Samsung Note N7000 Stuck on booting screen My phone seems to have somehow managed to brick itself. I was using it for wifi tethering via usb to my laptop. All was good until I unplugged it. It started restarting itself but never fully starting so I was guessing maybe the battery was messing up. Anyways I've came to the conclusion that its bricked. It starts up displays its model and reboots before it even reaches the Samsung logo. The phone has its original firmware and has never been rooted or anything. It starts up but boot loops after displaying its model. I tried accessing the recovery menu by pressing home+volume up+power but it doesn't work.  I also tried vol up+vol down+power but that doesn't work either. I really need to go on my phone because I have an important number on there.

Your device is soft-bricked, but thankfully you know which Android version was installed. (More details below)

But first things first, let's cover one easy fix that can be overlooked. This happened to me on my Note 2 recently, and I had forgot one of the smallest fixes. Power on your phone while holding volume-up and home to get into Recovery Mode, and highlight "Clear Dalvik Cache". Confirm and reboot. This happened to work for me when I had made no changes to the phone in months.

If that didn't work, here's our only chance at saving all data stored in the phone (being stock & unrooted). I also have gone down this path successfully, only difference being the website I downloaded from, and the fact that I yellow-triangled my stock Verizon bootloader (big whoops).

Since you know your Android version, you can use Odin to flash the exact same firmware to your phone, removing the need to explicitly wipe data. It's a 50/50 shot, some people say Odin wipes data, some say it doesn't, it worked for me.

Go to http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/database/GT-N7000/

And select the country of v4.1.2 you had from the list. This is a good 3 hour download, and you may have to download it multiple times before you get a perfect download (MD5 matching file).

You will then download Odin v3 from XDA onto your computer as well as the Samsung USB Drivers (Official link) and install each.

You'll then click on the PDA button in Odin and find your .tar file. If your download is a .zip you'll have to extract the zip. If you're below Windows 7, the zip extraction wizard will appear to have frozen for about 10 minutes. It takes much longer than usual with a single .tar file.

Make sure all the checked boxes are as so:

..And flash!

When finished, it may or may not boot right up! If not, go into stock recovery and "Clear Dalvik Cache" again. Now, your phone should be up and running. If you're lucky, all your data should still be there!

If you end up to be not so lucky, you should be able to recover your photos and other files from /sdcard through Dr. Fone, which is now on Play Store. It is the most popular data recovery, but the app requires a rooted device. Easy for you, because running 4.1.2 you should be able to use the Framaroot app to root it without even restarting. You can also use the desktop program, which also has good reviews.

Hope this helps!


Applications Start automatically , Start again if I Force Stop them or even if I Disable them Many applications like skype , orkut, yahoo msger etc start automatically... i have already disabled and force stooped them .... I don't want to run these app and others like WiFi sleep etc to save my RAM ... I have already used Application to kill running application like Task Killer, RAM Booster etc .. but they also have limits and are unable to kill app which are installed when a new firmware is installed like Skype Yahoo msnger etc...

When installing you granted all of these apps an explicit permission to start when your application starts!

But for the examples you give (though I haven't ever installed Orkut myself), most of these apps offer settings internally that allows you to choose whether they start automatically.

(Recent versions of Skype have disabled launch-on-boot, have you tried updating your version?)


Can developers build applications for unsupported Android versions? My smartphone still works as a mobile phone. I would like to exploit it at its full potential but many applications don't support its "old" operating system Gingerbread 2.3.6.

I do not want to buy a new phone because it works well. However, I would like to develop apps for my personal use on this phone but Google does not support Gingerbread since 2017.

Can developers build applications for unsupported Android versions?

Note: the question is also about programmed software obsolescence. Currently, we cannot make libre software distributions on all devices. Android is an open source operating system so there may be possibilities to maintain smartphones despite proprietary locks (hardware and software). The question allows you to see what can be done for a working device: why a working Android device is become unusable? From my point of view, the device is still usable if someone maintains a functional development environment which allows to develop new applications.

You are free to build any app for unsupported versions of Android. However, you won't be able to publish on Google Play Store (if you intend to).

From an article published when Google ended support for ICS:

  First, Google won’t allow developers to publish apps that support the API level for ICS — that’s API 14 and 15. That means the oldest supported version of Android in the Play Store is Android 4.1 Jelly Bean (API 16).


Sold her phone but forgot to uninstall her whatsapp My friend forgot to uninstall her Whatsapp on her previous phone which was bought buy someone she doesn't know. When she try to use her whatsapp using the same number, she got a reply from the person who bought her phone. The person doesn't know how to uninstall the whatsapp. Any solution to remove that person from using whatsapp with her number?

Please tell your friend to ALWAYS DO A FULL WIPE of the device before to sell it. This is very important for your privacy!

Anyway, please refer to the official whatsapp FAQ to solve your problem: https://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/general/24460358

  If you are not ready to activate WhatsApp on a new phone with the same
  number, we can deactivate your account. Email us the phrase
  "Lost/Stolen: Please deactivate my account" in the email body and
  include your phone number in the full international format as
  described here. Please note that we are not able to help you locate
  your phone. Remote WhatsApp deactivation from another device is not
  possible.


Samsung S6 Digitizer I have been informed that the digitizer in my Galaxy S6 may be damaged. Is there any way to fix it? And is it even worth it to fix it or should I just dispose of the phone?

Edit: I no longer have this issue but can’t delete the question. This question may assist others who have this issue so maybe it’s a good thing I can’t delete it.

There's no way to fix the digitiser, but it can be replaced. Your local phone repair shop can do that job for you. The parts and labour cost should be much cheaper than replacing the phone.


Replace CM13 recovery with CWM6 I am using Sony Xperia SP codename Huashan with Android 6.0.1 running cyanogenmod 13. When I flashed the custom ROM for CM13 it replaced the CWM recovery with its own CM13 recovery. How do I regain CWM recovery on my device. Will installing the CWM Recovery in fastboot mode break my CM13.

I followed the below link

http://techbeasts.com/install-cwm-6-recovery-on-xperia-sp-running-12-1-a-0-266-firmware-how-to-guide/

for installing CWM but the author says that it is only for stock ROM and now I am on custom ROM CM13. Will this procedure still work?

Will installing the CWM Recovery in fastboot mode break my CM13?

No, why would it? But before flashing your custom recovery make sure to disable the setting Update Cyanogen recovery or Update CM recovery or a similar setting under developer-options. Afterwards, flash your custom recovery the way you want. If that doesn't work, flash a custom kernel followed by your custom recovery.

A custom recovery is not limited to a particular ROM so it doesn't matter whether you're using stock ROM or not.


Set a custom ringtone on Sony Z3 Xperia Compact I'm trying to set a custom ringtone on Sony Z3 Xperia Compact. I have copied the desired MP3 file into /storage/emulated/0/Notifications. However, on the ringtone list, I don't see the file and can't find any way to add it. There is no "Add" button in the ringtone list:

Click image for larger version

There is only a "musical notes" icon button in the upper-right corner. If I press it, the following strange screen appears containing some unknown list of music without my ringtone:

Click image for larger version

I have rebooted my phone and nothing changed. For some time after a reboot, I was unable to press the "musical notes" icon button since it was saying "Updating" or "Refreshing" in Russian. This was probably the media scanner running. So, I now know how to run the media scanner but still can't change my ringtone.

I have put the file into /storage/emulated/0/Ringtones. Also, I checked that it appeared in /sdcard/Ringtones and rebooted my phone, but nothing changed.

How can I set a custom ringtone on Sony Z3 Experia Compact?

Based on this tutorial, you need to put your files in /storage/emulated/0/media/audio/ringtones.

If it still doesn't work, try opening the file directly from an Android file explorer, then click "Set as ringtone" (you may need to click on the three dots before seeing it):

(Click image to enlarge)


Variable amount of free space indicated in "Manage Apps" When I go to "Manage Apps" and view the "Downloaded" section, the indicated amount of used space first shows a high value then drops slowly while the system calculates the space used by each app.  After around one minute it finally displays a value which is up to 100MB less than the initial value.

I had always assumed that the final value was the correct one but recent experience suggests that the first value displayed is what is actually available for installing apps.

So, can anybody tell me what is actually happening here and how I can reliably measure the free space?

You should be able to execute the df command from within any terminal app or via adb shell. It would list up all available file systems and their "free space" (df stands for "disk free"). But you would need to know what is what there. To give you an example from one of my tablets:

shell@android:/ $ df
Filesystem             Size   Used   Free   Blksize
/dev                   430M    64K   430M   4096
/mnt/asec              430M     0K   430M   4096
/mnt/obb               430M     0K   430M   4096
/system                674M   331M   343M   4096
/factory               127M    18M   109M   4096
/data                    2G   505M     1G   4096
/cache                 127M    18M   109M   4096
/storage/sdcard0         4G   650M     3G   4096
/storage/sdcard0/external_sdcard    29G     2G    26G   32768

So just like Cinderella you have to pick out the good ones, but simply can ignore the rest (or you can take a look at Android Folder Hiearchy to learn the important ones):

/system is where your OS and its system apps reside. Rarely interesting to the end user, as it's not writable (except you can make it such on rooted devices)
/data is your "internal storage"
*/sdcard* (differs between devices and Android versions) your internal or external SDCard (see next item)
*external* (may be external_sd, external_sdcard, ext_sd, ...) is your external SDCard. If that entry exists, the one mentioned with previous item for sure is the internal one.

So in my example there's enough free space available: 1 GB on /data (internal storage), 3 GB on internal SD, and 26 GB on the external. As these values are yielded by the system itself, one should be able to trust them :)

Remark: I ommitted some of the df output to make it better readable.


Do apps that access gmail only have write access or full gmail access (potential security risk?) I use a backup app to backup SMS text messages to my GMail account registered on my HTC Desire Z Android 2.3 phone.

The app requests access to the gmail account. But what does this actually mean? Does it mean:

the application has write-only access to the gmail - i.e. it can insert emails but not delete or adjust other existing emails (does the Android API provide for that?)
the application has full access to the email, and could potentially delete emails if there was a bug

There is no "write-only" permission for access to Gmail - it's either "read-only" or "full access", meaning that the app in question will be able to both create and delete messages from your account. However, I would guess that adding and deleting mails are two very different things from a programming standpoint, so you should be ok :-)!


Looping through Terms and Verify Google Account after hard reset I have a recent Samsung Galaxy 6S Edge phone that had to be factory reset. After the factory reset it will loop through the 'Terms and Conditions' acceptance screen and the 'Verify Google Account' after I enter the Google Account email and password correctly. After entering in this information the phone will go back to the Terms screen and ask to verify the google account again. Google notifies me that the account was accessed through this phone.

Any thoughts of what the trouble might be?

You will have to wait 72 hours, then try again and it will probably work. .. my guess is that you changed your google password, its a anti-theft thing that Lollipop 5.1 has.  anyways nothing you can do but wait for 3 days from the time you changed your google email password.  I had this same problem and figured out the reason after reading some threads.


Remotely send music to Android device There are multiple questions in Android Enthusiasts addressing the possibility of streaming music to an Android device, where the point of control is the said device.

I need something slightly different.  Suppose when I come home, I plug my Android device on my stereo system, and work on my laptop.  Now, I want to play an mp3/webradio/the sound of a movie/white noise in my stereo system, using my Android device while not moving from my chair.  What are the softwares to do so?

Simply put: I want to beam sound through wifi, to my Android device, from and controlled by my laptop.  The only solution I can think of is to open a tunnel to the Android sound device and ask my playing software to send the sound to it.

Technical details: Tablet Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1; Laptop with Linux.

Thanks a lot.

I am practically certain that the soundwire app will do what you want it to do (if I have it the right way around).


Microsoft Exchange Active Sync issue when roaming I bought new Samsung Galaxy Note 2, Last week I went to a different state ( roaming). During roaming my office outlook mail is not syncing. Whole purpose of having Email on phone is gone. I don't think it's problem with the device/service provider. Gmail ,yahoo or internet is working without any issues. I was able to read emails on my other phone (iphone 3g) without issues (when roaming).
Can someone help me on this?

This is a known bug in the Android OS. A senior AT&T engineer let me know that this is a problem and hopefully it will be fixed soon.

it is not a AT&T, Verizon or T-Mobile issue. it is a problem with Android  :(

edit: he let me know that there is an app on the google store  called "Touchdown" that is a workaround for this issue.


Return my motorola defy to its original state I'd really like to find a way to reset my phone to the way it was when I bought it, like before I customized it. Is that something that would be possible?

Provided you haven't rooted your phone or changed the kernel, a simple Factory Reset will do what you require.

Tap Settings.
Scroll down and tap Privacy.
Tap Factory Data Reset.
Tap Reset Phone.


Connecting phone to PC through USB I use a Lenovo P1 mobile. I was able to connect the mobile to the PC through the USB charging cable which came with the box. As soon as I connect the USB to the PC, a notification would show in my mobile "USB Setting(not exactly sure)". I used to click on the notification and I was able to change the setting from "Charge only" to "MTP (Media Transfer". Thus, I was able to add my file to the Mobiles(songs, lectures etc).

Recently, after updating my Phone to Android 6.0.1; I am unable to do so.
I have tried searching for the USB settings manually, but to no avail.

I would appreciate if you would help me.

You need to turn on the developer options in your phone (settings)
Then under developer options you can set the USB transfer options.
They moved it under developer options.

Hope this helps :-)

Tom


Can I install Android 2.2 or 2.3 on a Samsung Omnia 2? I would like to install android 2.3 or 2.2 in my Samsung Omnia 2.

Could you tell me how should I do?

I think the Omnia 2 is a Windows phone normally? So it is very unlikely to have an official Android release for it. You're going to have to wait for someone to put together an unofficial release and hope that it's possible for them to get or write all the drivers, etc.

It looks like there was an attempt by some of the XDA people to port Android to the i8000 Omnia 2 back in February, but they hit problems because there were no Android devices using the i8000's ARM1176 S3C6410 CPU at the time.

Your best bet is going to be to keep an eye on (and offer to help out at) the Omnia II ROM Development sub-forum of XDA's Samsung Omnia II forums.


How to Organize Home Screen Icons in Folders? I am using a Samsung Galaxy A3 2016 (SM-A310F) smartphone with Android 5.1.1. I am trying to combine several icons on the home screens into folders, like I did on various other Android devices before.

Samsung's manual for SM-A310F indicates that creating folders works like on the other Android devices I used; by tapping and holding an icon for a few seconds, then by dragging it onto another icon (to create a new folder) or onto an existing folder (to add the icon to that folder).

However, this does not work on the phone I am using: Holding an icon does not do anything while in the normal mode:

The home screen can only be edited after tapping Bearbeiten (Edit) in the top right corner of each of the home screen pages to switch to an edit mode:

In there, icons cannot be dragged, only deleted (each icon is adorned with a little "minus" overlay icon in this mode). If this is not the standard behaviour of Android 5.1.1, I am seeing no indication of that in the system info.

So, my question is: How can I create folders on the home screens in Android 5.1.1?

I found one vaguely similar question, but I am not looking for installing any special launcher apps or exceed the built-in maximum number of apps per folder, I just want to access the folder feature that has always been around on previous Android versions on devices by different manufacturers.

One additional option is described on Solvemix, where it is explained that users should tap "at the top right on the three-point symbol" in the app menu. However, no such three-point symbol is present in the app menu on the device I am trying to configure.

citation from side http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_a3-review-1174p3.php : In the app drawer, icons are presented as a customizable or alphabetized grid. You can also view only the ones you've downloaded yourself or just hide the ones you don't need. You can also disable some of the pre-installed apps so they won't take up any RAM.

try change launcher (Nova):
How to create folder in app drawer of galaxy A3?


Synchronizing signature from desktop GMail to Android GMail app I need to send email from road and want my professional signature to appear. Our company policy requires use of "real" signature when using mobile email and I can't adhere to my own policy.

How do I sync my desktop GMail signature in Android? It works on my employees' iPhones, but I couldn't figure it out how to do that in Android. I know I can type a signature in, but it's just not the same as what appears on our desktops.

The feature you are looking for is not available with the Gmail app (yet). (source). You can't even add any type of rich-text signature to your mobile app. Devs say that this feature is still being worked on. The only option available to you is to add a simple text signature through the app.


Getting "Installing..." for too long, during any app installation attempt I cannot install any app on my Galaxy Note 8 N5100 tablet which is rooted and uses Android 4.4.2. It takes too much time with no result.

(Click image to enlarge)

And this is the status of my package installer app:

(Click image to enlarge)

Edit:
I think I found what's the problem. This is the battery usage of my device:
You see the usage of Google play services is very high about 47%

(Click image to enlarge)

I think it's the cause of these problems:

When I try to play a film, it stops time to time
Installation of applications takes a lot of time
Battery usage is very high
The devise is warm even if I'm not using it

What should I do to solve the problem?
It's not possible to uninstall Google play services and reinstall it

Best attempts to make your phone fast and long lasting is using some powerful apps which work only of your phone is rooted. Root your phone and download apps like greenify (for battery purpose), roehsoft ram expander (for faster and smoother performance), titanium backup and link to SD (for uninstalling bloatware and transferring apps to SD card which cannot be done through setting without root.
So u need root access for your phone to use these apps.
Rooting your phone can be done through PC by kingoroot, volcano box, etc
And through your phone by kingroot, super su and super user.

I guess this will solve all your problems.. All the best....


How to read data pertaining to running applications? On the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean interface of my Samsung Galaxy SIII, I have noticed there seem to be various places where an application's running state is documented. I would like to know what the difference is between an entry for an application appearing in the following four places:

Application appears in the Task Manager under the Active Applications tab widget.
Application appears in the Task Manager under the Clear Defaults tab widget under "Launch by default".
Application appears in the Application Manager under RUNNING.
Application appears in the Application Manager under DOWNLOADED or ALL, and when clicked the "Force Stop" button is enabled.

It seems applications can appear in any of these four places in a bunch of different ways, and would like to know what it means if an application appears in one of these four places as opposed to another one of these four places.

Thank you for clarifying this puzzling issue.

Cases 1+3 show the app is currently running; basically, both are "task manager" views.

Number 2 is rather related to "preferred apps" for a given action: if you e.g. have two web browsers installed, this decides which one is launched if you tap an URL.

Number 4 is the "application manager". Usually, an "active force-stop button" should indicate a running app which you can "kill" by clicking this; but I'm not 100% sure whether the button is always disabled when the app in question does not run.


Is it bad to kill tasks in android, by using things such as holding down the home key and selectign "close all"? I use advanced task killer pro and also hold down the home key until a list of apps open shows up and choose "close all". Someone was telling me this is bad for the device. Is this true? How else can I speed up the device when it is running slowly?

I forgot to mention what I find strange is when I hold down the home key to display running apps, its list is different than the list of running apps advanced task killer has.

Short answer is: "That's Ok for device, don't worry"

Long answer is: killing task is the only way to speed up your system. When you kill an app by task killer, you close the app itself and all services or receivers bounded to it. That action would be harmful for the application, if it's downloading some data from the internet (some content update for example). Or application will stop sending notifications about new events. Almost all core apps will raise again in a few minutes. That's Ok for device, don't worry.


Galaxy Nexus; no signal after flash roms I have a 'Maguro' Galaxy nexus, purchased from O2 in the UK.  I am now in the US on T-Mobile.

My phone was working fine until yesterday I flashed the most recent CyanogenMod nightly, now I get no signal. Under Network Operators I get a list of AT&T and T-Mobile but clicking either gets an instant fail.

I've now tried flash all kinds of Baseband to it, XXLJ1, UGLL1, TDVMK1 to name a few.
I've tried installing the google 4.3, 4.2.2 and 4.1.2 images, all of which come with XXLJ1 - still no luck.

My previous ROM was a stock (but rooted) 4.1.2 (I think) , but I have no idea on the radio.

Any suggestions what I should try next?

Update:
I've just checked my IMEI number and the one the phone reports no longer matches the one on the sticker :\

I had the same problem, and the solution was to re-flash the stock ROM.


How to save a copy of SQL Server book online in my Android tablet? In SQL Server 2000 days, books online was in .chm format, and was very easy to save a copy on smart phones for reading. Now the new format is .mshi and .mshc, which can't be copied directly to an Android tablet for reading.

Is there a way to convert the book online into a format that can be read on Android system? Or is there a place that I can download some other format?

Microsoft has an eBook gallery available at http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/11608.e-book-gallery-for-microsoft-technologies.aspx

There's several slices from SQL Server Books Online there.


Is "Disabling" apps with Android 4 similar to "Freezing" in Titanium backup? I just saw that I can "disable" an app in the app editing menu on my new HTC Droid DNA (stock Android 4.1 w/Sense).

The main effect I can see is that the app disappears from app drawer.

How is this "disabling" different from Titanium Backup's "freezing"? (as far as full effects)

Yes, they achieve the same thing. Not only the app would not be available in the app drawer but the app cannot be launched using am start too. The only difference is that default mechanism allows you to disable specific pre-installed apps while Titanium Backup would allow you to disable any app.

For Android version like 4.2.1, when you disable a pre-installed app from Android "Settings", this line would show up in /data/system/users/0/package-restrictions.xml:

<pkg name="PKG_NAME" enabled="3" />

For Android 4.4 or 5.x, it would be:

<pkg name="PKG_NAME" enabled="3" enabledCaller="com.android.settings" />

where PKG_NAME → package name of an app, such as for Calculator it is com.android.calculator2.

However, when you disable aka freeze an app using Titanium Backup, the enabledCaller gets the value shell:0, i.e.:

<pkg name="PKG_NAME" enabled="3" enabledCaller="shell:0" />

In both the cases, if the app is a pre-installed app then it would only show "Enable" option under Settings → Apps → your_app.
If it is a user installed app then Android would not show "Enable" option but the app would still be labelled "Disabled".

(Click image to enlarge)

pm is different

pm disable PKG_NAME also disables an app but the app then wouldn't be visible even under Settings → Apps.

Also, when you disable an app using pm disable a different value for enabled is recorded.

For Android 4.2.1:

<pkg name="PKG_NAME" enabled="2" />

For Android 4.4 and 5.x:

<pkg name="PKG_NAME" enabled="2" enabledCaller="shell:0" />

You can disable any app using pm provided that you've root access.


Lost RAM after using phone for a day or two I have a Sony Ericsson Live with walkman phone (model WT19i), running on Gingerbread.

When I restart my phone, it shows about 220MB RAM as free and 80-300MB RAM being used. After using it for - say 2 days - it only shows RAM capacity of about 200MB (80MB free and around 120MB being used). When I cleared all the running apps, (Settings > Applications > Running services), I do not get the full RAM. My phone gets slow. I am left with no other option but to restart it.

This is my first Android device. Is this a common thing with Android devices, or does my phone have problems?

There are multiple things involved with your question. I know this topic is hard to put in exact words, especially for someone new to Android -- so it gets a little unclear what the real issue is. I'll try to cover all I think is related, but will redirect to other questions here for details.
First: How RAM is used.
There is no such thing like "useful free RAM". As soon as there's "free RAM" available, it will be put to use: buffering and caching are the most interesting features in this context, as they speed up the system. As soon as an app requires additional RAM, and there's no free RAM available, the required amount is dropped from caches and buffers, so this is entirely dynamic and should have no negative effects.
More details:

Why is my Samsung Galaxy S not utilizing all of its RAM?
Why is my device not utilizing all of its available RAM?
Does Android hide some amount of RAM from the User?
Are there guidelines on how much free RAM a phone should have - specifically Samsung Galaxy S?
Android ROM, RAM, Internal storage, External storage and Battery utilization

There are a lot more questions here dealing with this topic. To find them all, just follow the ram tag you already used for your question.
Second: Your device slowing down.
This might have many different reasons: Some app might be hogging ressources is the most likely reason if the problem is not there right after a reboot (but starts only a few hours/days later). If the problem persists after a reboot, reasons might be different (or the "hogging app" got auto-started). Your caches (on internal storage) could be messed up, for example. If you installed/uninstalled a lot of apps for testing, it could as well be the Dalvik-Cache (pre-compiled code of your apps).
Good starting point to investigate this issue:
My device is getting slow, apps start misbehaving/crashing. What can I do?
See also the "Linked" and "Related" section of that question, which will provide you additional ressources.


Why is my microSD card not being reconized in Samsung Galaxy S Plus? I had purchased Samsung Galaxy S Plus, it was working fine, but I had a problem yesterday connecting it to my PC. After that my SDCard is not being recognized by my device. It says Your phone doesn't have sdcard inserted also when I try to open the inbuilt camera its also not working with a message as Turn off USB storage before using camera. I tried to check that my SDCard is not corrupted so testing in other devices and its working fine. I also tried to restart the device couple of times. So, can anyone suggest me what can be the problem here? why my SDCard and Internal Storage is not being detected?

If its connected to your computer and the USB connection mode is "Mass Storage", the SD card cannot be used by the phone.
You may like to change the connection mode by pulling the notification bar from top and selecting "Charge only" so that it does not mounts the SD card and it remains usable by the phone while it is connected to PC.


Whatsapp's "WhatsApp Video" folder not visible from my PC I'm using Whatsapp on Nexus 5 (Android 6.0.1) and several folders used by Whatsapp are not visible when accessed from a Windows 10 PC (connected through USB in MTP, file transfer mode).
From my PC "Whatsapp/Media" shows:  while when accessed from the phone itself using my storage explorer I see 4 additional items:

.Statuses
Whatsapp Animated Gifs
Whatsapp Audio
Whatsapp Video

No .nomedia files inside those directories. Any suggestions?

Found the issue! It was a problem with "Google photos" definition of media directories excluded from backup. All the missing folders were excluded from the backup definitions in Google photos  and when included (see image below) the directories became visible from the PC.

This seems to be a bug or some inconsistent situation, as removing them again from the backup definitions didn't cause the problem to return.


Is there a way to hide an app from the Play Store without uninstalling it? Is it possible to remove an app from the Play Store's "installed" list but keep it installed? I can't seem to find a workup on this.

That is possible, but requires a rooted device. Some apps provide a feature to accomplish that, e.g.:

Hide Updates In Play Store
Titanium Backup

Note that, even once achieved, Playstore refreshes those "links" – usually within ~24h. The first app takes care for that itself, and with Titanium you can setup a corresponding schedule to repeat the action (hint: use a filter, store the filter definition, and use that for the "scheduled task").


Help getting Arabic on Android My Friend is going to sell his Nexus S because it does not natively support Arabic.
I have found several websites that claim to have a solution to this issue.
http://ardoid.com/ Seems to be the easiest solution to implement.

Has anyone tried this or any other solution?
Do the characters run together like how Arabic is written and not the single characters?
Will the menues change to Arabic?
Can he store contact names in Arabic?
What arabic does it use?
Will the push updates work?
Will the spell checker work?

I'm Persian and also have Nexus-S. You can upgrade your ROM to Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4).

This version of android has Arabic in it's localization and has all you want. If your provider support oem upgrade you can simply upgrade it by phone OR you can flash the latest Cyanogenmod ROM to your phone and have fun with your mobile.

You can always download latest Cyanogenmod Naghtly from HERE


How can I disable the startup/boot sound on a rooted Samsung Galaxy S5? I do not want any sound to play while the phone boots. A sound is being played while "Samsung" is displayed with an animation.

There is an app called "Silent Boot" in the Play store that mutes the phone during shutdown, which will supposedly mute the boot sound.
However, I'm looking for a solution that does not require an extra app, and that would work even with a lockup/battery-pull. The phone is rooted.

With root access, simply rename, move, or delete the file: /system/media/audio/ui/PowerOn.ogg

This solution may work for other Samsung Galaxy models, and perhaps other makes as well, provided the sound file can be located.


Switch from micro USB to USB c, buy adapters or new cables? Firt of I'm not a 100% sure this is the right site to ask this on but here we go.

So I will have to buy a new phone in the near future. With this I'll most likely get one with USB c instead of now micro USB.

I have quite a few cables for recharging (1-3 at home, at work, and one for my powerbank) all of those are micro USB and still work fine, some of them are long cables so they weren't that cheap.

My question now is: is there any downside to buying adapters and sticking them on my already owned cables or should I have replace them? (clearly not all of them as I still have other stuff that charges with micro USB)

Personally I prefer cables without adapter. Especially when it comes to charging the adapter may reduce the maximum charging power (because it works like a resistor).

If you use an adapter I would strongly recommend to use an short adapter cable, not a small fixed adapter with a plug and a connector in a small case: The adapter without cable effectively extends the length of the plug and therefore also the force you apply onto the USB port on the phone's mainboard (because of the leverage effect). Hence using an adapter can decrease the lifetime of the USB-port.

Therefore I would replace the one or two most used cables for now. Others can still be used with adapter. In some months you know what you prefer and if it makes sense to buy more USB-C cables.


Can I safely downgrade my Sony Xperia SP? I just upgraded my Sony Xperia SP (C5306) with Sony's horrible tool from 4.1.2 to 4.3 (build 12.1.A.0.XXX to build 12.1.A.1.207), but my phone now runs worse, and I don't like the changes at all!  Unfortunately, it seems there is no legal/official way to revert.

I am not computer illiterate, but have no experience with rooting and such, and everything I read warns about possible bricking and whatnot, so I am a bit weary of jumping into something and breaking my phone.

Is there something I can do that is safe to return to the old OS?  I'm so bummed as I seem stuck with this OS and I've deleted all my stuff when I tried doing a factory reset. :(

Thanks for any help!!!

Is there something I can do that is safe to return to the old OS?

Easy answer: No, there is not. You should flash it manually using, for example, flashtool (you don't need root).

Here is great guide which may help you.

Chance, that you hard brick your phone is really small If you flash right firmware.


Google+ client that takes up less space? Has anyone tried a Google+ client that takes up less space than the standard client from Google Inc.? My phone gets full very quickly and right now the Google+ client is one of the largest installed apps I've got. Any suggestions?

The most useful feature of the client compared to using the browser version is that I can do "Share" from any other app, usually Google Reader, directly to Google+ without having to copy+paste the URL I want to share.

EDIT: This is on an HTC ChaCha (Status) which has a pretty tight memory space.

The mobile web version of the Google+ can be accessed from the browser. It provides all the basic features, although since it's just a web app there is no integration with the OS (no notification, etc).

Size? 0 kb.


How does the Android OS estimate remaining battery time? Is it known how the Android OS estimates time to failure / remaining battery charge?
I am doing a school project about battery estimation on mobile devices but have not been able to find any information about which techniques are used in the industry.

Several people have written articles about how time to failure can be estimated on an Android device, but I have not been able to locate any official information about how it is actual done.

The optimal answer I would like is a link to a scientific article or tech-spec that describe it.

In the API it is described that the battery percentage is calculated by dividing the current level with the maximum level.
This can be seen in the quote below.
This leads me to believe that BatteryManager.EXTRA_LEVEL is either measured in Milli amps Hour (mAh) or a value between 0-100. This is a simple approach and not the answer that I hoped to find but it is an answer never the less. Now I just need a official source that states the answer. :)

Determine the Current Battery Level
In some cases it's also useful to
determine the current battery level. You may choose to reduce the rate
of your background updates if the battery charge is below a certain
level.
You can find the current battery charge by extracting the current
battery level and scale from the battery status intent as shown here:
int level = batteryStatus.getIntExtra(BatteryManager.EXTRA_LEVEL, -1);
int scale = batteryStatus.getIntExtra(BatteryManager.EXTRA_SCALE, -1);
float batteryPct = level / (float)scale;


Does Youtube app playback not work with wifi? On an HTC Evo with Sprint, when trying to playback a video, the Youtube app regularly (always?) reports it can't play a video when I'm connected to a reliable wifi network.  If I immediately turn off wifi and use only the Sprint network, it works fine.

Is this really the case?  If so, why?

After some experimentation: the EVO on Sprint can playback YouTube over WiFi.  The problem is likely some domain being blocked by the hosting WiFi network which is necessary for the YouTube app.


How can I view the list of available conference rooms in Microsoft Outlook for Android? How can I view the list of available conference rooms in Microsoft Outlook for Android?

For example, on the Microsoft Outlook web interface, one can view the list of available conference rooms:

As of December 2018, the room finder is not yet implemented on Outlook for Android.

The following article Compare Outlook for PC, Outlook on the web, and Outlook for iOS & Android lists the features available on different versions of Outlook. Meeting room finder feature is listed as No (meaning not available) on  both Android and iOS but available on Outlook for PC and Outlook on the web.


Completely "Mute" my Android Phone? I have seen the Question: Is there a one-click widget to make my phone completely silent? and this is not a Duplicate Question.

In my, Samsung Galaxy Y phone, when I completely reduce my volume, it goes to the "Vibration" mode. Turning the volume down again after the "Vibration" mode appears has no effect in my phone.

I have look around and found no option to mute at all. My Question is whether is it possible to completely mute an Android phone without downloading/installing any extra app?

Doing everything mentioned in: What is the fastest way to turn the phone into silent mode? puts my phone to "Vibration".

I can't believe that there can exist a phone in today's world without such a basic feature.

After exploring a little more, I found this solution:

Click your device "home" button;
Tap "Settings";
Tap "Sound";
Tap "Vibrate";
Select either "Never" or "Only when not in Silent mode".

That's it!


Why do Linux commands not work properly on Android? > adb shell
sh-4.1$ ls -F
-F: No such file or directory

-F switch works fine on my Ubuntu.

Why doesn't it work on Android? Is there a way to make it work?

Most shell commands in Android are not GNU versions or a POSIX-compliant implementation, they are either from Toolbox or Busybox and mostly stripped down versions.

A lot of commands in /system/bin are symlinks to /system/toolbox. I haven't found much documentation about it, just the source at https://android.googlesource.com/platform/system/core/+/jb-mr1-release/toolbox/

Busybox is another implementation of several common shell commands, with more commands and features than the default Toolbox. It's used on other embedded systems too, and some bootable GNU/Linux CDs, so you may already be familiar with it. Because it's open-source, there are several installers available on Google Play: just search for "Busybox".


Prevent a specific app from being updated on client side I want to prevent a specific app from being updated by Play Store and Package Installer, preferably by refusing updates. Whenever I want to update it, I am supposed to be required to revoke the prevention manually, or the app cannot be updated. It should be a system tweak or a change somewhere in /data.

Things I've thought:

Tweak somewhere so the system reports the app to be infinitely new
Make the app "invincible" and cannot be modified

It doesn't matter if the app can be removed by regular means. Any thoughts?

I just found that Titanium Backup has a "Detach from Play Store" option for apps (requires PRO version). After detaching, apps won't show up in Google Play and thus won't be updated unless you manually navigate to the page and tap "Update".


What are folders Gift, MBSTGO & MBSTPH? Moto G, Android 4.4.4

What are folders MBSTGO & MBSTPH?

Which app creates them? Can I safely delete them?

If they don't have anything in them, then it should be fine to delete because they'll just be auto generated again when the app needs it.


How to auto start/stop tether if wifi is unavailable/available? I use my Galaxy S as a wifi tether hotspot for my tablet and laptop, so tethering is always on (I have extended battery so it's ok). But if my phone is in the area where I have wifi internet (for example, at home) I don't need it to act as hotspot and want it to stop tethering and connect wifi. Is there a way to automatically start tethering if no wifi is available and stop it / connect wifi if wifi is available for long enough?

You can do so e.g. with Tasker, adapting the Wifi Tether Profile described in the Tasker Wiki -- provided your phone is rooted:

Requirements

rooted device
Tasker
Locale Execute Plug-In (no longer available -- but most likely no longer needed, either)
Wireless Tether for Root Users

Tasker-Tasks

Tether-On:
Plugin -> Execute Script -> Run Shell /data/data/android.tether/tether start 1, check "Use Root"
(with the Locale Execute Plugin, prefix the command with an ! to mark it as "root command")
Tether-Off:
Plugin -> Execute Script -> Run Shell /data/data/android.tether/tether stop 1
(with the Locale Execute Plugin, prefix the command with an ! to mark it as "root command")

Tasker-Profiles

You now can attach these tasks to any condition, such as e.g. "Wifi Near" with your networks name. You can also add things like "Wifi On" / "Wifi off" to above tasks to customize.

Detailed descriptions can be found in the linked Wiki.


How do i Connect PC Internet on Android Mobile? About My Phone:

Model Name: Asus Zenfone 5 ( Rooted )

Version: Lolliop 5.0

About My Laptop:

Model Name: B460e

OS: Windows 8

Not Having Wifi and Bluetooth.

I used Broadband connection for my laptop.

I am already tried "Reverse Tethering" and "Easy Tether Lite". These method
is not suitable for my phone.

How can i connect my laptop internet to my android mobile?

You can do this using Connectify software. I had recently put up a thread on a different site. My PC too doesn't have a WiFi module. My proposal was to use an external USB WiFi module, and then turn that into a hotspot. People in Physics Forums (check the second link) have said that in principle, this should be possible.


whats the use of my places in android 4.3? I noticed there is my places under location services. It saves the office home and car location by a format I specify (wwfi bluetooth or map).
 How is this used in android? Am I able to find my car location for example?

According to Google Support:

  My Places gives you easy access to your important locations and
  personal Maps history. Whether you’ve starred or searched on your
  phone or computer, in My Places you’ll find your:

  Offline Maps
  Starred places (including Home and Work locations)
  Recently viewed Maps items
  Directions
  Search queries
  My Maps
  Rated Places
  Maps searches


How to install a fresh Android 2.3 to my Spice Mi280? I want to install fresh 2.3 Android OS on my Spice Mi280 over my previous installation. How can I do that?

If you simply want a fresh installation and no update, then a factory reset would be sufficient.


Make android phone as USB Webcam I have an Android tablet based on Android Lollipop (5.1.1) and I want to use this device as a webcam via USB.

I know some apps could work (e.g. DroidCam or WO WebCam) but they require extra clients installed on a Windows / Linux computer.

Is there any way that I can add an extra option to the USB connection settings that will allow the tablet to be used as a webcam instead of a media device?

Please note I am not asking for apps that can read videos from OTG USB webcams. It's the reverse, making Android output a video feed to a separate computer via USB.

Driodcam works fine for mine Lenovo tablet- skype and all video programs now recognize it as camera, therwise, i havent found anything that works, tried vysor, but that didnt work....


How can I read my epub books in Google Books for Android? Has anyone been able to take and place an epub book inside the Google Books app or know how to do it?

As of March 2013, Google Play Books supports third-party ePub or PDF files. You can upload books to your account by visiting https://play.google.com/books/uploads in your web browser (when logged in to your Google account, of course). You are permitted to store up to 1,000 uploaded files on your account at a time, and each file must be no larger than 50 MB in size.

There are also many alternative book reader apps that support ePub files if you would prefer that. Aldiko seems to be very well liked, but I have not used it myself.


How can you do a factory reset? I have a ZTE grand x max+. It seem like I can never get out of ftm mode. On this phone. So can someone help me?

You can find the option to factory reset most Android Devices in the
  settings menu. Simply navigate to your device's settings, scroll down
  until you see 'Backup and Reset', and then hit 'Factory Data
  Reset'. Please remember that this will wipe everything on your
  device (unless given the option when you click it to wipe the user's
  data or not).

  Good luck fixing your problem!

EDIT: My mistake. I was too quick to answer. After researching FTM mode, I have found that you should be able to factory reset your phone from the Recovery Menu as you don't have access to Android itself. To get to the recovery menu, take the following steps:

Turn off your device.
Press and hold both the Volume Up button and Power button at the same time.
Let go once a menu appears. There should be an option visible saying Factory Reset.
Navigate to the Factory Reset button with the Volume Keys, and use the Power Key to select this.
Confirm Factory Reset, and the process will begin.
Your phone is now Factory Reset! Click the Power Button to 'Reboot Device Now'.


Unable to reset proxy settings After watching a video only available in a certain country using a proxy, I wanted to revert back to my regular connection. I went and removed it in my settings (Screenshot showing No proxy).

But the thing is that the phone is still using the proxy. So, I downloaded an app for proxy change (Name: "Proxy Settings")

Then, I noticed that the proxy is still there. I delete it, press ok. Still nothing changed. I reopen the app, and the proxy is back!!!

I can't figure out how to have NO proxy!!!!

Thanks.

NB: LG G3, not rooted, Android 5.0.

The first thing you want to do after clearing all Proxy configuration settings from your phone is reboot your device. Also, if you're connected to a specific WiFi network, press and hold the network name and "Forget Network."  Re-configure your WiFi settings with its regular password and it will clear Proxy settings.


Pictures and videos not showing in the gallery I'm experiencing this issue since a month or so. I was using the camera and I received a message of some memory error, but was able to continue taking pictures. Then I realized that the pictures were not showing up in the gallery.

I connected the device to my PC and the files are actually there. In addition, I am able to continue taking pictures and access the files when using the camera (I touch the recent photos icon and I can see them).

I have tried many things, such as removing the DCIM folder, erasing the .nomedia files, erasing data from the internal memory, and none of them seemed to work. Could anyone help me?

Thanks,

Agustin

Consider any of the solution mentioned below.
Solution 1
Note: Follow the steps for both Internal and external SD Card

Go to File manager  -> Android ->  Data -> com.android.gallery3d.
Delete the folder (com.android.gallery3d) in both internal and external SD card.
Go to Settings -> Apps / Application manager -> search for Gallery -> open Gallery and tap on Clear Data .
Switch off your phone and wait for few minutes (say 2-3 min) and then switch on and wait for few minutes.

That's it now. All the images and videos would be showing under Gallery.
Solution 2

Go to the respective folders where images/videos are stored.
Go to Settings > Show hidden file and see if there is  a .NOMEDIA file. If there is such file then delete it.
Switch off and switch on the device.

That's it.
Solution 3
If above solutions don't work, then you have to search for apps in Play Store which scans SD Card . SDrescan is good. It's only of 20KB in size. And then scan the memory card using that app.


Dropbox on Samsung Galaxy - where is the Settings button? On a Sony Xperia, the settings button in Dropbox is top right.
On a Samsung Galaxy, there is no settings button top right and I have been unable to find it anywhere else. Where is it?

・On a HTC device, the settings button is right up there as well.

If your phone has a menu hard key, like most Samsung phones, the three-dots icon for an overflow menu won't appear. Press the menu key instead, and Settings is the bottom item on the menu.


How to root a Huawei GL07S phone? The STREAM X GL07S is a mobile phone manufactured by Huawei.
It is similar (but different) to the Huawei Ascend P2.

QUESTION: How to root the Huawei STREAM X GL07S?

Find a Linux or Windows computer
Download and unzip http://gl07s.nakayuki.net/public/emobile-gl07s-root.zip
Install the Android SDK tools, in particular the commands adb and fastboot should be available (fastboot for Windows is provided in the ZIP).
Connect your GLS07S via a USB cable
Run sudo ./root.sh on Linux, or root.bat on Windows
Three lines of text in Japanese appear. Press Enter
White noise appears on the screen, just wait patiently
One more line of text in Japanese appears. Press Enter
When the command prompt returns, you're done

(Translated from the README in the ZIP above)

Before step 5 I had to add the following line as line 2 of root.sh because my Android SDK is installed at the user level on my Linux computer, you should not need it if you install the Android SDK as admin.

export PATH="${PATH}:/home/nico/android-sdk/tools:/home/nico/android-sdk/platform-tools"

Be patient. The execution lasts for a few minutes, with this output (press Enter when it says 続行するにはエンターを押してください):

$ sudo ./root.sh
adb,fastbootコマンドが実行できるようインストールしてください。このスクリプトはUSBにアクセスできる権限で実行してください。
電源を入れた状態で端末をUSBデバッグを有効にしてパソコンに接続してください。
上記の手順を行った後、続行するにはエンターを押してください。

< waiting for device >
sending 'cust' (233697 KB)...
OKAY [  7.333s]
writing 'cust'...
OKAY [ 15.655s]
finished. total time: 23.002s
sending 'boot' (5298 KB)...
OKAY [  0.165s]
writing 'boot'...
OKAY [  0.824s]
finished. total time: 0.989s
sending 'system' (900228 KB)...
OKAY [ 28.112s]
writing 'system'...
OKAY [ 63.860s]
finished. total time: 91.972s
続行するにはエンターを押してください

rebooting...

finished. total time: 0.201s
$


Login to Android 6.0 with NFC card and Password I am evaluating MI5 and its NFC functionality.
I am considering to compliment my Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-i9506 with MI5 because of various significant improvements in the hardware, software and sufficient expected userbase.
I am trying to have two-step/three step security for the login of the phone by

NFC card (preferably dynamic) and Password
NFC card, finger print and password

There is a Security application in the new MI5 but I have not been able to profile it. I think it provides finger print and password authentication by default.

I am going to replace the MIUI 7.0 OS with CyanogenMod 13 when sufficient experience of the device has been reached.

NFC card

I would like to have a dynamic NFC card with time-dependent generation of authentications for the phone, like many bank systems work.
However, I have not found such a card with battery yet.
I think it should be possible with the dynamic NFC technology.

YubiKey with smartphones motivated by Aleza's answer

I found this review about the product here in Amazon.com

  Love it for the desktop (I'm using it for LastPass and Gmail 2nd form
  authentication), but it sucks on mobile (which the a big reason I
  purchased it). The NFC range is terrible! I've tried everything
  (different positions, moving it, holding it still, restating the
  phone, toggling NFC on/off, restoring my phone's O/S, etc.) to get it
  to register but it only works 1-in-20 times. When I contacted YubiKey
  support then said to hold it closer... saying that because it's an
  unpowered device the range is very limited. But, I'm pressing and
  holding (20-30 seconds) it right against the back of the phone right
  where they said to hold it -- the only way to get closer would be to
  take the back of the phone off ;-(.

  I'm using a Samsung Galaxy 5, which they said they've had a lot of
  trouble with (though apparently the S6 is worse so be ware). I get
  that support from one phone to another can be iffy, but when 1/16" is
  out of range for a wireless connection, I would suggest there's a real
  design flaw.

  Disappointing...

I would like to get more pieces of information from the support about their sensitivity and reliability. They do not allow contacts from new customers; only from existing customers. I do not like such a philosophy; it does not confirm me.

Thoughts about the product

Why is YubiKey's NFC weak in some products?
Why you cannot get a replacement of weak YubiKeys? How are the warranty and return policies?
What is the company behind the product?
Can the company recover the NFC key of the customer?
Does the company maintain a database to whom they have sold those keys?

How can you use NFC card with password as login in Android >=6.0?

You can try YubiKey for an NFC card. It's not dynamic.
For NFC unlock + password, you can try SmartpassLock NFC.

Another (overkill) approach would be to use a contactless JavaCard (for example this one) that needs to have an applet in it, and infrastructure to support this kind of architecture. And then also develop an app on android for this(there are some smartcards apps, but havent tried them yet), the card uses a private and public key scheme.

Most apps, identifies the UID of the card to unlock, if you want something thats not off the shelf, a bit a coding will be needed.

Hope this helps!


Autodesk sketchbook won't export I'm using the mobile pro edition, (cheaper than the tablet pro edition), and when I open the inbuilt gallery, I can tap on the drawings to edit them, but not select them to export, delete or duplicate them. If I long-press on a drawing it will do nothing until I let go, then it will open for editing g as if I had tapped it.

That's the usual behaviour since they changed the export feature some time ago. When you tap an image from the gallery, it opens full-screen but not in editing mode right away. In this view, click the share icon on the action bar (the three circles connected by two lines) and choose "Share as __" for whichever format you want to export as.

After a brief pause, it'll give you a share menu listing apps you can share with, and the top item on this menu is "Save to device", with an icon of an SD card. Instead of launching another app to share with, this will just save/export a file in your chosen format.


How do I copy and paste text between applications? Very often I find myself wishing that I could copy text from a tweet I am reading (in the Twitter app) and paste it in, for example, TweetDeck so I can retweet/reply. How do I go about doing this? Prolonged touch does not work in this case, as it does in the E-mail apps.

Outside of email and the browser, you can only copy text from editable text fields, so you can't directly copy text from other people's tweets in the Twitter app.

Workaround:

Install Copy to Clipboard from the Market. This integrates with the 'Share' menu. By sharing a tweet to this app it will copy the text to you clipboard.


During a Google+ Instant Upload, is it all or nothing? I'm in the middle of an "Upload All" but I don't see anything online yet? Is it an all or nothing upload? My upload keeps getting stuck on the next to last item. It would be nice if I could see the first 356 of 358 items while the last 2 items are uploaded (or not).

It should show your pictures as they are added (AKA not all-or-nothing). I'd try rebooting your device, also check if maybe your battery level is low (under I think 20% it doesn't upload, similar to dropbox)


Cell Broadcast Function Disappeared on Samsung Galaxy S4 Android 5.1 Cell Broadcast messages function which is usually here : messages -> setting -> cb messages seems to have disappeared on new Samsung phones.

I have Samsung Galaxy S4 Android 5.1.

Maybe this function is hidden in some other place?

Lollipop 5.1. There's an app called "Emergency Alerts"
Launch it.
Click upper right pop up menu and select "settings" to customize.


Sorry, [almost everything] has stopped unexpectedly when starting one of my rooted Z740 AT&T phones, it, after about 30 seconds, starts by stopping Google play services, then after about 5 consecutive of those most apps start crashing and the only way to open any app is using iSwipe from Clean Master.

I cannot to a reset as in the way through the settings won't do anything, and my volume keys are broken.

any Idea to suppress the notifications, or better, reset the device is greatly appreciated.

Usb debugging has been enabled before hand and works fine

You can try sending an Intent with the adb shell. Connect the device, open a terminal and type the following :

adb shell am broadcast -a android.intent.action.MASTER_CLEAR

You need adb installed.


How to remove spy-ware and how to turn off GPS-Tracking? Someone installed spy-ware and is also tracking my GPS.  I can tell because when I open navigator the location is not where I am. I have driven to the location and someone is sitting in their car.  This same person follows me around town. also when I call my daughter a third party answers phone also so I can't get through to my daughter.I have tried factory reset but the person is still in control of my GPS.  How do I get control back on my phone?

I mean this in the nicest possible way but do you have problems with paranoia....that is the most logical explanation for what you're reporting in my opinion. Otherwise what you're saying doesn't make much sense - why would someone targeting you alter your gps to show their location as your location... That would just lead you to them... Also if your gps just shows that incorrect location as your location then it doesn't seem to be tracking you. Please consider seeking help.


Renaming the “OK Google” voice command I have several Android devices: I would like to have a different voice command for each device to turn on the voice search. Is there any way to rename the voice command “OK Google”?

I use Android 4.4.2 on each device.

The Application Open Mic+ is the only way to do this that I've found so far. It's available for free on the Play Store. The "hotword" is one of its settings.

Open Mic+


CWM Recovery mode menu does not show up, stucks at red screen I have Karbonn A5+ phone. I did not find any tuts online tailor made for this model A5"+"', though I found very great resource for Karbonn A5, which I presumed that must be same as A5+ but just with lower processing power (855MHz vs 1GHz). They look exactly the same. I tried to install the drivers for A5 as in this video  and link given in video description, they seem to be installed properly.

I tried to install CWM recovery as shown in this video by the same person who prepared above video for A5. It said that the CWM recovery was flashed successfully and the rebooted. But when I tried to reboot the phone in recovery mode it did not show the CWM menu, it just stuck at red screen.

What could be wrong? Does these drivers are incompatible? If yes, how can I test them? Or the CWM provided in the description of the video above may be incompatible with my phone? If yes where can I get proper CWM recovery for this phone? Now I tried reflashing the CWM recovery twice but it did not helped, So how can I get at least my stock recovery back? And how can I install CWM recovery properly?

Well I know I asked too much question stupidly. But just anxious as am noob.

Ohkay I did not found any custom ROM from this specific device Karbonn A5+ neither tried to cook one myself, but I learnt some facts about it, so just putting them here so that others may get some help.

Drivers at the said source site are compatible with Karbonn A5+ , though they have been said to be of Karbonn A5 at the source site.
The custom CWM at the said source site is incompatible with Karbonn A5+
About stock recovery - I already said it in comments, just repeating it out here:

  My phone is detected as W650 by adb devices command. The stock recovery provided in other video by same person is for many firmwares including w619 and w650 as it lists while running. So I tried it and it worked. However the CWM recovery seems to be for W619 only.

Though I still not know from where these numbers w650, w619 came from, the internal firmware code? I will like to know this.

Honestly I think this device cannot take on ICS or JellyBean nicely because of its low RAM. So just stick to stock gingerbread - its fine. In fact I got another device which runs JellyBean on 512MB RAM & 1GHz dual core processor. I always feel that my old phone running gingerbread is smoother than this newer one - at least at basic swipe transitions/animations. JellyBean feels bloaty/resource intensive, but is surely smoother than ICS.


Bluetooth headset in-call volume doesn't change? I have a Motorola Droid (the original, A855) and a Jawbone Icon bluetooth headset. The headset does not have its own volume controls, so I've tried adjusting the volume using the volume rocker. While the on-screen display shows BlueTooth volume as what's being adjusted, the volume seems to be exactly the same when turned all the way down or all the way up.

Is this just an issue with the Icon, the Droid, or am I doing something wrong?

Try updating your Jawbone's firmware and see if that fixes it.  You can also try installing Jawbone Companion and see if that helps.  It doesn't have the OG Droid listed as being compatible when I click on Install on the Google Play site, it has my OG Droid as one of the options so it's worth a shot.


What are some uses for the HDMI port? My MID came with an HDMI port and cable. I have not seen this on any other device. What are some uses for this?

Generally for video out, you can connect them to your TV to get an even larger screen, for example, to watch videos. Or you might be able to use it for doing presentations on a projector, instead of using a laptop.


Video Streamer that can connect via proxy Hello I connect my phone to the internet via wifi, using connectify, my internet is via a proxy. I've managed to set wifi proxy, but this works for only the Internet app, my video players fail to stream, probably because they're going direct and not passing through the proxy.

My question is ; Is there a video player that works via proxy?

I'm not rooted.

Make sure your proxy server is not blocking video streaming. If connectify is broadcasting an internet connection which is already established thru proxy, Android has got system-wide proxy connection. So, there's no need to setup proxy in particular player.
Sometimes, proxy servers limit the speed of video streaming & even block it. So, get this info first if proxy server is not managed by you.
Then, try using Real Player & let me know..


Does Cyanogenmod 12.1 support the Samsung S4 Mini Smart Cover? I have successfully installed the Cyanogenmod 12.1 (version as of 11.07.2015) for my Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini and I was wondering if it supports the Samsung Galaxy S4 MINI I9192 S-View Premium Flip Cover Black, as can be seen here when it is closed:
It currently does not show the screen like this when closed, but parts of the vanilla Cyanogenmod screen which does not help at all. Any ideas how to change that behaviour?

Since CyanogenMod is close to Stock Android.
The answer will have to be no.

However though, there are many apps that bring this function.


How to use an Android device as bluetooth USB dongle? Is there a way to use my android device as a bluetooth USB dongle without rooting it?

If I understand your question correctly, you are curious if you can plug your phone into the USB port on your laptop and use the bluetooth connection of your phone as if you had bluetooth service on your laptop.

No, that is not possible.  The USB drivers for your phone do not permit that type of functionality.


rooting Samsung Galaxy Note 2 How to root Samsung Galaxy Note 2? I have no experience with rooting. Model number is GT-N7100. Android-version 4.1.1.

This will work on the following Galaxy Note 2:
1.International Galaxy Note 2 GT-N7100
2.T-Mobile Galaxy Note 2 SGH-T889
3.AT&T Galaxy Note 2 SGH-I317
Other carriers
Sprint Galaxy Note 2 SPH-L900
Verizon Galaxy Note 2 SCH-I605
(Given a link to video and more description at last sentence)
Step 1.

Put your Galaxy Note 2 into Download mode by turning off your phone
first then holding down Volume Down, Center Home, and Power buttons
together.

Step 2.

Once you see the warning screen, hit Volume Up button to enter ODIN
Download Mode then connect a micro-USB cable from your Note 2 to your
computer.

Step 3.

If you  have to install Samsung USB drivers

Step 4.

Next, download GalaxyNote2Root.zip

Step 5.

Unzip the files. Next, open up the ODIN program by double-clicking on
the .exe file.

Step 6.

You should see a yellow-highlighted COM box with a random number. If
you don’t see it, double-check your Windows drivers (the Samsung USB
drivers you installed in Step 3) and unplug, plug your Note 2 back
into your computer.

Step 7.

DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING ELSE and click on “PDA” button then find the
file cwm6-root-note2.tar(in unzipped folder).

Step 8.

Hit Start and let ODIN flash the custom CWM Recovery. When it’s done,
your Galaxy Note 2 will reboot and you should have a fully rooted
Galaxy Note 2.

Your phone will boot into newly installed CWM Recovery automatically once and install Superuser app and su binaries then reboot.
You should find a new Superuser app called “SuperSU”.
You can easily verify you have root by downloading Titanium Backup app (free on Play Store) and running it. (a Pop up will appear)
In here they described with details and video that "How to root Note 2" .
You have to just go for the carrier name, under which you are now.
Good Luck
NOTE:I'm not responsible if you mess up your phone. Make sure you know what you are doing before following any instructions. Go here .Just read it.


What is preventing my Android phone from going to sleep? It is eating through the battery quickly My phone is the Motorola Droid 1, rooted and modded with CyanogenMod 7. This problem did not occur before I modded it. When I check the battery stats, the awake bar is always solid, so something is preventing it from going to sleep. On some advice, I ran dumpsys power through adb. Here is the output:

dumpsys power
Power Manager State:
  mIsPowered=true mPowerState=0 mScreenOffTime=3537164 ms
  mPartialCount=1
  mWakeLockState=
  mUserState=
  mPowerState=
  mLocks.gather=
  mNextTimeout=198995292 now=202518891 -3523s from now
  mDimScreen=true mStayOnConditions=0
  mScreenOffReason=3 mUserState=0
  mBroadcastQueue={-1,-1,-1}
  mBroadcastWhy={0,0,0}
  mPokey=1 mPokeAwakeonSet=false
  mKeyboardVisible=false mUserActivityAllowed=false
  mKeylightDelay=6000 mDimDelay=47000 mScreenOffDelay=7000
  mPreventScreenOn=false  mScreenBrightnessOverride=-1  mButtonBrightnessOverrid
e=-1
  mScreenOffTimeoutSetting=60000 mMaximumScreenOffTimeout=2147483647
  mLastScreenOnTime=0
  mBroadcastWakeLock=UnsynchronizedWakeLock(mFlags=0x1 mCount=0 mHeld=false)
  mStayOnWhilePluggedInScreenDimLock=UnsynchronizedWakeLock(mFlags=0x6 mCount=0
mHeld=false)
  mStayOnWhilePluggedInPartialLock=UnsynchronizedWakeLock(mFlags=0x1 mCount=0 mH
eld=false)
  mPreventScreenOnPartialLock=UnsynchronizedWakeLock(mFlags=0x1 mCount=0 mHeld=f
alse)
  mProximityPartialLock=UnsynchronizedWakeLock(mFlags=0x1 mCount=0 mHeld=false)
  mProximityWakeLockCount=0
  mProximitySensorEnabled=false
  mProximitySensorActive=false
  mProximityPendingValue=-1
  mLastProximityEventTime=230765884
  mLightSensorEnabled=false
  mLightSensorValue=-1.0 mLightSensorPendingValue=-1.0
  mLightSensorScreenBrightness=70 mLightSensorButtonBrightness=0 mLightSensorKey
boardBrightness=0
  mUseSoftwareAutoBrightness=true
  mAutoBrightessEnabled=false
  mScreenBrightness: animating=false targetValue=-1 curValue=0.0 delta=-5.0

mLocks.size=1:
  PARTIAL_WAKE_LOCK              'com.commonsware.cwac.locpoll.LocationPoller' a
ctivated (minState=0, uid=10069, pid=14026)

mPokeLocks.size=1:
    poke lock 'PhoneApp': POKE_LOCK_IGNORE_CHEEK_EVENTS

Is a particular app locking my phone awake?

I got an answer on another forum. The part keeping the phone awake was shown here:

mLocks.size=1:
  PARTIAL_WAKE_LOCK              'com.commonsware.cwac.locpoll.LocationPoller' a
ctivated (minState=0, uid=10069, pid=14026)

and by grepping the process id like so:

ps | grep 14026

I found the name of the app that was causing the problem.


Can I force an app to download its data to the SD card? I recently downloaded Vrse for messing around with VR stuff. To function, the app needs to download 360 degree video "scenes". The files are relatively large; generally a few hundred MBs. I'm extremely low on space, and it won't let me keep more than one scene at a time. Is there anyway to force the app to store data on the SD card?

Alternatively, could I transfer the existing app data to the SD card, so that it could download the new data on internal memory? Will the app know where to find it if I do that?

EDIT: Device is a 2014 Moto G (XT1064) running whatever came stock  (I believe it's 5.1).

Thanks!

Evamvid

But if you want to change the main device storage you can change that in settings→storage and then click on standard device storage


How to report potential abuse in Aptoide without becoming a member? The Aptoide store is an alternative platform where you can get Android apps.

I found an app on Aptoide store via Google that has a size of 3.3 MB. The same app with the same app-version in F-Droid store has only a size of 1.1 MB. So I assume that this app is infected by malware.

The Aptoide's info about the suspicious app is

  Xxxx is Unknown

  This classification was assigned because: there is not enough information about the application in Aptoide Anti-Malware platform.

  Scanned with Anti-Virus: Zoner Anti-Virus   Sophos Anti-Virus   AptoideGuard Malware Analyzer

  No Infections Detected  No Infections Detected

In the Aptoide website belonging to the app, there is a "report abuse" button but this requires a login (which I don't have and don't want to have)

In the stores impressum, I found an email address so I wrote an email to Aptoide store admin. I got an automated email reply that I should use a web form to contact Aptoide with a link to the web form. So I filled in the web form and submitted it.

This was a week ago and since then nothing happened. The suspicious app is still available in the store and I got no email response.

Is there any other channel to Aptoide where I can report potential abuse without becoming a member?

First: Different sizes do not necessarily mean the bigger one is infected with malware. Or rather, that might depend on your definition of malware: F-Droid compile .apk files themselves, and while doing that, often exclude proprietary parts – such as ad modules.

Second: Aptoide has security checks running on their .apk files. You should find a shield in the app description: Green = checked and OK, Yellow = checked and something suspicious found, Red = checked and infection found1. You can also find details on the checks, where e.g. signatures are compared with other markets (usually Google Play).

Third: Different repositories at Aptoide have a different trust-level. For example, the repository named "Apps" is manually curated by Aptoide staff, and hence quite trustable.

Forth: You can contact Aptoide via a form on their website. You'll have to reveal an email address for that, so they can contact you back.

Fifth: For more details, please see How safe is it to use Aptoide?. Especially check this answer from Paulo (co-founder of Aptoide) and my own answer.

1You will never find the red shield, though – that's only visible for staff. At the same time a red shield is attached, the app is made unavailable for the public.


querying the android market place for GPL license? Is there a way to get the full list of GPL-licensed apps in the Android Market via a URL or any other method?

I don't know the answer to your question, but the closest thing I've found is: http://fdroid.org/


Remotely controlling Windows 8 apps I am looking for a way to control my Windows 8 machine from my Android device.

I have seen there are some server/clients around, but I'm not sure if they fit my needs. To be clear: I am not looking to session into my RDP, I want to remote control some of my Windows  8 apps.

Unified remote has worked very well for me in the past.

Website

Android app


Some apps are not able to access internet when connected to Laptop's shared wifi on Ubuntu In my office my mobile used to be connected to the office wifi. There I didn't face any internet problem, all apps work fine.

But in my home my mobile is connected to my Laptop's shared wifi and Laptop is running on Kubuntu 15.10. In this case some apps like Play Store, youtube, telegram, whatsapp and all browsers, etc. work well, but some apps do not work, sometimes partially work or otherwise show the message 'No internet connection'.

What's wrong with connection from my laptop to my mobile, and why are some apps working and some are not? How can I solve this?

Android apps can query android for the type involved: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/net/NetworkInfo.html#getType%28%29

Now as a wifi connection is a wifi connection, as long as an app is enabled for wifi, the app should work otherwise the app can detect and say there's no internet connection available if the app so chooses.

There could in theory be an issue or bug with using the laptop's shared wifi but if one app queries android and gets wifi connected then they all should.

You can try an app like 'wifi fixer' and see if it helps.

I don't think its possible for anyone to give a direct answer on how to fix it other than try this and this and this, etc.

That said, as a direct wifi connection worked in the past, get a wifi router or ap and it should be fixed. This is imo what you should do.


Deleted photos reappear after reboot, new photos dissapear I try to delete all the pictures I have on my SD card. I just select all of them and click the trash icon. When I finish, I see an empty folder, as expected. I make a new photo. And then I reboot my mobile phone. When I enter the album I see all the photos I deleted, and the photo I created after the deletion is missing.

Why is this happening?

Edit no 1:

Phone: Sony Xperia XA1

Android 8.0.0

I deleted everything from the Album app

Edit no 2:

I unchecked cloud backup, but still have the same problem. I can erase all photos I have, but after restart they still return in seconds.

Where are they stored? Can I erase them manually?

Edit no 3:

Here's what I tried so far. Provided by someone from the talk.sonymobile.com forum:

settings > apps & notifications > all apps > album > storage > clear data > restart the phone > check again.

Did not work.

Well, it appears the SD card stopped recording new data. Here's how I get to this point:

I ejected the microSD card from the phone.
Using a MicroSD to USB I inserted it to my computer.
I tried to delete the data, the adapter, inserted it again - noticed nothing has changed.
I tried to format the MicroSD, ejected the adapter, inserted it again - noticed nothing has changed.

I bought a new SD card, copied the backup (applications and stuff) to the new one. Photos work as they should.


How to block spamming SMS I am using a MOTO-G6 and it runs on Android-8.0.0. the default SMS app is Google-Messages.

I am getting tons of annoying spam SMS from contacts with no numbers.
It just shows a name for example:

VKHLTCHK
HPFAMDOC
HPYESBNK
...
...

I can block these contacts, But I still do receive sms from these over and over again.

Has anyone have this kind of problem. How do you solve this? I am  willing to buy a paid app if it exists.

Try replacing your stock SMS app with Textra (free). It has a simple & effective blacklist feature. Just long press on the offending text message, tap Blacklist, done.


Is there any way to put a password to avoid someone from hard resetting my phone? I have a Moto G, and I am very careful in protecting my data. I currently use CM Security App from the Google Play Store and it's very helpful in taking a photo to a person who tried unlocking my phone twice without success. Also I have locked my settings to avoid people from turning off my internet and GPS; in that way I will still able to track my phone via GPS. My phone is also locked to avoid people from uninstalling apps without my password. Additional, I had also disable USB debugging to stop someone from wiping my phone directly from a computer, but all this efforts will come down if the hard reset is enabled.

Is there any way to put a password to my boot settings to stop someone from making a hard reset to my phone? I already investigated, and encrypting my phone will not work for this.

No. Even if you could add such a restriction within Android, it would still be possible for an attacker to boot into recovery or into fastboot mode and reset the phone from there.

If you're trying to protect the confidentiality of your data (i.e. stop an attacker accessing it), then encrypting the phone is what's required for that. If you're trying to protect the integrity of your data (i.e. stop an attacker deleting it), then you can do that by backing it up to a secure location that there's no risk of losing.

If you're trying to stop someone deleting a tracking program or the like, then you're not protecting your data at all, you're trying to protect the phone itself. You can only do this with physical precautions, not software precautions, or by insuring against the loss.


Does Android 4.4.3 support Bluetooth Low Energy in peripheral mode (Re-post from https://stackoverflow.com/questions/24049823/does-android-4-4-3-support-bluetooth-low-energy-in-peripheral-mode):

We know that Android until 4.4.2 does not support Bluetooth Low Energy in peripheral mode (see here).

As the OP said, from those commits https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/ee0b3e9 looks like they added the feature.

Does anybody have any information on this?

According to Google I/O, peripheral mode for BLE will only be supported with Android L. (Source: https://plus.google.com/117159045047546859181/posts/79nqfUwxeZK)

Another source says it clear:

  BLE Peripheral Mode — Android devices can now function in Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) peripheral mode. Apps can use this capability to broadcast their presence to nearby devices — for example, you can now build apps that let a device to function as a pedometer or health monitor and transmit data to another BLE device.


What is the difference between nordic, global, etc. firmware versions? Here I see various versions of the official 4.1.B firmware for the Xperia Neo V. What are the differences between nordic, central europe, etc. versions?

Languages support I guess, plus the build number targets the specific SI numbers found underneath the battery hence the differences between them, however minor they may be, to target the region itself.


Inserting Single SIM Card into a Dual SIM Phone I understand phones having Dual SIM card slots use more battery. However, if we use only one SIM in a dual SIM Phone, will the battery still be drained out quickly? What If i choose not to use/insert the other SIM at all?

Let us have your valuable feedback.

You can insert only one SIM and work fine . See this In a dual sim phone, must both sims be used?
By just inserting second SIM battery won't drain extra. If at all there is any battery drain, it would be because of second SIM being active and checking for signal or registering itself on the network.


Is there a cache memory in android smartphone as there is in laptop/desktop? I know there are l1/l2/l3 cache in laptops but is the same kind of cache memory available in android smartphones. Also here in this link when website writes about lrucache what does that mean ?

Look at the Wikipedia disambiguation page for different definitions of cache.

Speaking of cache memory: yes there is, in a similar way to desktop processors. Take Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 as an example:

  L1 Instruction Cache per Core:    32 Kbyte I-Cache

  L1 Data Cache per Core:   32 Kbyte D-Cache

  Total L2 Cache:   1536 Kbyte L2

As for the "lrucache" you talked about, it's merely a part of memory space allocated to store content (in that context, bitmaps). It's much more similar to the other caches e.g. Web Cache on the page, in that it's purely software based - no dedicated software, dynamically allocated and released on storage. Different concept.


Restrict Data consumtion by playStore Over WIFI My Google Play Store application has gone haywire.It is downloading heavily without even notifying anything about what it is downloading and the rate has gone up by 2.5 times in past 2 days.I tried everything to stop it.I selected do-not auto update apps in play store settings and turned off all kinds of Sync.But it still isn't working.
Is there any way i can restrict data consumed by my google play store on WiFi?
I have a rooted device.

you can start clearing data cache for play store app in .. settings>apps>all apps>play store>clear data.

It would probably solve your issue if it still lingers than remove your google account from settings>accounts>google account>remove this account.

Add again the same account with your credentials.. it would solve the issue.


pkg: /data/local/tmp/Superuser.apk Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_ALREADY_EXISTS] Cannot root samsung galaxy s4 GT-I9505.

[*] Device found.
[*] Pushing exploit...
6970 KB/s (1283460 bytes in 0.179s)
[*] Pushing root tools...
7523 KB/s (366952 bytes in 0.047s)
7510 KB/s (1867568 bytes in 0.242s)
7475 KB/s (1578585 bytes in 0.206s)
    pkg: /data/local/tmp/Superuser.apk
Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_ALREADY_EXISTS]
[*] Rooting phone...
[+] This may take a few minutes.
[-] Failure.
[*] Cleaning up...
[*] Exploit complete. Press enter to reboot and exit.

I followed this guide. Motochopper downloaded from here.

Tried to delete file /data/local/tmp/Superuser.apk.

./adb.osx shell
shell@jflte:/ $ cd /data/local/tmp/
shell@jflte:/data/local/tmp $ ls -la

But there is no such file /data/local/tmp/Superuser.apk.

My os is os x.

So my phone is not rooted. Checked by app root checker.

I tried to root several times. Reboot telephone but still fail.

Update

I removed app SuperUser from android device. Restart it. And tried to root again.

sh run.sh
[*]
[*] Motochopper: Android root exploit (Linux/OS X version)
[*] v1.1
[*] by Dan Rosenberg (@djrbliss)
[*]
[*] Tested on the Motorola Razr HD, Razr M, Razr Maxx HD, and Atrix HD.
[*] Supports lots of other devices as well. ;-)
[*]
[*] Before continuing, ensure that USB debugging is enabled and that
[*] your phone is connected via USB.
[*]
[*] WARNING: This will likely void the warranty on your device. I am
[*] not responsible for any damage to your phone as a result using this
[*] tool.
[*]
[*] Press enter to root your phone...

[*]
[*] Waiting for device...
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
[*] Device found.
[*] Pushing exploit...
6626 KB/s (1283460 bytes in 0.189s)
[*] Pushing root tools...
6926 KB/s (366952 bytes in 0.051s)
5723 KB/s (1867568 bytes in 0.318s)
5474 KB/s (1578585 bytes in 0.281s)
    pkg: /data/local/tmp/Superuser.apk
Success
[*] Rooting phone...
[+] This may take a few minutes.
[-] Failure.
[*] Cleaning up...
[*] Exploit complete. Press enter to reboot and exit.

Allthough error INSTALL_FAILED_ALREADY_EXISTS have gone, the telephone still not rooted. [-] Failure.

The problem isn't that a file already exists at that path: it's that the app you're trying to install is already installed on the phone. Have you previously tried to install SuperUser as a normal app? You need to uninstall it before you can root the phone. Uninstall it in the usual way from Settings → Apps.

In addition, the Motochopper exploit only works up to the 4.2.2 firmware for the Galaxy S4 (and only S4 variants with the Snapdragon chipset, not Exynos-based ones). If you've already updated to 4.3 or 4.4, this exploit can't work. You need to use another method, for example unlocking the bootloader the conventional way (though if the phone is carrier-branded the carrier probably has disabled unlocking the bootloader).


Nexus 4 Lollipop install won't complete I updated my Nexus 4 to Android 5 Lollipop last night using the OTA update but the install process just won't complete. It has now been on the "installing system update..." screen for more than 7 hours! The status bar has been complete for at least 6 and a half of those hours too so I don't know what to do.

I've tried powering down and switching on again just now but phone goes straight into "installing system update..." mode.

Has anyone else seen this problem? Really worried me now as it renders my phone completely useless.

Any ideas?

Same thing happened to me. I called virgin who told me to call LG. I have to send my phone for repair. Apparently this has happened to many nexus users.
They will uninstall the Android 5.0 update and send it back to you. But it might take a few weeks.


Flashing Stock Android ROM from another country I purchased my SM-A520F from UAE. I am currently using the phone in India.

All Samsung Mobiles sold in UAE have VOLTE disabled by default, and hence my phone do not have it. However, majority of the 4G carriers in India use VOLTE and this causes problems that are not minor.

Rooting the phone will probably void warranty. I was told that I can flash stock firmware for this device released for India without having to root.

Will this void warranty?
I contacted customer support of Samsung UAE and they told me it would. But I dont believe them since sources on the internet say otherwise and I won't be rooting the phone.
If I were to go ahead with this, where can I get the official firmware? Is there any option to download this from Samsung website?
What is knox counter? Will I be able to do this without "tripping" knox?
Once I download and install stock firmware from a different country from a  website like Sammobile.com can I still receive OTA updates?
After flashing a firmware downloaded from a third party website, how safely can I use applications that use sensitive data like S Pay and mobile banking applications?

Thanks a ton in advance.

Yes, it will void the warranty;
Hard to say, some Samsung firmwares are available "officially", some are leaked, and some are not available at all. XDA forums for you device are the best place to look;
KNOX counter is a way of checking if you phone is or has been modified, in theory flashing a stock ROM will NOT trip the Knox counter;
Probably;
If you are stock, you are stock, the source of the image isn't relevant since the image will be digitally signed....

The real issue here is the hardware/radio differences that cannot be edited or flashed, it likely will not function right, that information is protected and tied to the device, flashing a ROM does not change bands or network connectivity of the hardware, but it does change the radio firmware which can cause a mismatch of hardware capability to radio firmware preventing connectivity.


Partioning sd not detecting I have partitioned my sd using mini-Partion tool.My sd partion shows unallocted and file system as logiclly and i know that for link2sd it should be primary.how to convert to primary file system.i dint find any option for that in mini-Partion.

If you have windows pc try this. Back up any data in sd card and save it in pc.

Insert your sd card in any card reader and insert in pc
Press Windows Key + R and the Run dialog should popup. Type in
diskpart and hit Enter.
Once DiskPart comes up, type list disk. (This will show you all the
disks that are attached to the system. You'll want to note the
number of the one that is your sd card/flash drive. You should be
able to distinguish it based on it's small size compared to your
hard disks.)
select the sd card by typing select disk number (eg:select disk 2)
Type list part and it will show you what partitions are already on
the disk.
Next to remove all the partitions from the disk just type clean.
Afterwards type list part and the console should say that there are
now no partitions on the disk.
(If you need more than one partition goto step 8 )Type create partition primary and this will create a new partition that fills the available space on the disk. You can type list part to confirm that the new partition has been created.Goto step 11
If you want it a particular size add the size parameter size=20 eg: create partition primary size=100 (with the size in MBs)
select the new partition select partition 1 (you can list partition using list partition command)
Now format it to fat32 format FS=Fat32 label="SDCARD" repeat 8,9,10 to create more partition (you can use exFat instead of Fat32 if you have more than 4gb sdcard, you can omit the label part if not needed)
Thats it now you can close diskpart and eject the sd card and insert in your
android


How to backup the Android calendar file (is there such a file)? Does anybody know which files I need to save in order to have a simple backup?

Reason for my question is, that my Galaxy Android smartphone lost all calendar data without any interaction. I found tons of apps, tons of sync stuff, but NO simple list of files to save. I do NOT want to save my data remotely on Google.

There must be at least one local file (database?) on my phone containing the synced calendar file (on my server, using ICSSync)

Android stores calender data (and contacts as well) into a SQLite database in the system. The format of that SQLite database differs between ROMs -- so at least for "normal users" it's not that good an idea to "simply" copy that SQLite file. Rather use a good backup app for this. A good example would be iCal Import/Export, which allows you to export your calendar to an .ics file -- and also to import from .ics files, e.g. for a restore.


If a specific app doesn't require full network access permission means it's completely privacy safe? If they can't access internet, they can't steal my data in the back which is safe right? I wanna try this file encryption app from play store. Before i proceed, i wanna make sure that the app itself is completely safe. It's called SSE encryption app.

Unfortunately, all apps always have the ability to access the internet. The permission can be misleading. It has to do with viewing other devices on a network and the network details.
What you can do is right after downloading the app, put your phone in airplane mode. That will prevent any data from leaving the phone, then uninstall it before turning airplane mode off.

Although in all reality, unless you're running Paranoid Android, your data is never truly safe, and even then it isn't perfect.


Is it possible to install an FM Radio application to get local frequencies? Samsung Galaxy S10 has a built-in radio application. But it catches only USA and Canada frequencies. I do not live in USA nor in Canada. So is it possible to install an FM Radio application from Google PlayStore to get locale FM radio frequencies in my country ?

That really depends on if there is an app to stream stations from your country, unless you are talking about a real FM radio receiver function in the phone.

My s10e doesn't have an FM radio function, so the only way for me to get 'FM stations' is by streaming the station over the Internet with an app. I assume yours is the same. If not, read below. Carriers like to disable the FM radio to force you to use your data.

So if some company has built an app to stream stations like 'Iheartradio' in the US, then you can use it. Also, some US stations have websites that allow you to stream their station using a web browser. You might try that.

If you are talking about an actual FM rađio receiver app that uses 88Mhz to 108Mhz and your country doesn't use those frequencies, all I can tell you is you can try to find an app for your country. But if the radio in the phone is the US format, changing the app probably won't change the frequency capability of the hardware radio inside the phone.

As far as I know, the only areas that haven't switched to the 88-108Mhz band is Japan and Eastern Europe so Samsung may not make hardware specifically for your region.


Is it possible to unload built-in kernel module? I have a kernel with built-in module that I want to replace. I have built a .ko and tried to insmod it, but it failed since the kernel was already built with it.

Is it possible to do this?

No. Built-in drivers aren't modules, they are built-in (hence the name). If it's not showing in lsmod, you can't get rid of it short of building a new kernel.


How do I remotely track a missing persons Android with GPS I have a family member missing over a week now. How do I remotely track the missing person on their Android and get a GPS location?

I need to use my desktop computer to do the tracking.

If you have access to the Google account on the phone, you can use Google's Android Device Manager to locate the device. This requires the phone to be powered on with location services enabled. This will notify the phone as well.

If you do not have access to the Google account, you need a preinstalled tracking application, like Google+. Some more examples of preinstalled options:
https://www.cnet.com/news/location-tracking-apps/
http://www.phonearena.com/news/How-to-share-your-location-and-GPS-coordinates-using-your-smartphone_id50312

If you don't have either of these, then you can't use GPS to locate the phone; you need to have the phone service provider locate the phone (provided it's on). This is not a service normally provided to the general public. Get help from law enforcement, a private investigator, or a skip tracer.


Is there a different fastboot command for the Google Pixel and the oem-off-mode command? I'm trying to set a Google Pixel to boot when the power is connected. I found discussion of using the fastboot oem-off-mode charge = 0 command, but when I reboot the device into the bootloader and try the command I get a fastboot: usage: unknown command oem-off-mode error.

Is this command no longer supported or did they rename the command?

I had a hyphen in the wrong spot. The proper command is fastboot oem off-mode-charge = 0