recieve an SMS, the messaging app only shows me the time at which the message was recieved locally on my phone. There are various circumstances in which this time can vary greatly from the time at which the message was sent by the sender, for example, if my phone was in airplane mode when the message was sent.

I know that this information is made available by my carrier, because there are phones out there that show when the message was sent.

How can I show this information on Android Marshmallow?

I've tried searching the web for this. I found an app that claims to do it, but it only works on Kit Kat and older. The rest of the results I trawled through were mostly forums with people discussing the issue. I did not see any of the posts present a working solution.

Download and install the application "Android Messages" made by Google LLC.
This app replaces the standard Message app. To see the time an SMS/message was sent, just push and hold a finger on the message and press on the information icon that appears. In my case (OnePlus 5T, Android 8.0.0) I could even check messages that I had received before I got the app.

Source: https://androidforums.com/threads/text-messages-actual-time-sent.73270/page-2


How to turn off auto suggestion popups in Google Keep? When writing lists in Google Keep, sometimes infuriating Clippy-style auto suggestion popups appear, suggesting different things starting with the same word that another person might have wanted to write. These popup boxes are distracting and get in the way, usually overlapping the space I want to press to move to the next item in the list and obstruct seeing what I've written.

I want to turn this feature off. I've been through the settings and help, but there doesn't seem to be any option to turn it off. I've also sent feedback through the app asking for an option to turn it off to no avail.

Looking at the forums, I see people have been asking for a way to turn this off since 2016. There's a common old suggestion that it only turns on if something relating to "Shopping" is in the list title - but in 2018 I still get the popup plague even on lists with no title.

Is there any roundabout way to disable this which works?

There are some workable workarounds buried in this forum thread.

The simple way (which makes writing lists take slightly longer):

Initially, create the list as a normal note with one line per item (not a checkbox list)

OR if it's already created as a checkbox list, press 'Hide checkboxes' under the three vertical dots in the top right. Unfortunately this causes Keep to forget which items were ticked.

Finish writing or editing the list
Press the '+' in the bottom left corner, then press 'Tick boxes' to turn it back into a check list

The more involved way (which in theory, you can do once then forget about)

Install a url filter like an adblocker and add the URL for Google's "show some popups of things I didn't type" service to the list of banned addresses. I've not tried this, so I can't guarantee it works - in particular, I don't know if it requires rooting the device or not (please comment if you have tried something like this). Two suggestions from that post:

The app uBlock, then going to "Settings -> My Filters" and adding https://taskassist-pa.clients6.google.com/v2/taskassist:suggest*
AdBlock, then going to "Customize > Manually edit your filters" and adding /v2/taskassist:suggest$domain=taskassist-pa.clients6.google.com

Don't forget to also go to "Help & feedback" in the app and tell Google that you want a normal option to turn off auto suggestions.


Which file contains autocomplete suggestions for email address in Gmail, and can I clear it? When I compose a new message in Gmail on my Android phone I'm offered several suggestions for the recipient (i.e. for the email's To: field) via an autocomplete function. These are often very old/unknown contacts which I'd like to no longer see as autocomplete suggestions, but I can't yet work out how to clear this list.

The contacts suggested appear to have come from an old list of "Other" contacts, i.e. people that I've contacted infrequently and who were not actual contacts that I ever added to my contact list. These only show up when I compose a new message in Gmail on my phone, and the autocomplete works as expected when on a non-Android device (laptop). My list of "Other" contacts have been wiped clean in my Google account, but after a sync I still get these autocomplete suggestions in Gmail on the phone. I get no such misbehavior when I compose an email in Gmail through Chrome on my laptop.

I've tried all manner of account syncs, remove and restore my account, clear data and cache of the Contacts and Gmail apps, reinstall factory versions of those apps, etc., all to no avail. I know enough Linux that I'm not too scared of getting into the filesystem and monkeying about, but not so much that I don't feel the need to ask for help from experts who might help keep me from bricking my phone.

My hunch/assumption is that the Android Gmail autocomplete function is reading these outdated contacts from a list stored somewhere in a file on my phone which is impervious to the contact sync process or somehow not being cleared as expected otherwise.

My idea is to somehow search Android's filesystem for a file that contains the unwanted contacts and if found then wipe that file clean. Is this reasonable, and if so can anyone suggest guidance that'll make this less of a wild goose chase?

My phone details:

Model: Nexus 5X
Android version: 7.1.2
Baseband version: M8994F-2.6.37.2.21
Kernel version: 3.10.73-ge570678
Build version: N2G47F

I had very similar problem. In addition to that sometimes the e-mail address of the recipient was "beautified" like that:

Pawel Debski president bla bla something <e-mail address>

What I found was that Google on his own created Google Contacts profile for me (https://contacts.google.com/) and than my e-mail clients on few devices started creating contacts there, often duplicated with different labels. Some of the labels corresponded to the circles in Google Plus profile, but some were created by various e-mail clients more or less randomly.

When I cleaned-up all the contacts there the problem was solved.


Update WebView system component on KitKat does anyone know a way to update the WebView system component on KitKat. I'm running 4.4.4, I think people get updates in Google Play in Android 5.0 and above but I would like to update it on KitKat and keep using this OS as it runs smoother for me, I'm sure there is a way to do this, can anyone help? The Webview on KitKat has some horrible bugs..

Thanks!

In Android 4.4 the webview component cannot be updated from the Play Store - it is fixed to version 30.0.0.0 (and 33.0.0.0 in 4.4.3). This was changed in Android 5.0:

https://developer.chrome.com/multidevice/webview/overview

  In Android 5.0 (Lollipop), the WebView has moved to an APK so it can be updated seperately to the Android platform. To see what version of Chrome is currently used on a Lollipop device, simply go to Settings < Apps < Android System WebView and look at the version.


Keep Apps on SD card So I'm using Android 7.0 (build nr. NRD90M.G935FXXU1DQH5) on a Samsung Galaxy 7 Edge.

Whenever I update an app that I've moved to SD card, I need to move it back to SD card after the update.

This is very annoying (and been for a while). Any way I can resolve this without downgrading or rooting the device? Because I could have sworn there was a time apps moved to the SD card STAYED there.

(Personally, I would have no issue with rooting the phone, but certain apps - like for example used by my bank to authorise e-banking transactions - won't work on rooted devices, so let's not.)

Let me tell you a bit about the Android system. When an app is updated, the developer may not merely add files to its directories, but may also delete/modify existing ones. Android system is such that, Google Play Services framework cannot update apps while they are on SD card. So, the apps are always updated by first moving them to device memory, and then modifying/adding/deleting apk files.

Unfortunately, there is no system to automatically move the apps to sd card after update. There may be apps claiming to do that, but I haven't tried any, so I cannot tell.

On all Android devices, be it 4.0-Kitkat, 5.0-Lollipop, 6.0-Marshmallow, 7.0-Nougat or 8.0-Oreo, this system is unavailable. After update, you have to manually move the app back to sd card. Nothing can be done about that.

Please note that all methods mentioned here are on unrooted phone. I don't know what can be done on a rooted one.


What are the effects of live wallpapers on battery consumption and speed? 7" tablet, Azpen A727, running Android 4.2.2

What is the effect of using live wallpapers on Android tablets?
I'm using a 7" tablet, running Jelly Bean 4.2.2 with a 1.5 GHz processor, 4GB flash memory, and I recently set my wallpaper to "Nexus" -- I want to know if this will have a negative effect on the (1) speed (2) battery life of my tablet.

It depends on the live wallpaper in question, but in general, the wallpaper only runs when the home screen is visible. Since you're usually running an app or have the screen off, the live wallpaper has no effect most of the time: the extra battery use is limited to when you're looking at the home screen.

This isn't always true, though. Some live wallpapers also run extra things. For example, the live wallpaper might periodically run in the background so that it can change its appearance based on your email inbox, or weather reports from the internet, or the accelerometer. For that reason, some live wallpapers might use quite a lot of battery.

In that respect, live wallpapers are no different from any other app. If they're inefficient or do a lot of work, they'll run your battery down quickly. If they're efficient and simple, you won't notice any extra battery use. Unless reviewers comment on it, you won't know until you try.


With Maps 6.12 Latitude seems to have vanished? After updating, the Latitude widget seems to have vanished. And from Maps, I can't get to my Latitude friends anymore.

I can't find any notes about this online, in reports or on Google pages.

In the comments in the Play Store, others have mentioned this as well.

Is there a way to get this back, or is it running still in the background? Some sort of release note?

According to the Google Product Forums with Google Maps for Android 6.10 the Latitude widget is no longer available. You can view your friends' locations quickly by touching the Latitude icon, or by turning on the Latitude layer in Google Maps.


Home button or back button to leave an app? Is there a difference between leaving an app by pressing the "back" button vs. pressing the "home" button?

I've got an app which includes a countdown timer. The app says it will notify me when the timer reaches zero but only if the app is minimized (home button) and not if it's closed (back button). Is there really a difference here?

Note that I've confirmed that the app stays available in the list of running apps (the "history" button, or whatever it's called) regardless whether I use "back" or "home" so I am confused. Has the developer misunderstood this?

Details: I'm running the app Ingress Portals on a stock Nexus 4.

In general, when you leave an app with home, or by launching another app from the recents menu, Android keeps the state of the app around for a while. That includes the stack of which screens you've looked at, the position of scrolling things, selected items, the state of checkboxes and the text in text fields, and other such things. It'll only discard that state if the device runs low on memory, or if you don't come back to the app for a long time.

If you instead press back, it takes the current screen off that stack, throws away that state, and goes to the screen you were looking at before. Repeated back presses keep doing this until you're all the way out of the app, and it has no state left. (Note that this is only the state of the screen as I described above. The app ought to save any persistent state, such as the document you were editing, or your high score.)

As Sachin Shekhar says, use home if you want to come back to the app in the same state; or back if you are done with the app and you want to see the main screen or starting screen next time you start it. In addition, note that apps can change the behaviour of the back button (such as how web browsers usually make it go "back" in the browser instead of leaving the browser completely), but they can't change the behaviour of the home button. You can always use home to get out of a misbehaving app.

There's one more thing. Android also allows apps to create what it calls a Service. This is a part of the app that runs in the background, with no visible part (unless it sends notifications). Any app that has a long-running task to perform, such as a download manager, or a torrent client, should use a Service so that the download keeps going even if the app isn't on your screen. It should make sure the Service exits when all downloads are finished, so you don't need to worry about how to exit it.

Perhaps this app is using a Service to run the countdown, and it has changed the behaviour of the back button so that as well as leaving the app, it also stops the Service. That could be why you get that instruction. But it's only that way because the author chose to do it that way: he could just as easily enable and disable the countdown with a checkbox or button inside the app. It's not standard behaviour, and in general, you shouldn't expect to have to use home to keep downloads or long-running tasks running.


Can I tether a Motorola Xoom w/o 3G to my HTC incredible phone? I am considering buying a Motorola Xoom and would like to tether it to my HTC incredible phone for internet when there is no Wi-Fi available. I've already successfully tethered my laptop using either USB or Bluetooth and am wondering how I could do likewise for the Xoom?

Do I need to root either device?

If your incredible will create a WiFi hotspot it will work with the Xoom.  You can test this with your laptop before buying the Xoom.


Can't delete contacts from SIM card So in an attempt to undo all the [wrong word here] apps do in mixing contacts somehow, I ended up deleting all contacts from the entire phone including the SIM card, to then try to put them back either one by one or from a backup.
Though, I can't delete all contacts from the SIM card! Why is that??? Would anyone know? I could delete around 100 contacts, but I can't delete duplications of the contacts. I started blaming Whatsapp, Google account and another one which is MBWAY which is from a bank. They have contacts of their own or something. So I deleted all the accounts and uninstalled Whatsapp and MBWAY, tried again and no success... Now I installed an app called SIM Card Manager which I got from 4PDA, so I'm trusting it's an app that does the things right. And when I go on it to delete the contacts, it says "Cannot delete contact". Another app I got from Play Store allowed me to "delete", but when I restarted the app, it would show all the contacts I "deleted", so it didn't delete at all. The app from 4PDA at least says it can't. But if it can't and it actually knows it can't delete, I'm wondering VERY MUCH why...
Would anyone know why this happens and how I can delete the contacts?? Or I'll get an old phone which never got me any problems and delete the stuff from there... (if the phone will let me, since I can't here). I'm thinking those apps have to do with this. This never happened to me before. First time in my life I see I can't delete contacts. And I'm supposing it's from Whatsapp because one each contact that the person had Whatsapp, I had 2 duplicates of the original one on the SIM card. And I never asked Whatsapp to even try to do that, but why not......
Thanks in advance for any help on this...

I should have waited a bit more. But maybe this helps someone else with the problem. I had just had to restart, load the app, see it still detected no contacts, leave the app, go on another app, wait a bit, and get back to Contacts app. Then it showed the problematic contacts. And I was able to delete them, only from the Contacts app.
And I think the problem is really from the apps that put duplicates --> Whatsapp, MBWAY, Google account, any other account on the system that synchronizes contacts. It creates duplicates and the phone got everything mixed up. Not sure if it's my fault or those apps' fault in mixing the contacts. I just wanted only the SIM contacts on the entire phone... But no.... The apps have to put the contacts of their own there. Cool. Thanks a lot. Amazing... But at least it's fixed. I deleted all the contacts and put them back one by one. Now I'll install the apps back and put my account and see what happens...


I can't open a torrent I have μTorrent app, and I have a torrent file. I tried to open the file in standard file manager, but the manager shows "All apps associated with this action have been turned off, blocked, or are not installed". And there is no function in μTorrent to choose the file from memory.

Click on "Add torrent URL" and type the .torrent path like "file:///sdcard/Download/mytorrent.torrent"


Duplicate Corporate Sync Account "Null" My organization just switched to the Droid Razr Maxx, one of the phones is having an issue with adding a corporate sync email account.  Whenever we try to add the account it says that it can't add because of duplicate account "Null".  I don't see this "Null" account anywhere, so i can't seem to remove it.  I'm not really sure what we can do, besides doing a reset and would only do that as a last course of action.  We are running android version 4 and using office 365 exchange.

Try clearing Cache and Data for the following apps under Settings -> Apps -> All (tap on each app and then tap Clear data and Clear cache buttons where available):

Email
Exchange Services
Google Account Manager

This should clear all the accounts (including the GMail one), and should allow you to add the Corporate account.


How do I change the default sms font size? (ICS) I know I can change (in settings) whether or not the volume rocker can change font size, but is there a way I can change the default to be different? (I'd rather not have the volume button change function) I want the smallest size, but I can't seem to get it to stay that way

The default appears to be simply what the phone itself is set to use as Font Size under Settings > (Device) Display. Change that to Tiny and your messages will display that way, but obviously everything else on the phone will also be impacted.


Soft bricked device fails to boot into recovery, both through key combo and fastboot I have a Micromax Canvas 2.2 A114 which is soft bricked. I am trying to get into recovery mode after flashing CWM Recovery image using fastboot with the following command:
# fastboot flash recovery /tmp/recovery.img

The command gives the following result:
sending 'recovery' (6144 KB)...
OKAY [  0.233s]
writing 'recovery'...
OKAY [  1.098s]
finished. total time: 1.332s

However, when I try to get into the recovery mode, it doesn't boot into recovery and go into reboot again having infinite loop cycles.
How do I fix my phone?
Edit
Attempting to directly boot into the recovery doesn't work. Console remains stuck on booting... and device doesn't boot at all.

# fastboot boot /tmp/recovery.img
downloading 'boot.img'...
OKAY [ 0.204s]
booting...

Solved...!!

First of all thanks to @Firelord for pointing me to SP Flash Tools and giving the link of stock ROM.

In case anyone ever stuck with this problem in future, I would like to tell I got my phone recovered by following this tutorial:

How to Unbrick every MTK China Phone ! Preloader / SP Flashtool Fix


Windows laptop works with Wi-Fi AP, phone claims it is connected but can't access Internet There's an Asus 240 MIMO Wifi access point. There's a laptop running Windows XP that uses that access point no problem for years so far. And there's an Android based HTC Desire S smartphone that has problems. The objective is to make the smartphone access the Internet via the Wifi access point.

I open "wireless networks" configuration pane, "enable" Wifi - it goes through "scanning" and "obtaining IP address" stages, says "connected to TheRightNetworkName". The Wifi symbol is displayed in the bar under the top of the screen. Yet when I try to open any page in a browser if wouldn't do so and claim there were problems accessing that page.

I tried the following (listed in this answer below, thanks to user Matthew Read):

rebooted the phone - doesn't help
checked MAC filtering on the AP - it is disabled
disabled the firewall on the AP - doesn't help
tried to change channels - doesn't help, the AP has 13 channels if that matters
tried to change to 2.4 GHz - looks like it is already the only option, couldn't find any way to change the range
didn't try to switch from WPA that is currently used to WEP because it feels quite scary - I can mess things up
tried switching modes - b, g, b/g - doesn't help

How do I debug and resolve this issue?

Make sure that you are using DHCP on your phone; if you have a static DNS set and it's the wrong one, you won't be able to browse the web.  Go to Settings->Wireless And Network->Wi-Fi settings, hit the context button (or right click button, or whatever you call it), select Advanced, and make sure Use Static IP is unchecked.


How to turn off android overlays if I can't touch the screen? My cell phone is a Samsung's SM-G110B/DS Kit Kat, and I found the developer options and "by mistake" I selected one of the overlays. The problem is that the overlay has a bigger resolution than what my screen supports, and it doesn't let me touch the screen (Overlay #1 1280x720).

How can I turn this overlay off?

P.S.:  I turned it off and on again and it didn't work, I took off the battery, pinched it, tapped on it several times... nothing changes, that overlay is still there and doesn't let me touch the screen.

i had the issue.....i long pressed on the overlay#1 window, dragged it down and then turned of the Developer options....hope it helps in a way


How to optimize energy consumption during GPS tracking? Very often I use my phone and the app MyTracks or GPSTrackerLite to track my hiking/biking tours.

This really works great and I'm thrilledy by the lot of possibilities in combination with google maps, facebook etc.

However there is one problem: If I'm tracking the battery lasts only a few hours. This is enough for most hikes, but for daytrips, it isn't sufficient. Do you have any tips how to save energy? For example using plane mode? Would this decrease the energy consumption? Are there any other functions I could disable?

I'm using HTC Desire.

See my answer here on some ways to save battery power on your  phone.


Have to turn on-off mobile data every now and then so that mobile data works! phone: Samsung Galaxy Ace 3 (gt-s7272) (rooted)

From the moment that I have bought my phone the speed of internet via mobile data is so weak; other phones in the same location as mine can use the same APN settings without any problem and their net speed is good. But the strange thing about my phone is that I have to turn-on and off mobile data now and then(after for example 10 minutes) to prevent internet speed from dying! after re enabling mobile data net speed is good but as I said just for nearly 10 minutes and I had to turn-on and off mobile data again!

any idea why it is so and how to resolve it?

You mentioned that you are rooted, just try editing your build.prop file with Internet tweaks. It might help. You can get various build.prop tweaks here. Have a look..
Collection of build.prop tweaks

Relevant tweaks (11 and 12) for better 3g/internet speeds from the link:

  Signal (3G) tweaks

  Code:

ro.ril.hsxpa=2
ro.ril.gprsclass=10
ro.ril.hep=1
ro.ril.enable.dtm=1
ro.ril.hsdpa.category=10
ro.ril.enable.a53=1
ro.ril.enable.3g.prefix=1
ro.ril.htcmaskw1.bitmask=4294967295
ro.ril.htcmaskw1=14449
ro.ril.hsupa.category=5

  Net speed tweaks

  Code:

net.tcp.buffersize.default=4096,87380,256960,4096, 16384,256960
net.tcp.buffersize.wifi=4096,87380,256960,4096,163 84,256960
net.tcp.buffersize.umts=4096,87380,256960,4096,163 84,256960
net.tcp.buffersize.gprs=4096,87380,256960,4096,163 84,256960
net.tcp.buffersize.edge=4096,87380,256960,4096,163 84,256960


Phone sometimes can't detect any WIFI networks I have a fully rooted Lenovo A328, and at random times, it would just totally not detect wifi. Even if I place the phone right in front of my wifi router, it still doesn't detect it. In the WLAN settings, it gets stuck at the 'Searching for WLAN networks'.

And I also can't seem to turn the WLAN setting off. Heck, the settings would sometimes suddenly freeze also. The only temporary fix I've found for this is restarting the phone, but then, the problem would usually return after a few minutes or so, prompting me to restart it again and again.

Is there a reason for why this is happening? And is there a permanent fix for this?

This is an issue happening because of problem in the wifi module of the ROM you have flashed.

Try to get a fresh ROM and also don't forget to read the bug reports of it.

If you see many download links, download the stable instead of nightly / experimental.

Flash it. Or else, go back to stock ROM


App to count my daytime minutes I'm looking for an app that can count my daytime minutes usage.  I only get 200 free airtime minutes between 7am to 7pm Mondays to Fridays until the 24th of each month.  (After 7pm my plan has unlimited minutes.)

Preferably, I want to be alerted by the app when I'm going over, i.e., by the 28th it alerts me if I've exceeded 26 minutes.

Phone Usage is a great app that can monitor usage and do all of the following! (description on app page)

Monitor your phone call, text and network data usage.

★★★★★ "Loads of similar apps on the market, but this one beats them hands down."

★ Set limits on daily, weekly and monthly usage.

★ Alerts when you break your usage limits.

★ Widgets for calls, texts and data.

★ See which apps are using the most data.

★ See who you call the most.

★ See usage per hour, day, week and month.


Adoptable storage prior to marshmallow? As most people know, adoptable storage is a feature that allows users to use an SD card as internal storage, including the saving of apps (Similar to the app2sd system, which was removed in KitKat). Now, is there any way (Short of creating my own custom ROM/kernel) to utilise this feature on phones and tablets before Marshmallow?

Edit: I should clarify that I mean anything that replicates the behaviour of adoptable storage (so anything like editing vold file still counts, from the accepted answer, for example)

This is the closest I could find that matches OP's expectations and should work, requires rooted device ( not tested by me). This only  replicates adoptable-storage behaviour of Marshmallow to the extent it allows use of external SD to be used as internal SD for moving apps

Sources:

Swap internal storage with the SD card in Android Lollipop and KitKat
How to swap internal storage with the SD card in Android device

Both these are blogs by the same person but take  different approaches:

Source 1 requires

Xposed module XInternalSD :

  This module changes value (path to internal SD card) in some Android APIs which apps use. Control this path in module's settings. You can enable this module for all apps or only for specific apps. Also you can enable full access to external SD card (for KitKat+)

And

WSM Tools app that can be downloaded from Aptoide - not available on Play Store

Source 2 requires only Xposed module XInternalSD

Approach

Swap internal storage with external SD using the XInternalSD module ( Common step for both methods)

Using WSM Tools  choose apps which you want to move External SD or move all apps (Source 1)

OR

Using a root explorer amend vold.fstab  to interchange sdcard0 with sdcard1 ( Source 2)


Downgrading 9.0.83 Google Play Services manually I got the following log error in my route tracking activity

  06-24 18:50:24.488 7128-7759/com.noureddine_ouertani.www.wocelli50
  E/DynamiteModule: Failed to load module descriptor class: Didn't find
  class
  "com.google.android.gms.dynamite.descriptors.com.google.android.gms.googlecertificates.ModuleDescriptor"
  on path: DexPathList[[zip file
  "/data/app/com.noureddine_ouertani.www.wocelli50-2/base.apk"],nativeLibraryDirectories=[/vendor/lib64,
  /system/lib64]]

After reading some posts and answers  about this log error I figured out that it's a known Google Play Services version  9.0.83 issue that causes bugs in some apps that use a GoogleApiClient like mine.

However I didn't test the solution yet. I wanted to downgrade Google Play Services on my Smartphone but Uninstall Updates was greyed out (see Screenshot).

Does anyone know how to do this manually?

I installed the Android Device Manager app but found no possibility to influence the stop/uninstall updates buttons of Google Play Services. Then I tried to apply this solution but the System App Remover app got no root permission on my Smartphone.

Any hints or help?

I solved the problem for my Huawei P8 Lite Android phone like this:

I unlocked my bootloader
I rooted my phone
I succesfully checked with Root Checker Basic that my phone is rooted
I downloaded and installed System App Remover from the Google Play Store.
I put my device in Airplane Mode in order to prevent auto upgrade of GPS.
I opened System App Remover and select "System App" from the menu.
After I found Google Play Services in the list which was marked as "Should keep" I selected it and pressed "Uninstall". I ignored the next warning.
Using Settings/Apps, I saw that Google Play Services "Uninstall Updates", and "Disable" Buttons were no longer be grayed out.
I pressed "Uninstall Updates"

Here is the result: Downgrade of Google Play Services to 8.1.18


Is there a search app for Android with no-tracking privacy policy? On the desktop I use ixquick to avoid Google tracking my searches. But on Android it is even worse since I am logged in and Google can track everything I do. Is there an app for ixquick or for another search engine that does not log?


Photos and chat histories on whatsapp I was using whatsapp on my iphone, then I deleted the application without deactivating the account or something, now if I put the SIM card on another mobile and install the Whatsapp application on it, the chat histories and photos shared before will appear on the other phone too ?

Simply the answer would be NO.

According to Whatsapp FAQ, Your WhatsApp chat history is not stored on their servers

But, There are certain things you can do to save your chat history.

Make back-ups of your WhatsApp conversations
If your WhatsApp conversations are important to you, it's a good idea to make backups of them so you don't lose them if there's a problem with the app. To do this, go to the Settings menu, choose 'Chat preferences' then click on the Chat history backup option.

Chat preferences (click image for larger variant)
Email the conversationsYou can send an entire conversation history from WhatsApp via email. In Android, click on the Menu option in a conversation (it's on the bottom-right of the screen), go to 'More' and select 'Email Conversation', before entering the address of the recipient. WhatsApp will create an email with the whole text conversation, including any pictures, voice or video clips.


F-Droid 0.91 disappears after being installed as system app on cyanogenmod 12 I tried to install F-Droid (0.91) as system app on Cyanogenmod 12. The installation succeed but after that the F-Droid icon disappears.

Of course i tried to restart more times, i tried also to reinstall F-Droid as standard app from an apk but it crasches when i try to start it... probably for a conflict.

Someone knows if i can try something, i.e. where i can try to find the executable?

You can solve that as follows:

Completely delete the old F-Droid app (e.g. uninstall using Titanium Backup)
Get the latest .apk from F-Droid and put it on your device
(either download directly with your Android web browser, or use adb push)
Login to your device either via a terminal app or using adb shell
Obtain root privileges by executing the command su
Make sure to have the /system partition mounted read-write

mount -o remount,rw /system

Now get the downloaded FDroid.apk to /system/app. Change to the directory you've downloaded/pushed it to and run:

cp FDroid.apk /system/app

Secure your /system partition again

mount -o remount,ro /system

Reboot

Now F-Droid should be available to you again. Enjoy the great pool of open source Android apps!


I can't find files taking up space in my android phone I have bought Lenovo k4 note and have recently upgraded to Marshmallow. So I've 16 GB of internal memory out of which the Android 6.0 inbuilt memory app inside storage and USB setting, says 5.37 GB is OS occupied. 9.46 GB out of 10.63 GB is used. Further break down are as follows:

Apps 5.29 GB
Images 105 MB
Videos 8 KB
Audio 588 KB
Other 488 MB
Cached Data 183 MB

Which totals to 6.066 GB.

So now subtracting 6.066 GB from 9.46 GB I get 3.394 GB which I can't understand where it went.
Still after going inside file manager and clicking the view hidden files these are what I get:

Android 2.17 GB
Download 278.01 MB
Shareit 200 MB
WhatsApp 136 MB
Pictures 74 MB
Books 52 MB
DCIM 29 MB

Which comes to around 3 something GB and still 3 GB are missing.. so.. around 6 GB of files are not showing.. I am unable to find the files that are taking up space. Can anyone help please.

I also had the same problem with my Android.

But after doing some researches i found that the google apps Google docs Google sheets and Google slide are taking much space .

When i looked for the app info of these apps, i found that all of these are taking at least 200mb of space where as i never use them.

So i cleared the data and all problems solved.

But if still the problem does not solve, you should finally factory reset your device.

Hope it helps.


Forgot security lock pattern on Jelly Bean device with Wifi and 3G data turned off I forgot my security lock pattern and my Wifi and 3G connections are switched off. I can hard reset the phone (Galaxy Nexus) from recovery mode, but that would wipe all my data.
ADB is also turned off so I cannot recover my data unless there is a way to turn on ADB while the phone is locked. I understand that ClockWorkMod recovery turns ADB on automatically when it is installed.

Do I need to root the phone to install ClockWorkMod?
If yes, can I root the phone while it is locked?
Is there any other way to recover the data from the phone before I reset it?

Since the FBI cannot bypass the screen lock, I guess you will not. Check out http://wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/fbi-android-phone-lock


How do I set up erase and secure? My phone was stolen so I tried to erase from Samsung Device Manager but it just sends an erase instruction which I don't know whether the person who turns my phone on will be able to just stop from the device or not :(

Also the erase button on google device which sends a notification to the stolen phone to set up, the friendly thief ;)

So I'm trying to not be in the same position again, I don't understand how to set up erase and secure from my new device.

Please help, Thanks

Remotely find, lock, or erase an Android device:

Go to android.com/find and sign in to your Google Account.

If you have more than one device, click the lost device at the top of
the screen.
If your lost device has more than one user profile, sign in with a
Google Account that's on the main profile. Learn about user profiles.

The lost device gets a notification.
On the map, see about where the device is.

The location is approximate and might not be accurate.
If your device can't be found, you'll see its last known location, if
available.

Pick what you want to do. If needed, first click Enable lock & erase.

Play sound

Rings your device at full volume for 5 minutes, even if it's set to
silent or vibrate
Lock
Locks your device with your PIN, pattern, or password. If you don't have a lock, you can set one. To help someone return your device to you, you can add a message or phone number to the lock screen.
Erase
Permanently deletes all data on your device (but might not delete SD cards). After you erase, Find My Device won't work on the device.
Important: If you find your device after erasing, you'll likely need your Google Account password to use it again. Learn about device protection.

More informations: support.google.com


Reverse Tethering won't work for me - is it because my phone isn't rooted? I've been trying most of the day to reverse tether my phone (Motorola Droid X on Verizon ub the USA), in this case to an Ubuntu VM running on a Windows 7 host via VMWare Workstation. I've followed the instructions in questions like these and everyone seems to quote the exact same blog post, which appears to be the gospel on the topic.

Problem is that I can't get it to work. Everything works right up until the command:

./adb shell netcfg usb0 dhcp

Which produces the response

action 'dhcp' failed (Permission denied)

I can't seem to find much of anything on this error message which makes me think: the phone isn't allowing me to do this. Not sure if it's the carrier or the manufacturer or what but I'm basically being told "no"

Is it because the phone isn't rooted? My workplace actually has a policy against that so I haven't done it. If not, does anyone have idea what I'm doing wrong?

Yes, you need root:

$ netcfg usb0 dhcp
netcfg usb0 dhcp
action 'dhcp' failed (Permission denied)
$ su
su
# netcfg usb0 dhcp
netcfg usb0 dhcp

action 'dhcp' failed (Network is down) <-- I used 'netcfg usb0 down' from another terminal here
#

The only way I've personally seen to accomplish this without root is to basically have some sort of proxy server-esque application on your computer that communicates with an app on your phone using ADB's port forwarding. It's not especially reliable from what I've tested out (we were looking for a solution like this for a client at work), but you can give it a shot. You can take a look at this app/thread on XDA, or this CodeProject page for a start, although I'm not sure that either of them provides truly transparent internet passthrough.


Wrong label color in gmail 2.3.3 I recently created a label on gmail via web, and assigned it a color. On the app on my Nexus S it shows as the default color instead, while all the other labels have the correct color.

I've tried to wait a day, or to reboot the phone; I've also tried to either rename it, or delete it and create it again.

OS is stock Android 2.3.3.

Any idea?

This issue is fixed as of Gmail 2.3.5.2.


Internal storage /emulated directory I am trying to clear some internal storage i have in the emulated directory two identical folders one /0 and one /legacy both have exact same files can i delete one?

Those are called "links", very common in Linux operating systems.

Chances are, your files are actually in neither of those directories. On my phone, the actual mountpoint of the partition those files are on is /storage/sdcard0.

From there two links exist. One to /storage/emulated/legacy and one to /storage/emulated/0. The emulated in the filename also suggests that both location are just, well, emulated.

This can vary from device to device, for example on an HTC I have here /stoage/sdcard0 is just a link to /storage/emulated/0 instead of the actual mountpoint.

That said: If you delete a file in one place, it's completely gone out of all two (or three) "places". The files have the same file sizes, but don't occupy twice the space on the partition. It is actually the same file. By that I mean it all points to the same place on the actual partition on your storage chip.

You can read more about links here.


How to copy paste between Android and Windows? I just want Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V work across all devices: from Windows to Android and from Android to Windows. Be it just a text or a file (like this in pushbullet, but for pushbullet, universal copy paste is premium feature.)
I am trying AirDroid. What all I found related to this is this:

I have to do Ctrl+C, then open this app, go to relevant device tab and click these buttons.
Q1. Is this the procedure? Can't I just do Ctrl+C on Windows and long press and paste on Android. Also copying from Android's clipboard to Windows did not work while the other way worked every time.
Q2. Is there another way? Is there any better software which does it for free, for text and files, without lag, on same network devices?

I personally use MyPhoneExplorer. It is a free software without any ads or malware. Actually it is a full fledged PC suite for Android. It supports universal clipboard, screen mirroring & many other things.


Blocking a call without the calling party knowing it Most call blocking apps will reject/hang up the calls from blacklisted numbers. But the calling party comes to know that there call was rejected. Is there any way or any app which can really "block" the call (like turning off network connection for few seconds) so that the calling party feels that the phone is either switched off or not reachable.

This is a network function and no app will be able to perform the behaviour you're looking for.

At best, you can create a custom "silent" ringtone for a known number. Else, if you'd prefer pressing the volume buttons will usually mute the ringing while giving the dialler the perception that the call remains unanswered.