Set owner information I just installed unofficial version of cyanogenmod on my Redmi 1s but when i pull down the quick settings and click on users I cannot find my name in place of owner.On going to more settings and clicking on the owner it says no contact found. How do i set the owner information? I already have set the owner information under security option in settings.

Go to of your app drawer. Then search for the app Contacts. Open it. To edit the owner information you should go to the Me contact. It is at the very top.(not by the "m") there you can set all the information for the owner. When you are finished, tap save.
In Settings go to Lock Screen, then you will see an option Owner Info like in the screenshot below:

That is an option where you can type some text and it will be displayed on your Lock Screen like this:

Hope my answer helps. For any question just leave a comment below instead of down voting.


Formatting external sd card as an internal storage I'm on Samsung Galaxy On7, Android 6.0.1-Marshmallow. My phone has a small internal memory, due to which I'm thinking of converting the sd card to an internal storage facility.

I read this article, where they've explained how Android 6.0.1 allows one to convert a sd card to an internal storage facility by formatting. They've also stated in the article as to how to rollback the formatting.

Suppose I've formatted my sd card, and moved several applications there. Now, I want to rollback the formatting. As they've written in the article, I'll have to move my apps to internal storage before I format again. But, is it possible to move apps to internal storage after moving them to the formatted sd card? That is, after formatting, will I still be shown an option of moving an app back to internal storage?

Moreover, can this method bypass the developer's setting which prevents an app to be moved to sd card? I mean, if I have an app that cannot be ordinarily moved to sd card, then after formating, will I be able to move it to sd card?

When you format sd card as adoptable storage it will behave like internal storage you can move apps on it. But beware it will be encrypted so it can't be used with other device until you format it to external storage. Apps can be moved from internal storage to adopted storage as much as you want but if you want to format sd card to be used as external storage it is necessary to move apps and media to internal storage or they will be wiped  (because that is what formatting do it erase all data on partition you format).


Why is suggested to OEM unlock when LinageOS can be installed without it I have a "LENOVO Tab 2 A10-30" which got frozen after the update in the startup loop - did not start after displaying the Lenovo logo.
I decided to reinstall it with the LineageOS, and for that I needed (according the articles) to do oem unlock.
According articles I should get the OEM unlock key from settings or allow it in the settings - which I can't access as the device won't boot up.
So I tried bunch of commands from the commandline (ubuntu 20.04), I could not OEM unlock, but I was able to install LineageOS just fine.
My question is - how come that it worked, even though it should not be able to unlock the OEM? What happened there?
Started device with holding vol up:
$ adb devices
List of devices attached
0123456789ABCDEF    sideload

Then I am not sure now what I selected in the menu, but then I went:
$ fastboot devices
84afc61e    fastboot

$ fastboot oem unlock
...
FAILED (remote: oem unlock is not allowed)
finished. total time: 0.002s

$ fastboot oem unlock-go
...
FAILED (remote: oem unlock is not allowed)
finished. total time: 0.002s

$ fastboot oem get_unlock_data
...
FAILED (remote: unknown command)
finished. total time: 0.002s

fastboot oem device-info
...
(bootloader)    Device tampered: false
(bootloader)    Device unlocked: false
(bootloader)    Device critical unlocked: true
(bootloader)    Charger screen enabled: true
(bootloader)    Display panel:
OKAY [  0.007s]
finished. total time: 0.007s

But I tried to flash in the TWRP recovery image anyhow:
$ fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
target reported max download size of 262144000 bytes
sending 'recovery' (11700 KB)...
OKAY [  0.446s]
writing 'recovery'...
OKAY [  0.947s]
finished. total time: 1.393s

$ fastboot boot recovery.img
downloading 'boot.img'...
OKAY [  0.449s]
booting...
OKAY [  0.023s]
finished. total time: 0.471s

After that, with volume up on boot I got in to TWRP menu; where I installed gaps and LineageOS zips, and after reboot it was just there.
My research links:

https://www.getdroidtips.com/unlock-bootloader-via-fastboot-on-android/
https://www.howtogeek.com/239798/how-to-unlock-your-android-phones-bootloader-the-official-way/
https://www.theworldsbestandworst.com/2020/08/how-to-use-adb-sideload-to-install-roms-updates-restore/
https://www.hardreset.info/devices/lenovo/lenovo-tab-2-a10-30/faq/faq/bootloader-moto-unlock-lenovo-motorola-root/
https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/flash-custom-rom-lineage-os-lenovo-tab-2-tb2-x30l.4175085/

The official way does not always work, if your phone and flashing are ok, don't touch them is the idea.
Official way to unlock a bootloader, its different for different phones, but it I post a general overview:

Back Up Anything You Want to Keep
Use Android SDK or the light verision of the SDK called platform tools and the IMEI of your phone to get an unlock key for the bootloder. The unlock key or the procedure to get it can be found on your manufacturer's site.
Go to fastboot mode and enter:
fastboot oem unlock UNLOCK_KEY

Read more here:
This is for Sony devices.
Unlocking a locked bootloader will wipe all user data (but not the ROM) from the device. This is a security mechanism, so you can't get at the data on a phone by installing your own ROM on it.
Its locked for security reasons, because it controls all the hardware, independantly from the operating system.
You can read more about bootloaders here.


How to restore the official firmware on Samsung Galaxy Note? I have a question for you guys. When I bought my Samsung Galaxy Note, it came with custom firmware with lots of bugs. It's being over 3 months I bought this phone and it freezes a lot. My question is, does anyone know how to restore the original firmware from Samsung? Thank you..

My Android version   : 2.3.6
Model number         : GT-N7000
Baseband version     : N7000XXLB2
Kernel version       : 2.6.35 14-FM-2.0-g399c932
                       frank_m@VirtualBox
Build number         : GINGERBREAD.XXLC1
Rom version          : KingDroid Elegance Deluxe v7.0

It was easier than I expected. Just follow this tuto will guide you well.

Download Odin
Download the related firmware
Launch Odin, click on ROM
Select the firmware
Click on Start button.
Pray!

Thank you for everyone who took their time to help me.


Want to update Samsung Galaxy On7 to Nougat I want to update my Samsung Galaxy On7 to android 7.0 Nougat.

The OTA updates haven't been rolled out.

I want to use all legal software that won't void my warranty or get me into Police trouble.

I found this link: http://www.android.gs/update-samsung-galaxy-on7/

I have Android sdk on my computer (all the build tools, and Android versions 5.0.0 to 6.0, and will download nougat also if necessary.

Can anyone please see the link and tell me whether it is safe and legal?

If not, then please suggest any other legal method.

I want to use no custom ROM.

Yes, that links seems safe to me. It tells you to download the official firmware for your device from the official Samsung page or SamMobile, which is a trustworthy website. The problem is, you won't find the Nougat firmware there either, because it's not released yet. The only thing you can do is wait until Samsung officially publishes Android 7 for your device.

By the way, flashing any kind of Android firmware is never illegal, since Android is open source (only exception is when paid content is included for free). It can only void your warranty.


No Signal Sign on Samsung S3 GT-I9300 Possibly After Deactivating Mobile Tracker I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 GT-I9300 since 2012. I've never rooted it. The last app I've installed was a few months ago. I'm running Android 4.3.

Yesterday, for the first time ever, I've got "Uninstall harmful app. 'Mobile tracker' can damage your device." notification, exactly the same as in the following thread: Uninstall harmful app. 'Mobile tracker' can damage your device.' At first, I discarded it but when it happens again and since it was from google, I said 'OK'. Later that day, I don't know if it is due to this or not but my phone started to show no signal sign and not recognizing my SIM card. I re-enabled this mobile tracker from Application Manager but still I get the same no signal sign.

When I put another SIM to my phone it works, when I put my SIM to another phone it also works. It only doesn't work when I put my SIM to my phone. I cannot understand how this can be possible, but it is the case unfortunately. Any help would be very much appreciated as I do not want to reset my phone.

I too have a Samsung galaxy 3 that I brought in 2012. This morning the same error message and a warning triangle appeared on my phone for the first time. I contacted Samsung support - the rep hadn't heard of this issue before - but talked me through a factory reset. Did this and the triangle & message have gone. Would have liked to have found a solution that didn't involve a factory reset though. (She also advised me to delete my Google account first - bcos otherwise apparently it's a little difficult to reinstall afterwards..)


How to enter IP address with port into Google Chrome for android? When I type IP address and port (eg.: 192.168.0.9:15672) on android google chrome 60, I am redirected to google search on that IP address and port.

I want to access that as URL, not as google search. How to do that?

To use specific ports in Chrome for Android (and most mobile browsers), you must include the transport protocol as well..

For example (IP addresses are as an example, not valid just news.com):

64.38.232.185:18081 <- will result in a search

http://64.38.232.185:18081 <- will initiate hypertext transfer protocol on port 18081

64.38.232.185:58443 <- will result in a search

https://64.38.232.185:58443 <- will initiate a secure http connection on port 58443

Without specifying the transport protocol, most mobile browsers don't assume, although some browsers do assume common alternative port usage like 8080 or 8443.

So basically, type the full url including specifying the transport protocol prefix (http:// https://) and not just the IP address and port.


Reset skytex primer pocket My son has a Skytex Primer Pocket, which he put a pattern unlock on. He has completely forgotten it. I've been trying to figure out what I might do. There is nothing of any importance on the device, I'm perfectly willing to do a factory reflash if possible, but I just can't figure out how to do anything. Anyone out there know what to do?

I found that you should be able to do a factory reset by holding the power and home when powering on. There you should have the option to do a factory reset.


Weather information not showing up on lock screen like before I have a Samsung Galaxy S5 phone, in my previous version of Android (presumably KitKat), I configured it to show basic weather information on the lock screen for that day (typically temperature and overall conditions outside). This setting is in Settings > Lock Screen > Additional Info > check "Weather" box to enable.

Since I upgraded to Lollipop, the setting is still there, but even when I enable it the weather info no longer shows up on the lock screen. Pedometer is working, all the other lock screen settings seem to be working. Did they remove this one feature in Lollipop? Because honestly I found it really handy so I didn't have to unlock my phone just to view the current temperature.

Does anyone know if this is a bug or was it removed and they forgot to remove the actual option to display it?

I had the same problem with the pedometer widget, which I solved by toggling the Additional information and Pedometer settings on and off and rebooting.

Also note that the weather and pedometer widgets only display if there are no other notifications showing on the lock screen.


Why do people recommend rooting a device before flashing a custom ROM? If rooting isn't required to flash a new ROM (unlocking your bootloader is), why do many people recommend rooting your device before flashing it?

I think this one really depends on the device and procedures involved in installing a new ROM. For Nexus devices, there's really no point because you can just fastboot oem unlock the bootloader and install your new recovery with fastboot flash recovery [file].

Other devices, however, may force you to use tricks that require root in order to unlock the bootloader. For example, in order to install a ROM on a device which doesn't support fastboot, you may need root in order to install a custom recovery.


Root my EVO wihtout USB cord I want to root my EVO... but my charging port is broken (I've been using an external battery charger to get around this). Anyway to get the files I need to root my EVO onto my EVO without using this cable? I was thinking about going through Box or Dropbox or something like that but I'm not sure how to download these files into a specific folder on my EVO.

Thanks.

You can always put the files on an SD card and transfer them to your internal storage from there, but as was said in the comments, if something happens during the process and you are unable to boot your phone, the only way to recover from that is to reflash it from the computer, using the usb cable. You can use Titanium Backup to back all of your apps up onto the SD card, and hopefully you keep everything you can backed up through Google, but you still would have an unusable phone if something happened.


How to pick the desired contact/contact image when dialing a number shared by two (or more) contacts This is something that's bugged me about Android for a while and I can't figure out how to change it. Basically, it seems like when I add a contact entry to some app, in particular a launcher app that lets you set a button to direct dial a particular contact, if that contact shares the given phone number with another contact, then it just picks one, and in my case it always picks the WRONG one, lol!

An example: Right now I'm trying to set up my mom with her first smartphone, and I put Big Launcher on which will have buttons to call each of us, both cell and home. The problem is that me and my wife both have separate cell phone but share the same home number, of course. So, I add direct dials to both our cell phones and our appropriate images show up. However, when I add a direct dial to MY home phone number, for some reason my wife's image comes up. It is her home number as well, but I would think that especially since it is created via my contact record that it would use my image. The same exact thing is true between my sister and her husband's phones.

Is there any way to get around this? I tried tricking it to see if just formatting the number differently and putting a 1 in front of the area code on one of the contact records would fix it, but it doesn't. It just seems odd that this issue has not been resolved and that there isn't a simple way for apps to let you pick the image/avatar based on the contact record that's chosen...

The phone I'm dealing with right now is a Sprint LG G Flex with Android 4.4.2 Stock, but this is a problem I've noticed on every Android phone I've owned...

I assume the profile photo chosen is based on the contact ID, however an easy (albeit less than ideal) workaround in this situation is to create a unique contact for "Home", set the desired photo there and add that as a separate direct dial option.


Missing "Download offline speech recognition" Setting Option on Nexus 9 Lolipop I have a problem, like the title say I don't have the option in my voice setting "Download offline speech recognition". I decided to post it here because I don't find anything in internet after many hours, and I need this functionality for my application.

My device is an HTC Nexus 9 running Lollipop 5.1.1

You can see the problem on this screenshot.

Screenshot of Missing option Download offline speech recognition in voice setting- (Click to enlarge image)

For some reason, the offline speech recognition is not on Google Settings (usually on Google Settings - Search & Now - Voice), but on device Settings:

Open device Settings
Go to Personal
Go to Speech
Select Voice Search
Locate Download offline speech recognition

Reference: Menu tree: Google Nexus 9


Disabling double-tap to edit on Google Docs I frequently use Google Docs for school revision on-the-go, and I have to scroll down pages of course material when reading. Sometimes, I accidentally double-tap the page and this triggers the app to go into editing mode; this brings up the keyboard as well and is quite vexing, the only way to switch back to viewing mode is to either press the ◄ (back) button or the tick symbol on the top-left corner.

I can't find the setting of this in Google Drive and in Google Docs, I searched the Internet and found nothing.

How do I disable this feature?

As of 20-07-2017, this feature is not available at this point in time.


Android system takes too much data usage Checking through Glasswire application, Android system has the highest data usage everyday on my Android. I only used my phone for tethering to my laptop and it don't take that much of data (My laptop only has Glasswire apps so I can check).

I have searched through the internet and most of them said you should restrict background data. However, if I set it, I won't receive notification from my instant messaging app.

Also, it seems weird that the upload data usage take more than 100 MB. I realize I even didn't upload too much things.

Are there any solution?

Android System data usage

When you use tether your Smartphone and your PC the I assume that those data will be accumulated in the "Android System" entry - or did you encounter a separate entry in the Android network usage list?

On your PC you should check if the tethered network connection is marked as cellular / metered connection network connection (Windows).

Background data user

You can restrict the background data usage for ever app separately. Therefore you can spare the apps where you want/need background data.


Unlock phone to toggle wifi? I have a galaxy s6 with Verizon on marshmallow, and every time I try to toggle wifi from the lock screen I am forced to unlock the phone. This isn't really a hassle, more of a minor inconvenience, but it doesn't make sense that Samsung would design the lock screen like that. I know the iPhone has excellent security, and it doesn't require the phone to be unlocked to toggle wifi, so this isn't a security measure. This also happened in lollipop. Thanks in advance for any ideas.

This is just the way Samsung chose to implement it... The quick toggle panel on most stock Android or near-stock devices is accessible without unlocking the device, although anything other than a toggle, such as selecting a different WiFi network, requires unlocking.

You would need to flash a custom ROM in order to get the desired result due to Samsung's customizations being so non-standard.


Does a new software update take up more space, or replace the space of the old version? Just today my Galaxy s6 received the Android 7.0 update. I haven't installed it yet, though, because I'm concerned about space. Unfortunately the Galaxy s6 doesn't have external storage so I have to be very careful about managing my device. I have two questions:

1) How big is Android 7.0 for my phone?

2) Will Android 7.0 take up that amount in #1 PLUS what Android 6 takes up already, or will it replace what Android 6 takes up and hopefully leave me with very little decrease in storage?

Thank you!

System updates are applied (typically) to the /system partition, which is not accessible to you or your applications but is reserved for the operating system. It will over-write your existing Android version and should not take up more user space (this space is already reserved for the operating system, it usually is from 512MB to 4GB of reserved space, regardless if it is all used or not, and it is not accessible to you as a user). The exception being it needs to download the update file before it can apply it which can be quite large, anywhere from 200MB to 2.5GB in some cases but this is temporary storage only and it is released after the update is complete.

It is also important to note that due to the change in runtime of Android from 6 (ART) to 7 (JIT) the amount of space needed for your applications and they compiled versions reduces, sometimes drastically. It is not uncommon when upgrading from Marshmallow to Nougat to gain a few gigabytes of storage space after it is completed.


Find owner of Android Wear watch Today I found an LG Watch R W110 while hiking. It's not screen locked, so I've poked around to try and identify the owner. There's only one number in the call log (other entries are all names) and I called it but it was a business that couldn't narrow down the search.

I thought I might be able to pair it with my own phone and redial "Mum" from the call log, but couldn't get it to pair with my iPhone. If I were to pair it with an Android phone, would doing so wipe the existing call log, or might I then be able to call "Mum"?

If not, is there any other way to find information about the watch's owner?

Try the following apps:

Google, Hangouts, Agenda, Messenger. I was browsing through my Moto 360 and those had some infomation.


Rooted phone missing key features, help! I have a new MetroPCS Lg Leon running lollypop 5.02. I rooted it with kingroot apk (bad idea) and I cannot get the menu bar or swipe gestures to work. I.e. swipe to search,  there is no pull down menu.

I must have messed with some settings in root but I factory reset the phone multiple times and hot reset it if that is any different with the battery out. Not corrected.

The lg startup screen starts each time I boot it as well.  Any suggestions?

Finally found an answer. I had to give the android system full root privledges and/or unroot. It updated as it should to a new version of lollypop in a few days time. Any better answer please post.


I can't update my Samsung SII to the latest firmware As soon as I connect my Galaxy S2 with my computer it detects and Kies tell me that I have an updated version available. So I press update it downloads, prepare everything, then my phone goes to "Downloading do not turn off the target" and then Kies doesn't identify my phone. I've done it so many times before, every time I had an update from Samsung I've updated the same way.

I have tried different versions (1.5.49.0, 1.5.51.0, 1.5.53.0) of "Samsung USB driver for mobile phones" but nothing resolves the problem. I have tried to reset my phone to default but that didn't resolve the problem as well. As soon as it goes to "Downloading do not turn off the target" then the same thing happens. I don't know what to do, any help would be highly appreciated. BTW, my android version is 4.0.4 and baseband version I9100BVLPE if that helps.

Try installing Kies and updating the OS on another computer.
It is possible that you have the wrong drivers installed on the computer and as far as I know this cannot be undone.


How do I delete a single calendar in Android (not just hide it)? How do I delete a single calendar from the native calendar app (not only the entries: the whole calendar) without wiping out the app or all calendars, in android >4.0?

This feature was available till ICS. In Kitkat, it's still not possible.

i just ran into the same problem. I  created a local calendar with an app and then removed the app before deleting the calendar. I could re-install the app and delete the calendar there. So for you as a developer this means you should probably add this functionality to your app.

However if you need a quick fix or if someone else is running into this problem with a third party app that does not provide a way to remove its own calendars, you can use the (no longer free) app iCal Import/Export CalDAV by Lukas Aichbauer, as this app allows you to remove any local calendars.

Just start it, select "Edit Calendars", then "Choose Calendar", and select the calendar you want to remove. Then click "Delete Calendar" and confirm if you are certain you have selected the right one.

Maybe use the same app first to pull a backup of your calendars you want to keep.

EDIT: in response to raphadko's comment, i've updated the link, the app still exists but is no longer free


kies stuck on "connecting" on mac+galaxy s2 i have the latest version of kies,os x, and a galaxy s2 with cm10 on it.
it is set to MTP with usb debugging off (if it's on usb storage rather than mtp, kies crashes).
i tried playing with many parameters but none of them seem to work - when i plug in my galaxy kies shows "connecting" and nothing happens.. (the program itself is not stuck).

someone suggested launching phoneutil (7284) and changing the pda/modem stuff, but it doesn't launch on my phone, i guess it's because of my cm10.

what else can i do?
thanks in advance.

p.s tried rebooting the phone\mac several times.

You can't use Kies with custom ROMs (like CM), only with Samsung ROMs.


What is the 'Relationship' field for in Android Contacts? In Android Contacts, you can add a field called relationships.
What is it used for and does anyone even bother putting it in?

It is meant for your relationship with contact

After a relationship is added, you can call, text, or email the person using their nickname.... After the nickname is added, you can contact them by saying things like "Text my sister" or "Email my mom."

Some typical fields from Google contacts app in screenshot (you can define a custom field too)

In example below, I have added child with nickname of XYZ. If I use Google assistant I would say call XYZ


"app not installed" Replace ROM-based app with modified APK without root I'm facing trouble installing a modded .apk if the same app is already provided in stock Rom.

I'm using Micromax canvas E481, not rooted yet. Which has saavn app already installed. I uninstalled it to install a mod version of saavn. But I'm getting error "app not installed" however same apk is working on my other devices. Same is happening for playstore.apk.

Saavn is not a system app, it's just provided in ROM by Micromax. From application, it gives option to uninstall it. I can install apk for any version of Saavn, it's just not letting install the mod version. If I modify it using lucy patcher it won't install it but it will let me install the original apk for any version bypassing the pop up from es Explorer.

INSTALL_FAILED_UPDATE_INCOMPATIBLE should tell you something. "app is already provided in stock Rom", "not rooted" and "I uninstalled it" don't match: w/o root, you cannot have uninstalled a system app (you probably have disabled it).

Same goes for Playstore: you cannot simply "update" it with a patched version. If it's an official version (signed by Google), you could update it – but then you must tell adb install you want to update: adb install -r xx.apk (note the -r, which stands for "re-install"). Not sure whether that works via adb for pre-installed apps, though (I've never tried).


Can Microsoft Exchange Activesync in Knox container still wipe my device I set up my work email account (which uses Microsoft Exchange Activesync) on my personal     galaxy s4 (gt-I9505 running 4.4.2) under the Knox container (version 2.0). If the Admin tries to remote wipe my device will it

  a: do nothing
  b: wipe the Knox container
  c: wipe my entire phone

I've looked around for answers on the web and gotten a few guesses but I would like some proof or at least hear from someone with first hand knowledge.

-Thanks

The Knox container will be wiped.

Knox is a sandboxed instance of Android with its own separate security policy. Exchange's device administrator has no access to the contents of your phone outside of Knox and cannot wipe your personal data.


How can I get rid of the low disk space notification? The low disk space notification frequently comes up. I can't get rid of it; the clear button doesn't clear it, and neither does tapping it. It's just taking up space. How can I get rid of it?

I've got 20 MB of free space on my phone, which isn't a lot, but it's sufficient. I already know how much space is available, so a constant reminder serves no purpose, as there's nothing I'm willing to delete to free up space.

This is a Google/HTC Nexus One running Android 4.0. (Quite an old phone to be running ICS, but it was like that when I aquired it secondhand.)

Edits in response to the comments and answers:

I've already moved all possible apps to the SD card, and even a few that weren't supposed to be moved there. Unfortunately, Android insists on keeping some stuff on the phone, even when the apps are moved off. As a Linux user, I can't understand this. By a combination of choosing the $PATH well and manipulating mount points and symlinks appropriately, I can't see why it should make any difference to the system where the app is installed.
I've already cleared the cache. There's not much there, since I've been aggressive in my cache management. I've even cleared out several apps' data.
I haven't yet gotten around to moving my data to the SD card, as I asked about here. I think it'll only amount to a few MB of savings, though.

Right, I have the solution. Swipe down to get notifications, then hold down on the screen where it says 'insufficient storage'. A little window will appear saying 'app info'. Press that and it will take you to settings of your android system. There is a ticked box saying 'show notifications'
Untick that box and the problem is solved.
( the box can be ticked again afterwards, so you can receive other notifications, but the problem should not reoccur).
(as of 2020, you can no longer uncheck that box)


Android showing battery at 100% even when left for straight 10 hours in night Just started using an Android phone and left it overnight to see how long it would last. After about 10 hours the battery is still at 100%, so could there be some kind of delay when it comes to the battery percentage or is it something else? My phone is a Leagoo Lead 4.

You could try some apps like Battery Monitor to check the usage of all apps.
But your let's say "problem" is not so unusual. If you want to be 100% sure about that, try it this way.
Completely drain the battery out, sou your phone turns off. Then plug it in to the charger for 8 hours. (That's enough to charge it to 100%). After it has been charged plug it off and leave it for 10 hours. But! Don't install any new apps on it. Just to be clear, apps like Viber , Whatsapp,Messenger,Facebook... even if you closed them they are still running, because if not you would not get messages. Besides display and games these apps drain most of your memory (RAM) and battery.
I hope this helps.


Allowing restricted accounts to use gmail/hangouts I'm pondering deploying a fleet of nexus 7 tablets, but I'm running into a few hiccups on managing the fleet.

I would like to do the following:

Use multiple restricted accounts on each tablet
Allow access to the browser
Block google play store (easy enough with restricted accounts)
Allow each account access to individual gmail/hangouts for communication (not an option with restricted accounts - as it appears it is blocked and uses the primary user's info)

Is there any work around to allow restricted accounts to access gmail/hangouts?

Thanks,

The main difference between a "user profile" and a "restricted profile" is that a restricted profile doesn't have its own Google account, which is needed for Gmail and Google+ Hangouts. A restricted profile with a Google account in it is just a normal user account.

If you want to restrict access to features in a normal user profile, you need to use device-administrator software to impose a security policy. This will also allow you to remotely/centrally manage each device.


Will I receive pending messages after I reactivate my account on new phone? My Samsung Galaxy S3 was damaged by water and I now have a new Galaxy S4. I have reinstalled WhatsApp on the new phone. However I do know that I have messages sent by others that I have not received, they are pending.

Will I receive these messages? I have the same SIM card and there was a two week period between old and new phone.

You will receive any messages that were sent  after the S3 died & activation of WhatsApp on your new phone.

However, any messages you had received on your old phone & didn't read cannot be received again.


ADB driver for Samsung does not respond in remote debugging To summarise the situation, I tried all the steps and quirks to make remote debugging work for a Samsung Galaxy S4, and Galaxy A3, the chrome://inspect page never picks up anything, I tried with different data cables and different PCs, finally, when I tried with a Huawei mobile, it immediately picked up.

The ADB device in Device Manager does not seem to have any issues, it shows under group: Samsung Android Phone

Huawei on the other hand installed Universal Serial Bus devices > ADB interface, which is never active while connecting the Samsung.

What is so different about Samsung? What else does it need?

I finally made it work. Here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2588979

I installed the application and went through the process, then in command prompt, changed to C:\adb, and tried different adb commands, I do not quite know the thing that triggered the change, the ones I tried:

>adb -d
>adb kill_server
>adb usb

That made it work!


File level changes by an Android app How can I track the file level changes done by an application during execution on an Android device. Specifically I am interested in file level changes done by a malware - create, delete, save a file on the device.

While searching this forum I found one way is - /proc//fd. Is there any other way ? using logcat,Frida or any other way ?

Other than the options you mentioned,
There's a seriously long way to do this, the best way in my opinion.

It's very basic and effective, I used this method to find the files or folders that KingRoot modified, created or deleted.

It's one of the oldest methods around,
Compare a base image & after install image.

Backup the device ( in stock condition is better )

system
data
( call it Base Image )

Install and run the application
Backup the device again
( call it Test Image )
Transfer the backups to a PC
Extract the backup's into two separate folders
Use a comparison tool to test for differences between the folders
Identify any Deleted, Modified & Created data

I used WinMerge or something like that, it is designed to help merge folders, however it is enough to do the comparison.

You can also compare the compressed images without extraction by using a Hex editor that has file comparison tools.

I use HxD Hex Editor to compare files on PC.


Formatting a "corrupt SD card" fails - is the card dead? I have a no-brand-marked 32 GB "Micro SD HC" Card, which I'd been using with my Android 6.0.1-based phone.

Recently, the phone has been telling me the card is corrupt, and would not use it; and today I tried formatting it as the UI suggested. Well, the formatting app closed after a very long time with no progress beyond some point, and nothing seems to have changed - the card is still described as corrupt.

Is it necessarily the case that my card is dead, or could this possibly be a software issue?

Most likely. If you had the card set to be read as internal storage, Android sets an encryption on it. After a factory reset, the keys change, and the card is permanently write-protected. I have had no luck reversing this on mine.

Regards.


insufficent storage space for apps Have a new zenithink C95 tablet.Getting insufficient storage space error when installing apps.Have 16 gig internal flash drive and 16 gig SD card which still have 12 gig and 14 gig still available.Have nearly a page of apps loaded.Going into storage menu there is a 1 gig partition that the apps are loaded into,which is now full.Even though it is advertised as having 16 gigs internal storage for apps ,music,videos etc,you can't get any more than 950mb of apps on it,which is pretty useless for a tablet. EBay supplier of tablet says they are all like this,but will try and contact zenithink for maybe a firmware update.
Any ideas on sorting this out?
Thanks steve

Doesn't sound like you can do anything yourself (short of rooting the device, and installing a different ROM version).

I don't think as an Android user, you will be able to change how this (poor) design was implemented without changing the OS.


How can I send a group sms using my google voice number? I have tried using the google voice app only to find that it doesn't support group SMS, and instead sends an individual text message to each person (which doesn't allow them to reply-all to the group I originally messages).

I have also tried using hangouts, only to discover that it does NOT use the google voice number.

Is there any way to combine these two features? can I do it from a web-browser interface somehow?

P.S. I would like to avoid signing up for Google+ if I can avoid it.

Google Voice (the service) doesn't support this. Until Google adds this feature there's no way to do it.

This limitation is not specifically noted anywhere official, to my knowledge. However, Voice receives group messages from supported carriers the same way it sends them - as independent messages - and this has been officially stated. Mayur Kamat (the Hangouts product manager) noted this caveat on a Google+ announcement regarding expanded MMS support for Voice:

  Group MMS will arrive as individual messages - so you will at least
  not miss messages any more.

The above also requires that the message was sent by one of the carriers Google supports MMS from. Group messages received from unsupported carriers are never delivered.


ADB- Cannot get the Path variable to work for ADB I am unable to execute ADB from CMD after adding it to the Path Variable. I am able to launch it from the folder when I open a Command Prompt there. But I am unable to launch ADB straight from CMD without first navigating to it.

My Path Variable:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live;C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Windows Live;C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath;C:\Program Files\Broadcom\Broadcom 802.11 Network Adapter\Driver;;%SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem;%systemroot%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;%systemroot%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Program Files (x86)\QuickTime\QTSystem\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Live\Shared;C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft ASP.NET\ASP.NET Web Pages\v1.0\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\8.0\Windows Performance Toolkit\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Tools\Binn\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Web Platform Installer\;C:\Program Files (x86)\GtkSharp\2.12\bin; E:\Programs\Program Files\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools

My SDK path is at the end. How am I able to correct this so that I can launch ADB without first navigating to its folder.

Edit: The program is only my portable hard drive if this helps at all at diagnosing the problem.

I Removed my Path Variable as I was getting nowhere, and instead I put the contents of the platforms-tools folder at the root directory of where my CMD opens in, which is my user folder. I am now able to run ADB from the default CMD location, although this isn't an ideal and thorough solution that can be used were every I open the CMD prompt on my computer, it is still a solution until I can fix this path variable problem.

Edit: It Seems that I had a space after this ; It isn't ment to have a space between ;and the begin of the address


Google Play Music offline files cannot be found So I have a very odd problem.  When I mark my songs for offline use in Google Play Music, they download just fine and are available offline. However, when I go to the /sdcard/Android/data/com.google.android.music/cache directory, there are no files in there.

Does anyone know how to find my files or fix what's wrong?

I'm very confused and have already tried factory restoring my phone. I am using a Samsung Galaxy S3 (Verizon) with the stock ROM which I've rooted.

So I figured this out. Somewhere along the line, Google moved the offline music/cache to /data/data/com.google.android.music/.


Is it possible to install a custom Android ROM if the bootloader is locked? Suppose the bootloader of an Android device is locked.

Is there any way to install a custom ROM without unlocking the bootloader? If yes, then how?

Yes, however, this method will not work on every phone.

Prerequisites

Back up all data on your phone
Unknown sources enabled in security settings
Being prepared to void warranty.

Method

Download and install an on-device one-click-root root-management application on your phone (notable mentions include Kingo Root and Kingroot, both personally tried and tested to work)
Use the application to root your phone and gain root access.
Download and install an on-device partition-flashing application. (notable mentions include Rashr, Flashify or even the official TWRP app)
Download a custom recovery for your device (TWRP recommended, see here)
Use the app you downloaded to flash the recovery file you downloaded.
Reboot into recovery (device-specific)
Install any custom ROM you want

You are now rooted and have a custom recovery installed; this is an enormous security risk, especially since anyone can delete your lockscreen password from recovery mode and hence have full access to your device.

If you brick your phone you will have a very hard time getting out of such a situation because your bootloader is locked.

I have personally tried this method before on a Nexus 5 running and Lollipop 5.1.1 LMY48M and it worked.

I would recommend going the "old-fashioned" way to root your device and unlock your bootloader.


Can I backup my APN settings? Where are my Access Point Names stored in the file system? Can I back them up via adb shell?

My phone is unlocked (AT&T Contract. Le sigh.) and I'm inching towards modding it but I want to be sure I've got my APN settings.

Yes, just copy the /system/etc/apns-conf.xml file.

You can also use an app like APN Backup & Restore: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.riteshsahu.APNBackupRestore

Edit: To backup manually-entered APNs (or ones otherwise not part of your ROM, such as ones "imported" when you insert a new SIM card) you also need to back up

/data/data/com.android.settings/shared_prefs/com.android.settings_preferences.xml

APN Backup & Restore does not do this.


How to keep my music and alarm files separate I have two folders of mp3 files, one for music and one for my alarm clock. I have them both on my sd card.

Right now I'm trying to use (or find) 3rd party apps that will do what i want.

Even outside the default music folder,  the music player and the alarm app both seem to pick up both folders.

I'd like to find a way to ignore the folders in each app. I tried adding a .nomedia folder but that hides it from both apps.

If there's a specific app that can ignore .nomedia files or only look at specified folders, that would probably work.

Seems most alarm apps name you select each song (let me know of any that can just watch folders), but it's still annoying sorting through picking out which is alarm and which isn't.

Folder player does that for you.
I use the pro version for years now. (I'm a fan).
But the free version works just fine for this purpose.
Just select a home folder in the settings.
I always select the directory above the Music folder, so I'm able to shuffle trough al the mp3's.

Hope this works out for you.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.folderplayer


Boot loop Samsung GALAXY Note 10.1 N8013 My tablet is stuck booting. I can't get it into recovery. When I hold Power+VolumeUp it goes into "Custom OS ..." with exclamation sign in yellow triangle. Then I press VolumeUp again to go into ODIN download mode. But when I try to flash CWM recovery (or anything else) it goes into "waiting for debugging mode" or "waiting for adb mode". Windows ODIN shows COMM and allows to flush boot loader, but without any difference. I tried everything, including opening up the unit and disconnecting the battery. I can't even turn it off - the screen turns off but when I press power again - it comes right back to Samsung logo. Please help! Thank you.

If all else failed
1. Put Stock ROM On SD Card
2. Boot into Download Mode
3. Install starts automatically !
For SD Card Booting ROM Updates,
it requires you to rename the ROM File To a    device specific name Eg. SGH100463.zip.

I can't find any zip files for reference but i found this info on the download mode

  Download Mode for Samsung devices allows you to install new OTA Updates by pushing them from your computer directly to your phone using only a data cable.

  Also, for your computer to work with the Download Mode you will need to have the ODIN software present.


internal storage showing up as 0MB I have a Redmi Note 7 (lavender)
As I was updating between custom ROM versions (Android 11) and the stock ROM (MIUI), I messed up a few things and ended up with broken encryption. The internal storage is showing up as 0MB, possibly due to this. I know the password, and when I enter it into TWRP's password scren, it shows it as being successful, but I'm getting the error: Unable to mount storage
Any ideas on how to fix this?

Depends on the type of encryption, if it's only 9 bits, it wouldn't take long to crack the encryption with the right tools, but to be honest, unless it's some REALLY valuable data, just format it. If you messed up the encryption though, it could have some bad sectors I wouldn't trust it for any data handling tasks.


Which format does Android calendar uses? I have a calendar entry on the format of (iCalendar with extension: ics) I have downloaded this file but android does not understands this kind of file.

Is there alternative to iCalendar files that Android uses?

Due to how file extensions handling works in Android, it depends on the calendar apps themselves.
For example, AOSP Calendar does not handle any file extensions. The manifest file only mentions filters to the content provider and Google Calendar websites.
<intent-filter>
  <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
  <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
  <data android:mimeType="time/epoch" />
  <data android:host="com.android.calendar" />
  <data android:scheme="content"/>
</intent-filter>

...

<intent-filter android:priority="50">
  <action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
  <category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
  <category android:name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE" />
  <data android:scheme="http"  android:host="www.google.com" android:pathPrefix="/calendar/event" />
  <data android:scheme="https" android:host="www.google.com" android:pathPrefix="/calendar/event" />
  <data android:scheme="http"  android:host="www.google.com" android:pathPattern="/calendar/hosted/.*/event" />
  <data android:scheme="https" android:host="www.google.com" android:pathPattern="/calendar/hosted/.*/event" />
</intent-filter>

Some vendor and 3rd-party apps may handle some file formats, but without knowing their manifest file, one has to manually test with each file format.
The calendar data itself is usually stored in the Calendar Storage (or similar name) app, in the format of SQLite database that can be accessed with the Calendar Provider. Thus, 3rd-party apps can also import the data from files to the calendar storage, which then can be read by the calendar apps.


How to block Minecraft on YouTube on Android phone? I have a child who is too young to watch computer games on youtube.
How can I block Minecraft on youtube search and videos on my phone? (Android)
I tried Youtube Kids app. I blocked several videos, but I can still find other videos typing "Minecraft". Is it possible to block the search by whole words?
Also: Is it possible to block the search for "Minecraft" on the Google bar?
Or Is there a web browser that allows blocking by keywords?

Yes, this is possible with Google Family Link.
You install Family Link on your device (or some device that is managed by an adult) and simply configure the content you will allow your child to see and use.  You can configure everything from Filters on Google Chrome/Search to location and account information.
I'm not sure Google Family Link has everything you describe exactly out of the box, but with some adjustments I'm sure you can manage.  For example, instead of filtering out what you don't want to see, you might instead have to specify what you do want to see - i.e., a whitelist approach instead of a blacklist approach.
Here is the link to the Google Play app Family Link:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.kids.familylink&hl=en_US


Annoying "unmount" notification when removing SD card If I pull out my storage card, my device complains that the card was removed unexpectedly, and that I must "unmount" it first.

After googling, I found out that this is some Unix term for breaking the connection between the system and the storage so there is no data in memory that was not yet written to the storage.

However, I have not found an easy way to do this. There is a command, but it is buried in Settings!

Since users are expected to notify the device before pulling out a card, there must be a quick, easy way to do so.

Should I power down the phone? That takes more time to execute, but less effort (fewer strokes).

Come to think of it, with all the devices I have used in the past (cameras, music players), I would power down the device before changing SD cards, but those devices all have nearly instantaneous shutdown and startup times.

Unmounting an SD card is comparable to the "Safely remove device" feature of Windows, which should be used when removing USB drives etc.

If you remove the device without notifying the OS that the connection is going to be lost, some data may not be written to the device, and corruption and data loss can occur. This is because the OS uses buffers to store the data before transferring it to the device itself.

Even though the operation appears to be complete, there still may be some data left in the buffer and waiting to be written to the device. Unmounting/safely removing the device forces there buffers to be written to the device before removal, thus preventing corruption.

I'd recommend either getting used to going through the menus to unmount the SD, or if your device supports, using a widget like Eject SD for easier access. Powering off the device works too, but as you mentioned, it's a bit slower.


Gmail - one notification for all new messages I use the new Gmail app on my Galaxy s2.

One notification for each new message s very annoying.

I want the new mail notification to act like on my desktop - a notification on the toolbar that indicates that there is an unread mail.

Can you thing on a way to do that?

Within Gmail while at the inbox screen if you click Menu and then Label Settings you should then be able to check notify once and then you should get notified for every new messages as a group.


Google Cardboard magnet not working with Nexus 4 I have bought Google Cardboard for my Nexus 4, but its side magnet to go inside the apps is not working. I don't know what's wrong. Can anyone help me?

I bought a cardboard, working with Nexus 4. It had the same problem as described, but I managed to solve it. see the picture attached, I extend the moving range far more 50 mm, and it works(clicking now!)


Is K-9 Mail susceptible to MITM attacks? I am using K-9 Mail on Android and have set the SSL option to 'SSL (strict)'.

My understanding is that with this option K-9 definitely requires a valid SSL certificate which is issued by a trusted CA, i.e. no self-signed certificates.

What I am wondering about is whether K-9 actually evaluates the CN field in the certificate, i.e. whether it only accepts a certificate as valid and trusted if the CN and the mail server's DNS name match. This is IMO a fundamental requirement in order to not fall for MITM attacks. If K-9 did not match those, in the worst case K-9 would accept any (wildcard) certificate presented on the condition that is has been signed by a trusted CA.

Has anyone tested/confirmed/verified that this is not the case?

It uses the Android in-built SSL socket factory to create the connection. So yes, it's just as authenticated as accessing a secure webpage on the phone's browser.


Android Tablet Stuck at Boot Screen I am new to this forum. I just wanted to seek your help. I have a tablet which is working fine a few days. But one day when I started the tablet its got stuck at android screen. 10-20 and even 30 minutes it remains there and then goes off. Please help me.
I also want to include that the tablet is a Chinese one and it is NOT Rooted.

Edit: It is a Chinese tablet so there is no brand name written on it. Only thing is that its model no is X5. Hope this helps.

I am not an expert on the subject but if you hold down the power key for ten to maybe thirty seconds you can get them to reboot completely. Mine got stock on a screen when i first got it. it just stock on some arbitrary screen but that I think how I got it to reboot. But I am not sure how long you have to hold down the button but it is some length of time.


Connecting Android to Windows 7 fails My Windows 7 doesn't recognize my android phone. HTC Wildfire S

Are there any updates of drivers that I need?

If I use VMWare it works properly here's what it showed in VMWare.

But here's what happens in device manager on my windows 7 on the same computer

Please help!! I've installed HTC Sync and tried connecting, my phone and the PC fails to connect. Help!!!

Whenever I have problems with installing an Android device's drivers, I install PDANet.

PDANet is a desktop tethering app, but that isn't why I install it.  PDANet comes bundled with phone drivers for all of the major phone manufacturers.  Once you have installed the drivers, you can then uninstall PDANet (and it will keep the drivers).


Permission system changes with Android 6.0: What are the implications for us users? With Android 6.0, a bunch of permissions and permission groups have been removed:

Groups gone

While on a first glance this doesn't seem important (isn't it rather a way to organize permissions?) – thinking twice reveals a major importance here: Starting with Android 6 (and with the Playstore even before that), if an app update requests a permission from a group where it already held one from in a previous installed version, this "new permission" is not brought to the awareness of the user. With Android 6, it is even granted automatically then. Also keep in mind that the user (with "native Android capabilities") can only revoke access to entire groups, not to single permissions – so fewer groups mean less flexibility, up to a uselessness of the entire feature.

According to the link mentioned above, the following groups have been removed:

ACCOUNTS, AFFECTS_BATTERY, COST_MONEY, DISPLAY, MESSAGES, NETWORK, PERSONAL_INFO, PHONE_CALLS, SCREENLOCK, SOCIAL_INFO, SYSTEM_CLOCK, SYSTEM_TOOLS, USER_DICTIONARY, WALLPAPER

Permissions gone

Less permissions covering more ways to access personal data mean a nightmare for privacy. Concerning accounts, I've raised this question already: Android 6+ and account permissions: where have they gone to? As we found out there, what before was dealt with by the no longer existing USE_CREDENTIALS permission, now got moved to contacts (not sure whether read or write): so if you wish to "login with Google" (or any other account holder), you need to give the app full access to your contact list! The popup on the screenshot there ("Allow Stack Exchange to access your contacts?") popped up immediately on tapping the "Login with Google" button.

So next to most account permissions (except for GET_ACCOUNTS, all of them are gone), which are dealt with in my other question already linked, the following permissions have been removed:

ACCESS_MOCK_LOCATION (now one has to configure a single app handling the MOCK_LOCATION I've seen mentioned?), CLEAR_APP_USER_DATA, GET_TOP_ACTIVITY_INFO, HARDWARE_CONTROLS, HARDWARE_TEST, INJECT_EVENTS, INTERNAL_SYSTEM_WINDOW, READ_HISTORY_BOOKMARKS, READ_PROFILE, READ_SOCIAL_STREAM, READ_USER_DICTIONARY, SET_ACTIVITY_WATCHER, SET_ORIENTATION, SET_POINTER_SPEED, STATUS_BAR, SUBSCRIBED_FEEDS_READ, SUBSCRIBED_FEEDS_WRITE, VOICEMAIL, WRITE_HISTORY_BOOKMARKS, WRITE_PROFILE, WRITE_SMS, WRITE_SOCIAL_STREAM

What does that mean for users and their privacy?

This is my main concern here. Unfortunately (one could almost say "as expected"), there was no official statement made on that – or I had already been aware of those changes a while ago. I hope some of our members who happen to be developers as well have deeper insight, and can help us out with some explanations and advice:

have those groups/permissions simply be removed (or did some simply got renamed/replaced by others)?
how is the data previously covered by them protected now?
what are the implications for users and their privacy, and what can we do about it?

concerning the "do about it": sure there's root, XPosed and Xprivacy (how does the latter cope with those changes?) – but I also mean "the average user" without root here.

As I said up above (somewhere) The new permissions system is a drain that shows that a new idea is not often a good idea.

Be warned! This may take a little bit to read, since I'll be talking about the history of android, and more! Go and grab a drink!

You good? Alright, dig In.

The origins of the new permission system

When Google began working on a way to forcibly grant and deny permissions on-the-fly, it was Android 4.3. It was a buggy mess, so they hid it. It can still be used, however, by creating a shortcut to the app ops settings menu. This menu was very similar to the current apps menu, but tapping an option immediately brings up the permissions options. You also had to discover the permissions before you could toggle them, and it was a buggy mess since apps wondered what the balls is going on because you disabled something, and inconveniently crashed. Yay.

The system was removed once modders had found it (so it was removed in 4.4),1 but made its return in Marshmallow. It looked really good - you could finally choose if things like Facebook could grab your location (though it did ask nicely). Even some Google apps, like Hangouts, aren't safe from your decisions. But then we hit the issue - the system is still broken, just in a new way: the permissions were heavily tweaked.

You want Stack Exchange to login via Google? It needs contacts permissions (though The devs at SE fixed that on their end).2 Want To upload images onto Facebook? It needs to see all your files. Why? Compression. Permissions are now granted in groups, where asking for your Google account also allows apps to see every contact on the device. I doubt that was intended, but the removal of most permissions meant that the had to simplify the playing field; most removed permissions were just shoved into super-general groups.

Some of the permissions have been removed because of new SDK's. GET_ACCOUNTS Now triggers a new SDK which allows for Google sign-in, but falls back to doing it via contacts permissions if an app does not support it. That explains that one (including how the SE app was finally fixed), but some of the others don't get that treatment. AFAIK, Apps can just casually read the dictionary regardless through the keyboard. Most other permissions Izzy mentions seem to correlate with modified groups: Most fit into the 'Modify system settings' Godmission (permissions separate from the main ones) and 'usage access'. Some others are handled by apps themselves.

So, Anything not given a new home was killed off. Sometimes, this made sense (we only need GET_ACCOUNTS to trigger the SDK) While other times, it made you want to put a bullet into your phone: oh yeah, I'll just let you access my contacts, you seem fine. Sure, access my calls and waste my money. (Hopefully no one is that dumb. Hopefully.)

At first, I thought yay! Simplification! But it allows seemingly legitimate apps to do illegitimate stuff A LOT easier. Your Minecraft hack tool which wants your Google account is probably also robbing your contacts. And selling them.

This is then compounded by the Lockdown system for permissions, that allowed you to fine-tune app permissions. It's great, but it doesn't work. At all. It also is inaccurate (it e.g. says that Stack Exchange reads my SMS'. No, no it doesn't) and is just plain awful.

But what does that mean for my privacy?

I personally think one of two things:

The new permissions system was designed to allow simple, quick changes for the purpose of security. Permissions are now granted in groups, which explains why some are removed: Google thought that leaving them under one big header was a good idea (and for the end-user, I see why: controlling each individual permission could get tedious.) Of course, like communism, it was only good on paper; in reality, it's a shamble that they don't want to admit to. Fair enough.
However, they could be doing this to force more apps to use Their SDK to break alleviate suspicious permissions (Don't blame them) and therefore make more money. It's proved they are doing so (and are trying to make Android less open-source) which disgusts me.

So for the end-user, it's like a little bit of iOS - by which I mean something that looks good, but is crap. But can it be fixed? Kinda.

The "Work-arounds."

Method 1- Xprivacy (ROOT NEEDED BOI)

Xprivacy does work on Marshmallow, according to its devs, of course. It requires messing with all sorts of fiddly bits on MM now, and there is verified boot. Which is a pain, since you'll probably get a red or yellow warning, which may prevent boot. (Depending on your luck, and how much messing you have done.) But if you can get Xprivacy working, its easy enough.

Due to the 'Wont boot FULL STOP' attitude N will apparently take, it may even be more of a nightmare to get working on that.

2017 EDIT - Xposed devs are working on getting around all of this (yay!) If i find the post on XDA, I'll link it

METHOD 2 - Go full Lockdown on everything.

This is really fiddly, but allows for maximum control (as far as that's possible). You grant app permissions when absolutely needed, then make a mad dash to turn them back off again. Probably will be easier once Nougat drops on more devices, so multi-window can be used.

METHOD 3 - Don't upgrade (which I'm dubbing the "Izzy solution")

If you did look up when I told you to, you may have noticed what Izzy's method is: You simply refrain from upgrading to Marshmallow or Nougat. Boo-Hoo, I know, but neither are game-changing, really. Give it.... Six months, and most the crap for N will be on the play store, if you really want it. So, the Izzy solution means sticking with the definitely capable 5.1.1 or lower. I can live, and so can you.

METHOD 4 - NUKE IT FROM ORBIT.

(Just to please the masses. FYI, this would be impossible.)

Or, ignore it. Your call.

EDIT Izzy found a link to a Stack Overflow question That explains that Credentials, Like Logins for Signing in on various apps, fall under a 'normal permission' (protection-level "normal") – i.e. any app can access them without you knowing. Luckily, some apps and logins will let you remove this through their account managers, Depending on how malicious the Dev is trying to be.

EDIT 2 I forgot to say you can remove apps from accounts :) I'll be using The Google accounts and Facebook app accounts systems as examples, as they are the most used.

Google accounts

Head to accounts.google.com or open the Google play settings (varies by device, usually a cog with a g in it)
Find apps/Connected apps/connected apps and services (again, Varies)
Find what you want to remove, and click 'remove'

DONE!

Facebook

Login on the site
Head to account settings > apps
Find the target app, and click/tap remove.

Done!

Hope that helps! If not, just drop a comment, you know the drill. I'll be working on it anyways. Done, but still let me know if I missed something!

1 There were different attempts made by Google to "hide it better", and different versions of AppOps frontends brought it back then for 4.4 and 5.0, but no further

2 Apparently, apps can voluntarily use a new SDK that allows Google sign-in without the contacts permission. See here for details.


How can I remove a blank homescreen page once I've moved all the apps off it I've consolidated my 5 'pages' of apps into 3 pages.

Now I have two blank pages that have no icons in them.
These are the pages that are represented by the small squares on the home page screen that take you to these various pages that have colletions of app icons.

Having moved apps/icon to other pages, the last two pages are now blank.  How can I actually remove them?

This is a Samsung Galaxy s5 running Android 4.4

Go in your home sreen, push the settings button for 1-2 seconds or try to zoom, and then all your pages will appear, now you will be able to delete the pages you don't need anymore by clicking on delete or maybe there is a button in the top right corner.

Hope it will help.


Weird ghost touch on Moto G4 Plus I bought my phone (Moto G4 Plus) about 10 months ago. At first, I only used to have ghost touches on it if I use it while charging. But that wasn't an issue for me because I usually don't use my phone while it's charging. But recently, I've been having ghost touches on the screen on two other occasions...

1) While playing Minecraft : Pocket Edition (Happens once in a while)

2) When I set the brightness to 100% (Been having this problem since the past two days)

What could be the reason for why this is happening all of a sudden?

First, if you have not already done so, clean the screen, depending on the type of touch even a piece of dirt could activate it.

Second, get a thin blade and lightly run it around the screen, where the touch meets the plastic/metal casing.

Third, if you can get to calibrate the screen do so otherwise perform a factory restore, if it is android, power off the tab, hold Vol + and power on, let go of power once it comes on and keep the volume button pressed, usually touch is disabled in restore mode so you have to use the machine buttons to navigate and enter. I had to do this to fix a Alcatel OneTouch phone so it is worth a try.

Forth, if all else has failed you may have to disassemble the tablet, it would appear there is a pressure point on the screen which is actually banding the screen causing it to make contact with the touch panel. Not knowing which tab it is I cannot direct you on disassembly but it is generally a simple enough process.

Before trying this part, run your finger around the edges of the screen, with slight pressure, if it has had a fall or a bang a clip for the screen could have popped out of place and just needs to be seated back in.

This is all the help I can give, try them and see if it helps.


Is there an app that will vocalize (text to speech) a message (SMS)? When I'm driving with a headset active (Bluetooth or wired), I want my Android to read me any incoming text messages.

Any references?

There are a number of apps that will do this.  DriveSafe.ly is what I use right now, but haven't really had the opportunity to thoroughly test their TTS engine.  It can also be set up to start whenever bluetooth is paired, or if you put it in a car dock.

I did try another one out a few months ago, but can't remember the name right now.  A search through the app market (or your favourite online app site) may reveal some more.


Wifi connection issues Yesterday, we changed the service provider of the office wi-fi and since then, my Samsung Galaxy Tab3 (8.0) working with Android 4.2.2, has stopped recognising my office wi-fi.

It is working well on other wi-fi connections. My cell, my laptop recognise the office wi-fi but its my Tab that refuses to play ball.

Could someone help me out here ?

Try powering down the device.  Turn it all the way off, not just reset.  This will ensure power cycling the NIC.

When you power it off, make sure it's off for at least 30 seconds.


XIAOMI Mi A1 LTE bands - User manual or website is right? Situation:

Live in Spain, moving to Argentina. Buy a new Xiaomi MI A1, on the website it lists support to LTE B4 (main band in Argentina).

Get the phone, open the box which says GLOBAL Version, but user manual's LTE band support list does not say B4.

I ask XIAOMI, the reply is "ignore the manual" (see screenshot, in spanish but pretty clear)

Any way to know which info to rely on? I will send it back if it does not support B4.

As per GSM Arena Website: These are the bands of Xiaomi Mi A1 Global Version.

2G bands    GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - SIM 1 & SIM 2

3G bands    HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100

4G bands    LTE band 1(2100), 3(1800), 5(850), 7(2600), 8(900), 20(800), 38(2600), 40(2300)

Also, with GSM Arena's Network Coverage section in Argentina says about these bands:

2G capabilities :GSM 850, GSM 1900

3G capabilities : UMTS 850, UMTS 1900

4G capabilities : LTE 700(28), LTE 1700(4), LTE 2100 (4).

LTE 2100 is listed as Network coverage and Mi A1's band


Cheating KNOX by cracking stock ROM certificate I had some thoughts about KNOX and the fact that flashing stock ROM doesn't trip my KNOX flag. I did some research about the topic and I learned that KNOX checks ROM file's certificate or something like that. The files within a zip archive have .md5 file extension. Knowing a fact that MD5 is flawed hashing function which is considered broken so I can theoretically crack the password which it used to create md5 file checksum. Having this password I can sign a custom ROM with it and KNOX should be bypassed successfully. Are my thoughts correct and it's feasible or I misunderstanded something?

If it was that simple it would have been broken long back. Knox is almost fool proof and prevents any such attempts

  Samsung KNOX addresses security using a comprehensive, hardware-rooted trusted
  environment:

  • Hardware Root of Trust

  • Secure Boot and Trusted Boot

  • Security Enhancements for Android (SE for Android)

  • TrustZone-based Integrity Measurement Architecture (TIMA)

  • TrustZone-based Security Services

Source: White paper on Knox by Samsung

You can see the technical details but to summarise any changes made trigger a fuse that would flag tampering

  (Fuse is)...one-time
  programmable memory area (colloquially called a fuse) is written to indicate suspected
  tampering.

Next, hardware root of trust is specific to each device and that  verification would fail

Even flashing an older version of  stock ROM would trigger the fuse

  Rollback prevention fuses are hardware fuses that encode the minimum acceptable version of Samsung-approved executables. These fuses are set at manufacture time in the Samsung factory. Because old images may contain known vulnerabilities that can be exploited, this feature prevents approved-but-old versions of boot executables, from being loaded.

To summarise, you would see that it won't work


How do I enter commute details in Google Now? I want my Nexus 7 to know when I'm leaving for work and display the details about traffic and such. But I don't know where I need to add home and commute destination.

Actually you shoud set you home and work address in Google Maps/Latitude. You can do this at least on your desktop by going to http://maps.google.com, logging in with your Google account, and clicking My places on the left. This shows the fields where you can edit your addresses.

Google Now will figure out your regular schedule after a while, took a couple of days for me to get the suggestions at the right times.


Converting phone to SIP gateway Is there a way to use my phone as a SIP GSM gateway, so I can make and receive cellular calls using a SIP phone and/or re-route them through a SIP PBX?

Not possible until we have source code of mobile device drivers responsible for radio communication, You can read a related article which describe that Why it is not possible to use phone as sip to gsm gateway.

according that article

  Third hurdle to make Android work as a GSM Gateway is that vendor RIL
  is not open source. Every vendor has their own library of RIL that
  communicates with Radio Daemon (rild).


accidently i enable mp3 play from server in Opera, how can i disable it.? While downloading a song from song website i marked it as "Play from Opera" Now instead of downloading the song, it plays from server. How can i disable it in m
y Samsung Galaxy Y duos. Andro 2.3

Clear data for both Opera browser and the app you tried to download the song from. Launch again - it should work fine.


remove pic in quick setting grid In the "quick settings" grid you get by pulling down the right-hand end of the notification bar, the top-left item is a photo. I'd like to edit or remove this photo, but when I tap it, it says "The contact doesn't exist."

How can I edit or remove this photo?

Go into the People or Contacts app. At the top of the list is a heading Me with a special item to Set up my profile. Click that item and it takes you to the "New contact" screen. On this screen, to the right of the "name" field, there's a little grey "contact icon" box. If you click that you can replace the photo with a picture from the Gallery or by taking a photo.


How can I find better quality video streams to my Android phone? I'm looking for an app that will stream television and/or movies to my phone on 3G. I have a long commute and find that apps I've used (tv.com mainly) have poor selection or quality. Since Android does not have Netflix or Hulu available, what are some other apps that would allow me to watch streaming video without considerable lag?

Today Netflix released an offical App!

Currently Netflix playback is
supported on the following phones:
HTC Incredible with Android 2.2
HTC Nexus One with Android 2.2, 2.3
HTC Evo 4G with Android 2.2
HTC G2 with Android 2.2
Samsung Nexus S with Android 2.3


No external storage available - Storage gone While I organizing files on my Galaxy Nexus via PC (USB), Gallery app kept saying No external storage available Then I restarted the device, and whole storage was gone..

What could possible cause this? And how can i prevent this happening in the future?

Using stock 4.0.4 (IMM76I)

It looks like the phone can no longer connect to the SD card. Since this survives a reboot, it's most likely a hardware failure.

If your phone is rooted, adb shell su dmesg should contain messages that confirm this.

The “external storage” in a Galaxy Nexus is actually some non-removable flash storage. I don't think you can replace it (but I could be wrong).

It is possible that the filesystem is merely corrupted, in which case reformatting would work. You need to have a rooted device for that, and to install some additional tools from a Linux distribution.


Earphone is not working well, volume is very low in Galaxy SIII I have a Samsung Galaxy SIII. Please help me to find the problem. I cannot hear well when I receive phone calls. This problem started recently, before that, the earphone was working perfectly. Does that mean that I need to change the earphone or it is a matter of something that I need to do in the phone's options?

This might seem silly, but I had this problem on my Razr Maxx HD and my solution was to use a canned air blower (with a thin straw) into the earphone jack.  It blew out ridiculous amounts of lint that must have been accumulating from the phone being in my pants pockets.


Can I have different volumes settings for notifications and ringtones with Nexus 4/Android 4.2? My old Gingerbread phone would let me have a low volume for notifications while having a high volume for ringtones (very useful at night). My new Nexus 4 seems to have these volume settings tied together. Is there any way to separate them?

I'm running Android 4.2.1 stock.

Have looked at a Nexus 7 running 4.1.1 and it has separate volume streams so this looks like a phone specific bug/feature.

Update
Tried various apps but couldn't fine one which separated the Ring and notification audio streams.

In the end I downloaded the Cyanogenmod notification sounds, selected the ones I liked and processed them to -10db and -15db versions. Then copied them to the 'Notifications' folder on the phone. (The phone looks at the title tag in the mp3 file rather than the file name so needed to change that as well.)

I now have the ringtone as normal but a quieter version of the notification sound that doesn't wake me at night or sound ridiculously loud in meetings.

It appears to be somewhat awkward in ICS and JB to get this functionality, several methods in order to achieve it are discussed here. I'll summarise/copy some of the better sounding ones (I added the links):

Try Audio Control, it's by far the best volume management app in the
Google Play store. There is both a notification and ringer volume for
ICS or Jelly Bean.

If you're willing to pay then this app has "Separate Notification and Ringer volumes for ICS/JB devices".

Google & download a silent MP3, use Profile Manager or
Tasker to change notification sound to silence mp3 when required.

Or alternatively (as the OP points out in the comments) use a low volume ringtone so you can still hear it. Someone points out that for this method if you have custom notifications for different apps then they won't be silenced/lower volume, only apps that use the default system notification will be affected unless you update all of the notification sounds.

Another option is to use a profile switcher like Tasker or Setting
Profiles (what I use) and make two profiles:

Silent - profile set it to silence your ringer
Ring - profile to set your desired ringer volume

Now make a rule to trigger your "Ring" profile based on incoming call
condition. The condition could be a call from a specific person, or
persons from particular groups in your address book. Use the *
wildcard if you want the condition to include calls from anyone. You
can piggy back conditions so that, for example, you can add a time
condition so the rule might only be activated at a certain time of
day.
So what you have now is 2 profiles, one that mutes ALL sounds (thanks
to ICS) and another that sets the ringer volume to a specific level.
Set the "Ring" profile to have a higher priority, that way when they
are both active at the same time, the "Ring" takes precedence.
Combined with your condition, the result should be, ALL of your sounds
are muted, but when a call comes in, it triggers the incoming call
condition, triggers the "Ring" profile, and both the mute and the ring
profiles are active at the same time, and the ring profile will win.
There might be a short delay, but it shouldn't be noticeable.
This would of course have the effect that certain calls will ALWAYS
ring and maybe sometimes you truly do want to silence your phone. To
that, you will just make another profile, call it "True Silent" for
example, and have it silence everything and give it the highest
priority (or at least higher then the "Ring" profile) and then when
you activate that profile, it will win over the others.

Both of these apps are again paid for applications however they have a grater functionality than Audio Control. Tasker is a particularly great one.

Ringleader allows you to
set up profiles that you can change any or all of your individual
ringtones to silent in one click.  It takes a while to configure. Once
you install it you have to set all of your ringtones and alerts again
using the Ringleader option for choosing alerts. If you set it as the
default ringtone chooser option it simplifies the process. Once you
have reset each one they will shop up in the Ringleader options list.
In Ringleader you then save a base profile. After you have a base
profile saved you can edit all of the alert sounds individually
through Ringleader and save new profiles. I have three profiles. One
is for normal use, one for phone calls only and one for silent. There
is a simple widget available for switching them quickly.

This is a free application however there's also a paid for version. Someone else in the thread mentions this working for them however the actual notification volume can't be set separately, the notifications can only be silenced while still allowing the phone to ring.
When Googling around I did see people mention Audio Manager as a solution to this, however I've tested it out and although you can set the ring volume independently of the system volume as soon as someone rings you the volumes change to the same level, even if you use the app to lock the volumes.


Add a driver to phone for win7 machine to detect recently bought a Vodafone Smart Ultra 6, tried to connect it to my machine (Win7 64-bit pro) and it came up with "USB Driver not found".

Now, here's why this is an issue:

I have internet on my phone but not on my desktop
the only way to get that file because of point 1) would mean having to transfer the driver to my pc from my phone.. which I cant because there is no driver!

is there a way I can unzip the driver to a certain folder on my phone that Windows will see? Or will it be a long & tedious case of copying the images by hand onto the desktop in the drivers folder?

Thanks,

No, there is no way to do this without, at minimum, writing custom code for the USB interface on your device.  Devices that present drivers this way do so through a standardized interface that uses generic drivers (that the system will already have), often appearing to be a CD-ROM.  If you can't see something like this or an existing storage location on your phone, you're out of luck.


Samaung S7 locked out My new s7 has been locked and it doesnt let me use my fingerprint aince it restarted. i have tried to use android device manager to lock the phone. it sends instruction to the phone and when I enter the temporary password it doesnt accept and goes back to the same message ; try again in 60 mins, I am not able to use find my phone feature as I havent added my samsung account to my phone when I was able to use it.
Please help

thanks

Booting into recovery and doing a factory reset is pretty much your only option.
To get into recovery:
Press and hold “Volume UP + Power + Home” button together and as soon as you see Galaxy S7 Boot logo, release all three buttons.
When you see an exclamation mark on screen, press and hold Power button and hit the Volume Up button once.
Then select factory reset and go thru all the setup again..


How to find UID of an app installed on Android and use it as a shell user? I am trying to find a way to determine the user name of the current shell user from within a shell / terminal on an Android device.

The Android environment that I have in /system/bin and /system/xbin does not have the unix user command. Overall, it appears that the concept doesn't quite exist on Android, but at least, on my rooted device, there is a user root and also there are groups such as shell and everybody, based on the permissions of files on the system.

The background is the following:
I want to run an ssh command (I installed a version of OpenSSH also) on the Android that uses a local private key. The key has file permissions and those are required to be restrictive by OpenSSH for good reason (the UNIX group of the file should not have permissions to access the key, only the owner).

Since I know only the user root, I can set the owner of the key to root and run ssh as root. However, I don't really want to run ssh as root.

I am issuing the shell command from within Automate which has that option. Apparently, it's possible to execute the command without root permissions. However, if I add the key file to the ssh command, it can't get access to the file that is accessible only by root. Thus I would like to set the owner in the UNIX file permissions of the key to the shell user used by Automate, but I do not know how to find out who that is.

EDIT:

~# grep automate /data/system/packages.list
com.llamalab.automate 10106 0 /data/user/0/com.llamalab.automate default:targetSdkVersion=24 3002,3003,3001

I assume 10106 is the UID, but is that a static value? If yes, could I add a line to /etc/passwd by using adduser command from busybox or Termux?

Android inherits from Linux the concept of shell, which is the core component of Linux login process. But there is no concept of Linux console login on Android (1) because it boots directly to GUI. However it makes use of Discretionary Access Control (DAC) of Linux kernel which is based on UIDs / GIDs and permission mode. Every installed app is considers as a *NIX user and is assigned a unique UID at install time. See this answer for more details on this.
You can get UID of Automate app from file /data/system/packages.list or by executing id -u from within app:

~# awk '/^com.llamalab.automate/ {print $2}' /data/system/packages.list
10106

Since you want a remote login from local machine using a ssh binary (built from standard Linux source) which is to be executed by Automate app i.e. with UID 10106, the key file must also be owned by UID 10106. The only place on device which is owned by UID 10106 is the directory /data/data/com.llamalab.automate, so this should be set as $HOME for ssh and where the key should be placed under directory .ssh owned by UID/GID 10106:

~# mkdir /data/data/com.llamalab.automate/.ssh
~# ssh-keygen -f /data/data/com.llamalab.automate/.ssh/id_rsa
~# chmod 0700 /data/data/com.llamalab.automate/.ssh
~# chown -R 10106.10106 /data/data/com.llamalab.automate/.ssh

Create file /etc/passwd with a single line: user:x:10106:10106::/data/data/com.llamalab.automate:/system/bin/sh where user is any username of your choice. You can also use adduser:

~# touch /etc/passwd
~# busybox adduser -D -H -h /data/data/com.llamalab.automate -s /system/bin/sh -u 10106 user

Also add -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no to ssh command so that new server is added to known_hosts without user interaction.

However if the ssh binary is built specifically for Android to be used with an app, it must have its $HOME already hard-coded which can't be changed using /etc/passwd. In this case you can try something like ssh -i <path/to/key> -o UserKnownHostsFile=<path/to/known_hosts> <user>@<IP>. Permissions must be set and both paths must be accessible by executing app.

PS:

Please note that UID 10106 must be member of group aid_inet (GID 3003) for ssh to be able to make connections. All apps with android.permission.INTERNET are member of this group. Or you can add a line to /etc/group: internet:x:3003:user. Or using addgroup:

~# touch /etc/group
~# busybox addgroup -g 3003 internet
~# busybox addgroup user internet

However this is useful only for programs which perform login (setgroups()) like su, sshd etc.

For more details on how Android lacks Linux's login mechanism, see this answer.


Android 4.1.1 consumes too much memory My HTC One S has been upgraded to 4.1.1 and I noticed that it started consuming too much memory.

When I had 4.0, average memory consumption was about 300-450 MB. But now it is on the level of 700-850 MB. Is this a normal situation for the current version of Android or did something go wrong after the upgrade?

All system apps were upgraded with the OS. I have 1 GB of RAM.

This could count as a good sign: There should not be such a thing as "unused RAM". Linux and Android in special do a good job to make the best use of it by caching things. If there is any RAM not currently needed by running apps, it can be used to keep e.g. pieces of the file system for faster access -- which also helps to save battery life. Once there is additional RAM needed, those caches are the first things to be cleared.

For more details, I recommend to take a look at the following related questions and their answers:

0 ram free on ICS
Are there guidelines on how much free RAM a phone should have?


Does adb root command survive reboots? I am little confused by the behavior of my device recently. I tried to push a file into my unrooted device and it did throw "Permission denied on me". i did adb root and then tried to push the file and it seemed to be working fine.

Now, when I rebooted the device, I thought that until and unless I do adb root again, I will be seeing permission denied error. But somehow, but my push command was successful this time.

Does it mean that root command survives the reboots?
If yes, how can I take it back to the state when it was not allowing me to push the files.

I am doing this becuase I am trying to understand the behavior of a device without root access when I automate some commands and unpredictable behavior of my device actually has confused me at this point.

No, ADB root does not survive reboots (thankfully, that would be a nice security hole...)
In your case, I'd guess that the permissions on that file got changed, allowing you to push it the second time.


Back-up Contact before Factory Reset didn't go into vCard format but .txt, how to import it My phone is Lenovo A859.

I did factory reset. Before doing that, they told me to backup my contact and SMS, so I did. After, when I wanted to import my contact, I saw that they saved both as .zip (separated, so I have 2 zips, one for SMS, another for Contact). Meanwhile, later I learnt the Import option on Contact Setting only accepts vCard.

Then I tried to saw the .zip on my desktop. Inside there's a .txt and .mt file. I opened the .txt file. Inside .txt I found a json (AFAIK it's json, CMIIW) formatted like this: (I changed all number to 0)

{
  "local_time": 0000000000000,
  "local_number": 000,
  "local_catogary": "contact",
  "ct": [
    {
      "fs": [
        {
          "f": "-1",
          "v": {
            "familyName": "somedude",
            "givenName": "adude"
          },
          "t": "NAME"
        },
        {
          "f": "MOBILE",
          "v": "00000000000",   ---> their phone number
          "t": "PHONE"
        }
      ],
      "op": "add",
      "st": false
    },
    {
      "fs": [
        {
          "f": "-1",
          "v": {
            "middleName": "randude",
            "familyName": "dude",
            "givenName": "dudette"
          },
          "t": "NAME"
        },
        {
          "f": "MOBILE",
          "v": "00000000000",
          "t": "PHONE"
        },
        {
          "f": "HOME",
          "v": "shalalala@dummy.com",
          "t": "EMAIL"
        },
        {
          "f": "YAHOO",
          "v": "yahooId",
          "t": "IM"
        }
      ],
      "op": "add",
      "st": false
    }
  ]
}

yah, an array member of ct seems to represent a contact: its phone number, email, even yahoo ID is possible. Then inside the info.mt file was only this:

local_catogary:contact;local_time:0000000000000;local_number:000

How do I import these files to my contact? I've tried and my dear phone rejected, saying "Couldn't import vCard", something about "wrong format". Then I tried seeing Wikipedia's entry of vCard. Seeing vCard format, no wonder it's rejected...

Some things I tried:

Changing .txt to .vcf (and later understood why it won't work with this file)
Using apps from store (app went weird, won't work)

What file is this? Is there any way to import this file to my Android phone as Contact? Or should I program something to convert this to vCard format manually...

Usually if there is a way to export or backup contacts, there is a way to import them again through the same tool or application.

Check in the application settings or options to see if there is a way to import the contacts.


What is the default clock known as? What is the default clock (that appears at the top right corner, next to battery indicator) called?

The clock don't have a specific name, although if I do need to mention them specifically, since the top bar is usually called the notification bar or status bar, I'd probably call them notification bar clock or status bar clock.


Can't enter recovery mode after installing CWM 6.0.4.5 Advance Edition so I've been trying to update my galaxy S3 (T-Mobile) SGH-T999 to KitKat4.4 and after following a bunch of tutorials, I just installed CWM 6.0.4.5 Advance Edition on my phone. I used ODIN 3.09 to install philz_touch_6.12.8-i9500.tar.md5 (I know my phone is not a i9500, but one of the tutorials lead me to this file, could that be the problem?), followed all the instructions but now my phone won't go into recovery mode anymore.

Before all this I also rooted my phone (I used KingRoot) and tried ROM Manager, but after this didn't work I read that I needed to get the CWM 6.0.4.5 Advance Edition.

Anyone any idea what's going on or how I can fix this?

Thanks :)

EDIT: Just to describe what I mean by"won't go in recovery mode": When I press volume up, home and power button I get the SAMSUNG recovery screen, and then I let go of the power button and then nothing happens, black screen, phone is basically turned off. It turns on fine, but I just can't reach the recovery mode.

If the flashed recovery is correct then,

When you first time flash recovery then at the same boot you need to go in recovery mode
Otherwise your stock recovery will overwrite your recovery and you will not be able to go in your flashed recovery mode
Hope that helps


What does error 923 when downloading apps from Google Play Store mean? I've seen this error a few times just now, it seems to only occur when I install an app through the Google Play web interface. Haven't seen it when installing apps directly from my mobile device. Device is quite new and has more than enough free disk space.
Couldn't find anything on here yet about this specific error. After a retry it downloads without any problems, so while it is far from blocking, I do hope to get some insight on what is happening here.
StackExchange only lists error 923 as an AndroidRuntime(923) error, but I don't see how that can be the cause here.
Screenshot attached with error in Dutch.

Error - 'Game' could not be downloaded due to an error. (923)

It seems error 923 is related to the whole process of downloading, cache, storage, installation, etc. People get it most often in Google Play, but sometimes also outside of that.
Most suggestions how to fix this come down to:

Settings > Apps > Running > stop all (Google related) running services
Settings > Apps > All > Google Play Store > Clear data and Clear cache
Reboot phone, all should be fine now

Found quite some useful answers on the internet outside of StackExchange (it exists!), so answered my own question already. Suggestions/additions always welcomed. ;)


Any way to reduce the frequency of searching for a signal My fiancee just got my old SGS2 when I got my new N5.  The problem that she's having is that there is no cell reception at her work.  And because of this, her phone is constantly searching for a signal all day long, and by the time she leaves work and gets into an area of reception the phone is dead.

I've told her to just turn it off or put it in airplane mode, but she usually forgets.  I know I could set something up with tasker, but that sounds like a pain, and I don't really want to pay for on app she'd hardly use.

phone is SGH T989.  I believe she's on 4.2.something.

Really what I'd like to be able to do is just have the phone not try so hard to find a signal when there isn't one available.  I looked and didn't really see a system setting for this.  Is there maybe an app that someone can recommend that would work?

I had similar problems and used Llama, then expanded my use of it to cover other events. It is similar to Tasker, and sufficient to my needs, while still a free app. Most automation can be triggered by entering/leaving cell tower range that is recognized as "Home". It has options to turn on Airplane mode automatically when the phone leaves a cell reception range, and take it out of Airplane mode when it re-enters.

BTW - I'm just an enthusiastic user - not the developer.


Application Sandboxing in Android I came across a line in this page.

  "The Android system assigns a unique user ID (UID) to each Android application and runs it as that user in a separate process. This
  approach is different from other operating systems (including the
  traditional Linux configuration), where multiple applications run with
  the same user permissions."

Can anyone please explain what the first line means?

Every single application that is installed on your phone, gets a UID.

It is a number that Android uses to identify the apps so it can check from what app commands are executed and check the permissions of the app to see if that app is allowed to execute the command. Privileges of applications are pretty restricted in Android. They can't see data folders of other apps, they can't modify the system and they can't do anything if user doesn't give them permission.

For example, when  X app gets installed, it gets the UID 10000.

Android creates a data and a cache folder for this app. Whenever an app wants to access these folders, Android checks the UID of the app. If it is not UID 10000, then Android denies permission.

This is a good defense mechanism that restricts the abilities of possibly malicious apps that got installed. All apps have restricted access to almost anything that they themselves didn't bring to the device in the first place.

Even more, the user himself has limited access to the phone. So a user that doesn't know what he/she is doing can't do harm.

This is where all the root concept comes from. root is a special user with UID 0 and its abilities is not restricted by the OS, making it able to modify system and other apps.


Boot loop after flashing Android 6.0 Marshmallow on my Nexus 5 I had Android Lollipop installed on my Nexus 5 (Was Rooted, had TWRP and MultiROM installed) and wanted to simply start fresh with new clean install of Marshmallow.

So I followed the instructions (step 1 to 6): https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images?hl=en

After running the flash-all script the device rebooted I see the Marshmallow boot animation but it has been running for 45 minutes. Is this normal?

Is there any suggestions beside reflashing because I've tried 3 times with the same results (45 minutes is the longest I've waited).

Many thanks for your time and help.

OK the problem was that I used the wrong version of fastboot. It was already installed on my Mac so when I was running the flash-all script it was actually running the system version.

So I modified the script to make sure the path to fastboot was actually pointing to the good version.

And voilà, it took about 7 minutes after reboot.