Softbricked my device with encryption Because numeric passwords are trivial to bruteforce, I decided to change my encryption password with a passphrase with the following commands:

su -c vdc cryptfs changepw newpass

To my horror, I discovered upon rebooting that Lollipop only offers a keypad to input decryption PINs, and I have no way at all to type in letters. I have tried using TWRP to unlock my /data partition, but I get this error message:

could not mount data and unable to find crypto footer

Then I tried using the command line from adb to mount it manually with

/system/bin/vdc cryptfs checkpw newpass

But I get another error:

CANNOT LINK EXECUTABLE: cannot locate symbol "__FD_SET_chk" referenced by "/system/bin/vdc"...

I'm totally at loss here... Can anyone help me remount this partition?

Okay, there were actually three separate issues here.

TWRP 2.8.6.0 is broken for my Nexus 4 (5.1.0)

Regarding the following error message:

could not mount data and unable to find crypto footer

The current Team Win Recovery Project (2.8.6.0) has a regression for some encrypted Lollipop devices.

Solution: revert to TWRP 2.8.5.2, which is able to decrypt the /data partition properly.

TWRP does not provide a working shell for some binaries

Regarding the following error message:

CANNOT LINK EXECUTABLE: cannot locate symbol "__FD_SET_chk" referenced by "/system/bin/vdc"...

TWRP doesn't seem to set up the shell properly for vdc.

Solution: Switching to ClockworkMod Recovery provides a working environment for the vdc binary.

Lollipop ignores changepw

The command su -c vdc cryptfs changepw newpass had no effect on my device after upgrading to Lollipop (it had worked perfectly on KitKat), and the PIN of the device was still the encryption password.

I hope this helps someone in the future!


Is it possible to charge and transfer files to an Android phone with a usb-c hub? I'm considering buying a usb-c hub to use with my Android phone (Google Pixel), so that I can charge my phone, use a flash drive and a USB keyboard at the same time - all using the phone's single usb-c port.

However, the hubs I've seen sometimes have lists of compatible devices and these lists mention only laptops and not phones. I wonder why, is there anything special about laptops or phones that the accessories aren't compatible? I've seen articles saying that Android's USB can't do OTG and charging at once.

Being a fellow Google Pixel user myself, I can say with 100% confidence that the phone is absolutely capable of providing a charge and transferring files at the same time. It may not be the quickest charge or transfer if your aim is to have both at once, but it supports it nonetheless.


Switch Phones same sim card, missing contacts I switch phones from a galaxy 2 to moto g was able to use same sim card but my contacts are gone

They are not gone, they're just left on the old device. Contacts are no longer stored on the SIM card by default for years already. If you've synchronized them (e.g. with Google), you should be able to synchronize them back with the same service on your new device.

Otherwise, you'll have to export them on your old device, transfer the export to your new device, and import it again:

On the old device:

open Contacts
hit the Menu button (the 3 "stapled dots" in the upper right corner), and chose Import/Export
select to export them to your storage (SD card)
copy the exported file (usually /sdcard/0001.vcf) to the SD card of your new device

On the new device

open Contacts
hit the Menu button (the 3 "stapled dots" in the upper right corner), and chose Import/Export
select to import from storage (SD card)
select the file

Now your contacts should be there again.


Why can I not pull an IPv6 address from T-Mobile? I saw that T-Mobile has enabled IPv6 for its network, and I wanted to try it out.

I dropped off my WiFi network, changed my APN to the IPv6-enabled APN (epc.tmobile.com) and was unable to pull an address.

Turns out that they don't support it on this phone (a T-Mobile G2, a.k.a. HTC Vision/HTC Desire Z) yet; they say that only two phones work.

So, I have a couple of queries which led me to post this question:

Is the IP engine for the EDGE and HSDPA radio actually on-chipset in this phone?
IPv6 was of course a known thing on the horizon when the phone was released, so if the previous question is a “yes”, then is it at least part of the radio firmware that can be upgraded?

The chipset in the G2/Vision/Desire Z doesn't support IPv6, even though the option appears in the OS and T-Mobile is IPv6 enabled.


Why does Google Play say app is "incompatible" I have an app that I want to install in my android phone. Unfortunately, it is marked 'incompatible'. I might try to upgrade the system to install the app, but first I'd like to know the exact reasons the app is 'incompatible'. I.e. what are the 'variables' my phone gets wrong to be unable to install the app.

Is there a generic way to do that?

From Google App compatibility with Android

When searching or browsing the Google Play Store app, you'll only see apps that are compatible with your device. When using the Google Play website, a device will be grayed out if it isn’t compatible with the app you’re attempting to install. This usually occurs because the app isn’t available in your location or designed for your device's screen size or version of Android
Developers have the ability to target applications to specific devices based on screen size, mobile service provider, location, and a number of other factors. App compatibility can change over time.

(Emphasis supplied)

Is there a generic way to do that?

From the same source

For compatibility information about a specific app, contact the developer directly using the information provided on the Google Play listing

For some apps, reason is displayed ,as in screen shot below from my device ( version incompatibility )

Few years back incompatible apps would state reasons by clicking on a plus sign next to app as mentioned here


Is there an app on Android that won't allow me to turn off the phone? I have an alarm app that can be stopped only by turning off the phone. The problem is that I don't want this option ("to turn off the phone") because it's too tempting for me... So I was wondering if there's any app on Google Play that blocks the phone from turning off for a certain period of time.

No. As a protection against the OS going badly wrong and leaving the CPU running at full tilt until the battery runs down (or more likely, until the device overheats), you can always turn off the device by holding down the power button for several seconds. This isn't under the control of the OS, so there's no way an app can override it.


Remove 'Driving mode' from status bar dropdown? I have a Samsung phone with android 4.1.2.

When I slide down the notification bar there are multipls items. One of those are driving mode. I don't drive anywhere (I can't afford a car, gas, insurance, tickets, etc,  and so I use public transportation) so I want to remove the button. This is what I'm talking about:

Notification Bar screenshot (click image for larger variant)

Second over from the right.

Go to the phone Settings. Click Display from the Device group, then on the next screen click Notification panel. You can add and remove notification bar items from there.

Not all Samsung ROMs have this option: in particular, I don't think the Galaxy S III had it until 4.1.2.


Keyboard for developers Recently I installed SL4A application with Python interpreter. Everything is cool, but a standard keyboard, installed on my system (HTC Sense) doesn't have some necessary characters, like [ and ], and some other. So it is impossible to write many things, and I have to use copy/paste from other text files.

Anyone knows about any keyboard with specific characters?

Take a look at touchqode.  It comes with a virtual keyboard specifically for programming.


Email application with notifications only for specified contacts (standard SMTP/POP3/IMAP) I have a lot of mail traffic on my phone. But I want to be notified only for mail from certain contacts like my family, colleagues/boss, critical automated systems or at least any contact in my phone contact list (with email typed in).

Are there such applications which can access email on my personal/corporate server? Standard IMAP (or at least POP3) + SMTP, not some proprietary protocols like Exchange/Gmail.

I haven't found a standalone app but K9 in conjunction with WhoIsIt Lite supports this. It doesn't do away with visual notifications mind you, but it can silence them.

Alternatively you could investigate whether your workplace email support server based rules. You could use them to filter unimportant emails into a folder other than your inbox. Android's stock email app only checks for new emails in your inbox so the app would ignore the others.


Can I prevent ICS browser from using CPU while in the background (without back-button exiting)? I'm running ICS 4.0.3, and I notice if I have the Web app (default browser) open, but not in the foreground, it still uses a lot of CPU (25-50%), based upon the built-in Android Task Manager.  Other apps are using 0%.  Looking at my battery usage, the Web uses about 33%, even when my phone is inactive.

Is there any way I can prevent the Web app from using so much CPU when it is not in the foreground, without using the back button to exit?

I'm running on a Samsung Galaxy S2.

Edit:  If the best answer is to use a different browser, I am open to that suggestion.

I have reason to believe that this may be a bug caused when the Web app has a large number of bookmarks.  In System Settings -> Accounts and sync I turned off Sync Web under my Google account.  Then I went to Manage Apps, clicked the All tab, and hit the Clear Data button.

This reduced the usage of the Web app to 1% when in the background.

When I enabled Sync Web to import all my Chrome bookmarks, then disabled it, the problem showed itself again.  I reproduced this problem twice.


HTC One S notification vibrate I have a HTC One S and recently did a system update and am now running 4.1.1 (whatever that is called)

I have a few games that have push notifications e.g. bakery story, restaurant story. As soon as I updated these, the notifications play the sound I had set, but now annoyingly they also vibrate. I have been into the settings for each app and there is no option for vibrate.

I have searched through all the settings in my phone and can't find an option for notifications vibrating anywhere. I don't know how or why it turned on, but I want it off. The only option I have at the moment is to have my phone on silent all the time, or to turn the push notifications off.

Which means that I will lose out in the games. I know it's not very important but I have spent a lot of time on these games and it would be a shame to get rid of them.

Thank you. :-)

Go to your phone's settings. Go to Sound. Tick off the Vibrate (Vibration feedback for calls and notifications) option.


How to display Python script output on screen, similarly to Conky I use Conky as a desktop monitoring software. I also use it to monitor stock prices and portfolio net worth through a Python script.

Basically, I fetch the stock prices from Yahoo Finance using curl.

  $ curl -s 'http://download.finance.yahoo.com/d/quotes.csv?s=vwrl.as&f=l1'

Then I input that to a python script that returns a float.

  $ python /yada/yada/myunoriginalscript.py

  42.0

Conky handles this quite easily and displays it on screen. I know that curl can be made available for Android and I've ran Python scripts in the past.

Is there any widget/app/technique to display the output of said python script on screen continuously and not only on the terminal, whenever I run it manually?

In the end, I installed SL4a and used one of the the GUI functions that appeared on the 'test.py' sample script to display the information. I like the terminal, but this way is quite nicer.


How and when is Android's default browser updated? I am used to browsers having exploits found on them being fixed and having new versions of the browser with the fixes.

In the Android native browser it seems there is no such process.

Does this mean that exploits found for the native default Android browser are never fixed until you upgrade your ROM?

Is there a version history for the native browser?

When I look at my user agent info for my Froyo 2.2 Galaxy S I9000 I see Gecko version 533.1, which is very old. Does it mean exploits exist for this and there is no way to patch them?

You are correct. The built-in browser is only updated when a full new ROM is installed. If there is an exploit, the only thing to do is wait for a new version of the OS to be released. Alternatively, you can use a third-party browser such as Opera or Google Chrome. Those are installed as apps and can receive updates independently.

As far as I know, there is no documented version history for the native browser. The best you could do is look at the GIT revision history for the browser.


How can I remove the SIM Lock on my Samsung S2 LTE (SC-03D) Japan Docomo? I am looking for a way to make the phone sim free without going to the company's shop and paying for them to unlock it. Anybody know how it can be done? The SC-03D does not have an nv_data.bin file that most galaxy unlocking tools require so I'm at a bit of a loss. It does have an /efs/ partition though.

I found a way and posted a solution to xda-dev:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=60964832&postcount=2

In order to sim unlock the SC-03D it is necessary to first flash a "special" radio. Flashing the radio is possible with a CWM based recovery. Get the latest version of CWM-recovery from this forum and flash it using ODIN/Heimdall:
http://android.slateblue.tk/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=73

Then get the radio to flash from this XDA thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=37564563)

This radio is from the Galaxy Note (SC-05D) so it made my phone very very slow. However, you need this radio because it has options to make the phone sim free. Options which the original SC-03D radio does not. As soon as you flash this new radio boot the phone, run the dialer application and dial:

*#9090#

it might be very slow but eventually you should get to the service menu.
To access more options press [menu] then [Input key]. Then into the text box type:

Q0 (Q Zero, not QOh)

It should bring you to another menu after a second or so. Select these options:

[1] DEBUG SCREEN
[8] PHONE CONTROL
[5] SIMULATION
[6] NETWORK LOCK
[3] PERSO SHA256 OFF
Wait for 30 seconds , press MENU then BACK.
Select:
[4] NW LOCK NV DATA INITIALLIZ

Wait 60 seconds. Reboot.
Congrats you're sim free. You should remain sim free no matter what radio/firmware/rom you flash.

partial credit to FAB:
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/fab4_boys/26754215.html
And HomuHomu for the recovery.


Resetting Android Phone from CyanogenMod to Original When I bought my (pre-owned) Nexus One, it came with CyanogenMod.

I would like to change it back to Google's official 2.2 (or 2.3) Android.

What does this entail and how do I go about doing this in the safest possible way (e.g. with bricking it or any other side-effects)?

You'll need to download official firmware.  You can find it by searching "nexus one stock 2.x rom", and XDA might be better than Google.  I'd also look up how to use the Android SDK to flash it, probably using flashboot through ADB.  I have a Galaxy S which uses another tool, so I can't help with more detail without looking that up myself ;)


How to put a shortcut to a settings submenu on a home screen Use case: I would like to change the input language for voice input without having to click through  "Settings/voice input and output/voice recognition settings/Language"  And I have a couple of similar ones resulting in the same question:Is there a way to place a shortcut to a particular submenu of the settings on a home screen?Another (even better) option would be to tie a praticular setting to a custom keyboard shortcut.

Am I expecting too much?
Thank you

Yes, it's possible to add a shortcut to a settings menu, but probably not as "deep" as you'd like.

Long-press on a screen and select "Shortcut" in the menu that pops up. Then choose "Settings" and then the settings menu you want.


Why I don't need to provide boot-time PIN anymore? tl;dr: I have my Motorola Moto Z2 Play / A8.0 encrypted and I was forced to provide PIN during very early boot phase of my phone. Since about 1-2 weeks ago -- when my phone had a one-time accident of very long boot -- Android stopped asking for that PIN at boot time. How can my phone be still encrypted and no longer need that PIN to decrypt itself?

About 2-3 years ago I have encrypted my Motorola Moto Z2 Play (now with Android 8.0). I used the same PIN for the encryption process, so starting from that moment, I had to use PIN three times:

boot (encryption)
startup (SIM card PIN) and
startup (fingerprint unlock).

About 1-2 weeks ago my phone hanged badly. After force-restarting, it needed about 20-30 minutes (!) to actually start.
From that moment on, I am no longer needed to enter PIN to decrypt phone and start Android. The first time, I now need to provide it, is when unlocking my SIM card.
My phone was not reset after that one-time very long boot accident. After it finally got up, I had everything in places: all apps, accounts, settings etc., nothing changed, reset or removed.
I have double-checked that my phone is still encrypted:

There was no system update (phone stays at Android 8.0.0 from 1+ year and probably forever), no new application installed and no change in system configuration for long months.
My phone uses fingerprint + PIN screen lock. PIN in numeric, four digit.
From this answer:

If the phone boots up without asking for a password, it is most likely not protected by encryption in the way you would expect. In theory, it might not be encrypted at all (...).

This answer explains that:

The best way to tell if your Android device is encrypted (and the encryption is actually in use) is to reboot it and see if it asks for a password/PIN with a prompt on a black screen that says: "To start Android, enter your PIN" (...) The lack of prompt means the master key is not encrypted".

I don't see such prompt, so I now know that my master key is not encrypted (while the file system itself seems to be encrypted -- above screenshot). But this answer does not explain how / why my master key was encrypted for 2-3 years and stopped being encrypted two weeks ago after a very long boot accident / force-reset.
So, why or when my Android 8.0.0 can decide to decrypt my master key and no longer need me to enter startup PIN to decrypt it?

In the settings where you choose a new PIN/pattern/passwords it said something like 'Because you enabled an accessibility feature you're PIN won't be used for enhanced encryption protection'.
I had to disable Lastpass auto-fill and my phone asked for my PIN at startup again.


DROID 4 ADB Driver for Linux I'm trying to unlock my phone using this tutorial.
It stated that:

Prerequisites

A computer with DROID 4 adb drivers installed. alternate link
Enable USB Debugging on your device by going to Developers options.
Download RAZR BLADE exploit by djrbliss from here.

But there are no Linux driver, or is it not needed for Linux?

Why I need this?
because I need to remove /system/app/VZWPhoneService.apk and /system/app/VZWPhoneService.odex. then reboot., because the other way already expired. So I could use this phone using another carrier.

The alternate method also requires Windows OS.

Assuming your device is rooted there is a ppa for adb and fastboot.

Type:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogardwebupd8

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install android-tools-adb android-tools-fastboot

Now you should open a shell/rootshell and type

adb

followed by

adb devices

Then your Phone should show up. To delete the app and odex file type:

adb rm /path/to/apk

adb rm /path/to/file

or

adb uninstall [-k] packagename

The option -k keeps cache and data on your phone if you want to.

Then end this process by using

adb reboot

Cheers


APK Installation Error I have downloaded 3 apks:

5.39 MB
1.04 MB
4.32 MB

Now, the problem is when I tried to install the first 2 apks, I get an error message.

Out of space
The apk couldn't be installed. Free up space and then try again.

Upon installing the Third apk, it gets installed.
Now I go to Settings > Device Group > Application manager, to see how much space are still available on my device, and it's 422 MB.  My device still got more space yet, but why I can't install an apk just a 1 MB?

My device is running 4.4.4 KitKat

Please help!

Try to clear the cached data and then reinstalling
Clear cached data by going in Setting>>Storage>>Scroll Down a little you will see Cached data,Press on the Button to clear cache. Should Work


Are Chinese phones less safe than others? I'm on budget and want a fully fledged smartphone. I'm OK with Apple as I know they tend to not share my usage data.
But Apple is too expensive.
So I need to buy Android and most of the manufacturers are South Korean - LG HTC Samsung, but they're smartphines are too expensive too.

So I'm thinking Xiaiomi, lenovo, Huawei, Oneplus.
Will they be sharing my usage data with the Chinese government and any company that will pay them well??

Not likely... at least not that we have seen so far. This isn't to say it's impossible, but unless those companies become owned by the government the chances this would happen are near zero, the damage such a practice would induce on their business would be astronomical and probably cause the company to go out of business. Who would buy a phone from a company that knowingly shares private information with the government covertly? No one would.

That being said, there are lots of reasonably priced smartphones out there, do your research and I am sure you will be happy with an investment far less than an Apple device.


How do I root a Zte Director..can't seem to find much info on how? I have found numerous posts on other Zte phones, but only a few (dead ends) on the Zte Director(n850l). From my research, it seems to be (somewhat) comparable to the Fury, but again, I'm not sure...
I know enough to (possibly) get myself in trouble, and turn it into a paperweight...so, hoping for "easy" to follow directions (if there are any!)
If anyone could help, or even lead me in the right direction, it would be MUCH appreciated!
Thanks!!

Here is the best thing I have found so far for this phone. http://www.how-to-root.club/mp3-0/zte-director-5470.html


Zooper: How do I change the font in part of a Rich Text element? I want to make part of a Rich Text item in a Zooper widget a different font. For instance, making the hours on a clock Roboto Black, the colon Roboto, and the minutes Roboto Thin. However, I don't see anything in the BBCode samples that can do this. Is this possible?

If it isn't in the BBCode Reference, then it's probably not supported. I would suggest contacting the developer instead.


How can I disable recovery mode? Is there a way to disable recovery mode so it won't be possible to factory reset your phone?

Basically what I am trying to do, is that it should be impossible to factory reset the phone as there is no recovery partition.

(Example format the recovery partition, or hide the option of factory reset on the recovery menu, build a custom recovery etc.)

P.S.. I was thinking of maybe removing a system app (example package installer) and making it a user app, and therefore when you factory reset the phone it won't start cause the system app is missing, but when I tried that, the phone wouldn't start even without resetting it, as the system needs the system app to start, ( I thought that maybe even though I removed the app from being a system app, the phone would still start as it's still there as a user app, and only after resetting the phone - that the user apps get deleted, the phone won't start as it's missing the app).

Thanks in advance

OrangeFox Recovery allows option to lock Recovery with a Pattern or PIN
It will prevent normal youtube users from reseting your phone
but their is a catch people with deep knowledge will flash
Fastboot ROM or Qfil ROM and make device useable again but all data will be lost  .

Best option is to use Phones in which bootloader unlock is not possible because of missing adb and fastboot devices like Honor

Regardless of what you do with some difficulty it is possible to fACTORY reset with proper tools by Government Agencies and then recover deleted data.


Not able to send media file via WhatsApp I recently downloaded the CyanogenMod on my Galaxy S2 but I'm not able to send any music files via WhatsApp does anyone have a solution to this problem ??

The error message is "your music player does not support this option try with Android music player"

The music player that comes with CyanogenMod doesn't support selecting the music file to send.  As you mentioned in the comments, custom ROMs may prevent the use of some features, and in this case, sending music files doesn't work.

You could try another custom ROM or reverting back to the stock ROM to enable this feature.


Trouble with Wi-Fi on GSM Galaxy Nexus running Jelly Bean Am running 4.1.1 on a GSM Galaxy Nexus and continue to have very poor connectivity issues with Wi-Fi (everywhere, not just in my house). Other than having an unlocked bootloader and being rooted, the device is stock.

My AP in the house is running on Channel 1, and there's no other WiFi that's close to my house. No RF interference to speak of (e.g. no microwave's running or 2.4ghz FH devices in vicinity). Right now I am not so close to the AP, but have good signal strength on my device: -65dBm. The AP is a Linksys WAP54g with the latest firmware available running WPA2 Personal AES. The device may eventually connect, but often it just hangs on "connecting." I've tried to change to WPA2 "mixed" (AES+TKIP) but that doesn't seem to have any impact (still hangs on negotiating). I would just chalk this up to a Linksys issue, but I have had same issues out in public Wi-Fi.

I was using Wi-Fi Analyzer to manage the connection, and didn't see the message regarding "Poor Internet Connection" and reason for failure. I changed the Advanced Wi-Fi option to deselect that option, and rebooted the device, and then connected OK.

I have a Nexus 7 on same network with no issues (the UI has no option for "Avoid Poor Internet").

I had the same issue with my galaxy note 2 after upgrade to 4.1.2. No wifi worked after the upgrade reboot. After lots of trial and error I found that the only wifi working consistently was wep/psk/tkip. No protocol using aes encryption worked - merely "obtaining ip address".
This doesn't solve the problem, merely a temporary workaround. Good luck.

Forgot to mention that the wep/psk/tkip must be set on your router. Power cycle your phone and reenter your password when the phone attempts to connect. Also I found that turning off power saving mode on the phone also is required. Go to phone dialer and enter *#0011# to enter phone command mode.  Select menu options and click Wifi option. Turn off power saving mode. Power saving mode = ON is default so must be changed after every power cycle.


Stock ICS email app refusing to auto-update or notifications Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0.1, all other apps seem to sync and notifiy fine. The email app has the settings:

Inbox update frequency: 5 mins
Email notification: Checked

It doesn't appear to be syncing at all, however as soon as I open the app it goes and gets all the new emails from the point I last closed the app.

Is the following settings enabled in Settings -> Account & Sync:

Bakcground Data,
Auto-sync
'Sync Gmail' inside your email account


SIM 2 not detected in Micromax A064 I am using a Micromax A064.  The second SIM card is not being detected at all. The SIM in slot 2 is working fine.  How can I fix this?

Does your second sim slot works at all ?.
Have you tried putting just one sim card in the sim slot 2 ?

 If it doesn't works then there can be two possible reasons for this :
Your android OS isn't detecting your sim slot 2. In simpler words, the android doesn't know there is a second sim slot. Mostly happens when you're on a custom ROM.
A hardware failure.There is some hardware issue in the second sim slot that you have on your phone!. Mostly common with Micromax devices. No offence!

 One of my friends had this issue, for him the second reason was the problem!. Good Luck ! Tell me what you find. Also, do tell me which android version  you're using and what ROM you're on.


copy contacts from gmail account to phone memory I have imported my contacts from my old phone into my google account which now shows up on my phone (this was the only way I could do it), but I would like to keep my contacts off 'the cloud' and so would like to move them to the 'phone' contacts section.

Is there anyway I can do this?

This should be able via your contacts app. Hit the menu key (or tap the "hamburger icon"), go to "Import/Export", then chose to export to your SD card. This will result in a VCard file, which you also can read with other contact apps e.g. on your PC. Verify it's there, copy it to your computer for backup.

Now delete all contacts from the Google storage (e.g. via the web interface), resync, make sure they're gone. Check the settings of your contacts app again, make sure it has local storage set as its default. To be on the safe side, also go to your device's Settings › Accounts and disable contact sync.

That done, again go to the "Export/Import" menu in the contacts app, and re-import your contacts. They now should be in your local storage – and not sync'd to your Google account.

Update:

As pointed out by the OP in the comments, the original issue behind the case was Android's Contacts app (as well as several 3rd party apps) being unable to read the VCard export done on a previously used iOS device. As it often is the case, it seems some "proprietary additions" (or format mis-interpretations violating the standard) caused this. So above described procedure cured it: Android's Contacts app was perfectly capable of reading its own exports, as one should expect.


Restore Whatsapp data I have formatted my mobile and have backed up my Whatsapp Messenger,  but unfortunately my pics and videos were not backed up in the process. I do not have old backup file of Whatsapp messenger in my mobile memory as I had it formatted.

I tried to restore from Whatsapp messenger backup from google drive but its restoring only few of the images

Kindly help me to recover all my lost video and images.

WhatsApp lists only 2 ways to restore previously backed up WhatsApp data.

Google Drive
Local Backup
The following is an excerpt from a chat with WhatsApp customer support team with regards to chat restoration.

    You may only restore your local backup by using the same mobile telephone number as stored in your previous backup. If you are trying to restore from Google Drive, please make sure you are using the same mobile telephone number and Google account used to create the backup.
    Please make sure your WhatsApp backup files are stored in WhatsApp/Databases folder. The location of WhatsApp folder is determined by your device. It is normally located in your “Internal Storage”, or if you have an older device it may be located in your “SD card”. Please note, when changing to a newer handset, you may have to move the folder from your SD card to your internal storage.
    We are unable to merge your backup files, you may only restore from one file at a time.
    Backup files are only readable by restoring them in WhatsApp.
    If your device is plugged into your computer at night, low on storage space or is set to sleep with no background data; WhatsApp will not be able to backup your chat history.
    If your restoration is successful but you are missing some chats, it is possible that your database backup was corrupted and these are the only messages we can restore for you.
    If you cannot uninstall WhatsApp on your device, you may go into your phone's [Settings] > [Applications] > [WhatsApp] > [Clear Data]. Once you open WhatsApp again, it will prompt you to set up as if it were a fresh install.
    Please note, if you are unable to restore your chats, we can not restore your chats, contacts, call history, or multimedia files for you.

Note If your restoration is successful but you are missing some chats, it is possible that your database backup was corrupted and these are the only messages we can restore for you.

If your backup was successful but not all images were restored then likely your phone did not fully backup your images or the backup itself was corrupted.There's really no reprieve for this. I'd advice you to store your internal backup in an external storage device when you're about to format your phone.


Can't download from Play Store on Wi-Fi I have a BLU Vivo Air (non LTE) with 4.4.2 installed, and it has developed an issue where it will not download app updates over WiFi.  The download from the Play Store starts, but immediately goes to "download paused," and won't restart.
When I have tried looking for a solution, most people have an issue with not being able to download over mobile network, not WiFi.

I have tried clearing the cache on download manager and the play store and I have tried a factory reset.  Neither one solved the problem.

Try doing a fresh restall on your router. Might be an error where your modem and router are fighting over some DNS problems.


Google maps road names too small. Solutions? My parents can't read the road names the Google maps app, and I can't find a way round it. (Should have gone to spec savers). I have tried using Google maps via Chrome and Firefox and their increase text size features but Google Maps ignores it.

Options are flexible as I have rooted the phone and am willing to load any reasonably well tested custom ROM.

I've tried countless map apps and they're all as hard to read, so I thought I'd ask as Google Maps has probably been hacked around with more than others

Try going into Settings / My Device / Accessibility and turning on Magnification Gestures.

A triple tap on your scree will enlarge what is there including text and then another triple tap will take you back.  While it is enlarged, you can scroll with one finger.

That's the best I've found so far.


What's the Android Devices section of Google Dashboard for? I noticed the Android Devices section of Dashboard is empty for me. I've had 3 android devices so far, all synced with my Google account. The Android Market section of Dashboard correctly shows my download count.

What is that section for? Why don't my devices show up under it?

On my dashboard it shows my devices and a list of application data that is stored on the server.
Do you have backup enabled to Google servers? It is usually a setting in the Privacy menu.


Is there an intent for telling Play Store to update all apps, or turn auto update on? I own a Samsung Galaxy S2, running the official ICS OS. I want to use the Llama app (too poor for Tasker!) to tell my phone to update all apps whenever I am connected to certain Wi-Fi networks (but not all - my home Wi-Fi is volume-based).

Llama allows you to signal custom intents, but I don't know how intents work. Does the Play Store support an intent to either signal "update all", or to turn on automatic updating?

(Essentially, I'm trying to do something like this: How to allow auto-update of apps in Play Store only when plugged in?)

"to turn on automatic updating?"

I highly doubt there is an intent for this - that is a user setting and Android doesn't generally allow apps to change user settings.

I think the best solution is to, first, manually turn on the auto-updates feature of the play store, and set it to wifi only, and second, launch the play store when you connect to the desired hotspot.  Just launching it will typically cause it to perform any pending updates.

I'm not sure how you specify this in tasker or llama, but you can launch the play store by sending an intent that requests that a play store URL be launched (e.g. the URL of a play store app or publisher), e.g.

new Intent( Intent.ACTION_VIEW, Uri.parse("http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id="+appName) )

More info about that is here.

Finally, you should go to the wifi settings and mark your home wifi network as metered.  Whoops.  I've seen that setting in the API docs here but now I can't find a way for a user to set it.  Maybe that is only available for cell networks, or maybe that is coming in future versions of Android (the API was just added recently).


Android tablet gets hot and shuts down I have an Imito android tablet. It gets hot and shuts down. Any have a reason for this and is it fixable?

My first guess would be an app consumes a lot of CPU power and therefore causes the system to overheat. Use a system monitor to find out any misbehaving apps.


Smart lock not present in Security Settings My device is listed to support Smart Lock, which bypasses the lock screen security when in a trusted environment. A saved location, bluetooth device, trusted face or voice is required to use this feature.

The location of the Smart Lock is normally in Settings → Security → Smart Lock , but it isn't present.

Is there a setting which disables Smart Lock? and how can it be re-enabled?

Smart Lock can be re-enabled by activating it in

  Settings → Security → Trust agents → Smart Lock (Google)


how to copy android home shortcuts from one device to another? I have 2 Android (2.2) Galaxy Tab mini tablets with android 2.2 I am setting them up for show presentations.

I put on both of them a directory filled with content. The directory is identical in both devices.

On one I set up many home screen shortcuts to the files in that directory.

How do i COPY all the short cuts from one device to the other ? Where are these shortcuts physically located ? in some kind of home application settings file ? where is it on the file system ?

Perhaps you could use a backup program like Titanium Backup to perform a full backup of apps and data and then transfer that backup file to the second device. After this, restoring said backup on the second device should transfer stuff, IMO.

No experience in this, so YMMV.


Disabling the nexus-one proximity/position sensor? I think my nexus one is trying to be too smart. For each incoming call the phone stops ringing as soon as I pick it up. That's perfectly fine as long as the phone is sitting on my desk, but when I'm out there the phone is most likely in my jeans front pocket and I end up missing every single call. My guess is that the phone stops ringing/vibrating immediately. Is there a way to dumb it down?

Have you installed any custom calling app? I am sure that this is not the case on my default stock calling app.


Enable dialer autocomplete feature in Android 4.3 on Galaxy Nexus My phone was upgraded to 4.3, as I see in the Settings.

How can I enable the dialer autocomplete feature in Android 4.3 on Galaxy Nexus? I don't see any Dialpad autocomplete in my phone app setting.

From mybookofknowledge:

  Go to your Dial Pad and select the Settings options.
  Under the other call settings, you can see the option Dial pad autocomplete.
  Enable this option and now you can see suggestions when you dial a phone number.

NOTE: Make sure you are using the stock dialer.


How to change phone hardware configuration as per requirement of Android Nougat? I am using Micromax android one. Till now my phone upgraded from 4.4.4 (KitKat) to 6.0.1(Marshmallow). But since my hardware configuration was getting low to get ready for N, How can I change my hardware configuration? I also want to know what hardware configuration required for Android Nougat.

Despite people saying certain levels of hardware are required for Android version bla.bla.bla, they're not. Look how older phones like HD2, Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4 received Nougat treatment - it might not be smooth, but in the latter 2 cases are definitely usable.

The thing you'll be missing without official support is the proprietary drivers, which third-party devs won't be able to provide. If your processor is older (e.g. Snapdragon 800/801), you'll also miss out on newer features like Vulkan. But fret not, as Android still reserves a bit of backwards compatibility - devs can always work it so that it runs on legacy drivers and APIs.

As an Android One device you shouldn't be worried much - just wait for N-based custom ROMs to drop.


Where is my exported nexus 5 (kitkat) contact list? How do I access it? I exported my nexus 5 contact list and it said on the phone that the contact list has been exported to 'file: /storage/emulated/0/00002.vcf.', so where is this 'file: /storage/emulated/0/00002.vcf.', and how do i access(on my phone or computer) it(as a whole file)?

It will be stored in the root of your device (/sdcard).

If you plug your phone into a computer and access the phone you should see it like this: (This is on my Nexus 7 but it will appear the same)


How to move app's data to PC? I cannot find it My Android device is low on storage capacity and some services do not work correctly, i.e. camera. About device: (Samsung Galaxy S5 mini, SM-G800F, Android Version 6.0.1) .

Now, I want to find out, where the data is and remove it from the device to the computer. (I removed the external SD card, before taking the screenshots below).

I open the "My Files" Application, which looks like this:

However, the "Storage Map"  Application does not reveal, where the GB are stored, as it only has 1.47 GB:

When I copy the whole "Phone" folder with the USB cable to my computer, I even only get 0.99 GB.

I've given up, this has been going on for half a year now, but I cannot identify, where the data is. Does anyone have experience with this?

How can I get the space back? I read about rooting the device, but it sounds sketchy at best, as people have reported various issues: e.g. this post. I just want to be able to use the device. I was thinking copying everything to the computer, resetting the device and then copy it back would solve the problems, but this does not seem to be a viable solution. What should I do?

I'll give you a good list of things to take care about if you want to free some space. But before that. You need to be aware of this:

System the phone is running claims storage too up to 2.7GB for big ROMs at /system
Dalvik-Cache which the Dalvik Virtual Machine uses to prepare system applications classes files claim your internal storage at /data/dalvik-cache

These two will take up to 4GB maximum by default. That's why, for example, on a 16GB phone you might only access 12GB as the user end memory.

Back to creating space on a hogged device, things to note:

Photo Thumbnails hidden data at /sdcard/.thumbnails or /sdcard/DCIM/.thumbnails You need to enable viewing of hidden files to see this. It contains previews of photos as loaded by gallery app
Package installers .apk files systemwide. They can be shared ones or downloaded ones except the ones downloaded by Google Play since it deletes the installers immediately after successful install. Search for .apk and delete the packages that you already have installed
Temporary application files like Es File Explorer's recycle content at /sdcard/.estrongs and uninstalled vault applications like Gallery Lock apps which dump data at /sdcard/data or any other folder
Application updates also can use a lot of space if you regularly update them. Uninstall the updates of apps you don't like using a lot or which updates don't make any significance for you. You can disable automatic updates at Play Store
Some phones don't delete application data after app uninstall. Take care of files at /sdcard/data and /sdcard/obb delete the folders of package names that you currently don't have installed apps for them on the device from the folders
Social messenger folders like sdcard/WhatsApp and /sdcard/pictures/Telegram etc also need to be taken note of

Those are the basic things that hog space on your device. Advanced issues for root users include:

activity logging files at sdcard like MTK logs
dalvik cache of deleted system apps or renamed system apks
application data of directly over installed apps at data

I think after addressing all these. Things will be a bit better for you


What are that symbols mean especilly the red point and the circled phone What are that symbols mean especilly the red point and the circled phone is it a call recorder

This link shows the similar red dot in the notification

Yes, It seems to be call recorder notification.


Are Nightly CyanogenMod Releases Safe? I am using a 2013 Moto X Developer Edition (XT1053) and am currently running stock Android, (with the exception of Motorola's software) and I am thinking of switching to CyanogenMod. However, after looking at the CyanogenMod download releases for the "ghost" model, I notice there are pretty much only nightlys. I have never used a nightly release before, and I do have a nandroid backup if anything goes wrong, but are the nightlys stable enough to use daily?

Back when I had a Samsung Galaxy Ace and wanted to use CyanogenMod on it, it almost always had a Nightly build. Encountered a few bugs, but not major ones.

Granted this is a different phone and CM version, point is you have to know which features/functionalities are working and not based on the wiki/release notes provided. Also which bugs are present. You may want to wait for those information to be available before flashing. But it's always good to have a Nandroid back up.

So, nightlys could be safe, could be not. Always refer to the documentation.


Can I select which email address I use to respond in Lollipop? I have multiple email addresses. I have one through my ISP, work, gmail etc.

My problem is that I'd like to be able to choose which address I use to respond to an email. For example, if my boss sends something to my gmail, I'd like to respond using my work email without copying and pasting the whole thing.

In previous versions of Android, there were different apps for different types of email accounts but in 5.0 the gmail app handles all email. Is there a way to choose the from address when responding?

Not a Lollipop specific solution, more in general- works in other versions.

First you need to access your GMail account through your desktop browser.
Click the Settings cog in the upper right and choose "Settings".
CLick on the "Accounts and Import" tab/section.
Find the option labelled "Send mail as: (Use Gmail to send from your other email addresses)". Should be the third one down. Click "Add another address you own".
Follow the prompts in the popup to add your other email account (address, username, password, server, etc.).
Once finished, GMail will send a verification email to the account you're trying to add. Open up that secondary email account, open the verification email and either click the URL to verify or enter the verification code.

Now open up your GMail app on your phone (may need to reload it first). Try to reply to a message. If  you look at the "From:" line, there should now be a dropdown arrow at the right. Tap on it (or the email address) and there's be a dropdown where you can choose your newly added account.


Notification Volume Control One of the most annoying things about my phone is that the volume buttons adjust the ringer volume but not the notification volume.

Is there any way I could write a script or configure my phone so that the notifications volume is automatically the same as the ringer volume?

What about setting the volume buttons to set both the ringer and notifications volume?

Go to Settings > Sound > Volumes, then tick Link ringtone and notifications volumes.

If it's not there, you can use an Xposed module like GravityBox to achieve the same result. Just look in the Media tweaks menu.


Spell Check app or setting while using drop down keyboard Possible Duplicate:
  How can I get word completion with physical keyboard?

Is there anyway to get spell check functionality while using the drop down keyboard?

Most keyboards come with suggestions for common words, so a spell check function is rendered moot. Once a user types a couple of letters, the most common words containing those letters usually show up in a bar above the on screen keyboard.

Most keyboards like Smart Keyboard / Better keyboard also have options that allow for word suggestion to show up if a user opts for the hardware keyboard instead of the "soft" on-screen keyboard.


Songs from Google Play don't show up on phone I'm trying to make a custom calendar notification on my mom's Samsung Galaxy S3 (Android 4.1.1) because the built-in ones are too short for her to hear. This article says I can move a music file to the notification folder in MyFiles.

So I bought a song from Google Play and looked for the file on her phone. Wasn't there. Checked every folder, but no luck.

Did some more searching and found this article from Google Play troubleshooting how to get songs to show up on your phone. Absolutely none of the menu options even existed on my mom's phone, so it was completely unhelpful.

Tried to search for how other people added songs as ringtones from Google Play on their phones. I found quite a few articles addressing it. They all said to add the ringtone from the Music Player app. Checked the Music Player app, and the song wasn't there.

That might explain why the song doesn't exist on her phone, except I can play the song on her phone through the Play Music app. I clicked "Keep on Device," but the song still doesn't seem to exist.

How do I get the song I bought from Google Play to show up as a file on my mom's phone?

However, if anyone provides a quick way to skip all this mess and just make the notifications last longer, that would be appreciated too.

I found this link helpful for downloading Google Play music onto my Samsung Galaxy SIII.

https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1250232

Navigate to Google Play Store
Select Music
From the left soft key on your phone, select My music
From the upper left menu in Google Play (it should say Listen Now), select Playlist
Scroll to find the Free and Purchased playlist and select it
On the right side of Google Play, below the playlist image you should see a thumbtack in a circle. It will probably be grey.
Make sure you are connected to WiFi (to avoid using data) and select the thumbtack. It should turn orange and your download should start.

I have not found a way to download individual songs yet...


View Google Play In-App Purchases on Google Play Store When viewing an application on the Google Play Store (for example, Sygic GPS Navigation), it says underneath the Install button "Offers in-app purchases". Unfortunately, I don't see a way to view the in-app purchases unless I download the app.

Is there any way to view an application's In-App Purchases without downloading / installing the application?

In-App purchases come in a wide range including unlocking features, making donations, adding bonus content and buying specific items but they all fall under the single permission.

I've also seen them broken down as:
Permanent enhancements to the app,
Expendable updates (i.e. extra lives or tokens),
Subscriptions, and
Auto-renewing subscriptions

If the type of in-app purchases are not listed in the description of the app or in any reviews for the app I would ask the developer via email. Other than that you would have to download it to find out.


Androidx86 7.1 Unidentified video number - HDMI from laptop to TV I'm trying to set up a nice little android 7.1 system to attach to my TV using a HDMI cable though I'm having a bit of trouble with the resolution.
I'm getting a black border around the screen - See the below image.

This is what the laptop screen looks like below.

I've plugged in another laptop that has windows installed and noted down the resolution which is 1280x768. I've also found the corresponding vga values both 16 and 32.
1280x768x16 = 888 and 1280x768x32 = 889

When I add either of these to the menu.lst file I get a message on boot stating that I'm using an undefined video number.

Like the below image:

I've typed scan to get the video modes available but there are no resolutions that match the aspect ratio of my screen. I've tested the ones listed but they still either don't take up the whole screen or match the aspect ratio.

The below image shows a list of codes that I have found.

The laptop I'm running this on is pretty old but with windows or any of the other Linux distros I've found I have no problem.

System Specs

Is there any way of getting around this? Or am I going about this the wrong way?

Many thanks!!! :)

Let me know if I need to provide more info!

OK I've managed to figure it out incase anyone was wondering.

Instead of booting with a vga=someNumber I used video=LVDS-1:d. This works a treat! :)

The only problem with this is would be that it doesn't use the laptop screen at all. But for me this is not a problem really.


Fingerprint lost phone unlocking ability – where to troubleshoot? Recently, fingerprint sensor on my Note8 lost phone unlocking ability. How can I troubleshoot this?

Once the phone is unlocked, it still works normally: it...

identifies already registered fingers (in fingerprint setup section)
unlocks Samsung Pass
pulls down and retracts the status bar (this works even in locked mode)

So far I...

uninstalled all apps which were installed last week
de-registered all fingerprints (what in turn disabled unlocking via reader) and registered them again
checked the list of assistance apps, but all items are currently switched off

there were numerous device restarts during all these experiments – still no success

What else can I try?

The problem was that in Knox Workspace, fingerprint reader got disabled by an event similar to a device security policy change which are issued by Knox Workspace administrator. This in turn disabled fingerprint unlock for the entire phone.

The solution was to detach Knox Workspace unlock procedure from phone unlock procedure by switching off the setting Settings > Work Profile > Use one Lock and by removal and re-adding fingerprints. Then the reader became available again for unlocking the phone although it is no more available for unlocking Knox Workspace.


What exactly is a widget? I found some conflicting definitions on the term. On http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/View.html,
the author defined widgets as "View is the base class for widgets, which are used to create interactive UI components (buttons, text fields, etc.)", bascially used to create interactive UI components. However on on another StackOverFlow question https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11911249/what-exactly-defines-a-widget, an answer was "application that can be interacted with from the home screen". My question is that in terms of android, does the term widget refer to the tool used to create the ui components or the ui components themselves? Can anyone clarify this?

I'm not surprised you're confused: the term is indeed used for two different things, as you've found.

For developers, a widget means a View: a single GUI control inside an activity, which can show information or be manipulated by the user. Examples include Button, TextView, and SeekBar.

The app component that lives on the home screen (or lock screen) is properly called an appwidget. Stock Android ships with appwidgets for the calendar and email apps, amongst others.

However, terms are used differently in user-facing documentation and labels. Views don't need to be described to the user, so the term widget is used for appwidgets, presumably because it's shorter. But because it's in the user-facing documentation, and app authors have to label their appwidgets as widgets, they tend to use the term widget for both, when it's possible to tell from context which is meant.

It's common for the same thing to be described differently to users and developers; the only confusion in this case is that the users' word for one thing is the same as the developers' word for something different. It's almost always clear which one is meant, because the two components are used in different circumstances: if you need to be unambiguous, you can say "View" or "appwidget".


Replacing Android OS on Android phone with Linux OS I'd like to entirely replace Android on my phone, which I plan to eventually root.
I've learned so far that Linux Deploy can be used to run a full Linux distro alongside the Android OS, but really I want to replace Android OS.
I'm willing to put Mobian (mobian-project.org) on there or just pure Debian.
Is this possible yet in 2021?

Simple answer : NO
Reason :
Hardware drivers are proprietary
Building them without the source is extremely difficult
Requires a lot of expertise and time
Not possible unless you have low level access to your device hardware (Meaning being able to flash without fastboot or edl)
So yeah stick to the answer that, NO you can't replace Android entirely with Linux.
Something you can do is :
You can of course try using other AOSP based OS like Lineage OS which are build on AOSP so it is compatible with the default kernel for you device (This is also only possible if it is already built for your device)
If you want to run Linux alongside Linux there are a few ways.
Like you said you can use Linux Deploy. (I have personally not used this)
Or you can use PRoot with Termux which is a user-space implementation of chroot thus you can a virtualized Linux environment (similar too using chroot) but without the need of a rooted device.
You can either use PRoot with scripts created by others via AnLinux or Andronix.
Or you could always learn how it works and manually set it up :>
And no as time goes on things wont change. You won't be able to install Linux in a Android device. This is not due to hardware incapability but rather it is how the Smartphone industry works.


Will "hiding" contacts on Google Contacts affect other apps' behavior? I manage my contacts on my Google account. There is a feature in Google Contacts where one can "hide" selected contacts, as follows. If you go to contacts.google.com, click the three dots to the right of a contact, then click "Hide from contacts" in the menu, the contact will be moved to Other Contacts.

I prefer to keep my digital data organized, and shortening my contacts list will help. However, I'm not sure what the effect of hiding a contact is (other than it not displaying in the contacts list on a contacts app).

We're talking about a contact that I'm not likely to communicate with in the future, but it would still be better for me to save their details, for example in the unlikely event that they phone me. If a hidden contact phones me (on my Samsung Galaxy S8), will my stock phone app show me who is calling?

The name of the caller will not be identified if the contact is hidden in Google Contacts.

The contact will be removed from the contacts list in the stock Samsung contacts app.

I tested this by calling my mobile with my work phone. I hid my work phone number in contacts.gooogle.com, and I also had to remove the number from my personal information in my Samsung Account, as well as my Samsung Account in my secure folder.


How to get root privilege in recovery mode? I have copyed the 'su' command to /system in adb. but i cannot run the 'su', 'su' says: Permission denied.

Install the Superuser app from the Market and reboot.  Then try running su from adb with your device connected to your computer -- Superuser should pop up a notification on the phone asking if you want to allow it to run.  Then you can use it.  Note your phone must be rooted.


frp phone unlocked by rooting Hi I had a question I had frp unlocked my S9+ by rooting it, if I go and unroot it back to factory settings will it get frp locked again or will it stay unlocked?

FRP is triggered by the Android system when you reset a device with Google account in it. First of all, you should be able to clear the FRP as now you remember the credentials of the Google account. Don't you? If you don't, then reset your password again and try to remember it for entering if the phone asks for it.
If you have the doubts, then do remove the Google account before factory resetting it. No Google account means no FRP because in the absence of an existing account, it cannot ask you to login to an account which was used prior to the reset.
Lastly, rooting or unrooting doesn't do anything to the FRP. It's a seperate security process as I mentioned above.


Turn off ALL Daylight Savings Features in Android's calendar? Thanks to Daylight Savings Time (DST) I have run into an issue. I live in Arizona where we don't participate in DST. I'm using the default calendar app that came with my phone. I have an outlook.com calendar that I sync between my phone, my desktop (Outlook 2007), outlook.com (the cloud) and my wife's phone. It has been working great until DST hit yesterday. Now all the Outlook appointments have shifted one hour.

In reading up on the issue it seems that Outlook relies on the computer's time setting to handle the time zone and creates its appointments with GMT +/- your time zone (so for AZ, it's GMT-7) rather than specifying the time zone explicitly (i.e. Mountain Standard Time - AZ). When another computer gets it, it looks at their time zone information on the recipient computer and adjusts accordingly (oh, AZ computer that's GMT-7 and NO DST adjustment). The problem is that the calendar app on the phone (and the new Google calendar app) just read the GMT-7 and then make the DST adjustment, but never factor in that we're AZ which get's no adjustment. So, it changes it to GMT-8 rather than leaving it at GMT-7. If I create the appointment on the phone, I can set the appointment to be GMT-7 (AZ) which then will display correctly across all devices, however I don't always create on the phone.

Is there any way to have the calendar(s)/the phone stop using DST altogether? DST doesn't apply to any of the calendars I have on my phone and I don't see it applying anytime in the future either. (I tried the new Outlook App for Android, but it's still beta - really beta).

I have an Motorola Moto G with Android 4.4.4

I had the same issue on my S4 and finally got it fixed. This is what I did:

Delete account credentials from phone
Delete all data from calendar and email app
Reconfigure account credentials
Sync calendar and emails

After that all calendar events were showing up correct for AZ time zone.


Fastboot not showing device, adb finds it I'm having issues trying to get Fastboot to find my device.
Interestingly ADB finds it.
My specs are below:

Computer: Ubuntu 14.04
Phone: One Plus Two Oxygen OS 2.1.1

james@james-Aspire-3830TG:~$ adb devices
List of devices attached
3778baee    device

james@james-Aspire-3830TG:~$ fastboot devices
james@james-Aspire-3830TG:~$

Make sure you are in fastboot mode before using fastboot devices for device to show up.

If it still does not show up, looks like you don't have the fastboot driver properly installed.

Use the  following to install fastboot drivers:

sudo apt-get install android-tools-fastboot

If the repository isn't available add it using: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:phablet-team/tools && sudo apt-get update

Note: The commands are for distributions using apt. Specifcally Ubuntu and variants. Commands for others may vary.


Nexus 5 lollipop update notification not showing up My nexus 5 was showing the lollipop update notification till mid December. Now this is not showing up. While checking for system updates it shows the current time and os is up to date.

Any one please help me out on how i can bring back that notification as 5.0.1 has been released now.

Google releases their OTA updates in waves. If you have dismissed the notification (on purpose or by accident) you may not be eligible again until the next wave cycle. Many users have reported significant wait times.

If you want to update manually you can do so by flashing a factory image, although be warned, this will wipe your data.

You can also sideload the update files, which will keep the data intact.


Setting alarm ringtone on Google clock on Marshmallow Earlier (actually ... I do not know when that stopped working) when I would try to change the ringtone of my alarm from the Google clock app, I would get to choose which "source" I would get the tone from, there was a default list, and I could also choose a file from my own library.

Now I can only use the said default list. I have a tone that I had set by the described method in the list but I have no way to add anything to that list.

Are there solutions?

Install ES Explorer

Play the tone using ES and follow steps to  set it as ringtone, notification or alarm. Selected track would be added to default options panel of ringtone/ alarm

Note: ES Explorer has privacy and security concerns, so if you are not aware of how to sandbox it and use it, uninstall immediately after this operation of setting ringtones


What permissions are granted to an app with device administration privileges? Does a Device Administrator application have any/all permissions such as contacts, storage, etc.. ?

It's not clear from developer.android.com device-admin whether or not these admin rights also imply application permissions.

Or does device administrator simply mean that it can only do the things in the policy it's allowed to such as lock the screen, wipe the phone, prevent (easily) uninstalling the app, etc.. and that permissions to access private information is managed via the permissions settings only ?

Yes, a device administrator only has permissions to do what it says.

If you change the permissions of the app that the administrator is associated with, the administrators permissions will not change

(Answer made from the following sources):


Need advice on problem using TeamViewer to remotely control a PC I am running Windows 7 on my PC and the latest version of Android on my Samsung 7" Galaxy 4 Nook tablet.  I installed the newest versions of TeamViewer on both as I wanted to be able to control my PC remotely from the tablet.  Setup went easily and flawlessly and the connection does allow me to take full control of the PC. This is a dynamite app!

However, one annoying idiosyncrasy popped up.  As soon as the connection was initiated, TeamViewer caused the PC display to change resolution and size to match the landscape format of the Samsung screen.  Looks great on the Samsung but miserable on the PC's display.  Moreover, when I broke the connection, the PC display did not return to its former resolution or display shape.  I had to reboot to return to its original condition.

Any suggestions on how to keep the PC in its "normal" display mode during the remote connection, or at least how to immediately restore the format as soon as the connection is broken?

Thanks, Phil

Just click on the "VIEW" voice. There are two voices: quality and scaling. I disabled "auto select" under the quality menu and just left "scaled" active under the second menu.
This way your desktop will be scaled to the screen of whatever device you use, without modifying desktop's resolution...


Will an upgrade to Android 4.3 update Google Maps automatically (to the new unloved version)? My nexus 4 is notifying me about the availability of the new installation image for Android 4.3. I would like to install it, but I'm afraid this would automatically update Google Maps to the newest version. The comments about the removed features in Maps are so bad, that I want to stay with the old version for a while.

So, what happens to Google Maps when I upgrade to Android 4.3?

No, it will not update Google Maps. You will have to update that manually or through Google Play. However, after you download and install the OTA update, you may receive a Google Map update notification. Just make sure you don't set your Google Play apps to auto-update, so you can close / ignore those notifications.

Source: Comments on CNet.


Samsung Galaxy S Plus formatted itself The past couple of days my Galaxy S Plus started lagging, and today all of sudden it got stuck. When I restarted it the phone was completely wiped, had no apps, no contacts, nothing.  Now when I try installing any app it just says "Downloading" but nothing happens - nothing gets installed. I have no idea what is happening. Could some one tell me what I should do?

It was on stock firmware when is locked up. I tried a soft reset; after clicking "Erase everything" nothing happens, it just shows the factory reset title on top and blank screen below.

I also tried a hard reset without success. I took out the battery then held home volume up and power together while powering it on, but it just shows on screen "Ram Dump mode" and some other stuff. No menu shows up.

It sounds like your phone's internal memory may be physically damaged or suffering from severe corruption (such as many bad blocks).  If that's the case, it may be mounting the system as read only which would prevent you from downloading and installing apps.  If it is still under warranty, you should probably exchange it for a new one.


If someone is seen online does that mean they have opened our conversation or any conversation on whatsapp? When you open a conversation on whatsapp and the contact is seen as online have they opened your conversation or just any conversation?

You can read from the WhatsApp FAQ:

What does "last seen at..." and "online" mean exactly?
"online" means that contact has WhatsApp open and is connected to the internet. However, it does not necessarily mean they have read your chat.

That clearly stats that a contact with "online" status just needs to have the app opened within an active Internet connection.


how do I save all my texts before I reset it? I have an android HTC 660 how do I save all my texts before I reset it? Not for sure how to send to my SIM card

HoverChat has an SMS backup feature. It saves all your SMS in a .ninja file, then you can send it in a mail. You must have HoverChat if you want to restore your backup afterwards.


Wifi is not working after installing MIUI I have HTC Desire S and i was using android 4.0.4 ROM from HTC but it was too slow and I decided to install a new ROM - MIUI 3.2.22 for Desire S. When I installed it, my wifi didn't work. I tried to install other versions of MIUI but wifi didn't work in any of them. Can somebody help me?

I had exactly the same problem with my Xperia M (C1905) and Miui 4.9.26.
It turned out that the cause was that I didn't wipe the old stock android.

So the solution was:

enter TWRP
advanced wipe and wipe everything except sd card (I also didn't wipe the last item USB something).
Install MIUI again


What might cause Google People details to stop syncing? I'm having difficulty troubleshooting Google failing to sync "People details". All other categories (contacts, email, etc.) are syncing properly.

This is causing downstream issues in other apps. For example, I can't review businesses in Google Maps because it wants me to "Add your name to your Google account", which I've already tried to set and reset.

I am fairly certain this may be a permissions issue somewhere but I can't seem to track it down. Does anyone have any general advice on how to troubleshoot this issue? Thank you.

Device: OnePlus 3T
Android version: 8.0.0

Had the same issue, tried several solutions but the only one that worked was resetting the phone to factory settings.


copy folder structure from internal memory to sd-card I use the amazon downloader to buy mp3s with my android device. My problem now is that I cannot change the download folder but want the files to be moved to my sdcard. I already found a cron tool to run scripts from time to time. All I need now is a shell script to move all folders (including subfolders and files) from

internalmemory\amazonmp3

to

sdcard\Music

to be honest my knowledge is just good enough to do a "mv" but not good enough to go through all subfolders. I also am not sure about the directory structure of android devices. (pathes to sdcard and so on)

If you use mv on a directory containing files and subdirectories, it will move all of them. But in this case you may not want to move the amazonmp3 directory itself, so the command would be mv internalmemory/amazonmp3/* /sdcard/music/, assuming the internalmemory directory is correct.

The actual names for the internal memory and sd-card depend on the device, for example on my old Galaxy S they were /sdcard and /sdcard/external_sd/.


How to download a file directly from a cloud service to an attached USB drive? I need to download a video file (700MB) from the cloud service Bitcasa to a USB flash drive but right now when I click "Download" in Bitcasa my only options are to download to the my S6 phone & then copy it to my USB key. Is there a shorter way? I can't seem to find a way to download directly on to the flash drive...is there a way?


How to find saved wifi password? Possible Duplicate:
  How can I find out the wifi password from android setting

A friend entered his wifi password into my android phone so that I could connect to his network.

I don't want to ask him again for the password and I want to use it on my laptop.

how can I find the password that he entered?

thanks.

There is an option in the setting to display "show passwords" on all. So basically when you click on the WiFi name in "Wireless and Networks" you will find the password.


Roll back firmware update I've installed frimware update on my phone , but it seems display drivers have some bugs.

How can I rollback display drivers or at least the whole update?

My phone is: "I-mobile IQ 5.5".

There is no easy way to roll back an official firmware update.  Generally when carrier or smartphone manufacturer releases an update, they do not provide a way to downgrade.  You can try to find the original firmware on the Internet, or try to install a custom firmware of the previous version, if one is available for your device.  Both these workarounds will most likely require you to root the phone and possibly unlock its bootloader, and will most likely void your warranty.

Regarding your particular issue with display, it's possible that a simple factory reset will resolve this.  If that fails, you should take the phone to a service center and have their technicians examine it for defects.  If the phone is still under warranty, you may want to send it for repairs.


Galaxy S7 - How to back-up stored email mailboxes with ADB? I've been through several threads on Stackexchange / XDA to find a solution that yet eludes me for the following task :

As we all know, when we create and email account with our android devise and use the default email app, in my case Samsung Email, the synchronized emails are stored on our phone, in my case (rooted Samsung Galaxy S7 edge - Android 7.0), in this location :/data/data/com.samsung.android.email.provider/ with folders : App Cache App Databases

The idea, from what I have read, is to backup all those folders and the databases stored within them with ADB and then use SQLite tools to convert the databases into usable/readable information.

The problems I have encountered until now:

when I use ADB backup function, the stored backup is less than 1kb size, meaning the backup didn't work, this can be the result of wrong app name or no Allow_Backup Flag on that app (system app)
I have use several tools to get the exact name of the app, in my case com.samsung.android.email.provider or com.samsung.android.email.provider-1 but still no result
I have tried to use the backup -all command, and that's how I realized some apps where not backed-up in the resulting file, including the email app for my device.
I have read that in order to be backup and app, it needs to have the ALLOW_BACKUP flag, and the app (system app) does not have that flag

What do you think ? what should I do from here?
(Important : the idea is to extract/backup the whole mailboxes and be able to access the contents of these mailboxes on a windows/mac mail client. I have no use for the 'export email to file (.eml)' available in the Samsung app, as that would require to do it for each email one by one).

Sources:

Android email Extraction
How to backup with ADB
Backup problems
Backup FLAG info
SQLite database use

What you want to do is simply impossible. The app Samsung Email (com.samsung.android.email.provider) contains the entry android:allowBackup="false" in it's AndroidManifest.xml.

This entry totally disables adb backup for all of it's app data. What ever you do the adb backup will therefore never contain the email data.

Of the app has no integrated bulk backup/export function for the whole mailbox you can not gain access to it's app data unless you have a rooted device or you use a root exploit.


Is it possible to change how Froyo hyphenates phone numbers? Possible Duplicate:
  Is it somehow possible to change the format of a telephone number being displayed ?

In Brazil, phone numbers have two digits for the area code and eight for the phone number. Moreover, the carrier sends the caller ID with a leading zero, so that's how I store phone numbers. Example: 02155557777 for the Rio (21) number 5555-7777.

Before I updated from 2.1 to Froyo, numbers were presented with no hyphens. Now, the phone hyphenates them all. But it assumes a US standard, so it comes like 021-555-57777.

Moreover, when I'm dialing local (i.e. 8 digits), say, 5555-2222, it shows as 555-222-22.

Is there any way I can change that? Either positioning the hyphens correctly, or getting rid of the hyphens altogether?

It turns out the hyphening was a consequence of changing the locale from UK English (which is what the phone came configured with) to US English. Changed it back to UK English and the hyphens went away.


Resume an open application on Android Wear If I'm grocery shopping and have Google Keep up on my watch with the list, I'd ideally want the watch to go directly to the application every time I wake it until explicitly exiting. Under present behavior, it's necessary to navigate back to the application every time I want to look at another list item -- a step which makes its use utterly inconvenient.

Is this behavior configurable?

I discovered the PinAnApp app for android which provides a nifty swipe gesture to keep the current app open and/or the screen on. Fills the current hole until app vendors take advantage of the new Android Wear "always on" functionality directly. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.trigonesoft.pinanapp&hl=en


What does a streaming application do when I switch from mobile data to wifi? If I am watching/listening to streamed video/audio whilst on mobile data and then become  connected to a wireless network, what does my phone do?

Does it keep streaming through mobile data or does it switch to wireless? Or is this something that's different across different applications.

My phone is a Galaxy S3, running Jellybean stock.

Usually recent versions of Android Handles these network switching automatically. When you are connected to WIFI, Your content would be streamed via WIFI connection .You can confirm this The mobile network symbol - H/H+/E/4g would not be available in the status bar of the mobile.

Usually, Android manages WIFI and Mobile network automatically, I.e., when both WIFI and Mobile Internet is enabled and If WIFI is avaialble, Mobile internet is not used. When  u leave the WIFI network, you would get connected via Mobile data. Hope this helps :)


Lollipop on HTC One M8 I'm trying to update to Lollipop OTA on my HTC One M8, rooted, S-ON. I've read that it won't work with a custom recovery (I was using CWM) so I flashed a stock recovery and removed SuperSU, and that all seemed well and good but the update still won't apply. It just boots into the recovery menu(?) then stops.

Please help!

The problem can be the "fingerprint": when it blocks in the recovery menu hold "volume up" and "power" buttons some second then release, you should see some error message in the bottom.
This could be an useful guide: http://android-revolution-hd.blogspot.se/2013/12/how-to-manually-install-ota-update.html


How can I get Google Navigation (navigation in Maps) on Android to navigate walking directions? I know how to get walking/public transportation/biking directions, but driving directions are the only ones I can navigate (tracks the location, shows turns coming up, compensates for wrong turns, etc.).  How can I navigate on the walking directions?

And yeah, I know that I can show the walking directions on the map, and try to follow them myself, but then it's always north up instead of track up and it doesn't make any attempts to snap the GPS location to the street.

Walking Navigation was just released today [Sept 9] as an update to Google Maps 4.5.0


How to enable Wifi on an AVD How can I enable WiFi on an AVD? I am emulating the Android version 2.3.3 API 10 and when I click WiFi in the phone settings menu it just says 'error'.

You should just be able to connect your computer to wifi and then the emulator will use your computer's wifi connection. The AVD is just an emulation of an android device. The AVD uses your computer's hardware to simulate the hardware of a real device the best that it can.

The AVD will also be 'connected to 3G/4G' if you are connected through Ethernet.

Edit:

When I tried this myself on my own editor, it appears that you can't enable wifi on the emulator, it will always be set to '3G' or '4G'. If you want to enable Wifi for development purposes, you should just use a real device. There is no way to enable wifi on the android emulator. This question has been asked on StackOverflow:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7876302/enabling-wifi-on-android-emulator


Huawei phone playing sound "I am here" My old phone Huawei G8 (RIO-L02) with Android 5.1 is only used to play music. No SIM card installed and it only has a WiFi connection. The phone frequently plays sound "I am here".

After factory resetting the phone, the sound comes back after a while (about one month). I also have already disabled the location service. The only app I installed is a music player, though I don't think it is related.

Any ideas about which apps play this sound?

This is a feature of Huawei's Android devices known as "Find me" function.

For video demonstration: Huawei P8: Find Your Phone

The feature works by calling the name of the phone then saying "where are you?", then the device will turn on its display, turn on the flashlight, play music, and saying "I'm here".

When the phone is paired to Huawei HONOR Band, it can also be triggered by accessing the "Find my phone" feature from the band (thanks to user Bangyou for additional info).

Depending on the model, the setting may be found on:

Settings - Speech Awareness - Wake Up
Settings - Smart Assistant - Voice Control - Voice Wakeup
Settings - Smart control - Wake Up

Additional sources:

Reddit - Random "I'm here" alert
Reddit - Interesting "I am here" function


How to port-forward internet using Android Hotspot to PC? I have a Moto G3 Turbo with Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. I use the phone to make WiFi hotspot so I can use internet on my laptop.

I was able to do a successful Metasploit over WAN/Internet, and for that I need to port-forward to my laptop. But the problem is, I don't have any modem or router to actually go to setting login with admin password or anything like that.

What can I do? Is there any app that can do this and whether it needs root permission?

In most cases you won't be able to make inbound connection when using Mobile Data because of CGNAT and firewalls at ISP level, as explained by acejavelin in comment. To know the problem in detail and how it can be worked around see How to connect to Android through SSH over 3G/4G public IP?

However if you can reach your phone from internet, extending this access to a connected host (PC in your case) is not a problem. Port forwarding is done with routers, and when being used as a Wi-Fi hotspot (or with USB tethering), your phone is in fact acting as a router.

ROOT SOLUTION:

In order to forward port, you need to do Destination Address Translation (DNAT) using Linux kernel's builtin firewall userspace tool iptables.

First make sure that kernel is configured to forward internet traffic (already set when hotspot is ON):

~# echo 1 >/proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

Let's say the IP address assigned by hotspot to PC is 192.168.43.10 and you want to forward SSH default port (22):

~# iptables -t nat -I PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 22 -j DNAT --to 192.168.43.10

This is the simplest form of Port Forwarding.

If default POLICY of FORWARD chain in FILTER table is not ACCEPT, define rules explicitly to accept the forwarded packets:

~# iptables -I FORWARD -p tcp -d 192.168.43.10 --dport 22 -j ACCEPT

Also accept outbound forwarded traffic if needed.

NON-ROOT SOLUTION:

On non-rooted devices you can use adb or some other minimal TCP/UDP server like netcat or socat for port forwarding. Note that this won't work for ports under 1024. To forward port 2222:

~$ adb reverse tcp:2222 tcp:2222

Or on phone:

~$ nc -lk -p 2222 -e nc 192.168.43.10 2222

* nc is a busybox applet. But make sure that you get the right binary, there are multiple implementations of netcat.
* Use -u option to forward UDP port.

However nc accepts only a single connection at a time. Use socat or ncat for more advanced options, e.g. from Termux:

~$ socat tcp-l:2222,fork,reuseaddr tcp:192.168.43.10:2222

See Using netcat for port forwarding.

There are also apps like Fwd (it's open-source, I have no affiliation) meant for port forwarding.

SOURCE:

NAT-HOWTO


How to buy apps on Google Play while Google always reject my payments via Visa? Google always rejects my payments via Visa due to currency fluctuations and high bank fees. What should I do? Are there any alternatives or legal workarounds? FYI: Google Play cards is not available in my country.

Try linking your credit card to you paypal as google play accepts paypal now.


ERRORLEVELs in adb push and pull I need to execute adb commands from DOS batch files, but I need to know if the push and pull commands were successful.  Do these commands return an ERRORLEVEL, or some other environment variable to determine of the push or pull was successful?

According to the source code for ADB push and pull commands, they return 0 for success and 1 for failure.  I have not tried this in batch files, so cannot comment on accuracy.


Is it normal for an Android OS upgrade to change bitness on an upgrade? I support an Android app, that uses native files. (multiple APKs)
Some app setup is done on first startup, (which is different for 32bit + 64bit).
Recently I dealt with a bug report, caused by a users OS being upgraded from Android 7.1 to android 8.1. Surprisingly to me, the OS changed from 32bit to 64bit. I don't have direct contact with the user, so I don't know if this was the user manually upgrading the OS on a rooted device, or a standard OS upgrade.
Is this a normal thing that can happen for non rooted devices?

I was wrong about what was happening.
I was using a C#/Xamarin call to determine the OS bitness : "Environment.OSVersion.VersionString"
Which I mistakenly believed would tell me the os bitness rather than process bitness.
(I was already using IntPtr.Size to determine process bitness)


Adb sideload flashing file type recovery or fastboot I want to flash rom through Adb sideload I am confused with zip.file used in sideload. is it recovery file or fastboot file?
I am downloaded both from
https://xiaomifirmwareupdater.com/miui/lavender/stable/V11.0.9.0.PFGINXM/

adb is unrelated to fastboot, you can either run adb commands with usb-debugging enabled in boot mode, or adb sideload command in recovery mode. fastboot commands work with fastboot mode only (no adb commands accepted) and requires unlocked bootloader


Is there a way to switch Android users from the command line? Using the following command, I managed to enable multi-user mode in an Android device that doesn't officicially support it: adb shell setprop fw.max_users 4. For good measure I also added the following entry to the build.prop file:

fw.max_users=5

There's now a Settings menu for creating additional users in my device. Upon creating a new user, I would be switched to the multi-user lock screen with icons at the bottom showing the user accounts available in the device. From there I can choose my user log-in.

Moreover, the account data of the new user survives a reboot. From this, I can conclude that multi-user mode is working.

The problem is my Android device, a media player running some version of Jellybean 4.2, normally doesn't display the lock screen. No lock screen appears when I start up the device nor after I suspend or put the device to sleep.

In fact, the only time I see the lock screen is immediately after creating a new user. Once I've logged in as the new user, I can't switch back to the lock screen because the device is configured to show only the bottom panel and therefore I have no way to click the User icon in the Quick Settings menu of the missing top panel.

It seems a bit overkill to do some low-level system hacks just to achieve the desktop Linux equivalent of Control-Alt-F8, etc. Is there a command, perhaps using some intent or activity available via the Android activity manager tool (am) that would allow me to switch between different user log-ins or at least to switch to the lock screen that would allow me to log in as a different user?

Yes there is.
When the community discovered this feature in android 4.1 (the code was exist but has not been declared yet so Google did not open the feature in Settings), I remember playing with this in my Nexus 4.

So, here are some commands that I remember for the android Terminal:

Create new user: pm create-user User_Name
To switch between users: am switch-user User_ID
To get the list of all the users: pm list users
To delete a user: pm remove-user User_ID

Hope this helps.


HTC One VX - Rooted and I can't remove bloatware! My Note 2 was stolen during a mugging recently and I'm using an HTC One VX (ATT) until I can afford to get a better phone; insurance wasn't much help. The problem I'm having is that I unlocked the bootloader and rooted it (even though it's a temporary phone, it's slow as heck and I wanted to remove all the AT&T bloatware. I've used Titanium and ROM Toolbox Lite to delete those apps, but they keep coming back after a reboot. What can I do short of installing a custom rom (I don't want a custom rom on here unless absolutely necessary)? Or is there a "checker" system app that checks for and reinstalls these apps that I should freeze or remove? I'm open to experimentation and wouldn't mind "too" much if I accidently bricked it, I feel like taking a brick to this phone anyway, lol. This phone has Android 4.0.4.

TL;DR, rooted stock rom HTC One VX, trying to remove bloatware with Titanium and ROM Toolbox but bloatware comes back on reboot.

Stumble across this in a quest ordained to you by the mighty oracle of el goog?

I had the same problem as OP described. After installing a custom recovery and rooting my HTC Desire 610, I began removing bloatware, only to find it reinstalled when I rebooted.

Using Link2SD, you can view where the .apk files are in the system partition, such as /system/app/ATT_I_EAT_UR_SPACE. I removed them as well as the accompanying .odex files after removing them via Link2SD via the file manager in TWRP and it worked.

I'm no android guru, but it seemed to work, so good luck fellow traveller and may el goog grant you answers more easily in the future.


Is it possible to update from 2.1 to 2.3? I've got a galaxy s device and want to update it to latest android releace. I'd like to skip the 2.2 update and just do the 2.3 update. Is it possible?

It's perfectly possible to skip Android versions, but 2.3 has not been released for the Galaxy S.  See When will my phone get the Android 2.3 update (Gingerbread)?

You could try a custom ROM, however; check out XDA's SGS Development forum to find one.


GPS not always working I got an issue with GPS on my Sony Xperia M phone with Android 4.3, which seems to work but only intermittently. When it works the lock is acquired quickly, but sometimes it seems that sattelite searching is not even initiated.

the phone is searching for sattelites / the searching doesn't seems to be initiated (click images to enlarge)

For example, above screenshots show how it looks when the phone is searching for sattelites (left), and when the searching doesn't seems to be initiated (right; notice the missing indicators from upper-left). If in the first case the lock is acquired quickly, in the second case the lock is not acquired until the GPS indicator appears on screen (sometime after minutes of waiting).

Did anybody noticed this issue? Rebooting the phone helps, but only for a while.

Even the best GPS doesn't lock on instantly. You can use "assisted GPS", or aGPS, to help get a rough fix quickly while you wait for the more accurate GPS to get a lock; this only works when you have internet access, since it uses your IP address to locate you. Go into your device's GPS settings (Settings -> Location access)

Also try clearing the data of the navigation app and installing other gps toolbox apps to see if it fixes the issue.


How to select Wi-Fi access point? I am at the hotel trying to get my stuff connected. Had no problems with phone and laptop, but when I'm connecting with the tablet internet is unavailable.

As far as I can see, it's connecting to some other access point and is being put to other subnetwork (see screenshots, the phone and the tablet). I tried different places, different floors - it's all the same - WiFi level is OK, different subnetwork, no internet.

Is there any way I can fix it by myself, while waiting for hotel staff to "call the programmer to reboot it"? (other than installing Connectify, which I've already done).

First remove the network from known list. Then when you're adding that Wi-Fi network on your tablet use manual DHCP and enter the details from your phone...

This should work without issues..


How to downgrade from Lollipop to Kitkat? I am using Spice AndroidOne. When I purchased it, there was Kitkat in it. It automatically requested for Lollipop update which I have granted. Later it has requested for Marshmallow update. When I tried to update it, it has given an error.

Now Android OS is eating all my data (3G) in one day without my permission.

How to rectify it. And also I want to go back to Kitkat version.

Kindly help me.

Unfortunately you cannot downgrade from the newest version of Android to an older version, unless you root or modify your device's permissions. Ask your carrier to see if they can flash a new ROM to your device.


Can I Upgrade My Samsung Tablet From Ice Cream Sandwich To Jelly Bean & How ? I bought a Samsung tablet with Ice cream sandwich installed, can I upgrade it to Jelly Bean & how ? Please advice.
Thanks

Which model?

Try checking from the

Setting Menu > About Device (or your Tablet) > System Updates.

You will be prompted if there is a firmware update.

Hoped it helps.


Gallery isn't saving my pictures or videos I've been having this issue for about a year, but I can't find a solution, everywhere I look, there is no answer. I have quite an old phone, so I don't have many things that most people do. So, I'd like to ask why my gallery isn't saving my files, but my My Files is. I can't exchange them over from My Files to gallery so how do I swap them over?

So if anyone can answer how I get my images/videos to the gallery, it would be greatly appreciated.

By the way, I have an old Samsung Galaxy but not many people have that now. :(

This isn't the perfect answer I couldn't comment so that's why writing it in answer. First of all tell that do you have SD Card in your phone, if so then first try removing your SD Card and check again. If that fixes your issue then install back our SD Card to phone and then navigate to File explorer, from there Goto SD Card then click on settings and then un-hide the hidden files and delete them. This happened to me once and the trick worked. Hope it helps you also


Remove Circle Icon in Notifications A new icon appeared in my notifications today. It looks like Remove Circle from the Material icons, except with an additional outline.

There's no info/action when I try to press on it; if I try to drag the notification section down, the icon disappears until the section collapses back.

Rebooting did not remove it.

It looks almost like the left-most icon on the right side of this screenshot (source):

That icon certainly looks like a do not disturb icon (DND).

You can turn it off from quick settings or in Settings >> Sounds  >> DND


Why do certain non-Latin characters show up as empty boxes, and how can I fix them? See this screenshot for an example (view the original page here):

As you can see, most of the missing characters have some sort of accent/breathing mark on them. This occurs in all applications that I've tried (such as opening a text file in Dropbox), not just in the browser.

Does anyone know what is going on, and how I can fix it? I am running Android 2.1 on a Samsung Fascinate (not rooted).

Looks like your standard charset problem.  The file's in UTF-16 and the app only supports UTF-8, or you don't have the font for the "weird" characters, etc.  More than likely there is nothing you can do; Android internationalization support is pretty bad and most apps don't even try.


How do I get private bookmark from web Google Maps to Android Google Maps? I have few private placemarks stored to "My Places" on Google Maps web version using same Google account than my Android Google Maps uses.

How do I get those places to the Android?

There are two ways I think you can do this, in the Android app, click on the layer selection and go to the My Maps layer, where you should see your private maps.

If you want to access your bookmarked address, from the main Maps screen, click the menu button and choose the bookmarks option. (not sure about bookmarks, I have a French UI, so it shows as 'favoris')


Auto shutdown after about 15 minutes I have a HTC G1 Dream device. I noticed that it has a problem.

When I unplug it from charger, about 15 minutes later it shuts down.

Is there any solution for this?

P.S Factory reset won't help here. I've tried this about 3 times.

Sounds like a bad battery, use logcat or a battery monitor and see what happens when it shutdown.

I had a device that would do the same but it would last 2 hours instead and under load would go about 5 mins :p
A new battery sorted it out in the end. But if you can get a new phone as once the battery starts to go the other compentnets will fail as well. If you cannot afford to do by a new phone at least backup on TB on a EXTERNAL SDCARD. so if worse comes to worst you have all the data for all your apps.