File signature for .db file needed after failed restore I have just performed a factory reset and restore using CWM on Android custom ROM 'Neatrom'.

The restore deosnt seem to have completed properly, as the apps are there but the app data seems to be missing.

As a result, I have lost my notes and tasks ('My phone Explorer NOtes' and 'My Phone explorer Tasks').  I am trying to recover deleted and lost files using Yodot Data Recovery for android.  The files are , I believe, 'notes.db' and /or 'notes.db-journal', but '.db' or '.db-journal', are not default file types in Yodot, and need to be entered as a 'new file type'.

It asks for:
1) the file signature of this file type, in Hex,
2) THe file size
3) THe file offset
4) A Description of the type

Could anyone let me know what these details would be?  I have tried with the information on .db and .db-journal files in the online file signature database, but 'db-journal' isnt a file type in the database.  'db' has various signatures.  Using them, the 'notes.db' file wasnt found when I performed the search.

Thanks!

The format of these files is described in SQLite's documentation.

The db file is the main database and starts with the string "SQLite format 3\000" (note that \000 is the zero byte or ASCII NUL).

The db-journal file is the journal for the database. You only need it if the database was open when you performed the factory reset (that is, if the app was running and in the middle of writing the database). It starts with the following bytes: 0xd9, 0xd5, 0x05, 0xf9, 0x20, 0xa1, 0x63, 0xd7.


How can I sync specific Google contact groups? My HTC Desire A8181 runs 2.2, and uses the People app to manage contacts instead of the vanilla Android contacts app. I'd like to use Google Contacts to manage my contacts and just sync with my phone, but People can't filter by group — so I end up with literally hundreds of extraneous contacts (making it a royal pain to create shortcuts, link contacts) and numerous duplicates (contacts with the same name but different email addresses cannot be distinguished).

HTC have confirmed that it is not possible to change this behaviour. So is there another application that I can use which will sync my contacts only with designated groups in Google Contacts?

Possible options, though not ideal ones:

Flash a custom ROM that uses the vanilla Contacts app
Export your contacts from Google and import them manually (shut off sync)


Completely disable Nexus 5 Power Button and Remap to Volume Button I have a 1.5 year old Nexus 5 and its power button is somehow broken from the inside. The thing goes in a reboot loop whenever I either try to turn the phone on or put it on charging. Upon giving it a good smack, it somehow works and boots but it's only good for about a few minutes as whenever even a bit of pressure is applied on the power button, it goes in the reboot loop again.

So, I've been trying to completely remap the power button to Vol UP button and somehow completely disable that broke power button so the OS doesn't even consider its inputs. Here are some helpful links I came across, except the issue is the inability to push the changed keymap files back to /system without root.

https://nattster.wordpress.com/2015/09/22/use-volume-button-to-wake-up-nexus-5/
Remapping power and volume keys

I tried installing twrp but by doing going to bootloader via adb but then after I flash twrp and try to switch to newly installed recovery, the broke power button takes over and puts it into a reboot loop. If I try to get to recovery via adb, it goes to stock recovery as it is somehow overwriting twrp during the boot process.

I wouldn't mind getting the stock Android source code and somehow disabling all those mappings and reflash the new ROM on the device but I have no idea what files I need to go to, for disabling the power button.

So, I'm kinda stuck right now. Any help or pointers would be appreciated! Thank you!

As a hardware solution,

  Your power button is not broken, but getting stuck from residue or soft rubbers.

You can massage the key to help remove any sticky parts from the key and to help rejuvenate the rubber bounce.

Press the power button in reasonably hard and hold it in for a few seconds, then slowly decrease the pressure until you have removed your finger.
( This can help to crush any dust or move any residue out of the buttons path )
Press the button in slowly until you feel it just make contact & quickly release it..
( Repeatedly doing this will help to dry any sticky residue from something like a fizzy drink )
Blow air into the button, press a few times and blow again !
( This can help to remove any sand or grit that might be holding the button down )
Massage the button, press the button in slowly and then with moderate pressure, push up on the power button ( applying the most pressure on the top part of the button )  and slowly keeping moderate pressure, drag your finger ( or roll it ) to apply more pressure on the bottom of the button ...

Repeatedly Roll your finger ( or slide it up and down ) to distribute the pressure throughout the entire button... You will be Rocking the button while maintaining moderate pressure.

( This can help to rejuvenate the rubber that returns the button back to it's position )

I believe the issue can be fixed by massaging the button.


Play Store error: "Check your connection and try again", tried all possible solutions I am using Huawei Honor 3C running v4.4.2, and is rooted for like 1 year without any issue. All of a sudden I am receiving this error: "Check your connection and try again" on Play Store.

Every time I connect to internet it gives me "Unfortunately, Google Play Services has stopped" error 1-2 times and then it goes away.

Possible solutions I already tried:

Changing time to/from Automatic/Manual
Removing 'hosts' file
Airplane mode On/Off
Force stopping and clearing data/cache of Play Store and Google Play Services app
Uninstalling updates
Removing and adding the Google account again
Changing DNS to Google's or Open DNS' DNS in WIFI setting
Setting 'No Proxy' in Wi-Fi setting
Changing IP Address (incrementing)
Resetting all apps settings to default

On Device:

Hangout and other apps are working fine
Using latest version of Google Play Store and Google Play Services
I am unable to find Service Framework app

I saw that you've all required steps but just check if Google Service Framework is deactivated - normally in the end of the app list or in a tab called "Deactivated" (Settings>Apps>All). Google Framework Services is a must to have in android so that you can update the apps and make connections with Google Servers.

Also reset app preferences (Settings>APPS>(Phone Menu) Reset App Defaults)


Android x86 7.1 rc1 fails to load on restart Background:
Device is Toshiba WT8-A
Partition is FAT32 EFI grub and Android x86, all Windows partitions have been deleted.

I have tried various installs from Marshmallow, Bliss and Nougat. All with varying successes. I can link to the files that I installed if requested.

Marshmallow had many failures (ie GPS, WiFi, rotation etc) but would boot. Bliss had the same failures but would boot. Nougat Android x86 had none of those failures but would not boot.

I can consider going back to Lollipop if need be. But firstly let me explain what is happening:

I can install fully, including the grub and I can load Nougat and everything runs smoothly. If I then reboot, an endless loop occurs and Android does not load.

I have looked at the command line and there is nothing to change. I tried a different EFI from a previous install and changed the targets, but I guess there is far more to change than just that, it did not work.

I reinstalled fully Nougat and instead of starting Android x86 I rebooted (as one of the options) and Android rebooted. I updated the apps Google wanted to update, rebooted and then the endless loop occurred again.

I can get to the point where it has detected Android and is trying to boot, but instead of booting, the tablet appears to switch off and start again.

Does anyone have any solutions? Troubleshooting guide or help?

TIA

Emerge some workaround here,

-same as your case
-dual boot is the main diference (mint 18.2)

When i boot the second time, infinite loop.

Workaround :
-boot on some live linux, delete dalvik and data caches.
-make a script that sleep more than android mean boot time before it run rm commands to erase caches.

Not as beautiful as it would be .. .. .. but work )

I'm searching for the root cause


my micromax a35 bricked when installing custom rom i asked a question how to install custom rom on my micromax a35
i followed the steps
.i reboot into recovery by an app
.wipe cache,data,dalvik cache,battery,states and install the zip but my recovery hang during the installation and it is rebooting at bolt logo again and again.i download the firware but i not know how to install the drivers thats why i pay rs250 to unbrick it now it is unbricked and i have rooted it again .tell me how to flash the custom rom buttersmooth dream xperia and prevent recovery from hanging
please

Its simple to install a custom rom on any device just follow these steps:

Step 1: Install Custom Recovery

At first, make sure you have Unlocked Bootloader and installed a custom recovery on your Android device. If not, then read our guide to Install Custom Recovery on Android without PC.

Step 2. Download a ROM

You need to download a custom ROM for your device. Search on the Google with your Device name and model and then download a ROM for your device if available. You will get custom ROM file in zip format. Save it on your external SD Card.

Step 4. Reboot into Recovery

Reboot your device into Recovery.

Just Switch off your phone >> Push Power & Volume+ button together and hold it for 10 seconds to enter into recovery.

Make sure to Backup your current ROM data.

Now, click on the Wipe from the Recovery home.

After clicking on the wipe option, Swipe to Confirm and Wipe Data, Cache and Dalvik

Step 5. Install Custom ROM from SD Card

Goto the Install Option from the Recovery.

Locate the ROM zip file which you have downloaded.

Confirm and Install the zip and wait for the successful completion of the installation.

Step 6. Install GApps

After installing the ROM, again goto the Install option.

Locate the GApps zip file which you have saved in your SD Card.

Wait till the installation completes.

After completing flashing process, Wipe Cache, Dalvik/ART cache.

Now, Reboot your device.


How to debug error on installation from APK? I'm working in a project. We are in a testing cycle and we are experiencing something that I don't know how to debug.

I built the APK. I installed it in my phone (S9+) and in many others with no problem. Then we sent the APK to some people to test it. 4 new Samsung S9. Totally new. No previous versions installed and same SDK and ONEUI and security patch as my own device.

When they try installing it they get an error on installation. I don't know what can be causing this and I don't know how to capture the error. How can I generate some log or debug it?

Thanks for the answers. The problem was cause by Google Protect. I just disabled it and now works perfectly. Thanks!


Why my app disappear at reboot? When I reboot the phone, often, some of the apps a get generic icon and won't load anymore.

A reinstall solves the problem but I'd rather not have to do that.

Device is an Acer Liquid Metal with Froyo.

I finally found out why! :D

When the phone boots - at least if I use go launcher - if the sd card is not completely mounted apps "get lost".
I've completely solved the problem activating my phone card pin code.
I turn on the phone, wait on the pin code screen without entering it for a minute and then I enter the pin: everything is perfect.
I think the problem can be also solved killing and restarting the launcher but I didn't test.


Galaxy s2 phone question Is there any way to see when a text message has been read by the recipient on a galaxy s2 phone and where would I turn that on??? It shows that it has been sent but I need to see when it was read.

What you are asking is not possible. The closest thing to it would be a "delivery report", which at least tells you the message was delivered to your addressee (it can't tell you whether it was read):

Go to SMS settings and in menu related to SMS activate the request delivery report.


How can I determine the hostname of another machine on the local network? I am trying to set up an Android SSH client to connect to another machine on my local network. I can connect if I use the IP address, but the IP address can change. How can I determine the hostname that my Android device assigns to the other machine, so that I can connect using that instead?

(Right now the specifics happen to be using JuiceSSH to connect to an Ubuntu 13.10 laptop running sshd and mosh-server, but I'd like to learn a general approach that is not client or target specific. Ideally, a system-level Android command.)

For that, you'd need a local DNS server on your local network, which gets updated by the DHCP server assigning the IP to that machine (many routers offer this feature).

You can then tell your Android device to use that DNS as primary when connected to your WiFi network, while leaving the secondary as-is (so the latter would still resolve everything outside your network). This option is located in the WiFi APN settings: Long-press the entry for your home WiFi, select to edit it, enable "advanced options".


Galaxy Grand i9082 how to remove stability update package file Hii everyone yesterday night i flashed stock JellyBean 4.2.2 ROM using odin tool and i kept WiFi on whole night for restoring apps but unexpectedly 198.59 MB stability update package as downloaded (Which is the root cause for all the hang issues in device ) and it is showing popup for every 3 hours to install the package. please tell me whether there is any possibility to remove the stability update file from device before installing

I was able to fix up the issue by clearing Software Update data. Go to Settings --> More --> Application Manager --> All Applications --> Software Update --> clear data

and then i turned off software update


re-partitioning android phone's internal memory I have a Micromax Unite 2 Android phone.

The original internal memory was 8 GB, but now it shows me only 1.67 GB.

I used a third party app to see what happened.

It shows me unallocated space in 4 different partitions, each one is 700 MB. Other partitions are system, userdata, cache etc.

Currently my phone has Android 4.4.2 KitKat.

Is there any command to do that from terminal? How to allocate that space? Please help me.

Do not attempt to correct this,mine is having same problem. So, I've started using SD card. Once I tried to correct this my phone went dead. Luckily it was under warranty. If it is partially in serviceabe service centre will figure out that you have used third party software. Be careful.


SAMSUNG G. J710 RAM Capacity - 2GB or 3GB In this post1 it's stated that Sam J710 has 3GB of RAM (only 2GB of RAM in India).
This post2 says that it only has 2GB of RAM.

I bought the J710 model over the net a couple of days ago, which was produced for the european market and it has only 2 GB of RAM.

So, is this a description error in post 2 or why does it tell it has 3GB of RAM?

From what PDAdb listed and Samsung official websites said, only the Chinese variants (J7108 and J7109) have 3GB of RAM: Samsung J7108 (Chinese), while other versions, including vanilla J710F, have 2GB: Samsung J710 (French).


Downloading Kindle for Android tablet I got Android tablet with the latest OS (4.0). I am trying to install Amazon Kindle app on it. I access the Google market via browser and select install. Then it is saying it will be downloaded shortly, but nothing happens. What is the problem? For some unknown reason I can't connect to google market via app on the Android tablet itself (failed connection). Before that I was able to download and install apps on tablet. The tablet: Zenithink ZT ICS. Any suggestions? Thanks

You can try to install it directly from this page - http://www.1mobile.com/kindle-13239.html

However, be warned that due to certain geographical restrictions, the app may NOT work as intended if not supported.

Re: your market app not connecting - can you browse the net or connect other apps? Can you sync your Google account on your device? What tablet do you have?


Should I re-install certain programs after upgrading from Android 2.1 to Android 2.2? I upgrade my Samsung Galaxy S phone from Android 2.1 to Android 2.2 over the weekend.

Today, for the first time since buying the phone ( two months now ) I had to reboot the phone when starting one of the applications I installed.

This started me wondering if I should re-install certain programs after an upgrade ?

Did you had to re-install certain programs after an upgrade ? If so, what programs ?

You shouldn't have to re-install anything. I don't recall any app having an issue from an OS upgrade, except those that needed changes to work with 2.2. Since you're getting 2.2 so long after its initial launch I'd expect all of those issues to already have been worked out.


How do I secure my Lenovo ThinkPad tablet against thieves when it doesn't have a Kensington lock? The manual for the Lenovo ThinkPad doesn't say that it has a Kensington-like lock device on it, so are there any other ways for me to secure it against thieves?

I'd like to secure my tablet against the knobs that you can secure Kensington locks around. I know that Kensington locks aren't completely secure, but they can at least deter the vast majority of thieves.

I believe your question is trying to ask 'Are there any laptop security devices out there that do not use a kensington lock slot?' The answer is, Yes.

To see a nice list of various types of locks that are available for notebooks and laptops, please see this website.

I in no way endorse this seller, however they are one of the few sites that seem to have a nice listing of many kensington-alternative locking devices for laptops. I am merely using it for informative purposes.


YouTube not showing the names of the videos searched unless video is clicked, neither can be skipped to a certain time I'm using a tablet, and the problem is that YouTube is not showing the name of the videos I've searched unless I click the video.

Also, whenever I watch a video I can't skip it to a certain time (the red bar in the bottom where you can skip the video to the end is missing for my YouTube).

What should I do to resolve this issue?

There are two ways to resolve this.
1. Reboot your device
2. Your youtube app is outdated so one thing you could do is upddate the app


Accessibility services gets disabled automatically I have a Gionee p3s.  I was trying to use tasker when i observed that the tasker accessibility service gets disabled automatically after a few minutes. Not only with tasker, all apps requiring accessibility services are having the same problem.
My android version is 5.1. It will be helpful if some one can help me with this problem. :-)

I was facing the same issue on my Lenovo vibe k5. I did the followings to solve the issue.

Enable accessibility for the concerned app in the Settings.
In power saving option (in most cases it is inside the "Battery" option) select the concerned app not to be optimized.
Select the app as device administrator (this setting may be found inside "Security" option).
If possible lock the app in Task Manager so that it will not be killed when you kill all the tasks(apps). In "mi" phones you need to slide the app downward to lock it in Task Manager. I don't know how to do it in Gionee p3s. In my device this option is not available so I never kill the concerned app in the Task Manager( Or if I kill the app I re-enable the accessibility, then it remains enabled until I kill that app again).

After doing these the Accessibility option remained enabled even after restarting the phone.
This may not be the exact solution you asking for, but this is all I found after hours of searching.


How to uninstall revolutionary rooting tool from Android devices i have different android devices and all are rooted with the help of revolutionary tool, now i want to remove revolutionary tool from my device is there anyway so that remove all those tool which are installed on my devices ?

To re-S-ON an HTC Desire, you will need the following

USB cable
Fastboot drivers installed, available here.
Android flasher and appropriate HBOOT images available here.
Optionally, an appropriate stock RUU, available here.  Either select the one for your carrier or use the RUU_Bravo_HTC_WWE_1.21.405.2_Radio_32.36.00.28U_4. 06.00.02_2_release_126984_signed.exe one.

Ok, now that you have your tools, now for the actual doing.

Extract all the files in the revert to stock zip.
Turn on USB debugging and plug in phone.
Either use the "click this.bat" file or run fastboot flash hboot engHBOOToverARX.img from a command prompt in the folder where you extracted the the revert to stock files.
Shutdown phone and power it back up holding the volume down button, then select fastboot.  It should show you as S-OFF and using HBOOT 6.98.2000
Fire up android flasher and select to flash the hboot.img file
Restart phone again.  You should now be S-ON.
Optionally, run the RUU downloaded above.  This will put your phone back in completely stock condition, perfect for warranty claims, etc.


How I can prevent my android phone from getting rooted? Usually  people try to install a custom rom on a stolen android phone to erase all its data and identity.
Is there any way to prevent the thief from installing a custom rom or rooting it.

If a thief has physical access to your hardware, it's his.
You cannot prevent the thief from entering the bootloader or recovery and flashing your device.
What you can do is go to your local police department, tell them your phone has been stolen and you have the IMEI (it's on the box but note it down separately) and they should block any use of that IMEI.
No cellular connection will be possible with that device, it's merely a small tablet and all connection attempts will be logged with location of the cell tower, approximate location of the device and time.

After that, wipe your personal data using one of many different remote security solutions (like the Google Device Manager).

Also tell your cell provider that your phone has been stolen so you can get a new SIM (might need to pay for that) and to block any use of the old SIM card.

Also: Thieves usually just wipe the data and don't install a custom ROM (rooting is an option, though).


If I "swipe down to reject", will caller get a chance to leave voicemail? A few times a year someone who isn't in my address book might call me, but every day I get several spam/scam calls. So basically anytime I see a plain number, I swipe down to make my phone stop ringing.

I've been assuming this sends the call straight to voicemail (so that if it is legit they can leave a message) but it strikes me that "rejecting" a call might hang up completely on the caller.

What happens when I "swipe down to reject" a call from the homescreen? Is there a way I can quickly ignore a call while still leaving the other party a chance to wait for it to go through to voicemail?

This is a fairly stock phone, an "Android One" Moto x4 bought from Google Fi but it does have some extra Motorola tentacles on it.

(I'm also interested in doing this automatically, but only if it uses a built-in feature and not some random app that you happen to trust, sorry.)

Google's Phone app Help implies that I can safely reject the calls:

  To reject the call, swipe the white circle to the bottom of the screen when your phone is locked, or tap Dismiss.

followed by:

  If you’ve set up a voice mailbox, rejected callers can leave a message.

That combined with some other research leads me to conclude that…

"rejecting"
"dismissing"
"declining"

…a call are all just different words for the same thing. And any of them will both make my phone stop ringing and send the caller to voicemail assuming it is available.

Whereas if my phone had a way to "silence" the call, it will make my own phone stop notifying me (ringing/vibrating) but the other caller will have to wait until it continues to ring for a while before it goes to voicemail.


Alarm clock with soft vibrating mode? When staying in a hostel or going camping with a group of people, I need to use an alarm clock that can wake me up by vibrating instead of playing music.

Until now, I used CyanogenMod's internal app, which does support both modes, but its vibrating mode is too fast. I need something more gentle, and available on stock Android :-)

I checked Gentle Alarm, but it's just too complicated.

Thank you.

Timely has this option. When setting up an alarm, select silent for the audio part and then check the vibrate option.

You can find Timely here. I have used Timely for years and I love it. XD

Edit. Had to fix the link. Sorry about that.


Installing Purchased App On New Device? [PlayStore ISSUE] I have purchased the app ACR (Another Call Recorder) 1 year ago. Now trying to install it again on my 'new device' (formatted phone). However when I press the view button from the 'Order history' page or search it in the Play Store it displays a dollar value and wants me to repurchase the application.

How am I able to install it without repurchasing, from what I have read up I should be able to just install the app, as it was previously purchased.

As a side note some other apps which have purchased just display the Install button and do not require me to repurchase.

I was able to solve the issue by doing the following.

Install the ACR Licence apk (which I got from my backup, or you could find the file online)
Open the Play Store page for the app (the button should be showing Uninstall)
Uninstall the application (from within Play Store)
Done

Now you should be presented with the Install button. Installation should work as normal (no re-purchase required).


HTC 510 is vibrating uncontrolablly My HTC 510 is vibrating uncontrollably , but there isn't any notification. What to do ? Its becoming very annoying! Please get to me as soon as anyone can, thanks !

Check Settings, Accessibility and ensure that Notification reminder is off.


realme 3 pro stuck at bootloop (boot/recovery) has been destroyed Hi my mobile is in boot loop

fastboot not working i have tried every button but none worked
not connecting to pic / laptop as well
any one have a solution please help

i did flash my stock rom with orangefox recovery. then mobile has no recovery after flashing the rom, but fastboot was connecting to pc.

i followed this unbrick guide working fine i perform 8) step did lock bootloader

now its not connecting to pc, booting into fastboot, but when i hold both vol button + power after some time i do hear a noice from pc the sound of connection but not showing in pc that it is connected and i do hear disconnect sound after a minute or so

The only option is service center bro since u locked the bootloader


Factory reset a device - settings app does not work How can I factory reset my Arnova GBOOK tablet/e-reader?

It runs android, and now everything force closes when the device boots, inluding the settings and launcher applications.

I need to use my device - I only bought it today.

Please can someone tell me how I can get my device back? I think resetting may help...

So - how do I reset without the settings app???

I can't find the factory-reset instructions for a device with this specific name. Arnova's devices are named in confusing ways, so perhaps several names are used for the same device in different markets. But can you find a pinhole somewhere at the botton of your device? It should be on the left. Does it say "reset"? Then insert a paperclip and see what happens.

If that doesn't work, you could try the instructions on Arnova's support page:

  "If your tablet freezes often or if you get error messages during the start up of your tablet, you can use the recovery mode to reset your tablet to its factory settings, removing all installed applications as well as any data or content.

  Your tablet must be up to date with the latest firmware – downloadable from the downloads area of this website.

  To access Recovery mode on the ARNOVA 10bG3

  To access to the recovery mode:

  Hold down the volume button + and press the ON/OFF button.
  Once the boot logo ARNOVA is displayed, release the volume button +.

  The ANDROID green robot is displayed.

  Once the ANDROID green robot is displayed, press simultaneously the volume button + and the ON/OFF button.

  The Android system recovery screen is displayed.

  a. Use the volume buttons to navigate

  b. Use the ON/OFF button to select an option

  To restore the default parameters of your tablet:

  In the Android system recovery, select Wipe data/factory reset;
  Select Yes –delete all user data.
  Select Reboot system now.

  Your tablet reboots. Redefine your parameters through the wizard.

  Your tablet is restored to its default settings.

  To access Recovery mode on the ARNOVA 9G3

  To access to the recovery mode:

  Hold down the Home button and press the ON/OFF button.
  Once the ARNOVA boot logo is displayed, release the Home button.

  The ANDROID green robot is displayed.

  Once the ANDROID green robot is displayed, press simultaneously the volume button + and the ON/OFF button.

  The Android system recovery screen is displayed.

  a. Use the volume buttons to navigate

  b. Use the ON/OFF button to select an option

  To restore the default parameters of your tablet:

  In the Android system recovery, select Wipe data/factory reset;
  Select Yes –delete all user data.
  Select Reboot system now.

  Your tablet reboots. Redefine your parameters through the wizard.

  Your tablet is restored to its default settings.

  To access Recovery mode on the ARNOVA 8cG3/8bG3

  To access to the recovery mode:

  Hold down the volume button – and press the ON/OFF button.
  Once the boot logo ARNOVA is displayed, release the volume button –.

  The ANDROID green robot is displayed.

  Once the ANDROID green robot is displayed, press simultaneously the volume button + and the ON/OFF button.

  The Android system recovery screen is displayed.

  a. Use the volume buttons to navigate

  b. Use the ON/OFF button to select an option"


Why do I only have 304 MB of available storage space? I have AlphaRev Oxygen R2, 4Ext Touch Recovery, AN-Droid 2.2.0 with Android 2.3.3 on my HTC Desire. But I have only 304 MB of available internal storage space after the first boot up. Now I installed Shazam and it shrank down to 296 MB.

Shouldn't this number stay the same when I install an app? I mean I have formatted my SD card in 4Ext and created a 2 GB Ext4 partition for apps. Are the apps being installed on internal memory anyway? How do I check that? And if so, how do I tell it to install to the SD-Ext partition instead?

This ROM is supposed to come with integrated App2SD+. Ain't that right? If not, can you suggest another ROM that has integrated App2SD+ or tell me how to set it up manually?

I want memory, man!! This stupid phone comes with only 147 MB of memory available for the user apps and data. I don't know what the hell they were thinking when they designed it.

In response to Izzy

This is the output of the mount command.

sh-3.2# mount
mount
rootfs / rootfs rw,relatime 0 0
tmpfs /dev tmpfs rw,relatime,mode=755 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,relatime,mode=600 0 0
proc /proc proc rw,relatime 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs rw,relatime 0 0
/sys/kernel/debug /sys/kernel/debug debugfs rw,relatime 0 0
none /acct cgroup rw,relatime,cpuacct 0 0
tmpfs /mnt/asec tmpfs rw,relatime,mode=755,gid=1000 0 0
tmpfs /mnt/obb tmpfs rw,relatime,mode=755,gid=1000 0 0
tmpfs /app-cache tmpfs rw,relatime,size=8192k,mode=755,gid=1000 0 0
none /dev/cpuctl cgroup rw,relatime,cpu 0 0
/dev/block/mtdblock3 /system yaffs2 rw,relatime 0 0
/dev/block/mtdblock4 /cache yaffs2 rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime 0 0
/dev/block/mtdblock5 /system/data yaffs2 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
/dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /data ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,nodiratime,commit=50,bar
rier=0,nobh,stripe=64,data=writeback,noauto_da_alloc 0 0
/dev/block/vold/179:1 /mnt/sdcard vfat rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,u
id=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0702,dmask=0702,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset
=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0
/dev/block/vold/179:1 /mnt/secure/asec vfat rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relat
ime,uid=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0702,dmask=0702,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,ioch
arset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0
tmpfs /mnt/sdcard/.android_secure tmpfs ro,relatime,size=0k,mode=000 0 0
/dev/block/dm-0 /mnt/asec/se.fmckl.regnr-1 vfat ro,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,relatime
,uid=1000,fmask=0222,dmask=0222,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mix
ed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0
/dev/block/dm-1 /mnt/asec/com.fingersoft.benjibananas-2 vfat ro,dirsync,nosuid,n
odev,relatime,uid=1000,fmask=0222,dmask=0222,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,
shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0
sh-3.2#

Output of the df command.

sh-3.2# df
df
/dev: 207168K total, 64K used, 207104K available (block size 4096)
/mnt/asec: 207168K total, 0K used, 207168K available (block size 4096)
/mnt/obb: 207168K total, 0K used, 207168K available (block size 4096)
/app-cache: 8192K total, 0K used, 8192K available (block size 4096)
/system: 256000K total, 213132K used, 42868K available (block size 4096)
/cache: 40960K total, 1388K used, 39572K available (block size 4096)
/system/data: 151168K total, 113812K used, 37356K available (block size 4096)
/data: 2064144K total, 444856K used, 1619288K available (block size 4096)
/mnt/sdcard: 28544368K total, 9550336K used, 18994032K available (block size 163
84)
/mnt/secure/asec: 28544368K total, 9550336K used, 18994032K available (block siz
e 16384)
/mnt/asec/se.fmckl.regnr-1: 3124K total, 1040K used, 2084K available (block size
 4096)
/mnt/asec/com.fingersoft.benjibananas-2: 33212K total, 30996K used, 2216K availa
ble (block size 4096)
sh-3.2#

Does this make any sense?

I will try to answer my own question here. The short answer is: get a ROM that just works! (No, not a room, a ROM! Get a ROM!)

Here is the same screenshot image of the SD & phone storage menu, this time with a ROM called SuperNova. You can find an installation guide here.

As you can see from the image I now have 1.86 GB of internal storage space. No additional apps have been installed yet, except for some apps that came with the ROM, and the stock HTC apps that came with the phone.

How-to

You will need root and S-OFF before you continue. It's also possible to install this ROM with S-ON, but it will require some additional steps, for more details see the developers website. You will also need a custom recovery like Clock Work Mod (CWM) or 4Ext Recovery. The latter is recommended. You will also need to flash stock HBOOT, if you don't have that already. You will find the stock HBOOT on AlphaRev website.

Go to the download page of developers website.
Download "SuperNova 2.4.0.1 Extreme ROM". You will see at least three mirror download links. Here's one direct link to Dev-Host.
Power off the phone.
Enter HBOOT on the phone.
Enter recovery (I used 4Ext Touch Recovery).
Format and partition the SD card with one Ext4 partition and one FAT32.
Power off the phone and take out the SD card.
Mount your SD card to the computer.
Copy the Supernova_2.4.0.1_signed.zip file to the SD card.
Put the SD card in the phone.
Enter recovery and choose "update from zip".
Select the file above. This will now flash the new ROM.
Reboot the phone. First boot will take longer time than usual.
When you get to the setup wizard, skip setting up a Google account.
Reboot the phone. You will see a blue LED go and off. This means Data2SD is loaded and working.
Now you can setup your Google account and Wi-Fi, and what not.

Remember, complete installation instructions can be found here. That web page can be overwhelming, especially for newbies, which is why I tried to put it in a more condensed form here.

If you run into the "Download was unsuccessful please try again" message when downloading apps, this means that the app you're trying to download is too big and the Android Market cache is too small. This problem is covered in the FAQ at developers website, it's question 28.

The suggested workaround involves using Scriptmanager app and a script, and this must be done every time you reboot. But I have found that installing the latest version of Play Store (replacement for Android Market) manually solves the problem permanently.

Here's a short how-to on that too.

Download the APK file for Play Store.
Connect the phone to the computer. If prompted, choose to mount as
disk drive.
Copy the APK file to the SD card.
Disconnect the phone.
Go to menu, settings, applications, and enable unknown sources.
Start a file manager app (I used ES File Explorer, but ASTRO is good
too).
Browse to the file (/mnt/sdcard/) and tap it to open. You'll be
prompted if you want to replace a system app. Tap OK to continue.


Emulate Full Battery Charge Now before you guys disvote this question, let me explain. I've been messing with lithium polymer batteries for 8 years (I work in a shop repairing electronics) and I have studied the behavior of Lithium Polymer batteries.

It kinda bugs me when my phone automatically shuts down when battery level is said to be 0%. In these moments I usually am finishing almost done watching a video or writing up a text to someone and my phone completely interrupts all operations and shuts down. I know for a fact that as when it shuts down there still is enough power left to run the phone for another 4 emergency minutes.

Is there a way I can emulate the operating system into thinking I have a higher percentage of power left so that it wouldn't shut down right away? I know this sounds risky, but I am aware of what's really happening here. My system is Nexus 4 running android 4.4 (fully rooted).

From what it sounds like, you not only want it to show a higher percentage but also 'use' this last little bit of juice in the battery.  Technically you could just modify the icon to show full all the time or be slightly above the real level, but that's just the icon's look.  I think to accomplish what you're trying to do you will have to modify the ROM yourself.  If your savvy in this field, you can look for some open source ROMs, modify it, and see if it works.


Bluetooth car audio with track data I have a Droid 3 and a 2012 Toyota Camry which offers bluetooth support. Currently I find the only app that will display track information on the screen of the Camry's stereo is the default Android music player. Winamp and others don't seem able to do this.

Is this a limitation of Android? Or are there other apps that I do not know about that have the ability to transfer track information to the car stereo?

The feature uses Bluetooth AVRCP, the Audio Video Remote Control Profile. It's used for controlling the app from the receiver (e.g. play/pause buttons on a BT headset).

AVRCP level 1.3 is possible since ICS and improved in Jelly Bean; it allows all of 1.0 (play, pause, next,...) plus metadata information on the track itself (artist, track name, etc.). It was also backported into CyanogenMod7.2 (Gingerbread).

Players themselves have to support AVRCP 1.3 too, I guess.

Apollo might also support this. Or just search for AVRCP 1.3 in the store.


Sony Reader PRS-T1 becomes unresponsive My Sony Reader PRS-T1 based on Android 2.2 is acting funny.

I had rooted it in the past but is now in the "original" state, upgraded with the latest official firmware.

The problem is that many times, the unit becomes unresponsive. This happens after putting the unit on sleep and waking it again. The dictionary hangs, changing dictionaries hangs even worse and sometimes highlighting text as well (this makes the dictionary pop up.

I managed to get logs and I found the following error messages, just after waking from sleepmode:

2013-01-22 17:15:06.391 W dalvikvm (2308:2308) [log_main    ] ERROR: Unable to find decl for native Lcom/sony/drbd/ebook/system/Identifier;.getProductName ()Ljava/lang/String;

2013-01-22 17:15:06.391 W dalvikvm (2308:2308) [log_main    ] ERROR: Unable to find decl for native Lcom/sony/drbd/ebook/system/Identifier;.getSkuName ()Ljava/lang/String;

2013-01-22 17:15:06.391 W dalvikvm (2308:2308) [log_main    ] ERROR: Unable to find decl for native Lcom/sony/drbd/ebook/system/Identifier;.getSerialNumber ()Ljava/lang/String;

2013-01-22 17:15:06.391 W dalvikvm (2308:2308) [log_main    ] ERROR: Unable to find decl for native Lcom/sony/drbd/ebook/system/Identifier;.getServiceId ()Ljava/lang/String;

2013-01-22 17:15:06.391 W dalvikvm (2308:2308) [log_main    ] ERROR: Unable to find decl for native Lcom/sony/drbd/ebook/system/Identifier;.getMacAddress ()Ljava/lang/String;

2013-01-22 17:15:06.391 W dalvikvm (2308:2308) [log_main    ] ERROR: Unable to find decl for native Lcom/sony/drbd/ebook/system/Identifier;.getPsn ()Ljava/lang/String;

2013-01-22 17:15:06.391 E JNIHelp (2308:2308) [log_main    ] RegisterNatives failed for 'com/sony/drbd/ebook/system/Identifier'

Any ideas on how to diagnose and restore my system?

It turned out that backing up, reformatting the internal drive and restoring the backup.

After doing that, I also copied the internal partitions from another Reader and the problem is solved.

I suspect that it is the formatting which solved the problem but am not sure.

Procedure in this forum post.


Mystery "notification" sound Right, so this is a weird one.

LG G4 on Rogers running Android 6.0

I'm randomly getting a loud notification sound late at night that wakes me up, but has no notification that comes with it (so I can't tell what app it's from).

Here's the weird stuff:

Sound, but no notification.
Happens exactly on the hour, but not a consistent hour. I've had it happen at midnight, 1am, and 2am. I can't say with 100% certainty that it doesn't happen during the day, as my phone is on vibrate at work, but it hasn't happened on the weekends.
Not every day. The last two times were last night (friday), and on monday?
Plays the default notification sound.
I have a Tasker profile set up that mutes my notification volumes at night. The only thing that has volume is the ringer. Which means that despite playing the default notification sound, the sound is coming through as either a ringtone or an alarm??
I installed and monitored a Notification History app
When it went off last night, I checked it immediately. But according to the app (which seems to monitor damn near everything), there hadn't been any new notifications in over an hour! (Which is true, with respect to every other notification.)
I've also double checked my email app to confirm no new emails arrived that it wouldn't show notifications for (like promotions). Nothing.
Because I've seen it as an answer on other mystery sound threads, I'll confirm that NFC is indeed off.

Help?

Is it possible you are getting an emergency alert? In Settings, click on the More option under the Wireless & Networks section, and scroll down to the Cell Broadcasts settings.


If ROM and firmware and OS are the same thing, can one be upgraded without the other? These terms still confuse me: operating system (Android), firmware and ROM.

From CyanogenMod's website:

  Whether you call CyanogenMod a "ROM" or a "firmware" or an "operating
  system" or a "distribution", it all means in this case the same thing.

Does that mean you can't upgrade your firmware without simultaneously upgrading the ROM and operating system? For example my device has CM but says it's Android 5.02 and I was wondering if it's possible to update the OS without losing CM? Also, the firmware is out of date, so should I be searching for the update to the firmware or CM (since the above quote claims it's the same thing)?

What is Android?
Android is an Operating system, like Windows or Ubuntu are Operating systems. It has multiple version release like 1.x, 2.x, 3.x, 4.x, 5.x, and so on, just like Win XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10, or Ubuntu 10.04, 12.04, 14.04, and more.
What is a ROM?
A ROM is a pack of files that are meant to run a device. These files are taken from Android Open Source Project (AOSP), modified to suit a particular Hardware, and then packed into something which is referred to as a ROM. When you flash a ROM, you're flashing an Android release specific to your device.
How does CyanogenMod fit in?
CM is a ROM which is a direct fork of Android Open Source Project (AOSP). In essence, it took what was offered by the AOSP, added its own tweaks, packaged it and named it CM. It's still inherently Android, just a derivative version. The different versions of CM correspond to the Android versions it's forked from. CM11 is based on Kitkat (4.4). CM12 is based on Lollipop (5.0).
What about Firmware?
Talking about firmware, the link you mentioned already says that it is an age old term being misused and is very ambiguous nowadays. Mostly, people use the term firmware to refer to areas in your device which a normal user isn't supposed to reach/touch/edit. They are those areas which your Android OS requires to boot and function normally and satisfactorily. (E.g. If you mess up Modem/EFS partition, you won't have Basesband/IMEI and you won't be able  call or use internet).
They are meant to be read-only (not literally though). Modem, EFS (IMEI), aboot, and so on, are just few names that people consider to be firmware because they aren't usually touched when you flash a typical ROM.
It is to be noted that many OEMs consider the warranty void if you flash firmware. Do check your OEM's policy before considering flashing.

Is that to say you can't upgrade your firmware with simultaneously upgrading the ROM and operating system?

See the list here as an example. You can upgrade or downgrade those firmware partitions as long as the device allows it (I've heard that devices like Yureka doesn't allow flashing some parts, as it will result in hardbrick). You can flash the firmware with or without the ROM .zip, in the same manner you would flash a typical ROM. At least this is how it works in my OPO.
This file (fastboot .zip) is a ROM which can be used to flash your device's current ROM as well as the firmware. On the other hand, this file (flashable .zip) is a typical ROM which can only be used to replace your current ROM. (This is only an analogy. You should only flash the ROMs meant for your device.)

Also the firmware is out of date, so should I be searching for the update to the firmware or CM?

Firmware is usually provided by the OEMs because they interact directly with the Hardware and OEMs know it better than any other party. Unless a ROM demands a firmware upgrade (like Exodus ROM) you shouldn't worry about upgrading it. It could be real problematic if something goes wrong during flashing them. Be ready for wild adventure (aka hardbrick) if you intend to flash firmware. :)


Change ROM of Galaxy Nexus Yakju with CyanogenMod of Maguro I have a Galaxy Nexus "yakju" model and I want to replace the stock Android with CyanogenMod, but I have found only this page which talks about the "maguro". After some research it looks like it will not be different (only where the phone is sold and who update it) and looks like "maguro" is the generic name to mean the Galaxy Nexus phone. My problem is that i'm not really sure if i'm right or not.

Can I flash CyanogenMod without problems? Or could it brick my phone?

The Galaxy Nexus is something of an unusual beast. Because of some regional differences in the factory images (notably, the presence of Google Wallet on the US image) Google distributes multiple firmwares for one model of hardware.

When determining if CM is supported on your device, you want to ensure the phone model is correct. In the case of the GSM Galaxy Nexus, this is "maguro". You can flash a maguro image and it will work correctly. There is no "yakju" or "takju" when referring to CyanogenMod because they build for the device hardware: maguro.

In total, there are three hardware variants of the Galaxy Nexus, but five firmwares. They are:

maguro: The GSM/HSPA+ GNex. This shipped with one of the following images:

takju: Devices sold via Google in the US. This firmware contains Google Wallet pre-installed.
yakju: Devices sold via Google internationally. This does not contain Google Wallet.
yakjuxw: Devices sold via Samsung.
All of these are interchangeable. Any maguro model can run any of these firmwares. The firmware you have determines where updates come from (Google or Samsung), so it was common for people to install takju or yakju firmware on devices that originally came with yakjuxw, in order to get updates faster (i.e. from Google).

toro: A separate model, made for Verizon. It uses the "mysid" factory image.
toroplus: A separate model, made for Sprint. It uses the "mysidspr" factory image.

You can find all of these factory images (except yakjuxw) on on Google's site.


Is There *Any* Way To Increase Internal Memory? Ok, even to me this question sounds stupid but I let's just go with "the only dumb question is the one not asked".

I have nearly 14Gb free on my SD card but the Motorola Droid only has 128Mb internal so I am constantly fighting "low memory" warnings.  I have moved every app that I can to my SD card.  This is not only a hassle, for some apps (*cough*AnythingGoogle*cough*) I have to choose to either have Widget functionality or sacrifice my precious internal space.

Question: Is it physically possible for me to upgrade this internal memory?
Although I believe answering that question will cure my woes, I will open it further to ask: Do you have a recommendation on what I could do differently (other than just delete your crap!).  As I said, I have plenty of (SD) space so I find it asinine to have to make sacrifices because of these short-sights in this phone's design (after all, who would ever have an app larger than 1k, right?  You'll never come close to using 128Mb...).

Theoretically, of course, you could modify your hardware.  But this is not remotely feasible for 99% of us.

One thing you can do -- if you root -- is to install various apps that will allow you to move more to the SD card.  You could also try a custom ROM that is smaller than the stock ROM.  If rooted you will also be able to uninstall crapware system apps (be careful not to touch the important onces).


Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (GT-N5100) USB connection & charging problem I'm having problem with my Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0. When I connect it to a laptop/desktop computer it just won't acknowledge the connection. I just wanna transfer some files to my tablet. Before it was working till the charging problem came up. I had to open up my tablet and work up on the battery connection, now everytime I connect my charger I need to wait 3-4 hours for the charging to start. And now my tablet doesn't respond to USB cable connection, no respond at all. It should give the message "USB connection detected...". I've searched the web and a lot of people are having this problem but not really getting the ultimate solution to it. Some worked for some but most didn't. Please show us how to fix it. Thanks much in advance, and sorry If I sounded a bit frustrated because I am. :D

P.S I might change the port for my tablet, I saw a blog that says it could have been worn out.

I think you've hit the nail on the head.

It sounds like you have a faulty port/connection. If you fiddle around with the cable in the device does it connect/disconnect? Have you tried using other cables etc?

The part that concerns me is that you say it starts to work after 3-4 hours. If this is the case every time; it could be even stranger than purely a faulty connection.


Can your android device get malware? I admit, I watch porn now and then on my android phone. But I never, ever, download something or click any adds or links. But here's the weird thing, sometimes when I visit such a website, an automatic download starts. I thought I removed them but when I installed an antivirus it detected 5 threats, all from that site. And the weirdest is, when I installed an other antivirus, it detected 4 more threats! Are these the same threats or did the first antivirus fail on me?
And do android devices get severe viruses?

No, Android doesn't "get severe viruses" or malware much; it's Linux based, and is generally quite secure from being exploited even if a user does manage to install a malicious app.  And while it is possible to get it from a website that uses an exploit on a mobile browser, it is extraordinarily improbable.  Most likely the AV is reporting non-malware like tracking cookies as "threats".

More details:

AV companies define "threats" extremely broadly, in order to keep users paranoid and buying their software.  One of the ways they do this is to include things like tracking cookies and the like, which aren't technically malware.  This is probably what your AV is "detecting", as website drive-by malware infection on Android is hugely unlikely.  AV for the average user is useless on Android (and worse, slows down your phone); AV providers prey on user ignorance and fear from the fact that Windows requires AV (which most users have had drilled into them by now) to sell their products for Android.

The most likely scenario for getting malware is installing an app from someplace other than Play (sideloading), followed by being incautious when installing a Play app and not bothering to check the permissions an app is asking for (even then, extremely unlikely that it could do much other than send some of your personal info to a server for marketers to buy, or use up your bandwidth to pop up ads).

Many malicious websites will start automatic downloads, in the hopes that you'll be foolish enough to run whatever is being downloaded.  So long as you don't install whatever it is, there isn't a problem.


search for filenames on entire android device tree using ADB 'find' How do I use the 'find' command on ADB to search the entire android file tree on a rooted device, including sub directories, for any filenames containing the word 'prop' ?

Use:
find . -name "*prop*"

.: represents the current folder.
-name: option to find files by name.
*prop*: filenames that contain the word prop.

OR as mentioned by @alexs on the comment, you can use:
find . -iname "*prop*"

-iname: option to find files by name but is case insensitive.

If you want to find the all files with the root folder as the stating place, do as mentioned by @IrfanLatif by using:
find / -iname "*prop*"


Migrating WhatsApp to new phone and new number So, this is my scenario:

Phone A (Old phone):
Handles WCDMA sim only. Old number is in this phone and whatsapp is associated to this number. I have the number and the phone. Number is still active. Has Android Jellybean

Phone B (New phone):
Handles microSIM only. New number is on this phone. Has Android KitKat.

I want to migrate my WhatsAPP account from my old phone to the new one! Only problem is, I can't insert old sim in the new phone or the new sim in the old one because they are different types (WCDMA and microSIM).

So how can I do this?

Thanks

WCDMA is related to network type and micro SIM is related to size of SIM card. You can trim or cut the previous one to micro size and use it in the latest phone. Transfer of account can also be done with in WhatsApp (if you wish to).
*** Tutorial for cutting the SIM


Using adb to move data to new device I just got a new Samsung Galaxy Tab S3. I used Samsung Smart Switch and I have Google set to backup my data and restore it. But on all the apps that got automatically restored there was none of my data. I was looking at ADB and saw the backup option. So I was wondering if doing adb backup -f ./samsung.bk -obb -all -nosystem and then restoring the backup file to my new device would work or just brick it? My current device is a Samsung Galaxy Tab S. I used -nosystem so it wouldn't overwrite the core system files.

Many thanks is advanced.
Geoffrey S.

It should work. At the very least it won't brick since it doesn't include system apps. You could also try adding -shared to your backup command.


How can I stream music/audio from Android and PC to Android device via WiFi? I've searched for this for some time, and I've found several options that almost works.

I have an Android device connected to my stereo and I want to be able to connect to it with either my PC or my Android phone and play whatever music I'm playing on the phone/PC on the device instead.

I've tried SoundWire, which sort of works with PC->Android, though the sound is sometimes choppy, and I have to connect from the Android device instead of from the PC.

I've tried Remote Droid Player and Twonky, that works with Music that's already on my device, and twonky beam seems to work if I find something on YouTube, but since most music I play is on Google Play Music, that doesn't do me much good either.

So does anyone have a solution for this. What I basically need is to replace my long jack->rca cable with an Android device, if you can put it like that.

WiFi Speaker

Stream all Audio from PC to Android!

About

  Use WiFi Speaker to stream all audio from a computer to an Android device in realtime. Just run the server on your Windows PC, and the app on your Android. The server is completely free, as is the app.

  Setup is easy:

  Download and install the server on your media PC.
  Get the WiFi Speaker Android app on Google Play
  Enjoy tunes!

Links

Google Play Store: WiFi Speaker (Free)
Google Play Store: WiFi Speaker Pro (Paid, no ads)
pixelatedmind.com: Media PC Server for WinXP/Vista/7

Screenshots:

Note: I'm the developer.


How can I play .DAT files (VideoCD format) in Android? Is there anyway to play .DAT files (from the MPEGAV folder of a VideoCD)?

I have a Samsung Galaxy S II (GT-i9100).

Try Dolphin Player.
It can play MPEG1 file format (= VCD), but cannot choose audio channel if the file is bilingual.


Time server for Android If I have an Android device that has no internet connection and I would like to use a PC as a time server. What should be the right procedures?

Is it that I should install a NTP server on my PC and then .....? How can I set the Android device to detect the time from the time server on my PC?

Thanks!

That should be the correct approach. As you noted, time sync needs a source -- so setting up a NTP Server on the PC will provide this source. Now you need to have some NTP client on your Android device. Searching Google Play for "ntp" brings up two of them right on the first page: ClockSync (I use this one, and am quite happy with it; still running it with the default NTP server configured -- but in your case, you will have to change this: as you can edit the time server used, this should be no issue), and NTPSync - Time Synchronization are two examples running in the background. If you prefer something permanently visible, Atomic Clock Wallpaper seems to be a candidate. Just follow the search link for more candidates :)


Why I can't scan the Whatsapp QR from my inbuilt whatsapp scanner? My whatsapps apps has upgraded to version 2.12.94 and now i am no longer able to scan the web QR code from my whatsapp app inbuilt scanner.

The code is displayed from the web whatsapps but while using the mobile whatsapp to scan the code, the mobile(HTC M8 Android 5.0.1) and PC is not being paired.

Thanks to provide for a solution.

Not sure if following will Answer your question as exact cause is unknown, but you may try few options.

You must use the latest version of Chrome, Firefox, Opera or Safari web browser to use WhatsApp Web. Other browsers such as Internet Explorer are not supported.
you have to scan the QR-Code with the scanner that is built in WhatsApp. Not with some 3rd-party scanner-app
Make sure there is no adware such as "Superfish" that came with some devices.
Make sure you holding the device correctly enough for the QR scanner to work.
Just like using WhatsApp on your phone, you must have a strong and stable internet connection on your computer to use WhatsApp Web, so make sure your computer's Internet connection is active.
If you use WhatsApp Web on a managed Wi-Fi network, such as at your office or university campus, your network might be configured to block or limit connections to WhatsApp Web.
You may try REFRESH the page and if problem still persist, just try Logout and Login.


Great quality Mobizen recordings? I recently started using Mobizen for my Android and the quality of the real time recording from the phone to my computer screen is very low quality.

Does anyone know how to improve the quality without significantly increase the delay time during USB connection?

If there are no methods to getting a better quality recording is there an alternative to Mobizen which does NOT require rooting?

I don't know about improving the quality on Mobizen as I don't use it but an alternative would be to use ADB's screenrecord. But seeing as (as far as I am aware) Mobizen uses this anyway, the recording quality would probably not be much better. You could try a different USB cable or changing the bitrate while using adb screenrecord.


keep screen from dimming down when running certain app? My 2.3.5 Android phone is set up to dim down the brightness after 30 seconds of inactivity, and shut off and lock the screen after another 30 seconds. After that, I need to unlock the screen to regain access to the running app. I would like to be able to keep a certain app with the screen accessible, while keeping the same configuration for any of the other apps. So instead of having a phone-wide system of brightness dimming, I would like to have an app-specific system. Any ideas?

That's easily possible using Tasker (I do the same for selected reading apps to increase the timeout to 2min, while also having the 30s default for all other apps):

Condition: App (select the apps you want to keep the screen active for)
Task: Display Timeout (configure the timeout interval using the sliders)

Alternatively, in "Task" you could also let Tasker switching the keyguard off to disable the lock screen.

At least concerning the display timeout adjustment, this might be possible with other automation apps as well, such as Llama -- I'm not sure, as I use Tasker I don't use the others. Though Tasker might look a bit pricy (~5 EUR) and complicated, after you figured out how to use it you will find it worth every cent. Until then, there's a free trial available on their homepage.


How can I run WhatsApp so that I am always online? How can I set WhatsApp to always run in the background? Like Skype, when I exit, it keeps me online to get calls or SMS or chat notifications.

While using WhatsApp, when I move away with the menu, it exits. How can I avoid this and tell Android that this application should always be running - so that even if it is closed it will restart the application automatically?

If anyone sends a text message, I don't want to go to all the icons and open the application several times.

Any help?

You can't set an icon on the notification bar to "let you be online all the time", it's not user defining option. But the service is always running, like THelper said, you don't have to mind that, you'll receive the messages without the icon appearing all the time.


Android Browser Brightness Setting The web browser application on my Samsung Droid Charge has a Brightness Setting that can be accessed from the menu button while the browser is running. There is no setting to have the browser automatically use the same brightness setting as the phone, or use auto brightness. I have no idea why Samsung put in this setting without a way to turn it off! Is there a way to work around this?

Samsung with its quest to be different, enriched the stock browser, with its own brightness control, totally separate from the OS.
No root
There's no workaround, you have to set the brightness independently.
Even using an app to control the brightness levels, as soon as you launch the stock browser, its own brightness control overwrites the one from the app.
Root
If you have root on your device, you can replace the browser .apk with the stock one from Android. You get the same browser, and in theory, without that annoying feature placed by Samsung (haven't done this myself).
Alternatives
There are alternative solutions for this, like many other users faced with your problem endup using, the usage of another browser that's not the stock one.


Factory reset protection (FRP) verification I have a Samsung phone with Android 6.0.1. I'd like to know  if the FRP is activated. I've been searching on the web for instructions on how to do this. So far I've found instructions requiring the user to actually factory reset the phone. Is there a way to verify if FRP is on (and activate it if not) without having to factory reset the phone?

My phone is secured with a pin number.

According to Samsung support, FRP is automatically enabled when you set up at least one Google account. If you still want to check it's status manually, you will need to enter Download mode. To do this:

turn off your phone and wait about 10 seconds
hold Volume Down, Home and Power buttons simultaneously until you see a warning
press Volume Up to continue.

After doing these steps, some text should appear on the screen, including "FRP LOCK" or something like that. There you can check whether protection is enabled or not.

Important: to exit download mode, you will need to hold the power button for more than 10 seconds, or if that doesn't help just pull the battery.

Please note that FRP can be easily disabled by flashing new ROM without GApps, but if your bootloader is locked that's not an issue.


Google maps location working in app but not in browser I am trying to use google maps to determine my location. When I open the app on my phone (Samsung Note 4), I immediately get location with an accuracy of about 10 metres, but when I access the website  in any of the browsers on my phone (Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Android stock), I see a message saying that my location could not be determined, even though my gps is on and the gps sign flashes on in the notification bar just before I get the error message. I set my phone to allow location access to all applications and in every browser I clicked accept when it asked me if I wanted to share my location. Where am I missing something? Why can't the webpage figure out my location while the application can?

Google apps have a special setting of their own to enable location access.  Open the Google Settings app and change the Positioning Mode setting (under Location) to High Accuracy, and it should prompt you for permission.

In Chrome, go to Settings → Site Settings → Location and ensure nothing related to Google is being blocked.


How to backup notes taken with Samsung Notes app? I'm using my Samsung Tab 2016 P580 for taking lecture notes. I used Samsung Notes app, and now, my device is running out of storage. Furthermore, I can't access the notes from my PC.

I have a 32GB storage card that can't function as an Internal storage. I am looking to backup my notes and I do not have a rooted device.

Do you have any idea how to solve the problem?

Use other applications that allow synchronization with other devices via your account. So in this case nothing is stored in your local storage and you can also access your note from other devices(Just need to login to their service).
My recommendations are:

Microsoft OneNote
Evernote


When a processor speed is given for a multi-core processor, is that the cumulative speed or the speed of the individual cores? For example, if we're considering an quad-core processor, and if the speed given in the "specifications" is 1.8 GHz, does that meant that the combined speed of the entire set of 4 cores is 1.8 GHz, or that each of these four cores has a speed of 1.8GHz individually?

In other words, if the printed spec is "quad-core 1.8 GHz", does that mean that there are 4 cores of speed 1.8 GHz?

Frequency is not cumulative. The chip runs at 1.8 GHz, each of the cores runs at 1.8 GHz, all four cores run at 1.8 GHz. If one car travels at 100 km/h and another car runs beside it at 100 km/h, you just have two cars running at 100 km/h, you don't have anything running at 200 km/h.

Instruction execution rate, on the other hand, is cumulative. If a single-core processor running f GHz can execute k instructions per second, then an n-core processor running at f GHz can execute n ⨉ k instructions per second*, just as our two cars together carry twice as many people as one car.

*In practice you won't see an n-fold increase in speed, as some resources are consumed in co-ordinating the cores.


can i get my sprint s3 flashed to boost mobile or verizon prepaid? Wanting to know if anyone can flash my sprint s3 s4 note2 to verizon prepaid or boost mobiles unlimited plan?

It's not possible to flash a Verizon ROM on a Sprint phone, because Sprint and Verizon are different CDMAs. You flash a Verizon ROM on a Verizon phone, and a Sprint ROM on a Sprint phone.


Android free space decreasing Why are apps or cache constantly bloating in space in my android 5.1.1 device?

Every time I update & use an app it bloats especially if it connects to internet.

I have to free cache every 4 months after which free space is around 1.5 GB & then after 4 months it decreases to around 400  MB.

As every time you use any app, their is some caches for each sessions which is saved by app in device memory like if you are using Instagram it stores some of your starting posts in your device memory as caches for offline view. So as you clear your cache every time, device clear all the temporarily saved data and when you starts again using that app, it again saves some cache for your easy handling of app in offline view. So that's why your memory is decreasing


What is the package name for the default Samsung Gallery App? Deleted it while debloating my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. I am unable to install it via the Samsung store. Thank you in advance!

The default package name of the Samsung Gallery app (at least on my Samsung device here) is
com.sec.android.gallery3d

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sec.android.gallery3d


Forced to allow automatic updates? So I wanted to stop the Play Store from automatically updating only to find that this is literally not an option.

My version of Play Store is 8.1.73 and when in settings I press the "auto-update" fields I get the option to update over wi-fi or also over data.
What happened here? Did Google just sneakily remove the option to not auto-update? Is it a OnePlus "feature"?

I have a OnePlus 5 with the latest update for Oxygen OS for my region (Europe) installed.

Check out in the settings tab of google play store, there you'll find 'Auto Update Apps. There are three options,
Do not auto-update apps,
Auto-update apps at any time. Data charges may apply,
Auto-update apps over Wi-Fi only.
So you can make auto update off.


HTC One SV: Preditive dictionary turns "I was" into "I WAS" every time. How can I turn this off? Whenever I type "I was", the preditive dictionary chooses "WAS" as the first choice, rather than "was". However, it does not do this if I type "was" on its own, only if it follows "I." Obviously this is very annoying when typing out quick replies on my phone. I have next word prediction turned off, "WAS" does not appear in my dictionary so cannot be deleted. Why is it doing this only with this phrase, and how can I turn it off?

In your keyboard settings there should be a "My dictionary" or "My words" or something similar, in there should be all of the words you have added to AutoCorrect, if "WAS" is there, delete it, if not add "was".


Samsung GT-S5360 screen unlock My mother has forgotten her screen lock password. is a four digit number. how can I reset phone so she can use it again?

Please assist!

Follow this process only if mobile data is disabled and phone PIN locked. What I'm giving is Factory Reset method.
(Warning: Factory reset erases all the data from the phone permanently. Phones resets to its initial state.)

Charge the phone fully.
Switch-off the phone.
Try these combinations -

  volume key up+middle home key+power key

-or-

  volume key down+middle home key+power key

A windows pop-ups for confirming Factory Reset/Wipe Data. Confirm it.
The reset process completes in a minute or two.


Low battery temp and wont charge galaxy note 5 after phone got wet The top of my Note 5 was wet, I dried it off and placed the phone in rice. 2 days later it began working again, 2 days after that I received the error msg that charging is paused due to battery temp too low. What can I do?

It depends. If this is a phone where the temperature sensor is within the battery, the battery can simply be replaced, but that does not guarantee that this is the only issue. If the sensor is in the motherboard or another piece, the phone is likely permanently damaged and will need to be replaced.


Suddenly most of the files and folders in my sd card are now named "FSCKxxxx.REN". How to fix this without root? I connected my phone using USB in Mass storage mode(MSC) to a HUMAX TV receiver, and after I disconnect the phone, when I opened the sd card in a files
explorer app, all of the files and folders were named "FSCKxxxx.REN" except 8 folders and 3 files

also the folders that are named "FSCKxxxx.REN" contain files named "FSCKxxxx.REN", and it looks like that the original size of the files didn't change.

What is the cause of this problem, and how to fix it, is it even fixable without root?
I searched for before I ask, but I couldn't fix the problem, maybe because I don't have root.

Summing up from the comments:

The most likely cause is your SD card being in the process of "breaking down": When you connected it to your receiver, it detected problems and ran fsck (the File System ChecK utility) to repair it – which found issues with some files and directories, couldn't figure their names, and thus "saved" what it found using those "cryptic names" (the FSCK prefix seems to confirm this, though normally such "recovered blocks" are moved into a LOST+FOUND folder).

After having connected the card to your PC using a card reader, the PC again found the card faulty and had to repair things. Of course it couldn't restore the FSCK* files and directories to their original name, as that name was lost. As you correctly discovered, using the file command you can determine the file type, rename the files manually, and many, most or (if you're very lucky) even all or them might be intact.

So here's what you should do:

Back up the entire contents of the card
Get yourself a new card ASAP
(until you did, repeat the previous step regularly; it might very soon start losing data)
Copy the backup to the new card, and use that

And next to that, go the described way to identify the FSCK* files, which you then can rename to "useful names" and also copy back to the new card.


Can I pull the emails off my Android phone? I recently lost all the emails on my laptop computer. And they were important business emails. Many of those emails still exist on my Android phone. I know I can forward them all, but that will take a lot of time and then they'll all be in my inbox from me, not the original sender.

Is there any way to pull the emails off and then drop them in to my mail program?

Unfortunately there is no easy way to do this. Here is the method I found...

Open an email on your phone and find where you can "save email as file". It is usually in the upper right dropdown. After saving, go to your phone's storage and find the Saved Email folder. The email will be saved as an *.eml file. Since the file is relatively small, you can do this for multiple emails. (It is a little time consuming to open emails and save as files but once you get the hang of it you can go pretty fast.) All you are doing is opening emails and saving them to that Saved Email folder.

Next, using an email account, email the *.eml file(s) to the email address you want to place the emails in. Remember you can attach multiple files in one email since they are small files. Now open the email account on your computer with the attachments and select an *.eml file. When you open the attachment it will appear as an open email. Move the open email to the folder you want it to appear in.

The email will now be in that folder and appear just as it was on your phone. Unfortunately you now have to spend time opening each *.eml file as an email and moving it to the desired folder. At least now the emails will be saved where you want them in the order (date and time) as they appeared on your phone.


Booting kernel from fastboot We all have heard of "fastboot boot xxxx" command. How does it work when you use it for kernel (fastboot boot boot.img)? Is it simple as this: it boot Android with that kernel if possible or it make that kernel permanent, if not how does it work? Does it just put kernel you specified in RAM instead of one in internal memory? Also what happens if kernel can't boot for some reason does it soft-brick device or just boot existing kernel? And if kernel is ok and it boot how to get back to using kernel from inernal memory?

When you use fastboot boot FILE.img, the image is downloaded and written into the RAM and than the normal procedure to boot a boot.img is followed. No changes to any partition takes place.

If the image is invalid or cannot be booted into, the boot process automatically falls back to the image in the boot partition. Once the temporary kernel is booted into, it is treated no different from the one stored in the boot partition. You won't get to see "booted kernel" or alike info anywhere in the Android. Once you reboot the device that image gets flushed out of the memory and the one from the boot partition would be loaded and booted into.


Is there a workaround to add recently *used* apps to my recently *launched* apps? If I long press home, I get a list of the last six apps I've used, but if I open a web browser from another app (eg. by following a link in Tweetdeck or email) the web browser never shows up in my recent app list. This seems to be expected behavior -- I'm wondering if there is any workaround to this.

It comes up in answers to other questions:

Why does Google Talk never appear on the "Recent Applications" list?

Why isn't gmail listed as a recent app when I long-press the Home button?

Alas, most probably the answer is: No.

Reason: Android's App model.

An app exists of rather loose coupled components (Activities here) that may be launched independently from each other. Only when the main activity is launched as a separate task an entry in the recently launched list is created.  Other apps can also launch an external activity (of another app) that does not count towards that list then.

This happens mostly when you dont launch an app from the launcher:

You click a notification (missed call, sms, calendar event, ...)
An app opens another app (twitter app -> browser)
follow a link in an sms -> browser
select an image in an app -> open in gallery
open youtube from a browser link
...

All those 'opened' apps count as part of the opening app and not as a separate instance (most likely)

I answered a similar question here: Function of back button after opening URL from (Twitter) application

Info about the underlying architecture: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/fundamentals/tasks-and-back-stack.html


Samsung s6 how do I find SSID How do I find the SSID on my Samsung S6? I don't know what the Android version/variant is or how to find it. I recently updated the phone and the icons now have rounded iOS style borders

Update

I found the Android version is 7.0 under settings > about device > software info, and now know that the UX is the 'Samsung Experience'.

Your Android Version : Settings → About Phone → Android Version
SSID Notify can help you with SSID and other details of connection
Phone Info Samsung is a versatile app which gives you a ton of info about your device

According to this post from a reputed site rounded icons are an OS feature in Android 7


How can I view the Android internal partition table? I've rooted my device, put it in recovery mode, and have linked it to PC by adb shell.

How can I view the list of storage devices and partitions?

Note: fdisk doesn't work.

I usually use a combination of the following 4 commands and correlate them, since each of these commands gives a piece of the information that might be needed.

Summarily:

Using df lists the filesystem path alias and size info as seen below (total size, used, free and block size)

Example output:

root@ks01lte:/sdcard # df
df
Filesystem                               Size     Used     Free   Blksize
/dev                                   910.0M    92.0K   909.9M      4.0K
/firmware                               64.0M     8.7M    55.2M     16.0K
/firmware-modem                         64.0M    49.2M    14.8M     16.0K
/system                                  2.2G     2.2G    62.7M      4.0K
/data                                   11.9G     3.0G     8.9G      4.0K
/cache                                  31.5M     4.1M    27.4M      4.0K
/persist                                 7.9M     4.0M     3.8M      4.0K
/efs                                    13.8M     4.4M     9.3M      4.0K
/storage/emulated                      910.0M     0.0K   910.0M      4.0K
/storage/emulated/0                     11.9G     3.0G     8.9G      4.0K
/storage/emulated/0/Android/obb         11.9G     3.0G     8.9G      4.0K
/storage/emulated/legacy                11.9G     3.0G     8.9G      4.0K
/storage/emulated/legacy/Android/obb    11.9G     3.0G     8.9G      4.0K
/mnt/media_rw/extSdCard                 29.7G   251.8M    29.5G     32.0K
/storage/extSdCard                      29.7G   251.8M    29.5G     32.0K

(... cut for space reasons)

Using cat /proc/mounts shows the partition file path, the alias, the filesystem type, the startnig inode, the number of blocks, read/write status (and other parameters of the individual partition that I'm not entirely sure of)

NB: The output of cat /proc/mounts can be a bit messy, but if you read it line by line (entry by entry) carefully you'll get the info
Example output:

root@ks01lte:/sdcard # cat /proc/mounts
cat /proc/mounts
rootfs / rootfs ro,relatime 0 0
tmpfs /dev tmpfs rw,seclabel,nosuid,relatime,size=931840k,nr_inodes=124673,mode=755 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,seclabel,relatime,mode=600 0 0
none /dev/cpuctl cgroup rw,relatime,cpu 0 0
proc /proc proc rw,relatime 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs rw,seclabel,relatime 0 0
selinuxfs /sys/fs/selinux selinuxfs rw,relatime 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs rw,relatime 0 0
none /sys/fs/cgroup tmpfs rw,seclabel,relatime,size=931840k,nr_inodes=124673,mode=750,gid=1000 0 0
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/system /system ext4 ro,seclabel,relatime,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/userdata /data ext4 rw,seclabel,nosuid,nodev,noatime,discard,journal_checksum,journal_async_commit,noauto_da_alloc,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/cache /cache ext4 rw,seclabel,nosuid,nodev,noatime,discard,journal_checksum,journal_async_commit,noauto_da_alloc,errors=panic,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/persist /persist ext4 rw,seclabel,nosuid,nodev,noatime,discard,journal_checksum,journal_async_commit,noauto_da_alloc,data=ordered 0 0
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/efs /efs ext4 rw,seclabel,nosuid,nodev,noatime,discard,journal_checksum,journal_async_commit,noauto_da_alloc,data=ordered 0 0

(... cut for space reasons)

Using cat /proc/partitions you will get the actual partition name identifier and the number of blocks in the partition.

Example output:

root@ks01lte:/sdcard # cat /proc/partitions
cat /proc/partitions
major minor  #blocks  name
 253        0    1048576 vnswap0
 179        0   15388672 mmcblk0
 179        1      15360 mmcblk0p1
 179        2      58816 mmcblk0p2
 179        3        512 mmcblk0p3
 179        4         32 mmcblk0p4
 179        5         32 mmcblk0p5
 179        6       2048 mmcblk0p6
 179        7        512 mmcblk0p7
 179        8        512 mmcblk0p8
 179        9      10240 mmcblk0p9
 179       10      10240 mmcblk0p10
 179       11      14336 mmcblk0p11
 179       12       3072 mmcblk0p12
 179       13       3072 mmcblk0p13
 179       14      20480 mmcblk0p14
 179       15      20480 mmcblk0p15
 179       16      10240 mmcblk0p16
 179       17       7159 mmcblk0p17
 179       18       3072 mmcblk0p18

(... cut for space reasons)

Using ls -al /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name you get the mapping between the partition alias and the path of actual partition file (you also get the owner, their user group, etc)

Example output:

root@ks01lte:/sdcard # ls -al /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name
ls -al /dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name
lrwxrwxrwx root     root              2014-01-20 11:29 aboot -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p6
lrwxrwxrwx root     root              2014-01-20 11:29 apnhlos -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p1
lrwxrwxrwx root     root              2014-01-20 11:29 backup -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p17
lrwxrwxrwx root     root              2014-01-20 11:29 boot -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p14
lrwxrwxrwx root     root              2014-01-20 11:29 hidden -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p25
lrwxrwxrwx root     root              2014-01-20 11:29 modem -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p2
lrwxrwxrwx root     root              2014-01-20 11:29 persdata -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p22
lrwxrwxrwx root     root              2014-01-20 11:29 persist -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p21
lrwxrwxrwx root     root              2014-01-20 11:29 recovery -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p15
lrwxrwxrwx root     root              2014-01-20 11:29 system -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p23
lrwxrwxrwx root     root              2014-01-20 11:29 tz -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p8
lrwxrwxrwx root     root              2014-01-20 11:29 userdata -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p26

(... cut for space reasons)


Cannot backup app via Astro - (private) app? I was just about to backup an Android application via Astro app, when I saw that there is no checkbox in the right side, but just a title saying (private).

What does it mean? How can someone restrict an app to be backed up? Is there a way to backup the app anyway?

Private means you can't back it up. The developer decided that.

Some apps ignore it

FileExpert <- my favourite
EStrongs File Explorer

Not a file manager, but also Titanium backup


Can I flash a ROM of another Android version? I'm currently having Android Lollipop and wanting to flash a Android 6.0 ROM. Would that brick my phone?

Regarding your first question.
In order to flash a rom with higher Android version you need to

make sure the rom is for your device
flash new bootloader
flash new radio

Note: i recommend upgrading Android version with the OTA update from your OEM (Samsung, HTC, ... etc) because you cannot mess up. And then flashing the rom.

Then follow the usual steps for flashing any rom which are

make sure rom can be flashed on your device
wipe (optionally not including internal storage)
flash rom
flash gapps if not included in rom
reboot

And if you want Root

find a SuperSU version that your ROM supports
reboot to recovery
flash SuperSU zip
reboot

IMPORTANT : after flashing twrp may ask you to root your device Select NO

Note: you know that a rom can be flashed on your device only if your device's codename is in the name of the zip file. For example : paranoidandroid6.0.1_hammerhead.zip
 Here hammerhead is the device codename , specifically nexus 5.

Make sure to research before doing anything.


How can I set my bluetooth visibility on all the time with lollipop? I use my phone as a beacon. When I show up places, other bits of hardware notice my bluetooth presence and do things.
As of lollipop apparently this doesn't work anymore because there is no way to have bluetooth visibility on all the time.

Is there a  way I can force bluetooth visibility on all the time?

I'd really rather avoid writing yet another app, especially if somebody already has one, but I have had no luck finding anything on the play store.

This app sorta does what I want, but it doesn't start on boot, which means I've have to push some buttons which defeats the purpose. I'm trying to automate the process.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tcompany.bluetoothdiscovery&hl=en

So the answer will be, I write the app myself.
Thanks for the help.


What could I do to rescue some files from my sm-t320? I installed cyanogenmod and twrp v2.8.7.0 a very long time ago.
Now that the O.S. has broken I'd like to copy some files to pc (windows 10), but I failed to find any solution til now on forums/youtube.

If the version of TWRP on your device allows in the Mount section to Enable/Disable MTP, you can use it to connect to your PC and copy files from the internal storage to the PC.

Or you can insert an SD card, and copy files from the internal storage to the SD card using TWRP's terminal with the following command

cp -R /path/to/internal_storage /path/to/sdcard/folder

Then insert the SD card to PC and copy the files.


Does the MTK preloader reside in the same flash as system or data? The title pretty much sums it all up, I was just curious as I don't understand the MTK preloader that much and considering if a wrong one is flashed then you are left with unrecoverable brick (correct me if i'm be wrong) so it seemed odd to me that it would be kept in the same flash as other partitions like system, data, cache etc.

I have tried checking checking some partitions directly from the phone which seem to indicate that it might be sharing the same flash memory as other partitions but the scatter files that I have seem to indicate otherwise, I also did some xda-delopers searches but it left me even more confused.

Any help will be appreciated.

It's present in the Boot ROM, not a directly visible partition in the eMMC.

Source: MediaTek details: SoC startup

The Boot ROM will be embedded inside the processor chip in generic chipsets. (read more) (no idea about MTK)

Further Technical details on working of Preloader: MediaTek details: Partitions and Preloader


Suddenly no data connection with S3 4.3 Jelly Bean Tonight my SGS3 suddenly stopped having data. Nothing has changed with regards to the APN. It just stopped.

My girlfriend who's on the same carrier has no problems although she has a postpaid subscription and I am using a prepaid sim. (Carrier still handles the same APN though). Just to be sure I have tried looking up her APN settings for comparison but discovered that the carrier is hiding those on the iPhone.

Other things I have tried:

airplane mode on/off (many many times)
apn settings from carrier for pre 2005 phones (gprs)
reboot (many many times)
soft reset
factory reset

Nothing works... sms, calling everything is working but just no data connection.

Anyone has any ideas on what this could be and/or how to fix it?

Try to backup your data and perform a factory reset while keeping in mind to take out the micro sd card as it will be erased too.


A widget to show tasks that are two days closer to due date I am using Jorte application which has a home screen widget to show a list of tasks (synced from Google tasks). But it display all tasks, even the ones that has the due date next month.

Are there any home screen widget that displays tasks that have their due dates within two days from today's date. I do not want to see all tasks.

People who have used Symbian before, would be familiar with this feature. In Symbian, this is a default feature in the homescreen.

Pure Calendar Widget (not free) has an option for how many days ahead to show calendar/task entries for.  There is an option for 2 days that would suit your needs perfectly.  Note that you will need a supported app to sync the tasks from Google (GTasks, Astrid, etc.)  See the list of supported task apps here.


Whatsapp Online Status Inquiry This question might have already been answered so sorry in advance.
My question is: If I am using Whatsapp, it would obviously show me as online but what if I have the application open but my screen timed-out/turned-off, will it still show me as online? Or will it show as last seen (time before screen time-out)? Will it only show as online when I'm in the app actively using it, or will it show as online until I close it (go to home screen or close the app)?
Thank you.

WhatsApp will only show you as online when you're in the app. In fact - even if you reply to a message from in-notification, you still won't be shown as online.


Can an app that has permission to access the photos copy them? i'm really wondering and can't find answer. Google Play from the store every downloaded apps want to access photos. Permission content read the contents of your usb, modify or delete the contents of your usb storage
My question is, can the application copy and send the photos to the application owner if they want? They are virus-free applications available in the official store I am talking about.
My device is an Xiaomi Android tv box running Android 9.

What you are looking at is the static permission to get read/write access to the shared storage (/sdcard respectively /storage/emulated/0).
Since about Android 6 this static permission you grant by installing the app is no longer enough for actually accessing the files on the shared storage. Instead the app has to additionally ask you to get access to those files at run-time. And this time you can chose to deny access. Additionally apps usually ask for this permission at that time when they really need it. This means if access to shared storage is only required for one functionality you never use you should not see this permission request dialog and thus the app never gets access to the shared storage.
But if you get this permission request and you allow it then the app has full access to ever file on shared storage including your stored photos. An app can do anything it want with files it has access to, including sending them to a server in the internet.
Google also recognized that "all-or-nothing permission" was not a good decision. Starting with Android 10/11 the way to access devices shared storage has totally changed and now allows to grant/deny access on a finer granular level.


PIN reset for purchases on Market I created a PIN for accepting purchases on the Android Market, and I seem to have forgotten it. How can I reset it? It looks as though I can't access User Controls without said PIN. It's not a huge deal, since I can still purchase apps from the website, but it would be good to have that option if I was on the go.

Settings -> Applications -> Manage applications -> Market -> Clear data


Exit from firmware download mode Can I get out from firmware download mode without downloading new one? I see horrible message:

Downloading...
Do not turn off target!!!

What will happens if I power off my Samsung S4?

the power should not be turned off during the Flashing.... if there is a progress bar ongoing you must not turn the power off otherwise simply hold the power button or remove the battery to restart... no problem


Where do i found file manager in SONY Xperia? I owned SONY Xperia smart phone and i inserted SD card into it with some files but i didn't found those file anywhere in my phone.No file manager in Xperia?

Also when i download anything it goes to phone internal memory, no chance to change it to SD card?

From the Sony Mobile site there doesn't seem to be a file manager included in Sony's ROM.

However, many excellent file managers are available on the Play Store.

I personally use ES File Exploerer for many years now and it is excellent.

Astro file manager is also very popular.

Here's a search for many, many more posibilities


Notification without vibration I'd like to have notifications for Outlook for Android to appear in the notification bar, but not get vibrations every time a new email is received.  How can I do that?

From your Outlook inbox, go to your settings (gear icon in the top right) and select "Notifications". There should be an option to disable vibration there:


Changing the call voicemail timeout period? I'm running Cyanogenmod 7.  When I call my Android phone, it rings for 30 seconds before timing out and directing to my voicemail.  I want it to only ring for 20 seconds before timing out - how can I change this?  Is there somewhere in the Android GUI for me to set it?

OK, this is indeed a setting which is determined by the carrier.  It can be changed (at least on GSM networks, according to this Tech Recipes article), using an MMI code (Man-Machine Interface code).  Here's the procedure that worked for me:

On your Android phone, go to your Phone app, dial *#61#, and hit the Call button.  Android should briefly display "MMI code started".  Then, it should display your current voicemail number and the delay time.  Note down the voicemail number since you'll need to enter this in next.

Next, go to your Phone app and then the keypad.  Now dial this number from the keypad to change the time your phone will ring before it goes to voicemail:
**61*1yyyYYYyyyy*11*xx#

... and then hit the call button.

In the above code, you will put your voicemail number where the yYs are and the time delay in seconds for the xxs.  Once you hit call, it will give confirmation as to whether it was successful or not.

Delay is in five second increments with the maximum being 30 seconds (ie. 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 secs).

So for example, if my voicemail number is 555-444-5555 and i want to set it to the maximum 30 seconds, i would dial this on my Android phone's keypad:
**61*15554445555*11*30#

Apparently, this will work for AT&T, T-Mobile, and any other GSM / SIM Card Carrier and may work on other phones besides Android devices.

Personally I am in the UK and so my voicemail number starts +44, so my MMI code to change the voicemail timeout was more like this:
**61*+447890123123*11*20#

It worked perfectly for me, and set the voicemail timeout to 20 seconds.


Galaxy S8: Set default app for left swipe? Is it possible to set a default app to open on left swipe on Home screen? Currently Bixby app opens on left swipe, I would like to change it to some other app.

Currently it is only possible to change the app on left swipe by installing an app called Bixby Remapper.