Can't enable Developer Mode on Nexus 7 2013 with tapping the Build Number I am trying to root Nexus 7 2013 and for the purpuse I need to enable USB debugging. As instructed from multiple resources, to enable developer mode one needs to tap the build number 7 times. Did that, plenty of times, but nothing happens.

I saw this other question on the matter, where the case appeared to be that there were multiple users, but in my case there is just one user on the tablet.

About info picture: http://prntscr.com/rmo70x

The problem was that the tablet had installed Family Link. Once I removed the account from Family Link, tapping the build option worked.


Test Accelerometer alignment? Is there any app around that lets an Android user see the "flat" on the accelerometer? The reason I'm looking for such is because I recently got the Need For Speed Shift game. And I notice that the car is veering to the right even if I have the phone held straight. I have to tilt it a little to the left in order for it to go a straight direction which is an awkward workaround. If there's an app that can show a straight line for me to be able to test if my accelerometer is misaligned, please do share. If there's no such app I'll happily accept any hacks/workarounds available like a live wallpaper with a liquid physics on it perhaps?

The sooner I find this out, the better because I can send it in for replacement / repair while it's still under warranty.

There was an app that I had a while ago, I think they removed it from the market, but I found it here: Tricorder. It's a little cheesey and geeky, but if you are in the first section ("GRAV") it will show you the direction vectors from the readings it gets from the accelerometer. It does some other cool things too, but for your diagnostic purposes, it should work well!

Update: Here's a screenshot of what you're looking for. I took this while holding my phone horizontally, and you'll notice the "y" vector is 0.040. It kept moving between 0.080 and 0.000. I'd say if it's much more than 0.150 off, you probably have a hardware issue.

Here's the reading I got at ~0.500. To get this reading, I held the phone horizontally and lifted up the left side almost a centimeter.  Here's the screenshot, if it helps:


Does running Phone Repair from Xperia PC Companion delete any data? Basically the title is my question. Also What precautions should I take before running Phone repair?

Data in the phone will be deleted, only data in the SD card will remain. Make sure you have done all proper backups of data contained in your internal memory.

Other than that, i'll make sure to have a backup of my contacts or make sure they are synced to an online service.


File servers for Android? Do any good file servers exist for Android that do not require root?  Ideally, it'd be nice to just be able to have an SMB share, but the only app I was able to find for this (Samba Filesharing) requires root.

I'm currently using FTPDroid, but it's pretty slow (I'm getting about 200 KB/s downloads on my n600 wifi).  Are there any better options?

I'm using a Verizon Galaxy S3.

If all you want to do is access your device from a Computer, my favourite app is AirDroid. Allows you to browse files file a lot more. Doesn't require root. I've found that I can get 1.5 / 2mb/s on a busy network


S7 Edge possible hardware issue I have this Samsung S7 Edge. Phone worked fine. Then I placed it in box. After 4 months I decided to use it again. Of course battery was empty. I charged it a bit, and it would not go past the Samsung logo screen.

I have tried all things that I found on internet, like resetting it, and clearing cache but it did not fix the problem.

I took it to service, and after couple of days I got reply that the flashing did not fix the issue. Service man said that one of the chip is bad, and that is the reason it does not boot up. Also he said it is known problem with S7 phones. Fixing it is more expensive then to get another S7.

I do know hardware failure can prevent the boot, and many other things. I am wondering at the statement 'It is known problem to S7 phones'. If he is not telling the truth, I would rather try with another repair shop, before throwing the phone away.

Hardware failure will indeed cause a phone from completing the boot sequence without a doubt. If you own the device outright, I would suggest flashing a custom ROM such as AEX. Runs flawlessly for me.

Download ODIN flash tool on your PC.
Go to the site Download Centre|Aosp Extended, find your device and download.
Find  a TWRP image.tar for your device.
Download Magisk 17.1 from the XDA site.
Plug phone into PC and open ODIN. If ODIN finds your device, you'll see "COM3" (or whatever) at the top right.
Put a check mark in the "AP" option.
Put the TWRP.img.tar in there.
Click start.
Boot back to recovery and click wipe and swipe.
Move the ROM you downloaded from PC to SD card.
Reboot to recovery.
Click install.
Find the ROM, click and swipe.
Boot to system. If it boots (takes about 3-5 mins) you're good.
Optional: boot back to recovery and install Magisk.

Now you have a great ROM and is rooted. Once you're happy with the device, boot back to recovery and make "Backup". By the way, you will not and cannot backup and restore unless you get a perfect image and all partitions into some sort of 0755 folder with a blocker file in front on your PC. Then, you need to decompile, and recompile into a flashable zip. Not very applicable.


Pop-up advertising message filling the screen Sony Xperia M, model C1905.
Android 4.3 official firmware, build number 15.4.A.1.9

 Screenshot (click to enlarge)

The blue button on the message is a link to play.google.com of "du speed booster" page. It is a useless application. All of applications on a phone installed from google play site.
First time I thought, this message is an android generated to force me to free some internal memory. Now there is enough free memory, and the message still appears.

I do not know how figure out the harmful application.
I searched in Google by words in message to find people, who faced the same message and solved the problem, but there are no such results.
I have installed the AirPush Detector, but it did not find anything.

Must I do full wipe?

That's not an Airpush ad. Also, these kind of ads are forbidden by the Google Playstore TOS. Always pointing to the same app suggests another app from the same developer placing it, not an ad module.

I'd first check which apps are running when this happens (Settings→Apps, select the corresponding tab). See if there are "non-essential" apps listed which you can live without. Note them down.

Second, check permissions of the apps installed. There are some permission checker apps available which make things easier for you. Fot this specific case, Permission Explorer seems to be a good candidate:

Permission Explorer: List of permissions, apps using a certain permission (source: Google Play; click images for larger variants)

As the screenshots show, this app allows you to browse your installed apps by permission. Your screenshot looks like a system alert window, so the offending app most likely has the SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW permission. Check for apps having this permission. Note them down.

In a third step, compare your notes: apps that were running when the message appeared, apps using the SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW permission. If you find a match, you most likely found your offender. Uninstall it, and see whether your issue is gone then.

If this has solved your issue, don't forget the following to help others: check if that app is still on Google Play, and if the version there matches the version you have installed. If so, first report that app to Google, as it violates the TOS, and put a comment warning others. Google should react by removing the app from the store.


Does MTK Android devices get software updates ever? (LG) I know that mediatek doesn't share their source code (you can buy it), and what I was wondering is does any MTK device gets updates when newer Android version rolls out, and not just new versions, just does they get software updates? I asking about stock ROM-s made by phone manufacturer. Mostly interested about LG devices.

Sure - devices from Xiaomi are good examples.

Redmi Note 2, released in 2015, still gets stable and weekly development builds of up-to-date MIUI8. Whether the Android version beneath the UI was updated is a question, but that also stays true for other MIUI devices regardless of the SoCs they're using, and you're not asking about Android version updates exactly, either.


"Invalid Sim" even when IMEI number is correct On a recently purchased Sprint Galaxy Note 5, I installed an engineered version of Android 6.0 that apparently breaks the unlock it had before (this wasn't mentioned in the instruction so..), so after installation I get an "Invalid SIM card" notification; I checked the IMEI and it is correct, the same as the IMEI I had before, though I read that the Invalid SIM card warning comes only when the IMEI is lost because of similar installations.
My question is, what could possibly be the problem as the IMEI is correct yet the SIM card is not recognized? Could it be that the phone's designed for Sprint and IMEI is not involved? Or could it be an easy-to-fix problem?

Partial answer:

A physically damaged SIM card can lead to the "Invalid SIM card" message as well.


Can I make home screen contact icons update their picture? I was just wondering if anyone knows how to make contact icons on the home screen update their picture when the contact's picture is changed, without needing to delete the shortcut and recreate it. Can this be done? Make the contact-shortcut's picture "live" as it were?

e.g. some of my contacts are linked to Facebook and their pictures on their contact records sync as expected, but the shortcut on the home screen will still show whatever their picture was when the shortcut was created.

I thought maybe rebooting the phone would cause it to refresh the icons, but it didn't.

Running on a non-rooted Galaxy S Captivate.

Looks like it is logged as an Android bug. If I'm reading right, there is no current plan for the Android team to address this.


Need one-line adb shell su push & pull to access /data from Windows batch file I wrote a Windows batch file that replaces Amazon lockscreen ads with user images on rooted kindle fire hd 7", 2013 (kfsowi). Just learned I botched the adb commands because I was running "adb insecure" so was getting su access without writing it into the adb commands.
What I need: To run in batch file, I need one-line adb shell su commands to pull from/push to /data on this device. (Or I could use adb -d shell su -c "mount -o remount rw, /data on one line followed by the pull or push)
I have fixed an ls command like this:

this worked with adb insecure: adb ls "/data/securedStorageLocation"
what I needed was: adb shell su -c "ls ./data/securedStorageLocation"

Now I need same for pull and push. The problem:

With adb insecure, this works fine: adb pull "/data/securedStorageLocation" "C:/destination"
Without adb insecure I get: remote object '/data/securedStorageLocation/' does not exist

Above happens even if I first run: adb -d shell su -c "mount -o remount rw, /data
Can someone tell me how to do the pull and push with adb shell and su?
EDIT: adb root command doesn't gain root on this device

Well, you have to do a few commands, as I don't believe it will work in one.

You need to do:

adb shell
su
cd /data/path/of/file
cp /data/path/of/file/copyme /data/local/tmp
chown shell.shell /data/local/tmp/copyme
exit
exit
adb pull /data/local/tmp/copyme /destination/copyme

This works for me every time.


Copy all URLs of all tabs simultaneously I have Samsung mobile.
I am using Google Chrome in Android.
I have opened more than 20 tabs in past 20 days .
Now , I want to copy n store all the urls (website links) of all the opened tabs in a text format in mobile (memo)  or email all the urls combined before closing all the tabs.
How can i do it in mobile ?

Sync the open tabs in Chrome for Android with Chrome for PC. Once the sync is completed you would see the opened tabs of your Android under History section (click Tabs from Other Devices in left panel) in your Chrome for PC. Thereafter, click the three dots line in the upper right panel, choose Open all. Make sure to close other tabs in your Chrome for PC.

Next, install OneTab extension. Click its icon in toolbar, and it would reduce all the opened tabs into a single tab by providing hyperlinks to the recently closed tabs. You can export the URLs from Import/Export URL option in the right panel of that tab.


What versions of Youtube for Android support fast-forward and rewind? What version(s) of Youtube for Android definitively support fast-forward and rewind? I'm referring to the forwards and backwards buttons in landscape mode that permit you to jump ~10 seconds. I lost this feature after accidentally updating the Youtube app and am seeking a way to restore this functionality. If I can determine what version(s) support the feature, then I'll be able to sideload the correct version.

The only information I've been able to find on the subject references the introduction of the feature in 10.43.58. I've tested 10.43.58 and a number of other versions to no avail. Perhaps the feature has been disabled server-side? Does anyone have any first-hand experience with a version that includes this feature?

Actually, the latest version of YouTube app (tested on v11.27.53) has fast-forward and rewind features, but unfortunately it's not active by default.

As hinted by the string resources,

<string name="accessibility_rewind">Rewind</string>
<string name="accessibility_fast_forward">Fast forward</string>

the features only work on Accessibility mode.

Try enabling Switch Access (or TalkBack, but it's a lot noisier) from Accessibility on Android's Settings. The next time you use YouTube app, fast-forward and rewind buttons are shown beside the play button on the center.


Copy a complete chat from whatsapp to PC Anyone an idea how I can download a complete conversation with voice messages and pictures to an xls file with date and time? I can do it manualy by copy paste and save every individual voice message but that is a lot of work. Can this be done on another way?
Thanks,
Jan

Open the conversation. Enter options menu -> more -> export chat -> with media -> send via email
Check your email. Save all attachments to disk.
Open the text file with Wordpad. Press CTRL + H. Replace string - Name 1: with the string |Name 1| and repeat for Name 2. Save it.
Open spreadsheet, and use | as separator, when importing a text file.


How to set up BIOS-like password on Android device? Setting a screen lock password or SIM pin or both is fine for securing some aspects of your mobile device. But what if, as a nasty joke, someone manages to grab a hold of your device and hits the magic power-home-volume key combination and proceeds to factory reset your device thus deleting your folder configuration, a record of what unpaid apps you had downloaded, and what is more, data stored on your phone!

So, is there a way to set up a password so that it must be entered when such magic key combination is issued (so that you can't factory reset your device without entering such a "BIOS" password?

Thanks!!!

The only thing similar to this that I can think of is device encryption, it's built in to the settings panel. Every time you power on your phone, you are required to enter a pass-code, that you created. If you forget it, it will be more difficult to get back into your phone

How To

Go to settings
Click Security
Under the Encryption group, hit Encrypt device (or phone on older devices)
Now it will guide you through the next steps.


Multiple users on Samsung Galaxy A10 I want to be able to have two separate logins on my Galaxy A10 android phone, which require different passwords to access. Is this possible?

Not sure if Samsung added that feature in your rom, but this thing are provided as features from manufacturers. If your device lacks this feature, wait till new update.
Or you can install new rom for your device which have this feature. But it is risky as rooting and flashing new software involves.


How to root a Samsung I9070 Galaxy S Advance/S II Lite? What are the steps to root this phone?

As I understand, Samsung has been using an internal counter that will void your guarantee if you install a custom kernel, I'd like to avoid that.

Solution for at least I9070 / I9070P on Linux:

Flashing only system.img with Odin or Heimdall (use 1.3.1 version) does
not increase the counter.

So download an official stock ROM for your phone, extract it,
convert the system.img (sparse ext4 image) to an normal ext4 image as described here. Loop-mount it, add a su binary to the xbin subfolder with the correct file rights and ownership (06755 root root)  and if necessary add other files which are on your phone in the /system folder but not in the stock rom. Repack everything back to a sparse ext4 image and flash it.

At the end install the Superuser or SuperSu app which belongs to the su binary you added to the system image.


Mute Button Missing? I upgraded to a Samsung Galaxy S4 from an iPhone 4 today and have been setting various settings. When I first made a call there was a mute button in the middle bottom of the screen. Now, after I have changed settings, there is no more mute button.

I am at a lost as to what I changed to make my mute button disappear.

What do I do to see the mute button?

Note: I am referring to muting my phone during a call.

Try this

1.Settings > tap Home Screen Mode > select standard mode
2.Tap apply and reboot.


message saying "disable harmful apps Galaxy apps can damage your device" I got this message on my Samsung Galaxy trend Plus but not sure what to do. Not very tech savvy anyone got any advice?

thank you

Galaxy Apps is Samsung's Appstore for its own software, which are usually variants of apps produced and distributed by Google through Google Play Store. There is generally a complement app for every Google App. Galaxy Apps, the Appstore frontend, is not unsafe, but it can be a propaganda spread by other appstores and virus checkers to dissuade you from downloading and using Samsung APKs there. The official opinion is that ANY APKs distributed through any appstore than Google's Play Store can be unsafe, and as a consequence, to install Galaxy Apps distributed APKs demands the permission "Install unknown/outside apps". Something is warning you about this setting; accept the warning under this understanding or remove whatever checking is in place.

EDIT: as of my Samsung Galaxy S8, or possibly earlier, Galaxy Apps CANNOT be disabled, so while whatever is possibly reporting a false safety warning, it may also be hinting that the app may be unsafe but can be corrected with a more current update?


Are there sandbox apps that does not require the phone to be rooted? There are many sandbox apps such as Permissions Denied (which was mention in one of the post) that can effectively control the permissions that apps which are installed onto your phone.

However, they require the user to root their phone.

So, are there sandbox apps that does not require user to root their phones and at the same time, allow user to control what permission to be given to the apps.

Would appreciate if the apps can run in Android 2 and above.

That would be a contradiction in terms: In order to disable permissions on-the-fly, root permissions are required -- no way around that.

For non-root users, there's only a different approach: Take the .apk apart before installing, manipulate the Manifest (remove unwanted permission's requests), re-assemble the .apk, and then install the modified package. Unwanted side-effect: No direct updates, as the signature on the package breaks this way. An app doing this is e.g. apktool, available for Windows, Mac and Linux.


How to unlock a "network sim" in order to use a Android phone? I got an old Android phone (HTC MyTouch) from someone in the States. The phone says "T-Mobile" on the top.

I put in my O2 SIM chip (Germany), turned it on, typed in the SIM, but then it asks me to type in a "SIM network unlock pin".

I went to T-Mobile here in Germany and they said to "contact T-Mobile in America" who may be able to unlock it for me.

I went to the O2 shop in Germany and they said it would definitely not be possible to use this Android phone with my O2 SIM chip.

Before I sink hours into contacting T-Mobile in the States, can someone tell me from experience if it is (technically and legally) possible to use this Android phone in Germany?

You'll need to purchase an unlock code.

You will probably find a number of companies via google a I have used a couple, which I'm not sure I'm allowed to post here so I recommend you visit Modaco, the site run by Paul O'Brien of custom rom and rooting fame.

Click the Android part of the site and at the bottom of the site or via a web banner to the right, you'll see one of their official sponsors that does HTC codes for $20.


Can I access my Android through ADB if the phone can only get to the fastboot menu? I would like to recover message attachments from a Pixel 3 that died recently. (Yes, I should have had them saved and backed up, but I missed that option for message attachments.)

However, the phone is minimally functional. If the phone could turn on, I could sync those files and be done. It also appears that I need to turn the phone on to enable usb debugging for ADB. I can reach the fastboot menu by holding the power and volume down buttons, but if I try to go past that into "Start" or "Recovery Mode" or even "Rescue Mode," the phone powers off again.

While in the fastboot menu, I can see that a Pixel 3 device is connected by usb to my computer. I have installed Android Studio, Android SDK, and the Google USB drivers. The phone appeared as "LeMobile Android Device" at first, but after changing the driver to Google's it is now "Android Device"--"Android Bootloader Interface."

Running adb devices returns an empty list even while Device Manager shows it is attached (probably because I can't turn the phone on and enable usb debugging).

I'm out of ideas, and am looking for ADB tips to try. What can I try next? How can I get the phone to start or to get access to the phone without leaving the fastboot menu?

Thanks.

No you can't access your phone via adb while you are in fastboot menu.

While in fastboot menu only the fastboot binary + driver can access your device.

ADB is only available when the device is booted (adb is usually already available from a certain boot stage on while the device is still booting).

Also certain recovery ROMs provide full ADB access. Simple recovery ROMS only provide limited ADB access, for adb sideload - it allows you to upload ROM images so that the recovery can install it.


Has anyone ever made a plugin for the stock Android browser? Based on this StackOverflow question, there's a possibility to develop for the native/stock Android browser. But it doesn't seem developers are latching onto creating at least some plugins for it. So for my question, I want to know if there exists some stock browser plugins already?

At least one plugin exists. Adobe flash.
Note that plugins and extensions are not the same. The default AOSP browser doesn't support extensions.


Is there a shortcut to the taskmanager on HTC tattoo I can never end a task easily on the HTC tattoo - is there a shortcut to it I can make, or an easier app to use?

The fastest way I know is from the home screen click Menu->Settings->Applications->Running Services.  There are some task manager applications, though from what I've read they may be more trouble than their worth as far as bugginess and/or eating through your battery quickly.


Is the Google Nexus program dead? Has Google dumped the Nexus program?

The Pixel is more than double the cost of the previous generation (5X /6P) - nor does it carry the "Nexus" name.

Historically they have released a "Vanilla" phone as a tech showcase and developer friendly price-point approximately annually.

From Google Nexus wiki:

  With the expansion of the Google Pixel product line in late 2016, Google stated that they "don’t want to close a door completely, but there is no plan right now to do more Nexus devices."


SM N900A rooted Google Play Store Immediate Shutdown Hosts File Deleted Recently i rooted my phone. Note 3 att. using kingo root.it worked fine google play was fine but after some days some shitty thing started to happen and my facebook, gapps were all shut.no updating. when i opened my google play it simply shut down almost instantaneously."Google play has stopped working" was all i got and sometimes not even that. i deleted google play from system downloaded new one also deleted play services and downloaded latest ones.it didnt work "connection failed retry" and "unreliable network" problems. finally i did some research and found this "root browser" and deleted hosts file from system/etc, rebooted and bam google play worked i started getting updates notifications and i thought it went fine but after i opened google play for about 10 seconds after accepting the google terms of use it crashed and every then and now it keeps crashing immediately as i open them. i dont have google play sign in problems or syncing problems like before all things fine just the play store crashes freaking spontaneously. IDK if its the host files ive deleted or play store being faulty. I am SERIOUSLY PISSED non stop 2 days of googling(never googled so long in my entire life) and im tired of this. ANYONE HAS ANY IDEA how am i gonna fix this. and please spare me the cache, data wipe and factory reset and rebooting bullshit. ANY HELP IS TOTALLY APPRECIATED. HELLLP PLEASE.

Actually all i needed to do was get link2sd ,shift playstore and google play services from system into the sd and reboot and again put it back to the system and voila! It worked like a charm.Guess the gapps need to be jolted into the system so as not to have a connection timed out error.HOPE THIS HELPS!!


Stuck inside twrp, can't get out Help!

Last question I asked was a software issue. Anyway I am stuck in twrp.

I just formatted my phone this time in twrp and it was successful. I then installed my stock/custom rom and it was successful again. Then when I rebooted it to system, it booted back into twrp. I formatted it again. But this one time after the first formatted it said install supersu, so I did it.

Did you try flashing a custom rom again? If not please do. The recovery mode might some how removed your system (my guess). Try flashing some other roms.
Good Luck!


Xperia Z3 boot loop after TWRP installation My Xperia Z3 was running Android 5.0.2. The model is D6653. I didn't check the firmware build number.

I followed these steps.

Everything was successful with no errors.

➜  Sdk  sudo $(which fastboot) devices
[sudo] password for eric:
➜  Sdk  sudo $(which fastboot) devices
CB5A276UDL  fastboot
➜  Sdk  sudo $(which fastboot) flash boot ~/Downloads/bootZ3monxtest01\ \(1\).img
sending 'boot' (13056 KB)...
OKAY [  0.413s]
writing 'boot'...
OKAY [  0.875s]
finished. total time: 1.288s
➜  Sdk  sudo $(which fastboot) reboot
rebooting...

finished. total time: 0.051s

Now my phone is just flashing TWRP logo repetitively - I cant' go into recovery.  I can't even get into fastboot mode anymore so I can't execute any more commands from my computer.

I'm using a Ubuntu laptop.

What should I do e.g. try to install another recovery like this one?

Now that you can enter into fastboot, you can execute the commands below
fastboot flash recovery ~/Downloads/bootZ3monxtest01.img
and fastboot reboot and install a custom rom.

flash boot boot.img is used to flash kernel images.
boot.img is a file which contains kernel and ramdisk.

More on Boot & Recovery images can be found here


How can I rephrase: adb shell "pm block com.sec.knox.bridge" to work in an Android 10 phone? Hope I am asking the right kind of question. I recently gained from my father a brand new phone his company gave him shortly before his retirement. They gave it to him knowing he was leaving and were trying to be nice. However the phone was still attached to the security settings of the company, including being tied to a Intune Company Portal app, I believe via Knox. Long story short I managed to uninstall that app after eventually being able to revoke its admin app permissions (previously it kept reinstalling itself). I am now trying to put the final nail in the coffin to make sure it can't come back to haunt me.
I have managed to connect my s10 to ADB on my computer and a site I found that helped me with some of the above gave a list of commands to remove Knox. They all follow the format in the title, which to repeat here is
adb shell "pm block com.sec.knox.bridge"
however the return is Unknown command: block
I imagine this was a fix for a previous version using old nomenclature. So my question is how do I correct the above syntax for that statement to do its job?
Cheers,
Shane

As mentioned by @Firelord, use pm disable --user 0 instead of pm block. pm block is deprecated (not exist of new versions of pm). if you have an error with disable then the application still device admin or the package name is not com.sec.knox.bridge.
Check if the App is device admin
adb shell dumpsys device_policy | grep knox

If the command output a result, then the application still device admin.
To be sure that the package name is com.sec.knox.bridge:
adb shell pm list packages | grep knox


Where do I find the minimum requirements for an app? I was trying to install a new app from Google Play on my computer, but a message told me that the app wasn't compatible with my device. No more information was given.

Can someone please tell me where I can find the minimum requirements for any given app? I want to check what's missing on my phone. Maybe I can fix the problem, assuming it isn't a hardware problem.

The theory is that you should not need to know.  When the developer publishes an app there is a manifest.xml file that describes the required capabilities.  These can be both hardware and firmware related.  e.g. you need a minimum Android version or you need a specific hardware feature like GPS.  Google Play then automatically filters which apps you can see and install based on these requirements.  The developer can also impose geographic requirements and potentially carrier requirements as well as disallowing specific devices if they want to.

In your case the obvious thing to do is to first check if the developer has a website with any more information.  If that's of no help try emailing them  the filtering can be tricky and catches developers out.  If the developer is at all responsive they should come back to you.  It is in their interest to have the app work on as many devices as possible normally, so if there is no good reason for it to be incompatible with your device they should appreciate the opportunity to work out the issue.  If there is a valid issue then your question may help prompt them to make the information available on a website or in the description.


Want to download an unsupported app, but says it will replace an app What does it mean when it says it will replace an app?

It means that an app with the same app id is already installed in your phone.

For eg: If there is an app with id com.example.app and you try to install another apk with same ID it will give that message.


Camera App disappeared My camera app on my Android phone has disappeared.

It all started yesterday.
Everything had been working fine until then, but all of the sudden, my camera app didn't respond anymore (Can't connect to camera was the message I was getting).

I got the same message when starting apps that used the camera (e.g. Snapchat).

I went to Settings->Apps, and forced-quit every single app and stopped every process; still, nothing.

At that point, I decided to hard reset my phone, and now, there is no camera app at all.

I have tried looking for it in the disabled apps directory in Settings->Apps, and still, it is nowhere to find...

I am really frustrated, as I can't use my camera at this point in my mobile phone (neither rear- nor front-camera)...

Is there anything I could do to solve this issue?

SPECS:

Phone: BQ Aquaris E4.5
Android: Version 5.0

Tap on Home icon > Apps and widgets > Settings > Apps > All tab > Scroll down and tap on Camera option > Enable button.


How to run Android apps on Amazon EC2? I'm aware of two Android emulators such as BlueStacks (Windows and macOS) and Genymotion (macOS and Linux). They both use virtual images to run Android emulation and they work fine on my MacBook. However they won't work on VPS, as you can't use VM within already virtualized environment (such as VPS or Amazon EC2).

Is there any solution to run Android app with works 24h/7d on Amazon EC2 or on different VPS, either on Linux, macOS or using some special AMI used for Android?

There is a Genymotion on-Demand available in AWS Marketplace to get Android emulated directly using AMI (support for Android 5-7).

  Genymotion on-Demand for AWS, based on industry-leading Genymotion, is Android operating system on EC2.

Check Genymotion on Demand Tutorial for further details.


OTA updates to CM nightly I know that premium version of ROM manager allows OTA updates to the nightly builds and there is also the old(deprecated) cyanogen updater on google-code.
Is there any way to do an OTA without using ROM manager? How does an OTA work? Does it actually just replace the existing firmware.

If you want to update CyanogenMod nightly builds Over The Air you'll need the premium version of ROM manager, this is the way to obtain donations to the project.

An OTA update is basically a download of a full ROM or a patch of some files that is saved to the storage of your phone and once it’s downloaded it installs automatically the full ROM or the patch to the phone. This system is used in many Android phones to deliver updates without the need to connect the phone to a computer to update the system.


Android browser red lines at the bottom and right side When using chromium I get a red line at the bottom and right side (Not the square red frame set by strict mode), within the rendered web page when viewing some pages requiring WebGL. What does it mean? It usually doesn't appear right away when loading the site and takes a while but even after it appears, the WebGL apps seem to continue working properly.

An example of such a site is http://webglsamples.googlecode.com/hg/lots-o-images/index.html.

I see your problem on Chrome for Android.

Looking at the stylesheet (CSS) of the page on Firefox browser for PC, I see that the background color of the page is red. I can't be sure with Chrome for Android, but it could be that there is a margin at the right and bottom side, and the application did not take up that space. That's why you see red.


How to use Gallery app in Lollipop 5.0.1? I have recently updated my Nexus 7 to Android 5.0.1 and I found that the Gallery app is missing. Is it possible to restore it?

The gallery app has been removed from Android 5.0 Lollipop. You can search google play for a gallery app (cyanogen team has one), or you can use the photos app that comes with Google+. This is what Google wants you to use.

  The Photos app is actually just part of the Google+ app (and therefore part of the Google applications suite) with its own icon in the app drawer. It identifies itself as a photo-handling app and can work with whatever camera app you have installed. Photos has also been updated far more often than the Gallery app has as well, meaning you're more likely to have updated design and features.


How to Manage (and preferably clear) the `Frequently contacted` list in the Favourites tab I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 3, with Adroid Version 4.4.2

If you click on Phone and then go to Favourites (The 3rd Tab at the top), you will see 1 or 2 lists:

Favourites
Frequently contacted

I want to know what contributes to contacts being in the Frequently contacted? (SMS, Calls Durations, WhatsApp, Emails)

And secondly, how do I remove a contact from this list?

Just solved this issue.

Open Favorites in your phone - your Favorites list should appear.
Open menu (bottom left of Home button) - 4 options should appear.

Add to favorites
Remove from favorites
Grid view
Settings

Select Remove from favorites - boxes should then appear next to names.
Select the names you wish to remove.
Select Done in top right.


How do certain apps show new notifications when internet access is restricted to them? I have disabled WhatsApp's access to Internet by disabling both WLAN-usage and mobile network usage.

I thought this should block WhatsApp from accessing the internet. But miraculously WhatsApp gives me a message with ominous content: "You might have new messages"

When I open WA it does not show any messages. When I then give it back it's access rights wonder what, there are messages I received the same day!

So to me it looks as if this app has found its way to sneak around my network restrictions.

So the following questions arise:

Is my assumption about the effectiveness of restricting the "data usage" for apps wrong?
Does WhatsApp hack around the standard restrictions?

App developers can tell better but what I perceive is that many modern apps use Firebase Cloud Messaging - a proprietary service from Google, not part of AOSP - for push notifications. In fact developers are forced to use Google's proprietary products unnoticeably. Quoted from here:

  The Doze restriction on network access is also likely to affect your app, especially if the app relies on real-time messages such as tickles or notifications. If your app requires a persistent connection to the network to receive messages, you should use Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) if possible.
  ...
  FCM is optimized to work with Doze and App Standby idle modes by means of high-priority FCM messages.

FCM is a part of Google Play Services (1):

  FCM SDK's only hard dependency is Google Play Services

Play Services is a set of apps which are injected to Android devices with highly privileged permissions, so they aren't subject to data/battery restrictions.

Since you have blocked only the app and not Play Services, app may receive push notifications (though the actual data may not be delivered to the app).

So block GMS in order to block push notifications. Or choose the apps which aren't fond of Google.

RELATED: What is the exact functionality of Google Play Services & Services Framework?


Create flash-friendly file system on microSD card (not FAT32) Yesterday I noticed that I destroyed my just a couple of months old 32GB large microSD card. I wasn't even able to create a new file system on it or change the partition table, so it became completely unusable.

To prevent this from happening again, I want to use a different, more flash-friendly filesystem on my new microSD card. I am using an unrooted Nexus One with Android 2.3.3 on it. I know that it is quite possible to use different file systems with custom ROMs on rooted phones, but I want to use the official, unrooted version of Android.

So my question is:
Is it possible to use other file systems than FAT on a microSD card with unrooted Android? Which file system would you use then to save the flash memory from corrupting?

I am also interested in things you do to save your microSD card life.

MicroSD cards already have wear leveling at the hardware level - placing software wear leveling on top of that won't help much. Just get a higher quality microSD next time.


Motorola G Third Gen SD Card I have a Motorola Moto G Third Gen with me (the budget phone) with an 32 GB sd card (Micro SD HC-I) from ADATA. When I upload videos to YouTube or Facebook, my Storage & USB menu tells me that the SD card needs to be pulled out and put back in again for it to work. And it works, but that is beyond unacceptable. How can I bypass this issue?

Thank You very much in advance!

I recommend trying a different class SD card,  like an xc and make sure it's 32gb max as that's what the moto e can handle. And first off make sure you have it set so all files are saved to the SD card and not the device.


Apps and OS will crash seemingly at random I got this new phone (An LG K 20 Plus from MetroPCS, model# LGMP260, running 7.0) roughly a month ago. Roughly a week afterward, apps started crashing out of nowhere. Sometimes, it was triggered by actions. If I clicked the wrong thing, whatever app I was in might crash. If I scrolled too fast, the app might crash. If I tried to load something big, the app might crash. This mostly happened with Relay for Reddit, but mostly because I really only used that app. But more often than not, it would just be in the background at random. I would often get "Photos has crashed" messages, despite not even having opened Photos. It wasn't even the app I was running sometimes. During these weeks, some of the highlights of apps crashing have been:

Nova Launcher
Home
Call Management
System UI
Settings
LG Keyboard
Google Play Store
Google Play Services

Reboots don't even help much. Sometimes, it will just freeze on the MetroPCS screen during boot. Others, it will boot, but then show just a black screen until I hold down the power buton to turn it off. Others, it will boot, but then say "System UI has stopped," and I have to take out the battery to reboot it. And sometimes, it will just boot normally, sending me back into the normal crashes. Oh, and I can't even google anything because Chrome always throws an "Aw, Snap!" message whenever I go to any page whatsoever.

And now recently, Google Play Services have been giving me some trouble. It would often start randomly saying "Google Play Services has stopped" every few seconds until I reboot. And then, two days ago, the Play Store would start crashing when I went into it. Upon inspection, I found out that Play Services had decided to just uninstall itself. I found a mirror and reinstalled it from an APK, but it would either say that Play Store wasn't installed, or was updating. And then yesterday it went back to normal like nothing happened.

I even tried resetting the phone. Twice. It didn't work. In fact, it took me a while to set it back up because it would give me the "Google Play Services has stopped" message during the set-up sequence. And then, after a dozen reboots or so, it decided to grant me permission to re-enter.

There's no way this is a software problem, or a reset would have fixed it, right? Is this a hardware problem? Do I need a replacement phone? I apoloize for the wall of text, but there's a lot going on that I need to address. Thank you for your advice.

I am having the same issue. Try booting into safe mode. That's what I did. This should give you some info on if this is a software problem or a hardware problem.


Connecting an Android device to a Windows network Is it possible to connect my Android phone to my Vista network?

I want to add files in a shared folder which I can access over a wifi network on my phone.

I tried to add my phone to the network manually in the Network Center, but it didn't work.

A Google search didn't provide me anything useful.

Note:
When on the wifi network with my phone, I am on the same network as my Vista machine

Nice question I would be interested in the same. ES File Explorer looks like the app to do the trick.  Check this out...
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tablets/connect-android-to-windows-and-samba-shared-directories/1262


Searchify results not showing up I have installed Searchify on a HTC Legend running Froyo. Unfortunately, it none of the commands are appearing in search. Any suggestions on how to fix this?

Have you enabled Searchify as a 'Searchable Item' under the global search settings?


how to restrict my android wifi connect to only one access point? I like to restrict my android device's wi-fi connect to one and only one access point. The attempt to connect to any other access points should be prevented.

Is it possible to check the SSID value of access point in wi-fi driver and allow connection to only one particular SSID value?

By default Android will not connect to an access point unless it is in your list of "Remembered" networks.  A network is remembered automatically the first time you connect to it.  The solution is to open Settings -> Wi-Fi then select each Wi-Fi access point and click "Forget".  This will remove it from the list of "Remebered" networks.  From this point forward, Android will notify you that networks are available, but will not connect without solicitation.

If you're asking for security reasons, there is no security mechanism for white listing Wi-Fi networks.  Android has no parental controls, if that's what you're after.


Oneplus 2 Stuck in boot animation after root so I recently tried to root my oneplus 2 to be able to flash cm13 onto it. I followed the guide oneplus provided on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZaajUEybNM) exactly and got the same results for everything except that my phone does not boot. The only differences between my phone and their guide were that I had a newer operating system (Oxygen OS 3.0.1) and I flashed the latest version for everything, also I went for the Stable version of Super SU instead of the beta. I understand that he said it would take a little time to boot, but I am assuming he doesn't mean 5+ hours.

I am still able to boot into recovery (TWRP) and fastboot but not the OS. I tried wiping the phone and installing Super SU again, but no luck. I am stuck here and don't know what to do next. Any help would be amazing and extremely appreciated.

According to this thread on the OnePlus forum:
To return to full stock after a soft brick:

Download the Fastboot images here (,it restores to OOS 2.1.1)
Extract the zip file to anywhere you'd like
Boot the phone in Fastboot mode (Volume up + power button)
Connect the phone to the PC
Open the unzipped folder and run the file with the .bat extension (Windows) or a file with name flash-all

The above method doesn't clear the data partition, to clear it:

Download the userdata.img from here amd flash it using fastboot flash userdata userdata_64.img

And you need a working ADB/Fastboot environment.


Unbelievable fast battery discharge on some games I've submitted an issue about my phone crashing: Issue Link which nobody here was able to help understand and resolve.

Now I have better observations: after starting a game with almost full battery, and about 5 minutes of gaming, my device after connecting to charger shows 15% of battery. It means that 80% of battery was gone within 5 minutes of gaming!

Is it really possible that some heavy dynamic graphic game drains the battery to this extent, or is it  physical damage of the phone? Other than games applications on my phone seems to function normally, for example Endomondo will discharge phone to null after running about 5 hours in background.

Your answer lies in your question itself, you have mentioned that other than games the phone runs normally! I think its the games that are causing this, anyway to make sure of that please read ahead.

Can you specify if it is one particular game or all games? If it is just the games mentioned in the other link you have provided, can you just try with the following games and let me know how it goes?

Temple Run 2
Subway Surfer

The games you have mentioned Paradise Island and Dragon City are really heavy games!

Also do you play with the charger connected or disconnected? This was unclear from your question.


Flash Galaxy S3 with Broken Screen and Debug Mode Not On I have a completely broken screen/lcd/digitizer on my Samsung Galaxy S3. Debug mode was not on. The phone works as it will still vibrate when turned on and the LED / Menu / Back buttons light up during a boot. USB connector works as well. The phone was not previously rooted.

I had most important data on the sd card and I've already wrote off any other data on the phone as I've since moved on to a GN2. I would like to make use of the S3 (not necessarily as a phone but a server, security camera, etc.). I've read several posts here about my options and looked at numerous google articles, all seem to require debug mode being on; however, all also seem to assume the data/OS must remain as this is what the user is trying to recover.

Am I out of luck if debug mode was not enabled or can I flash through adb or fastboot via some obscure mechanism?

Thanks in advance for any help and/or suggestions.

The answer came thanks to @hnkotnis at xda-developers.com and his info (and experience) on how to get into "Download Mode" without seeing the screen.

My review of what I did to get Heimdall connected without root, debug mode, and a screen/lcd to see:

First, I am on linux (debian) so no Odin, I used Heimdall and Heimdall Frontend:
* disconnect USB
* pull battery
* let set for a minute
* Press HOME+Power+VolDown for 2 seconds beyond the vibrate (total of about 5 seconds)
* wait 3-4 seconds
* press the VolUp button
* plug usb in
* press "Detect" in Heimdall Frontend

You should get a "Device detected" in heimdall frontend. I also noticed a difference when connecting the usb cable with in "Download Mode" versus not in Download Mode.

Normal USB Connection

Jan 28 10:29:13 xia kernel: [1119572.140189] usb 5-8.3: new high-speed USB device number 31 using ehci-pci
Jan 28 10:29:13 xia kernel: [1119572.233321] usb 5-8.3: New USB device found, idVendor=04e8, idProduct=6865
Jan 28 10:29:13 xia kernel: [1119572.233332] usb 5-8.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=2, Product=3, SerialNumber=4
Jan 28 10:29:13 xia kernel: [1119572.233338] usb 5-8.3: Product: SAMSUNG_Android_SGH-T999
Jan 28 10:29:13 xia kernel: [1119572.233343] usb 5-8.3: Manufacturer: SAMSUNG
Jan 28 10:29:13 xia kernel: [1119572.233349] usb 5-8.3: SerialNumber: e70a909e

USB Connection when in "Download Mode"

Jan 28 10:30:18 xia kernel: [1119637.932207] usb 5-8.3: new high-speed USB device number 32 using ehci-pci
Jan 28 10:30:18 xia kernel: [1119638.024825] usb 5-8.3: New USB device found, idVendor=04e8, idProduct=685d
Jan 28 10:30:18 xia kernel: [1119638.024834] usb 5-8.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
Jan 28 10:30:18 xia kernel: [1119638.024840] usb 5-8.3: Product: MSM8960
Jan 28 10:30:18 xia kernel: [1119638.024845] usb 5-8.3: Manufacturer: Sasmsung
Jan 28 10:30:19 xia kernel: [1119638.113455] cdc_acm 5-8.3:1.0: This device cannot do calls on its own. It is not a modem.
Jan 28 10:30:19 xia kernel: [1119638.113598] cdc_acm 5-8.3:1.0: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
Jan 28 10:30:19 xia kernel: [1119638.114388] usbcore: registered new interface driver cdc_acm
Jan 28 10:30:19 xia kernel: [1119638.114391] cdc_acm: USB Abstract Control Model driver for USB modems and ISDN adapters

You can see the thread on the xda forum here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=49840347


Long texts not sending; if I set my phone to split them up, some don't go through I have a Droid RAZR and I'm on Verizon, and when I try to send a text that's over 2x160 characters to another Verizon phone, it usually doesn't send.  In the message details, my phone says "Received", but the other person doesn't get the text.  This has been happening for a while, but it's only gotten bad recently - before, I would have to reach 5x160 characters in order for it not to send.  Texts sent to non-Verizon phones seem to send fine.

To try to get around it, I set my SMS app (I use GoSMS) to always split up my messages.  What happens now is that some of the messages in the batch don't go through, regardless of the number of messages.

I would ideally like to not need to have my phone set to split my messages automatically, and be sure that long messages are going through.  How can I do this?

Please could you try using the default SMS app - it could be an issue with GOSMS, albeit unlikely.

This also sounds like a network issue. Please contact your network (Verizon, in this case), and check with them to ensure it is nothing on their end.


Issues after rooting my Galaxy S2 by running fk23, the Jellybean ROM Recently rooted to fk23 and have the following problems:

Having problems with lock screen.
Will not let me modify/change anything.
Time is displayed in military
or 24 hrs format.
Unchecked clock in settings and nothing changes.
Can't change background picture.
There are no plus signs when on lock screen to change anything.

  Tried to change settings to secure with pattern, now I have two lock screens to go through.

  Anyone have any idea on how to solve these?

I think it is due to u have use wrong Rooting file. did you tried other Rooting file as well?
what i tried is I9100ZSLSJ Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean Galaxy S2 I9100
if you want to download it. here is the link


Where does LineageOs store update files? Back in cyanogenmod, updates were downloaded to the cmupdater directory.
Then I could easily use twrp recovery to install the Upgrade.

But where does LineageOs store its downloaded upgrade files?

As of the new updates of August 31st, 2017, the updates are stored in

/data/lineageos_updates


How to upgrade an HTC Magic (32B DEV) from Android 1.5 to latest Android? Last year I got a free Android phone at a Google event, and I would like to upgrade it to the latest Android version (probably with Cyanogen).

What is the quickest/safest way to do the upgrade?

It is a developer phone, so:

The Cyanogen instructions do not mention my phone.
I have no data plan, but the above instructions say "data plan required" (workaround)

HTC Magic, Model Number GDDJ-09, Build CDB56, Android 1.5, details:

SAPPHIRE EVT1 32B DEV S-ON G
HBOOT-1.33.3005 (SAPP20000)
CPLD-10
RADIO-2.22.19.26I
May 29 2009,14:38:09

This section of the Cyanogen instructions seems to cover the developer Sapphire handsets


How do you enable Hotspot Wifi Sharing on Nexus 5 Android M version on Sprint, Tmobile, and AT&T? I just loaded the Android M preview version as of July 2015. I'm also on the Sprint network and my phone is rooted. How can I enable wifi hotspot ability on Android M?

I just tried it, and this worked for me:

(Nexus 6, Android M Preview 3, Sprint)

With root browser go to /system/ and open build.prop in a text editor.
Add net.tethering.noprovisioning=true to the bottom.
Save and reboot.

In Android L, I also had to do the tether_dun_required thing, but now that database just doesn't show up for me in Android M.


How do you handle a tablet where all screen input and keys have become unresponsive? How do you shut down the tablet in the condition where neither screen, nor any buttons accept any input? It is possible the tablet is locked in this condition by the active software, last noted to be the Kindle app, but could be a condition caused by any active application?

My Galaxy Tab 3 sometimes freezes without capability to manipulate the restart functionality, or the application Force Close functionality. Since it is a tablet, opening its case to remove the battery is not an available capability, unlike the occasions this happens on my phone, a Samsung Galaxy S3. This is a rare occurence; it has happened twice in recent memory to my tablet. This time the active application was the Kindle app, and it may have even been so when this occured last, several months ago. This time the tablet presents a blank screen, which is active, since it emits a bare shimmer of light. The screen feels slightly warm, indicating the tablet is active. I am uncertain of the specifics of the previous occurence, finding it totally unresponsive when I took it out of my bag on a flight, after i had pre-loaded books to read on that same flight.

I am unsure this is the optimal technique, but the similarity to the last occurence led me to experiment with just letting the battery fully expire. Then plugging it in to power up and reboot into a fresh session. It appears to have restarted properly. I have not witnessed either affected memory or corrupted files so far. The Kindle app seems to have all recent books stored and available.

TL;DR - manage a way to let the battery fully discharge. Plug in and start a fresh session. Check for damaged app or files.

UPDATE 2015/06/03 - This has happened again today, again on a day when I updated my Amazon Kindle app by downloading books. Except today, I downloaded books over 2 sessions. When I recall the first instance, Christmastime 2014, this seems also plausible, since I may have refined my download and search query for some additional downloads. The second instance of this (March 2015) I am unsure about. Now that I have a refined theory, I can experiment. However, this tablet was fully charged this afternoon, so it will be a day or more before I can attempt anything in order to fully discharge the battery.


Deleting multiple backed up photos I am trying to un back up my photos from my Gmail account.  There are many and it would take a long time to go into each one and click on the trash icon. How can I select multiple photos to be sent to trash?  Every time I click an image it opens up and doesn't give me the option to delete lots at once by using SHIFT.  How do I send lots of photos to trash in one go?

If you are using Google Photos app, long-press on a photo. That would put a checkmark on that photo. Now single tap on as many photos as you want to select them. Afterwards, tap on the trash icon to delete them altogether.


Cannot find which alarm to wake me up I am using oneplus 6 with Android 10 in OxygenOS 10.3.3.

In recent 2 days, I was waked up by the mobile alarm at exactly 08:30 am every morning.

However, I cannot find the alarm app which generate this wake-up alarm.

I have checked the recent app, there is no app running recently at around 08:30.

I search my app with the keyword alarm, I found 2 app.  I am sure that I does not set the wake up time in these 2 app at 08:30.  Actually, I set the wake-up time to 07:10 for one of the 2 app.

So, I feel quite strange.  Where is the 08:30 wake-up time set ?

Is my mobile hacked ?

Can anyone help me to find out why there is an alarm at about 08:30 am ?

As suggested by @beeshyams, I search my app with the keyboard clock.

Then, I found an app which set the wake-up alarm at 08:30 am.

Very strange, this app does not show in the RECENT APP list after alarm ringing.


"There was a problem communicating with Google servers, try again later" error Yet another occurrence of this when setting up a new phone, in this case a OnePlus 5 with the H2OS (Chinese) OS.  I installed the current Oxygen OS official 9.0.9 from XDA, used the OnePlus transfer, and despite many strategies, could not get rid of this error.
I tried:

Wiping the cache, other data in Google Play
Ditto other Google services
turned off WIFI, turned on, etc.
Reboot
Reinstalled Google play
Installed Google APK from APK store

I had seen these elsewhere working for some folks.

Finally the only thing that worked for me was doing a factory reset.
Hope one of these approaches works for others!
Having more potential solutions in your tool box increases your chances of success.

YMMV  "Good luck, Jim!"


Ideas on how to recover data from a screenless/headless Android device? I have an unrooted Nexus 5—big mistake, I should have rooted it—due to some unfortunate circumstances my phone screen ripped off from the phone leaving the phone functional but “headless.”

I want to scrape off (download) my data and move off things from my phone. I do have backups on but the last backup was taken half a month ago since when I have only been travelling with 2G data on

It clearly has no screen.

The solution I tried.

I have an AirDroid account and using that am able to perform basic phone stuff make calls, read reply to SMS message. With screen mirror there is a possiblity that I can use the phone normally remotely and move my data and be happy. The dead-end: AirMirror requires root.

I tried to root the phone purely via ADB shell but the step will require flashing a templated image, which will destroy all the data on the phone.

The other solution is if I can turn on Wi-Fi via ADB shell, I can copy most of its contents I need via AirDroid. It won’t be feasible enough on mobile data.

Any suggestions?

do you have developer options enabled?

If yes try to backup using adb. you will not have to access Adb shell. just 'adb backup' command will do it. use appropriate options to backup your shared storage. (just type adb and hit enteryou will see the Adb backup options)

go to following link try the options in answer to access Adb backup. do not encrypt the backup.

If u do not have developer access, just replace the device screen, and u should get your device as is.


how to manually enable debug mode on galaxy s4 with black screen? Trying to enable the debug mode on galaxy s4 in order to share the screen to PC via vysor since the phone has black screen totally. The screen responds to touch even though it's totally black. Thanks.

I would comment this but i don't have enough rep yet.
Off the top of my head i'd say your best hope is to watch a youtube video of someone doing it and try to replicate the touches, for a sense of if your hitting something you can turn vibrate on (using the volume controls). Other than that you could always claim warranty or try to get a new screen.
Hope i helped


Where are UID for each application stored? When installing an application, Android gives it an unique UID, which file(s) is used to keep track of used UIDs and to whom they belong? I want to forcibly change application UID to ensure they are the same on different device.

I've already checked with /data/system/packages.xml. But while that contains application permissions by package name, didn't see any UID there.

If it depends on Android version, for each versions superior or equal to 4.4.4 and source to documentation to figure it out myself for future versions.

You have already missed the correct answer.
The UIDs are stored right in /data/system/packages.xml, although an easier-to-interpret version with less information is available at packages.list.
Here's an example line of what's inside (scroll to the right)

<package name="jackpal.androidterm" codePath="/data/app/jackpal.androidterm-1" nativeLibraryPath="/data/app/jackpal.androidterm-1/lib" primaryCpuAbi="armeabi" flags="572996" ft="1592b6fa088" it="153d4948841" ut="158ed133c1f" version="71" userId="10001">

You see, there's a userId XML Attribute. This is exactly the UID you are asking for.
Furthermore, userId may be replaced by sharedUserId if an app shares its UID with another. Like (also scroll to right)

<package name="com.android.providers.telephony" codePath="/system/app/TelephonyProvider" nativeLibraryPath="/system/app/TelephonyProvider/lib" primaryCpuAbi="arm64-v8a" flags="540165" ft="159d34468e8" it="4ba52c60" ut="159d34468e8" version="1" sharedUserId="1001">

Of course you don't want to go through that terribly long packages.xml, so you might want to take a look at packages.list, like

jackpal.androidterm 10001 0 /data/data/jackpal.androidterm default 3003,1028,1015

Very straight, isn't it? The 2nd field delimited with space is exactly the UID and it's the same as the one in packages.xml.
Do not modify packages.list. All unmatching records in packages.list will be corrected from packages.xml.

Also, it's possible to change UID of an installed app if it does not have a shared UID. Simply edit packages.xml and reboot, then the new UID will have effect immediately. Old data will be erased for the changed app. If you want to keep data, apply chown recursively on the app's data directory in /data/data. If an app's old data gets erased by mismatching UID, related information will show up at /data/system/uiderrors.txt. Like this:

1970/01/01 00:00: Package jackpal.androidterm uid has changed from 0 to 10001, old data erased.

Tested on Android from 4 through 5. I guess this is applicable from Gingerbread to Nougat.


Download manager apk I made a mistake... I incorrectly thought the "download manager" apk was a worthless Virgin Mobile stock one, so I deleted it. Well, I'm a bit wiser now, and I now know that the Google play store requires it. My question is this: is there a place where I can download the apk?

I dont think that the play store requires a download manager. However if you want to download something from a browser es explorer can provide you a download manager. So download es explorer from play store. Its a great app with tons of functionalities.


Navigation bar disappears after system update on Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 I just received a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 (GT-P3113TS) from school and oddly enough after playing with it just for several minutes, it wanted to update the OS. It ended up updating twice (one larger update and then a smaller ~60MB update) to a final version of Android 4.2.2.

Now, after the system starts up I no longer have a navigation bar at the bottom.  Once I get into an application or the system settings I simply cannot press any button to get out of it.  There is no home or return button or anything like unto that.  Am I entirely misunderstanding how Android's UI works or have these updates completely and entirely broke the system such that I'm no longer able to use this device?

To clarify:

As per request, here is a snapshot of my screen:

Its very easy to bring back navigation bar on any android device.

Download Root explorer or any other file explorer
access root permission and goto /system folder
Open build.prop and add this line    qemu.hw.mainkeys=0
If this line already there than it must contain 1 instead of 0. Change it to 0
Or use Gravity box to enable navigation bar.

Read more at Techorfy


Control phone with broken screen from computer? I'll just clear up the basics before proceeding as previous comments have just been talking about things that really haven't helped me get any closer to fixing this.

Have I checked out the broken screen tag wiki?
Yes, filled with circumstantial answers that didn't really make any sense to me, every answer required something I couldn't do.

Use a USB-OTG cable?
Unfortunately the screen is untouchable. I can't see what I'm doing so I wouldn't be able to direct a mouse even if I could get one connected.

Basically, I have a Samsung Galaxy with a broken screen, touch screen also broke and USB debugging is disabled, can I still save this?

I just wanna be able to control it for a little before taking it to a store. I need to do some things, is this possible? Every answer I read just talks about circumstancials.

I actually might have USB debugging enabled, although my device isn't showing up when typing adb devices and simply prints List of devices attached with 2 blank lines after it.

This happened to me about 2 weeks ago. I search the web and couldn't find anything useful. What I did might seem ridiculous but it did the trick and I managed to not only get my pictures but also exported my contacts and saved them. This is what I did:

I connected an OTG cable to my keyboard and pressed the power on button to 'turn on' the screen. I typed the PIN code and pressed enter. Then very quickly disconnected the keyboard and connected the device to my pc (it helps having 2 cables, one with OTG adapter attached and one just with USB). This way I can see the files of the mobile and I can save my photos etc.

Now my problem was that my contacts were stored in the phone and I couldn't synchronize them because they weren't stored in Google. In order for me to export them I did the following:

Right after connecting with the keyboard and typing the PIN code, I took a screenshot (for Galaxy phones you can do that by pressing home and power buttons simultaneously). Then quickly again I would connect it in my PC and go to the screenshots folder and this way I could figure out where I was. It is quite hard at first but this way you can navigate anywhere you like just by pressing the arrow buttons and enter key. If at any moment you don't know where you are, you can take a screenshot. The disadvantage is that until you get to see the screenshot from your PC, the screen locks again and you will have to connect to the keyboard again and repeat the process but this way I exported my contacts, found them through my pc and imported them into my new phone.

Hope that this helps...


How can I change the naming convention of the stock camera/gallery app? I just switched from a Droid1 to an HTC Evo 3d, and despite all the positives, one negative is sticking under my nail. On the Motorola Droid, the camera/gallery (I am not sure who is responsible for the naming of the image) had a naming convention that included a time/date stamp (i.e. 20110930122900). Unfortunately, the Evo does not use this naming convention (although all of the information is stored in the EXIF data). Having the time/date in the file name is very convenient when posting the images on my site (Squarespace editor doesn't simultaneously display EXIF) and captioning them.

Short of rooting the device, is there a way to change the naming convention on the Evo 3d to include this information?
Is there a camera app that is as fully featured as the Evo 3d stock app (although it's not amazing, I'm looking for it to have multiple filters and be compatible with the 2d/3d camera capture/display modes) that already has this naming convention or has one that can be configured?

That is not currently possible on the stock camera application, however there is an open ticket with the Android project team to make such an option exposed.
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=10561

Meanwhile you can try some custom camera applications like "Camera Folders" which allows custom file name conventions in addition to folder groupings.

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.phasip.camerafolders&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5waGFzaXAuY2FtZXJhZm9sZGVycyJd


Contacts missing on new Galaxy Core Prime My phone was stolen and they deleted my contacts. They must be backed up somewhere? How can I restore them to my new Galaxy?   Everything else came back.

Did you select an online/synced account as the location for your contacts?
You can simply login to your former account and synchronize the contacts to your new device.
Did you select SIM card as the location?
I hope you've got that card. Simply put it in your device and your contacts are back. Move them to an online account or do whatever you want with them.
Did you select phone or device as the location?
Well, there are your contacts now. And they won't leave your device any time soon.
Some manufacturers offer you to sync those contacts to their services anyways so maybe you can login to that account and restore your contacts.


Import data from ColorNote app? I have lost my Android phone but I have backup of my SD-card on which I have backup of my ColorNote app. How can I get all my notes from that backup?

NOTE: I am using iPhone now so don't have a Android device for now.

Yes you can, but it will be a bit convoluted: ColorNote's notes can only be exported from the SQLite colornote.db file, but it's not available from the sd card backups. So we will have to do it in two steps: first reimport the sd card backup into the ColorNote app, then extract the generated colornote.db SQLite file (note that you must have rooted your phone to access the SQLite file, but you can do it on the BlueStacks emulator). Here's the walkthrough, inspired greatly by this post by Danyil Bohdan and this one:

Install ColorNote on an Android device. Since you don't have an Android phone, you can use BlueStacks to emulate an Android phone on your computer.
Open ColorNote and import your sd card backup file. Remember that you have to disable cloud syncing in order to show the Restore option as per the ColorNote's FAQ.
Check that your notes are correctly restored inside ColorNote by opening them. If they seem ok, continue to next step.
Install Total Commander for Android on your phone or BlueStacks emulator.
Open Total Commander and browse the root/filesystem partition and then browse to /data/data/com.socialnmobile.dictapps.notepad.color.note/databases/.  You need root rights to access /data/data, but in the BlueStacks emulator it should be easy to do. Inside this folder, copy the file colornote.db to your SD card slot (I don't know how it works inside BlueStacks but you should have the possibility to setup a virtual SD card or send directly to your computer).
Transfer the colornote.db file to your computer (either via USB if you're using an Android phone, or by copying the file from the BlueStacks emulator).
Open colornote.db with a SQLite browser of your choice. A good open source and portable app for that is sqlitebrowser. You should now see something similar to this screen:

Click on the Execute SQL tab (highlighted in red above) and execute the following sql statement:

SELECT date(created_date / 1000,'unixepoch'),date(modified_date / 1000,'unixepoch'),note FROM notes ORDER BY _id
You should now see a list of records below the sql statement, and you can click on the little floppy disk icon on the right to export into CSV, as shown here:

Open the .csv file into a UNIX friendly editor such as Notepad++ (else there won't be any line returns) and check if the content of your notes was correctly exported. They should be stored in chronologically ascending order (from oldest to newest at the bottom).
You can then import your .csv file in most programs or keep it as a readable backup of your notes.

Note that this technic works for most applications, since most Android apps use SQLite to store their databases (exception being some apps like WhatsApp which uses SQLite but encrypted to, of course, avoid leaking your private data to anyone).


How to move files(including apps) to an adopted sd card directly from PC? I don't really know how to make a title for this and it might be somewhat far and my english is not on point but please understand.

I have a 16gb SD card that is formatted as an adopted internal storage and an internal of 1gb (4gb originally, but OS occupies 3.4gb or something and built-in apps [which I can't move to the adopted. I don't know why]). My ways of getting data onto my phone is via the USB cable to PC/Laptop, but since the PC/laptop can't read the SD card, it only shows the 1gb internal. Let's say I want to move a larger file; 2gb, how can I make it possible? Any more ways to move files?

Anyways, Shareit (a file-sharing app, available on pc) is my last resort but I feel that via the USB cable is faster.

Device: Lenovo A7000-a
Android 6.0 (just updated. Reformated everything since apps cant be read because all my data(including app data/files/obb) was on the sd card and it needs to be an adopted to be capable of reading app files.)

So your SD card has a certain format. This allows it to be used for apps, but the downside is your Windows doesn't see it. In theory a good driver should present the SD card over MTP, but that's wishful thinking.

The best way to access your SD is via adb. Install adb on Windows and push your files over USB. This requires typed commands in a shell.

You might also be able to see your SD when connecting your phone to a Linux system.


why do all sound apps get  bluetooth button events, all at once If i have my phone (thunderbolt cyanogenmod7/2.3) connected to a bluetooth stereo and i hit the play button on the stereo, music, pandora, Subsonic, and Audible all start playing at once. pausing pauses all of them.

is there some way of controlling what apps respond to the buttons?
is there an app to filter button events?

The app Media Button Router is just what you are looking for. The app allows you to choose the media app you wish to control with the Bluetooth forward/reverse buttons using voice prompts.

The app doesn't work perfectly with all media apps, but I find that by playing with the settings you can usually overcome problems. But when it works it is magic!


Is there an app that will let me text from my pc with the same phone number? Possible Duplicate:
  Send SMS from PC through Android Phone or to Android Phone

I have a Droid x, and I wanted to know if there is an app that will allow me send and receive text messages from my computer through my phone (meaning receive the messages that are sent to my phone) without using something that will give me a dedicated phone number, I want to use the phone number on my cell phone. does anybody know if this exists. if it does, and there is more than one, which one is the best?

Texter is a Google Chrome extension/Android app that will let you compose, send, and receive text messages in Google Chrome by connecting to your phone.  So it just forwards received messages from your phone to Chrome, and sent messages from Chrome to your phone.


How can I delete these older contacts backups from Google? I can't seem to find out online anywhere that is specific to this issue.

Follow these steps:

Go to Google Contacts.
Sign in the account where you want to delete old contacts.
Choose contact(s) by 'check mark sign' before contacts name.
Click 'more' from above drop down menu, there you'll get delete option.

It's done.

In case you have two different Google accounts added to device and one is having your old contacts then you can disable syncing of contacts of that particular account without deleting contacts.

Go to Settings and search for 'Google account' in search tab, or alternatively, open Settings → Cloud and accounts/accounts → click Google

There you will see list of all connected Google accounts. Now, simply click the account you want to disable auto syncing of any particular option, such as contacts.


Is it possible to turn of the GSM radio and still use data connection? I recently starting using a Samsung Galaxy S4. I need to use a special phone at my work. For that purpose I have a duo card where I turn off one phone to use the other.

The problem is that I can only turn off all connections on the Samsung (Airplane Mode), including the mobile internet connection.

My question is: can I turn off the phone capabality (GSM?) on the Samsung while maintaining my mobile network on the Samsung?

Simply impossible. Mobile Network IS GSM. GPRS, EDGE, UMTS or LTE, which are different standards for providing packet-based Internet connections, are all expansion of the GSM standard and, as such, require a GSM signal.


What does Skype use all those permissions for? I'd like to know what Skype does with all the permissions it asks for.
Is there any page where Skype (the company) justifies the various permissions?

Does it make any difference, whether I'm a paying customer or not?

The permissions are as following:

Your accounts

act as an account authenticator

Allows an application to use the account authenticator capabilities of the AccountManager, including creating accounts and getting and setting their passwords.

manage the accounts list

Allows an application to perform operations like adding, and removing accounts and deleting their password.

use the authentication credentials of an account

Allows an application to request authentication tokens.

Hardware controls

change your audio settings

Allows application to modify global audio settings such as volume and routing.

record audio

Allows application to access the audio record path.

Your location

coarse (network-based) location

Access coarse location sources such as the cellular network database to determine an approximate device location, where available. Malicious applications can use this to determine approximately where you are.

Network communication

full Internet access

Allows an application to create network sockets.

Your personal information

read contact data

Allows an application to read all of the contact (address) data stored on your device. Malicious applications can use this to send your data to other people.

write contact data

Allows an application to modify the contact (address) data stored on your device. Malicious applications can use this to erase or modify your contact data.

Phone calls

read phone state and identity

Allows the application to access the phone features of the device. An application with this permission can determine the phone number and serial number of this phone, whether a call is active, the number that call is connected to and the like.

Storage

modify/delete USB storage contents modify/delete SD card contents

Allows an application to write to the USB storage. Allows an application to write to the SD card.

System tools

disable keylock

Allows an application to disable the keylock and any associated password security. A legitimate example of this is the phone disabling the keylock when receiving an incoming phone call, then re-enabling the keylock when the call is finished.

prevent device from sleeping

Allows an application to prevent the device from going to sleep.

retrieve running applications

Allows application to retrieve information about currently and recently running tasks. May allow malicious applications to discover private information about other applications.

write sync settings

Allows an application to modify the sync settings, such as whether sync is enabled for Contacts.

modify global system settings

Allows an application to modify the system's settings data. Malicious applications can corrupt your system's configuration.

More:

Your accounts

discover known accounts

Allows an application to get the list of accounts known by the device.

Hardware controls

control vibrator

Allows the application to control the vibrator.

Network communication

view Wi-Fi state

Allows an application to view the information about the state of Wi-Fi.

view network state

Allows an application to view the state of all networks.

System tools

read sync settings

Allows an application to read the sync settings, such as whether sync is enabled for Contacts.

read sync statistics

Allows an application to read the sync stats; e.g., the history of syncs that have occurred.

Default

modify secure system settings

Allows an application to modify the system's secure settings data. Not for use by normal applications.

Your accounts - Skype acts as an account authenticator the way Google does; most likely used to easily store your Skype username and password
Your location - probably for statistics and some location-based features
Your personal information - allows you to directly call a contact's phone number, as well as their Skype account, from the contacts application
Phone calls - almost every application needs access to to this section in order to get the phone's unique ID. Skype also needs this to know if the phone is in a call.
Storage - probably to store cached data
System tools - all of these allow Skype to prevent the phone becoming idle during a call, as well as sync contacts

All other permissions should be obvious.


What is the default Android Root Password? What is the default password for the Android root account? Can I change the root password after rooting my android device by simply typing passwd?

How does the rooting process work? If I use a "one click root" app, what is it doing to my phone?

root in Linux (or any Unix-like system) is just the user with User ID 0. The su program (which actually stands for "Switch User", not "Super User") is just a program to start another program with a different user ID than the starting program (by default to uid 0, which is to user root). Android does not use the traditional /etc/passwd, however it still uses Linux User ID and Group ID for managing permissions.

If you want to intercept su requests so you can ask for password or enforce other rules, you will need to replace /sbin/su with your own version of su. Alternative approach is the one described here: http://www.koushikdutta.com/2008/11/fixing-su-security-hole-on-modified.html though that will require applications to cooperate by firing an Intent when they want to switch user.

Android security framework is more or less like this: each installed application runs on its own User ID (selected at installation time), and application permissions is implemented as user groups.

  Can i change the root password after rooting my android device by simply typing "passwd"?

Android does not use /etc/passwd so it also does not have passwd program.

  how is the rooting process working ? i mean what is the "one click root" apps doing to my phone?

I'm not quire sure with the exact process myself, you probably want to ask to rooting developers. However, my guess is it just reverts the security check that originally prevent developer from setuid 0.

  And im a developer, so how can i find hidden APIs (like iOS) for rooted app development ?

Since Android is open source, there is no truly hidden API in Android. However, there are some unpublicized or undocumented APIs, you can browse for this in Android's source code. However, these APIs are not about root developments, they're usually in-development APIs that are not ready yet or is too localized for specific purpose that is not useful for public developer (or perhaps Google just haven't realized their usefulness yet). You are not restricted from using these APIs, but since these are not an officially supported APIs, they may disappear or break backward compatibilities in the future. If you need to use these APIs make sure your app breaks gracefully.


Application Permissions I note that with my Samsung S7 Edge now I have "Permission Monitor" as an option, which is great. Leaving out the whole root option (I don't want to risk it again, it was a $300 fix last time it 'broke') I am looking for a methodology to either:

Allow me to globally refuse permissions to all applications or;
Reset permission settings each time the application is used.

A typical use is I need Facebook (Yes, I know they have the data already...) to have access to photos for example. I enable it, and then never disable it. I want to limit (and this is basically globally) any applications capacity to interact with photos, videos and microphone.

Samsung S7 Edge
$10-30.00 budget for application
Preferably not rooting, Android 7.0 (From memory)

Non-root third party permission managers have to rely on inbuilt appops permission manager. Because appops is not available for third-party apps but only the system apps, former usually resort to an adb hack.

I use App Ops - Permission Manager from Xingchen and Rikka, mostly because of its auto-apply template feature (the global restrictions you're looking for on all new installations). Furthermore, it also provides access to all permissions available under appops for any app, regardless whether the app requests access to such permission or not. It, however, doesn't "reset permission settings each time the application is used".

On first launch, the app would guide you how to setup adb to make the app work. The downside, not limited to this app but quite about every non-root third-party permission manager, is that if you reboot, you'd have to setup the adb hack again or your custom preferences for the apps would fail to work (note: the app itself would fail to work unless adb hack is setup again).


Remap Bluetooth Headset's media key [Android 9] Setup:

OnePlus 5t, Android 9.0, not rooted
Bluetooth 5.0 headset with one media button

A single tab on the media button starts the Google Voice Control / Assistant, there is no way to change a tab on the button to play/pause for example -  on the headset's side.

The only software solution to disable Google Voice popping up always when I press the button was to disable the Google-App completely. But this stops the media-button from working completely.

After hours of trying, searching nothing worked for me.

My goal is to archive that a tab leads to play/pause music.

I solved my issue by using a app called AutoVoice in combination with Tasker.

In Android Settings, Apps, Default Apps, Assist & Voice Input I selected AutoVoice.

In Tasker I created a Profile which is a Event triggered by Plugins > AutoVoice > AutoVoice BT Pressed and the connected Task contains only Media Control, Switch Pause, Simulate Media Key is activated and I selected a music app as App, in my case Spotify.

This works just fine.

Let me know if you have the same problem and have issues with my solution.


Can I transfer my phone contacts to my Gmail address book for use on my PC? I spent a lot of time organizing my contacts on my Galaxy S (Android 2.2) and want to know if I can transfer them to my Gmail address book on my PC. My PC OS is Ubuntu 12.04 and my Gmail desktop client is Thunderbird.

Absolutely. If you've synced your Android device with your Google account, your contacts would automatically show up on Google / Gmail Contacts.

If all your contacts are saved as "Phone Contacts" and not "Google Contacts", however, they will not be synced. You need to export the Phone Contacts and then import them into Google Contacts. It might be helpful if you adjusted your settings from within the contacts app to automatically save new contacts as Google contacts instead of Phone Contacts.


Programmatically enable data connection every 30 minutes? How can I enable (WiFi and Data) connection every 30 minutes, then keep it active for 2 minutes (time required to get any notifications), and then disable the connection again?

Are there any solutions besides Tasker?

If you dont want to pay for Tasker, use the free alternative Automate. It has similar functionality and can automate the same things.


How to remove Google Account after factory reset I have been given a Huawei smartphone that needed a new screen, which I've just had replaced. I now want to sell the phone.

Am I forced to enter the Google account of the previous owner in order to complete the start up process after a factory reset?

Can I then delete the old Google account ready for the new owner?

If you have executed the factory reset properly then the phone is not asking you for a Google Account of the previous owner, it is asking you to provide your Google Account so you can best use features offered by the Android phone. If you don't have an account yet you can also create it with your phone directly providing that you have internet access.


Connect physical Android Wear watch to emulated phone I have found many tutorials that explain how to pair an emulated Android Wear watch to a physical phone. However, I would like to do the opposite. Is it possible to create a Bluetooth connection from the pc to the watch and then tell ADB to make the phone emulator use this connection?

You can't is the short answer. The emulator does not support bluetooth testing at all.

See the Google Developers post on Using the Emulaor

The important line is near the end:

Emulator Limitations

The functional limitations of the emulator include:

No support for placing or receiving actual phone calls. You can
simulate phone calls (placed and received) through the emulator
console, however.
No support for USB connections
No support for device-attached headphones
No support for determining network connected state
No support for determining battery charge level and AC charging state
No support for determining SD card insert/eject
No support for Bluetooth


Missing of info symbol in whatsapp I lost the info symbol in whatsapp, but the info option is there in the upper three dots menu. I don't know what is the reason. How can I regain it?

My phone is samsung galaxy J7 nxt.

Below is a screenshot of where the option used to be:

WhatsApp has changed the location of the option in it's latest update. That's not an issue, it's just a little change to the design. All you have to do, is press on a message that was written by you, and press on the three dots on the top right of the page.

If however you'd like to get the option back, the only way to do that would be by downloading an older version of whatsapp from apkmirror.

You can also leave them feedback letting them know that you'd like the option moved back. To leave them feedback, open WhatsApp settings → help → contact us.


Why is my Xoom showing up as a Windows Portable Device? I have connected my Xoom to a Windows XP64 machine, and it shows up in the device manager as a Windows Portable Device.  However, it does not show up in My Computer as a Windows Portable Device as the Motorolla site says it will.

I'm unable to access the files on the Xoom, although the device shows up in Windows Media Player as a device I can sync.  However, it tries to convert files to fit onto the tablet rather than just copy the files over like I'd like to do.

Is this how this device is supposed to work, or is there something going wrong with my PC?

Also, some devices show up as Mass Storage devices, only when USB Debugging option is turned OFF. See if that helps.


How can I show someone's name instead of their number when someone calls? I want to hide the number when some calls me and just display their name. How can I do that?

Put their names and number in your address book.


Can I change which SIM a phone is using for its LTE interface using ADB? I have a set of phones that have dual SIM cards. What I would like to do is have them connected to one network using SIM card 1, run some test, disconnect from the network, then have them connect to a second network using SIM card 2. Is there a way to do this through ADB? Preferably without root access, but if that's not possible, then with root access is okay.

This post didn't get much attention, so I don't know if it's worth posting the answer, but I did find a solution.

I didn't know when posting this that the solution is dependent on the version of Android. In my case, the phones have Android 9 (Pie).

The command that I found to turn on/off SIM cards is:

adb shell service call phone 180 i32 X i32 Y

where X is the SIM card number (1 and 2, in my case) and Y is 1 for enable and 0 for disable.

If anyone is interested, I found the solution by digging through source code on android.googlesource.com. Once I found the interface for ITelephony (it was a .aidl file), I had to count the functions, because the number 180 in the command meant the 180th function in that file. I also derived the arguments i32 X i32 Y from the arguments to that function. The answer here helped me a ton: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20227326/where-to-find-info-on-androids-service-call-shell-command.


Update text files on Android and sync to Dropbox I'm transitioning to plain text files as the basis for my GTD system, which is awesome when I'm at my laptop (Vim editing all the way).

However, I haven't yet figured out a good way to take quick notes on my Android tablet, which is a Xoom running Honeycomb (not yet rooted, although I'm open to the idea).

Ideally what I like is a script or widget that would pop up a textbox that I could type a note into. The note would then be saved and synced to Dropbox automatically.

The idea is for this capture process to be as seamless as possible. I would like to avoid having to remember to manually sync files in the Dropbox app, or launch an app and fuss with naming a file, browsing to the correct directory, etc. The apps I've tried so far are much too fiddly for my tastes.

Any suggestions for how I could accomplish this? I'm a developer, I could definitely tackle a more code-oriented solution if that's the only way.

I use an app called Epistle to create/edit textfiles within my Dropbox repository. It even supports Markdown.

There are other similar apps in the Market. If you've embraced todo.txt for your to-do management, Gina Trapani's Todo.txt Touch is helpful. It also syncs to Dropbox.


How to interrupt Android boot sequence to force it boot to Linux kernel only I am trying to do some low level performance testing related to device processor cores through adb which I feel it is affected by Android background services and system stuff.

As I know that the Android boot sequence stages are as follow:

Execute Boot ROM code.
Execute the boot loader.
Load the Linux kernel.
Launch Zygote, which initializes the Dalvik VM.
System server which loads the Android system.

So my question is how can I interrupt this sequence to force it stop on stage 3 to load Linux kernel. This can help me implement my intermediary performance testings before loading again Android system.

Does Fastboot or Clockworkmod recovery can help here and load my device to a kind of Linux kernel?

Any hint will be appreciated.
Thanks.

No. Android's not like a desktop GNU/Linux distro, where you can press I to get an interactive boot, or skip X and just boot to a shell. The only way to achieve this would be to build your own custom ROM after editing the init scripts (which have much the same function as on a desktop GNU/Linux system) to tailor the boot process how you like.


How to search Games with "Google Play Game Services integration" in play store? Google recently introduced "Google Play Game Services integration" in play store games.
How can I list games that supports "Google Play Game Services integration" using play store App or using play store site?

A search of the Play Store for the phrase "Game Services" finds about 20 games at the moment.


Google keyboard, no option to keep my word? I took a leap from my Samsung Galaxy S4 to a Motorola Droid Turbo II with Android 6 installed. I love everything about this new phone and OS, EXCEPT...

On my S4, whenever I typed a word in that autocorrect wanted to change, it would show whatever I typed (my word) at the top left of the autocorrect bar, then it would show one or two options to the right.

Well, this new phone doesn't do that and it is frustrating!

I do NOT want to turn autocorrect off.

I do NOT want to turn "automatically insert autocorrect word when pressing space" off.

I simply want to see my word on the left, so that I can click it and tell autocorrect that this is the word I want to keep.

Why did this change?! How can I get this back!? I guess I use a lot of funny words or something but this is driving me up a wall.

Please help!

I am sure you are talking about two different things that are:

• Autocorrect (it will automatically replaces your word when hitting space.)

• Predictive Text/Suggestions (it just shows you different word you can use including which words you use previously.)

You should Turn off 'Autocorrect' and let 'Predictive Text/Suggestions' turned on.


How to bootup a Samsung s-duos with bad battery My phone switched off because of low battery and when I kept it for charging a black screen appeared. It is just blinking on and off. The same problem occurred previously also. I gave my battery to a technician for repair then battery worked, he said that he booted the battery.  So how to boot when the battery is bad?

If you claim that you took  it to a technician to repair it, are you sure the problem of your battery was solved? Have you considered replacing the battery with a new one? Or using another Samsung's battery on the phone?

Once you have a good battery you can know check for other issues that could be affecting your phone.