"Signature verification failed" when trying to install non-official Cyanogenmod 10 ROM for Sanei N10 Android tablet Let's see if anybody can help me, because I'm pretty stuck with this.

I've tried to install the following ROM from xda-developers in a Sanei N10:

Unofficial CyanogenMod 10 for many AllWinner A10 tablets

I've installed it following the usual procedure:

Press Vol+ and Power to get the Recovery menu
Select Wipe data/factory reset
Select Wipe cache
Install the three ZIP files: "cm10_a10_20120913.zip", "gapps-jb-20120726-signed.zip" & "n10_compatibility_1.2.1.zip"

The problem is, even though the first ZIP with the ROM installs successfully, the second one (the one with Google's apps) refuses to install, showing instead the message "signature verification failed". The same happens with the third ZIP (N10 compatibility).

So the installation doesn't actually finish. If I reboot the tablet, it runs Cyanogenmod 10, but the touchscreen doesn't work (I have to plug a USB mouse to interact with the operating system).

So what do I do to avoid the dreaded "signature verification failed" message? Just in case if it's of any help to identify the problem, I'll mention that I can see the Android bot laying down with a red triangle with an exclamation when entering the Recovery menu.

I've tried to use the ROM Manager which is preinstalled with Cyanogenmod 10, but when choosing "Flash ClockworkMod Recovery" it says that "The SD Card needs to be mounted to use ROM Manager". Of course my MicroSD is properly mounted (I can see its files in the card from console, from the "Terminal Emulator"). I think this happens because the MicroSD is mounted in /storage/sdcard1 instead of in /storage/sdcard0, but I can't change that. I can't download APKs from the browser, either, because it also says something similar about not being able to access the SD (even though it's correctly mounted and I can see it mounted from Settings > Storage).

I've also tried the CyanogenMod A10 ROM available in this page, which is more recent (October instead of September):
http://www.slatedroid.com/topic/3870...mod-10-tweaks/
But the same happens.

I've even tried installing the CWM Recovery ROM, but it doesn't let me installing that from the Recovery either (same message about the "signature"), and with Odin3 it doesn't work either because I don't know how to reach the "download mode", which is needed for Odin3. Pressing Vol+ and Power I get the Recovery, but not the Download mode. Does anyone know how do I get to the download mode in the Sanei N10?

Any idea about how to solve this? Right now I have a tablet with no touchscreen and not even Google applications (so I don't even have the Play Store), so it's practically worthless (at least the WiFi works). How can I get this tablet back to being usable?

Well, at last I could finally solve the problem thanks to chris5s from the xda-developers.com forum.
These are the steps that worked for me:

Download the latest ClockWorkMod for Allwinner A10 tablets from here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1802268

Put all three files in the ZIP inside the root of a MicroSD card and insert it in the tablet

Check from the Terminal app inside the tablet to see if the MicroSD card is mounted in /sdcard (just type "ls /sdcard").

If the "ls" command doesn't show anything (that's what happened in my case), then you must modify the "install-recovery.sh" file and replace all instances of "/sdcard" with "/mnt/extsd".

With the proper "install-recovery.sh" file, run the commands specified in the above xda link (in my case the card is in "/mnt/extsd" instead of "/mnt/sdcard" as the original example shows):

su
cd /mnt/extsd
sh install-recovery.sh
sh reboot-recovery.sh

The tablet will then reboot to CWM recovery. Then follow the regular steps to install Cyanogenmod (wipe plus install ROM + GApps + Compatibility). This time the Recovery menu won't care about the files being unsigned and will install them right away!
I hope this helps somebody else!


What is google's policy regarding the images of the apps? I want to use the Images of the apps that are shared by the developers for displaying on the Google Play Store (The app/game screenshots).

Am I allowed to use them? Can they be reproduced?

Please read the terms and conditions of the site, specifically, under sub-heading 6. Rights and Restrictions, and I'll quote:

  No Public Performance. You agree not to display content contained in
  Products in whole or in part as part of any public performance or
  display even if no fee is charged (except where such use would not
  constitute a copyright infringement). Use of a tool or feature
  provided as an authorized part of Google Play (for example, “Social
  Recommendations”, as defined in the Music terms below) is permitted,
  provided that as you use the tool or feature as specifically permitted
  and only in the exact manner specified and enabled by Google.

  Capturing of Streams. You may not use Google Play or any Product in
  conjunction with any stream-ripping, stream capture or similar
  software to record or create a copy of any Product that is presented
  to you in streaming format.

  Sharing. You may not use Products as part of any service for sharing,
  lending or multi-person use, or for the purpose of any other
  institution, except as specifically permitted and only in the exact
  manner specified and enabled by Google (for example, through “Social
  Recommendations”).

  Proprietary Notices. You may not remove any watermarks, labels or
  other legal or proprietary notices included in any Product, and you
  may not attempt to modify any Products obtained through Google Play,
  including any modification for the purpose of disguising or changing
  any indications of the ownership or source of a Product.

The italic-ized and bolded heading is my emphasis and thus would lead to OP's intention to be in violation!


Where to change country information at Samsung App Store? How can i change the country of Samsung App Store? i can't download any apps, because they said that "its not available for my country"?

Shows the following error

I have searched the internet for the solution, but didn't get the solution. For example#

http://www.sammobile.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2938
http://www.askmefast.com/How_can_i_change_the_country_of_my_samsung_galaxy_s3_i_cant_download_any_apps_because_they_said_that_its_not_available_for_my_country-qna3127637.html
http://www.justanswer.com/android-devices/6um7b-change-country-location-samsung-s3.html

Please help me.

Do as follows:

Go to Settings → Applications → Samsung Apps and then tap the clear data and clear cache buttons.
Back to all applications, find Samsung Apps and click on it. Select now the correct country.

Note: The correct country should be where you currently are, or the country in which you registered first. Try first country first, and if it is still does not work - simply repeat steps 1-2 above with the other country.

Hope it works for you!


Will my device get locked again after update? I've bought samsung captivate glide I-927 from eBay. It is locked with at&t by default, so seller unlocked device for me and it is working fine. It comes with Gingerbread 2.3.5 and I found that ICS update for this device available from Samsung kies (pc suite). Now the question is Will my device get locked again after update from GB to ICS???

Thanks in advance...

No, software updates do not mess around with carrier info like that. Your phone should still be set to work with AT&T after the latest update is applied. If updating the device meant reactivating the phone, many people would be unhappy because of activation fees.


Difference between Android ID and device ID What is the difference between android ID and device ID?

Here's how I obtain them:

Android ID:

String androidID = Settings.Secure.getString(MainActivity.this.getContentResolver(),
            Settings.Secure.ANDROID_ID);

Device ID:

String deviceID = ((TelephonyManager)getSystemService(Context.TELEPHONY_SERVICE))
                    .getDeviceId()

I need to uniquely identify my android device. Using deviceID needs the permission to "make and manage phone calls". While using androidID doesn't. Therefore, I'm going with androidID as I don't need any call-management privileges.

What is the exact difference between the two? If there's none, why are there two IDs?
Will both the ids reset if I factory reset my device?
I know deviceID works for all versions of android. Will androidID work for all versions?

While your question targets a development issue (which is off-topic here), the answer is relevant for users as well, so I'm going to answer it:

DeviceID: This is the serial of the device, which should persist even a factory reset.
AndroidID: This will be set at the first boot (either with a brand new device, or after a factory reset). As implicated, it does not survive a factory-reset
There's a second "Android_ID" which is generated and used by the Google Services Framework (GSF), and thus often referenced as "GSF ID". Behaves basically like the AndroidID mentioned before (e.g. doesn't survive a factory-reset), and co-exists with it.
Furthermore, there's the GAID (Google Advertising ID), which can be reset by the user via the Google Settings app.

During "normal operation" (i.e. as long as you not factory-reset your device or reset the GAID), all these IDs can be used to identify the device. When using multiple users (via user profiles) on a device, all except the DeviceID would even identify the user (profile).

To my knowledge, all those IDs are available across all Android versions (at least across those which are currently relevant, i.e. GB/2.3 and up). The last two obviously only if GApps are installed – so on devices running a Custom ROM without GApps, they might not exist.


Problem with zeki tablet: no space Ok, so my tablet is a 4 gig and has no space. I factory reset it because it had some major problems. Anyways, when I go into the settings I go into the apps part and it says 147mb free yet I have nothing installed or downloaded so I don't know what to do. It's stupid and pissing me off. I've tried alot of things. I've taken all the updates out of the apps and still no space. Please give me some direction. Is there a program to root, because if so I need it bad because this tablet sucks.

Try moving your apps off tablet drive and put them on the internal sd card.
Go to settings-Apps. Slide the screen to "on sd card" (upper right of screen). Check box the apps to move. Then go back to "downloaded" screen. Click each app and clear data, clear cache.
That freed up 100mb on mine. Good luck


Connecting Android Devices to Windows 7 via Bluetooth I'm trying to connect both of my Android devices to my Windows 7 laptop, to see what I can do with them (file transfer, bluetooth tethering, etc.)

Here is the hardware I'm working with:

Samsung Series 5 Laptop - Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 / fully patched

Intel(R) Centrino(R) Wireless Bluetooth(R) 3.0 + High Speed Adapter
Driver: Intel - 2011/12/09 - 1.0.90.20620

Samsung Galaxy Nexus with Google official Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean (unrooted)
Asus / Google Nexus 7 with Google official Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean (unrooted)

The pairing process between the Android devices and Windows 7 works flawlessly. Here is what I'm doing to pair them:

Put the Android device into discoverable mode (Settings --> Bluetooth --> Tap device name)
Open Devices and Printers on Windows 7
Click Add Device
Select Android device in device list and click Next
When the pairing code is displayed, confirm on Windows 7 and Android device
Pairing is complete

The devices are paired. However, they never seem to connect to each other. I see the device's icon switch between being greyed out and opaque, on Windows 7 Devices and Printers briefly, and eventually it just goes grey. No matter how much I tap on the Windows 7 computer's name in the list of paired devices on the Android device, it does not re-establish a connection.

One function that I tested successfully, is sending a file using Bluetooth File Transfer (fsquirt.exe). When I attempted to send a file to one of my Android devices, initiated from that utility on Windows, the Android device prompted me to accept the file transfer. The Bluetooth icon on Android was still greyed out, however, which indicates to me that the devices are not connected to each other persistently.

Bottom line: Does anyone know how to use Android Bluetooth features with Windows 7?

I located a solution from this youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZNPO1gMcoA and thought I would share here since this was the first result when I began looking for a solution.

The problem is that Windows does not detect the Bluetooth serial links automatically.  You can manually point to the standard windows drivers by completing the following steps.

Go to Device Manager
Right click the item under Other Devices labeled Bluetooth Peripheral Device and click Update Driver Software
Click Browse my computer for...
Click Let me pick...
Select Ports (COM & LPT) and click Next
Navigate to and select Microsoft in the left field, pick Standard Serial over Bluetooth link on the right field, and click Next
Click OK on the driver install warning box and it should successfully install the driver

I am unsure of why windows cannot automatically detect this component and install the driver, but this solution worked for me.  Hopefully it will for you as well.


Stolen phone: is changing your GMail password enough? My Galaxy phone got stolen today. Of course I blocked my SIM card and changed my password for GMail (and went to the police) but is this enough?  Could the person that stole my phone still log in to my market and download stuff?  Not sure what the deal is for that and I'm really freaking out about how much this person could possibly do with my phone.

Also about the payment: I never bought any apps (I only downloaded free ones).  How does this payment work? Is that also blocked if your SIM card is blocked?

And is there a way to delete "My Market" account?

You should check out Lookout's Plan B app. It lets you find your phone after it is lost.

I would recommend using Seekdroid or Where's my Droid in the future.


HTC Desire stuck on HTC Logo on start up!!! Only able to open recovery I was trying to root my HTC Desire 820 device and followed all steps as recommended by the XDA Thread.

Now my issue is that it is stuck at HTC logo screen and not moving forward at all.

Below are the steps I followed to recover:

Tried recovery, Factory Reset, Wipe Dalvic Cache, wipe all. ----> No difference
Tried recovery, reflash recovery---> No difference
Volume Up + Down + Power Button ---> performs reset,..again stuck on logo
Tried battery full charge ---> no effect

Can anyone help please?

I ended up wiping my complete phone, even the OS...

had to go to the service center to get it fixed...

Now fixed...No resolution given from service center..


How to disable integrated Avast antivirus inside EMUI 5.0 (Android 7.0)? I have the following phone:

Honor 8; FRD-L09

Official website
Information about integrated Avast antivirus inside EMUI 5.0
Picture with basic information:

Picture with integrated Antivirus from Phone Manager (Virus scan):

Once I click on the Virus scan, I get a very quick scan with the Avast logo at the bottom:

Important note:

As this device is new and under warranty, I cannot root it.

Intention:

I have my own trusted antivirus solution, it does not matter which one at this point.

I want to use it instead of the integrated Avast solution.

Question:

How to disable integrated Avast antivirus inside EMUI 5.0 (Android 7.0) ?

I called various local support lines, but to no avail.

In settings there is no available option as far as I can see.

I don't think it is possible , given the fact that it is integrated into the phone manager application, and is also a system application.

I also have a Huawei tablet (EMUI 1.6)  which also has a tablet manager (package name com.huawei.systemmanager) but has a storage cleaning option which is said to be powered by Du Speed Booster. However I did several scans to try and find the app to no avail.

So I think it is not possible to separate the antivirus functionality from the phone manager app, so you either remove the whole phone manager package (if rooted that is) or stay with it. Otherwise I doubt if you cant explicitly find the avast as a package in your system.

You can still install another AV solution of your choice - (it really unnecessarily strains the phone resources) besides  I don't see the use of Antiviruses in android, if you obtain your applications from official trustworthy sources.

Huawei tablet manager (Storage cleaning functionality powered by Du Speed booster)


How to recover "Family Guy: The Quest For Stuff" game progress My HTC 610 froze and could not be rebooted.  I had a game installed through google play and was continually signed in to the google acount.  I was told that as long as I was signed in, the game's progress would be saved.  I received my new HTC 610 today and signed in to google+, went into the google play menu, clicked on my apps and my games automatically transferred.  When I opened up a game, the progress was not there.  Is there any way to restore progress?

You play through the new game until you unlock Chris and get to the “Find Better Reception” task.  From here you click on the menu button:

This will bring up the TQFS menu, from the menu you tap on Account Info:

This will open the account settings.  From this list you click on “Sign in As Someone Else”:

From this list you pick the sign in option you used when you setup your account.  So if you setup an account with Facebook select that, Google choose that, etc.  :

For you, since you were signed in with Google, you'll select the Google option.  Then you'll sign in with your information.

Tap next…and voila! My Quahog is back!

Source


What happens if a change the SIM card to my phone? Will Android add the contacts of the new SIM card to my Google Account?
What else could happen?

You'd probably have a different phone number, and possibly a different contract/data plan for your device. If your device is SIM-locked, you might have no service at all (i.e. no calls, SMS, internet) if the SIM card is from the "wrong" provider.

Apart of that, nothing would happen: contacts on the SIM card are not synchronized with any account.


Screenshot as PNG instead of JPEG? Is there a way to teach a Samsung Galaxy S9+ with Android 9 (Pie) to generate screenshots as PNG files instead of JPEG files? I was looking for such a configuration option (in Settings) but came up empty-handed.

My device isn't rooted and I'd like to avoid rooting, if possible.

NB: My question is somewhat related to this one, but I am indeed looking for a way to revert to PNG as a lossless default format, so I'd hold this is not a duplicate. I also scoured questions on the screenshots tag, but nothing useful there either.

Unfortunately I also don't know a way how to configure the format used by the system screenshot function that can be triggered via Volume-Down + Power.
However if you can trigger your screenshots via adb and the screencap command let you choose which image format is used. You can select if by the file extension:
screencap /sdcard/screenshot1.png

If you don't use a .png file extension you seem to get the raw pixel data with a small header in front containing width, height, pixel-format and the color-space (SRGB, DISPLAY_P3 or UNKNOWN).


recursive adb pull a directory using $EXTERNAL_STORAGE parameter I wish to pull a directory from an Android device which contains screenshots, reason why, is that I don't know the name of these screenshots to pull them 1 by 1, so pulling the directory seemed a better idea.

My command is,

adb pull "\\$EXTERNAL_STORAGE/screen/" .

However I get the error,

remote object '\\$EXTERNAL_STORAGE/screen/' does not exist

I have tried with and without the trailing '/' but both same error message, and I have verified that 'screen' does actually exist.

My question, is it even possible to pull a directory, as opposed to individual files, and if so, what am I doing incorrect?

EDIT:
I have read a similar issue, but my device still shows the error above rather than "Is a directory"
Recursive adb pull

Thanks.

If the screenshots are getting saved in external SD card then I believe external SD card is set as default write-disk. In that case, you can do,

adb pull /sdcard/{YOUR_DIR}/ {TARGET_DIR}

I use my custom alias named adbshots which is,

/usr/bin/adb pull /sdcard/Pictures/Screenshots/ /root


Is there a way to hide the ugly SIM Tool Kit icon from the launcher? The SIM Tool Kit icon is ugly and app is one that I never used. Unfortunately, I've read that it is one of those system apps that cannot be removed so I'd like to simply hide the icon from my launcher.

I'm using the Google Launcher and not running any XPosed mods.

In NOVA launcher it is simple.
Settings / Menu / Hide applications

This will hide it in the app drawer.


Is my ext3 sd partitioning correct? I've read a bit here on Android Enthusiasts and I've been able to partition my sdcard.
A partition FAT32 and another one ext3, using the AmonRa Recovery for Acer Liquid Metal.
Everything looks fine and if I start titanium backup I see on overview screen:

  Internal: 193 mb (60.2 mb free).
  SD card: 6.87 GB (520 mb free).
  SD card (a2sd): 958 MB (958 MB free)

So it looks like I'm not using that partition, right?
I've tried moving application with app2sd pro and titanium backup to sd card but the ext3 partition does not get filled.

What's wrong?

You would need a custom ROM that supports moving apps to the Ext3 partition.  I would recommend searching the development section of xda-developers forums for your handset for such a ROM.

If a ROM does not support apps2ext natively, you can try your luck with a script (example for HTC Dream/Magic here) that can be installed on top of another ROM.

[Edit]: just adding stuff from my comments to the answer.
If you are on Android version 2.2 and above, you can use the built-in "Apps-to-SD" functionality to move apps to SD Card.  Go to Menu -> Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications then tap on any app and under the "Storage" section tap the "Move to SD" button.  After a few seconds you will see the button's name change to "Move to Phone" and size of the app decrease significantly.

This method is not without drawbacks.  First off, an app needs to be explicitly coded to support this functionality.  Second, widgets and apps that run as a service (e-mail, virtual keyboards, weather notifications, etc.) don't work when moved to SD, and must reside on the phone's internal memory.  Furthermore, not the entire app moves to the SD Card.  A part of it stays on the phone, along with its cache and data/settings.  If you have a phone with a small amount of internal app storage, using the built-in Apps-to-SD will just prolong the inevitable "out of memory" errors.

The Apps2ext scripts resolve most of these shortcomings.  It "fools" the phone into thinking that the Ext2/3/4 partition is part of the phone's internal memory.  This means that widgets and services will work just fine with this method. Also, since you can make your partition as large as you wish (recommended not to exceed 2GB), the space issues disappear.  The scripts also provide options for moving caches and data to the Ext partition in order to free up even more internal memory.

The drawback of the Apps2ext method is that it's well, a hack.  First off, your phone needs to be rooted.  Second, you will no longer be able to un-mount and remove the SD Card from the phone, since ALL of the apps (including system ones) reside on the Ext partition. Third, you are putting a lot more strain on the SD Card from increased writing, which may shorten its lifespan. Finally, as with any hack it may make your phone less stable.


How to download apps on 4gb storage so I can move it to the SD card? I have a HTC Wildfire S, and it's only got 4GB storage. I have a 16GB mirco SD card, but I can't download things because I'm out of the 4GB space (I don't know how ... ), so I can't get them installed so I can then move them to the SD card. I'm not great with technology, so I may be missing something, but this is just really annoying.

Welcome to Android Enthusiasts Stack Overflow!

To answer your question, you will need to move apps to your SD card off of system storage after their downloaded.  You can't download directly to the SD card, unfortunately.

Once an app is downloaded, open up Application Management in Settings and click the check box next to the apps you want to move to SD.  This should free up some space.  Be advised, however, that not all apps can run from the SD card.

It's in your best interest to clean up as much as you can, rather than trying to stuff apps on your SD card.  In the Data section of Settings, you can see what items are taking up the most space.


My phone name is HTC desire 820g plus. whenever i receive a bluetooth file my phone says "magic.why? My phone name is HTC desire 820g plus I bought the phone yesterday..whenever I receive a blue-tooth file my phone says magic or image I am not sure what exactly it says,but it talks.I tried to disabe talk back and google voice but still it wont work.even when I keep my phone on silent mode it still talks very disturbing please help.

It may be a "feature" that HTC builtin you might try looking around in the Bluetooth settings to see if there is any sort of thing about notification etc.


Stuck in boot-loop (Broken partition / filesystem?) My Samsung S3 (rooted, running LineageOS) is "soft-bricked":

Stuck in Boot-loop with Samsung Logo
I can still boot into 'ODIN' download mode
I can still boot into 'TWRP' recovery mode

On launch, the TWRP logs show that something is gravely wrong with the file-system:

Failed to mount '/cache' (Invalid argument)
E:primary block device '/dev/block/mmcblk0p12' for mount point '/data' is not present!
Failed to mount '/data' (Invalid argument)
Unable to recreate /data/media folder
Updating partition details...
Failed to mount '/efs' (Invalid argument)
Failed to mount '/cache' (Invalid argument)
Failed to mount '/system' (Invalid argument)
Failed to mount '/data' (Invalid argument)
Failed to mount '/preload' (Invalid argument)
...done
Unable to mount storage
Failed to mount '/data' (Invalid argument)
Fill SELinux support is present.
Unable to mount /data/media/TWRP/.twrps
MTP Enabled

I've re-flashed the TWRP image, but the problem persists.

I've even tried an advanced-wipe of EVERYTHING, but that fails, too:

Unable to wipe Cache.
Unable to wipe /cache.
Updating partition details...
Failed to mount '/efs' (Invalid argument)
Failed to mount '/cache' (Invalid argument)
Failed to mount '/system' (Invalid argument)
Failed to mount '/data' (Invalid argument)
Failed to mount '/preload' (Invalid argument)
...done
Unable to mount storage

For some reason I can't mount ANYTHING.

I can connect over ADB, so I tried flashing a custom ROM:

Installing zip file '/sdcard/lineage-14.1..zip'
...
could not detect filesystem for /dev/block/mmcblk0p9, assuming ext4
mount: failed to mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p9 at /
system: No such file or directory
unmount of system/ failed: no such volume

could not detect filesystem for /dev/block/mmcblk0p12, assuming f2fs
mount: failed to mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p12 at /
data: No such file or directory
unmount of data/ failed: no such volume

Patching system image unconditionally...
E1001: Failed to update system image.
Updater process ended with ERROR: 7

Error installing zip file '/sdcard/lineage-14.1..zip'

Do I need to put my phone in the bin?

(P.s. Apologies if there are typos in the above logs, they are manually typed as adb logcat didn't work..!)

Try flashing Stock ROM via ODIN as it won't require recovery and will generate proper system, recovery and other partitions. After that, as for errors, I suggest you to try flashing a old version of recovery ( In case you are flashing latest).


How to get Full Screen Caller id? In my Nexus 4 i have successfully synced the contacts with their google plus and assigned them with their profile picture. The issue is when i call them (outgoing calls) i am able to get their pic in full screen. But when i receive calls (incoming calls) the pic is displayed partly at the top of the screen. What is the issue and how to solve this?

That is because this is a stock android feature. To accomplish the result you want you'll need some kind of third party software i geuss. There are lots available in the play store.


Do I need to wipe anything before restoring a full nandroid backup? I'm used to wiping everything when installing a new ROM, but I would like to know if a nandroid restore automatically wipes out the partitions it is recovering.

When I run a restore, I see some messages saying it is "formatting cache" and "erasing boot before restore", but the rest of my partitions (system, data, .android_secure, etc) don't have any accompanying messages about them being cleared first.

Does a nandroid restore overwrite partitions, or does it merge the files with the current structure?

And in the interest of making this applicable to a wider audience, is the process different for different phones (some have extra partitions) or different versions of clockworkmod? Or is the process the same for everyone?

I tested this, and your concern is valid.

I added a dummy file to /system and then did a nandroid restore.  The dummy file survived.  Repeated the same test on /data with same result.  So I don't know why CWM doesn't wipe those partitions first.

The CWM author probably made an assumption it doesn't matter or there may be a valid reason they don't get wiped.


How to update rooted HTC Incredible I rooted my HTC Incredible a few months ago by following a tutorial. My phone downloaded an OTA update and is asking to update. I would like to update and remain rooted. How do I go about doing this?

I removed a few bloatware apps. I couldn't tell you which ones, though.

Android version: 2.2
Baseband version: 2.15.00.07.28
Kernel version: 2.6.32.17-g9a2fc16
Build number: 3.26.605.1 CL264707 release-keys
Software number: 3.26.605.1

First of all, since you've modified the system, the OTA update could very well fail partway through -- most of those are distributed as patches against the existing binaries.

The easy way to update is to find a pre-rooted stock ROM, like this one.  You may  need to update your radio first though, information and download links are available here.  I think the one you have was the official Froyo radio -- you'll need the Gingerbread radio for newer ROMs to work properly.  2.15.10.07.07 is the official Gingerbread radio.

However, if you want to go the hard way, keeping root (or at least the ability to re-root easily) is easy provided your Incredible is NAND unlocked (aka S-OFF).  Recent versions of Unrevoked do this automatically, but depending on where you downloaded from and when could affect that.

To check if you're S-OFF, reboot into the bootloader (aka HBOOT).  To do that, power off the phone, then hold down the volume down button and power it up.  Keep the Vol Dn button held until you get a screen like the following:

You can also see the notification that it has S-OFF at the top of the screen.  That's what you want to see.  If that's missing (or says S-ON), then you don't have S-OFF.  If you're not, get the latest Unrevoked Forever.

Once that's done, you can flash whatever you want and still be able to reroot easily by simply flashing your recovery of choice (often ClockworkMod) from HBOOT and then reflashing a root/superuser package from recovery.


What permissions does root give to an app? All of the normal permissions are listed here, but it does not say anything about root permissions. I can't find the names of individual permissions anywhere else either so I am asking here.

From my understanding and past experience programming Android apps in rooted phones, getting root permissions in an app is to have access to everything.

Once a phone is rooted, you, the user, have access to the entire file system1, which allows anything to happen with it, including apps modifying their own permissions2.

Android is built on Linux, which means that su, or the root user, is the master user. Root user has the ability to do anything they want3. Apps granted root permission can add, modify, or delete things as they please throughout the file system. Along with that, they have access to the APIs that control the hardware of the phone, which means that they are capable of doing anything without your knowing, among other things (reason 3).

TL;DR Root has access to everything and can do anything.


Problems connecting to IMAP email account on 3G/4G Ever since I got the JRO03O OTA from Verizon on my Galaxy Nexus, I've been having problems retrieving email over a 3G/4G connection.  After the sync times out (I assume it times out, because it takes awhile to give up) I get the message "Couldn't connect to server."  When I'm on a WiFi network, email retrieves without problems.

The account in question is on my own IMAP server, running on Ubuntu 12.04 server on a VPS.  The server configuration has not changed in any way since long before I started having these problems - this started when the OTA came through.  My server listens on the newer non-standard ports, 587 and 993, so Verizon doesn't block them - they no longer allow the standard ports 143 and 25 in my area, and more and more ISPs and coffee shop hotspots are blocking them now in favor of the secured IMAP ports.

I do have a secondary account on this phone - a corporate Exchange account, which has no problems retrieving email regardless of what network it's on.

This leads me to two conclusions:

1) The problem isn't in the server or the network. I'm not seeing it with my tablet (Nexus 7), only on my Galaxy Nexus - and only when on the Cell tower networks. Even if I have my tablet tethered off the GNex, indirectly using the cell networks, the tablet has no problems connecting to my IMAP server, but the phone fails to connect.

2) The problem is not related to Exchange, as my corporate account has no problems over either WiFi or 3G/4G. The problem is restricted to my personal IMAP account, which is set as the default email account on this phone.

I'm not sure if it's relevant, but the company Exchange account is not configured on the Nexus 7, just the IMAP account, and of course, my Google account, but that's through the GMail account.

I've done a lot of searching, but can't seem to find a solution.  Does anyone have any ideas?

Cheers!
Lou

Running into the same problem....adding more info:

I just had my Droid 4 upgraded to 4.1.2.  When trying to configured IMAPS, I'm getting the same error.  I run the IMAP server I'm connecting to, so I can do some additional troubleshooting.

I'm running dovecot as an IMAP server.  Here are the log messages:

dovecot: imap-login: Disconnected: Inactivity (no auth attempts): rip=x.x.x.x, lip=x.x.x.x, TLS handshaking
dovecot: imap-login: Disconnected: Inactivity (no auth attempts): rip=x.x.x.x, lip=x.x.x.x, TLS handshaking
dovecot: imap-login: Disconnected: Inactivity (no auth attempts): rip=x.x.x.x, lip=x.x.x.x, TLS handshaking

I also ran a packet capture.  The phone goes through the TCP 3-way handshake (SYN, SYN-ACK, ACK), and then does nothing.  No packets after the last ACK.  That probably explains the inactivity message in the dovecot log.

In the configuration, I told the client to use TLS (Accept all certificates), use port 993.  I have tried multiple 'Authentication Methods' (auto, plain, etc).  Nothing worked.

These settings (IMAPS, 993, auto) worked fine on 4.0.4


USB On-the-go MIDI Keyboard with Nexus 7 Has anyone successfully used a MIDI Keyboard (through USB OTG, specifically) with a Nexus 7? (I am not looking for commentary on the particular keyboard, but please state which you have used.)

You can use any standard Midi keyboard with your device. (src)

There are several keyboards with Korg and Roland. Choice of the device is all yours. But unfortunately there are reports that your nanopad is not working with this as you asked in your original question. (src)

You may want to verify that with the manufacturer first, before you go for a new one. Once you have a standard Midi device (which does not require driver installations), you can use apps like USB MIDI Monitor or Grand Piano

Note: You can try eBay for good solutions. Visit a local music store and check compatibility before you buy as Izzy suggested


Is Android messaging like iMessages? Does Android have free texting like the iPhone? If I'm texting to another Android user, will it be free like it is for iPhone users, or will I have to pay for the messages? I'm new to the whole Android experience, and really need some help. And I don't want to use a 3rd party app like WhatsApp to text the other Android users.

No. On all Android phones I'm aware of, the "Messaging" or SMS app is just an SMS app. It doesn't try to sucker you into using a proprietary chat service by pretending it's giving you free texts.

There are many IM and chat services for Android if you want to use one instead of texting. Like the iPhone, there's even one that ships with the phone, but unlike the iPhone, it's a separate app, called Hangouts. Hangouts looks and feels like a chat system, not an SMS app, and it includes voice and video calling, sending files, and group calling.

Android allows third-party apps access to all the phone functions, so if you really want to use SMS and a chat system in the same app, I'm sure you can find a third-party SMS app that includes both, such as Skype.


I always have to login to google again? Everytime my battery ends, and the phone turns off, I'll have to login to google again? Isn't there a way to keep my login information even if the mobile restarts?

By the way, I use double check login, but after the first confirmation with the sms code, it should not ask for the login again.

It stopped to ask my password after about 4 reboots, or 4 days. I don't know what was causing the problem.


Can the Samsung Galaxy Tab run Facebook games and applications? Can I open any Facebook games/applications on the Samsung galaxy tab? Games/applications like farm villi, Poker etc will work properly in the tab.

The builtin browser will probably show you a touch-optimized version of Facebook. You can try to get rid of it by changing the user agent string. See this question for more info on that.

Edit: Also, if the games require click-and-drag, this won't work on a touch screen.


samsung duos s7562 how to see/browse contents of sd card How can I see/browse the contents of my sdcard on my new and shiny samsung duos GT-s7562?

android ver = 4.0.4

You have to use File Manager program. I think Samsung Mobile comes with one already instaleed. If not install apps like ES File Explorer


Where is this specific setting I forgot the name? Using Sony Xperia Z3, Android 4.4.4 While getting used to my new phone, an assistant showed up, asking me to configure some time settings regarding night & charging, time settings when I plug in/out my charger cable, and alarms, etc.

Now, I wanted to review those changes I made, but I cannot find those settings anymore!
Anyone knows whats the setting name or menu item for that specific assistant on that phone (Sony Xperia Z3)?

[Answer based on my previous comment]
The feature/setting is called "Smart Connect". The reason it's not to be found in any preference setting, is that it has its own icon and comes pre-installed (I guess on most Sony devices). For my specific case, I then select "Night", where I can see all the additional tasks the phone does "automagically" (and that cause troubles ;)
Other events for automation include "Music on the go", and "Music at home".


Salvaging a hard drive/memory from Samsung Galaxy S4 Is there any relatively simple way to salvage a hard drive/memory from a Samsung Galaxy S4? A couple of months ago, it was subjected to some saltwater, meaning that most of the motherboard is fried. However, some parts of it still work (it gets hot and vibrates from time to time when connected to a computer/charger, and the salt deposits are only visible on some parts of the motherboard).

I have a new S4 with working parts, but from what I can see, the only parts that I can move from one phone to the other is the small board (don't know if this is the right word) which connects the USB input to the main board, and the battery.

I have of course tried to clean it with isopropanol, and I have tried using both the "new" USB connector and battery - to no avail, my computer doesn't detect anything at all when it's connected.

Any tips on other things I should try to do to make them connect, or how to salvage the hard drive?

I don't have a pic of my motherboard right now, but I'll take one later if it helps to see the damage.

PS: I hope this is the right board to ask this, I couldn't really see where else it belonged.

The storage is soldered to the smaller board shown in Step 13 of this teardown. The challenge with this is being able to salvage that part. You could attempt a transplant of that board into your new S4 and see what happens (this is the most realistic answer), but there is no guarantee that it is usable because of the possible damage from the water.

The less realistic answer would be to remove the memory modules from each phone and swap them, but that requires very precise tools and a steady hand. Not recommended.


Get around an app that won't work on rooted device My bank's app has stopped working after an update. Trying to open the app gets the error "The device is rooted. For security reasons the application cannot be run from a rooted device". Then the app immediately closes.

I'm not really sure how there's security issues from being rooted. Especially compared to accessing the regular website from a desktop computer, which has no such kind of check. However, I don't really care. It's my device. So how can I get around this restriction (without unrooting my phone)?

UPDATE 2 - 6/21/2017: Most all of the below methods no longer work, especially on devices with Lollipop or higher Android. Currently the only effective method of hiding root access is using Magisk to root the device and use Magisk Manager to enable the Magisk Hide module and hide root from the app in question. Since this is an old question and I am just updating an answer, here is an article describing how to do it and below is a pretty rough guide to doing it.

Summary of steps:

Remove old root method complete, this may mean you need to restore
stock or reflash your ROM. Some ROMs have root built in, so check
with your ROM maintainer/developer.
Flash the Magisk installer ZIP using TWRP or other custom recovery
Download and install Magisk Manager
Swipe from left and go to Settings and enable Magisk Hide
Press Back and select Magisk Hide
Scroll through the Magisk Hide menu and select the applications you
wish to hide root from

Your app should no longer detect that you have root.

Old answer - May still be applicable to devices with KitKat and previous Android versions

UPDATE - 9/2016: Most of the methods below will now fail since Google has updates SafetyNet API in how it detects root and modifications to a device. The SafetyNet API is a mandatory part of Google Play Services that auto updates itself regardless of your settings, and many apps are now using this to detect root or modified systems. In fact, in Android 7.x devices, an otherwise stock device with merely an unlocked bootloader can fail the SafetyNet check. More information on SafetyNet API can be found here.

RootCloak will work with most applications to hide root, it is an Xposed module, or RootCloak Plus which is a stand-alone app.

The reason banking and other financial apps don't work on a rooted device is for the potential of private information being obtained by other apps or users with root permissions. Like it or not, there is no denying that having a rooted devices can potentially have security and privacy concerns, even if only in theory. Suhide by Chainfire is another great solution.


Hey Google vs OK Google Is there any way to use "Hey Google" instead of "OK Google" on my Motorola Z2 Play?

On my old phone Huawei P8 Lite from 2015 running android 6.0 i was able to use "Hey Google" instead of "OK Google"

I remember at some point when i clicked retrain voice model i was offered to say both "OK Google" and "Hey Google"

But on my new phone running android 7.1.1 no matter how many times i click retrain voice model it just keeps offering me to say "OK Google" 3 times.

I have all the latest software updates for my phone, and the latest available version of the Google app.
It is frustrating to see this option on much older phones, what am doing wrong here?

"OK Google" is very awkward for me especially after getting used to saying "Hey Google" on my 3 year old junk phone.

I tried asking this on the Google support site but they didn't read my question and just copy pasted the same response they give to everyone who reports any issue with Google Assistant.

"Hey Google" should work on MM devices.
You can install https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.googleassistant app if you're unable to set 'Hey Google' from main Google app.


Allow USB debug pop-up not showing while installing CyanogenMod on Galaxy S3 i9300 I'm trying to install CyanogenMod on my Samsung Galaxy S3 (i9300, international). Had no problems, until I had to switch to the pc installer.

I'm stuck on the screenshot underneath:

I have enabled USB debugging on my device (since the day I got it), did all the stuff asked up until now, but I can't continue here. It doesn't show any pop-up on the device, USB debugging is enabled.

Can anybody help me?

Much appreciated!

The solution to my problem was simply revoking all authorisations granted to computers already. After rebooting both my Galaxy S3 and my laptop, the pop-up appeared again and I could continue the installation of CyanogenMod, which has now succesfully completed.


Galaxy Nexus Official 4.0.4 update and root Since the official 4.0.4 that be downloaded from Google's servers seems to be an update (39mb) can I update my rooted Galaxy Nexus wuthout losing root?

All OTA updates reset file permissions, so you'll lose root unless you take special precautions. Install OTA RootKeeper and make a backup of your su executable before applying this update. You'll be able to restore your root once update is finished.

Obviously, since this is an incremental update, you need to have a stock Nexus ROM. If you deleted or altered some system files, update may fail.

I used Galaxy Nexus Toolkit to apply these updates, worked OK for me (and I kept my root).


Cyanogenmod 7.2 Install Method I have a quick question about installing the new Cyanogenmod rom. Would installing it over the current 7.1 rom without wiping data and cache work? Or would I have to do it every time I install a new one?

You can generally install CyanogenMod without wiping as long as you're within the same major release (i.e. 7.1 -> 7.2 is okay, 7.1 -> 9.0 would require a wipe to boot properly). Worst case is that you bootloop, usually, so you can always try it and then go back into recovery and wipe if it doesn't work. It's never caused problems for me before and I put nightlies on my devices on a fairly regular basis (2-3 times per week, usually).

The CyanogenMod team has also noted this in the past on their blog and in other places. The 7.1 announcement, for example, stated:

  Upgrading from any previous CM-7 release or nightly build should be
  smooth and no wipe should be required.


Google calendar doesn't sync I use google calendar and one of my calendars within google calendar does not sync to my android phone. The calendar shows in google calendar, and syncs correctly with my desktop software (Fantastical for Mac). On my phone, I can see the calendar under Settings > Accounts and Calendar folders, but the calendar is greyed out. So the phone know that the calendar is there, but is not downloading the events. Does anyone know how to 'activate' this? (NB I have quite a few calendars withing Google calendar. Is there an upper limit?)

Thanks

(PS Device = Blackberry Keyone).

I know this is old and you may have already found a solution but I ran into something like this today (on my BB Keyone) and solved it by simply un-checking and re-checking the relevant calendar account. Doing so caused the greyed out calendars to begin to sync to my phone.


Quiet sound after 4.3 update - Samsung Galaxy SIII Since my Samsung Galaxy SIII was updated to 4.3, I have had problems when listening to music.

The sound is very low when my equalizer turns on. I've already tried to configure the equalizer accordingly, but that doesn't seem to help. I uninstalled the equalizer but the sound is still low.

What can I do?

Thank you in advance.

So, after a long year trying to figure out what was going on, I have just reset my phone to factory settings and it works perfectly, but I am still not able to determine the cause of that problem.


Cellular data shutting off when i shut off wifi and vice versa I bought a motorola moto g gen 3 a few days back and encountered a bug i can't wrap my head around.

First of: this post: Cellular data not working since 5.1 Lollipop flash adresses the same issue but since I created this account today and I lack reputation I cannot answer in that post ... I find this a rather weird designchoice for an answer based website but hey, you guys have your reasons :D hence I have to make this kind of repost :( I am sorry for that. Also for my English, its not my native language.

On the issue:
I have android 5.1.1 which came standard on the phone. I set it up to my liking and for a day everything worked fine. I am from Belgium and have a data plan with mobile vikings. I think they use the Base communication lines.

But since I woke up a few days ago I can't get my cellular data to work like it should. When wifi is enabled cellular data is also enabled. But from the second i lose my wifi connection OR is shut it off I ALSO lose my cellular data connection and instantly an exclamationmark pops right up alongside the data icon. Hence it feels like they are somehow connected but set up wrong. It feels as if the purpose is to automaticaly enable cellular date when you lose wifi connection and vise versa but somehow it bugs and works the other way round.

In that other post people suggested to ask my provider about it. Changing phones might have done something on their end but so far i did not get response. The things I tried myself were shutting the phone off and on again, removing and reinserting the simcard, fizzling with options, googling like mad, factory reset and probably something I forgot. All to no avail.

My previous phone was a windowsphone nokia lumia and all worked well there. Because of problems with the battery and my drive to go android again I bought the moto g.

Please dear androiders, help me! I am losing my mind :D

I have a Nexus 5 with 5.1.1, and was experiencing the same thing.

It was a bit weird; I think the problem started with the 5.1.1 upgrade, but it's didn't kick in fully as a problem 100% of the time until sometime last week (1st week of September). Prior to that it was an intermittent problem, dropping about quite regularly, but returning pretty quickly.

Anyway, I rooted the phone, and reinstalled 5.1 and it's all working properly now.


How to retrieve data from vault android app I am using vault android app for hiding my secret data. Unfortunately i have moved every things in Internal memory to External SD card. Now I am able to see my secret documents,photos and videos while opening the vault application. I am able to locate the folder SystemAndroid but i don't know what to do for retrieve my data.please help

go to Systemandroid  then MXGKJHzyoi== like folder then .image contains photos and .video contains videos. Hexedit any file from .image folder and find data starting from FFD8 AND FFD9 IS end . and save as jpeg. you can see all images.


Changing /system/build.prop issues on fully rooted and DM-verity removed device SO, I have an MT6739 dveice with Android 8.1, it's not A/B seamless, and it is not TREBLE.

I have used a tried and tested method to remove DM-Verity. On this device it was in the DTB, in the boot and also in the vendor partitions. I use Magisk to get me root and I have removed and installed lots of /system/apps, changed the audio, bootanimations etc on the device. I even changed the backgrounds and tweaked the Launcher.

However whenever I come to change anything in /system/build.prop the device bootloops!

I have tried this with Magisk DM-verity ON/OFF with no effect. I also copied back a build.prop from my PC and it worked fine again. So, something must be looking up the build.prop and checking for changes.

All I have done is change the ro.product.model property to be super sure nothing in the build.prop is incorrect. I have tried with setting permissions (644, for some reason they are 600 (RW - - ) on the device so tried that too).

There is a build.prop in the /vendor partition. i have heard of this checking the fingerprint of the system/build.prop, but they are different anyway on the stock ROM.

I also tried just copying the build.prop from /system into here so they were identical.

Fresh out of ideas!!

Does anyone know what is going on here. I can literally change anything I want on the device as normal/pre-verity days except for the build.prop settings.

See when you did the DM Verity patch, have you patched the boot.img to support Android 8.1? if working on Win can use ClassyKitchen. If working on Linux, AIK Linux is the way to go. i'd suggest using classykitchen and patch for DM verity and enable 8.1 support. worked for me. running 8.0 Oreo. ;)


WhatsApp saving contacts with nicknames in a group for the 99.99% of it - I am pretty sure the answer is No because it'd violate privacy norms - but in my school reunion whatsApp group - I have nicknamed my  school mate contacts pretty badly ( gave those nicknames to those contacts ) . I'd assume they'd not see "how I refer to them"  but just wanted to check

You are right absolutely

Contacts  in your phonebook can be named differently or nicknamed as you did in WhatsApp. These nicknames are not shown to your contacts

As far as your group contacts are concerned, they will see your name as they saved in their phonebook / or nicknamed. If they did not save your number, the profile name which you added for yourself on your profile photo, is displayed to them as clarified in WhatsApp FAQ

  This name will only appear for contacts who do not already have your contact info saved in their phone's address book.

So your WhatsApp nicknames are safe from exposure


Autoplay video on device boot I have a Noontec A9 Android Smart Box TV thingy that needs to play a video on loop for a very long time.

I found multiple apps that can do this but I am looking for one that will start playing the video as soon as the app starts.

The device is going to be placed in a duty-free area. The problem is that between 12 and 6 AM the power is switched off so the player will turn off and on in the morning. Using Automateit I can start an app at boot but I just cannot find one that will auto play the video.

Any idea on what I should do? Maybe another solution? The device is rooted.

First, make that video player default for video files. Then, use Tasker to Open File on boot. Open File action can be found in File action category. Device Boot context can be found in Event ~> System category.


Will hangouts phone call use data or cellular I am going on a roadtrip from Canada to the USA. I am purchasing a ATandT sim card that only allows for US calls and texts (at a reasonable price).

I want to use hangouts to call people, but have never used this feature. Does a hangout phone call use data just like video call does? Or will hangouts first check if this contact has a phone number associated with it, and instead use that.

Th reason I ask is because I don't want to be calling someone and assume I am using data, when infact it used cellular and I am paying $1 per minute.

Being an online mobile app, Hangouts uses only data (your bandwidth) to make the calls, not your actual telephone line. As per this Google support link, calls to most destinations in USA and Canada are free of cost from Hangouts so you shouldn't be billed anything (but you will be billed for the data/bandwidth used, of course!)

The exception is a few rare locations mentioned in that link that cost 1 cent per minute. And those calls will not be billed by AT&T, to pay for those calls, you'll have to purchase Google calling credit from here separately.

Reference:

https://support.google.com/hangouts/answer/3187125?hl=en

  Or will hangouts first check if this contact has a phone number associated with it, and instead use that.

You can either dial a number directly, or if you have that person in your Google contact list, you just type the name and number will come automatically. Even if the person doesn't have a number, Hangouts will work and you'll be able to make the call since that contact's identity will be based on the Google account, not their telephone numbers (check the Making a call with Hangouts section in the referred link). Google is all about seamless communication!

Edit

But what I don't understand is why are you paying for both a data plan and  talktime to AT&T? As per the support link, US & Canada calling is mostly free from hangouts, so if you already have a data plan, I don't see any need to buy that sim card for "making calls at a reasonable price".


Unknown Host - Emulator network config question I have an issue I need help with. I have the android emulator running using Eclipse Helios & ADTv20. I am able to get to internet using emulator. (google.com) However I cannot access any local domains. I have tried using -dns-server with X.X.X.X to our local DNS, but no avail. I have also modified /etc/hosts file using ADB push/pull to manually add entries, but sill not working. I am unable to use PING command or NSLOOKUP command using ADB SHELL. I have tried deploying a custom app using DefaultHttpClient and setting hosts properties static also. ..I receive "UnknownHostException" or "onReceivedError -2" "The URL could not be found". I verified that I have the INTERNET permission.

Can someone please guide me in the network configuration for my emulator so I can resolve my local domain?

SDK version is 2.3.3 API level 10

What am I missing? Thank you in advance.

From the Android emulator docs:

  At startup, the emulator reads the list of DNS servers that your
  system is currently using. It then stores the IP addresses of up to
  four servers on this list and sets up aliases to them on the emulated
  addresses 10.0.2.3, 10.0.2.4, 10.0.2.5 and 10.0.2.6 as needed.

Source: http://developer.android.com/tools/devices/emulator.html

So, it's possible that if you have more than 4 DNS servers configured, the emulator won't know about them.  I do see that you're passing the -dns-server arg on the command line, so can you paste the command line and all args you're using the start your emulator?


Why does Navigation keep choosing a different route? I have a route which I have taken a couple of times using Google Maps navigation and every time I go it takes me one of 3 different ways, even though I start and finish with the same location every time.

In web Google Maps the directions returns 3 results which are 35mins, 40mins and 41mins with varying routes, one is using 3 motorways, another is motorway-town-motorway and the last is through the "backroads".

Is GNavigation making this decision intelligently (traffic reports, time of day etc) or randomly picking me a route of the 3 available? This is in the UK.

Google Navigation uses traffic information in some countries, e.g. USA and UK. If you are in one of those, yep, it will pick an optimal route based on traffic.


Ignored 5.0 OTA update on nexus 4 now can't get it back I ignored the 5.0 update when it came over the air a couple of months back because I didn't want it at that time, and now I do want to update, but it's nowhere to be found on my phone. I go to settings -> about phone -> system update but it just shows that "system is up to date" even when I click check for update. I'm running 4.4.4.

I know that I could go and manually do the update but it seems ridiculous that there is no way to get the OTA update back? I don't want to have to do a bunch of manual work.

Is there no way to do this?

Thanks,

I have found sources {1} {2} {3} that say doing the following can force an OTA, but YMMV.

Go to Settings > Apps
scroll down to Google Services Framework
select that app

Clear data
Clear cache
Force stop
Now go in to Settings > About > System Update and check for an update.


Remove Album Art from Lock Screen How can I remove the album art from showing on my lock screen? I want my live wallpaper to show instead.

Edit: should have added device and ROM. Sorry first time on here. Using a Sprint GS3 with CM11 Nightlies.

I guess the music application you are using (probably Apollo in your case) is responsible for this. You might want to try a different one.

I just dug into Apollos source code and think I have found where it sets the album artwork. Check out line 1377 on Github.

mRemoteControlClient.putBitmap(RemoteControlClient.MetadataEditor.BITMAP_KEY_ARTWORK, albumArt);

The way I see it, the call to RemoteControlClient is responsible for setting the album art and other things. So, the media player is responsible for your problem and unlike you find one that doesn't provide the album art to the RemoteControlClient you probably can't do much about it.


How can I know if newly released phone will be developer friendly? What are the facts to look for if someone want to buy a developer friendly phone (other than nexus phones) which means this phone is gonna have a lot of custom roms, mods and can stay up to date with the latest version of android for as long as possible with the help of custom roms.

A good starting point would be reading up on how cooperative the manufacturer of the SoC in the device has been with the (open source) Android community in the past. For example some GPU vendors have a bad reputation when it comes to providing information and the sources of the drivers for their products. If the developers/porters of ROMs have to go through hell to get stuff working, chances are it won't be very popular with the modding/custom ROM community, unless there are other very good reasons to persist (for example if the device is very high-profile, think Galaxy S or Nexus series).


Samsung Galaxy s3 Battery life How long should a Galaxy S3 battery last?
My phone is brand new and today it was on standby for most of the day (it dropped 10% while being on standby for 3hrs), I only used the internet for about an hour and recieved one phone call. And my phone is almost dead!
I have gps and bluetooth disabled, the screen as dim as it will go and don't have any instant notifications. I also don't have any new apps on the phone yet.
My battery life says:
screen 41%
Adroid System 19%
Adroid OS 12%
Device Idle 6%
Cell Standby 6%
Internet 4%
Maps 3%
Phone 3%
Messaging 2%
Could I have a faulty battery?

I have an AT&T Galaxy SIII.  I use BetterBatteryStats when I have battery issues.  Lately I've been having problems with the calendar sync service keeping the phone awake.  I cleared its data and resynced from scratch, and that helped, but a few hours ago I created a new calendar, and now it's going bonkers again.

Anyway, the best I've been able to get is about 3% per hour when not being actively used.  I might have seen 2.5% one time, but that was a few months ago.  Typically though, especially with this calendar sync problem, I see 4.5% per hour or worse.

So if your question is, "How long should the battery last?" my best answer from my experience is about 24-28 hours, considering an average 3% per hour drain while idle, and light usage.  If you make a few long phone calls, that will, of course, drain it much faster.

But any apps that go haywire and cause excess wakelocks will wreck it quick.  I love the freedom of Android compared to iOS, but I really want more control over apps background behavior.  Android 4.3 may provide this, but who knows if the SIII will ever get it.


Unlocking HTC HD2 and installing Android I have HTC HD with Windows Mobile 6.5 installed and it is locked with Vodafone (Germany). If I want to install Android on it, do I have to unlock it first? Or it will be automatically unlocked in the process of installing Android?

Neither.  Unlocking is entirely unrelated to the OS.


Unable to exit from voice tutorial in Nexus 5 i ve bought a new Nexus 5. But I am unable to exit from the voice tutorial that is going on. How do I disable the voice tutorial that is running on my phone? Please help...

i opted factory reset and started all over again but without signing in gmail account and it worked     the nagging voice tutorial is gone


How to install from an unknown source with my AT&T Galaxy S phone? I have an AT&T Galaxy S phone, but I can't find install from an unknown source. How can I install apps I receive?

You need to download and install Android Central Sideload Wonder Machine to your computer and connect your device to the computer. This link will surely help you out. Just follow every step carefully and you will get rid of that issue. Hope that helps.


Clear search history in ebook reader App (Desire S) Is there any way to clear search history in ebook reader App on Desire S?
(It is the default reader App for ebook on HTC desire S).

Thanks.

Here is the HTC Desire S user guide in PDF, but I couldn't find there anything about clear search history in the section Reading eBook (pages 148-151). So, being that the default eBook reader, I guess that clearing search history is not possible unless you clear data from that app.


How to disable USSD notifications? On Android 4.2.1, some new stuff has appeared in the notification area. It shows my current balance and has an icon of the "SIM-card menu" app. Also, sometimes, some spammy messages appears (from my operator) that look like response to standard USSD request. On a previous OS, there was no such behavior.

How can I disable this? Is it OS or operator-related stuff?

If you have root, you can install the XPosed Framework and install the Ussd blocker module.


New Note 7 Rebooted and Erased All Data on First Time Insert of SIM card. Why? I got a new Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and I proceeded to do some configurations and download some apps on the device before putting in my SIM card.  Part of the install was setting up my company's Exchange account through ActiveSync - for which I agreed to all the security policies like allowing my company/ActiveSync to wipe the phone remotely and set security restrictions.

Then, I put in my SIM card for the first time.  The phone immediately rebooted and started to erase itself.  Why would this happen?  In what situations does this happen?

What I've done to investigate...

I thought that maybe the this was due to my company's Exchange ActiveSync policies thinking that my phone had been stolen because a new SIM was inserted.  So, I tested by

Performing some configuration and customization
NOT configuring Exchange ActiveSync
Swapping out the SIM card with that of a coworker's
Result: no reboot and no phone wipe
Configuring Exchance ActiveSync again
Swapping out the SIM card
Result: no reboot and no phone wipe

So I haven't been able to replicate the problem.  My coworker's SIM card is on the same carrier and my coworker's phone has definitely already authenticated to my company's Exchange ActiveSync server.   So perhaps not an adequate test but I don't have another SIM to test with at the moment.

This appears to be an undocumented feature of Note 7 as per this XDA thread  Samsung factory restore after inserting SIM for the first time on GN7 by ninja0n3
OP here faced the same problem and reproduced the chat transcript with Samsung help . Extracts:

Veronica (Samsung): I would like to inform you that, It will be reset to Factory settings, when you insert sim on the phone.
J.B.(OP): every time?
J.B.: so I go to another country, and change the sim card so I can get cell and it will delete all my data?
Veronica: No, it will delete the data when the sim is inserted for the first time and when you change the carrier on the phone.
J.B.: So if I put a sim card from a different carrier on the phone while I am abroad, will this reset the phone?
Veronica: Yes, you need to backup the phone before using another sim on the phone.
Veronica: I am sorry for that. As you insert the sim on the phone it will be restored to factory defaults to get the phone locked to that carrier.
J.B.: Is the carrier informed of this process?
Veronica: No, this has been started with the Note 7 phone. As it comes with Marsh Mallow OS in it.

(Emphasis supplied )
This does not fully explain OP's experience, for instance, reset didn't happen when co- worker's SIM was inserted ( unless first  time refers to the phone ), so gaps would need to be filled by Samsung / Carrier
All Hail Samsung (sorry, couldn't resist that)


Currencies supported by Android Market Now that Google has extended the number of countries from which developers can sell paid apps, have they also extended the number of supported currencies?

I know that the Market now shows prices in the user's local currency; what I want to know is can developers now set prices in currencies other than US dollars, Sterling, Euros and Yen?  For example, what currency is used when an Australian developer sells an app?  Do they set the price in US dollars or are Australian dollars now supported?

I've since found this link that lists 12 currencies supported by the Market.

They are:

Canadian Dollar
Swiss Franc
Danish Krone
Euro
British Pound
Hong Kong Dollar
Japanese Yen
Norwegian Krone
New Zealand Dollar
Swedish Krone
Singapore Dollar
US Dollar

No mention of the Australian dollar.  Presumably an oversight?


No pbcopy-pbpaste command I am trying to access the clipboard but there is no pbcopy or pbpaste command. Is there an alternative to this command? how can i access the clipboard from the command line?

For terminal, you can use Android Terminal Emulator (ATE). Assuming you have copied something to the clipboard, you can long-press in the ATE, and you will see a Paste command.There is also a Select text command.


How to prevent myself from accidentaly opening android ads? So, quite often i miss the little "X" in the corner of my phone screen when trying to close an ad. It then opens in quick succession my default browser and then the play store. This process is enough to make my phone reach the end of its performance, meaning that any taps on the "Back"-Button etc. cause a few seconds of lag, causing major annoyance on my side.
Searching for solutions only yielded articles describing measures by Google reducing the likeliness of these accidental clicks by ignoring very early clicks after the ad loads etc..
But i noticed that quite often the browser opens a link starting with some kind of "ad-relay"-sounding url-names ("ad4m.at", "ad4mat.de", "ad4.adfarm1"...) and i was wondering if i could at least make my browser ask for my confirmation before sending me to the follow-up page. I am using Chrome and could not find anything like that in the settings, but i would be willing to change browsers if another one supports this feature but Chrome does not.
I would also be happy about alternative solutions to my problem, if there are any.

I typically use the back button. Since it's not on the screen (Samsung J3V) I don't run the risk of accidentally tapping on the ad. But there are times when the back button doesn't work, which is frustrating, and you just have to use the small X.


The emulator process for AVD Pixel_2_API_30_2 was killed I have just installed Android Studio on Windows 10. I am having all sorts of issues. The first, of many, is that I cannot get the emulator to work. I have tried the following:

Clicked software instead of hardware.
Restarted computer.
Uninstalled and reinstalled the emulator.
Clicked on all updates.
Googled troubleshooting answers, nothing.

It always comes up with the same error: "The emulator process for AVD Pixel_2_API_30_2 was killed."
Any ideas?

"emulator ___ process was killed" can be multiple reasons.

check if your machine having enough RAM support as starting emulator consumes too much memory.
You don't to select "hardware" or "software", select for automatic option in graphics options.

Work around can be, just create a light weighted emulator 1st and try to use, then use Pixel 2 with latest os. This will help to narrow down your issue in analysis.


How to give apps access to existing Secure Storage How can I grant the apps on an upgraded Android, to the existing Secure Storage data?

To prepare for upgrading from LineageOS 14.1 to LineageOS 15.1, I made sure to wipe only Cache, System, and Data partitions. Specifically, I did not select Internal Storage to wipe, because I want the apps to continue to have access to the existing data.

Then, I followed the instructions to install LineageOS 15.1, which succeeded.

Now when I re-install the apps, such as Password Store and DAVDroid, they do not seem to have the same data from internal storage (they act as though there is no data yet). How do I get these apps to use the data, specific to each app, in Internal Storage that was not wiped?

Given the consensus I found when searching for answers, it seems there is no way to do this.


Nexus 9 WiFi tablet permanently in awake state I've recently been observing heavy battery drain during idle periods on my Nexus 9 tablet. The key here appears to be the awake status of the tablet. The left hand side of the picture shows a solid line indicating awake permanently. I found this for a number of days before I fixed the issue. The solution I will outline below in an answer to my own question.

I found the answer was to turn off the tablet, then start the tablet in recovery mode (hold volume down and power). You will get an Android robot lying down, press volume up and power to get to the menu. You need to enter recovery mode, then wipe the cache partition. It took around 10-15 minutes for me, but I've seen reports of longer. When that completes, reboot and the issue should go away. As you can see from my original image, the battery life is significantly improved.


Should you remove recent apps from multitasking drawer? I own Nexus 5 with 5.0.1 Lollipop in it. I was wondering weather or not it is beneficial to remove recently opened apps from multitasking drawer or is it harmful for battery life and maybe performance?
What exactly happens when you remove recently opened app from multitasking drawer?

If you remove an app from the multitasking drawer it's marked to be closed very soon (just a few seconds) and it's memory is cached (instead of used).
This releases used RAM and prevents Android from closing running applications if another one needs more memory.
Depending on what applications you close with the multitasking drawer they will eventually restart (if a service is running in the background and launches the application again eg. Facebook) or they will just be closed.

Performance wise it's not a problem, applications you have closed might just take half a second longer to load up but that's it.
Battery life can be improved a little bit if you close down applications that would else run in the background and do some weird stuff that causes your battery to be drained quicker than usual.

Also: I'm not the best in understanding how the Android LMK (low-memory killer) works but it first uses available RAM instead of closing applications.


Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (forgot password) Disable the lock screen I have had my Samsung Tab for over a year and my mom put a password on it and she forgot what the password was. Is there anyway I can access it without losing any of my games or files, or will I have to do the Hard Reset?

Assuming you had a Samsung account setup correctly (and activated?), one may go to the website 'findmymobile.samsung.com' on a seperate device.  Once there, they should log in.  "On the next screen, click Find, then More, then Unlock My Device."  This will allow one to change the authentication.

(Source: https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/189126/I+forgot+my+password+to+unlock+my+Samsung+Galaxy+10.1#answer335608)

Also, a similar question with a better answer can be found at: Can not unlock my Android device as have no internet connection?


Any reason not to allow automatic updating for an app? Since Android 2.2 (Froyo), you can select "Allow automatic updating" for applications. For some reason, I haven't started using this yet. The benefit would be to save time, but are there any good reasons not to use this feature?

I leave it off so that I can review the list of pending updates and see what changed.  Of course, that only helps for the apps that list changes in the market description.

Every once in a while, developers do release updates that are a step backwards- either because of introducing bugs or major redesigns that lose features (Astrid, I'm looking at you).  If you wait long enough before updating, then you may be alerted to that situation via comments.


How can I install Jelly Bean on a Micromax Funbook P275? I have a Micromax Funbook P275 tablet with Android 4.0.4 ICS installed, and I want to install 4.2 Jelly Bean on it, using this guide.

Since the P275 doesn't have hardware buttons for volume up/down, how can I scroll up/down in the recovery mode without the hardware buttons? The only ones on my device are the Home and the Power button.

Flashing CWM recovery directly from your Micromax Funbook.
This method is for those who do not want to use a computer to flash cwm recovery or do not have access to a computer to do the same.

Give me credits only for the method. Not for the app and the recovery image.

Things Required:-

Data Connection on your Tablet. (via WIFI)
An file manager that supports archives. Eg ES File Explorer.
A Usable and working mind.

Steps:-

Download the necessary files from here.
Extract the file to the root of your "internal sd card" and you will get 2 file First "Novotools_v1.0" and the Second "recovery.img".
Install the app Novotools_v1.0.
Run Novotools and you will see and option Flash Recovery
Click it and the recovey will be flashed onto your phone.
Reboot in recovery with the help of the application or the old method by Holding the Home/Options and the Power button.
Now you have fully functional CWM recovery.

Using this custom CWM, you can scroll in the funbook recovery mode using the menu button alone.


Xperia Z5C can't receive SMS I just followed Sony's tutorial to unlock and flash the ROM to AOSP. I also compiled manually the kernel in the process. I imported my mmssms.db as well to keep my messages.

The stock messaging app kept crashing when opening a conversation, so I tried to clear the mmssms.db, but then I simply can't get to the redaction screen. I can select contacts but that's it. I tried another app that can send SMSes successfully, however I don't receive anything.

That's probably a bit confuse but I'd like to know where the issue could be, where to look and/or what useful debug infos I could get & share.

----- EDIT -----

I tried to put my sim in another phone: works
I put another sim in my phone: can send, can't receive as well.

Flashing it with the same bootimg and system without importing the mmssms.db fixed it. To be sure, I imported it again and it did the same as before.

It therefore seems that the replacing the DB is a bad idea, there must be another way.


Can Always-On Display on my Galaxy A5 (2017) cause screen burn-in? Ever since I bought my Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017), I've been using its Always-On Display feature, which displays a clock or calendar with unread notification icons, or one of four preinstalled images on the screen while it's in the "off" state (e.g. locked).

I'm using the Image option as you can see on the screenshot above. I've heard recently that Samsung phones are notorious for being susceptible to screen burn-in because of their AMOLED displays. Is that something I should be concerned about when using the Always-On Display feature?

I have been looking around phone shops and playing with the Samsung A5 as I am wanting to get it, and every shop that I went into there the A5 had really bad screen burn. The man explained it was because they were constantly playing in demo mode and never going off, but having the time and and constantly on could cause screen burn so be careful and maybe change the setting.


Acer DA241HL - system reset from bootloader The Acer DA241HL is a 24" Smart Display which has Android installed but also had HDMI input so you can use it as a second screen for a laptop or similar too.

Anyway, I've been able to reboot into the bootloader using adb with the Acer DA241HL connected.

However, it doesn't show up on fastboot devices nor adb devices and only stays on the boot options screen for about 5 seconds before it seems to turn off completely.

At the top, it explains that pressing  or  allows you to move up/down in the list of options (bootload, restart, shutdown, reboot ? something like that), and then pressing the power button to select the option... however this is not a tablet or a phone, it's a "Smart Display" and the Volume Up/Down options don't do anything but turn the volume up and down for the screen (it's like it's not sending those buttons directly to Android, but only to the screens built-in speakers).

Pressing the power button when on the bootloader doesn't seem to do anything either, I've had to press the power button multiple times before the machine reboots back into Android otherwise it continuously boots into the bootloader and then shuts off after a 5 seconds.

Does anyone know how I can fully system reset (as in roll back all the firmware updates I performed) this device?

I've tried pressing and holding Volume Up with the Power button to boot into the bootloader 'manually' instead of using adb but it didn't seem to work...

Summing up from the comments:

No "reset" will ever roll back any system updates applied. For that, you would have to re-flash the original ROM.
For the device to show up with adb devices or fastboot devices, you must have your computer configured accordingly. If your computer runs Windows, you will need a special driver (Koush's Universal ADB driver might help you out here, in case you cannot find a specific driver for your devices). If it's Linux, you might wish to consult my answer here, for a Mac it might be similar. Further helpful hints can be found via our adb tag-wiki.
As you have multiple identic devices, some updated and some not, you should be able to utilize dd (see also this wikipedia article for a starter) to clone all partitions of one device and apply that to others. As partition structures are quite device specific, I cannot give you accurate details here; a little research might be helpful especially on sites like XDA Developers. A custom recovery can be used for this as well: check out our nandroid tag and its tag-wiki for details on that.


Nexus 5x Crashed and can not enter Recovery My nexus 5x Crashed and then constantly starting up to the "Google" splash screen. I wanted to execute the “Recovery mode” but unfortunately without the success.

I executed the following:

1. Press & hold Volume Down and Volume Up, and then press & hold Power simultaneously until the device turns on. I see the word Start with an arrow drawn around it.
2. Press Volume Down twice to designate Recovery mode.
3. Press Power to restart into Recovery mode

Unfortunately I see the "Google" splash screen each time I do it.

What can I do to recover my phone?
Can I access the data (photos) on the phone?
What does DEVICE STATE  - locked status on the start screen mean?

Unfortunately it's not a very common problem, so I assume neither Google not LG really bother fixing it (I have the same issue). The 7.1.1 upgrade caused some sort of hardware bug that couldn't be fixed.
The solution is to contact the seller of the phone. If you bought it from Google and it's still under warranty, you're in luck because you can get a full refund. Otherwise, just explain the situation to them and see what they can do.

Concerning your photos, well, your hope is that you had backups... You can try freezing your phone (literally). In my case it gave me about 5 minutes of uptime (it shuts down once gets warm), so if it's the case for you, you might have enough time to pull your photos and all the other info from it.

DEVICE STATE - locked means that you didn't unlock the bootloader. That, in turn, doesn't permit you to perform various operations with fastboot or adb. To unlock the bootloader you need to access the Developer Options in the settings when the device is powered up.

So I hope I shed some light on your issue. Hope you can have something done with it.
UPD: I called the Google Play support and after going through the problem they agreed to send me a new 5X. The entire solution took about 20 minutes. So I strongly encourage you to do it :)


Google Photos Auto-Backup Exclude folder I have Auto Backup enabled in Google Now for Photos.  I also have Local Folders enabled so that photos produced by apps other than the camera get backed up too.

However, this then includes photos and videos from folders that I don't want to backup.   The "Include Local Folders" seems to be an all or nothing option.

Is there a way to exclude folders individually?

I still want these folders to be recognised as media, just not backed up.

You should be able to select folder settings in the photos app. Per support.google:

You can choose to automatically back up your Android's photo and video folders, including photos you've downloaded, screenshots you've taken, or photos saved by other apps.

  Turn setting on or off Open the  Photos app > touch the  menu
  icon/button  > Settings > Auto Backup > check or uncheck Back up local
  folders

  Turn on or off for individual folders Open the  Photos app > touch the
  Photos menu icon at the top left > On Device > to the right of each
  folder title, toggle the cloud icon to turn Auto Backup on or off for
  that folder


Root Asus ZenPad S 8.0 (Z580CA) How can I root ZenPad Z580CA - 8'' IPS - 64 GB - Wifi? Are there any ROMs available for it?

I successfully rooted ZenPad Z580CA by following these two links:
Link1: http://www.asus-zenfone.com/2015/11/how-to-root-asus-zenpad-s-80-z580c.html
Link2: http://dottech.org/190386/how-to-root-asus-zenpad-s-8-0-z580c-on-android-5-0-guide/

Thanks to the authors of the above links, but some steps mentioned in this link need more clarification, so I am adding a detailed procedure here:

Tools Required
 1. Windows PC
   2. Download ADB Fastboot tool (Download)
   3. Download the Intel USB driver (Download)
   4. Download IntelAndroidFBRL05162015PTR (Download)
   5. Download SuperSu (Download)

STEPS
1. Install ADB fastboot tool, Intel USB driver on your Windows machine. Check the link mentioned in Link2:Step4 for installation and checking whether ADB fastboot tool is working. I followed METHOD 1 mentioned in that link.
2. Activate  USB  Debugging  at ZenPad (Settings->Developer  Options,  if  no
developer options, then go to Settings->About->Software information->tap build number 7 times)
3. Connect ZenPad to your Windows machine (laptop/PC).
4. Copy the SuperSU package (the zip file) to the internal SD storage of the ZenPad device.
5. Type: adb devices in windows cmd (press Windows key + R -> type in cmd -> OK) to check whether your device is connected properly or not. If connected properly you can see some key number as the output for this command in cmd. If your device is connected properly proceed to next step.
6. Extract the IntelAndroidFBRL05162015PTR package on your Windows machine. Click the launcher.bat file that is found inside the same extracted folder. Run it in cmd. Wait until it says your device is detected. Now select T2 and Enter. Wait for the device to boot into the custom recovery after about 2-5 minutes.
7. Once the main page of recovery menu has appeared on your tab, use the Volume keys to navigate through the recovery menu and power button for selection. Choose the Install option to browse the SD card and then install SuperSU zip file (file copied in step 4).
8. Once the installation is done, go back to main menu of recovery mode and reboot.
9. Done

You can see that the SuperSu app is installed in your ZenPad now. You can double check the root status by some root-checker apps available in the Play Store.


What is the pathname to my application executable? I wish to get the pathname for an application I am creating and have installed via Eclipse and ADB.  My application is installed as I see an icon that I can invoke to launch successfully my application.  I also see a file: /data/app/com.mydomain.myapp-36.apk however, if I try to invoke that file from the shell I get an error of can't execute: permission denied, even though I am root.  I notice that for sshDroid, I can invoke it from the shell using the path: /data/data/berserker.android.apps.sshdroid/dropbear/ssh but I find no corresponding path for my application /data/data/com.mydomain.myapp/ as that directory only contains the subdirectories: cache, files, and lib.

Is there something I can do when building on installing my application so that my application can be invoked from the shell, or do I just need help locating the pathname for my application?

To launch applications, use the ActivityManager (am command).
Apks are not directly executable as they are just archives containing runnable code.
If you have packaged natively executable binaries in your app, you need to extract them first, then set permissions according to executable permissions (at least --x--x--x) and launch it through an instance of shell.


How to suppress these “Application needs installed” notifications from Google Maps? Since the last Google Maps update, it periodically shows an “Application needs installed: Request of install from Google Maps” airpush notification begging me to install Google Play services.

I do not want it installed, since i do not have enough disk space on my phone, and Maps seem to function normally (aside from the usual graphics glitches) without Play Services installed. I do not use other Google apps aside from Maps.

How to get rid of these notifications?

If relevant, i am using Android 4.1.2 (Cyanogenmod unofficial) on Sony Arc S.

The only way possible is to root your phone and install Xposed Framework.
It has a module, This App Will Run Without Google Play Services, which makes Play Services installation not compulsory for certain apps (including Maps); it's compatible with Android 2.3 – 5.0.


What is the file sharing protocol via Wifi Direct? I'm developing Wifi Direct communication between Android and Linux System.
Actually I can make Wifi Direct connection, and succeeded FTP file sharing.

But I want make more simple file sharing system, like Android's Wifi Direct file sharing. FTP connection needs some configurations, but as you know, just few touches are enough to share files between Androids via wifi direct.

My question is :

Is Android has specific file transfer protocol via Wifi Direct?
what is the best way for file transfer between Linux and Android systems?

Thanks for read.

Is Android has specific file transfer protocol via Wifi Direct?

WiFi direct is a communication protocol just like Bluetooth. What differentiates between the two bluetooth has a transfer protocol; Object Exchange (OBEX) that facilitates the exchange of binary objects between devices) while the former doesn't.

AFAIK  there is no standard protocol for file sharing even in Android environment.

WiFi direct is just one layer in a whole stack of different communication technologies and protocols required to get file sharing over network connections to function.

Basically you need to layer transport and session protocols layers on top (like TCP/IP), additionally you need to layer application protocols on top of TCP/IP, (like FTP, NFS, CIFS)

  what is the best way for file transfer between Linux and Android systems?

Well it depends, perhaps using USB connection? you're guaranteed realibity and speed. Sometimes we don't need to complicate things.

Wireless methods? (i.e bluetooth, wi-fi Wi-Fi direct etc) but again other factors come into play: compatibility, session protocols (FTP, CIFS etc) some protocols are associated with high speeds and reliability e.g cifs> ftp etc.

See one example of such scenario using wi-fi: File transfer with linux pc through mobile hotspot

Credits:

WIFI Direct is now enabled in wp8.1-- devs can we expect file sharing apps using wifi direct APIs???


How do I prevent Google Search from spawning instances? I love using the white Google search bar at the top of my home screen, but I only recently discovered that it spawns a new instance for every search I do. My phone was slowing down, and I suddenly noticed I had dozens of past searches in my app switcher. I went through and closed them all, and now my phone is happy again.

Can I have all searches share one instance? Or do I have to clean them up periodically myself? :(

From my own experience of Lollipop, it's Google's new concept to show you everything you're doing as a separate activity. Unless you go down the route of rooting and applying some mod (I don't know of one which does this), the only solution I see is to get into the habit of always closing them as soon as you open them. (Easier said than done, I can say for sure).


My Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Doesn't Show an "Allow USB Debugging?" Prompt. Is there a fix? Around this morning, I had the idea to transfer all my whatsapp chats(from android to ios)

Not so complicated, right?

Well, I was in for a rude awakening. Not only did I spend literally 7 hours trying to fix it... I couldn't fix it!

That's basically why I'm reaching out to you. My last hope. My knight in shining armor.

Here are the more technical details:

Before you say it, and I know you will, I'll tell you - I restarted my phone about 10 million times
I've enabled and disabled usb debugging around 10 million times minus 1.
I haven't played with adb so I don't screw with my android system. However if that's necessary, I'll do what must be done.
I'm specifically using my own samsung galaxy note 8 since I previously tried on another phone(LG v20) and it didn't work either.

So, I must ask you, are you up to this challenge? Can you fix what seems unfixable?

P.s. Here's a preview of what should be showing up on my own android device but is not:

There's an option called "Revoke USB Authorization" within the Developer options. Click it and it'll revoke the auth key.


Cannot boot to twrp recovery after rooting second time I have rooted my Redmi 1s one year ago, and installed TWRP using Twrp Manger, and flashed custom ROM (Cyanogenmod and then Lineage Os). And, now I returned back to stock MIUI ROM. Again, I rooted my device and tried to install TWRP. TWRP got installed (I tried different versions of img and zip of twrp), and I cannot boot to TWRP recovery mode. I also tried fastboot methods to install TWRP which also got failed while booting.

I followed the same steps for rooting that I have done for the first time. Rooted using Super Su (source from miui forum). Checked using root checker, shows status as rooted. Tried to install twrp using, twrp manager(success but can't boot to recovery), twrp official app(success but can't boot to recovery) and rashr (got failed, it tells I have installed twrp already).
I flashed Philz clockworkmod using fastboot, and booted to recovery mode. I have less experience with CWM. so, I need to set twrp as my recovery.
How to solve?

It was a firmware issue. TWRP requires latest firmware/ROM to be installed. Otherwise twrp get stuck at teamwin logo.

I installed latest MIUI ROM (MIUI 8.2.1) on my device and rooted it and installed latest TWRP image(3.1.1) using fast boot. It booted to twrp recovery successfully.


Block H+ (3.5G) but not H (3G), possible? Is there any way to block only H+ (3.5G) and still have H (3G)? I use Android 4.2.1 CM10 Galaxy Nexus.

I want to do this because 3.5G signal in buildings is poor (1 bar), but 2G (which signal is good) is too slow.

No, you cannot block that, unfortunately!

You can either switch to 2G (which saves battery) or continue with 3G. Cannot have it both ways!

The telephony signal is deep within Android itself and no way of messing with that! Not alone that, Android picks up that radio signal strength from the heart of the Silicon On Chip (S-o-C) where the base-band radio firmware resides in and is off-limits and proprietary.


Unable to turn on screen during calls Both of my Galaxy S3s have a problem with their proximity sensors. I make a call, put the phone to my ear, but then if I want to hang up the screen is dead and won't wake up. I cannot disconnect the call until their answering machine hangs up. If they don't have an answering machine, the call just rings and rings until I remove my battery. This is my second S3. Is there a fix for this?

I had exactly the same problem, then set the power button to end calls. But actually if you go to Dialer(keypad), go to Call Settings and untick "Turn off screen during calls".

It works, as I had this problem since I bought the phone so I think it was set to that as default, because I never even knew how to get in to Call Settings before this problem.


Is it possible to remove text from under the icons on the home screen? I'm familiar with all the icons on my home screen. I think it would look better, at least to me, if the text from under those icons is gone. Is this possible?

I'm willing to root my device for this, but not switch to an alternate home screen launcher app.

I am using Moto-G with Kit Kat.

Yes this can be done on the Google launcher itself . But you will have to root your phone. You will not only be able to hide the text but be able to tweak even more stuff. But let's just stick to hiding the text for now.
Download Xposed GEL Settings
It is an xposed module and requires the xposed framework. If you don't know what that is, here's a video to get you started off with the  Android Xposed Framework.
If you still have questions, do ask.