How to diagnose Android phone that is not working properly via vehicle bluetooth? I connected an Android phone to a vehicle via bluetooth to make/receive calls.

Connecting the device via bluetooth was simple.  Making calls, however, was a challenge.  The vehicle reports that the Android phone is always without cell reception, and therefore will not place calls.  Furthermore, the vehicle's head unit (aka receiver) shows a "no reception" indicator for the Android device's cell reception.

Placing calls from the Android device through the vehicle's audio system works as expected.  This also shows that the Android device has ample cell reception to make calls.

What techniques or apps can be used to diagnose what is going wrong?  Ideally, I would like to see what the Android device is transmitting to the vehicle that is causing the vehicle to think the Android device has no reception.  For example, an app that simulates a vehicle's head unit (perhaps with added diagnostics) would be useful.

You can investigate who is guilty, but most probably you will not be able to workaround it. If your phone has Android version 4.4 or later you can collect Bluetooth HCI snoop log.

Enable Android Developer Options
Turn Bluetooth off
In Developer Options enable Bluetooth HCI snoop log
Turn Bluetooth on
Wait till connection with vehicle's head unit be established and try to make a call from head unit.
Disable Bluetooth HCI snoop log in Developer Options. Do not turn off power or reboot the phone till log file be copied or studied.

The log has name btsnoop_hci.log and on different smartphone models it can be stored at different places, for example, /sdcard/btsnoop_hci.log.
This log has a binary format and commonly special software is required to parse and view it. But in your case any binary or hexadecimal file viewer with ASCII strings searching ability can be used (even Windows Notepad, but the log should not be too big in this case).
You can view it on phone or copy to PC (directly, or via ADB after enable debugging).
Please keep in mind that this log can contain private data (e.g. phone book records and SMS) and should not be shared with untrusted people.
Open the log file using file viewer and serch for the string +CIND:
You can find two form of strings like the following:
+CIND:("service",(0,1)),("call",(0,1)),("callsetup",(0-3)),("callheld",(0-2)),("signal",(0-5)),("roam",(0,1)),("battchg",(0-5))
and
+CIND:1,0,0,0,5,0,5
The first one provided by request and contain a list of indicators the phone can report with possible value ranges. Please pay attention to indicators order, a number of place in the list is used to report individual indicator states. In this case "service" has a number 1, "call" number 2 etc.
The second string is also provided by request and contains current indicators state.
Now you need to find all +CIEV: strings. The phone use them to report individual indicator states by its own initiative. They have the format
+CIEV:INDICATOR_NUMBER,INDICATOR_VALUE
For my +CIND: example, string +CIEV:7,4 means battery charge value is 4 of 5 and +CIEV:1,0 means no service. Finding all values related to service, signal and roaming you can be sure if the phone reports them correctly or not.
Possibly, the head unit attempts to dial, so also try to find strings ATD (followed by dialed phone number) and ATD> (followed by an index in the phone memory). In such case you will see the phone answer ERROR or +CME ERROR:30 just below it.
UPD: BTW if such behavior is observed with the only SIM-card in a phone with two or three SIM-card slots, try to put the card into another slot.


Coordinates from 'dumpsys location' are censored on Huawei devices I'd like to read coordinates from my Huawei P30 Pro via ADB by calling adb shell dumpsys location. However, the output is like:

Last Known Locations:
   gps: Location[gps 11******,14****** ...

They are censored with stars even though the GPS is already turned on.

Any idea?

It looks like this is a modification that Huawei did by themselves (factual reasons not yet found). In short, the method to print the location's detail was overwritten.

dumpsys command calls the system services' dump method (more detail on this answer on Stack Overflow), and for dumpsys location, the respective service is LocationManagerService.

The dump() method for LocationManagerService (in Android 10, but also no major differences on previous versions) contains code like this:

...

pw.println("  Last Known Locations:");
for (Map.Entry<String, Location> entry : mLastLocation.entrySet()) {
    String provider = entry.getKey();
    Location location = entry.getValue();
    pw.println("    " + provider + ": " + location);
}

...

where it will iterate the last known locations from all location providers and print the name of the provider and its location. Note that the location is an instance of Location objects.

By default, the method to print the detail of the Location object (toString()) contains code like this:

@Override
public String toString() {
    StringBuilder s = new StringBuilder();
    s.append("Location[");
    s.append(mProvider);
    s.append(String.format(" %.6f,%.6f", mLatitude, mLongitude));
    ...

where it will print the latitude and longitude in 6 decimal digits.

For many devices, this is the standard behavior, as shown on Nexus 5 with LineageOS 14.1 (Android 7.1):

 Last Known Locations:
    ...
    fused: Location[fused 1.234567,101.010101 acc=500 et=+12h00m00s000ms]
    ...

The numbers are changed due to privacy reason

By overriding the method, OEMs can customize how dumpsys will display the content. (Note: while Android requires some services not to be modified, location is not one of them)


Share a number from call history to calendar On my s3, I would like to make a calendar entry after some one called me and put the number in the description field on the calendar.

I'm thinking this would be easy, just share the number from call history to calendar. Unfortunately "share" is not available and I can only "send number" as an sms.

Is there an app that can help me with this?

Is there a reason the s3 doesn't have this obvious feature?

This is a bit roundabout, but it works:-

From the call log, click Create contact.
On the screen for creating a contact, long-tap the phone number field to select it and bring up the special action mode buttons for selected text.
Click the 'copy' icon. (That's the one to the right of the pair of scissors.)
Click Cancel to cancel creating the contact, and answer OK to the confirmation dialog.
Switch to the calendar app and create a new event, or edit the event you want to change.
Long-tap some empty space in the description and click Paste.

As for why the S3's Phone app doesn't let you copy the number to the clipboard directly, or share it, only Samsung can tell us that.


Battery drain issue on idle phone, how to find out the culprit? Overnight, starting from a 100% charge, all apps closed, even from a fresh reboot, screen of course off, my phone (Redmi 6) ends up with a ~90% charge. I know this is abnormal, as my previous phone (Redmi 5A, with worn out battery) ends up with ~99% in the same situation.

That's quite annoying to know that something needlessly drains my battery! I'm pretty sure it's due to some software bug. Encountering the issue as well on MIUI 10 and 11.

I'd like to find out the culprit in order to fix the issue. What can I do?

For the record, my syslog receives the following two errors a lot (several per second):

BoostFramework() : Exception_1 = java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.qualcomm.qti.Performance
BoostFramework() Ux Perf : Exception = java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.qualcomm.qti.UxPerformance

(then, just in case, I went to the Developer options and fully disabled logging, who knows! But it didn't fix the battery issue.)

Also for the record, I have already done a lot of googling about that battery drain issue, and tried the following fix: Go to "Settings > App > Permissions > Autostart" and disable everything (in my case I only had "Camera" enabled). Sadly, it didn't fix the issue.

Update:

I've had run "Battery usage stats" during the day, and it reported me that the screen was most (like 90~95%, as I recall) using the battery, followed by a few % by the networks (cell, wifi).

But here I just looked at "Battery usage stats" and it gave me interesting results: Screen 35%, Cell standby 31%, Wifi 24%…

This is something I was also suspecting. It's highly possible the battery drain is caused by network (both cell and wifi) activity, which in turn could be caused by some software bug. Even though I made sure that no apps or widgets are running. What could I do to investigate further this path? Maybe there is some setting (possibly advanced) that could fix the issue?

Update 2:

As suggested in the comments, I tried "airplane mode" (i.e. cell and wifi networks disabled) and it seems to solve the issue. I think that both, cell and wifi, cause battery drain.

However, that adds an annoying handling step, and I cannot receive calls while in airplane mode. I wish I could avoid that extra handling. I usually don't use wifi, so I'll try disabling only wifi and see if it's sufficient.

The MediaTek chipset of the Redmi 6 definitely seems to be a bad pick. This chipset forbids almost any custom ROM, and now I discover it's not energy-efficient at all for networks…

Update 3:

Some feedback after an extensive period of testing. I can keep cell network and mobile data always on, turning the wifi off seems to be sufficient. Overnight, the battery goes down to barely 99%, it reaches 98% at the very worst… sometimes it even stays at 100% :)

Coupled with a good mobile plan, I just keep the wifi always off, and no longer think about this issue :)

I had this same issue, it seems to be related to media control apps like Spotify and Google Home mini always staying on and keeping wifi awake.
Also check for any other network connected devices that could be spamming. Could be a printer, or a laptop even, anything on the network is a suspect.

Also try this which seems to have helped:

Removing fingerprint unlock. Perhaps I had 3 fingerprints, before I had 2, maybe that affected battery life and device being active.
Removing one of the themes from the miui Themes app, it seems dodgy, using default theme seems to be helping too.

Network changes:

Some routers and your phone's wifi chip might be a bit funny, so perhaps switch to Static fixed IP address for your phone instead of a dynamic DHCP ip address.
Also try fixing the Wifi Router's Channel to a specific channel instead of leaving it on automatic. (Use WirelessNetView on PC to see which channels are quieter in your neighbourhood, choose between 1, 6 or 11 only)


Update Server Connection Issue I Have bought Galaxy Sl - GT I9003 , two days back.
Region: India

I have Android

Firmware Version: 2.2.1 , BuildNumber: FROYO.DDKF1

When vere I try to to update the firmware OTA,it gives me message "Connection failed", even if the connection is working for other applications.

And when I try to upgrade from Kies, it shows that, It is the latest firmware available, which is certainly not.

How to upgrade the build - firmware for my device?

Don't bother using Kies or OTA to update your phone. If you do, you will probably update it in the next decade. (I am curious if OTA worked in someone...)

Just find an appropriate ROM for your phone from a trusted forum (eg XDA) and flash it using ODIN.


How to take small-sized-(~50KB) good quality screenshots using overlay button? I'm using Screenshot Capture to take screenshots using an overlay button (shown in the image).

The problem with it is that it creates somehow large big size screenshots (around 1MB each). Unfortunately it doesn't provide settings to control the JPG quality of saved screenshots like Snagit does (on Windows, shown in image).

I'm looking for being able to take screenshots using hover button, and also able to control quality settings like JPG Subfile type and Quality in order to make screenshots smaller (~50KB).

Note: I know that I can use image converter apps and tools to convert large produced images into smaller. But I'm looking for a direct way to take screenshots directly small (Because often I become away of my laptop, also I don't want to consume time and mind to bother with screenshots size regularly).

My Anrdoid version: 6.0.1

Touchshot is an app I use which has both you are looking for

Hover button (overlay)
JPEG / PNG - JPEG quality 80 /90 /100 and resolution can be varied from 640 x 360 , 1280 x 720, 1920 x 1080

Minimum size by manipulating these is still around 100 kB and not as low as you want. There may be other apps that offer size you want but not with overlay function. As an additional feature , you get date and time stamped screenshots


I Rooted My Phone and Uninstalled Google Play Service Even though I was warned, I went and uninstalled Google Play and Services because I've been using iMobile for my app store as I didn't think I needed them any more. Guess I was wrong because now iMobile won't open.

I had same problem few months back. Then what I did was:

I used a second, identical device (running the same Android version), and from there transferred all the components I had accidentally uninstalled on the first one, using some sort of apk sender application.


Cannot ping Android devices on same wifi network I have a Nexus 7 running CyanogenMod 10.1. For some reason I cannot reach it from my laptop on the same wifi network. I cannot ping in either direction. In the past i have been only able to ping one way.

Just tried out on my HTC Sensation and haven't the same issue. Also the Nexus and HTC cant reach each other either.

I have had similar problems with other Android devices. In the past I was developing an app and I could not establish a socket connection from the Android device to my computer. Once I was able to successfully ping the laptop from my device everything worked.

Don't know if it is clear this isn't persistent. In the past I fiddled around and they eventually talked but there was no consistent solution.

I have observed this on 2 different wifi networks.

I know this question is quite old now, but I came across this looking to for an answer and managed to work it out myself.
What I did was download a root file explorer (I used Root Browser from JRummy Apps) and navigate to /proc/sys/net/ipv4 edit icmp_echo_ignore_all so that it is a 1-line, 1-character file that simply says 0 (when I opened the file, it was set to 1)
No reboot, ICMP requests started working upon saving. Hope that helps someone else!


How do I know if Odin is hang/error/stuck? I am planning to install stock ROM on my Note 3 but, Last time I did it was longer time than Tab2.7 and my GYoung.. So I plugged the USB out and boom! Kies Error... Just tell what is the sign of Odin Freeze/hang/error?

Don't EVER unplug your device while Odin is doing stuff. If it failed it will display an error after a little while


How to turn off Opera Mini "discover"/"top stories" news feed? I installed Opera Mini and was surprised at how slow it was to open. I figured out this was because it was automatically filling the home page with "Yahoo"-style random news headlines.

I couldn't find any way to turn this off. Long-pressing on the panel of headlines didn't give any "remove" option, the "Customise" button at the bottom of the feed didn't allow turning off the feed even when I deselected every type of story, and the only relevant thing I could see in the settings menus (Advanced > Feeds) was already set to disabled.

Searching online, all I could find was people on Opera forums being snarky at anyone who didn't want this feature, or, guides for different versions of Opera that don't apply to Opera Mini. Some sources say it's impossible. Is it?

There is an option under Settings, but it's tucked away under Advanced settings and the wording might not be intuitive to people unfamiliar with browser jargon:

In the popup settings menu from the Opera icon in the bottom right, (or menu button if you have one), choose Settings > Advanced > Start page content
Switch from Default to Speed Dial only

This turns off the news feed on the new tab home page.


How do I connect Nexus 5 on Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro for USB-debugging When I connect my device to my Linux laptop (debian-Ubuntu) I don't get any output in

adb logcat

If I connect it to another laptop it works fine

in KDE I can open the Directory and copy files, so USB is working

it seems like

adb devices

finds the device:

List of devices attached
042some_numbers00   device

but it stays disconnected somehow

I created a file

sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/99-android-mtpfs.rules

and added

# Nexus 5 (alias Nexus 4) "sudo lsusb" shows: 18d1:4ee2
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="18d1", ATTRS{idProduct}=="4ee2", MODE="0666" GROUP="androiddev", SYMLINK+="android%n"

and I added:

echo 0x18d1 >> ~/.android/adb_usb.ini

then I rebooted Ubuntu and it worked!!!


How to Power On and Shutdown a Remote host with Android? The title can't be more specific. I'd like you to suggest the best way to send the poweroff instruction, to windows or Linux.

Power On
You can simply enable Wake-on-LAN on your computer through BIOS setup, then use any of the several WOL apps to send the power-on command over the network. Some apps like SyncMe also include WOL functionality, so a separate WOL app may not be needed.
Shutdown on Windows
In general it will involve some server utility installed on the computer, and the client-side Android app communicating with it, for example oneID. These apps usually include other features, which may be overkill. You could use SSH and call the shutdown.exe utility, but it may be overkill too. Besides, these solutions may not shut down Windows "properly". For example, neither oneID nor shutdown.exe were able to trigger my "backup on logoff" routine.
WebShutdown
For these reasons I end up writing my own small solution. WebShutdown is a small web server which is going to shut down the computer when a specific HTTP GET request is received. That means you can turn off your computer from Android device by simply tapping a Tasker or web shortcut on home screen. Windows is going to shut down "properly", meaning your logoff scripts configured in Group Policy will get executed normally.
You can run the server on computer startup like this for example: webshutdown.exe 80 valid_password.txt. Then, on Android device you access the web address http://COMPUTER/shutdown?auth=<password> to start system shutdown.


KingoRoot is stuck at 90% I'm currently rooting a Samsung J1 Ace in Android 5.1.1 using KingoRoot in order to give Link2SD root access and move the apps, music, and other data files from its internal storage to a SD card. The internal hard drive has 8 GB and is almost full to the point where it can't update apps.

I've downloaded KingoRoot through the mobile browser as an APK file and enabled USB debugging. Unfortunately, 1 to 2 hours after starting the rooting process, the completion percentage is stuck at 90. When completion is at 90 percent, the rooting process is executed, however it seems frozen. The average duration of the rooting process is usually between 5 to 10 minutes.

I've searched through the Internet and found that switching it off via the power button maybe lead to an unstable root.

Is there any solution to this issue?

EDIT: The problem is gone after I have rebooted the phone and  but I get error code 0x15F6D5 which I have asked a separate question on.

All I did was reboot the phone and the rooting process abruptly, yet safely, halted. Assuming that this issue is related to my other question, it probably means that the device being rooted is not supported.


Battery level always 42% I purchased a second hand nexus 5 to find out that the battery indicator is always showing 42% and never updates, regardless of the actual battery charge level.

I tried replacing the battery with the one from my brother`s nexus 5, then replaced the usb port board.
Also tried:

rooting
installing twrp 2.8.7.1
elemenalX 6.0 kernel
Android 6.0.1
Cache and dalvik wipe
Use the battery until phone shuts down

Nothing helps, although the indicator jumped to 83% and to 54% after some actions which I dont remember. Maybe after cache wipe, not sure.

Anyone know how to fix this?

Battery contains the chip which provides information to fuel gauge hardware and drivers. Since you have already done that, next is to determine if the problem is with fuel gauge drivers/ software or hardware.

Wipe clean your phone (cache, dalvik and system) and flash stock ROM for your phone. Don't install apps. Switch to safe mode, charge  for about three hours (will certainly top the battery) and if the behaviour is same, then it is NOT OS related (yes, try all this with external SD and SIM removed...doesn't sound logical to do this and I agree but for some unexplained reason I had the experience of weird battery reading with SD card installed and reverting to normal when removed)

If this didn't help,almost certainly hardware related. Time to get the hardware checked and repaired


Play Store and the country pain I had already a lot of trouble with the play store country change in Canada. Now I'm living for a while in Singapore and I have the same trouble again.

In Canada/USA I was not able to download the online banking app of my bank RBC and the service app of my phone carrier Virgin because I couldn't change my country in the play store. Now I have the same trouble in Singapore. Bank accounts are here not easy to get (a lot of paper work) and will cost money. That totally blocks me from downloading free service apps.
I only have one bank account in Germany for my credit card and all payments and I want to keep it like that. I don't want to pay for other bank accounts, credit cards or want to manage different bank accounts in many countries and currencies. I don't even want to talk about the hustle with the tax office. That was already enough with the one Canadian bank account.

Is there another way to change the play store country then to open a bank account with credit card in every country you're staying? It's really a pain in the ass.

Is the Apple AppStore the same pain or is it worth to change if you are an expat changing your locations frequently?

How about just creating a new Google account for this purpose and adding it to the phone. You will obviously not need a payments profile to download the free apps. But I believe you can still create a payments profile and use your existing card (German, Canadian) in the new account. Or better just buy Google Play gift cards (the offline scratchable ones).
It is very easy to switch the account within Play Store. So, that won't hurt much.
That's the only solution I can think of. I have already had a lot of pain to revert my account country from Canada to India. Because a lot of my apps were showing as unavailable.


Why can't I press the Install button when installing applications from unknown sources? I'm trying to sideload an application, as seen in the picture below.

I have allowed the installation of applications from unknown applied actions in settings, but I can't seem to press the install button. The cancel button works correctly and installing applications via adb install works correctly. What's the problem?

EDIT: For those who have this problem, using ChainFire's C.F. Lumen will correct it because the app uses hardware compositing, and Android doesn't notice a "layer" on top of the current screen.

Looking at your screenshot, I think you are using screen filtering apps like Twilight, f.lux, CF.lumen or bluelight filter. Try to force stop/uninstall or disable the screen filtering apps and it will work again.
If you are not using any filtering app, try looking for your installed apps that have overlay capability, apps that can show their contents over another apps, apps with overlay permission (like- Messenger, Musixmatch, Touch Assistant apps that can float on your screen).
If you are not sure, try disable them one by one in your Settings ⇒ Apps and find which one is causing the problem. You can also look for "Draw over other apps" menu in your android setting where all the apps with this permission will be listed. If you couldn't locate the menu, search for overlay permission + {android version} + {device manufacturer}.


One-handed operation: Use for all screens mode (tiny screen mode) doesn't work on Galaxy Note 3 I have read all of the instructions I can find and watched several videos on how to turn on this feature and use it.

After enabling the feature in settings>controls>On-handed operation>Use for all screens, and trying the back and forth quick swipe on several apps...I still can't make this work.

Are there some competing settings or apps that disallow use of this feature?

Thanks for your help.

Try upgrading to Android 4.4.2. Settings -> general -> about device -> Software update -> update.

:)


contacts are not showing when I don't add a phone number Contacts aren't showing when I don't add a phone number.

I add tap the phone icon, I tap the person icon with the plus, I enter a name and email address.  I tap "done". It says "contact saved".   Then I hit back and look at the list and it's not there when it should be. I restart the phone and it's still not there.

One semi-workaround is to add 0 for phone number, though that won't deal with contacts not showing prior to that i.e. when no number was entered at all.

What will work though is look for an app called "contacts" or "people". That app will list all contacts including ones where no phone number was entered.  That's  the solution. So those contacts aren't lost.

If you don't see the "contacts" or "people" app, then you could check if it's installed under settings..apps..all.  And you could try putting it in safe mode by holding the power button until it says "power off", and then when it says "power off", hold power off.  Then it asks to go into safe mode, then say ok, and let it restart into safe mode. Then see if you see the app, to make sure a third party app wasn't blocking it.. hopefully you will see it.  I saw it I think even in normal mode, it was just called "people" rather than "contacts. Whether it's "people" or "contacts" might depend on OS version.


Automatic nightly CWM nandroid backup? I am using Cyanogenmod with CWM and am currently doing a manual weekly Nandroid backup (plus daily scheduled TitaniumBackup runs). Needless to say, it is easy to skip or forget.

Is there a way to have the nandroid backups automated? I.e., I would like the phone to shutdown into recovery once a week, do a backup, and reboot.

Provided that you're using TWRP with version 2.1 or higher, you can make good use of OpenRecoveryScript.

The concept: When booted into recovery mode TWRP looks for a file named openrecoveryscript under the location /cache/recovery/. If the file is found, it is read and the instructions therewith executed accordingly. Once all the instructions are finished executing, the device reboots normally. All of this happens automatically the moment TWRP is fired up.

The important steps to make an automatic nandroid backup using TWRP are:

Create the file openrecoveryscript under /cache/recovery. You would need root access to write into that location.
Write into that file the instructions you want TWRP to execute. In my case I write:

backup SDCBM WeeklyBackup

You can understand the details about the command here. In short, I'm simply backing up System(S), Data(D), Cache(C), Boot(B) without creating MD5sums(M) and saving the backup with the name WeeklyBackup. The backup would automatically be saved under /sdcard/TWRP/BACKUPS/<device_serial>.
Afterwards, I set the appropriate permission on that script using the command:

chmod 664 /cache/recovery/openrecoveryscript;

Here's what I use to make an automatic backup in my Nexus 6:

I found an automation app which allows editing a file, copying a file to directories with privileged access, or provides command-line access with superuser/root privileges. (I personally use Tasker, but MacroDroid and Automate may also work.)
I created a day based profile in conjunction with a time based profile to trigger the backup on a certain day of the week/month and at a specific time.

Related: How to create a profile with multiple context in Tasker?
I added a task in that profile with following actions:

Code → Run Shell:

Command:

echo backup SDCBM WeeklyBackup > /cache/recovery/openrecoveryscript;
chmod 664 /cache/recovery/openrecoveryscript;

The first command would create the file openrecoveryscript and write the backup instruction in it.
tick Use Root.

System → Reboot → Type: Recovery.

The profile and task is very flexible, so you can make it more convenient to you, such as by pushing a notification or a toast with a time wait action at the beginning that the system would now make backup, so you should save your work or stop doing any important task and more...


Gapps has stopped. How to fix? Good Morning.
Yesterday I was excited to flash CyanogenMod 12.1 in my other Android device.
The process was the same and I did everything correctly. Unfortunately, after flashing Google Apps, the system wouldn't stop showing pop-ups like "google app has stopped", "google services has stopped". Nothing about Gapps works, even the keyboard.
I have tried to wipe data/factory reset, using CWM and reflashing CM12.1 ONLY, but it didn't work. The pop-ups are still there. Maybe there's some Gapps fragments in the system... Please, I would appreciate any possible help. Thanks

It is recommended to wipe dalvik/cache, factory reset before and after flashing anything in recovery.

So here are the steps to solve the problem

Enter CWM recovery mode
Wipe data/factory reset
Wipe Cache partition
Advanced > Wipe Dalvik Cache
Flash Gapps for CM12.1
Wipe data/factory reset, Cache partition
Wipe Dalvik Cache
Reboot


Why does Android have antivirus apps while iOS does not? I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 and my friend has an iPhone.

I have downloaded and installed the Norton Anti Virus app. I am at a loss to understand why iOS seemingly does not need protection as such. A smartphone, I have been told, is no less than a computer (even better, faster etc.), so need to be safeguarded.

Or is there another reason why iOS has no AntiVirus apps while Android does?

This has some reasons, let's try to sum them up:

Android has an open app market model (there's the more or less curated Play store but you can install apps from other locations (3rd party markets or self built/downloaded))
Android may also not need AntiVirus apps (most problems come from pirated rogue apps with added value piggybacked)
iOS has a strictly curated app store and you're not allowed to bypass it (unless you don't jailbreak your device but Apple so far ignores the existence of jailbroken devices)
Apple doesn't allow AntiVirus apps into their app store (they don't grant the necessary privileges to 3rd party apps and ignore the existence of jailbroken devices)
AntiVirus vendors want to create a market for mobile AntiVirus solutions
Apple denies existence/possibility of malware for their platforms as long as it's possible (for PR reasons)

To sum it up: Android is more open than iOS and lets AntiVirus vendors jump in while Apple denies them access to their app store.


How to install apps by connecting to the desktop I was just wondering is that possible to install apps on my tablet by connecting it to my dekstop from google play.

Thanks for any help

Actually, it shouldn't be necessary to connect the tablet to your desktop. All you need to do is to log into Google Play on your desktop with the same account that's registered on the tablet. Then navigate to an app and press the Install button (or Installed if it's already installed on one of your other devices):

Once you click Install, a dialog will appear which allows you to select the device to install to:

After clicking Install, click OK on the next dialog that pops up. Then connect your tablet via WiFi, wait a bit, and the app will be installed!


Remove Whatsapp backup from Google account that is no longer used Last week I tried to move my Whatsapp account to a new phone. For some reason it didn't want to restore the backup, even if I moved the backup file manually. It turned out that the file was encrypted using another Google account.

This is an old work account. It's inactive, and I can still login. That made it possible to restore my backup, so I'm happy with that. But I don't work there anymore, and I don't want the backup to be in that account, even if it's encrypted. And even if it's encrypted, how does the new phone know the unlock code?

Questions

How can I move the new backups to my normal account? Will deleting the old account suffice?
How can I remove the old backups from the old account?
Could someone else with access to the old account restore my entire Whatsapp history?

WhatsApp has a nice FAQ article about their Google Drive backup functionality, so I'll refer to that below.

How can I move the new backups to my normal account? Will deleting the old account suffice?

No, you will need to configure WhatsApp to store backups in the new Google account you intend to use from now on. See the section called "Change to which account you want to back up your chat history".

How can I remove the old backups from the old account?

Please view the section called "Deleting your backup file from your Google account". Aside from clicking "Delete hidden app data", I'd also advise clicking "Disconnect from Drive" afterwards so the link between WhatsApp and that Google account is also broken on Google's side.

Could someone else with access to the old account restore my entire Whatsapp history?

Yes, provided that they also have access to the phone number associated with that WhatsApp backup. If they only have access to your Google account, then no, that's not enough: "After verifying your number, you will be prompted to restore your messages and media from Google Drive."


How can I turn my Galaxy Tab 7" into a Kindle Fire? I got a Galaxy Tab from work and I don't use it that much, but the screen size and specs look pretty similar to the new Kindle Fire.  I know next to nothing about how things work under the covers but I know that there is a large hacker/modding community within Android.  So is it even feasible to attempt such a thing?  If not, why, in layman's terms please :)

Unless Amazon releases their Kindle Fire source code, there won't be a way to mod a different Android tablet to be a faux Fire. I seriously doubt that will happen

That's not to say that someone won't be able to put together some combination of mods and apps that might approximate some of the Fire's functionality, but that's a pretty daunting task, if Amazon's proprietary changes don't make it completely impossible.

Update: How about that? Amazon actually did release the Kindle Fire source code. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/11/amazon-releases-kindle-fire-source-code.html

Update 2: It seems that someone's got something very close. Android Spin has details.


How to disable Vibration in Android devices? I find vibration super annoying and utterly useless, especially in tablets.
I want to totally disable or even destroy, if needed, the vibration feature or part of all my 6 Google Nexus phones and tablets, and 1 Samsung tablet.

Anybody can help?

It depends on the mobile. On Samsung Galaxy S7, there's "Sounds and Vibration" in "Settings".

For Nexus devices, you may want to check Change volume, sound & vibrate settings.


Voice messages won't play through headphones (messenger) I have the following problem: since yesterday in facebook messenger whenever someone sends me a voice message, I plug my headphones in and play it, but for some reason the sound comes from the speaker. Before it used to play through the headphones without problems.

I noticed that when I press the volume keys, it says the sound is identified as "sounds during conversation", which wasn't the case before. Before it came as "medias". This makes me believe the phone thinks I somehow told it to go through the loudspeaker as in normal phone conversations.

I'm using a Samsung Galaxy J5 by the way. Thanks in advance!

This has been happening to me as well. I Googled the issue and it turn out, that it may just be messenger's update. It started playing through my speakers after I updated, but my friend hasn't updated his and he can hear them through his headphones just fine. Your phone isn't to blame- it's just messenger's faulty update.


How to enable otg in moto e I am using MOTO-E  and working on lollipop OS.
Here, OTG is not supporting. I have read it from google which Moto-E doesn't support OTG.

My question is

Will oTG work on OS 4.4 (Kitkat)?

How to downgrade OS from 5.1 to 4.4?

Moto E's hardware doesn't support OTG, that is, USB Host Mode is not supported..
So there's no way to use OTG in Moto E, even if rooted or using any apps..

You can test for compatibility if you wish using USB Host Diagnostics app if you're rooted.


Can I move apps to internal USB storage? I have a Samsung Galaxy S. I am getting a "Low on space - Internal phone storage is getting low" error.

When I go to Manage Applications it shows the internal memory as 1.9GB used, 6.0 MB Free.
When I click "On SD Card" it shows "USB Storage 681 MB Used, 13 GB Free".
There is no external SD card in the device.

When I select an app and click "Move to SD Card" it just returns the following error:

Failed to move application. Not enough memory.

Is there any way I can move the apps to the internal USB memory?

Update: I've reset the phone to factory settings so no longer get the error about space getting low and internal storage is almost empty.
I've installed a couple of apps and still get the same error when I try migrate them to USB storage.

Sounds like you need to clean up your internal memory first before you can do anything.  There's three ways I can suggest to free some up:

Clean out your app caches to free up space (browsers and maps are usually the worst offenders): you can use an app like SD Maid (it's tiny, you should be able to install it) or by going into the application management section (Settings->Applications->Manage Applications->All, then click on an app name) and manually clearing out app data for hogs like Google Maps and the like using the Clear cache button (note: don't clear the app data! just the cache).
Uninstall some apps, then reinstall them after you've moved other apps to the SD card.
Root your phone and uninstall bloatware / system apps you don't use with an app like Titanium Backup (make sure you back up the apps first in case you need them later).  Note: this will keep your phone from being able to install carrier Android updates in the future.

Android is usually pretty good about auto-installing apps to non-system storage when possible.  Does your version have an option to prefer installing to SD set?


Backup a Samsung phone before switching to Nexus? I used to backup my phone through Kies. Now I'm switching to Nexus5, and I guess Kies won't work anymore to get my stuff back to phone. What should I do?

Also, I know that some data is automatically stored by Google and associated with my account, so as soon as I login with my new phone it should get it back to me. What is this data?

I could also backup my files by hand, but I would like not to lose apps and app data. Thank you!

There are many application backup programs available in PlayStore.

A very light weight application - Super Backup
ES File Explorer
If you are rooted then - Titanium Backup

Plus the data stored by google will be automatically retrieved by google once you login to nexus.


Mediaserver is eating my phone's battery? I'm using dual boot on my SGS2 with CM10.1 and JellyBam and both running fine but with some issue of mediaserver draining my phone's battery like a crazy nut. I have checked on Google and got many threads about this without any proper solution. This question already exist on this site but that solution doesn't work for me and rebooting every time is a big pain.

Screenshot of "Battery Usage" (click image for larger variant)

I've also deleted all media files on my Sdcard but it still trigger to eat my battery.

In case anyone is still having issues, try an app called mediaserver killer.


How to avoid superbrick by flashing / modding / rooting? How is a superbrick accomplished? I am looking for advice of things to avoid and list of causes.

Such as, what if I accidentally flashed the wrong recovery? Could this result in a superbrick?

Or if I accidentally flashed the recovery into the wrong mount point / block device.

Or if power is lost during flashing?

Superbrick for the sake of this question is defined as resulting the phone getting into a state that can no longer be repaired by usual flashing. When the manufacturer service would be required to physically swap components, soldering etc.

1) Flashing the wrong recovery will not result in a hard brick.

2) Flashing a recovery to the wrong mount point might result in a hard brick, depending on which point you flash it to. If you flashed it to the bootloader mount point, well, then, the MB is toast.

3) If power is lost during flashing, it's probably still okay unless you were flashing the bootloader.

The things to avoid are:

A) fastboot erase bootloader <-- Why does this command even exist???

B) Flashing the wrong bootloader (most of the time the device will reject it if it's not made for it anyway)

C) Flashing the wrong radio

D) Doing stupid things with root


Are there any side effects of uninstalling Apps Are there any side effects of Installing and uninstalling lots of apps on an Android smart phone?

Specifically are there any things that do not get cleaned up that I need to be aware off?

Shouldn't be any major side effects. Most applications are pretty good about cleaning themselves up.

However, a lot of times you will see a directory at the root of your SD card from an uninstalled app. This directory was most likely created by the app to store some type of data externally, whether it be downloads, backups, etc. You may have to manually delete these if they show up. Use a file manager to browse your SD card every once in a while.


Android Low Memory: How to do factory reset of my phone when it won't open anything My Android phone is constantly giving me a "Low Memory" error on the top of the screen. I would like to uninstall intensive apps or even do a factory reset (following online tutorials), but even if I open the navigator or anything else from the home-screen, the screen goes blank black and then the home-screen is restored after a while.

All the tutorials I find online to fix the error, to find which apps are eating up the memory, to delete caches and history, or to do a factory reset involve opening Settings, and doing some operations there. But my phone won't do anything.

I also tried connecting it to my PC but it fails to connect.

So my question is that what are my options? What can I do about it? Is there a way to di a factory reset right from the home-screen without opening anything?

Resetting a Device that's Off

Power down your device. Before you begin the reset procedure, you will need to completely power your device off. (If the device is frozen, you can pull the battery out to turn it off.)
Press and hold the recovery buttons. The buttons vary from device to device, so you may need to look up the instructions for your particular phone. You will need to press and hold the buttons for a few seconds. Some of the more common button combinations include:Volume Up + Home + PowerVolume Down + PowerHome + PowerIf none of the above work, do a web search for your phone’s model plus “recovery mode”.
Select Factory Reset. Once the recovery menu opens, you can navigate the menu with the volume buttons. You may need to open the Recovery menu to find the Factory Reset mode. Use the Power button, some models use the camera button, to select your menu options.You will be asked to confirm the factory reset.
Wait for the restore process to compete. After your phone resets, it will be set back to factory defaults and will be like it just came out of the box

Refer to this link . it has different ways for formating http://m.wikihow.com/Reset-Your-Android-Phone


GPS reboots the phone When I use a GPS-intensive app (like Sport tracker or endomondo), if I turn off the screen, the phone reboots within one or two minutes.

What is the problem? What can I do?

How can I check the temperature to know if it's overheating? What can I do in this case?

(My phone is a Nexus One on Videotron (Canada))

Overheating.

You may have used it intensely and when you lock the screen you then put it in ur pocket?

Your phone will be overheating and restarting itself to stop damge to the circuits/processor.

Similar user issue here


Package manager for android terminal Just wanted to ask whether there was a package manager which could be installed on android terminal like homebrew cask, macports (macOS).
PS Just wanted to install small application like wget and curl.

No.

There are some projects to port Debian apt but they were unusably unstable last I tested.

2018 update

Termux is reliable and can install select packages (I use ssh/rsync), more packages are available in termux-ubuntu etc, but many won't work or require workarounds due to the unusual environment.


How to set mms subject with the official Google messaging app? On many apps, you have this :
Which allows to set the subject of the message which is a feature of the ᴍᴍꜱ protocol.

But how to do the same with the official Google app ?

You need to long-press the MMS button on the bottom right. Only then will you be able to add the subject.


Configuring WiFi Proxy Settings Where can I find the WiFi proxy settings?  I have the Motorola Electrify M with Android 4.1.2.  I would have expected the proxy settings to be under the advanced WiFi options, but they're not there.

Long tap on the network you want to configure. Then select 'modify network'. Scroll down and check ' show advanced settings'


How to access internal memory of HTC Wildfire Buzz with out starting phone I have HTC Wildfire Buzz it is very sad to say that i deleted some system files in Internal memory and my htc wildfire can not start  it will restart continue,  but before deleting i have copied all system file in external memory(Memory Card) so please help me how to paste all files in internal memory system folder without starting phone

I doubt you could do that manually. Why not just install the OS again?


Android USB data/power over audio jack Is it possible to connect my Android (Droid 2 Global) to my PC using an USB->Audio converter?

Square is able to interface with their device over the audio jack on Android.
iPod shuffles are accessible through their audio jack as well.

So, I feel that this is possible, but is it implemented/what is required to interact with my Android phone through it's audio jack?

A software modem (modulator-demodulator). We nowadays think of modem as the squeaky card that were used in the days of dial up to connect to the internet, but a modem is simply just a device used to convert digital signal to analog sound signal and back again. The hardware in the receiving end also had to implement a modem with the same protocol.

Needless to say this will probably be a very slow connection, and implementing such modem will involve a lot of programming and so is out of topic for Android SE.

The audio jack carried very little power, it may be possible to use it to power very simple devices like Square and the like, but in general it's too small for general purpose use.

However I doubt that Square actually had a full modem stack for general purpose data transfer, they probably just implemented a custom protocol that are specifically geared for their particular use case. And so is the Shuffle.


Copy a single gmail contact to phone In my contacts, I generally display only contacts stored on my phone.

(My gmail contacts include practically everyone I've ever sent an email to. They're nice for auto-completing the recipient when I compose mail, but I don't want to see them when trying to find someone in the contacts list on my phone.)

However, here and there I find a gmail contact I'd like to be on my phone. How do I copy a single contact to my phone? I've seen ways to export them all, but I don't want to do that.

You can do this by moving your contact to the SIM-card and then to the phone.

On android 7 the workflow is like this:

Make sure your Google contacts are synced to the phone.
In Contacts settings display contacts from all accounts.
Find the contact you want to copy.
Copy it to your SIM-card.
Select the new contact on the SIM-card.
Copy it to phone memory.
(optional) Select the new contact on the SIM-card and delete.
In Contacts settings display only contacts stored in phone memory (or phone memory and SIM if you prefer that).

I think I remember that on older phones you could just move the contact around without going through the copy-and-delete madness -- not sure if that's the case for Kitkat.

There are some contact attributes that can't be stored on the SIM-card. Not sure which these are but that probably includes photos and the like. Anyways, phone numbers and e-mail addresses will always be copied.


How to add SELinux policy on a user-debug ROM that has `split` policy scheme? I have a Sony device that supports treble and is a system-as-root and A/B device. It has a user-debug ROM installed on it so, its adb shell is rooted.
I have disabled dm-verity using adb disable-verity after running adb root and adb remount commands.
As documented here, this device also has split policies at /system/etc/selinux(the 'plat' portion of the policy) and /vendor/etc/selinux(the 'nonplat' portion of the policy).
I am trying to run test.sh using following init script:
#/etc/init/m_daemon.rc

# define service, use executable here if script not needed
service m_daemon /system/xbin/test.sh

    # don't start unless explicitly asked to
    disabled

    # Use `seclabel u:r:magisk:s0` to run with unrestricted SELinux context to avoid avc denials
    # can also use "u:r:su:s0" on userdebug / eng builds if no Magisk.
    # It's required if SELinux is enforcing and service needs access
    # to some system resources not allowed by default sepolicy
    # seclabel u:object_r:qlogd_exec:s0
    seclabel u:r:su:s0

# start the service when the boot is completed
on property:sys.boot_completed=1
    # Use it to start the service
    start m_daemon

/system/xbin/test.sh file has the following contents:
#!/system/bin/sh
echo `date` > /sdcard/test

When the device reboot then it fails to run with the following error:

  202.932913 / 11-26 20:21:04.074 audit: type=1400 audit(1574763664.074:213): avc:  denied  { transition } for  pid=8534 comm="init" path="/system/xbin/test.sh" dev="sda24" ino=8150 scontext=u:r:init:s0 tcontext=u:r:su:s0 tclass=process permissive=0
  202.933268 / 11-26 20:21:04.074 init: cannot execve('/system/xbin/test.sh'): Permission denied

To fix it, I have used sepolicy-inject and run the following commands:
sepolicy-inject -s init -t su -c process -p transition -P /sys/fs/selinux/policy -l
sepolicy-inject -s init -t su -c process -p noatsecure -P /sys/fs/selinux/policy -l
sepolicy-inject -s init -t su -c process -p rlimitinh -P /sys/fs/selinux/policy -l
sepolicy-inject -s init -t su -c process -p siginh -P /sys/fs/selinux/policy -l

but these needs to be run again after reboot.
So, I have tried to patch precompiled_sepolicy using following commands:
sepolicy-inject -s init -t su -c process -p transition -P /vendor/etc/selinux/precompiled_sepolicy -l
sepolicy-inject -s init -t su -c process -p noatsecure -P /vendor/etc/selinux/precompiled_sepolicy -l
sepolicy-inject -s init -t su -c process -p rlimitinh -P /vendor/etc/selinux/precompiled_sepolicy -l
sepolicy-inject -s init -t su -c process -p siginh -P /vendor/etc/selinux/precompiled_sepolicy -l

but the policies are not injected: neither live nor after reboot.
To test, I am just checking the date in /sdcard/test file.
So, I just want to know:

Why patching precompiled_policy didn't work?
Where to patch the required policies using rooted adb shell that should persist after a reboot?

To patch the policies, do the following:

Change the value in /system/etc/selinux/plat_and_mapping_sepolicy.cil.sha256 OR empty this file.
Inject required policies in /system/etc/selinux/plat_sepolicy.cil
"Loading compiled SELinux policy" should show in logs and the init service will run fine.


Where are game apps' storage files saved? I would like to delete them I installed The Trail on my Moto E 4.
I uninstalled it. But, I thought I might try the game again. So, I reinstalled it. But, the game started up from where I left off the first time.
So, how do I get rid of the previous game data files?
It seemed like the second installation took a lot less time.

I am new to these larger games. I have tried a few of the smaller ones like Float Plane. (Are files for that game still on my phone, too?)

I do have a File Manager app.

You can go to Settings > Apps > The Trail > Storage then click Clear Data and Clear Cache

If The Trail requires you to log into an account or Google Play Games than either delete the account data, or create a new account.


What does a red battery icon indicate? While charging my Jellybean 4.1 device at my PCs' USB, I see the following red battery icon in the notification bar:

What does the red color indicate?

It was a hot battery alert, so the charging was interrupted for safety reasons:


Will my phone (carrier unlocked but initially locked to verizon) get locked after Kitkat update? I've bought Motorola Droid Razr M from eBay. It is locked with Verizon by default, so seller unlocked device for me and it is working fine. It comes with Jelly bean 4.1.2 and I found that Kitkat update for this device. Now the question is Will my device get locked again after update from 4.1.2 to 4.4.2???

There's a 50-50 possibility of getting the phone locked because if the seller has unlocked through the proper way(legally) then you can go ahead and update your O.S else if your seller has unlocked by other means then definitely the phone will get locked to the Carrier with which it has the contract with(here Verizon).

I suggest you to get in contact with your device supplier and ask him his mode of unlock. An unlock never comes free of cost although some sites offer a legal unlock .The Same thing is what observed in other mobile OS(like ios) if you have unlocked it by other means and have updated your device then the phone gets locked to the carrier with which it was sold and you need to unlock it again.


whatsapp why deleted contacts still showing when I select forward when I forward on  whatsapp the list of contact I have deleted on the phone book  are still visible  when I select forward on whatsapp.

How can I get rid of this numbers
 completely .

Try the following instructions

Open Whatsapp
Go to its contact list(the chat bubble on the bottom right corner)
Invoke(touch) the 3 vertical dots and you'll find the 'Refresh' option invoke that.

after you get the message saying the contact list has been refreshed ... try looking for the contact that you had deleted. Ideally it should not show up in your whatsapp, but if you still do ... then check the following ...

open your native android contacts app and see if that contact is still in the list ... sometimes it so happens that you'd have deleted that contact but a copy could still exist in other accounts or in phone or sim memory ... that is why it still shows up in the whatsapp app ... try deleting or hiding those contacts and perform the refresh steps listed above and you should no longer find it.


App to modify settings by application Is there an app available that would let me modify my phone settings by application? To be specific, there are certain apps where I don't want the default screen timeout to occur. I'm on Gingerbread.

Use Llama. This is a free automation app like Tasker, and it has the ability to modify the screen timeout.

Create a new Event. Add the condition OR (match any). Then add a condition for each Active application that you want to keep the screen active.

Click the back button, then add the Action to change the Screen Timeout to never.

You then have to create a second Event that does the opposite. You create the OR (match any) condition, but this time select Active application and change the Status option to App stopped or in background, and again do this for each app you did in the first event. Set the Screen Timeout action to whatever timeout value you want normally.


What makes porting so difficult? So now when the new Lollipop is on it's way we all have our feeds filled with magazines or sites telling us how awesome LG or Samsung is to release Lollipop so soon.

My question is,

Why is this such a hard thing to do?

How come it's much easier to switch from Windows to Linux on a PC? Or even switch hardware product and download a driver? Why aren't the drivers or hardware products in our phones compatible with every operating system or phone model just like a PC?

Okay, screen sizes may differ, but a vibrator will still work as a vibrator.

YElp!

The hardware is different on each device. In addition there's added value software like more advanced camera functionality from the manufacturer which needs to look good on the new release.

LG has features loke knock-code.

Samsung has skins and special hardware like a wacom digitizer on the note series.


Is there a known issue with HTTPS and the Android browser? I have a Galaxy S2 running 2.3.3, all up to date and not rooted.  On several sites I find that logging in is impossible due to requests sent on HTTPS not returning a response.

I've not tested the issue exhaustively, but the most notable failures for me are my Natwest online banking and signing in to Stack Exchange sites with my Google ID.  In both these cases the response from the server never appears, in the case of Stack sites this happens when clicking the 'Log in with Google' button, I never even get a chance to enter credentials.

I've resorted to using Opera Mobile for now, and since this works fine it seems to be an issue localised to the android default browser.  Is there a way of fixing it, or should I just choose a different browser and set that as default instead?

I don't think there is any widely known issue with this. I am able to sign in to StackExchange automatically on my Nexus S. I looked around at the Android Issue Tracker and while there are a lot of results for "browser https", none in the first 20 or so seemed pertinent.

It might just be a problem local to your phone. I'd try resetting it.


What is the typical Android OS Upgrade policy? I noticed that our HTC Thunderbolts were upgraded from Android 2.3 to Android 4.0. That is very nice, I thought it would never upgrade.

Now that it did, I am wondering, why / what rules qualify an upgrade? Is it once every 18 months regardless? Is it diverse depending on which phone you have? Does it also depend on the carrier and/or brand? (are the HTC phones generally this way, or is it Verizon's choice)

Please clarify the Android OS update policy for me.

It would be extra good if you knew the policy on the iPhone OS, and how it compares.

Oh, and I already know that apps (YouTube, Play Store, Play Music, Gmail, Games) are not part of the OS, except for certain bundled apps. (Camera, Internet, Phone, etc.)

There isn't a specific Android OS Upgrade Policy. If it's a Nexus device and it can handle the latest version of Android it will get the latest version of Android from Google. Other than that it is up to manufacturers to update drivers and their specific customized version of Android for their own devices and then it is up to the carriers to approve those updates and release them to users' phones.

Apple has only one phone basically and they release updates on what seems to be a yearly basis and update is done via their own service, not restricted by carriers.


How to translate question in the Quora app Some time ago I could see a button allowing me to translate questions in the Quora app as I would go through them. However I now cannot seem to find it. Where can I find such a button?

The button is still there, but it appears only if at least one other language is added in the settings.

Note: To add another language, open your profile, click on the 3-dot on the right below your picture. then Languages. Select a language to add.

To view the Translate Question option:

Open the question in your Quora app, then click More.

 2. Other options will appear among them Translate Question.


how do I reinstall the AOSP music player in KitKat? I bought a Motorola Moto G yesterday,
And the stock Android music player is missing.
I found an old froyo player that works somewhat but it isn't fully integrated.
I can't switch songs from the lock screen or the drop down menu. And it has advertising in it.

Where can I find the AOSP music player that will run fully in KitKat; with total OS integration and no ads?

The Moto G comes with Google Play Music as it's default music player. You can download it from the play store if you don't have it already.


Apps have disappeard Yesterday morning when I woke up I turned on my smartphone and I saw that all my application have disappeared!

When I entered in Setting menu, Applications management (my mobile phone is in spanish, so I don't know how it is called in english) I can see the list of my apps, but instead of the icon there is an standard image. Even Play Store and Google Services apps have disappeared!!

All the applications where installed in the internal memory.

My smartphone is a Samsung Galaxy S2, android 4.1.2 version.

Please, I need your help!

(Sorry for my bad english)

are you sure you had your apps in internal memory not memory card?

go to setting -> storage option and check if there is any space allocated for apps.
if no space then your phone must have been formatted


Google Play No Connection I have tried all suggestions in the answer and everything the asker did specified on this question without any luck. I reflashed GApps and CyanogenMod at least 13 times, as I have lost count. The only things that seem to be malfunctioning is Google Play. Although sync says it's having "errors" but it is syncing so I'm not sure what is going on there...

What is working:

Google+
Gmail
Apps with the "login with Google" that uses the Google+ API

What's not working:

Google Play

What's half working:

Sync, it says it's having errors but it is syncing

System Details:

CyanogenMod 10.1.3
Android 4.2.2
GApps for CyanogenMod 10.1
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 (GT-P5113)

/etc/hosts

127.0.0.1 localhost

I have the Xposed framework installed, but it's never caused problems before so I wouldn't think it would be a problem now. The time is as it should be, so it's not the problem. Cleared the cache and data on Google Play 37 times.

P.S.: When I say "reflashed", I mean I wipe /system /cache and the dalvik cache and install GApps, CM 10.1.3 from zip in recovery.

I don't know exactly what was wrong, but it seems to me that whatever the problem was, it w had something to do with a permission in /data as when I wiped it, it worked as expected.


Whatsapp application disappeared One minute i was using whatsapp, next minute it was gone, by itself.

I can see whatsapp shorcut on homescreen but when i tap on it says "the application is not installed". I checked the installed applications list and it is not there.

When i try to re-install again it says "unknown error occured during installation. error code -24".

Can't run it, can't re-install it. Wow, what a weird error! Though i am not surprised since fb acquired it:P

If your phone is rooted and you use a custom recovery (like TWRP or CWM)Try recovery mode and wiping dalvik cache and fixing permissions and reboot.


Rotate smart tv screen I'd like to use a smart tv box for a kiosk application. Problem is, my client wants the screen to be in vertical mode.

Is there a way to rotate the display to be 1080 x 1920 instead of 1920 x 1080 and rotated 90º?

I'm looking into a box with Android 4.1.

This would have to be supported by the ROM. Screen orientation change in Android uses support from the graphics driver, the system UI, and the framework that apps use. Either choose a device that has this feature already (ask the vendor if you're not sure), or you'll have to use a custom ROM to achieve this. Since Android STBs are still quite a minority feature, it might be hard to find a custom ROM for your device, and/or hard to get help making your own.


Can I use my Android phone as a USB speaker? I have a Lenovo S850 (non-rooted so far, although I've read some guides and may try it when I find the time). Is there a way to use it as a USB speaker for my PC at work, which doesn't have any speakers. I don't have a wireless network there so that is not an option.

I just want to convert my phone to a speaker with as little work as possible, i. e. plug in USB cable, turn on an app and possibly install something on my PC. Is that possible?

Edit: This could be relevant: http://www.phonearena.com/news/Android-5.0-Lollipop-supports-USB-DAC-audio-devices-we-go-ears-on_id66399
Also there are lots of USB speakers out there. So with my limited knowledge I guess something like this could be done with only the help of an app.

Even though I marked this as answered I feel I need to add that I've managed to do exactly what I wanted with SoundWire and the default internet sharing on my phone as follows:

Install and configure SoundWire on PC and phone.
Share phone's internet connection via USB.
Assuming you already had internet on your PC, you now have 2 network adapters. You need to make sure you are using your old adapter for internet access. As far as I could find to do this you need to change the metric of your default adapter to 1 so that it is the preferred adapter by Windows (Windows 7 in my case).
You can check the server IP by typing ipconfig in the command prompt.
Connect from the SoundWire app on your phone. You get a message that WiFi is disabled, but it still works fine.


enabling WCDMA on galaxy s2 I9100 We have 2 WCDMA networks here in IRAQ but SGS2 I9100 cannot find any of them even when I'm choosing WCDMA mode from network operators, while it works fine with GSM.  Why?

There are different WCDMA(UMTS) frequency bands. I believe that they use Band-I (2100MHz) in IRAQ. You did not mention which country you bought your phone in. But if it was anywhere in North America - I have bad news for you: none of american carriers use this band so very few phones sold here support it.


What is this triangle icon [Samsung Galaxy S9+]? It appeared recently. And I can't even imagine what is it.

Screenshot (click image for larger variant)

That's a Data saver icon.

  The icon is different from the data saver icon in stock Android.
  Samsung started to use this data saver icon in Android Oreo update as
  explained in this guide

This Galaxy S9 status icon appears  if you enable data saver in Settings → Connections → Data usage →  Data saver.

Data Saver status icon in Android Oreo update for Samsung


smbv2 samba sharing between Windows 7 and Android stopped working for MyUser, but it works for admin I used 2 apps that can connect from Android (Nougat)  to PC (Windows 7). Hitherto that worked perfect. Now I get user authentication problem when I try to connect from Android to PC with "username" credentials. But I can connect without issues using administrator.

It tells me that there is a user specific setting that changed. I didnt change anything. What setting is this? Any idea?

If you are using a local user connection go to manage->users and reset the password.
Maybe the user's password is blocked. there is a windows mechanism that if someone tries to connect X times using bad credential the user turned to be blocked.


How to down Android software version i.e. from Kitkat to JellyBean Plus My friend has a problem in his Android Samsung Galaxy Grand 2.

He updated his phone. After the successful update to version 4.3, his device was unable to connect to WiFi network, and can't continue past set-up.

The network is disconnecting every 2-3 seconds automatically.

I have no way to downgrade to 4.2 (because without WiFi it takes long time to download updates)

Is there another way I can downgrade to 4.2?

  I had searched very much on Internet for this : I found :

  (1) Go to Service center and they will make downward update 4.2

  (2) This is manufacturer problem in software updates, so we need to
  update to 4.4 using 3G or 4G connection SIM card, if the update is
  not released then we only have to wait

Usually you can't downgrade your device the "official" way, however you can do it manually:

THIS WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY!

Go to www.sammobile.com
Then go to firmwares.
Search the right firmware for your device.
Download Odin (do a google search)
Extract Odin.zip
Put the md5/tar in the PA/PDA slot
Click on start/begin/OK.
Wait a few minutes and your will reboot.


List of all Google™ app developer ids Google Inc "owns" most of the apps made by Google for Android.
However, there are notable ones that most would consider Google apps, such as

Ingress by Niantic Inc.
Sky Map by Sky Map Devs.

Does someone know a list of all the developer ids used for Google-created android apps?

Google Inc.
Google Creative Lab
Marketing @ Google
Niantic Inc.
FieldTrip, Ingress, Pokémon GO
Waze
Waze, Waze Rider - Get a Ride
Nest Labs, Inc.
Nest (Learning thermostat), Dropcam (video/security camera)
Bitspin (formerly Team Tasks)
Timely, Tasks
Bump Technologies, Inc
Bump
VirusTotal
VirusTotal


Gmail: How do I mute ALL coming mail *except* mail from certain senders? I have a gmail account and I am getting too many inbox notifications. It wouldn't work to create a blacklist, because they come from many places. I would like to whitelist 3 or 4 senders and only receive notifications from them. Thank you.

You might try:

whitelist a couple of email-addresses and mark them as important.
On the general tab of gmail settings choose: Important mail notifications on.

Hope this solves your issue.


Unable to boot Galaxy S - only see a picture of phone -> "triangle with an exclamation point" -> computer I just bought a Galaxy S phone for my son last month.  He was trying to download Clockworkmod firmware and probably loaded the wrong version.  It initially was in a boot loop.  After I took it to the dealer, an inexperience staff tried to reset the phone back to factory mode.  The manager saw the hat logo on the phone and stopped us right there.  The manager told us that we void the warranty by downloading an authorized software.

Now, when we power up the phone, we wonly see a picture of the phone -> "triangle with an exclamation point" -> computer" .  There are no other responses.

Can anyone help.

Now, the only option you've left is to Flash your ROM. Flash any one of OFFICIAL firmware from below:

Gingerbread 2.3.5 XFJVA
Gingerbread 2.3.5 XXJVT

Follow the links & do EXACTLY what it says. It'll take less that half an hour. Just, do it.. Nothing more!

Don't do any experiment before you boot your device. Plus, don't follow any non-matured instructions from forums etc.


Quick charge adapter on not supported devices The adapter which comes with my new phone has Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 label on it. The output reads: 5V-3A / 9V-2A / 12V-1.5A. Is it safe to use it with my old phones? For example, if I have a very dated phone which only takes 5V-0.5A, will the adapter outputs 12V and fries it? And what would happen if I use that adapter with devices supporting fast charging technologies from other companies: USB-PD from USB-IF, Pump Express from Mediatek, VOOC from Oppo, and SuperCharge from Huawei?

Is it safe to use it with my old phones?

It is safe. See what happens if you plug a non QC 2.0 device into a QC 2.0 charger?

  And what would happen if I use that adapter with devices supporting fast charging technologies from other companies.

They all are proprietary technologies which vary in terms of what is changed to charge fast - Voltage, Current or both, apart from other factors. Details obviously are not in public domain. Therefore, they are not guaranteed to work on devices using other technologies, so one cannot predict whether it works or not.

OEM's don't recommend such practices. YMMV


Disable showing password input characters with a physical keyboard? I'm using a Google Nexus 7 2013 LTE running CyanogenMod 11.0M6.

When I use a physical bluetooth keyboard to type in password input fields, Android still displays one character at a time, which is a bit of a security concern.

Is there a way to disable this either globally (ie: even for soft keyboards) or specifically for external keyboards so that password characters are never shown as they are input?

In Android Settings, go to Security and uncheck "Make Passwords Visible." This will cause all password characters to be obfuscated, even as you type. It is a global option, so there is no way to set it for just one input method.


How to restore cherry mobile quartz messing up the build prop I just bought my Cherry Mobile Quartz last week, and it is rooted. I edited the build prop name and changed it to Cherry Mobile Flare. After that, I rebooted my phone, and now it's stuck on the android logo.

I tried to repair it in service center, but the stock rom is not available yet. I don't have any backup of the build prop, and the stock recovery didn't work.

How can I fix my phone?

Reboot your phone to recovery.
Use adb to pull (read as copy) the build.prop from ROM/device

adb pull /system/build.prop c:\

Edit it back the way that it was.
Once edited save as normal
Use adb to push (read as paste) the build.prop to ROM/device

adb shell chmod 0644 /system/build.prop
adb remount

.....then

adb push c:\build.prop /system/

Reboot

adb reboot

Or

adb shell reboot


How to Delete a Contact's "Mark as Default" selection In the stock Contacts app one can Mark as default one of the contact's numbers. I don't want to select another number as default, I don't want any of the contact's numbers to be default.

How can I delete this "mark as default" selection?

I have a Samsung Galaxy S5 running Lollipop 5.0.

All you have to do is the following:

Open the contact
There will be a check mark indicating the default number: Press and hold on that number
A box will appear. Select Remove Default
(this may also be Clear default)

You can also mark a number as default by pressing down on the phone number and selecting Mark as Default


HTC ONE - USB No longer recognized (but is charging) I have a HTC ONE Google Edition on 4.3.  I was in the middle of transferring some files to my phone over USB when Windows 8 locked up and stopped responding.  Once I re-plugged my phone into the computer, the battery indicator is charging, but the USB connection never happens.

I've rebooted both the PC and the Phone.  I factory reset the phone. I plugged the phone into another windows PC and then my Linux box.  On the windows boxes, I get absolutely nothing -- no complaint of bad drivers.  Nothing in device manager.

In all cases, same thing.  A charge, but no connection.  Linux shows nothing on a lsusb command. adb devices returns nothing as well.

Ideas?  Thoughts?  Help? I'm fearful the USB connection in the phone went bad somehow.  Not sure how to debug the phone itself... As I cannot get to it's drive.

Probably this is not your case, but I've found an HTC ONE S with similar behavior (no USB sign of life, even in dmesg and lsusb) and the problem was the cable. It was like an USB cable but it was not a USB cable, only a power cable!

All the four pins were there but only two of them were connected, and instead of the USB logo it just had a lightning logo on both ends.

Now the question is: why does such a cable exist? How much can be saved not connecting the two data pins of a USB cable? 1 µ$ per cable?


"Install overnight" option does not apply update over night When an update to the android is available, there are three options what to do with it:

Install now
Install overnight
Later

When I select "Install overnight", the notification bar says: "Update will be installed between 2 AM and 5 AM automatically." However, next morning, nothing is installed.

What's the problem here, can't the phone read the clock? How can I fix it to enable the automatic installation overnight?

Android 7.0
Samsung Galaxy XCover 4

Are you sure your software did not update?

Try to check it.

Open Settings-About Phone-Software Information

Check Security Software Version and Android Security Patch Level as well.

In Security Software Version, month of installed software is mentioned.

Why software not updated overnight ?

Well, this may be due to these possible reasons:

• Your device battery was running low that time.

• You have enabled any type of battery saver.


Facebook doesn't fetch all messages When I receive a new message on Facebook, I get the notification properly on the official Facebook app. I open the list of messages and the new message is highlited. The names are correct and the beginning of the message (below the name) is also from the new message. But when I click on it and open the discussion, new messages don't load (i.e., the discussion is consisted of only older messages). Is that maybe because the discussion is too long? What's causing this?

I think this is just the Facebook app being buggy, I've had the same problem.  Try doing a sync.  I believe only the notifications are pushed, and not the actual new data, so you need to sync to grab the new messages.


Why is user and CA certificate required for IKEv2 RSA VPN? It should work similarly as to going to a random HTTPS website, where the supplied certificate is backed by a CA, and based on which a secure connection is made. Then authentication follows over the secure connection.

So why am I required to supply both user and CA certificates. In other words, why is it not merely an option?

Edit: now that I look at it, it seems that no user nor password can be supplied either, so the client authentication happens based on the user certificate. Only for PPTP a password is required (which is not a secure protocol anyway). So the question becomes: why have they chosen to support only IKEv2 with user certificates and not passwords. It can not be for security reasons since PPTP is supported.

As the name implies, the VPN type IKEv2/IPSec RSA [sic, it should actually be "IPsec" not "IPSec"] is for client authentication with an RSA certificate/key. The name was probably chosen for consistency with the existing IKEv1-based VPN types (e.g. "L2TP/IPSec RSA" or "IPSec Xauth RSA"), it might also work with ECDSA certificates/keys not only RSA, but I did not test that.

There were two other IKEv2 VPN types added in Android 11/R's built-in VPN client:

IKEv2/IPSec PSK for authentication of both client and server with a pre-shared key (PSK), which is not an ideal choice for remote access connections as anybody who knows the PSK can impersonate the server (an active attacker can retrieve the PSK hash and attack it via brute-force/dictionary attack).
IKEv2/IPSec MSCHAPv2 for client authentication with username/password using EAP-MSCHAPv2. The server is theoretically authenticated with a certificate first so the password hash is only sent to a trusted peer. However, this verification is apparently not mandatory in this client and disabled by default (don't verify server), which makes this VPN type vulnerable to active attackers unless the user makes sure to install and select the correct CA/server certificate.

For an IKEv2/IPsec VPN client with more options (e.g. split-tunneling, app filtering), you could use the open-source strongSwan VPN client app, which also works on older Android versions. (Disclaimer: I'm a developer for the strongSwan project.)


Can I route a call via SIP based on a phone number? My Android 4.0.4 phone supports SIP. However, the options when to use the "Internet calling" are very limited: "For all calls", "Only for Internet calls", "Ask for each call".

I would like to use Internet (SIP) calls for all calls outside of my area code (e.g. all international and long-distance calls should go via SIP, and local calls should go via my regular voice account).

Is there any application, patch or tweak that can help me with that? My phone is rooted.

Csipsimple indeed does the job if you want to use it as your SIP client. If you prefer the built-in SIP client, try the Advanced Dialer app.


Is a ROMs data (/data) from Nougat compatible with MM? I have a Nexus 6p with Resurrection Remix, Android 7.1.1. I want to move back to Marshmallow (still RR) for Xposed. I plan to just dirty flash the old RR 6.0.1 .zip file. Will this result in any problems with my data? Like my installed apps, data for those apps...?

Thanks in advance. If you need more information just ask!

From one of my earlier answers:

  Older version of an app might not recognize the data created by the newer version of the same app. Although user apps are rarely affected, crucial system apps might be, and on error might constantly throw "*** has stopped" dialogs that effectively prevents you from using the phone.

Also, some newer ROMs have alerts in their updater-script that detect different /data formats and, if detected, throw error about it, and will not proceed unless you perform a wipe.


Wi-Fi tethering with HTC Magic Will Wi-Fi tethering work in HTC Magic running Android 2.2?

I wonder also, is the 2.2 update for htc magic a official update or one of these custom ROMs?

Yes, you can do Wi-Fi tethering with the HTC Magic.  However, it might require a custom ROM.

All versions of the HTC Magic except for the Dream/G1 have gotten an official 2.2 update, as far as I am aware.  This includes the T-Mobile myTouch 3G and the Vodafone Magic.


Install Android-x86 on USB drive I am live booting the Asus laptop version of Android-x86 4.0 on my Acer Laptop from my USB Pendrive. Everything is working fine, however I want to install the OS on the USB drive instead of live booting it. The USB drive is 16GB in size.

I want to live boot the system and then install on the same drive without using any other drives. If possible, later on, I would want to mount some part of the USB drive as the SD Card. How can I do this?

The solution is pretty simple, far more easier than I anticipated:

Partition your USB drive/SDCard, into two partitions, using this EaseUS Partition Master, which is what I used.
Partition layout needs to be one with 1GB of space with FAT32 filesystem, that is for the installer.
Remaining partition of type ext3 (Linux partition).

The installer, when live-booting from the USB Drive/SDCard, will show the just-created partition on the USB/SDCard, just select that partition to install on it and its done.


Restricted bluetooth functionality when device is paired I have a bluetooth enabled car stereo, with my iphone I'm able to connect to it, and then use the device to browse through the music on my ipod/make calls etc. The bluetooth pairing basically enables me to operate the phone via my car dashboard.

I've tried doing this on my Orange San-Francisco / XTE (android 2.1) but I can't get the same outcome.

The device is correctly paired (or so the phone says). If a call comes in/or I make a call from the handset, it gets detected and then sounded over the handsfree system.

BUT,

Using my stereo I'm unable to browse through my phones contact book, or to play any audio from my phone.

I'm thinking, is there an option in the bluetooth settings that determine what paired devices have access to? i.e, tapping into the phones contact book / music could be disabled?

Just reading the description on the stereo page you linked to, it sounds like it has built-in software to extend the normal bt profiles to allow 2-way control of ipods and iphones. This extended functionality won't translate to your android device unless JVC comes out with a firmware update for your stereo that supports android.


Install Magisk in TWRP, with "Keep DM-Verity/AVB 2.0" option? I want to flash the Magisk ZIP while keeping dm-verity and AVB 2.0.

The Magisk ZIP detects my encrypted /data partition and keeps force encryption, but always disables dm-verity and AVB 2.0 when flashed with TWRP. This leads to the inconvenience that I have to restore the "stock boot image" (with TWRP) and flash it again in Magisk Manager.

It's better if dm-verity and AVB is preserved at the first flash in TWRP.

With Magisk 17.1 (introduced by topjohnwu in this commit), Magisk installer ZIP now detects system_root_image and keeps dm-verity/AVB 2.0 when being flashed in recovery. This should solve the issue most of the times (at least with my OnePlus 5 and OnePlus 6).

Alternatively, create a file at /data/.magisk with the following content:

KEEPFORCEENCRYPT=true
KEEPVERITY=true

This file will be parsed by the installer script (here) and the settings will be respected.


LG D850 does not show on PC using MTP - PA 4.6 I am a first time Android user.  I just got an LG G3 at AT&T.  Being comforatable with unix/linux based systems I quickly rooted the phone and installed a few different ROMs looking for one that worked.

I settled on pa_d850-4.6-BETA6-20141130 which seems to work really well except for one huge problem: my phone doesn't show up on my PC as an MTP device.  It DOES show up as a camera when using PTP.  And I can use adp commands from my windows PC.

One strage problem is that my LG G3 shows up under Windows 7 (Ultimate x64) device manager as "Computer->Android Device->Google Nexus ADB Interface" (rather than an LG G3) when connected as both MTP and PTP.  Is this a common problem and if so, how can I get my phone to show up as an MTP device?

I have experienced this issue myself and it was because when you plug the phone in the first time, windows automatically tries to locate drivers and by default uses the Google Nexus ADB Interface.

If you go to the LG website support section you can specifically download the LG G3 drivers and install those instead. I would recommend removing the existing entry from the device list first (phone unplugged) and then running the LG drivers and plugging your phone back in afterwards.

This fixed the issue for me and now whichever option (MTP, PTP and debug mode) all work properly.


Google account without gmail I have a google account for G+ Picasa and some other services i like to use.
What i do not like is gmail it is i believe complete junk.
Be it as it may.
I have purchased a new android device and wanted to sign in to buy some apps, using my already existing google account.
But alas, i cannot do it without creating a gmail account it looks like.
That is just crazy i have an account, if they really want to they can trace what i do already. Why do i need to have junkmail ... ehh.. i mean gmail also.

Is there a way around this? Please help. I have 14 days to return my phone so need to find a way to do it before that or abandon it.

No, there is no other way. You must have a Gmail account to download from Google Play Store.

From their site:

  To use Google Play to download Android apps, you'll need to have a
  Google account with a Google email (either Gmail or a Google-hosted
  domain) associated with your phone or tablet.

If you don't like Gmail, you don't have to use it. Just disable the syncing for emails, and you'll be fine.


Airdots distorted audio while calling I have a Xiaomi Redmi Note 6 pro and a pair of black Xiaomi AirDots but every time I call and play music together, the music is as distorted as the call itself like the music's coming from the caller.

How can I undistort the audio?

You can't.

Bluetooth has many profiles, ie. modes that have different capabilities. When you're just playing music, the phone is using A2DP profile which is optimized for unidirectional high-quality sound. When you're calling someone, the phone switches to HSP profile, which offers bidirectional sound - but allocating some of the bandwidth for microphone reduces bandwidth available for incoming audio, degrading quality. You can't have both because there's not enough bandwidth.


Wipe Android phone before selling What is the smartest way, before selling a mobile phone, to be sure that no one will be able to access my data?

In my case we are talking about an LG G4.

A factory reset is not enough. It just "disables" your data and doesn't really delete it. Some data restore tools can still restore the data after a normal reset.

The best way I know of is to encrypt the phone and then do a factory reset. The encryption will overwrite the unencrypted data, so that will be gone forever. Then after a reset, if the new user tries to restore the data, it just gets the encrypted data. (=useless)


Do batteries on new devices start discharging even when plugged in to the adapter? On my old phone, HTC Hero, when it was connected to the charging adapter and the battery level reached 100%, it never went down when plugged in, like the battery wasn't used at all and the phone was running from the charger instead.

On my new phone, HTC Evo 3D, I left it plugged in into the charging adapter in the evening and when I woke up in the morning, the charging LED was green (implying the charging was complete) and the battery level was 98%, which seemed like the phone "discarded" the charging adapter after the charging was complete and started running from the battery, even though it could have gone from the charger.

Is this normal for all new devices, or at least for HTC Evo 3D?

The device does not run on the charger. It will always run on the battery, unless the battery is not present.

The discharge you see can be from just applications on the device running in the background. The charger stops charging the battery when it reaches full status. Note that this may not be 100%, even on a brand new battery. My battery doesn't charge past 96% any longer. Once it reaches that, it reports full and the device stops charging the device.

The device stops charging once the battery reports full so it doesn't over charge and damage the battery. This is why you probably see that the battery is at 98% after leaving it on the charger for a while. It does charge full (any probably to 100%, or close to it) but then the device stops charging once it is full. It wont just start charging the battery again when it drops below full, because this can also damage the battery if it was constantly charging/not charging the battery.


How to automate Android by code and GUI in Tasker? I have Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-I9506, Android 5.0.1 Lollipop. I am using the application, Tasker. I feel it is too visual. I would like to write its profiles and events by code such that I could easily communicate about them with my friends. For instance, how you can write the following process from their homepage in code?

  during the night, turn on airplane mode to conserve battery/reduce radiation, but turn it off every 15 minutes to check for SMS/voicemail.

It would be so great to have a better control of Android's UI by functions. I think the GUI is not enough. I studied the case further. Tasker can do airplane mode only in Android 2.2-4.0. The application recommends to use Secure settings plugin and rooted device to get the feature. It would be great to understand why Tasker fails with such a feature in later versions of Android.

Any applications (MacroDroid) are ok for solutions but their solutions must be stable with explanation why they work. Like pointed above for Tasker, the change of the Android version may make the program not working. I think this kind of situation can be avoided by using APIs or designing APIs i.e. understanding which API we need for such communication. Much Android is hidden but still something can be thought through.

How can you automate by code and GUI in Android?

Tasker can do Airplane mode only in Android 2.2 - 4.0. The application recommends to use Secure Settings plugin and rooted device to get the feature. It would be great to understand why Tasker fails with such a feature in later versions of Android.

The biggest reason why some Tasker tasks are broken on different Android versions is, because it doesn't require root access. From their website,

This simple concept profoundly extends your control of your Android device and it's capabilities, without the need for 'root' or a special home screen

Note that Secure Settings needs root access for Airplane mode. From its Play Store description,

Actions:

Airplane Mode [System+ required 4.2+]
Airplane Mode Radios [System+ required 4.2+].

The System+ indicates that the app needs to be installed as system app, which requires root.

.. the change of the Android version may make the program (i.e. Tasker) not working. I think this kind of situation can be avoided by using APIs or designing APIs i.e. understanding which API we need for such communication

Partially right. The change of the Android version also affects Android API, and since Tasker only uses the API, it becomes its weakness. Take an example of Airplane mode on Android 4.2+ (on Stack Overflow). The code for Airplane mode is working for Android 4.1, but then it's broken since Android 4.2. It's due to change in system's settings structure. CommonsWare explains it better on his website,

Lots of people have already chimed in on StackOverflow about Settings.Global, notably the fact that AIRPLANE_MODE is no longer available to be modified in Settings.System. Now, only signature|system apps will be able to toggle on and off airplane mode, which will wipe out many an app widget.

Due to the fact that Tasker doesn't require root access, combined with the change in Android API, some of Tasker tasks did and may fail in the future. Finally, that's the reason why there are many 3rd-party plugins that require root access to workaround with Tasker's limitation.


what is the download mode could anybody explain what is this download mode?

As described in here How to root Innos A35
as I hold vol up +vol down 5 seconds and at the same time connecting the USB cable to
my computer it shows up a removable disk and unknown drivers in windows 7.

My phone is also Innos A35 device locally sold as i35 from dialog telecom.

What are those? And what is this download mode?

But unlike the recovery mode, I didn't get a screen up. Is these two modes all coming
from ROM. what kind of code is there on ROM. [Well in x86 computer I could review
a opensource bios implementation, any idea on Android ARM ?].Where that consoles
come from?

Where is uboot located? Is this download mode is a mode that programmed into a ROM, where
I could not change it?

I have read the boot procedure of a typical android phone. But can't organize the info
with this.

Download mode is for flashing radio firmware/ROM upgrade through official means.

Some devices uses U-Boot over the generic boot, it is a boot-loader code found in read-only ROM chip on the board, which uses a certain memory address offset, in which the kernel from the /boot partition gets loaded into that specific certain memory address offset and jumps into that address and the kernel starts running.

For details of the generic LK boot which is employed by most, if not all, Qualcomm based devices, see this

As for Download mode, for example ODIN is commonly used on Samsung devices to flash ROMs, those devices needs to be in download mode prior to flashing. However, ODIN is not the official way to do it, rather Kies, is the official route in upgrading the firmware, this is for Samsung devices for example.


Using a fully charged Galaxy Note Is it safe to use a Galaxy Note that is fully charged and at the same time it is plugged in to the wall socket? I'm worried that the battery might be charging and discharging at the same time and it will tremendously produce severe stress in the battery. Thus it will shorten the lifespan of the battery.

Yup, It is perfectly fine. I do it regularly while playing games.


images blurry in stock browser How do I disable the automatic zoom-in in stock browser? It makes the images very blurry and eye strain. What I want is small but sharp (which is what opera does)

in ICS 4.0.4: Open stock browser, click Menu, click Settings, from the list, got to Advanced section, about middle of page, click on Default Zoom and select Medium.

in other versions, if available, it is somewhere near that!


Is there some SSH server for android? Is there an ssh server for Android (such as openssh for Ubuntu) that will allow me to access my device console via PuTTY?

Yes, there are a couple of options for this, including:

SSHDroid (does not require rooted phone)
QuickSSHD (see this Google thread for some discussion)
Dropbear (requires rooted phone, see this Droidforums thread for some discussion)
SSHelper (does not require rooting; free software -- under GPL; it incorporates also code from other projects; might eventually appear in the F-Droid repository)
some other free (= libre) software projects of an ssh server have been mentioned in the discussion of their potential inclusion into F-Droid

Some of these apps will require you to root your device. SSHDroid, QuickSSHD and SSHelper, at least, do not (there may be others as well). There are certainly multiple choices for you to investigate depending on your requirements/desired features/etc.


When turned on wi -fi something unknown uses data suddenly When i turned on wi-fi something unknown uses data rapidly..I use android version 4.4.2 ..Can't find anything that uses data, I did a virus scan, and removed all unknown apps also,and there are just a few apps,I've installed..Does it use by the OS or other thing,I tried to run only with mobile data but some apps ask for wi-fi..How can stop this unknown data usage, without turning off wi-fi..

Yes i found the answer..
settings-> about phone -> tap build number for few times(that enables developer tools..)

settings -> developer tools -> background processes limit -> no background process

that's all..Now data usage while phone is idle is 0..


Problem after updating Galaxy S3 to Android 4.1.1 After updating my Galaxy S3 to Android 4.1.1, I started to experience some problems.

For instance, while listening music or 'surfing' in the phone, suddenly phone starts to 'nearly' freeze for a 1 second and turns to normal life.

If I am listening to music, naturally music stops for 1 second and then continues. I do not know if this is a performance issue, or another thing.

Can someone help? Thanks!

Most probably it looks like a OS issue, might be firmware related, might be kernel related. Have you tried a factory reset? Or sometimes even a reboot might clear things up. If 4.1 is not working well for you, you can always downgrade by flashing an older firmware via ODIN. Get you firmwares from http://samfirmware.com. You will need to register in order to download files from there.