How can I stop Google Play Services from updating automatically? I have a OnePlus One with Google Play Services version 7.5.62 (1927436-438)

The most current version of Google Play Services is 7.5.66 (1939950-438) which unfortunately has a bug of some kind that continually gives me the message Google Play Services has stopped.

Is there a way to prevent my device from updating to the newer version of Google Play Services?

If you've unlocked root, there's another option. You can move the latest working GMS (10.0.84) to system partition and block auto-updates by creating empty folders with the APK name.

  KitKat (tested):

  · APK goes to /system/priv-app/com.google.android.gms.apk
     · libs go from /data/app-lib/com.google.android.gms-{1, 2}/  to /system/lib/
     · mkdir /data/app/com.google.android.gms-1.apk /data/app/com.google.android.gms-2.apk

  Lollipop+ (presumed):

  · APK goes to /system/priv-app/PrebuiltGmsCore/PrebuiltGmsCore.apk
     · libs go from /data/app-lib/com.google.android.gms-{1, 2, 3, 4}/  to / system/priv-app/PrebuiltGmsCore/lib/arm/
     · mkdir /data/app/com.google.android.gms-1.apk /data/app/com.google.android.gms-2.apk /data/app/com.google.android.gms-3.apk /data/app/com.google.android.gms-4.apk

(posted this on the »Google Play Help Forum« thread earlier)


Can't swipe down notifications on Nexus 4 i have a 12 day old Nexus 4 and i can't swipe down the notifications bar.

i've tried turning it off
i've tried performing a factory reset

If i go into an application that supports landscape mode (e.g. Chrome), and turn the phone landscape, then i can swipe down notifications from the "top".

But then i can't click the "Home" button, which is then located on on the right hand side of the screen, which is the top of the physical phone - near the earpiece).

Edit: i forgot that the whole point of including the picture was to demonstrate the home button can't be clicked when it's near the "earphone" (e.g. on the right in the above photo). Unfortunately, in this picture all shadow detail as been lost. But trust me, the earphone is on the right side in the above photo.

Nexus 4; Model LG-E960

See also

Droid RAZR Support > Can't swipe down the notification bar
Android Central - notification bar not opening

This is a hardware issue most likely.

The only way to solve this would be to send the device back to the manufacturer.


How to find out the package name of an Android app, without ADB nor installing apps My friend just showed me a really useful app. I want to install it too, but the app's name is very generic and there is no app with this name in any app store nor on the web. Knowing the package name of the app would help me find it.
How can I know the package name of an app?

In Settings>App I only see the app's name.
If it was my phone I would install Applications Info and read the package name. Unfortunately I can't install anything on the phone. Understandably, my friend does not allow me to enable developer options, nor to connect any cable to it.
The phone otherwise only has stock apps.

Latest Android.

There are multiple approaches to that – depending on what you have access to. I'll include those not working for you as they might work for others:

Most obvious: use an app inspector (link goes to my corresponding app list). Won't work for you as you cannot install any app.
Not that obvious, but with helpful side effect: install ClassyShark3xodus from F-Droid. Not only shows the package name but also the trackers contained in apps. Again, needs installing an app.
Another one with helpful side effects: installing Helium Backup and inspecting the backup file name. Doesn't work for you either, unfortunately.
Native method: Open in Play Store, ideally in the web page. Find the package name in the URL's id parameter. If in app, use the developer's name to list all apps made by them: https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=<url+encoded+name>.

If the app is not available in any of the app stores available on the device (often happens with vendor specific pre-installed apps), you're out of luck: you cannot even extract the APK from your friend's device if (s)he doesn't let you install an APK extractor or enable ADB (with ADB, you could e.g. use Adebar's getapk script to extract all or specific apps).


Nonstop push notifications on recently updated Samsung Galaxy S3 My phone received and installed an OTA update this weekend, to Android version 4.3

Now everytime my phone connects to the internet or I go to use the internet, I get this large list of push notifications, of email attachments from my Microsoft Exchange email account, that have never even been downloaded.

I checked the options in the exchange options, and the option to download attachments when connected to wi-fi isn't checked (i've also checked and unchecked it). I also turned off the email notifications for the account, but still get the notifications of the downloaded attachments (even though they are not actually downloading, because you can't even open them).

Screenshot (click to enlarge)

Had same problem.  Download manager seems to be the issue if you have that installed.  But just click on one of the notifications, you will see App Info.  Click on that and then unclick show notifications.

It should go away.


How to save all contacts to Google with a broken SD card? Today my SD Card broke. I do not have a replacement. I have some important contacts on my phone which were not synchronized with Google. Before formatting the sdcard (as a last restort to see if I do have to buy a replacement) I'd really like to retrieve them, however all the import/export options are about phone internal memory, sdcard and SIM. Is there any way to export all my contacts to Google?

I do have access to the internet and I do have all synchronisation options available enabled.

Can I do something better than spending some hours writing the contacts manually on GMail?

According to the GMail help pages, you should be able to easily export your contacts using a web browser:

Sign in to Gmail.
Click Gmail at the top-left corner of your Gmail page, then choose Contacts.
From the More drop-down menu, select Export....
Choose whether to export all contacts or only one group.
Select the format in which you'd like to export your contacts' information. Please note, some of these formats can lose some contact information.

To transfer contacts between Google accounts, use the Google CSV format. This is the recommended way to back up your Google Contacts.
To transfer contacts to Outlook, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, or various other apps, use the Outlook CSV format.
To transfer contacts to Apple Address Book, use the vCard format.

Click Export.
Choose Save to Disk then click OK.
Select a location to save your file, and click OK.

This (and some other details) are also described in a post titled How to Create Mail Merge in Gmail Contacts.

Now you write you have some contacts which are not synchronized with your Google account, but stored on your SIM card. Of course, you first need to "convert" them to "Google contacts", which is described in How do I import all contacts from a SIM-card to an Android phone?:

open the contacts app
press the "menu" key
navigate to Import/Export → Import from SIM card
click "Select All" (or manually select the contacts you wish to import)
when asked where to copy the contacts to, select the appropriate option

This procedure can also be found in a tutorial at AndroidAdvices, together with some screenshots to visualise the process.

Your broken SD card should not matter here, as it isn't involved anywhere in the process.

See also:

Transfer all Contacts in Phone and Sim to Google Contacts
How to move phone contacts to Google?
Good idea to transfer all phone numbers from SIM card to google contacts?
How do I import all contacts from a SIM-card to an Android phone?


how to fix grey wifi icon (no internet), and how to track what caused that? [SUSPENDED. see P.S. at end, any good way to deal with this suspended state?]

My phone have the grey wifi-icon problem, where you do not have access to internet.
Yesterday it was working fine, I changed nothing.
Usually it always connected grey and a few moments later it gets colored, but now it is forever grey...

I followed these tips from other questions that did not work:

turn wifi-off/on
turn air-plane mode on, wait 1min, turn it off (and wifi on)
forget/remove the wifi config and recreate it
reboot the phone
reboot wireless router
shutdown the phone
(NO) I got a tip to lower my router security from TKIP+AES to only TKIP, but it was working perfectly yesterday; so I will not do that for obvious reasons..

I can ping my phone from my PC.
I can JuiceSSH from my android into PC (intranet is ok).
I can do nothing internet related...

My phone is not rooted, should I?
My connection drops from time to time when I see "obtaining ip address" if I leave it on the wifi config page, but it was like that already before the grey icon problem..

Where I can see wifi log to try to understand what is happening?

PS.: my phone is working again, I did nothing either to fix it; my PC was connecting to internet while my phone not... now both are ok; I will keep the question as the problem may happen again and I wasnt able to track what caused and how to fix (if ever possible); just that it is not urgent for now... thx!

Grey icons don't mean that you don't have internet connectivity. eldarerathis's answer explains:

It has to do with whether or not you've currently got a good connection to Google's servers for sync services and the like. From page 27 of their Android 2.3 Users Guide:

  Network status icons turn green if you have a Google Account added to
  your phone and the phone is connected to Google services, for syncing
  your Gmail, Calendar events, contacts, for backing up your settings,
  and so on. If you don’t have a Google Account or if, for example,
  you’re connected to a Wi-Fi network that is not connected to the
  Internet, the network icons are white. I'm not really sure why it
  bounces back and forth between green and white sometimes. I've noticed
  it on my phone but everything works fine (I run CyanogenMod, though,
  so perhaps it has to do with that). It could also be that green means
  it's currently in the act of syncing, but the wording in the document
  is a little vague, in my opinion.

In the case of Honeycomb or Ice Cream Sandwich, the colors are blue/grey instead of green/white, but they still have the same meaning.


remove apps like Browser I got a samsung galaxy note 8, and it came with an app called browser and also Chrome.
Obviously Chrome is better, so how can I remove the generic browser app (or at least hide it)?

The same goes for apps like Email and Gmail.

Samsung seems to provide similar software on its devices, so this procedure from a different Samsung device (Galaxy Tab 3) will probably hold.

Open the Menu > Settings > Application Manager

Use the right-most panel "All", and scroll the list to find the application(s) you want to disable. Click the button to do so (generally labelled "Disable" or "Turn Off", or similar).

You generally cannot uninstall pre-loaded apps without rooting the device.


Encrypted Sony Z1 Compact stolen - will it be possible to reset and reinstall phone without PIN code? Today my Sony Z1 Compact Android phone (4.4 Kit Kat) is stolen. Bad luck, but nobody's hurt and I'm quite sure my insurance will cover this. I've encrypted the phone and external SD card. Now this has happened I wonder if it is possible (for the new owner) to reset the phone, wipe and reinstall it?!

They don't have the code of course, and trying to enter the code manually will be a waste of time - the code is too long for that.

So what I want to know: can this phone ever be used again?

Update

I've bought a new phone, exactly the same, and it's encrypted again. It is not rooted! I don't know if USB debugging was on, but it could very well be. So let's assume it was.

If I understand correctly, I need to boot into recovery mode to reset the machine. I've found the following guide: How to Boot Into Sony Xperia Z1 Compact Recovery Mode. It offers three methods.

The last method involves the Playstore, which requires that you started up the phone, which is not possible without the PIN code. So that method is out.

The first method doesn't seem to work. When I reboot the phone, I don't see the led flashing, and pushing the volume button up or down many times during startup doesn't do anything, well except that I seem to enter some kind of "secure mode", but then again only after unlocking the phone.

The second method involved the ADB. I have enabled developer options on the stolen phone. I probably have enabled USB debugging, and didn't disable it afterwards. I need to try this, but it seems to me that this method too requires that you can startup the phone. I can only test this on Ubuntu right now, but I don't see how this can work without unlocking the phone. I connected the phone via USB to my ubuntu desktop, the started the phone. First thing that I have to do is unlock the phone. When the phone has started up, and I unlocked another time I get a notice asking to install software. For me this means this method won't work either.

Maybe it is possible to wipe the phone with Windows?

Is there another way to wipe the phone and reset it to the state when I bought it?

Yes, it's possible to factory reset (wipe) the phone, and then it'll be like new. If you want to make sure the phone can't be used any more, you have to report the theft to the police and make sure to give them the IMEI of the phone. (It should be written on the box it came in, or possibly your carrier will know.) Then they will blacklist the IMEI so the phone won't work on any cell network.


What is the main activity of Google Keep called? What is the launcher activity of Google Keep called?  I thought a short Google search would help, but apparently not.

How to find the activity?
Activities are listed in the .apk file's Manifest. This is e.g. explained in Run Android Application from Command Line. The linked page gives a short example:
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
 package="com.iftitah.android.contact">
  <application android:icon="@drawable/icon">
   <activity class=".Contact" android:label="@string/app_name">
    <intent-filter>
    <action android:value="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
    <category android:value="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
   </intent-filter>
  </activity>
 </application>
.
.
</manifest>

The activity is listed in the <activity> element, which also holds the intent to be called (in the contained <action> element).
How to investigate the Manifest?
Now for the tricky part, as we are no developers: How to view the Manifest? Luckily, we can get some help from the Playstore for this -- e.g. in the form of an app called App Detective:

App Detective and AppExplore (Source: Google Playstore; click images to enlarge)
As you can see in above screenshot, this app allows the user to investigate the Manifest files of installed apps, but does not stop at this. Ressources, libraries, signatures, and more can be looked up.
Alternatives worth mentioning are the ManifestViewer and the AppExplore. Pick your choice :)
So what is the main activity of Google Keep?
Using above "investigation methods", Kevin figured out it is com.google.android.keep.BrowserActivity (see below comment if you don't believe me ;)


Using ADB without MTP support I am using Ubuntu 13.04 with a Motorola Droid Turbo. When I plug the phone in with a USB cable, my phone does show any USB connection notification.

I see that libmtp does not support Motorola's Droid Turbo yet (Ubuntu 13.04 uses libmtp): despite the lack of PTP/MTP support, can I still use ADB?

You should be able to use ADB as far as it is just a tunnel to the Android device's shell.
MTP (Media Transfer Protocol) is not connected to ADB apart from the fact that they share the USB connection.
Just try it out, it shouldn't harm your device.


What does nl="true" mean in the package-restrictions.xml file? When you disable an app using the following command:

$ pm uninstall -k --user 0 com.google.android.videos

the three attributes will be added to the /data/system/users/0/package-restrictions.xml file:

<pkg name="com.google.android.videos" inst="false" stopped="true" nl="true" />

I know what inst="false" and stopped="true" mean, but what does nl="true" mean?

nl implies "not launched". From what I could understand it is used with respect to the state of a component and shows whether the component had ever been started by Android itself. You can check the following links to reach this conclusion:

PackageUserState.java
PackageSettingsBase.java
Settings.java


Android tool to find what's taking space, and delete it? Possible Duplicate:
  What can I do to manage my phone's internal storage?

Basically, I'm looking for an Android version of SpaceMonger or WinDirStat.

DiskUsage is what you're looking for. Shows a very nice (zoomable) graph of directories and how much space each one and their files are consuming.


There's some weird storage nonsense going on, as if part of an app's data is permanent on your phone? So, when I want to free up some space, first yesterday it said WhatsApp was worth 207MB, and then today it said it was only worth 166MB, What's happening here?!

We can't tell how you are freeing the storage. If you are using any third party app then it will free the caches of whatsapp. In which case no one can say how much storage is used by your whatsapp cache. Whatsapp it self deletes some caches when there is no need of it. So, if it's cache then it's totally normal.
Other than that you should look into Whatsapp's media folder where all your images,audio,video and docs are stored.


Why do I get "not enough space" when I copy an APK file to /system/app? I recently rooted my HTC Desire Bravo because I needed read/write access to /system/app in order to be able to copy an APK file there.

I wrote here on stackexchange on the best solution to root the Desire and got pointed to Unrevoked. Everything worked fine and typing "su" in the adb shell gives me nice root access.

I re-mounted /system like

mount -o rw,remount -t yaffs2 /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system

That worked. However, trying to copy my APK file using adb push MyApp.apk /system/app/ didn't work and gave me a "permission denied". Alternatively I therefore pushed the app to /sdcard first and wanted to do a

cat /sdcard/MyApp.apk > /system/app/MyApp.apk

That approach has worked just perfectly on my rooted HTC Hero, on the Desire however it gives me

  "Cannot create /system/app/MyApp.apk:
  not enough memory"

Does anyone have a clue on what could be the problem here?  How can I push my app to the system folder so that it installs properly?

HTC phones have an extra protection of the /system folder, rooting them is not enough to get write access there.

You need to turn off that protection. This is most easily done with the Revolutionary tool. Follow the instructions closely on the site.


Tasker: switch on VPN when opening specific URL? Tasker is an automation app for Android (see http://tasker.dinglisch.net/)

I want to start VPN whenever I start http://*.intra.mycompany.com - as intra.mycompany.com are urls that are just accessible over VPN.

Anyone knows how that could be achieved?

On the Tasker homepage there's a section called "Plans" where the developers outline future ideas that they might incorporate into the product: http://tasker.dinglisch.net/todo.html
Also listed on this page are those two lines:

Actions/Tasks: VPN (dis/re)connect
Events/States: VPN connected

So it's not included yet but it might be at some point in the future. Again citing from the page:

This is an informal list of features under consideration for Tasker.


Is CyanogenMod easier to install in rooted device? I have failed to install CyanogenMod a few times in my Samsung Galaxy 4 (GT-I9605, Android 5.0.1 lollipop) in unrooted device. I still want to get CyanogenMod in my device so I am thinking to root my device and start the installation process 3rd time.

Is CyanogenMod easier to install in rooted device than unrooted?

Both yes and no. You need custom recovery to flash CyanogenMod. If you have root with the non-recovery method, you can install the ROM manager from the Play Store, which makes the installation of a custom recovery rather simple.

From there, you just download the CM zip and flash it. Note that the ROM manager does have install ROM as a feature, so you can install from zip and it should automatically reboot to recovery and flash (but I think it works with CWM only, as I have TWRP and it just reboot).


How is it possible that an app stores its data even though I clear the cache and uninstall? I have downloaded an app (its a game), made some test progress, and then deleted the game data. I have also cleared the cache and uninstalled the game, but whenever I install it again from the Google Play Store, the progress is still there.

I have also tried installing the app after clearing its data, offline from the .apk-file.

How is it possible to retain the app data like this and how can I clear the data?

It's possible that the game progress is saved in the cloud, if you are using Google Play Games.

The Google help page says you can clear this progress / data, but note that it will clear for ALL games:

  If you want to delete your saved data from all games that use Cloud
  Save, visit the Google Settings app and select  Menu > Clear app data.
  This will clear all your data from all accounts.

  Depending on your device, your Menu icon may look different.


Why should I "Set up my profile" within contacts? When I go into my contacts (via the "People" application) I'm always prompted to set up my profile:

Apart from placing my personal details at the top of the contacts list in case I forget who I am, is there any other benefit to actually filling this information out?

There are a few possible uses. This special contact also sets your photo and name in the quick-settings tray (the one you pull down from the top-right), and it's the source of the name and image used if you have multiple user profiles on a tablet.

If someone finds your phone unlocked, they might use your contact details to help find you and return your phone, but the settings here don't affect the lock screen message, which is the usual way to help your phone get back to you.

You might also use this to quickly send your contact details to someone else's phone via Bluetooth or NFC.

Finally, apps which you grant the appropriate permission ("Read your contacts" and "Read your own contact card") can read this special contact. They might do this to address you by the correct name, or to set up contact data without you having to enter it again. Obviously, exactly what they do depends on the particular app. For example, I have a free app Owner Photo Widget which uses this feature to make it easy to put your photo in a lock screen widget. This makes it easy to identify whose phone it is, if you leave it behind in the office, or a similar situation.


Is there a way to edit Google Documents with Android Is there a way to edit Google documents from an Android device?

We can now edit Google Docs with our mobile with the official App :)

More information can be found in this blog entry from the official Google Documents blog.


How to power off Samsung A6 without screen The screen on my Galaxy A6 is dead. Until I possibly get it repaired, I would like to shutdown the phone, mainly to stop the alarm which I cannot turn off without the screen.

I have seen plenty of instructions on how to force it to reboot (power + vol. down), and on how to hard reset it. But that is not what I want. I just want to turn the phone off.

(it would be easy if I could remove the battery, but that is not possible either, and I didn't think of checking that before buying that thing...)

You can take out the battery, as shown here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVl9EGJdTHE

if you are willing to DIY

(You might need to go that route anyway, if you plan to replace the screen yourself -- which is probably much cheaper and faster than using a repair shop)

P.S. Actually, it's probably best to let the battery drain before opening the phone, but I'm not sure.


Where's the auto-replace function of the keyboard I've looked in the whole parameters of my Nexus 5 (Lollipop 5.1) and I can't find the way to customize the auto-replace function.

What I want to do is simple, I want some abbreviation like asap to be automatically changed for as soon as possible, or swag to be replaced by NEVER USE THIS WORD MORON

This functionality is covered by the operation of the Personal Dictionary. Settings > Language and input > Google Keyboard > Text correction > Personal Dictionary. Select the language to which you would like to make the addition.

Finally, the '+ Add' button allows you to define a word or phrase, and, optionally a shortcut.

So for your example, Word = 'As soon as possible', shortcut = asap.


Why do launchers not support all widgets? Why is it, that when you attempt to add widgets to two different launchers on the same device, that each launcher seems to present a different list of available widgets? There are always some widgets available to both launchers but others are available only to one or the other.

For example, I have just purchased an LG G3 and quite like the look of its Home launcher. But it doesn't seem to offer shortcuts like Nova launcher does so I thought I could simply recreate the look of the Home launcher in Nova launcher, but most of the widgets that were on the Home launcher desktop by default are not available to Nova launcher.

Some of the below is speculation, or given to me by sources I can't cite so take it as is.

Some (many) of the OEMs (manufacturers) like LG and Samsung embed their propitiatory widgets within their own launcher. This (allegedly) is down to them not wanting you to emulate their own look and feel in someone else's launcher.

Samsung, beside Android, have their Tizen Operating System. It is almost identical to their Touchwiz overlay on Android. So if a user has a Samsung, they can use this device without porting over any knowledge, to all intents and purposes they don't know what OS it is running as the interface is consistent. Keeping Touchwiz and those things their own, and unique is a way of retaining their customer base and keeping the UI the same across a range of devices makes it an easier decision to 'get the LG' or whatever to keep what you are used to. The Galaxy Gear 2 Smart Watch actually runs Tizen, not Android as a real world example.

It's a business decision, not one I am a fan of as I believe in customisation and options. Any UI (ala Touchwiz) that deprives me of choice is one I quickly abandon.

It is worth pointing out that there are thousands of Widgets on the play store, many of which bear an uncanny similarity to those of the OEMs.

Last point I'll add, HTC are currently rolling Blinkfeed (their launcher/news stream) onto the Play Store. This may be the beginning of OEMs splitting onto the Play Store as Google did a while back (calendar, keyboard, etc). This may be a way to get some of the widgets you love, without owning the device. However, the locked widgets remain an issue.


Customize interface for elder / older users My father in law asked me if a "elder smartphone" is good for him, since he is having difficulties with an old iPhone his wife gave him. After digging a little bit I discovered that the "elder smartphone" being sold is nothing more of an Android with a better launcher with bigger font and easier to comprehend icons.

I've done some searching here and only found this answer below:
Is there a larger interface for older owners?

Which is from 2014.

The question is: Do you guys have any experience with launchers designed for elder people ? What would be the do's and dont's that such launcher should have ? Are there any native settings that would help him to use an Android smartphone better and easier ?

His basic use is to send/receive SMS, place and receive calls and use WhatsApp. No games, no need for a fancy camera. A large battery would be nice too.

You don't need a phone specifically geared to "elderly people", as you will likely just end up paying more for less just to get that tag.

The latest Android N (Nougat) version offers a quite advanced Screen Zoom function that can enlarge all screen items. You can see it in action here.

On older Android versions, you mostly have the option of setting text size, and if you have root or install a custom ROM like Cyanogenmod (which in its official versions is usually totally unproblematic for daily use even by non-tech-savvy users), you can change the device's DPI setting, which basically lets the system know about the physical screen size of the phone.

By setting the DPI value higher, the system believes your screen is smaller than in reality and makes both text size and icons larger (in a limited number of increments, not continuously). I have found in the past that this works quite well (using it for instance to enlarge all items, including map scale, in navigation apps).

So I would recommend choosing a well-reviewed large-screen phone (the largest your father-in-law cares to pocket) with Android N software (or with Cyanogenmod support) and enlarging the screen items as detailed above.


Sync Telegram Contact with Phone Contact I have Nexus 5x with android 7 and recently my telegram contacts are not sync with my phone contacts, and my sync option for telegram is on. what should I do to aync my telegram contacts with my phone contacts

I had the same issue on my Nexus 6P with Android 7.1, while it worked perfectly fine on another Nexus 6 with Android 7.0. Here's what helped:

reinstall the app (do not open yet)
go into Android Settings > Accounts > Telegram and enabled Contact sync
open the app and check Contacts

After this my contacts were synced as expected. No sure why the sync was off for me by default.


Unlocking a broken-screen nexus 6 I have a pretty stock nexus 6. It has whole-disk encryption turned on, AFAIK (I didn't change any settings from when I first got it, and requires the PIN to boot up). I dropped it yesterday, during which time the screen completely died and the phone rebooted.

The screen is just plain black, and as far as I can tell is also not registering any touches (no tactile feedback, etc). The phone is now in the "waiting to boot" mode where it ticks every second to remind me to enter my PIN.

I've already ordered a new phone, but I'd like to wipe this one before I recycle it. Has anyone had any luck with alternative methods of entering data into the phone? All I really need to do is get the pin entered so it can boot up. Then (hopefully) it'll find service or wifi, at which point I can send a remote wipe command. It's just that I can't do anything over USB while it's still partly booted the way it is.

You said in your post that you want to unlock it, so you can do a data wipe / factory reset on it? Right?

Why don't you just take a hammer to it?

Maybe toss it into a fire?

To answer your question... No. There is no way to enter the pin on that phone if you cannot use the touch screen. The only thing you would be able to do to that phone now is do the "hard master reset" by pressing the button combination for that phone. That would also delete all the data stored on that phone.

To find the master reset button combination for that phone, try using Google or going to xda-developers.


Is there any relation between processor clock speed and heating effects? I'm planning to buy a new android smartphone, and I've heard that while high processor clock speeds are good, they are also accompanied by high heating effects.

Is there a way I can obtain the heat (in watt possibly) and the clock speed (in GHz) of the processor?

(I'm quite new here, and I'm not really a very informed person when it comes to anything digital technology).

tl;dr There is a direct relationship between the amount of power used by a processor and its clock frequency. The higher the performance , the higher the power consumption and heat generated
 (meaning increased clock speeds attract more power consumption and subsequently increased heating)

  In a nutshell the quicker all the transistors (gates) are switched in
  the chip the more power is used. How often the transistors are switched is controlled by the clock frequency.

For detailed CPU information (e.g clock speed, cpu frequency etc) you may use CPU-Z to get that kind of information.

Nowadays chip makers incorporate multiple functionality in a now called system on chip (SoC).
These chips which power smartphones now consist of CPU (central processing unit), GPU (graphics processing unit), memory controller and DSPs
(speciliased video or audio chips). So the overall "performance output" will depend on how manufacturers vary these components.

  Currently there are four major android smartphones SoC makers;
  Qualcomm (Snapdragon), Samsung (Exynos), MediaTek (MT and
  Helio processors) and Huawei (Kirin chips)

All of these manufacturers make SoCs with segmentation in mind i.e cost performance etc

Nowadays the main focus is utilising the chip with much less power (aim of reducing overheating)

So how do manufacturers improve power-effeciency while improving performance?

  Power efficiency and heat dissipation are everything when it comes to
  mobile CPUs and they are also factors that influence the performance
  of a mobile CPU

CPU designers employ a variety of ways to accomplish this:

throttling the CPU when it becomes too warm (reducing CPU clock frequency)
heterogeneous multi-processing (HMP)
thermal framework (e.g ARM’s
Intelligent Power Allocation , that can dynamically manage the thermal budget of a System-on-a-Chip – reallocating the thermal budget from the CPU to the GPU (and visa versa) when necessary)

Overally what this means is that that by lowering the clock frequency the power consumption is also lowered,

Although modern CPUs have various methods to minimise overheating, sometimes it depends on how the device is being used, gaming etc, so it partly depends on user's end

Credits: Android Authourity

Bonus info:

Cores versus Clock Speed

  A core is a processing unit within a CPU. Each one can handle tasks
  independently, or can be combined to provide more power to
  particularly intensive tasks.

The clock speed measures, in gigahertz, the speed at which a CPU is able to process instructions. While it is tempting to think a more GHz equals better performance its certainly not the case.

A 3 GHz processor is faster than a 2GHz processor only when it’s running an app that takes advantage of its abilities or when you’re multitasking.

But generally, newer version of a processor is likely to be faster than an older one, even at slower speeds; a CPU based on a newer architecture is likely to be faster; and the number of cores also makes a difference.

There is some disparity when trying to compare these directly (e.g Exynos 7 Octa  is vastly different from the Snapdragon 805 in terms of architecture. Compared to the quad core architecture of the 805, the Exynos 7 Octa comes with two sets of quad ARM Cortex A53 and Cortex A57 cores on board, with CPU loads alternating between the two, or utilizing them completely depending on the computing power required)

Thus benchmark tests are often carried out.

Hope this helps

References

http://www.androidauthority.com/soc-showdown-2016-732870/
http://wccftech.com/galaxy-note-4-snapdragon-vs-exynos/
https://www.quora.com/How-do-phones-cool-its-processor
http://www.androidauthority.com/arm-cortex-a73-gary-explains-694455/
http://www.androidauthority.com/arm-vs-x86-key-differences-explained-568718/
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/jargon-buster-the-guide-to-understanding-mobile-processors/
http://www.androidauthority.com/what-is-cpu-frequency-scaling-672253/


Whatsapp offline status I friend of mine says that whenver I am talking to someone over phone, my whatsapp status shows offline i.e. neither it shows me online (since I am not using whatsapp at that moment and talking to someone on phone) nor the "LAST SEEN" status is available. And he can even tell me the exact duration of time I spent talking to that person.
Is this possible??
Is this a feature of whatsapp??
because as far as i know, no such case exists and if I try to view the status of a person who is currently talking to someone over the phone then obviously the "LAST SEEN" status for that person is available.
Is the friend of mine using some software or app??

Your data connection is probably being lost during the phone call. Thus, whatsapp gets disconnected.

CDMA networks (Verizon, Sprint, and others that do not use a SIM card) do not work with data and voice at the same time when on 3G. Voice takes over, so anything using data is disconnected. Verizon is working towards this feature, called svdo (Simultaneous Voice and ev-DO data), and according to that page has one device that uses it, the HTC Thunderbolt. Similarly, Sprint also has the HTC Evo 4G LTE that can use it. Almost all other devices, though, do not support this.

However, LTE (4G) does allow for voice and data simultaneously, so certain devices that are LTE capable and are connected to LTE can maintain data connections during a phone call.

In the end, if you have service through a network without SIM cards, and you aren't connected to WIFI or LTE, then you will lose data connections when you make or receive a phone call.


How do I prevent Whatsapp displaying entries in the contacts app? Whatsapp is creating duplicate contacts on my Android phone. I know that the duplicates belong to Whatsapp because:

I have checked the Android contacts storage database, which confirms the duplicates come from Whatsapp and
By going to Settings > Users & accounts and deleting WhatsApp, all of these duplicate contacts are gone. They re-appear when I restart WhatsApp.

The prevailing wisdom (e.g. this answer) is that to rectify this issue just go to the contacts app, click on the three dots, select "Contacts to Display", and deselect Whatsapp. However, when I do this, I select "Customised view", but Whatsapp does not appear in the list of accounts which I can show or hide.

Is there any other way to hide Whatsapp's contact list from within the default Android contacts app?

Things I would rather avoid:

Revoking contacts permissions for Whatsapp. If I do that, I won't be able to see the names of contacts any more from inside Whatsapp.
Using a different contacts app. This is just avoiding the issue, rather than trying to fix it.

The phone is a Xiaomi Mi A1, and the OS is Android One, version 8.0.

Using Samsung S9:

Whatsapp does show in "custom group" list of available contact lists on my phone
Doing that has not effect on the Phone App contact list though (still showing all contacts available on the phone including whatsapp).

so the question remains:
How to define the address book to be used by the phone app?
Note:
I don't want to merge duplicates becasue that comes with a whole host of new issues like intetional duplicates being merged etc..


Can I save my htc desire if the battery is dead? I ran my HTC Desire on a 0% charged battery - and it shut it self down. Now it won't charge anymore and wont start even when plugged in.

What are my options?

How long have you left it charging for? If it hasn't been long (a couple of minutes then your phone is probably fine). Connect the phone to the mains and leave it plugged in (don't try to turn it on) for about 15 or 20 minutes. It should start up then.


Difference between force stop and kill process I used to use greenify on my rooted Xperia U. The XDA page of Greenify states the difference between the task killer and greenify. Here is what the developer posted.

Unlike any "XXX Task Killer", your device never fall into the
cat-mouse-game of stealthy-running and aggressive killing, which
unnecessarily consumes much battery juice. Since all greenified apps
will be put into hibernation until the next time you launch them,
there is no need to "kill" them during the hibernation.

I know android dont need Task Killer App.
I recently used Greenify on a non rooted phone in which I use hibernate shortcut to greenify app. Whenever I launch the shortcut. It will open the running apps App Info page and the Force Stop button will be automatically pressed (like an automated pearl script)
I didnt see this in my rooted phone. All I will see is Greenify had granted root permission and so and so apps are hibernated.
This confused me. Is there any difference between force stop and task kill. What is the differnce between Greenify and Task kill.
The thing about Task killer are, they kill the apps and if you are launching again the app has to start from the scratch and the task killer runs in background consuming battery. Is force stopping is similar to it? and yes Greenify do run in backfround.

Greenify and Task killer kill your apps, but Greenify also disable the receiver in the greenified apps. This way the apps won't be able to start again stealthily. The pro version can act as a GCM proxy, in which GCM messages are rerouted to Greenify and it can wake a greenified apps, giving you the best of both world (no RAM and CPU usage, yet still able respon to push message) for messaging and email apps.


Flashtool gives DOWNLOAD OK but the tablet is not booting anyway I flashed the firmware with SP FLASH TOOL and it gived me DOWNLOAD OK, but I cannot boot the tablet anyway

Mediatek: MT8163

Android: 6.0

If you downloaded even the preloader.bin your device is done with but if you never ticked preloader that's incompatibility issues between the ROM and the phone


Direct file access on tablet from LAN, as opposed to having to download files first I am attempting to construct a LAN/WLAN to which computers, smartphones and tablet are connected. I would like to be able to access all these devices from from any device via some file manager and open these files locally 'on the fly' as opposed to having to download the files completely before I can open them.

I have done so with desktops and laptops on which either Windows or Ubuntu were installed. 'On the fly' file access works like a charm by means of Windows Explorer or Nautilus using Samba. I now want the same for smartphones and tablets.

I have attempted to do so by means of Samba again. But I do not know how to solve a few problems.

1) When using 'Samba Filesharing for Android' I can only seem to access data on the tablet/smartphone from the desktop/laptop, but not the other way around.
2) When using 'AndSMB' I can not directly open files on the other devices. I have to completely download them first.

I can't seem to find software for the Android smartphones and tablets that works as simple and effective as Windows Explorer or Nautilus, where you can open files locally without having to download them completely first, and do this from any device to any other device on the LAN.

Ftp client lan  samba client cloud storage connects over 3g 4g Edge or Wi-Fi
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.estrongs.android.pop


Where the apps from google play get downloaded? If I am installing an application in windows, I will be downloading the exe and clicking the exe will install the application. Even if I uninstall the application, I can reinstall the application from the downloaded exe.

Now, if I am downloading an app from play store, it is downloading and installing. Will the downloaded apps will be saved in some other space and then installed, if yes where will be the application while downloading? I know the installed application will be in data/app/. I am asking while downloading, and what happens once installation, will the downloaded app be deleted.

In older Android OS versions the apk files downloaded by Google Play Store were usually stored in either /cache/download or /data/local directories.

Now the temporary location is determined by the Download Provider service, and is usually found in /data/data/com.android.providers.downloads/cache directory.  Again, this may be different for various Android OS versions.  It can also vary if manufacturers modified the OS (e.g. Samsung's TouchWiz or HTC's Sense.)


Getting rid of Status Bar on 4.1 I need to get rid of the system bar on Android 4.1 tablets since the tablets will be in a commercial/retail environment and be used for business. My app will be the only app used on the tablet and it needs as much screen real estate as possible for what we're trying to do. I have searched already and I see that there are ways to do it on a rooted tablet, however since this will be in a business and deployed to several hundred or thousand businesses, I cannot have all the tablets rooted for legal and security issues. (Would I really have issues legally though if I were to root them?)

I know that you can dim the status bar and make the buttons dots but that really isn't optimal.

If there is no way to get rid of it, is it possible to change the status bar icons and functionality? I ask this because our app has a status bar on top and we could possibly move it to the bottom and change the icons and functionality of the status bar to match the app's status bar so no screen real estate is lost.

I have read that 4.2 adds some fullscreen functionality for apps. Is this true? Can the status bar be hidden in 4.2 as opposed to 4.1?

No, the bottom system bar (that's the one with the home, back, and recent buttons) can't be hidden on a stock device without rooting it and using a custom system image. The soft home button is very important because it gives you a way to get back to the home screen that can't be overridden by apps: this includes getting out of an unresponsive or broken app.

On 4.0 and above an app author can temporarily hide both bars, but touching the screen or pressing any hard key (including volume) will bring them back, so that doesn't prevent people leaving the app. (And quite right! It would be crazy for stock Android to let one app take over the whole system.)

  The SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_HIDE_NAVIGATION is a new flag that requests the navigation bar hide completely. Be aware that this works only for the navigation bar used by some handsets (it does not hide the system bar on tablets). The navigation bar returns to view as soon as the system receives user input. As such, this mode is useful primarily for video playback or other cases in which the whole screen is needed but user input is not required.

  http://developer.android.com/about/versions/android-4.0.html

It's worth noting that a full kiosk mode (not letting the user leave the app at all) has been announced for Android L, but the app has to be a device administrator to enter this mode.


Why can't my Galaxy S7 send and receive messages simultaneously? So I've had my S7 for several months now, and by and far the most annoying thing is that it can't seem to send a message while simultaneously receiving a message. Way too often I'll be texting back and forth with a friend, and I'll hit send at the same time my phone receives a new text message. This causes my message to "spin" (the circle next to it spins) for about thirty seconds, before the notification about the message failing to send appears. It's super annoying, because I'll usually copy & paste the text and send a new message before the failed message notification even appears, because the new one will send instantly, while the other still is spinning!

Is this a common issue for the S7? I don't recall it happening with my Galaxy S4. Or is this expected behavior for the messaging app?

This is not your mobile phone's problem, but it is the issue with service provider, which don't allow this to be done. There is a point where it gives a few seconds to check if there are any stuck messages. It may also be the messaging app your using which might have a bug. During call, do you receive messages ?


Is it possible to specify multiple home pages for the default android browser? That is, I want my browser to start with two tabs open, set to two different URLs.
I have tried putting "google.com | facebook.com" into the URL but that does not seem to achieve the intended effect.

No, it's not possible.

How did I get such result? As always I started to google this possibility but found nothing interesting. So I decided to check Android Browser source code. If you want you can download it by typing in console:

git clone https://android.googlesource.com/platform/packages/apps/Browser

After 5-10 minutes (I'm not new in programming) of looking repository I found 2 facts:

1) The homepage is saved as one String (Java type).

2) The homepage is opening by calling this function (in Controller.java):

@Override
public Tab openTabToHomePage() {
    return openTab(mSettings.getHomePage(), false, true, false);
}

So as you see (If you know programming a bit) it returns one tab, not several (like List<Tab>).


BOOTLOADER - USB Device Not Recognized I am currently using a ROOTED "Huawei MediaPad 7 Lite" tablet and am having issues entering the bootloader. When powered on and connected to a PC, the device is seen in adb using the command adb devices (driver is working). However, when I try to enter the bootloader, adb reboot bootloader, the device malfunctions in windows:

The same occurs when the tablet is powered off, and the power and volume up keys are held down (entering bootloader manually). In 'Device Manager', there are NO 'Unknown Devices' missing drivers. Instead, there is an issue with the USB controller:

Due to this malfunction, I cannot install a driver for the tablet when in bootloader mode. To clarify, the tablet works OK when powered on and connected to a PC, but malfunctions when in bootloader mode. I have tried this on 3 different computers with 4 different MicroUSB cables with no success.
I also have a second identical MediaPad 7 Lite, and in trying the above steps also has the same problems. It seems Huawei have done this as a preventative measure (meaning it is a device specific issue), but does anyone know how to make the PC recognise this device properly when in bootloader?
EDIT: The bootloader screen is unusual. Without the cable connected, when the bootloader is entered (by pressing power with volume up & down), the following options exist:

continuing to hold volume up brings up a screen which is used to update the tablet software from a file on the external MicroSD card
continuing to hold volume down initiates an automatic recovery process
releasing all buttons reboots the tablet automatically after a few seconds

With all of the above options, I tried plugging the tablet into my PC. However, Windows does not recognize the tablet at all (nothing pops up).

As the device has failed to be recognised correctly (failed) I would suggest uninstalling the device from windows or updating the driver, however looking up device id in this forum,suggests various other options could fix the problem.


Stop non-VPN traffic from going through VPN I have set up a L2TP/IPSec VPN set up on my phone. Now all my network traffic goes through the VPN. However I am not a fan of that. Not only does it add unnecessary overhead, it also makes me unable to access any host in my current LAN. I only want traffic to and from VPN hosts to go through the actual VPN. (or even better, a setting to toggle that). (How) can I do that without rooting my phone?

Okay, with the help of a friend i figured it out myself. Basicly you have to go to advanced settings of the VPN profile and put the subnet of the VPN as forwarding route.

If you want to have an easy time to change inbetween tunneling everything and not, i'd say the best approach is to create two profiles.


How to make a restore image / export ISO to restore later? My Samsung galaxy S6 edge+ from Verizon came along with a lot of bloatware I really do not need.

First of all it has many pre-installed apps from google which is sadly the case for every android phone I bought till date. These apps can only be disabled under normal circumstances and cannot be uninstalled.
Secondly there are apps from Samsung as Galaxy add-ons which I know I will never use.
And lastly there are apps from Verizon like Verizon tones etc.

Saddest part is that most of them are redundant like I have two browsers (Chrome and Samsung Internet), two galleries (Google Photos and Samsung Gallery) and the list goes on. They eats up a lot of storage even when I have cleared all their data and disabled them. I decided to root my phone and uninstalled all unnecessary apps. Now everything is good.

But now I want to reset my phone and I know it will wipe out the whole content thing but will restore my phone to its initial state. Initial state means return of all those useless apps too. All settings, launcher preferences, gestures and automation things gone. Do I need to repeat the whole thing from  very beginning to regain current state? So My question is:

Is'nt there a way that I simply make a restore image or back up my current OS state to somewhere or export an ISO or whatever which I can restore later on to surpass all those steps?

Answering the last paragraph of your question first

Since you have rooted the device, flash a custom recovery meant for your device  (Google on XDA for your specific make and model) and take a nandroid backup (click on that tag and read the wiki) and restore /system to restore the way it is

Next, factory-reset will not undo the changes you made to the /system, it only affects /data. Which means apps you uninstalled will not be installed but yes your launcher settings will not survive. That's why it's better to go for Nandroid backup to restore with minimum effort

Edit Your device has official TWRP. Make sure you read the dm-verity warning


How do I root my galaxy S 9 + I need help, I have tried a few things like towlroot, but  it wont let it install. I download  the apk file then on the permissions i clicked ok then install this is protected by Google play. Then if i keep trying to install it, it just keeps saying app not installed

1.Enable Developer Option (settings - about phone - Software information - Tap 7 times on build number to activate developer option in settings menu)

2.Enable OEM Unlock from developer option (Currently no workaround for those who doesn't have this option)

3.Download and copy G965F_root_OEM_issue_devices_V* .zip to Ext SD card

4.Download TWRP for S9+

5.Switch Off device

6.Press Vol down + Bixby + Power to reboot to download mode, press volume up when asked to continue to download mode

7.Download Odin and open it, Disable 'Auto reboot' from option menu of Odin

8.Select TWRP (tar image) with AP tab of Odin and Start

9.Once Successfully flashed, you will see 'Passed' in Odin tab

10.Disconnect device and hold Vol down + power till screen goes off, Now immediately press Vol Up + Bixby + Power to reboot to TWRP

11.Select to allow modification

12.From TWRP, Select WIPE menu - Then FORMAT DATA - You need to type 'yes' to perform wipe. WARNING : This will erase all data including Int SD storage from device

13.Once format device completes, go back and select REBOOT' Menu and then - 'RECOVERY', This will reboot to TWRP again

14.Now select Install and navigate path to Ext SD card - N965F_root_OEM_issue_devices.zip, you have copied earlier, select desired root method and select 'OEM Patch' option if your device have OEM issue. If you are not sure about this then better select 'OEM Patch', this will prevent losing OEM unlock option and so prevent 'custom binary error'

Select one of rooting method in aroma (superSu/Magisk)
For SuperSU to work select kernel option (patch stock kernel)

17.Once flash successfully finish, Reboot to System
If you have selected Magisk then Magisk app may appear in drawer after one reboot.

Open settings - Developer option - Look for OEM Unlock option. If it is there, it is safe to reboot device.


Is dhcpcd used in newer Android versions? How to configure new DHCP client? Basically, there's a file /etc/dhcpcd/dhcpcd.conf . Is this file or dhcpcd used at all? My phone runs Android 7.1.2 and I wanted to change the default hostname using the hostname somename line in this file, but it looks like it was ignored (there was no change in dhcp request).

I've read something about "legacy Android DHCP client" in the dev options, but I don't have this position there, and also I couldn't find anything about the modern DHCP client, which I think is used now - does it have any config file like dhcpcd?

dhcpcd is not used in Android 6+, it was deprecated in favor of Java DHCP client. "Legacy DHCP client" option was available during transition phase but was removed in Android 7 (1, 2). Quoted from source:

  The legacy DHCP client has been removed from the platform. The only DHCP client that the platform supports is the DHCP client introduced in M.

net.hostname is set (up to Android 7) by ConnectivityService (runs in Java stack), and DhcpClient uses it (at least up to Android 10). You can set it manually using setprop command or add in some init's .rc file to set on every boot.

  does it have any config file like dhcpcd?

No. Java processes running in system_server are not configurable except through some command-line tools e.g. /system/bin/service. However no method is available to set net.hostname.

RELATED:

How do I change the name of my Android device?
How to ping a local network host by hostname?


Missing menu 'About>Software Updates' on Stock HTC One M8 Android 5.0.1 In the 'Settings > About' there is no 'Software Updates' on my phone. I'm also expecting to receive Android 5.1 OTA update, and nothing comes. Why is there no
'Software Updates' menu on my phone (what did I do to end up here?) and how do I bring it back?
I know now that if I restore both system and data (and boot) then the update menu is there, and I receive an OTA. If I don't restore the data partition (only system+boot) then the update menu is not there and there is no OTA. It is not normal, but how can I modify my Data partition to make the software updates available again?
Device

HTC One M8
5.0.1 Stock System - but I have once modified a file on system partition, and then restored original System+Boot, but not restored original Data partition from before time of modifying system.
TWRP recovery

History - What did I do?
I installed stock android on S-ON unlocked phone and OTA'ed to 5.0.1. I then installed TWRP, made backup of all partitions. This is the backup I can now go back to. I then rooted phone, installed my apps with titanium backup, and also applied an sdcard fix editing /etc/permissions. The sdcard fix didn't work, but it was an edit of /system, so might be relevant. I didn't notice when the update menu disappeared. On another phone, HTC One m7, I did the same - except the sdcard fix, and the update menu is still there
When I now revert to stock /system, the update menu+OTA does not reappear, but if I restore /data as well I see the update menu+OTA. If I then root phone and apply sdcard fix the update menu and OTA are still there. Though I suspect that the update-menu might vanish sometime in the future after modifying system, and its just a question of it not having realised that /system is modified (pure speculation).
Note on TWRP recovery
I know I wont be able to install the OTA while on TWRP but the OTA should be available, so I see no point reverting to stock recovery before its working again.

Because you have written to the /system partition, it has locked due to the way how updates are installed, they just patch files ie. NO full system image and thus, to prevent bootloops, bricking, malfunction etc., they simply remove the OTA option.

Also: This state is saved and never checked again (because if you have tinkered /system it is intentionally permanent. Restoring /data removes this information and allows a check by the system.

It's similar to how Samsung phones detect if they have been modified; it's not instantly after the installation/reboot, but rather after a few checks (file existence, permissions, sizes, dates, hashsums etc.). This may or may not require some time to finish.

Last note: The availability/existence and extent of those checks may vary depending on the ROM's revision, the model and additional modifications by carriers or the manufacturer itself.


HTC Thunderbolt: Why do I have serious text messaging and battery problems? I just bought a Verizon HTC Thunderbolt Android phone. My battery lasts just 3 or 4 hours... the phone has to basically be plugged all the time. Any suggestions on how to improve this situation?
Also, I have problems receiving text messages... i only receive the first few words of each message. Have you experienced similar problems?
Thanks

Regarding the battery, there's an LTE toggle on the market which might help. You can find a blog post about it here. This is a major culprit, and from what I've seen there's no native way to disable LTE as you can WiMAX on Sprint's phones (I don't own an Thunderbolt, I've just been reading about them so I'm not sure how accurate this is). That being said, battery life has been a pretty common complaint with the Thunderbolt thus far.

For text messages you could try a new SMS client and see if it helps. Handcent seems to be the popular choice (I'm a fan of it), but there's also some others like ChompSMS or Go SMS. It may be an issue you'd need to bring up with Verizon, though, if the problem persists across SMS clients.


How to re-run the "app optimization" process after upgrading to a higher version of Android? After each OTA Android upgrade, I get a message saying "Optimizing app x of xxx" that takes a while. The last time I upgraded, the battery ran out during the optimization process (not during the upgrade itself, which I know it's dangerous). After rebooting the phone the "optimization" process didn't carry on.

So, how can I start that process by itself without upgrading anything? (my Android is already up to date).

Go into the recovery (you need to boot the phone while pressing several buttons - you'll need to google which one is set for your device - an example would be Volume down + Home) and delete the "Dalvik cache". Then restart your phone. Now the optimizing process should start again.

But I personally recommend to not do that - it can't hurt, but if your phone works well you don't need this, because it's just like a Backup of your app installation files.


Sony Z1 Compact: will encrypting my phone disable the camera button? I just bought a Sony Z1 Compact with Android 4.4. It has a special camera button on the side. When the phone is off, you can press this button for a longer time, and the camera apps opens directly, even when you have a PIN lock. The lock is not disabled, only for this app. So after making a picture, when you try to open the image, you first have to enter the PIN.

I would like to encrypt the phone, but I'm afraid that this will disable this function. Does anybody knows how this works?

Update: I encrypted the phone plus external SD card, and the camera button still works.

I am pretty sure that you wont lose the functionality of lock screen camera. But check once before encrypting because you need to hard reset/repair to decrypt xperia phones.


Uninstalled system applications appear after reboot on HTC Desire X I have tried a lot of things which mentioned in different forums such as:

delete using root ES File Explorer.
delete apk files from /system/app.
clear Dalvik cache after uninstall (manually removing /data/dalvik-cache and /cache/dalvik-cache and using CWM recovery.
all mentioned earlier together several times.
Even reinstall ROM wiping data/factory reset and clearing Dalvik cache using recovery.

But no result. And  I get something like this on startup if I clear Dalvik
 cache:

So there is a location from where OS gets these apps, isn't it? How can I get rid of these redundant apps?

Update:

Here a link where I downloaded ROM: https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2249760

I fixed it by enabling S-OFF on my device. Here more details https://androidforums.com/threads/uninstalled-system-applications-appear-after-reboot-on-htc-desire-x.1178166/#post-7596175


How can I get Google Maps on Android to show metric units? Google Maps always shows me distance values for direction results / navigation in miles, although it does show me a scale on the map itself in metric units. I rather prefer to get my direction distances in metres/kilometres. Is there any way to achieve this in Google Maps? I searched a bit for this and suggestions seem to be to change locale in Settings > Language and Keyboard. Mine is currently set to English UK.

I'm in Canada and recently made a road trip to the states.  When I'm planning a trip starting in Canada, the whole trip is in km, even if it crosses into the US.  If the trip starts in the US, however, it shows everything in miles, even if it crosses into Canada.  It appears that it's not the location set in your phone but rather the location of the phone itself (if using "my location" as the departure point - otherwise it's just the departure point).

You can try this out by plotting a trip from a "miles" country to a "km" country and then clicking the reverse trip.  The units changed with me.


Unable to overwrite CWM with TWRP I'm trying to get TWRP running instead of CWM on my HTX One X.
When flashing the recovery through fastboot, and rebooting the phone - the bootloader choice for "recovery" goes straight to CWM.

I tried flashing TWRP through GooManager, and the same thing happens.
It kinda seems like the files doesn't get overwritten...

This all started because I wanted to swap the custom rom running (at the moment it's Cyanogen 10.2.0). But even overwriting the boot.img file seems impossible, since all other ROMs just throws the phone in to a bootloop.

The same happens when trying to update to Cyanogen 10.2.1.. (As I've seen many have to manually flash a new boot.img through fastboot)

Any thoughts on how to solve such a case?

Edit 1 ->
Commands ran in fastboot:

fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot reboot

Started phone in bootloader and selected "Recovery" from the menu. CWM shows up and no sign of TWRP.

When trying to flash the new Roms (not cyanogen), I flashed the accompanying boot.img through fastboot.

fastboot flash boot boot.img

No luck, and it get stuck on the HTC-Screen..

I found, that in my case flashing with heimdall did the deal. In my case, the CM recovery was in the KERNEL partition, so reflashing that partition with an apropriate zImage did the trick for me. The command I used:

sudo heimdall flash --KERNEL zImage


Retrieving phone conversations I know this is a shot in the dark, but I had a phone call yesterday that I really want to retrieve it.

Can I phone up my provider (Vodafone) and ask for the recording? How do I go about doing this? Or is the conversation stored locally on my Galaxy S3?

No, your provider can't give you a recording of your phone call, and it's not saved on the phone by default.

There are a zillion apps on Google Play for recording phone calls, but there are two things to be aware of:-

Some phones simply can't record calls. This is because the "cellphone chip" in your phone has direct access to the microphone and speaker, so the phone call sounds don't ever pass through Android's phone system. If your phone was designed this way, probably you can record your side of the call (because Android still has access to the microphone), but not the other side. It doesn't matter which call recording app you use, because it's a limitation of the hardware.
In some countries, it's illegal to record a phone call without the consent of the other participant(s). Before doing anything, you should check, especially if you intend to use the recording as evidence to confront the other participant later or in a legal dispute.


Is there anyway to access and write data to the internal storage or System Storage from PC? I tried to detect my Android storage in Windows. But Windows only detect one storage device, which is my external storage (when activated). How do I actually activate or share the internal storage, so that I could gain access the internal storage and write data onto it?

Final Objective:

Write binary data from PC into both internal and external storage.

Note:

For External: I found several ways of doing it. One is to Remove the external memory and plug it into the PC card reader and start writing. or we could share the storage media.

For Internal: I couldn't even detect the storage from the device nor I don't know how to remove the memory. Should it be while the power is off or on to be able to detect the internal memory from PC? Should I have a root access to the phone before able to do it? (I tried rooting the phone, but no luck)

There are many storage locations in an Android device (specially in Samsung Galaxy - series)..

Storage Locations which don't require root access:

External SD: If your device supports removable MicroSD card, its mounted on /mnt/sdcard/external_sd (also hard linked at /sdcard/external_sd).
Internal SD (also labeled as USB Storage): This is mounted at /mnt/sdcard (also hard linked at /sdcard).

You can access File System of device over Wi-Fi. To reach storage locations, just follow the paths. Here, you can write anything without problem, but there may be problem deleting files/directories here due to limited FTP permissions (follow last part of answer to remove this limitation). If you access file systems using USB connection, there shouldn't be any permission problem.

Storage Locations which require root access:

System Storage: Its protected storage of system reserved for apps. e.g. /data partition.
ROM: Its the storage where firmware files can be located. e.g. /system partition.

To write here, you do need root access. If your device isn't rooted, you are out of luck. If you are rooted, you can use Root Explorer or ES File Explorer to write anything here. Note: You need to mount some partitions with R/W access to write. e.g. /data partition is already mounted with R/W access, but /system and /dbdata partitions are mounted with R/O access.

Accessing them on PC is somewhat tricky: Use Terminal Emulator to mount the partition with R/W access permanently (if its not). Install a native linux FTP server & execute it under root user. Make sure to configure FTP server for accessing the location you want to access. Done! You can now access this location over wi-fi using any FTP client.

Update:
Its not a concern for questioner, but its worth mentioning: When internal SD is not present, removable MicroSD card might be mounted on /mnt/sdcard (also hard linked at /sdcard). And, all these mount points are decided by manufacturers, firmwares and may be different. So, its always better to check with mount command in Terminal Emulator.


Unable to uninstall apps for secondary account I have a Nexus 10 on which I have a master account, and a secondary  (restricted) account for my kids.

Recently, one of them got hold of it while it was logged in and installed a bunch of games. I removed them again — or so I thought. I just found out that, while they don't show up in the list of apps tray, they do show up among the app permissions for the secondary account, as well as in the list of apps available via settings -> apps.

I can't uninstall them from either location. While I suspect I can I uninstall them from the secondary account, how do I know they're really gone if I do so?

Shouldn't I be able to uninstall them from the master account?

Go to Settings > Application Manager > Downloaded under both accounts and uninstall the app(s).


Can I connect my Android mini PC to my Laptop as a monitor ? How? I am buying a new Android Mini PC : http://uae.souq.com/ae-en/mk802-iv-rk3188-quad-core-cortex-a9-android-wifi-mini-pc-4995376/i/

How can I connect my Android Mini PC to my Laptop ? My Laptop only has a VGA Port.

Any Help would be appreciated.

In short, no. You could install a VNC server, which would let you use a VNC client on your laptop to connect to the "mini PC" over Wi-Fi, and use the laptop's keyboard, mouse, and screen to control the "mini PC", but there are two caveats. First, you'd need to be able to use the mini PC directly (with a TV or monitor) to be able to install and set up the VNC server; second, you'll probably find that using VNC is not as smooth as using it directly, especially for video-intensive applications like video calling and gaming. Some games may not work at all.

To use the device properly, you'll need a monitor or TV with an HDMI input, or a monitor or TV with some other input (such as DVI) with an adaptor. You can also buy adaptors that have an HDMI input and connect to a PC with USB to make the PC act as a monitor, but they're relatively expensive. Either way, you'll need extra hardware to use this "mini PC".


Remove bloatware from a Samsung Galaxy S4 I just bought a Samsung Galaxy S4 and I'd like to get rid of a lot of applications I found installed but I'm not going to use.

What options do I have?

Surfing the web it seems that I cannot do it without rooting and the only option I have is to disable the applications I don't want. Is that the only option?

Alternatively I saw that a lot of web site links to TrulyClean but it seems to be discontinued.
Is there any alternative script I should look for?

I see that there is the possibility to install other ROMs (Maybe the one that Google uses for the version of the device it sells on the play store). Would that help me getting rid of all the bloatware?

These were the options I found searching the web, would you recommend me to go down for any of these three paths or is there any better option?
I'd like to know which are the pros and cons of each of them so that I can come up with the best decision for my needs.

DjeMBeY has created a custom ROM on XDA which contains stock ROM, minus the bloatware. It is pre-rooted; once you flash it, you also get root. There is also a Google Play edition if that's what you want.


How can I access Google Docs spreadsheets in Android? I have spreadsheets in Google Docs and I want to access them without using the browser.  How can I do this?

There is an application on the Android Market called "MS GDocs" which is good but it's only for documents, not for spreadsheets.

There is now an actual Google Docs application in the Market made by Google. You can take a look at it in the Market online here: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.google.android.apps.docs&feature=search_result - I've used it and it's pretty similar to the online look, but with a more native feel. Hopefully, this is what you're looking for!


How to merge text conversations from multiple numbers into a single one? I have a handful of people who have more than two numbers they contact me from, and I find it annoying to have so many different conversations for one person. I'm looking for a way (preferably, an app) that would let me just have one 'conversation' and just change the number.

I had a phone that did this automatically. I'm 99% sure it was a dual-sim phone, so I'm pretty sure it's possible to do.

To answer your question

Open Contacts
Find Contact A's Name.
Click Edit and add an addition number to contact A, number Two.
Click Mobile, Home or Work phone.
Save the contact with multiple Numbers.

It's all pretty straight forward for an experienced human being... :)

Reloading messages should attach the two conversations as one, if not, future conversations will be marked as the same contact.


Store and retrieve wifi password without installing an app So I do a lot of development for Android these days and a lot of it involves reformatting my phone repeatedly, and then that leads to me re-entering my wifi password each time. This, over the course of a lot of time, is adding up to quite a lot of time spent entering my wifi password.

So what I am looking for is a way to get past that without having to download an app. Is there a way to get internet to my device on boot, without entering my wifi credentials. I'll take any way that's much faster, if I can transmit my password via NFC, if I can share it from another device, if I can wire my internet through USB directly. I have not found a way to do any of these things without installing additional apps. Also, I need to consider security still, so getting rid of the wifi password is also not an option, sadly.

Android's debugging bridge adb supports backup/restore:

  adb backup -f wifisettings.bak

presents you a message on screen which you need to confirm (and maybe enter a passphrase) to create the backup.

  adb restore wifisettings.bak

restores it. Just set up your phone to a very simple initial state (nothing else besides the wifi settings, or so). Then backup. adb also supports partial backups (adb -f backup.bak com.app.name), but the wifi settings are not part of a particular app, at least I haven't figured out which package to backup to catch the wifi settings.

Another way: Is your phone rooted? Then "adb push stored_wpa_supplicant.conf /data/misc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf" will restore your password file.


Sharing files between users in 4.2.1 I have a Google Nexus 7, unrooted, running stock 4.2.1. I have set it up for two user and we seems to be enjoying it.

Recently I ran into an issue about sharing files. In User1's account I copied few PDFs into \sdcard\PDFs folder and was able to use it well.

When I switched to User2's account, I could not see the folder \sdcard\PDFs at all. Surprisingly, I could not see it even when through computer when Nexus 7 is connected as Portable media player.

I guess this can be achieved by granting sufficient access by escalating to root, which needs rooted device - but I am not sure.

My questions:

Are there any way I can share files between users of the same tablet without using Internet (like using email, dropbox etc) or transferring to some repository like PC etc?
If I root, can I change the permission to such user created folders and access files from other user's account or elevating as root?

Update: Found a link that asks same question - but the answer given is not applicable for files rather works for apps, not useful.

After a lot of trial and error, I  discovered that the Android/obb folder is automatically shared among users.

It's not ideal, but it's better than a cloud storage option for large files.


What is the meaning of the set of Play Store icons at the top of the screen? Why are there a set of Google Play Store icons at the top of an Android (Nexus 10) screen?  What do they mean?

Although you don't have a screenshot, they are most likely apps that have recently been installed, updated, or have updates ready. I can give you more specific help if you post a screenshot.


Upgraded to Marshmallow, now I can't merge my conversations in Hangouts I have a 2014 VZW Moto X that I recently unlocked the bootloader on. So I upgraded to CM 13. Previously, when I was on Lolipop I used Hangouts as my default texting app. The majority of people I was talking to from within Hangouts was over SMS, but a a few Google Chat conversations were in there too. I was always able to send and SMS from my phone number to any other phone number.

Now, on Marshmallow, it seems I need to switch over to my "SMS" profile in order to see my texts and to send texts via my carrier number, and to see my Google Chats conversations I have to switch over to my gmail account. The account switching it all from within Hangouts, at the top of the sidebar. Also, to access the Hangouts dialer I need to be switched over to my gmail account. This was never the case before. I think back on Lolipop I was always signed in as my gmail account, so I had access to the dialer, google chats, but also my carrier SMS messages.

I have "Merged Conversations" enabled, and Hangouts is my default texting application. Is there some way I can get back to how I was using Hangouts before? With all my SMS and Google Chat messages in one list?

Thanks!

Of course, as soon as a I post this I figure out the answer.

I ahd to go into my SMS settings from within Hangouts and change the "Default SMS messaging account" to my gmail and "Send SMS from" to my carrier number.

Now there are no longer two accounts to switch between in the menu, and all my Google Chat and text messages are in one list. I also have to ability to switch over to the dialer.


Read content of .thumbdata file I don't know how I managed to delete all my pictures and unfortunately, it took me a few days to find out they where gone. I tried to recover them with DiskDigger, but I didn't have much luck with it (most of them were damaged).

I found 2 400Mb+ files called .thumbdata in the DCIM\.thumbnails folder and I was wondering if there is a way to extract data/thumbnails from it.

It contains 96x96 pixel versions of your photos. The file is simply a concatenation of JPEG files. You can split it into individual JPG files by searching for the signatures indicating the start and end of a JPG file, i.e. the two bytes FF D8 for the start and FF D9 as the end. If you can transfer the file to your computer and you can access Python, the following Python code will extract the files (name the file thumbdata3.dat):

#!/usr/bin/python

"""extract files from Android thumbdata3 file"""

f=open('thumbdata3.dat','rb')
tdata = f.read()
f.close()

ss = '\xff\xd8'
se = '\xff\xd9'

count = 0
start = 0
while True:
    x1 = tdata.find(ss,start)
    if x1 < 0:
        break
    x2 = tdata.find(se,x1)
    jpg = tdata[x1:x2+1]
    count += 1
    fname = 'extracted%d03.jpg' % (count)
    fw = open(fname,'wb')
    fw.write(jpg)
    fw.close()
    start = x2+2

The program will save the files with the names extractednnn.jpg, where nnn is a number.


Website auto redirects to playstore app I have runkeeper installed and within the app they direct yoy to there website to create routes. However when I browse to runkeeper.com it redirects me to the playstore app automatically.  How can I force to open and browse the website?

Go to Settings->Applications, search for your browser and clean default settings


Auto-hide notification bar while apps are open With a custom launcher, you can auto-hide the notification bar on the home screen and swipe down to make it re-appear. However when you open an app, the notification bar re-appears.

Is there any way to hide the notification bar on non-rooted device?

The feature is called "immersive mode" and was first introduced in Android 4.4 KitKat.

For official method, there is no way to use this in all apps, and only the developers of the app may decide to implement it or not.

However, there are some 3rd-party apps that can force immersive mode in all apps:

GMD Full Screen Immersive Mode (free, Pro version with IAP). Follow the instruction on WonderHowTo to install and customize the app.
Immersive Full-Screen Mode (paid app).
(For the sake of completeness), Xposed Framework with "Immerse Me" module (require ROOT). Follow the instruction on phoneArena.com for step-by-step installation.

Note that by using these apps, your keyboard may not work properly.

From BGR,

  Due to some security features in Android, users will not have access to the keyboard in many apps while in immersive mode.

From WonderHowTo

  Beware that your keyboard may not work in Immersive Mode, which is why having the toggle in the notification shade is so handy.


How to connect an android device to a VPN? I have Xperia mini running ICS 4.0.3. I want to connect to a VPN for which I have server address(host) , group name, group passwrod(pre-shared key). but I still couldn't connect to it via my Xperia mini where as the VPN is able to connect in desktop. I have tried in IPsec PSK.

If your company is licensed for it, Cisco's AnyConnect ICS+ should work for you. Alternatively, ICS should support the correct configuration out of the box, but not all vendors have implemented this properly.

If you can't get it to work correctly using ICS's IPSEC support, you can try VPNC Widget, but it requires root, and if your phone doesn't have the TUN module built-in, it won't work.


Can I open a route I created in Google Maps in Navigation? I'd love to be able to open that map on my phone in such a way that I can get turn-by-turn navigation, like what is available in the Navigation app.

However, despite my experiments, this seems to be impossible. I would have thought Navigation and Maps would be based on the same formats and code, but there appears to be a wall between them.

Is there any way I can create, edit, and save a map on the Desktop, and then have it viewable on my phone for turn-by-turn navigation?

The key is that I use this for biking, and I can not see my phone while I'm riding. So I want to have an earpiece and be able to hear instructions for turns.

Google Maps for Android does have a bicycle option.  You just have to select it from the drop down menu.


Android browser TLS1.0 support Is there a browser for Android 7 that supports TLS1.0 and SSLv3?
I would need it to access my server's iLO 2 console.

Thanks in advance.

Update: Pyrope and UC Browser work perfectly.


How can I access USB tethered device from WiFi hotspot? So I found out the hard way that the USB tether IP is 192.168.52.x and the WiFi addresses are 192.168.53.x.

My goal is to be able to access the USB tethered device (Raspberry Pi) from WiFi as if it's the same network.

If I had to specific ports, that'd be ok, but I'd like to avoid that if possible. I found this XDA post about reverse tethering (sharing a PC's internet connection over Android WiFi) which I think is really close to what I need, but in a different configuration.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

To add further clarification, let's say there are three devices: an Android phone, a Raspberry Pi, and a Macbook. The Raspberry Pi is tethered via USB to the phone. The Macbook is connected to the phone via WiFi. I want to connect to the Raspberry Pi from the Macbook.

I had the same problem: Raspberry Pi B+, laptop, and android phone. I wanted to use putty from laptop to administrate the Pi.
Solution was:

Install proxy server on android: Proxy server
Install a software to find out network connections of android, for me this worked: Ping and DNS
Connect Pi to android phone through USB tethering. How to: Accessing Internet from Pi using USB Tethering of Android - Raspberry Pi Forums
Connect laptop to android phone using WIFI hotspot

Now your phone sees both devices, but Pi cannot see laptop. Solution is to forward packages from laptop to Pi using any relevant phone application (like proxy server mentioned above)
Let's assume that we mainly need to do SSH from laptop to Pi using Putty. So at the end we should have:
LaptopPutty->AndroidProxyServer->Pi
AndroidProxyServer will accept connections from LaptopPutty on XX port
then AndroidProxyServer will forward the packages to Pi on port 22 (the SSH port)

Run Ping and DNS->network on android and find out what IP address does your Pi, and android phone have. (you will use both later)

Android proxy server setup:

open app
Add a server
Name: any you like
Port: any you like, it will be used in Putty (XX)
Connection time out: put something huge like 999999, otherwise server will terminate your connection in the middle of some calibrations to your pi
Switch to "Rules" tab on the top of the app
Add a rule
Host: your laptop name. (proxyserver will apply rule if connection comes from this host; laptop name could be found by "whoami" command in windows cmd.)
Forward to host:IP address of the Pi, found in step 5
Forward to port:22

Run the Android proxy server

on laptop run Putty, and under session set:

Host Name (or IP address):Ip address of your Android phone, which you found in step 5
Port: XX, the one you put when setting up Android proxy server in step 6
Connection type:SSH

Should be working now.


Sync birthdays from Facebook to Android contacts Many people want to have their Facebook contacts synced with their Android contacts, including information such as birthday and so on.

I have the official Facebook app installed on my Android 2.3.3 phone and it automatically syncs the email address and profile picture from Facebook. But it doesn't sync the birthdays.

So I chose the iCal approach so that you export your Facebook calendar and import it to the Google calendar (web interface).

But some days ago, someone told me that you can sync your Facebook birthdays with your Android contacts simply by adding the account in your "Accounts" settings. Is this true? How does it work? For me, it just syncs the photo and the email, as I've said.

As far as i'm aware, you can't actually sync the birthdays to your contacts. It is however possible to sync your Facebook Events (including birthdays) to your Android calendar. All you need to do is add your Facebook Calendar to your Google Calendar. You can find out how to do this here


Add static IP settings to custom rom I'm trying to store default static ip settings in a custom rom.

I write the SSID and Password to /etc/wifi/wpa_supplicant.conf and that works well for Wi-Fi

But how do I add the static IP settings (gateway, fixed ip) for Wi-Fi (and Ethernet)?

Save the following in one of the init scripts in the ROM

ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.100 netmask 255.255.255.0
route add default gw 192.168.1.1 dev eth0
setprop net.dns1 192.168.1.1
ip addr show
ip route show

Where eth0 in this case, is an ethernet adapter attached via USB.


How can I restore a Whatsapp backup without uninstalling it (Whatsapp is a system app)? Could I just go to app settings and click clear data?

If you have a WhatsApp backup in Google drive or a local backup, and you'd like to restore it, all you have to do is clear data for WhatsApp. To do that, go to settings → apps → WhatsApp → storage → clear data.

Now, when you open WhatsApp, it well be as if you have just download the app. It will ask to verify your phone number, and it will then give you the option to restore your chats.


How is rooting done under the hood? I recently rooted my device which got me curious regarding the process. I would really like to understand how rooting applications work under the hood. Articles I have found over the internet have been very vague. I really would like to root my device all by myself. How can I get started with the same? Id really appreciate some guidance and/or pointers.

Basically, it involves exploiting some vulnerabilities(for example, a buffer overflow) in Linux kernel to gain advanced privileges. The exact technique used varies with devices and Android versions. This Stackoverflow answer should give some idea. Androidcentral has a page that gives more information on root.


Using external DVD player with Nexus 7 I would like to be able to use my external DVD player with my Nexus 7 tablet, is there a plug-in for that or a mount?

Yes it is possible if your DVD player has USB output, something like this one.

If you have one, you have to use an USB OTG cable (USB female to MicroUSB male) to connect your devices.

E.g.: As you can see in the video, it is working even without root access with a portable Samsung DVD player: Samsung Optical Smart Hub and a Nexus 7 with stock Android.

If you DVD player hasn't USB output I think there is a very little chance to connect them to each other directly.


The difference between NFC mode on Android (e.g. card mode, P2P mode) On my Samsung Galaxy Note 4, there are two NFC modes: card mode and P2P mode.

What is the purpose of these modes? Is there any other modes in NFC?

There are 3 NFC modes.
Taken directly from official Android Developer - Near Field Communication,

Android-powered devices with NFC simultaneously support three main modes of operation:

Reader/writer mode, allowing the NFC device to read and/or write passive NFC tags and stickers.
P2P mode, allowing the NFC device to exchange data with other NFC peers; this operation mode is used by Android Beam.
Card emulation mode, allowing the NFC device itself to act as an NFC card. The emulated NFC card can then be accessed by an external NFC reader, such as an NFC point-of-sale terminal.

To make it more easier to understand, Android Authority has a down-to-earth explanation,

In order to determine what sort of information is to be exchanged between devices, the NFC standard currently has three distinct modes of operation for compliant devices. Perhaps the most common use in smartphones is the peer-to-peer mode, which allows two NFC-enabled devices to exchange various pieces of information between each other. In this mode both devices switch between active, when sending data, and passive states when receiving.
Read/write mode, on the other hand, is a one way data transmission, where the active device, possibly your smartphone, links up with another device in order to read information from it. This is the mode used when you interact with an NFC advert tag.
The final mode of operation is card emulation, whereby the NFC device can be used like a smart or contactless credit card in order to make payments or tap into public transport systems.


Trying to unlock & access a password locked Android cell phone that has screen damage on a small section so I can't input the last # of password I've tried going around the password with some of those programs they have advertised, where they claim it will eliminate the password requirement and get you right into your Android device. What I don't quite understand is what were they thinking of when in the procedures, one of the steps will involve changing the settings in the locked Android (e.g. Debugging must be on, or load this program onto the locked Android....)  Did someone actually go through some of these processes before releasing program? I mean, how are you supposed to get into the settings of a phone you're locked out of, or let alone, load a program or app onto the android you're trying to unlock? I wanna see that happen.
So anyway, I have an android cell phone, I dropped it, screen cracked and part of the screen has no capacity to input anything, it's like a dead area; screen works there, but no touch entry.
Is there any way of eliminating the passcode step, get into it, and load it up with mirror app to view and control the device? And, getting another device to recognize the locked device via USB wire connect.

Things I have done:

Remote into the device
Connect a peripheral input device
Use ADB to send inputs (added bonus of being scriptable and/or AHK/Rainmeter combo)
Use the accessibility tools Assistant Menu or Universal Switches
Screen casting
Specific to Samsung Note series: the phone screen uses two separate touch digitizers.  If one is broken (e.g., touch), the other (in this case the magnetic induction digitizer) may still be functioning.


How to cancel a download on Android 4.4 KitKat I (accidentally) started downloading a 350 MB file from Google Chrome and I can't find the option to stop it, the downloads app just shows the files that have already finished but not the downloads in progress. The notification on my top bar just opens the downloads app.

I just reproduced the steps needed to do this, last two steps may be the interesting ones:

Open Google Chrome (v39)
Start a large download (http://ipv4.download.thinkbroadband.com/1GB.zip)
Wait a moment (it took some seconds for a notification to appear)
Pull down the notification bar and click on the download entry
You are taken to the download manager
Long click on the corresponding entry
Choose the trash bin from the top action bar

In case this does not work for you: Please edit your answer with your exact device model, Chrome and Android version number.
If you are doing a lot of downloads on your Android device consider installing a download manager like share downloader. It also supports pause and resume.


Network Locked SIM card on Unlocked Note 9 Have a Note9 on Tesco mobile, they have confirmned it is unlocked. I can use other UK SIM cards in this.

Trying my AIS (Thailand) SIM it asks me for a PIN for the Network Unlock?

Could this be a ROM issue? Is the phone region locked?

Any suggestions?

Cheers

OK Digging around found the solution.

Samsung devices have a regional warranty lock, I needed to make a 5-10 minute call to a local number using the Tesco SIM to unlock the phone for use with networks outside that region.

It is clearly printed on the box, but Tesco helpfully put thier own welcom to Tesco mnobile sticker over this.


How to mount system in rw mode if no custom recovery When I changed my build.prop for spoofing another device model, I copied build.prop from another device having gingerbrad but my system is froyo. When I rebooted, I lost my internet connection. It reports no ruim card where as it is there. I had installed apks for terminal emulator, busybox etc. but they are not working. Xplore file manager does not work. But free version of Astro File Manager and ROM Toolkit work. I tried to push old build.prop on device using adb but it gives permission denied error as it is read only system.
I came to know that adb root and adb remount works if you are in recovery mode.
I tried to go into recovery mode, but there is no custom recovery installed on my cheap android phone, so can not go into recovery mode.
su does not work in my adb shell.
Can anybody tell me the way to mount system partition in rw mode using adb ( without recovery mode ) or is there any tool which will work in this situation ?
Thanks in advance.

I would personally use ES File Explorer to get the original build.prop back into your /system partition. You have to go into the app options and select "mount system read write" and it will be able to write to the /system partition.

The commands for mounting the partition and copying the old build.prop from the root of your sdcard are:

$su
#mount -ro remount,rw /system
#cp /sdcard/your_old_build.prop /system

You don't need to use those though if you are using an app that gets root access.