Is it possible to get multi-user support on Android with help from the boot manager? I know that a common problem with Android tablets is that they lack multi-user support. I wonder if there isn't already a solution that allows me to select the user on boot by linking/moving/changing the data partition.

There are boot managers that allow the selection of the (custom) ROM to be loaded, just like Windows/Linux dual-boot. Are there any Apps that allows me to select the data partition/user on boot? Or let me switch the user data on-the-fly without rebooting?

you can use SwitchMe if you have root, which I believe does all you ask


Light of Back button is not working on my Android mobile I have Android Fly F45 S. From yesterday I am suddenly seeing that my Android mobile back button light is not working. The back button is working but the light is not lighting. I have never dropped it anywhere. Please solve this

Do a factory reset of your device (Remember to take app and data backup before doing the reset).

If this doesn't solve the issue, it may be hardware issue (either LED gone bad or any physical damage happened).


How to set default SMS App in Android 4.2 Jelly Bean It is possible to set it in Android 4.4 KitKat. But how can I set it in Android 4.2 Jelly Bean?
After installing Tango I fell in this problem.

Thanks all.

In Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, We should manage default app in same app we don't want it to handle SMS.

In Tango 3 settings, there is an option to avoid SMS handling.


gmail won't sync to my phone For some reason Gmail won't sync to my phone. When i signed in with an account settings-->accounts-->google i entered my email address. Then I unselected everything for sync but the Gmail because Gmail is the only Google product I want synced on my phone. The problem is when i send a test email to my account through another email address I don't get a notification on my phone and I have to select the Gmail app then refresh and then the new email will appear.

Ideally if someone sends me a new email I will get a notification and I will know immediacy and I won't have to manually refresh the Gmail app to check for new emails. Is there something in the settings that I'm missing?

Two things to check given GMail is already set to sync.

First, double check you have notifications ticked inside the GMail app, this can be found by opening the left menu and opening the settings located at the bottom.

Secondly, in settings open data usage, then open the three dot menu and ensure that "Auto-Sync Data" is on and "Restrict background data" is off.

Note: These directions are based on Stock 4.4, if they don't correspond just let me know what phone and software version you have.


What do all these letters/numbers in early Samsung ROM file name mean? This question covers early Samsung ROMs if your ROM looks like this example G930FXXU2EREM_G930FOJV2ERE8_TUR.zip then see this updated question here

I'm guessing the first 5 letters/numbers are for the model of the device I8160XXLL2, but what after that? Is there any guide to understand what exactly they mean by these letters? I'm confused it seems sometimes they repeat the model of the device twice?
I8160XXLL2_I8160QXXL3.zip
I8160XXLL2_QXELL3.zip

These 2 firmware names are a good demonstration of (early) Samsung naming conventions.

I8160XXLL2 is the "PDA" designator, i.e. build number;
I8160QXXLL3 is the "CSC" designator, i.e. baseband version.

There can be multiple CSCs corresponding to a single PDA, released for different regions.

Inside the string:

I8160 is, obviously the model number;
XX is for country/region (XX itself means Europe or international);
LL2 are the release date and version (within same month): first L for year (L for 2012, M for 2013, etc.), second L for month (A for January, L for December, etc.), and 2 for the 2nd version.

Furthermore, you can pinpoint which exact region the firmware is for by using a part of the CSC: QXX/QXE designates the precise region within the one defined in PDA. Match these 3 digits with a list of firmwares (e.g. on SamMobile), and you will know what regions received such releases.


Gmail app - increase font size when sending I'm not asking about how to increase font size of emails I have received or how to zoom in those emails.

I am asking about how increase font size of emails that I compose and send in the Gmail Android app (the new version that supports bold, colors and stuff).

In a desktop computer, there is an option for that:

Is there an option for such in the Gmail Android app?

The rich text compose app update for Android does not include font size.  It only allows changes to bold, italic, underline and text color.


Using wired and wireless headphones simultaneously? I have 1 android device, 1 wired headphones, 1 wireless headphones, 2 ppl willing to watch film.
When I connect both of headphones only wired work.

Is it possible to use both of headphones simultaneously?

i have tried and tried, never works, either use 2 wired earphones or use 2 wireless Bluetooth earphones


How do I assign an action to long pressing the home button? I want to fix it so the home button long press kills a particular app. I can't see the option for home long press in Tasker or Macrodroid.

Galaxy S5, rooted, CM Marshmallow, Xposed installed.

Macrodroid doesn't offer an action based on  home key trigger. Macrodroid developer in app forums says

  It's impossible to create such a trigger because the home button is a fundamental part of the OS and there is no way to intercept the button press.

I don't know  Tasker, but guess the same limitations would apply, so you would need to find an alternative way. One method below:

Since you are on CM, you can use Gravity Box Xposed module

To kill foreground app

Navigation keys action → Home key → long press action → Kill foreground application

To kill a particular app - combination of Gravity Box and Macrodroid

Navigation keys action → Home key → long press action → Custom actions → toggle applications to reveal shortcuts → Macrodroid Shortcuts → Add new macro

Trigger → Empty Trigger

Action : Kill application → choose application from drop down menu


Motorola Atrix Android 2.3.X Corporate Email Account Already Added or Exists I have a Motorola Atrix phone running Android 2.3.6.  I had just performed an update to my firmware and can no longer access my corporate email account via the "Email" app.  I tried to re-add the account but would receive errors stating that the email had already been added (or email already exists).  Everything on the Internet leads me to believe that I would have to perform a factory reset of the phone.  Where did the email account go and how can I add the email if the phone says that it already exists or it was already added?

I am answering my own question.

The original email configuration still exists on the phone, but it cannot be accessed via the "Email" app. Accessing the "Email" app will just prompt you to add the account again (along with other account types like facebook, twitter; then it denies you stating that it already exists). Instead click on the "Messaging" app and then you will see the "disappearing" email account in addition to "Universal Account" and "Text Messaging". Select the original account and edit the account properties. On the account properties page you can "Remove Account". By removing the account you can then go and add it again successfully.

I have heard that others are doing a hard reset which is not necessary.


Clickable phone number with pauses and bridge/extension in calendar event What's the proper way (if any) to format a phone number when entering it as the "Location" of a calendar event under ICS (4.0.4, Samsung Galaxy S3, AT&T) so it can be clicked and auto-entered into the dialer... including pauses and subsequent digits to dial an extension, conference bridge, PIN code, etc?

I tried creating an event with a Location in the form:

1-999-999-9999,,,123456789#

but when the event reminder actually came up and I clicked it, the only thing that ended up in the dialer was 123456789

Does ICS and/or Samsung use a different character for 'pause', do I have to somehow escape it with extra characters (quotes? parentheses? etc), or did Samsung and/or the ICS calendar/dialer team just screw it up (number+pause+moredigits is something that roughly half the calendar-dialer implementations I've seen just can't ever seem to get right for some crazy reason)

I found this thread: http://forums.androidcentral.com/verizon-galaxy-s-iii/297744-calendar-event-how-add-bridge-numbers-easy-dial.html

It looks like you can make a contact with a complex dialing code and then link to that contact as an attendee on the calendar event. Then click the attendee link to dial the number.


High CPU usage from UEventObserver and inputmethod.latin (Nexus S) I have kept my Google Nexus S up to date with the latest Android O/S since I've owned it and its always had performance problems to varying degrees. I'm currently running:

Android version: 4.1.2
Baseband version: I9023XXKI1
Kernel version: 3.0.31-g5894150
Build number: JZO54K
Uptime: 145:35:00

Currently the performance is particularly bad. The UI is generally very sluggish, apps can take a long time to open or switch, occasionally the home screen appears empty after switching away from a "big" app (e.g. Bad Piggies or Chrome) almost as if the shell had crashed and restarted. The performance seems to deteriorate the longer the phone has been without a reboot. There is a bug where the phone think its still charging after being unplugged. I am not sure if this is associated with the performance issue.

I tried various performance monitoring apps but none of them told me anything useful. I finally installed a terminal emulator and ran the trusty top. Here are the results:

These two threads: com.google.android.inputmethod.latin and UEventObserver, appear to consistently be using high CPU. I have seem UEventObserver using as much as 40-50%. Regarding the inputmethod.latin I am assuming this is keyboard related but I am only using the standard Android keyboard so the high CPU usage is inexplicable.

Any theories about what is going on?

How can I fix these two threads that are hogging the CPU?

You can check "adb shell getevent" to see which events are coming at the time of this high CPU. That may help.


Batch Update Android alarm ringtone? I have a bunch of alarms on my Android phone and I want to change their current ringtone to a new one. The new ringtone is in MP3 format and is located in the sdcard. Is there any way to change them all at once, rather than opening the alarms one by one?

No. As far as I know, you will have to change them all manually.

You may want to try out other alarm clock apps, though. I use Alarm Clock Extreme (free & paid), and while I can't batch update in that either, I can set defaults for every option for new alarms.

If you really want a bunch of alarms to have one ringtone that can be updated later, you could use Llama. One of the features in that app is that you can set a ringtone to a profile (called a LlamaTone). Then when you create an alarm, you tell it to use the Llama ringtone; Llama registers as an option for ringtone selection. In the future, you only change the Llama ringtone, and all the alarms will be updated. Basically, you are creating an alias or shortcut.

Edit Yes, you can! If you have root, that is. The main alarm clock app keeps all of its alarms in a SQLite database. You can run a sql query to update them in one go.

First, create a new alarm with the ringtone you want ALL other alarms to use. Then run the commands below (in bold). Modify the alert to be the same as the alert you wish to use.

sqlite3 /data/data/com.android.deskclock/databases/alarms.db

sqlite>.headers ON

sqlite>select * from alarms;

_id|hour|minutes|daysofweek|alarmtime|enabled|vibrate|message|alert|intent|no_dialog
 1|15|5|0|0|1|1||content://media/external/audio/media/27||0
 2|15|12|0|0|1|1||content://media/internal/audio/media/58||0

sqlite>update alarms set alert="content://media/internal/audio/media/58";

sqlite>select * from alarms;

_id|hour|minutes|daysofweek|alarmtime|enabled|vibrate|message|alert|intent|no_dialog
1|15|5|0|0|1|1||content://media/internal/audio/media/58||0
2|15|12|0|0|1|1||content://media/internal/audio/media/58||0


How do you change the language on Google Play? How do you change the language on Google Play? I'm American, so I want it in English. I live in Luxembourg, have a Lux SIM card and bought my phone in Thailand and yet the Google Pay Topics are all in Italian. I lived in Italy years ago but I'm not using anything that I got in Italy. I've tried clearing the cache on the app, but I get the same thing and it's also on my laptop, which I purchased recently in Lux as well. It's really annoying. How can I change it? Please help.

I guess you need to change your account language to English. To do so, you have to log in to your Google Account, click on Language & Input Tools and change your language to English (United States)


What does the 'Failed to move application. Not enough memory' error mean when choosing 'Move to SD card'? When I choose 'Settings - Applications - Manage applications' , and a 'Move to SD card' I get the 'Failed to move application. Not enough memory' error.

Anyone know why ?

I am running Froyo 2.2 on a Samsung Galaxy S phone.

I have 1.7GB free of system memory and 13.1 GB internal memory free on the internal SD card.

*UPDATE *

Can someone with an Galaxy S phone please confirm this ? I have seen it on two phones, and really would like to know what's happening here.

This is a known problem with leaked 2.2 Galaxy S Vibrant software (happened to me).  Even if you're not using a Vibrant I would suspect the issue is the same, since the software is mostly the same.

You can fix it using this post at XDA if you have a Vibrant or i9000.  If you have another model just check the subforum for your device (or take a risk and try this anyways).


Nexus 5 with an English interface and a Hebrew keyboard I can't figure out how to set a Hebrew keyboard while using an English interface in my Nexus 5. The only way I have found to switch to a Hebrew keyboard was changing the language of the interface to Hebrew.

Is it possible to have them both without a third party app?

Yes you can do this. For this, I am assuming you are using the stock Google keyboard.

Open Settings and tap on Language & Input. Tap on the settings icon next to Google Keyboard. Tap Input Languages at the top. Deselect "Use System Language" and then select any keyboard languages you wish to use.

Now in the keyboard, the space bar will display the current selected language. To change to one of the other active languages, press and hold the space bar and select the language you wish to use.


Change Moto X's Google Now Voice I'm Mexican but I really hate the Spanish voice that my Moto X uses by default, is there any way I can change it to English?

Look up Ivona Text to speech in the play store. They have at least one secondary Spanish voice.


Remove the lock for the app I installed one particular app two months ago. When I opened it the first time, a popup opened with a suggestion to enable the screen lock pin. And I enabled the screen lock. From that time whenever I opened the app it always asks for the pin. I used the app for the last two months without any problem. But from the last few days, I can't open the same application because it is showing to enter the pin even after I entered the correct pin. I thought it was a bug of that particular application and I reported it to them. They told me that the application does not asks for pin to access it. I was told to check access and security credentials in my phone, to open the apps and remove the app from the list of the apps. But I can't find any setting to check it on my phone. Could anyone tell how to check the access and security credentials to open the apps and how to remove it ?

When apps misbehave, usually clearing the cache or its data solve many issues. If the app doesn't contain important data, then try Settings -> Apps. Find it and delete its data. It should be reset as the first time you used it.

Then start it and set the settings to use it as before or change them for your new needs


To list apps reading/writing contacts? I would like to get the better overview of applications reading and writing my phonebook i.e. contacts.
TrueCaller incidence shows that I do not have sufficient understanding and full control of the phone itself.
Similarly, my recent OnePlus data collection incidence belongs to the same category.

I think the very basic feature of listing all applications that can access (read and write) your phonebook can be a good start to eliminate unnecessary apps there.

OS: Android 7.1.1 and Oreo
Phone: Oneplus 3T

You might try the following app from play store that lets you view permissions in different ways

Permission Explorer


How do I access .img files with yaffs2? I've tried mounting them in Ubuntu, no luck, mount does not recognize the yaffs2 file system. I've tried yaffs2utils and ./unyaffs2 but it doesn't actually unpack the img files, I've posted an issue about this on the Google Code page here.

The img files were created by CWM Recovery as a backup, and I'm trying to dig into the file system to find old contacts, and if I could just get the .db files I think I got it from there (I'll just run sqlite3 and peek into the db and print the contacts on paper or something).

Any help appreciated!

To unpack a YAFFS2 image, you can use the free unyaffs tool, which is available as pre-build ELF-binary (for Linux) from this page at code.google.com. This page also contains hints on how to obtain the source code, so you could build the binary yourself e.g. with gcc (gcc -o unyaffs unyaffs.c).

I use this tool myself, it works fine on Ubuntu 8.04 32bit as well as Ubuntu 12.04 64bit (with the ia32-libs package installed).

Place the binary e.g. in /usr/local/bin (which is in your $PATH), so you can access it from everywhere. Put the image file you want to extract in an empty directory (unyaffs always seems to extract files directly into the folder the image file is in), and then call unyaffs with the image file name as only parameter, e.g. unyaffs data.img. After that, you will find the contents of that file system/image unpacked, and can investigate them -- e.g.

SMS/MMS in data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db
Multimedia Metadata in data/com.android.providers.media/databases/*.db
Calendar data in data/com.android.providers.calendar/databases/calendar.db

As I just investigated a MotoBlur image, contacts in my case have been stored to data/com.motorola.blur.providers.contacts/databases/contacts2.db -- they are probably in a different location in your case (a guess: data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/*.db).

The sqlite3 command works on them, naturally. If you prefer a graphical frontend, I can recommend you the sqliteman package (comes with a binary of the same name, which accepts the database file as parameter).


When Google removes malicious apps from their Play Store, are users notified? This Check Point Research article describes over 200 malicious apps on the Google Play Store that were downloaded over 100 million times.  Google has now removed the apps from their Play Store.

But what happens to the millions of people who have this software on their Android devices?  Are they somehow notified by Google?  Does Google automatically offer to uninstall the software for them?

Or are millions of users left with malicious apps on their Android devices?

By default, no. This would require Google to sniff the apps in your phone, in which they should ask your permission to do so.

However, there is this:

Google Play Protect

  How Google Play Protect works

  Google Play Protect checks apps when you install them. It also
  periodically scans your device. If it finds a potentially harmful app,
  it might:

  Warn you. If an app is detected that may be harmful to your device,
  you’ll get a notification. To remove the app, tap Uninstall on the
  notification. Google Play Protect might also disable the app to keep
  it from running until you uninstall it.

  Remove the app automatically.
  In some cases, if a harmful app has been detected, you may get a
  notification saying the app was removed.


Access the network without logging into the captive portal on Android? I want to access the local network on a hotspot on my Android devie without logging in, but if i connect to it, i get the "Sign in to network" notification and the sign in site, but all my other traffic go through LTE.

Also other apps see like that I am not connected to any wifi network.

How should i force Android to use the wifi network as a "normal" wifi network (without logging in), and do not use LTE?

(Android 6.0 Cyanogenmod 13)

Make sure you have enabled root access for ADB in developer options
Connect you phone to your computer via usb or open a terminal emulator on your device (skip step 3)
Type adb shell to open a shell (Assuming you have adb installed)
Type su to gain superuser permissions
Tyoe settings put global captive_portal_detection_enabled 0 to prevent the Wi-Fi from disconnecting if there is no internet connection

Source: https://android.stackexchange.com/a/148442/62445


System app Uninstallation without rooting How to Uninstall system apps without rooting? I have tried many applications but all of them require root permissions. Please help.

You can't uninstall them without root. You can disable them, though.
If space is your concern, get an SD Card. If memory is your concern, Disable them.

or You could Root your device.


Permission denied when accessing file pushed using boot insecure into my Nexus 4 with Android 5.0.1 I have a Nexus 4 with Android 5.0.1. I copy a file doing the following:

I reboot to bootloader
Boot using insecure boot.img: fastboot boot boot.img
Pushed a file: adb push IMG_20140710_105128.jpg /sdcard/DCIM/Camera/
Set permissions and ownership as the other files using adb shell chmod ... and adb shell chown ....

See sample:

-rw-rw-r-- root     sdcard_rw  2033519 2014-07-10 10:51 IMG_20140710_105128.jpg
-rw-rw-r-- root     sdcard_rw  2684444 2014-12-04 16:08 IMG_20141204_160833.jpg
-rw-rw-r-- root     sdcard_rw  2271545 2014-12-06 16:14 IMG_20141206_161444.jpg

I reboot normally and go to a Terminal Emulator and type ls -la in the same directory. I get "Permission denied" when trying to list the file I copied (IMG_20140710_105128.jpg) and is unreadable under all programs.

lstat './IMG_20140710_105128.jpg' failed: Permission denied
-rw-rw-r-- root     sdcard_rw  2684444 2014-12-04 16:08 IMG_20141204_160833.jpg
-rw-rw-r-- root     sdcard_rw  2271545 2014-12-06 16:14 IMG_20141206_161444.jpg

What is happening? Why is this doing this? I have root access to modify everything by using the boot insecure method. Are permissions changing when I reboot normally? Any ideas? It happens with all files I push. It doesn't matter the partition where I put it. I tried to do ls -la as root after rebooting normally and I got the same error.

During recovery mode, adb will be running as root so any file you push will have root as owner and group. Once your device boots up, you cannot see those files because they are not under media_rw and sdcard_r.


Can I see what apps I own that have been pulled from the market by developers? Last year I purchased the app grüvtron by Sound Trends LLC. Presumably they later removed the app from the google play store / market. Their website used to have a "buy android version" but now only mentions ios.

The app can no longer be found by searching the market (neither on the device, nor on the web). I can no longer see it under "all apps" / "my apps" (again, neither on the device, nor on the web). The only reason I knew this app was "missing" was because I remembered owning it.

Using google I could find an old market link in a forum to
  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.soundtrends.gruvtron
This link normally gives "We're sorry, the requested URL was not found on this server".

However, if I happen to be logged in to my google account that owns the app, I get a market page for the app (!) from which I can chose to install it! Doing so, it indeed gets sent to my device and 'everything works' (though, the app graphics are broken -- but I don't think that is relevant here.)

This is worrying. Obviously I have no idea how many of the ~100s of apps I own that have silently disappeared from "my apps", and thus are left out when I browse that list for things to re-install. And even if I remembered a specific app, how would I find the corresponding market link so that I could re-install it?

So my primary question is:
Is there a list anywhere on the web or on the android device that lists all apps I own -- including the ones pulled from the market? and preferably with market links?

I have the google market receipts, but those are a pain to go through (it is not really a "list") Worse, in there I only see a company name and textual app name, i.e., no market link. If there had been any reference to the app id (e.g., here, 'com.soundtrends.gruvtron') I could at least have re-constructed the market url.

Edit: a few clarifications follows:

A satisfactory answer must describe a way to get a list of apps which includes those I have purchased, but which after the date of purchase have been pulled from the market by developers. The list should include either market URLs or package-names.
The single one of my purchased apps where I know this has happened (grüvtron) does not appear under my "my apps" list (Menu > My Apps in market app), and I assume this is intentional design for apps that have been pulled (though I find it an odd design choice).
I am currently on ICS, with market 3.7.13. The device is the ASUS transformer TF101 tablet.

The application listed above, "AppBak," gets its data from the android package manager class; if you've got root access, you can see the source (/data/dev/packages.list) which is a simple text file that lists only currently installed apks, but there's also an XML file in the same subdirectory, of the same name, which is considerably larger:  packages.xml, and where it seems even uninstalled packages tend to remain. I found proof of my former bloatware freezer application in there once, and while it didn't do me a world of good, at least I had a resource I could check to see what went disappearing in the night.

The question I can't answer is if the Market can now wipe that data from packages.xml. But I'd point out that the PackageManager documentation has a Get_Uninstalled_Packages constant on that page, so I'd guess not.


Geo-Tags get lost when uploading to picasa website The picasa website also offfers a map, where you can see the pictures of your album. Unfortunatly the upload doesnt support geo tags. They are no more with the pictures on picasa website ;(

You have the same issue? Maybe fixed it...?

It works for me. I just tried using the "Share" command to upload a geotagged photo from my Android phone to Picasa, and I can see the map on the Picasa website.

I am using an HTC Dream with Android 1.6


Cant unlock bootloader or go to download mode in Samsung M11 I have Samsung M 11 (SM-M115F/DS). I want to install TWRP in it. But I cant unlock boot leader or go to download mode. I already enabled OEM Unlock. I saw in some sites that in this device i have to press both volume up and down to go to download mode or unlock bootloader but actually nothing happens. It only goes to recovery mode with power and volume up. There it has a "Reboot to Bootloader" option.  when i go there i get this . When i give the option start i return to recovery mode.

make sure that you have backed up your files because all of your
data will be wiped.
make sure that adb and fastboot is installed on your pc.
download twrp image file.
enable usb debbugging from develper mode.
connect your phone to pc an open cmd.

enter following command:
adb reboot bootloader

or simply go to fastboot mode ( like what you did in second picture ).
then connect your phone to computer and open cmd(if you already didn't).
type following command and hit enter
fastboot flashing unlock

if you got an error, try this command(used for older phones):
fastboot oem unlock

If you get a confirmation screen on your device. Press Volume Up button to highlight Yes and press Power button to select it. This will begin the bootloader unlocking process, which shouldn’t last more than a couple of minutes.
then again, reboot to bootloader.
type following command:
fastboot flash recovery <path to your twrp image file>

done!


Cannot send/receive MMS on Project Fi with unlocked Blu Advance A6 I have been trying to get my unlocked Blu Advance A6 on Android 7.0 working with Project Fi and I can't seem to get MMS messages working in the default app or Signal.

Regular text messages can be sent and received OK, but when an MMS comes in it just says "Tap to download" and when I try to send one it says "Not sent. Tap to try again."

I thought that maybe it was due to the APN settings being incorrect but the Access point names menu that is supposed to be located in Settings -> Wireless & Networks -> More -> Cellular networks is missing. There is only a toggle for Data roaming and no other items.

Well it appears that installing Google Hangouts makes messaging work. Although the app is pretty slow.

For the APN settings, the Project Fi app disables that menu when it's installed according to this:
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/nexus/F9TYPTE11to

According to that post, you can run this from an adb shell to re-enable it:

settings put global hide_carrier_network_settings 0


Why doesn't Clockworkmod let me restore my backups on my Sprint Galaxy Note 2? I made a backup with Clockworkmod and now when I go to restore it it just says no files found.  I have tried moving the backup into different folders on the SDcard like sdcard/0 and sdcard/0/0 and it still can't find the files.

CWM stores its backups in special folders below <sdcard>/clockworkmod/backup. Folder names reflect the times the corresponding backups where created, e.g. 2013-02-01.00.28.49. In those directories you should find the nandroid images. If you place yours there, CWM should find them.

Alternatively, you can also use apps like Nandroid Manager * ROOT or AppExtractor to restore individual apps/data from your Nandroid backups.

Note that when you've used TWRP to create those backups, this uses different locations, as you can see in the screenshots of Nandroid Manager.


Retrica displays blue pixels instead of the captured image on Android 2.x I installed Retrica on my Samsung Galaxy SL I9003, but when I opened it I could only see blue pixels instead of the image captured by my camera. I tried to change the parameters of the app, reboot my phone and reinstall it, but it's not working anyway.

How can I fix this?

I read on Retrica's website that they're aware of this problem for android 2.x devices and they're working to fix it.


adb backup finishes without saving data I'm using a rooted Google Nexus 4 (mako) with CyanogenMod 11 and adb 1.0.32 on OS X.
I also use disk encryption.

adbd is running as root.
I'm trying to create a full backup using:

adb backup -apk -obb -shared -all -nosystem

However, regardless of the options passed to adb backup, it asks me to enter my backup password on the phone and then exists, showing Backup finished on the phone.
It only leaves a 549 bytes backup.ab file.

Using the wrong or no backup password does the same but leaves a 0 bytes file.

I found out the question has been answered at ADB backup creates 0-byte file; prompts for current backup password even though I never set one; "Failed to set password" for Desktop backup password

The solution is to revert to android-platform-tools 19.0.1 which bring adb 1.0.31, backups are working with that version.


Problem in syncing contacts after factory reset I have reset my phone using factory reset option. Now I get "Sync is currently experiencing problems. It will be back shortly." error when trying to sync contacts. What is wrong with it? I also tried "Contacts Sync Fix" app without success.

The first thing I usually do when I experience this kind of problem is I uncheck the one having problems syncing (Contacts, Calendar, etc.) and then check it again. This should initiate a new sync and possibly fix the problem.

If it doesn't fix it, try clearing the data for Contacts app (Settings>Applications>Manage applications) and then sync again.

If it's still not fixed try removing the account that experiences this problem and then re-add it.

It also can be on Google's end, so sometimes it can fix itself, just wait a few days.

And if nothing of that helps, try by another factory reset. Good luck!


Apps aren't auto updating despite of setting and of notifications Every morning I turn off the alarm on my phone, look at it, see there aren't any updates and unplug it.

A few seconds later I'll start to receive several notifications about apps that need updates. These updates will not automatically download or install even though I've set that option in the Play Store; instead they sit waiting until I manually go to the Play Store and hit "Update All."

My phone spends all night plugged in and on Wi-Fi; why aren't they updating then?

For reference, I'm running an LG V20, with Android version 7.0. Play Store is version 8.5.39. If it matters, my alarm is set for 3:45 am. I didn't see any option in the store to change the update time.

This is an easy fix and the reason is pretty easy to determine. The reason is that Androids' "Optimize Battery Usage" feature puts Google Play Store or Google Play services to sleep and restricts background activity. This means that when your phone screen turns off, the app is put to sleep so it does not consume battery; or if the phone is charging, it doesn't have any background activity access.
To fix this, you need to go to Settings, Apps, and scroll until you find Google Play Services and Google Play Store. Check Google Play Store first, click it and then click "Battery". If you see that it says "optimized", click the "Optimize Battery Usage" button and it will take you to a list at the top change it from "Apps not optimized" to "All". Scroll down the list until you find Google Play Store and switch the toggle to off; repeat this process for Google Play Services (most likely this will not be optimized, but just in case, check).
Now that you have done this, your phone will update because the app will no longer be put to sleep and it will be allowed to work in the background while your phone is charging or on Wi-Fi and it will update your apps. I have fixed this issue on a few phones and if this does not work for you, there is something else wrong with your device or Android.


There was a problem communicating with Google servers, try again later - Galaxy s3 Got the dreaded "There was a problem communicating with Google servers, try again later" error. This all started with notifications stating my account could not Sync with any of my apps. Seen many posts with possible solutions ...

Removed the account, then tried to re-add it and got the above message. Tried to add other accounts ... same thing.
Verified 2-factor auth is not enabled
Cleared cache and data from all Google-type apps on the phone, uninstalled all updates for the apps ....restarted
Verified the date/time setting and timezone setting are automatic and they look correct
The network and wifi are fine ... can browse to the Google sites
Non-rooted phone. Nevertheless verified the hosts file is legit
Not willing to do a factory reset yet since other posts suggest this does not always fix the issue and that would only lead me to likely throw my phone. Unintended consequences.
Tried unlocking Captcha on Google Account

This happens no matter which Google Account I try to add, making me think it is not account related rather something on the phone

I'm at my wits end now ... clearly there is a serious issue here and I can't put my finger on it. Does anyone have any suggestions.

Thx

I have finally found the solution for this problem and want to share it here for those of you suffering from the same issue that was not answered by any of the steps mentioned in the original post.

In short, I needed to reinstall Google Play Services

In your device ...

Go to Settings > Security > Check Unknown sources
Head over to APKMirror
and get the version of Google Play Services that is applicable to the your Android version.
Install
Probably best to reverse step 1 once finished

This worked for me.


How can I keep a folder backed up online with continuous syncing? I've found that the dropbox support for Titanium Backup never works for me amd I've also tried using ubuntuone and idrivesync but neither of these support setting a directory to keep in sync.

Does anyone know of a free service, that can keep any directory of your choice backed up online?

The best would be a scheduled task so that the battery isn't drained by continuous sync.

You can use DropSync. It can sync any specified folder and you can setup a schedule. Recent update of free version of the app removed limitation for the schedule.


What is the proper method to manually odex an apk? I am looking for a proper and simple method to odex an apk file. I have an upgraded apk file from a ROM with which I want to replace the older one and it is located in the /system-priv directory. The older apk has the .odex file, but I figured out I can't directly overwrite the it, since I can't use the old .odex (hence I need to odex first), lest I'ill be stuck with app crashes or bootloops.
I have tried searching for methods online but are not satisfactory in one of the ways:

This one which involves the use of a dexopt-wrapper.bin seems to be way outdated as binary is not supported, I have this error poping up:
 error: dexopt-wrapper error: only position independent executables (PIE) are supported.

The second one which is lengthy and links to other required resources are no longer there, and is somewhat not compatible with my system.

The only promising one which uses Auto Odexer Script, but currently I'm running issues adb and also seems it uses the same dexopt-wrapper binary which was giving me errors in terminal.

There are tools/methods for doing the entire system at once, but I  do not need the entire system re-odexed. I want to personally create an odexed "upgraded" .apk from the extracted ROM.
Update
I upgraded the wrapper binary (now PIE) and should be compatible however still encountering this error:
--- BEGIN '/sdcard/app/A.apk' (bootstrap=0) ---
--- waiting for verify+opt, pid=17200
--- would reduce privs here
execl(/bin/dexopt) failed: No such file or directory
--- END '/sdcard/app/A.apk' --- status=0x4300, process failed
1|mido:/ #

and the result is an empty .odex file in the dir. Someone to point out where I am going wrong here?

credits to com.modaco.odexme
xda link

Theoretically you should only need your Android device to manually odex, I ended up using both smartphone (running KitKat 4.4) and PC as explained later.

I successfully odexed apks using the following steps:

1.Create a /dir/odex on your Android device

2.Save next script as odex.sh in /dir/odex, give it execute permission 777

#!/system/bin/sh

cd /dir/odex

for filename in `find . -name '*.apk'`
do

# step 1 - odex the apk
./dexopt-wrapper $filename `echo $filename | sed 's/\(.*\.\)apk/\1odex/'`

# step 2 - did we succesfully odex?
if [ -f `echo $filename | sed 's/\(.*\.\)apk/\1odex/'` ]
then
    # step 3 - remove the classes.dex from the apk
    ./zip -d $filename classes.dex

    # step 4 - zipalign, just in case
    ./zipalign -f -v 4 $filename $filename.new
    mv $filename.new $filename
fi

done;

3.Obtain following binaries from com.modaco.odexme.apk\assets

dexopt-wrapper zip zipalign

put those in /dir/odex and give execute permission 777

4.Copy .apk(s) you want to odex from /system/app or /system/priv-app to /dir/odex

5.Open Terminal, cd to /dir/odex and execute ./odex.sh

At this point I had a problem with zipalign which could not LINK EXECUTABLE - cannot locate symbol... but nonetheless script partially executed and obtained odex(es) sitting next to apk(s) in our dir.

6.So I had to resort to the PC, copy original apk to PC, open it with WinRar or 7zip, manually remove classes.dex and zipalign, than put "deodexed" apk back to Android device.

7.Now with a file explorer put newly created .odex and .apk in /system/app or /system/priv-app (have a backup of original apk first). If it fails to write mount system as rw. Give both permission 644 as all the other apks and odex in dir.

8.You can now delete corresponding dex in /data/dalvik-cache

9.Reboot (or soft-reboot)

10.Enjoy your newly odexed app

I successfully odexed LGEIME.apk, a modified keyboard for my G2, and GoogleDrive.apk, I moved it to /system/app to save space on /data partition because newer version are 5.0+ only. I was skeptical about GoogleDrive because it was multi-dex, infact apk contained classes.dex and classes2.dex: turned out I had to strip only classes.dex from the apk and leave classes2.dex inside the apk.

credits to com.modaco.odexme
xda link


Restrict background data for Facebook, but notifications still coming in I would only like particular applications to show notifications when I'm not on Wifi and those would be:

Google Services - unfortunately there are several syncs here but AFAIK we can't control individual ones
Google Search - I'm not sure what this one does but I suppose I want to keep this one up
GMail - for obvious reasons

But all of the others I would like to disable. Including Facebook.

The problem I'm having is that Facebook notifications are still being displayed on my phone. What am I missing?

Facebook's notifications come through Google Cloud Messaging (GCM). As such, the Facebook app itself isn't using the network at all, as all apps' GCM messages come through one connection, owned by the Google Play Services process.

There's no user control for individual GCM endpoints. It's up to Facebook to provide an option for notifications.


Clone Android device including the content of SD card I have to clone about 65 Android devices (Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1N). I would do it with a backup in CyanogenMod, but the problem with the Cyanogen Backup is, it does not back up the SD card.
Any other methods to completely clone an Android device? (Homescreen settings, installed apps, data on SD card, etc.)

Make a nandroid backup from recovery.
Make sure that the backup is located on the sdcard.
Mount the sdcard on a computer and copy it's contents to a folder on a pc.
Copy the entire contents of the folder you made above to the target device.
Root the device than install a custom recovery if you didn't do this already.
In recovery restore the nandroid backup.
Reboot the device. Now everything should be exactly the same as on the original.

Repeat steps 4-7 for every device.

If there're lots of small files that need to be transferred, another possibility is zip them up copy to the phone and than unzip it using

adb shell unzip path/to/file.zip

Once the command is launched you can disconnect the device the process will continue as long as there're no conflicting files or folders.


Samsung Galaxy 2 (Jelly Bean 4.1.2) In the stock "Phone" app, on the "Keypad" tab, how can you enter a "space" character? I was wondering if there is a way to enter a "space" character on the keypad in the keypad tab in the Phone app.

For example, I have 3 different "Mike" contacts:

Mike Smith
Mike Jones
Mike Rothe

In the keypad, when I type "6453" (mike), it then shows the first contact "Mike Smith", and gives me the option to press the "3" button next to "Mike Smith" to see my other contacts with "Mike" as the first name.

I would like to be able to press "6453" and then a "space" character, and then "5" ( J ), so it narrows it down to "Mike Jones", instead of making me go through the "Mike"'s to find "Mike Jones"

I can't figure out how to punch in a "space" though. Is it possible?

If not, I would be willing to download a better "Phone" app than the 4.1.2 stock phone app, if that would help.

It's not specifically the Phone app. You can't enter a space into any field where the app has said it's expecting you to type a phone number.

On the Samsung dialer, you can use a * to match a space in a contact's name e.g. 6453*56637 to match Mike Jones. I don't have an S2 to check this on, but that's how the dialer on the S3 works, and I'd expect they're both the same.


Oxygen OS apk installation Error : Cannot display pdf When I try and install apk file by clicking from Files App, I get the error message "Cannot display pdf (.apk is of invalid format.)"

The system tries and opens pdf reader app, instead of package installer app.

When trying to install from Downloads App, I get the message "can't open file".

The phone is a new OnePlus X phone with OxygenOS 2.2.1, Android Version 5.1.1

In the Settings, I have checked the Unknown Sources App Installation Option.

Also I cannot see the Developers Option in Settings.

The developer options become available after you click the build number 7 times in the about section of your phone.


Termux give user write access to usb pen I have a android box that has termux and I would like to add permission for my user to write to a plugged in usb pen drive.
For what I believe I only have to add that user to sdcard_r group, I'm not really sure if this is the way.
How can I achieve this? I can't find useradd command.

I also have tried using the termux-setup-storage command but this command doesn't seem to create a folder for my usb pen drive.

My android version is 5.1.1

I have followed the tutorial in http://www.cnx-software.com/2012/08/26/how-to-allow-apps-to-write-files-to-usb-mass-storage-devices-in-android/ and now I can write to my usb :)


WhatsApp: Group kick and deletion I couldn't find any relevant source for this. So I'm hoping to find an answer  to my simple question here.

If I kick someone out of my WhatsApp group (I'm the group admin), will the chat history on the person's mobile device be removed as well?

No it won't be. The person will simply be shown the message "You have been removed from this group"


Access to smartphone with PC I've reset my phone (Android 4.3) but because the touchscreen is not fully responding, I can't go through the initial tutorial and therefore using some apps  like airdroid to remotely control my phone via PC. How can I control my phone using no apps?
Kind regards

Buy yourself a USB OTG cable. You will be able to access the phone using a mouse.

Sources:

1990clb suggestion
personal experience
Update:
You should make sure your device actually supports USB OTG first.


Lock screen orientation on Nexus 4 Is there a shortcut to lock the screen orientation on the Nexus 4 with android 4.2.1? I read you can swipe down from the top right corner on the Nexus 7 but haven't found any info for the 4.

You can go to Settings > Display and then un-check Auto-Rotate. Since that's rather inconvenient, I installed an app called Power Toggles which makes it possible to force lock the screen orientation to landscape or portrait from the notification bar very easily.

I particularly liked this app since its very lightweight, only about 248kb. It also makes it possible to add single-click actions for things such as the turning on the flashlight or mobile hotspot.


How can I use 'Nook for android' to read non-latin encoding epub books normally? I installed Nook for android on my P1010. When I use it to read English epub book, no problem. But when I read a Chinese book with GB2312 encoding, there are lots of irrecognizable characters. How can I solve this problem?

According to page 36 of the NOOK User Guide, the NOOK supports fonts with Latin character sets.  Other font types can only be viewed if they are embedded in the document.

Extracted from Does Nook support Chinese/Japanese?

You might also want to take a look at this workaround: Font Changes


How to use an external sd card and recharge the battery at the same time I'm an happy owner of the tablet nexus 10. It is very good. Some time ago I've bought the leef connector because I want to use an external sd card :

as you can see from the picture,there is a problem. When I keep attached the leef connector I can't recharge the battery. Do you know if there is some way to do both things at the same time ? I want to use the external sd card but when the battery is going to be very low I want to attach the tablet to one USB port or to the wall outlet. Thanks.

I have an OTG adapotor that looks like this

It accepts SD, microSD and USB memory sticks while charging. It's a bit bulkier than what you've got, but it may be worth trying. This one was made for the Galaxy S2, and it works well with the Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy S5 as well (those are the ones I've tried it with, and it probably works with most Samsung devices). There should be similar devices for your tablet or for generic Nexus devices as well.


How decrease font or make text readable in Android Chrome? Output in Android Chrome where you see classroom not visible in timetable, but I see it with my PC.
Portrait and landscape views have the same problem.

Fig. 1 Landscape view

Phone: Oneplus 2.
OS: OxygenOS 3.1.

Options inherent to Chrome

By Scaling the text size to make it readable

Menu (upper right corner) → Settings →Accessibility option → Text Scaling

Of course, you may need to resize the text for other sites of text is too small for comfort

By enabling Force Zoom -  useful if zoom by pinching is disabled

Enabling Desk Top mode may also help pinch to zoom from Settings → Request desktop site. Related How to make Google Chrome definitely remain as the desktop version?


How to root Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-I9500 with build XXUBMH1? The latest build for Samsung Galaxy S4 in South Africa is XXUBMH1. I followed this guide to rooting S4s but it doesn't work on this build.

How can I root this phone, preferably without having to load a different version of the firmware first?
(Bonus) How can I find such information without trawling through many pages of discussions on forums.xda-developers.com?

If it's relevant, I'm running Ubuntu 13.04.

I found this application quite useful https://towelroot.com/ download and run on your device and it roots your device for you. Its been recommended by XDA.I ran it on my s4 I9505 and worked perfectly.


Google drive links. What version they shows? Does links from drive give a connection to the last version of a file or to the one at the moment of link creation?

Link always points to the file you  linked at that point of time

If you want to update the link to point to revise version of the file so that others with whom you shared view the latest version, open the web version of Google drive either using a PC or from Android using  browser desktop view, select the file and upload as shown below

Select the file (highlighted in blue), tap the 3 dot button (greyed out in pic below) and choose manage versions

Upload the latest file (Upload New Version)


Tried hack to force 4.2 update, result is a broken play store. Theories? So I'm on a Galaxy Nexus.  Still on 4.1.  I tried the 'hack' where you clear data on the Google Services Framework, then check update, but no luck.  I shrugged and got on with my day.

Now I'm noticing that I have several updates in the play store.  And if I choose "update" all I get is an instant "Update for [app name] could not be downloaded".  Repeatedly.

I've tried clearing data for the play store, rebooting, but nothing.

Yay. Any theories?

Remove and add again your Google (main) user account. This should do the trick.


Are there any Japanese handwriting input app Are there Android app that recognize Japanese handwriting words and translate into Japanese text? (In another word, I handwriting some Japanese words on the android phone and it translate into Japanese text.)

yeah there's Google Handwriting Input available on PlayStore. get it.


How can I securely store my private key I use for logging into my home PC I've been told that the SD card is a terrible place to store secure data because any app can read it.  How else can my phone store my private key I use to log into my home PC ssh server?

I use ssh in a terminal.

$ ls -l .ssh
-rw-------    1 10106    10106          427 Jan  8 07:39 id_rsa
-rw-rw-rw-    1 10106    10106          319 Jan  8 07:39 id_rsa.pub
...
$ pwd
/data/data/com.magicandroidapps.bettertermpro/home

So the private key is protected simply by the unix filesystem and Android's user-per-app design: only Better Terminal Emulator Pro can read id_rsa, and only ssh and other programs I'm aware of run under it.

Whatever your app is, it need only do this to enjoy the same security from other apps.  Full-sdcard encryption, unless it comes packaged with a filesystem having a comparable system of permissions, will not protect your data from other apps.


Disable Gmail app swipe to delete for IMAP account The Gmail default action swipe to archive make sense for Google accounts.

Now, when I added a normal IMAP account, the swipe action is defaulted to delete, which is dangerous.

Are there any way to enable swipe for archive only, but not delete?

It seems that this isn't possible at the moment. The support article for Gmail on Android states:

  [You can] set default action & swipe to archive or delete messages for Gmail accounts. For non-Gmail accounts, the default is always delete, so even if you change this setting to archive, your messages will still be deleted.


How can I remove traces of my phone ever being rooted? I rooted my phone and then an update unrooted it. I described my story here . I am glad that the update unrooted it, I was also planning on doing it myself.

What can I do to make sure that all traces of me having root access on the phone are erased? I'd like to do this, so that if I have to go in for warranty purposes, I don't have any problems.

I'm guessing uninstalling z4root would be the first step. What else?

As far as I know, doing a factory restore on the device should eliminate anything left over the device.

Usually the process goes:

Revert back to  your earliest NANDROID backup (that you should have taken right after you rooted).  If you don't have it, then flash a stock ROM.
Run the unroot reversal process (in this case you ran an official update)
Remove any left over root applications (SuperUser app, etc.).
If necessary, wipe the device by restoring to factory settings.

If I'm missing anything, leave a comment and I'll update this.


Cannot record 1080p video with most apps I have rooted ZTE v987 and according to specification it has ability to record 1080p@30fps video. The problem is - I can't do this with most apps. I changed my ROM multiple times and every time I have the same problem.
I usually use app called Open Camera and I can record full HD video, but this wanted to use other app (for timelapses) and it also detects only low resolution (640x480).

How can I force all apps on the phome to use maximum resolution? Maybe is there some fault of config? Or maybe hardware fault? But as I said, some apps detect 1080p as available resolution.

Open Camera app uses Camera API2 which allows apps to fully utilize the camera hardware and opens up even more features (if your hardware supports) to apps. Unless the app in question (the one you use to make time-lapse) has been  implemented using CameraAPI2 you may not get the full features you state you get from Open Camera.

Alternatively some apps may have implemented API2 but may require some payment to unlock the "pro" features which can include full HD video recording or RAW image capture.


Can I run Android from an SD Card? The eMMC in my phone is dead I have a Mediatek based phone, Alcatel 4030x, and it is slowly dying.

The System partition is now mounted as read-only, then apps start crashing after a minute or two.

I've tried SP Flash tool, restore stock rom, and numerious other methods, but I'm 100% sure the eMMC is the dead so these methods do not work.

Right now I do not have the equipment or skills to replace the eMMC, so I was wondering if I can run Android from the SD-card?

Someone else on this site managed to run Android on his Samsung phone using the SD card, so I tried his method, but it does not seem to work for my phone, here is the method I found:

Use sd card as internal storage and stop writing to internal memory for good

I partitioned the card, edited 'fstab', but the phone does not boot from the SD card, is simply sits there with a grey screen when I turn it on.

Has anyone else managed to do this as right now the phone is about as useful as a chocolate teapot! Thanks

I'm having a kind of related issue with my Moto G5s (xt1794) right now. I hard-bricked it and now it won't boot. There are some guides about flashing a fully functional image onto a sd card. After pressing the power button for 1-2 minutes the phone boots. If I switch it off and remove the sd card it won't boot again, so i guess it is really booting from sd card, not just installing the software into emmc or something (which would be more useful in my case). Anyway I think this could solve your problem.
Forum post: https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=76747247&postcount=258


Possible to install APK from personal website? How can I allow a user to do web-install of Android APK file from my personal web page? Like to create a personal (private) APK repository where I could put APK files and send a client the link to the APK file. A client would then click on this file and install the Android app to its phone.

Is this possible/allowed on the first place?

Any cool tool a user should use for installing such apps?

Once the user allows Unknown Sources, they should pretty much be able to get APK from anywhere...
Check this StackOverflow question: Hosting an .apk file on over own site


Samsung S3 only boots into safe mode. Also plays a female voice reading everything on homescreen Recently, my Samsung S3 GT-19300 somehow went off and immediately restarted itself into safe mode. I assume in safe mode there are limited thing that will function on the phone? But in my case nothing seems to be working. All I hear is a strange female voice reading everything on my phones' desktop.

I have restarted the phone several times following various instruction on how to turn off safe mode but all to no avail, the problems is still persisting. It has a funny icon of a hand telling you to stop.

Do you know of any way to fix this? I’d like to be able to fix this, not minding having to do a factory reset if at all possible.

Can you provide a screenshot? Also to deactivate the voice just go to Accessibility and deactivate Talk-back.


Continuous clicking sound on the jack While the phone is powered on, and I plug something in the jack of the phone, I hear a continuous clicking sound, with the frequency of about 4 times per second, on the right speaker. The left speaker plays the audio as it should.
I don't have a mono device to see how it behaves with it...
The phone's speakers do not have this problem, or the Bluetooth headset.
The sound is identical, as far as I can tell, to the sound (almost?) any audio device makes when it's plugged in (and/or out?).

Phone: Lenovo A800
Android version: 4.0.4

The issue doesn't happen on my Nexus 7.
Happens with headsets, earphones, external speakers... Pretty much everything in the jack.
I chose to post the issue here because I have found various similar issues with other Android devices around the Internet, but no working solution.

Is there any known cause for this? Any solution..?

My brother just bought a new headset, and there's no clicking sound with it.
I looked at the jacks and there seems to be no difference.
Any ideas...?

Oh, I forgot about this.

My brother came to me and jammed the jack in as far as it could physically go.
The problem was fixed...


Does the sensors work when smartphone is switched off and what can make sensors work incorrect? We want to track the movement and location of employees based on information from the accelerometer and gyroscope sensors (there are some control points, but their number is very small, mainly tracking is based on sensors).
I want to understand what can affect the operation of the sensors and do they work when the phone is switched off? In order to understand possible ways how employees can outsmart the system.

If the phone is really shut down then it is irrelevant if the sensors are working or not (typically I would assume that in device off-state the sensors are not powered).
Sensors provide real-time data. If no-one retrieves and saves it the data is lost.
Therefore in device off state no app is running to retrieve the data and thus no data can be collected (assuming the sensors really could work and are getting powered in device off state which I doubt).


Charging galaxy S4 wirelessly and wired at the same time I got a Qi wireless charger cover for my Samsung Galaxy S4 along with the charger pad and I was wondering... What happens if I try to charge my phone wirelessly while it's plugged on the cabe at the same time?

Is it safe? Does it work? Am I going to set my house on fire?  Perhaps even create a black hole?

Days since Nokia Wireless charging pillow by Fatboy announced People at Windows Central checked with Nokia and officially it doesn't support Dual-charging (And Wireless Charging takes priority, I know it just doesn't feel right )

Since then Many Android users have been asking about it in forums,   reddit and it seems that Android phones doesn't support Dual-charging either. However there is no official information about which takes higher priority(Wireless or Wired)


Migrate from Sony Ericsson W810i to Galaxy I just bought my new Galaxy S. My old mobile phone is Sony Ericsson W810i. I wonder if I can do something in order to migrate my SMS and contacts. For example I was thinking the following:

Connect w810 with my computer, copy the folders from memory stick and phone memory and paste them into Galaxy. Is this feasible?

Edit: Just noticed that I havent accepted an answer :)

Method 1. The base way is to sync your contacts to your Gmail account from your Sony Ericsson W810i if that is possible. Then sync that account to your Galaxy and your contacts will be copied OTA easily.

Method 2. Sync all your contacts from your Sony Ericsson to Outlook. Then export those contacts from outlook to a CSV file. Once you have your contacts in CSV file you can import that CSV file to your Gmail account and then sync that Gmail account to your Galaxy S 2 and you are DONE.


Flash Samsung Rugby Smart AT&T to factory conditions after installing cyanogenmod I have tried installing Cyanogenmod 10 on my Samsung Rugby Smart AT&T, but now I want to revert back to my old factory ROM. But how?

If you don't have a Nandroid backup, you'll have to find a stock ROM for your device. Your device is not that well-known, the only resource I could find is on XDA-Developers. There you can find information on how to use ODIN to flash a stock ROM (post #5).

In the future, creating a Nandroid backup is always recommended before flashing a ROM, just in case something happens or you want to go back.


Is there a way for me to run Adb shell as root without typing in 'su'? Is there a way for me to run Adb shell as root without typing in su? I want to be able to have root access without going into the shell.

If I'm understanding your question correctly, you're asking how to get root access automatically when you run adb shell, so that you don't have to go into the shell and type su to execute a command as root on your phone.
This is controlled by a flag in your boot partition, which most custom ROMs have modified to allow root permission by default. If you get dropped to a $ when you use adb shell then you have two permanent options and one temporary one (temporary meaning that it doesn't stick if you reboot):

Flash a ROM that includes the modification
Create a custom boot.img and flash it to your phone
Restart adbd on your device with root permissions

Number 2 is actually not that difficult, but it can be somewhat dangerous if you're careless. There is a wiki article here which explains the process and includes a couple of Perl scripts to help you. These instructions assume a Linux/Unix environment. I have personally used these instructions on Fedora Linux and can tell you that they work, but I do not know about other *nix environments like Macs. I also do not know of any similar Windows instructions, but I could try to track some down if you are on Windows. The exact commands will vary somewhat from phone to phone since different devices use different partition tables.
Generally speaking, though, you need to pull your current boot.img from your phone, unpack it, extract the ramdisk, and find the default.prop file. This is a plaintext file, which you need to open in a text editor and then find the line that contains the value ro.secure. If the line says ro.secure=1 then you need to change it to ro.secure=0. After that you can re-pack the ramdisk and boot.img, then flash it to your phone. Once you reboot, you will be greeted with a # prompt whenever you perform adb shell without having to run su.
Alternatively, if you are using a custom ROM but it doesn't have this modification, you can just unzip the ROM and modify the boot.img that is included with it using the above steps. Then you can zip up the ROM with the newly modified boot.img and flash the zip file as you normally would.
This probably goes without saying, but be careful when doing this. Messing with your boot partition can quite easily wreck your phone and force you to recover via HBoot. I would highly recommend testing Fastboot to makes sure you can use extended Fastboot commands and perform a recovery. This varies a bit based on your model, but most phones have some sort of desktop software that can be run to reflash the phone as well.

The third option is that in many cases it may be possible to restart adbd on your device with root privileges. One possibility is to execute adb root from a PC terminal, although this will not work on all ROM configurations (the ROM must be built as a "userdebug" one). You can also try Chainfire's adbd insecure app. This will not persist across a reboot, so you would need to use either the app or adb root again any time you restarted your phone.


Music plays through phone speaker instead of headphones when app is opened? This problem started a few days ago and it's extremely annoying in quiet environments.
I will be listening to music from any music player app, and whenever I open an app, get a notification, or switch the song the music starts playing from the phone speaker instead of the headphones. How can I stop this? Is this a software issue or a problem with the headphones itself? Is it just something in the settings? I've tried a lot of different methods.
Thanks!

Broken headphone jack or the profile setting might be changed, I recommend changing the phone profile and trying if not I'm pretty sure its a hardware fault.


How SElinux protects android from rooting I know when rooting we execute a script and we use a thing that is already root and tell it to execute if it executes the script as root and then roots the phone so how does SElinux helps to protect against it

Example I exploited the kernel to execute the script as root it will executed in the kernel domain that is already root so it will the execute the script as root and give root privileges so how does SElinux protects against it?

Summary: Exploit is a any exploit in system to root
         Script script is a script that will be passed to exploited  area so                it can execute as root and root the system

So if i exploit it and pass the script how SElinux will protect against it?

SELinux depends upon labels to match actions and policies. Labels determine what is allowed. Sockets, files, and processes all have labels in SELinux. SELinux decisions are based fundamentally on labels assigned to these objects and the policy defining how they may interact. In SELinux, a label takes the form: user:role:type:mls_level, where the type is the primary component of the access decisions, which may be modified by the other sections components which make up the label. The objects are mapped to classes and the different types of access for each class are represented by permissions.

The policy rules come in the form: allow domains types:classes permissions;, where:

Domain - A label for the process or set of processes. Also called a domain type as it is just a type for a process.
Type - A label for the object (e.g. file, socket) or set of objects.
Class - The kind of object (e.g. file, socket) being accessed.
Permission - The operation (e.g. read, write) being performed.
And so an example use of this would follow the structure:

  allow appdomain app_data_file:file rw_file_perms;

This says that all application domains are allowed to read and write files labeled app_data_file. Note that this rule relies upon macros defined in the global_macros file, and other helpful macros can also be found in the te_macros file, both of which can be found in the external/sepolicy directory in the AOSP source tree. Macros are provided for common groupings of classes, permissions and rules, and should be used whenever possible to help reduce the likelihood of failures due to denials on related permissions.

In addition to individually listing domains or types in a rule, one can also refer to a set of domains or types via an attribute. An attribute is simply a name for a set of domains or types. Each domain or type can be associated with any number of attributes. When a rule is written that specifies an attribute name, that name is automatically expanded to the list of domains or types associated with the attribute. For example, the domain attribute is associated with all process domains, and the file_type attribute is associated with all file types.

Use the syntax above to create avc rules that comprise the essence of an SELinux policy. A rule takes the form:

<rule variant> <source_types> <target_types> : <classes> <permissions>

The rule indicates what should happen when a subject labeled with any of the source_types attempts an action corresponding to any of the permissions on an object with any of the class classes which has any of the target_types label. The most common example of one of these rules is an allow rule, e.g.:

  allow domain null_device:chr_file { open };

This rule allows a process with any domain associated with the ‘domain’ attribute to take the action described by the permission ‘open’ on an object of class ‘chr_file’ (character device file) that has the target_type label of ‘null_device.’ In practice, this rule may be extended to include other permissions:

  allow domain null_device:chr_file { getattr open read ioctl lock
  append write};

When combined with the knowledge that ‘domain’ is an attribute assigned to all process domains and that null_device is the label for the character device /dev/null, this rule basically permits reading and writing to /dev/null.

A domain generally corresponds to a process and will have a label associated with it.

For example, a typical Android app is running in its own process and has the label of untrusted_app that grants it certain restricted permissions.

Platform apps built into the system run under a separate label and are granted a distinct set of permissions. System UID apps that are part of the core Android system run under the system_app label for yet another set of privileges.

Access to the following generic labels should never be directly allowed to domains; instead, a more specific type should be created for the object or objects:

socket_device
device
block_device
default_service
system_data_file
tmpfs

Source: SELinux concepts
For more details, see: Security-Enhanced Linux in Android
Implementing SELinux


Problem with attaching Archos device on Ubuntu On my laptop I have Ubuntu 12.04.

1) mounting the tablet

$ sudo mkdir /media/tb
$ sudo chmod 777 /media/tb
$ sudo mount /dev/sdc /media/tb

2) downloading and updating Android SDK

$ cd ~
$ wget http://dl.google.com/android/adt/adt-bundle-linux-x86-20130219.zip
$ cd ~/adt-bundle-linux-x86-20130219/sdk/tools
$ ./android update sdk

3) editing rules for my device. Each hardware device has its ID. According to Archos
   website my vendor ID is e79. According to this website I should also edit ~/.android/adb_usb.ini.

$ sudo vim /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules

After editing the file has this content:

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ENV{DEVTYPE}=="usb_device",
ENV{PRODUCT}=="e79/*", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="e79", MODE="0666"

$ sudo chmod a+r /etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules
$ sudo vim ~/.android/adb_usb.ini

after editing the file has this content:

0x0e79

$ sudo chmod a+r ~/.android/adb_usb.ini

4) updating the information

$ sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
$ cd ~/adt-bundle-linux-x86-20130219/sdk/platform-tools
$ ./adb kill-server
$ ./adb start-server
$ sudo reboot
$ sudo mount /dev/sdc /media/tb
$ cd ~/adt-bundle-linux-x86-20130219/sdk/platform-tools
$ ./adb start-server
$ ./adb devices

List of devices attached

You can see that I have problem with attaching my device.

What else would you try to solve it?

For adb devices to list your device (and other ADB commands to be able to work with it), you need to enable USB Debugging in your Android device. This will start the required services (the ADB daemon) on the Android device, which is what then responds to ADB commands issued from your computer.

Besides: If you are not going to use all the development stuff from the SDK, but simply wnat to interact with your device using ADB commands, you don't need to install the entire SDK overhead. See Is there a minimal installation of ADB? for details :)


Why does Jelly Bean no longer support Flash? I am fine with the news that Android Jelly Bean no longer supports Flash. But being an Android developer, I am surprised that they did not release a reason for that.

Does anybody know?

Adobe decided to stop support for its Flash Player on Android mainly because of HTML5 doesn't need flash player to play videos. Unfortunately, that didn't mean all Web sites you visit would start using HTML5 instead of Flash (though it would have been nice). If some of the Web sites you want to look at are using Flash, the last version of Adobe Flash Player that landed on the Google Play Store will work with your Jelly Bean device.
 However, since it's no longer available through the Play Store, you'll need to install it from a side-loaded APK.
They've only stopped support, doesn't mean that it won't work but if it doesn't on certain devices then they won't fix it or support it.

You can still install it from here.


In camera apps, is "zoom" a digital zoom, or an optical zoom? In some camera apps (native camera app in 2.2, Camera 360), "zoom" zooms in on the image -- filling the entire screen with a closer-in view of what you're shooting. In at least one app (Vignette [see below]) "zoom" shrinks the picture down. The latter behavior -- along with surely-lacking mechanical lens focus mechanism -- suggests that all of these zooms are purely digital, and not optical.

See Also:
Can a Dream's camera really zoom from the camera app? [device-specific question]

More often than not, Digital. Consider:

How in the world would the motor for moving a lens fit in a phone case? For that matter, where would the find the room to have variable focal length?
Would the manufacturers really put such a battery-drainer in the unit? How much more expensive would it be, too?
Should somebody actually come up with a phone with optical zoom, it would be a big deal and a huge marketing gimmick. ("The only phone camera with optical zoom!") I haven't seen any. Have you?

That's not to say that someday someone won't make hasn't made such a phone. There sure aren't any right now. Unless they make a big deal about the camera zoom, you can assume it's digital.


Google+ Auto Backup vs Instant Upload What is the difference in Auto Backup and Instant Upload?

They're the same thing, auto backup is basically just a new (and more appropriate) name. The only thing that changed is that now it uploads your pictures in original quality (part of the reason why they bumped up everyone's google drive limit to 15GB)


Can't change DNS on S3 mini I am trying to use OpenDNS on my phone. I have tried using SetDNS, DNS Changer, and DNSet. At least two of those claim to allow changing the wifi DNS without root access (I am only using wifi on an unrooted S3 mini with 4.1.2). No matter what I do the OpenDNS test pages say it is not working, and I also installed an app called Ping & DNS which can display my network information and it indicates that my DNS is always obtained from whatever router I am connected to, regardless of any DNS apps I have running.

Actually if I have SetDNS and DNSet running at the same time then SetDNS claims to be using Google's DNS (8.8.8.8, DNSet only supports Google's DNS). But Ping & DNS still says that I am just getting DNS settings from the router. I am not sure which one it really is at that point. Regardless, I want to use OpenDNS.

UPDATE:
To be clear, I am using these DNS changing apps because I want all connections to automatically and only use OpenDNS. So either I want to know why none of these apps work as advertised (when reviewers don't say they don't work), or how can I make it work for all connections without an app in such a way that it can't be altered without a password or something. And I really don't want to bother with rooting if I don't have to.

First enable USB debugging.
You could use adb and use the command root or su shell and copy the build.prop file to /storage/sdcard/0/ or /storage/exsdcard with the copy /system/build.prop /storage/sdcard/0/ command (path of your (ex)SD Card storage vary from device to device). In this file the DNS server IP is saved. Find it and change it to the OpenDNS IP. Now copy it back to your /system/ folder with copy /storage/sdcard/0/build.prop /system/. Restart your phone and it should work.


Assistant 1.0 Malicious app cannot uninstall or delete. !

Is there any other way to remove this app without preforming a factory wipe?

And

Can I still trust my SD Card?

Even Hornet Antivirus is foiled by this app. It's permissions never showed. Even before I disabled this non-manual DL, it was hidden to all but Task Manager.

Are you rooted? If you are you can remove the app in  multiple ways provided you first have:

ADB (Download standalone version to PC - )
USB Debugging enabled on phone (Settings->Applications->Development and check USB Debugging).
A PC (I will be giving windows instructions but it should carry accross the platforms) and USB cable (apparently type C works best).

Next, connect your phone to your PC and ensure the correct drivers are installed to do so (these can usually be found on your manufacturers webpage).

Launch cmd and navigate to the folder containing adb (using 'cd [filepath]').

Enter the following commands into the command line:

  adb devices

If nothing shows here the drivers arent installed correctly or USB Debugging hasn't been enabled.

  adb shell

The interface my slightly change now, this is just accessing your phones internal commandline.

  cd system/app

Changes directory to system apps.

  ls

Find the app you want to remove on this list.

  rm example.apk

I would now reccomend rebooting when you are sure the app has been removed.

If you are not rooted try use one-click solutions so you do not have to factory reset your device such as kingroot.


How can I reload original software back to nexus one I unlock my nexus one, and compile and install the ginger bread build load to the phone. But now, I realize that it does not have all the google software e.g. gmail, map, market, etc.

How can I reset my nexus one back to the original froyo with all the google software?

I have tried 'factory reset' but it does not revert back to android 2.2. Thank you for any idea.

Thank you.

Check out this thread, Original ROM, which is about returning a Nexus One to an unmodded ROM.


Excessive "sponsored ads" in FB Lite on one of two tablets As an owner of very low end (Azpen) tablets the Facebook Lite app has been a godsend, requiring very little space and eliminating the need for separate Messenger app.

I have this app installed on a 4.2.2 tablet and a 5.1.1 tablet.  On the 4.2.2 it's awesome, what FB should be.  But on the 5.1.1 there are excessive "sponsored ads".  Every third or fourth post is one of these, always asking the user to install an app.  The number of ads coupled with the small screen makes the app almost unusable, since pretty much half of what you see are these ads.

I suspect that these ads aren't really coming from Facebook but rather from something sinister, since the "hamburger menu" at the bottom right of these ads does not work.  On a real FB ad this menu gives you the choice to say "show me less like this" or similar.  But on these ads, touching the hamburger menu just refreshes the feed.

How can I isolate what may be causing this difference in behavior, and put an end to it?

Note: both tablets are rooted.

The major benefit of the Android OS is that, usually, there are more than just one app to accomplish a certain task.

This is also the case with Metal for Facebook, a wrapper for the site, giving the user the possibility to avoid both the official Facebook app and FB Messenger as well, for it resembles the way the site looked when visited by a mobile device, before its company's enforcing of the Messenger app, thus allowing a lightweight, all-in-one experience.

I'm in no way affiliated with the developer of this application.


Disable touchscreen area (root available) My rooted Xperia Z1 on Android 5.1 has a broken touchscreen area in the upper half of the screen.

I was able to partly solve the problem by following this SO question:
Resize screen for Dead touch zone

My problem is: The broken area constantly sends touch events. By that, I am not able to input any touch events myself.

How can I filter any touch events in the upper half of my screen?

you can use wm size (WIDTH)x(HEIGHT)
the difference between size and overscan is that any input outside the screen area will be ignored if you use size to change the display resolution

first you have 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.
in my case it's

real 1080x1920
density 480

the equivalence for wm overscan 0,0,a,b is wm size (WIDTH-a)x(HEIGHT-b). In my case wm overscan 0,0,30,0 --> wm size 1050x1920


android.process.acore has stopped I backed up one galaxy S3 and did a restore on another. Then I try to boot the new one and I get a message "Unfortunately the process android.process.acore has stopped". After hitting OK a few times I get Unfortunately TouchWiz has stopped. Then back to the first message. I can't get past this msg.
I thought that maybe I should do another Restore but I can't get to anything cause this happens as soon as I boot.

In short, never ever back up system apps and settings from one handset and restore to another, that is exactly what happens! :)

Mismatches with system app's key signature conflicts with another's ROM's key signature, and variants of settings as well may not exist on the other, all of those can lead to breakages such as what the OP is experiencing.

The only way to get that back, is to perform a factory reset to restore everything back to its original state.


Google password compromised? A few days ago I noticed my phone notify me about my Google play account as if I had changed my password. Yesterday I found out I had been infected with a rootkit and a packet sniffer. I was able to access my Google account. Found no weird logins to my account. So I checked "Devices" and it said "Unable to connect to phone, last time connected April the 6th". So it means someone did something to my account? I mean it's not that easy to log out of my account on my phone is it? I  changed my password and my password rest email, so I should be safe?

You should immediately factory reset your phone, then go to Google and go through the Google Security Check-up and verify EVERYTHING (don't skip any checks), and I would also recommend enabling 2-Step Authentication.

After that, setup your phone again and make sure to enable a lockscreen password, and possibly device encryption as well. Do not enable "Unknown Sources" without somekind of quality security package installed.

I would also go through everything on the Sign In & Security page and look for any anomalies.


Daily notification of bad traffic along commute home Is there an app that will notify me at a time i specify for days i specify (or weekdays) if there is currently heavy traffic on the route from my current location to a location i specify?
Ideally with the option of then viewing the route on a map.

Note: I'm in the UK, although i'm hoping for a solution that works with google maps traffic data, so fingers crossed for an app that works where google maps traffic works.

I know there are widgets that show route traffic status, but i'd like to avoid having to check my phone, instead relying on the (absence of a) notification.

Not specific to Android, but traffic.com lets you define "drives" and will send SMS and/or email alerts if issues are detected. Other sites have similar features.


Determining file type from android terminal emulator I have a file of unknown type that does not display properly in es file explorer and I have no other app installed that can open it. Can I use the terminal emulator (or some other method?) To determine it's file type so as to google the extension and find an appropriate app?

for find File Format, copy this file in Linux, then use this command:

  file input

i tried many commands for this in terminal(Android), and does not work.


Is emptying Bluetooth share folder safe? I need space, so I have emptied some cache and data from different sites.

What would I lose if I emptied my Bluetooth share?

There is absolutely no problem in emptying the Bluetooth share folder. It doesn't contain any file that could make an application force close or any other trouble!

You do lose the files inside, though. Those might be files you wanted to keep.


How can I remove system apps / stock apps? Possible Duplicate:
  How can I uninstall applications that are locked by phone vendor?
  How to remove pre-installed apps like Peep and Friend Stream from my HTC phone?

There are alot of stock android apps on my phone like Email, News and Weather etc. that I dont use. I really need the space because my phone is running low on memory so I am wondering if there is a way to uninstall them because I dont see that option in the Manage apps section.

these can only be removed if you root your device. And even then, some of them you would not want to remove as they tie in to the system.

Additionally, removing them will not free usable space for "non-system" apps. The /system is separate from where user apps are installed and the space is separate.


Galaxy S II via Freebox server to TV Any idea how can I connect my Samsung Galaxy S II to Freebox server? I have no idea how to set up wifi connection between them. Please note that I want to connect my phone to Freebox server as described here, I just want to get pictures straight off of my phone onto the Freebox server to TV.

If you are speaking about Free as the french ISP...

The freebox is an ADSL modem that the french ISP Free provides to his client. It includes a modem / nas / tv and other funny stuff... It provides also multimedia features like photo gallery and video player 1

It presents a nas system accessible thru FTP, and other protocole. To answer to your question, you can install a FTP client on your mobile and connect directly to your server to put your photos. But the prerequisite is a configured server...

To go further and help you to configure all stuff, we need to know which version of freebox do you have, v5 or v6 (HD)

You can find a really good tutorial in french on this page: 2

An extract of configuration needed for the HD version.

You need to configure your freebox server if it's not already done via the following site: mafreebox.freebox.fr/

The freebox server is accessible thru the following parameters / put it into your android ftp client:

address : mafreebox.freebox.fr
login : freebox
password configured one on : mafreebox.freebox.fr


Install application without Google Play I made an application, and I want my friend to install it from a link, but the apk file cannnot be installed on the Android phone. He has to use some file explorer to install it. But I see many apps can be installed from a link and installed directly without using the file explorer.

What should I do to my APK? Is it a signature problem?

Normally phones should be able to install apps even if they are not signed. Normally your friend should be able to install your app. I was able to download the application, and I could also start the installation from the link.

Make sure that your friends phone has 'unknown sources' enabled in the security menu (enable Settings > Security > Unknown Sources). Because otherwise it will also not work (without using Google Play == unknown source).

No offense though, but I didn't test all the way through the installation, because I don't trust it well enough and I have no idea what the app actually does. For all I know it is a virus ;-)


Cannot boot to bootloader, fastboot or recovery I have Sony Xperia Z2 with Cyanogenmod 1220150305

I cannot boot into any recovery based applications.

I have tried with the phone off and the down and up volume buttons, I have tried with apps that reboot to recovery, I have tried with the advanced power button on CM, I have tried with adb reboot bootloader/recovery and I have tried by just trying to install an update from the CM Updater.

What do I do to get this into Recovery? Otherwise the phone is fine, but it now means I can never update the phone ever again which I am not happy about as this version of CM12 is not great.

Turn off your phone and let it stay like that for 20 seconds
Then try the key combination again until the led goes blue (from pink)

If that doesn't works
Try flashing the cwm recovery image again manually using

fastboot flash recovery nameOfTheImage

Or follow this link to download the boot.img file and flashing it via

fastboot flash boot boot.img

Link:-
http://techbeasts.com/install-cwm-recovery-root-xperia-z2-2301a0167-d6502-d6503-d6543/

Hope this helps!


How to fix 'Android is starting' optimization on every boot? I recently updated to Lollipop on a Moto G (1st Gen).

It was running a bit slow, so I wiped by cache then performed a factory reset as recommended.

I now receive the 'Android is starting optimising app xx of xx' every time I boot.

Obviously not life and death, but it's annoying to have to wait 10 minutes for every reboot.

Is this a known issue and is there any way to fix this?

I just had the same exact issue on the same exact phone. After doing some digging it seems like this happens when Android has a problem optimizing one or more apps, so it stubbornly retries all of them. So I uninstalled apps one-by-one and rebooted, and the problem went away after uninstalling SuperSU.

Not wanting to leave my phone unrooted, I noticed I had installed the latest SuperSU (2.79 SR3), so I went here and downloaded the latest stable release (2.79):

https://forum.xda-developers.com/apps/supersu

After installing it I no longer had any issues.

During my troubleshooting I also cleared the cache, although I'm not sure if it helped or not:

Boot to recovery
For the Moto G 1st generation:

Power off the phone
Press and hold volume down button, press and hold power button, wait for about 4 seconds and then release both buttons
Press volume down to select Recovery and press volume up to boot to recovery

Clear the cache
For the Moto G 1st generation (stock recovery):

If you get to a screen that says "No command"

Press and hold the power button for 2-3 seconds
Without releasing power button, press volume up button and release the volume up button
Release the power button

Use the volume buttons to move down to wipe cache partition and select it with the power button
Wait for it to finish (it can take a while) then reboot


Android pm command throwing transactiontoolargeexception I am using rooted android phone and have installed AIDE for android. I am doing tutorial lessons in the app. When I click run app in any tutorials, it says "Starting… " and after few seconds "App not installed error". I looked at the superuser app's log for AIDE, and it says "unable to access package manager". Here's a screenshot:

Screenshot (click to enlarge)

Edit: I tried pm command in terminal emulator app with su access, it shows same error: "package manager not running…" I guess there is a problem with the pm command. How to solve this problem?

The problem has to do with your version of the su binary. I was using ChainFire's updated binary and it didn't work. I re-rooted with Kingoroot and it's now working.


View LogCat from unrooted android device without computer assistance Ever since Android 4.1's new security model, all LogCat viewers I've came across require root access. Even the LogCat viewer for the IDE I'm using (AIDE) won't work.

Without rooting my device, or needing a computer to assist me, how could I view the logcat of programs I write?

Without root or a PC: you can't. As you noted, the behavior you're seeing is entirely intentional, and cannot be changed. If you could find a custom ROM that did not enforce these restrictions then you could feasibly install that, but if you do not want to root then I would assume this is also not an option (and I would imagine such a ROM may not exist). The only other option would be to write your own LogCat viewer within your apps, since each app can access its own log data.


Internet does not connect despite WiFi I was making an Android app that sends data using Bluetooth. My internet was working fine until I started using my app on the phone. I noticed that the WiFi would randomly disconnect (the WiFi icon in the status bar disappeared). Weird. Now, the phone refuses to connect to the internet.

Here is what I did so far:

Switch off the WiFi and turn it back on.
Restart my phone.
Power off, wait, power on my phone.
"Forget Network" and then connect to my home network, again. Ironically, my phone authenticates with the home router but refuses to connect to the internet. It even refuses to connect to 192.168.0.1 which is the IP of the home router with which it just authenticated.

Chrome says that 192.168.0.1 is an unreachable address but the phone is assigned 192.168.0.101 as the address which means they are on the same network.

Can someone please tell me what is going on?

Stock ROM, Galaxy S3 International Edition GT i9300. Mobile data works flawless.

Update:

Iface   Destination Gateway     Flags   RefCnt  Use Metric  Mask        MTU Window  IRTT
wlan0   00000000    0100A8C0    0003    0   0   0   00000000    0   0   0
wlan0   00000000    0100A8C0    0003    0   0   312 00000000    0   0   0
wlan0   0000A8C0    00000000    0001    0   0   0   00FFFFFF    0   0   0
wlan0   0000A8C0    00000000    0001    0   0   312 00FFFFFF    0   0   0
wlan0   0100A8C0    00000000    0005    0   0   0   FFFFFFFF    0   0   0

This is sometime because your phone save the paswrd of your wifi and sometime it doesnt connect it just show this that it is connecting to but does not become successful in doing so . . . . so remove or forget your wifi connection

restart you phone

and try to connect again with that wifi

may this can help you

worked fine with me many times