Removing apk of inbuilt apps completely (without rooting) I'm working on Samsung Galaxy On7, Android 6.0.1-Marshmallow.

My internal memory is 8 GB, due to which I have disabled several inbuilt apps which I do not need at all.

The problem is that, these disabled apps are still taking up space, even though they are disabled and replaced by their factory versions.

Is there any way I can completely free up the space the Google apps are using up (like Facebook and its Manager, which are taking up almost no space):

(Click the image to enlarge it)

Please note that I do not want to root my phone. I had previously rooted my other phone with kingo root, but could never unroot it.

Unfortunately, that is just not possible. The apk of system apps resides within system partition. The privileges (access rights) required to make changes in system partition are not given to ordinary users. We can only gain such higher privilege through rooting.

That said, if you are dealing with space issues than you are looking at wrong front. System partition has nothing to do with those space issues since only a system wide update/upgrade makes changes in it. They are caused by data partition. It is possible that you may have updated some system apps, so now, they would be having an apk in system partition and another apk (the latest update) in the data partition (now that is one precious space). You can delete the ones in data partition by disabling that system app. When you attempt to do that you would get something like this:

OK, and the apk from the data partition would get deleted.


How to disable symbols pop-up on long press on GBoard or make the key long-press delay really long? I am trying to disable the symbol pop-up on long-press on GBoard in Android. My device is rooted. The link here shows how to increase GBoard height above the highest level by changes the preferences file at /data/data/com.google.android.inputmethod.latin/shared_prefs/ . However, I could fine no such setting for disabling the symbol pop-up. Another way to do this would be to increase the long-press duration to 2-3s instead of the deafult max of 700ms. However, there is again no setting in the preferences file related to this. Any suggestions if this is doable by modifying the system files in a rooted device or by any other method?

Settings>Language & input>Google Keyboard>preference check there


SD Card partition named differently on different devices - breaks music player I have recently moved from a Droid 2 to Droid 3, both running Android 2.3. The same SD card registers as "sdcard" on the D2, and "sdcard ext" on D3. Probably for this reason, I am having problems with music files, as well as playlists. When I move the SD card back to the D2, it is in the "sdcard" folder. In the D3, it is in the "sdcard ext" folder. I would like to know:

why is this different?
where are the music playlist files typically stored?

Your new device has a small amount of internal memory and a large amount of storage memory. This larger section is termed as /sdcard and the contents of a physical microSD card inserted into your device is assigned the label /sdcard_ext or similar.

The android media scanner will intelligently scan thru your entire sd card (both if you have a physical card inserted too) at boot time.

You can place your music files in the following folders. YMMV due to differing versions of Android.

/sdcard/Music/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as user music.

/sdcard/Podcasts/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as a podcast.

/sdcard/Ringtones/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as a ringtone.

/sdcard/Alarms/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as an alarm sound.

/sdcard/Notifications/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as a notification sound.

/sdcard/Pictures/ - All photos (excluding those taken with the camera).

/sdcard/Movies/ - All movies (excluding those taken with the camcorder).

/sdcard/Download/ - Miscellaneous downloads.


Two identical devices, only one offers system update I have two identical Nexus 7 (GSM) devices. Both running Android 4.4.4, KTU84P.

Now one of them shows that Lollipop 5.0.2 is available as OTA, but the other one says that no updates are available. How is that possible?

OTA updates that come directly from Google (such as Nexus devices) are rolled out in waves. An excerpt from Dan Morill's comment states that, specifically:

Rollouts are conducted in phases. Typically they start at 1% of devices for around 24 - 48 hours; we watch the return rates and resulting device checkins and error reports (if any), and make sure nothing looks wrong before sending it to more. Then typically it goes to 25%, 50%, 100% over the course of a week or two.
What the percentages mean is that when your device checks in, it has a 1% chance (for example) of being offered the OTA. If it doesn't (randomly) get an offer, it will never get an offer until the next batch.

Since the Lollipop update for the GSM Nexus 7 just began yesterday, one of your devices was likely chosen for this "wave" and the other was not. If you want to update manually, you could try to find a copy of the OTA and attempt to sideload it or use the proper factory images.


Android Music Player is not detecting Music files I copied music files from my computer to my Galaxy Nexus phone, using the command adb push Music /sdcard/Music/, and the stock Android music player is not detecting these files (while others do). I'm able to view these files in my Android file manager application, but when I mount my phone as an MTP device, the music folder is empty.

Is it related to partitioning? I see two partitions with the same content, /storage/emulated/0/ and /storage/emulated/legacy/.

I'm pretty sure that while adb push works to get the files there, it's not the supported way to get media files onto your Android device. This means that it doesn't set the flag that tells the Media Scanner that new media which needs it's meta-data indexed and added to the media library has arrived on your device.

One way to force the media scanner to rescan your storage is to just run an app like Rescan SD after you've copied the files over.


How to change the font without root in HTC Explorer? I would like to change font in HTC Explorer(2.3.5) without root.
I saw some tutorial on the internet but those are only Samsung galaxy series.

Is there anyway to do that?

You can't. And you shouldn't.

Samsung's proprietary Touchwiz interface, has the hability to change fonts that are distributed as apk files and can be installed like any other app. I'm not aware of any other manufacturer that integrated this feature into their device.

It's also a bad idea to change the fonts. If they have different x-height parts of the letters may get cut. They may not have some special characters that the system or an app expects so boxes or nothing will show up in it's place. Legibility can also be an issue. There are fonts that don't have any of these issues, but they're rare and are mostly the same type as the system font, so you won't notice much improvement.


How to maintain 1 char at a time when holding down delete? After about 2 seconds or so quickly deleting 1 char at a time holding down delete turns into quickly delete entire words or sentences at a time. To avoid this I end up having to:

press for about 1 second
then let go

press for about 1 second
then let go

press for about 1 second
then let go

Is there a way to change the behavior to maintain only 1 char at a time no matter how long you hold it down? Maybe have another key delete entire words or sentences at a time. This is using the Samsung keyboard, is there another keyboard that'll allow this?

This is a 'feature' of Samsung's keyboard, default on Samsung android phones. I did look at Samsung's settings and did not see the ability to alter this. Use another keyboard to fix, which I did, such as Gboard by Google.

While I do like the ability quickly delete word by word also, that should be provided by a another key, not shared with the character by character key.


I cannot gain access to an internet connection I had to do a hard reset on my device!Now i cannot log into my google apps at the set up of my phone, nor can i get any internet connection. Can you help? Im not sure how to fix this problem.

Verify the APN settings for your network operator. It may happen that an incorrect APN profile is selected which is prohibiting you from getting network access.


Is Multi-Boot Possible in Android? Can you replace the bootloader of Android to create a UEFI-like environment where you can Multi-boot into another Operating System? I've seen several off-brand phones do this but I'm unsure how they do it. There is a phone on the market
(I think on Amazon) where users report that their phones don't directly boot into android but give them a choice of booting into "Android Core" and "Android OS". If you can actually do this, is there a way of flashing this ROM onto a phone, or are there other steps needed to accomplish this task?

Yes it is possible. As Irfan mentioned there are hacks which allow, essentially, dual booting with a Linux distro, the list of which is rapidly expanding.
Dual booting native Android ROMs is possible as well. Dual Boot Patcher app by xda developer Anik_khan allows just such a scheme. Additionally devices with A/B partitions certainly can dual boot(although /data is shared). It is also possible to configure a ISO within an  Android device that can be bootable via USB, say for a laptop...


Upload my own videos to Google Play? Is it possible to sync my own video with Google Play Video (like in Google Play Music)?

I know that it's not possible on Google Books, I am wondering how about videos.

What will be a good alternative for syncing videos?

Right now it is not possible to sync through Play Video, however, you may soon be able to purchase movies from the market and have them stay in the cloud until needed.

You could try alternatives such as Box, or Dropbox, (there are many competitors in this file-locker space), they allows you to sync nearly anything across devices.

Google Video, at least on my Xoom, will pick up movies out of any folder without the .nomedia file in it.

(edited to remove falsehood of no Google Services allowing syncing :) )


How to get stock Android for Gooophone i6? I bought a knock-off/replica iPhone 6, Goophone i6. It's the original Goophone i6 and it's running on Android 4.2 with an ugly iOS 7 skin over it.

Specs:

i6 Quad Core
MTK6582
1.4GHz
1GB+8GB/16GB/32GB
Android 4.2
GPS, WiFi, 3G
WCDMA
Single Nano-Sim Card
13.0MP Camera Smart Phone

I was wondering if I could delete all of it and just get stock Android?

I found a tutorial blog to flash KitKat 4.4.2 stock firmware for Goophone i6.

I'm not affiliated to the creator of the blog or the blog itself.

  Download the latest KitKat 4.4.2 Stock Firmware for Goophone i6 smartphone from here, here or here.

  Update file name: Goophone-i6 fw
  Archive size: 296 MB
  Model: Goophone i6 Smartphone
  Config_version: V1.1.2
  Platform: Mediatek MT6582
  Project: hedy82_wet_v116_jb5

  How to install the ROM:

  Unpack FlashTools, and open Flash_tool.exe
  Select MT6592_Android_scatter.txt from /ROM
  Wait for the file to be added into the Flash Tool
  Choose Option -> USB Model, click USB Model –> Choose Option -> DA DownLoad All -> Speed -> High Speed, click High Speed
  Turn off the phone, then remove the battery.
  "Press F9 (hit Download button)" OR "if upgrade ROM Firmware -> Upgrade"
  Connect your phone to the computer via USB data cable.
  The process will start and a red progress bar will appear after color purple, yellow and green circles display.
  Finish!


"kswapd0" is taking up some of my device's CPU time even though I don't have any swap. What's going on? Using Ozcan ROM 6.3 on my Samsung Galaxy S4, I'm observing kswapd0 process making CPU laggy. The same thing happened on another TW KK ROM - Omega. After researching on it for weeks, I realized that it's the process that does the SWAP job - transferring RAM contents to storage when memory is low.

Presently, I don't want to use SWAP, so the following are the workarounds that I tried to disable SWAP:

Tried Apps like Swapper2, Reset Swap to delete swapfile. The process
vanishes for few seconds but it looks like the swapfile again gets
created (checked by using command, free).
Used the command swapoff -a    (to Stop swapping on all swap devices)
but it gives me an error - swapoff: /etc/fstab: No such file or directory.

So, my Queries are as follows:

Why and how does SWAP gets enabled automatically? Is the kernel or
ROM responsible for it?
When actually could the SWAP partition be    created when I didn't do
it manually? On flashing the ROM?
What I'm doing wrong in the swapoff comand? After reading about the
same    error, I think it's related to the location of the swapfile.
So, how    can I know the location of the swapfile? Any suggestions
on disabling    the SWAP permanently or making kswapd0 use less CPU
if the lag is not    directly related to SWAP?

(Originally posted on XDA)

It might not be possible to disable kswapd0. Even if it's possible to disable it, you should not try. You see, kswapd0 does important work even if you don't have a swap file.

On the Ubuntu Stack Exchange website, psusi explains:

  Swap space is only used for data that is not backed by any other file. Data that is mapped from other files on disk (such as executable programs) is still swapped to their respective files even if you don't have a swap device.

You should visit psusi's original answer and vote it up.


Installing magisk with Android 11 Is there a problem with, or something missing from, the steps at this guide for installing Magisk on Android 11?
Specifically, in step 13, it says to flash the patched boot image (patched by Magisk Manager) to the phone, with
fastboot flash boot patched_magisk.img

followed by
fastboot reboot

And then to verify root in step 14 by checking in the Magisk Manager app. But doesn't step 13 reset the phone, so the installed apps like Magisk Manager are also gone?

Certainly not. It's safe
All that you are doing in this step is to

Check if your device is recognized in fastboot mode by fastboot devices

Replace the boot image by the patched boot image on your computer by
fastboot flash boot xxx.img.

fastboot reboot will boot you into OS where you can verify root as next step recommends.

This the normal way of rooting using patched images and will not affect your installed apps. See Magisk official documentation


My LG LEON battery dead? I was charging my LG LEON and it suddenly turned off with a 0 percentage of battery, then when i tried connecting it to the charger it didn't wanna charge. I tried with five different chargers and plugs but it still doesn't wanna charge.  My company is T-Mobile, i called and they told me to take the battery out for 10-15 seconds and to put it on again to see what happens, but it did not work. What should i do?

There are 2 things that could be at fault here.

The battery as been damaged or has simply reached the end of its usable life. You can bringing it to a professional to be replaced if it is internal or buy a replacement and put it in youeslef if it is removable.
More probable based on your description, the battery charger inside the phone has broken. Inside (almost) all electronics, there is a separate chip to control the charging cycle. This chip can break just like any other piece of your phone, which makes the phone unable to charge the battery and, depending on the internals, unable to report the correct battery percentage. Your battery may have been almost dead when it suddenly shut off. I had a Dell laptop reach its final day like this, so it isn't as ludicrous as you'd imagine. If this is the case, the phone is beyond reasonable repair and will have to be replaced.

If the battery is easily replaceable, do that first. If that doesn't help, your phone is done.


Android Phone Off State and Boot process - Does Android consume power when switched off? I am curious about the "turned off" state and the boot process after that in details.
I found some good articles on this topic like this one:
http://www.lieberbiber.de/2015/07/05/mediatek-details-little-kernel/
but it's still not completely clear to me what's the exact process.

I know that the basic boot sequence is:

Boot ROM
Preloader
Little kernel (LK)
And then it may split into going to:

Download mode (in case of a Samsung device for example)
Fastboot mode or
Recovery or
Normal boot (starting Android boot itself)

But is the phone really off when we turn it off and the battery is inserted?
I know that Android is really shut down but is the phone completely off regarding the software level?
As the article linked above says, the little kernel is doing the charging animation,
or selects the next boot image when pressing the keys (recovery, fastboot, normal boot, etc).

So my question is: when the phone is off and we press the power button is it the hardware
which starts the boot really from zero (from the boot rom) or at this point the phone
has already been finished with processing the boot rom, the preloader and loading
the little kernel as well which is watching the key press events?

It's not clear to me because I checked the source code of the little kernel as well
and there are some keyboard ckecking routines for example to enter to recovery mode.

Thanks in advance!

Cheers!

Clarification
You're asking different things in each part of the post. The title asks "Does Android consume power when switched off?" but the latter part of the post asks "which is watching the key press events?", with a few different questions in between, which adds further distractions and confusions to the possible answerers...
Anyhow, I guess it all boils down to:  "Once an Android phone is turned off, what wakes it up to start a process in each appropriate situations?".
Backgrounds
To answer this, I'll have to take you to even lower level of an electronic device: hardware.
You may argue,

"What are you talking about?! A hardware is nothing when there's no software! Something HAS to be there watching the button input and I'm simply asking what that could be".

Be patient, please. Well get there soon.

"But...!"

Believe me. Besides, you might need to remind yourself of the definition of 'software' and 'hardware' now, since we're about to dive deep into such a low level.
I wonder whether you've ever played with an Arduino, those little boards that get clicky button inputs and put flashy LED outputs. A chip working as the brain in one of these devices* is called an 'MCU', or a 'microcontroller'. A computer - including Android devices - is equipped with a few of these. Every firmware/ROM chips, BIOS chips, or any programmable ICs is likely another microcontroller.
Simple Answer
These MCUs are quite simple compared to CPUs, but more robust and energy-efficient. For this reason, MCUs are often used to aid CPUs to set things up for them. How do they work? Essentially, they behave just according to how a firmware is programmed inside the ROM.
"Ha, so it's simply the Boot ROM, isn't it? You could have just said so!" Well, you'll have to know a bit more to understand better to get an answer for each of your oh-so-many questions.
Deeper Explanation
The keywords are interrupt and sleep mode (the terminology of the latter may vary).
(Wrong) Example
The firmware could be coded in a way that the chip would constantly be looking at the external inputs. However, this is not the ideal way. The chip will have to retrieve the state of a button, compare whether it's on or off, and then count up to 50ms or so to simply wait. Now back to retrieving the state, and so on. The poweroff state could last hours, days, or even years - all the while unbeknownst to the poor little chip is whether the moment for it to shine again would ever come...
Sorry, that was a little bit disturbing. The existential crisis is not the only problem though, if that helps. Even if the chip were to be actively working, each glancing costs valuable resource as well!
Interrupt
Interrupt works the other way round. It's more like giving a notification to the main computational part. An MCU with the capability, essentially every modern one, is prepared with a procedure where they could push away & forget whatever they were up to before, execute a specific function to respond to the interrupt signal, and then get back to the task they were doing before. This way, an MCU doesn't have to actively, repeatedly compute a retrieval & comparison set. In the case of a typical Android device, you could assign interrupt for [power applied/removed on the charger pin], [power applied/removed on the charger pin] and [power button pressed].
Sleep Mode
You may ask,

"Okay, sooo... now that MCU doesn't have to be burdened with that, it could happily sleep?"

HA! No.
...well yes. MCU could just sleep there.
Actually what I want to remark here is that, don't quote me on this but, what they sip when they sleep should be comparable to self discharge of a battery. At this point, there's so little software involved here that I would say those running at this point are all purely implemented in the hardware - but that's just my opinion and I don't consider myself expert enough to get you necessarily convinced.
Closure
So, basically, when in the poweroff state, Boot ROM is barely running that battery consumption is minuscule. When awakened, all it has to do is to call Preloader and/or to tell LK about what happened. I'm not sure of even deeper details; I have no idea but I'm willing to say it should be implementation dependent.
Clear Ups
I guess at this point, your main question should be answered.
Followings are answers to your other questions.

Does Android consume power when switched off?

No.
It is not any part of the Android OS ("Normal boot", you said) that consumes power.

Does Android consume power when switched off?

Yes but barely.
Note that there could be additional power consumption to run other parts, notably RTC (Real Time Clock) module.

But is the phone really off when we turn it off and the battery is inserted? I know that Android is really shut down but is the phone completely off regarding the software level?

No but almost.

when the phone is off and we press the power button is it the hardware which starts the boot really from zero (from the boot rom) or at this point the phone has already been finished with processing the boot rom, the preloader and loading the little kernel as well which is watching the key press events?

More like former.
Except Boot ROM is constantly running but barely.
Hope you got better idea about how everything works now!
*Note: Most Arduino boards have two MCUs, one in the center and the other to control the USB interface.


Samsung S21 where is enable auto space after period setting I cannot find the setting for auto space after period when I'm typing a message on my Samsung S21.
Anybody knows where it is?
*hope it's not part of the autocorrect, because I have that turned off, because it's making a mess in my language

Samsung keyboard does not have that option to add a space after a full stop. It has an opposite option instead which adds a full stop before two spaces, converting one of the spaces after a word to a full stop.

Bring up the keyboard,
tap the keyboard input method chooser in the bottom right,
select the "cog" and it will bring up the keyboard settings.
A short way down there is the "More typing options". Tap that.
in there you will find an option "double tap space bar to add full stop"


Cannot update Android I have a ZTE Citrine LTE II from TracFone. I'm running Android 5.1.1. I can't seem to update Android to the latest version. Clicking "Software Update" near the bottom doesn't work (images are too large)

Following some guides tells me to click on "About Phone" and then look for a software thingamajig at the top...

Is there any way to update a non-rootable TracFone?

With most Android phones it is down to the manufacturer to push updates to the phones.

I had a quick Google and it seems your phone's latest Android release is 5.1.1. Unless your manufacturer pushes another update you're pretty much stuck with that version I'm afraid.


How do I cancel password request on my lock screen? I have tried using the security features using Device Manager on my Hudl 2 to Sony Xperia E1 running 4.4.2 KitKat. When I tried the lock feature, it made my phone ask for the password, but is there now anyway to stop that as it is a pain every time my screen locks? I have tried settings - security - screen lock but the none option is greyed out. I have also tried the "clear credentials" option, but no change.

If you have lock screen options grayed out, that's usually enforced by some program that has been granted permission to act as a "device administrator". Most commonly, it's the stock Mail app if you are connecting to a corporate mail server, or some corporate security software you may have been asked to install if you're connecting to a company network.

Go to Settings→Security→Device Administrators and see if there are any applications listed with a check mark in the box on the right. If there are, you can try unchecking them one by one and going back to the Lock Screen settings each time to see which one is imposing the restriction.

Be aware, however: revoking an app's device administrator permission may result in loss of access to resources and/or the deletion of any data associated with that app. You should receive a warning/confirmation message if that is the case for a particular device administrator you're trying to deactivate. For example, if the Mail app became a device administrator as the result of configuring it to access a corporate Exchange account, you will lose access to the account and all data associated with that account will be deleted if you deactivate its device administrator status.


Calling adb through command line ignored So the problem I am having after a Windows reinstall, is that whenever I call ADB, it just gets ignored.
Calling adb from my custom tools seems to be working (have a d.bat file, that calls python, that calls ruby, that does some advances magic with adb, the d.bat is in environmental variables, so just writting 'd' in cmd calls it fine. Why the bat -> py > rb? don't ask. It works. I use it for work..)

If I path to adb (D:\Android\sdk\platform-tools) then adb is called fine. From anywhere else - nope. But the same path is in Environmental Variables, I restarted the command lines to make sure it takes affect, that didn't help, so even restarted the pc. Still nothing. I'm out of ideas. Would be great if anyone is able to help..

CMD: https://puu.sh/ydFo9/7b9b58f456.gif
Env: https://puu.sh/ydFqh/0d8717dce0.png

Izzy was correct. My own files were fighting with the sdk's.
Bumping '\sdk\platform-tools\' to the top of the Environmental Variables list fixed it..
Probably should also rename my files to not 'adb'.. But they have a lot of dependencies on each other so that's on 'TODO' list.


Samsung Galaxy s5 android update What is the star icon mean beside the WiFi symbol for the Samsung Galaxy s5. It appeared after I downloaded the new update.

I am assuming you have updated your mobile to lollipop.

If so the star icon basically notifies you that you will be notified of priority interruptions.

Go to sound settings and check for an option called interruptions and then select "Always Interrupt".


Toast message: Failed to init Google DNS, switch to host IP method Recently, after unlocking my phone screen (Samsung J7 Pro - J730, stock ROM, Android 7 Nougat), I usually receive a toast notification saying: "Failed to init Google DNS, switch to host IP method". I can guess that the toast is made after a network change (from WiFi to 3G and vice versa) because that's how it usually happens, like when I go home and the phone catches the WiFi signal. Maybe the "Google DNS" refers to the 8.8.8.8 public DNS server owned by Google.
Problem is: (1) I don't modify the network configuration at all. My IP is set to DHCP, not static and not manually configurated. And (2) it even happens on 3G network, which I cannot configure the DNS in anyway.
I have looked for the toast message everywhere and I could not find any reference at all.
My questions are:

What is the source of this toast? Have any of you encountered this as well?

Is this a security concern (location tracking, hacking attempts, surveillance, etc.)? Should I be worried about this at all?

Thank you!

Thanks to beeshyams' suggestion, I downloaded the app Notification History and found out that the toast comes from a forum's app. It looks like there are no security concerns for now.


Disable part of a touchscreen from taking phantom touches I have a 10.Or G android Oreo device

Resolution: 1080x1920
Density: 480

This question follows up from here

I'm having problem with lots of ghost touches in the very top 5 mm bar of the screen where touches will register almost 20 times in a minute. Doing the overscan doesnt help at all, because touches will still register, so I am looking to resize my screen with:

adb shell wm size 1080*1820

I dont know what to do from here because I'm receiving error:

Error: bad size 1080*1820

Help will be greatly appreciated.

You can use the overscan subcommand instead of size for achieving your objective.
The syntax is adb shell wm overscan left,top,right,bottom, where left, top, right and bottom are the coordinates relative to the actual edges of the screen.
So, in your case, you should write adb shell wm overscan 0,100,0,0, to get a resolution of 1080×1820, as you have mentioned above.

Explanation: This will set your device's screen bounds to 0px from the left, 100 px from the top, 0 px from the right and 0 px from the bottom. See this image:


How to completely turn off keyboard typing sound? Android 2.1 - If I open my Gmail e-mails and I want to type then I just can't turn off the keyboard sounds. How can I turn it off? (not the notification, etc. all sounds, just the keyboard sounds.)

From your home screen, press Menu -> Settings -> Language and Input (or Language and Keyboard on older Android devices). From here select the keyboard you are using. In the next page of settings, you should see something like Audio feedback for swype, or  Sound on keypress for flexT9. You can modify Vibrate on keypress there too if you wish.


What rights do I have with music purchased through the Play Store? I was about to buy an album that Google Play recommended, and I thought was good. Just as I'm about to enter my password, I noticed that nowhere does it show what type of music I'm getting. Am I getting DRM-free files, or DRM-enabled files? What are the restrictions? Can I play it in my car through a USB flash drive, if they're MP3 files?

Where can I get information about the usage rights of music purchased through the Play Store?

Albums bought through Google Play show up in the Play Music app by default. The files from the Play Music app can only be played through that app itself, and can't be extracted. However, you can download music from the Google Play web interface as plain MP3 files, either individually or your whole collection in one download.

The official support site gives more details, and instructions on how to download.


My Samsung galaxy s5 seems to be half rooted I recently factory reset my rooted Samsung Galaxy s5. The problem that I am now having is that to apps such as my Internet browser and androad pay disable features on the grounds that my phone is rooted, but other apps such as supersu do not act as if my phone was rooted.

How should I fix this problem. I am currently experiencing all the disadvantags of rooting but none of the positives so a fix in either direction would be great.

try either rooting completely, or removing any custom stuff(kernel, bootloader etc).
if that doesnt work try flashing the stock ROM manually.


Is it possible to control the strength of the vibration of the phone when ringing? When the phone is ringing, is it possible to set such that it gradually increase the strength of vibration instead a predefined strength of vibration? (When the vibration mode is turn on but the ringer tone is muted)

The concept is something like the 'gentle alarm clock' that will wake me gently, rather than jolting me from my slumber. (It work by having the alarm that gradually grows louder and louder until it becomes impossible to sleep through.)

No. Android doesn't give apps a way to control the strength of the vibration, so you won't find an app that can do this for you.

That said, there's an app that claims to be able to change the vibration strength on Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 phones, using a device-specific method that requires root. Some users report that it doesn't work at all, but if it does work and you have a supported device, and your device is rooted, you may be able to find an app that does what you want.


Nexus 5 stuck on Google logo at boot I recently unpacked, modified, and repacked the boot.img file and flashed it onto my Google Nexus 5.  When I rebooted the device, I was stuck at the Google logo screen.  I can access the recovery mode, but "wipe data/factory reset" did not fix the issue (still stuck on the Google logo screen).

I also attempted to sideload the stock image found here:

https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images#hammerhead

Still no luck, as I was receiving "signature verification failure."  The device's bootloader is not unlocked. Anyone have ideas?  I am not concerned with losing personal data, I would be satisfied with just getting it back up and running.

There is nothing to worry. You just have to flash the images properly.

Please follow the steps mentioned in this Android Enthusiasts answer.

The initial bootup usually takes time around 10 to 15 minutes. I'm up and running 5.0.1 without any problems.


Does rooting require a custom ROM? I've noticed that some apps say they require a rooted phone. Is it necessary to install a custom ROM in order to root a phone?

Edit: I should mention that I've seen this answer, but my phone isn't listed.

No.  For the most part, custom ROMs are just cosmetic changes to official ROMs and may come pre-rooted, but nothing about rooting requires a custom ROM.


Cannot flash Android IoT image for Pico Pro Maker Kit I got a Pico Pro Maker kit and use a Windows 10 PC. I followed the flashing instructions here. Device Manager detects the kit this way:

The device is in fastboot mode, but when I execute the flash-all script, an error message is returned (cannot load 'u-boot.imx'):

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.15063]

(c) 2017 Microsoft Corporation. Minden jog fenntartva.

C:\Android\sdk\platform-tools>adb devices

List of devices attached

C:\Android\sdk\platform-tools>fastboot devices

000000e5f4439b02 fastboot

C:\Android\sdk\platform-tools>C:\F_Android_Things_NXPPico\flash-all.bat

error: cannot load 'u-boot.imx'

Does anyone have an idea what's wrong?

Finally I came trough. Looked int flash-all.bat script which says:

  The fastboot executable must be in your path to run this script

I copied all the Android Thing image, generated by the AndroidThingsConsole into the C:\Android\sdk\platform-tools\ subdir, and run the script flash-all.bat again.
Result is here:

C:\Android\sdk\platform-tools>flash-all.bat

target reported max download size of 209715200 bytes

sending 'bootloader' (479 KB)...

OKAY [  0.017s]
writing 'bootloader'...
OKAY [  0.397s]
rebooting into bootloader...
OKAY [  0.009s]

finished. total time: 0.457s

< waiting for any device >

target reported max download size of 209715200 bytes

sending 'gpt' (33 KB)...
OKAY [  0.006s]
writing 'gpt'...
OKAY [ 28.856s]

rebooting into bootloader...

OKAY [  0.006s]

finished. total time: 28.876s

target reported max download size of 209715200 bytes

Creating filesystem with parameters:

Size: 2009071616
Block size: 4096
Blocks per group: 32768
Inodes per group: 8176
Inode size: 256
Journal blocks: 7664
Label:
Blocks: 490496
Block groups: 15
Reserved block group size: 119

Created filesystem with 11/122640 inodes and 16088/490496 blocks

sending 'boot_a' (32768 KB)...

OKAY [  0.886s]
writing 'boot_a'...
OKAY [  1.222s]
sending 'boot_b' (32768 KB)...
OKAY [  0.883s]
writing 'boot_b'...
OKAY [  1.235s]
erasing 'system_a'...
OKAY [  7.114s]
sending sparse 'system_a' 1/2 (203704 KB)...
OKAY [  5.909s]
writing 'system_a' 1/2...
OKAY [  8.516s]
sending sparse 'system_a' 2/2 (204764 KB)...
OKAY [  6.189s]
writing 'system_a' 2/2...
OKAY [ 11.602s]
erasing 'system_b'...
OKAY [  6.999s]
sending sparse 'system_b' 1/2 (203704 KB)...
OKAY [  5.993s]
writing 'system_b' 1/2...
OKAY [  8.500s]
sending sparse 'system_b' 2/2 (204764 KB)...
OKAY [  5.818s]
writing 'system_b' 2/2...
OKAY [ 11.603s]
erasing 'userdata'...
OKAY [ 26.163s]
sending 'userdata' (33356 KB)...
OKAY [  0.903s]
writing 'userdata'...
OKAY [  1.252s]
Setting current slot to 'a'...
OKAY [  0.030s]
finished. total time: 110.864s
target reported max download size of 209715200 bytes
sending 'gapps_a' (72040 KB)...
OKAY [  1.929s]
writing 'gapps_a'...
OKAY [  2.570s]
sending 'gapps_b' (72040 KB)...
OKAY [  1.938s]
writing 'gapps_b'...
OKAY [  2.467s]
finished. total time: 8.917s
target reported max download size of 209715200 bytes
sending 'oem_a' (1096 KB)...
OKAY [  0.036s]
writing 'oem_a'...
OKAY [  0.139s]
sending 'oem_b' (1096 KB)...
OKAY [  0.036s]
writing 'oem_b'...
OKAY [  0.123s]
finished. total time: 0.344s

Successfully flashed your imx7d.
rebooting...

finished. total time: 0.001s

C:\Android\sdk\platform-tools>


Why does the Yahoo Mail application for Android only show message snippets in search results? When I do a search in the Yahoo Mail application and then open one of the search results, instead of seeing the entire message I only see a message snippet.

Is there a way to view the entire original email message?

I have the same problem. It's ridiculous.

I don't really have a solution, but here's my workaround: I forward the found email to myself. (Doing this, you still won't be able to read the message in the composition window!!)

So you'll be able to read the forwarded message only when it comes around in your inbox.

I really do hope they'll fix this.


How can I block the traffic outside the VPN, even if the VPN is down? I would like to direct all the traffic through my VPN connection on my Android based phone (HTC Desire). The VPN works great, but problem is that when the VPN disconnects, the traffic is redirected through my regular internet, something I don't want to happen. How can I block the traffic outside the VPN?

You could use DroidWall for this IF you're rooted. Just deny all traffic and then allow traffic to your VPN IP/port. If you need to use a custom script see the man page of iptables for the syntax. Here's a quick, untested example.

iptables -P FORWARD ACCEPT
iptables -P INPUT DROP
iptables -P OUTPUT DROP
iptables -A OUTPUT -p udp --dport 1194 -d xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx -j ACCEPT


Does GPS signal quality influence battery life? Does bad/weak GPS signal affect battery life? For instance, when in the city downtown with lots of tall buildings or in the woods or mountains, will running GPS drain the battery faster?

No. Bad cellphone coverage decreases battery life because the phone has to transmit with more power to be able to communicate back to the cell tower. It's like when you can barely hear someone hollering at you: you shout louder too to make sure they can hear you. But GPS is a one-way signal: the phone only receives it, it doesn't transmit anything. It doesn't matter how much attenuation there is: either the phone can hear or it can't.

The only way a weak GPS signal would cause more power use is if you leave the screen turned on waiting for an app to get a position fix :-)


Fastboot error on Mac OSX I'm having problems using ´fastboot´ in high sierra. When I run the command:

fastboot devices

it tells me:

ERROR: Unable to create a plug-in (e00002be)

Now, I've googled a lot and a lot of different users seems to have this issue, since Mountain Lion. I've tried rebooting my machine, unplugging and plugging again my phone and running it as superuser, but no luck.

What can it be?

PS. I know this question might be best suited for apple.stackexchange.com but I think that's more a problem of Android (although I asked the same question there)

THere's an open issue with macOs High Sierra. There hasn't been a release of a known working version, but you can download the working platform-tools version 4455170 (actually in development) from the issue tracker itself and I just tests that it works:
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/64292422#comment55


Is there something in the Android architecture that prevents people from creating MP3 players that read embedded lyrics? When I play certain MP3 files (such as lessons from JapanesePod101.com) on my iPod Touch, lyrics or transcripts that are embedded in the MP3 files are displayed in the media player.

I find this to be an extremely useful feature, and I believe I'm not alone. Despite that, neither the stock Android media player nor any other media player I've downloaded from the Market seems to support this. I just have not been able to find any way to get feature on my Nexus One.

This feature is important enough to me that I'm considering learning Android development just so I can write a simple media player that displays embedded lyrics or notes. However, the fact that nobody else seems to have done this makes me wonder - is it even possible? Is there something in the Android architecture or APIs that make it difficult or impossible to read and display lyrics information from MP3 files?

I haven't actually researched this answer, so take it with a grain of salt. Basing it off of other development work I have done with MP3s in the past.

I do not think there would be any reason that Android would limit an application from reading the embedded lyrics (or, rather lyrics from the ID3 tag). Because the tag supports this, really all you would need is a Java library that you can bring into your Android app that will read the lyrics.

With that said, the lyrics tag tends to be a little more in the "advanced support" for many applications. Everybody reads the title and artist tags. Most people will even display the album art (which is also part of the ID3). I haven't researched any recent libraries, but if you are curious about the ID3 tag in general, read this ID3 Easy article.

So, the short answer is: no, nothing is stopping anybody from supporting it other than library support. Either a library doesn't exist, or nobody cares to utilize that feature within an Android media player.

Hope that helps!


multipe profiles on marshmallow: how to use apps in both accounts i have a tablet with android marshmellow and primary and secondary profile. Appararently apart from the standard apps i can not install apps paralell on the first and the second profile.if i install vlc for example on profile one i can't install it on profile two. it just says "app not installed". Same goes for apps installed on profile two but not installed on profile one . if i try to install them on profile one: "app not installed". We don't use google accounts and i don't want to use google play. Try to use mainly fdroid and aurora\yalp. even tried installing vlc per .apk but also no success. Is there any solution without rooting device, using google accounts, using google play, using adb, custom roms and updating android. Best, bogotrax

I made a second profile myself to test if I'd encounter the same problem, which I did, and after googling a bit it seems the problem is caused if profile X does not install the exact same app version as profile Y. See this Reddit thread. As such it seems cross-profile app installation is best achieved by extracting .apk files, copying them to the other profile, and installing them there to make sure you have the same versions.


How do I get the standard default.prop file back on the root file system? At the root file system on my Android phone, there's a file called default.prop.  Right now that's a non-standard file because of CF Auto Root, but I want that file to be the stock version (1).

After what I have understood, /default.prop file is overwritten on every boot from a default.prop file within the boot partition.

My phone is rooted with CF-Auto-Root, but I've replaced the boot and bootloader partitions with factory image versions:

$ fastboot flash bootloader bootloader.img
$ fastboot flash boot boot.img

But still I get the non-stock default.prop file.  What am I doing wrong?

(1) This is because I'm trying to upgrade to Android 5.1, and right now I'm getting an error because "this device has google/omni_hammerhead/hammerhead:4.4.4/KTU84P/eng.dees_troy.20150214.172938:eng/test-keys".

I'll just quote Elluel on XDA:

  Don't bother messing with reverting everything just to update, it is
  extremely unlikely to work since as of Lollipop Google has changed the
  OTA method to check the sum of the entire partition rather than only
  what it cares about.

  Download the 5.1 factory images, and flash system.img, boot.img,
  cache.img, radio.img and bootloader.img (don't flash userdata.img
  unless you want to wipe all your data), then boot into a custom
  recovery and flash the latest SuperSU
  (http://download.chainfire.eu/supersu).

It doesn't answer the question here directly, but it ultimately solved what I was trying to achieve.


Limit Phone Data Usage This might be a replica, I have searched and not found a similar question.

I currently have the HTC One M8 and am planing on getting a 1GiB Data pack, knowing me who uses internet over the top I would like my internet to get cut at lets per say at the peak of 1GiB. So as soon as I reach it, it gets cut off fully.

I have tried the Android Data limiter and it always fails me.
I have not found any reliable applications (I will pay if worthy)
Location is Ontario and my provider is Fido

I use AVG antivirus security which has an option to limit the used mobile data(not wifi data).
I fill information about data pack i.e amount and validity then give the option when to turn the mobile data off (as used in my case it is 90%)
then it ask if I want to further use the data..

Hope it helps you..


My phone- HTC One V reboots when I insert my SDCARD I have a HTC One V that reboots whenever I have my 8GB SDCard (Sandisk) inserted. Currently it has 2.5GB data in it. Once i remove the sdcard, my phone works fine.

I have many apps and photos on my SDCARD. I am able to read the sd card contents on my windows PC. I formatted the SDCARD and copied the contents back, but the reboot problem persists.

What else can I try to get rid of those reboots?

I went through this forum and one way to overcome is to fool your phone stating part of your sd card as internal memory itself. Can it be done without rooting your phone?

No, that "fooling" needs deeper access into the system, and thus requires root.

But apart from that, I'd recommend trying it with a different card. Important: not the same brand and size and class; try e.g.

a card from a different manufacturer
switch between classes (class-6 is good enough, it does not have to be class-10)

There are several incompatibilites reported here and there, and in most cases a card from a different brand worked fine. Maybe you can borrow some from friends if you cannot effort to buy a bunch.

I always buy microSD with SD adapter, so in case of incompatibility I can use it in my camera or other devices, and the buy was no loss in any case.


What is the lowest version of Android that supports split screen apps? I'm looking to get an Android tablet and I'd like it to support running two apps on the screen at a the same time; what is the earliest release of Android to support this?

tl;dr. Android 4x

The basic Android framework has always allowed what you see on your screen to be drawn at almost any size, and the idea of having more than one view shown at a time was kicked around in more than one session at Google I/O 2011 as part of the "next-step" for Android Tablets on Honeycomb i.e Android 3.x.

source: Android 7.0: Multi-window for everyone

  Samsung is the pioneer in implementing this multi window mode feature.
  It made its debut on Android with the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 all the
  way back in 2012, but it took a a while to make its way into stock
  Android (with Android Nougat version bringing native multi-window
  support, although the feature is somewhat hidden in Android
  Marshmallow as it still in beta phase).

Source: Android O feature spotlight: Multi-window apps now stay on the screen when you go to your homescreen, can be peeked into or maximized

Having emphasised that, several XDA developers, utilised the above described concept and took this idea into creating an Xposed module which would accomplish the task of producing the "Multi-Windows" to allow 2 or more applications to appear in windows on the same screen. So in short, there are workarounds to achieve this even on non Samsung devices or lower android versions than officially supported.

Since Android 4.0 builds upon the significant changes made by the tablet-only release Android Honeycomb, the module (having borrowed similar concepts from Samsung's Multi-Window , Microsoft's Aero Snap and various other inputs). has confirmed support for devices running Android 4.x+ and thus effectively  lowest version of Android that unofficially supports split screen apps (but official for certain Samsung ROMs). Otherwise official support for stock Android starts from Android 7.

So what's more about this module?

Xposed framework: Xposed is a framework for modules that can change the behavior of the system and apps without touching any APKs. It therefore means that modules can work for different versions and even ROMs without any changes (as long as the original code was not changed too much). It's also easy to undo.

XHaloFloatingWindow: Is the module in discusion here that rings the multi- window feature to right about any compatible device on Android 4.x+.

Compatibility

Any ROM (ICS onwards)
There are some exceptions e.g KitKat, Omni ROM, ROMs with ParanoidAndroid HALO etc

Requirements
 - Xposed framework
 - Root

Installation usage see here:

Illustration of module multi window effects

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Xposed or module thereof, but I use this Multi window module on my tablet device

Note

  While the code used to do things is a good bit different as an Android
  native feature, the basic concept remains and apps that use best
  practices in the code look and work the same, only smaller.


Can you damage a device using the wrong USB cable? I understand the main difference between a USB and USB-OTG cable is that the later has an ID pin which is grounded, so.does this mean I cannot use a regular USB cable in a OTG (micro-B I believe) port instead of a regular USB cable with the same connector?  Will any damage occur?

Also can power a device from a OTG port like you can with regular USB devices?

Thanks

does this mean I cannot use a regular USB cable in a OTG (micro-B I believe) port

The USB-micro ports (A and B) always have 5 pins so there is no "regular" (4 pin) cable with a micro connector. Any micro usb cable can be used to power the device and no damage will occur.

This means every micro usb connector does physically support OTG. However this does not mean that the controller or the software will support it (You cannot assume that every micro usb device will support OTG).


How to get pass FTM on my ZTE Android mobile device trying to turn on? My ZTE Android Edition by SFR, StarAddict is unable to turn on. I cannot get pass the Android logo. I have long pressed on Volume Down and Power buttons at the same time but it only ended me up at FTM. What next? Please help me reset or turn on my phone. The only external buttons on this phone are: Volume Up or Down, Power, Menu,Home and Back.

Thanks in advance.

Hold the volume up and power and when reboot screen comes up select reboot device by scrolling with the volume and then select with the power button


SSH tunnel with two hops I would like to build an ssh tunnel from my android device (call it A) on port MMM to a machine C on port NNN.  HOWEVER, A and C are not directly connected.  They are only connected through machine B (which is also running an ssh server).  Finally, port NNN is only open locally on machine C (which is also running an ssh server).

So, with openssh in unix, I can use the command line of ssh or the ProxyCommand argument in .ssh/config to archive this:

Host C-tunnel
   HostName C
   Port 22
   Use username
   IdentityFile ~/.ssh/myidentityfileforC.pem
   ProxyCommand ssh -e none -i /.ssh/myidentityfileforB.pem username@B nc -w 120 %h %p 2> /dev/null

I can then set up a tunnel straight from my localhost to C:NNN (through the connection above).

Is there an app for android that supports similar?  I tried connectbot and ssh autotunnel.  The later got close, as I could set up one tunnel from A to B and then another from A to C (through the tunnelled A->B connection), but initiating the latter brought both of them down.  Setting up just the first tunnel and then using connectbot allows me to connect via ssh to C, but I cannot set up a port forward directly to C:NNN.

Any suggestions?  Is there a direct port of openssh I've missed?

Outside of stackexchange, I also asked some colleagues.  One suggestion they had did work.  In particular, instead of using ssh autotunnel for the tunnels, I used connectbot to connect and create tunnels.  They can be layered.  The only downside is that I leave a shell open.

More specifically:

I use connectbot to connect to B (ssh, port 22) and then add a forwarding
from a port 2222 on A to port 22 on C.  I leave this shell open.
Then I make a new different connection to port 2222 on A (which opens a shell on C) and add port forwarding from port 2NNN to "localhost:NNN" (which is actually C:NNN).

Now I can connect to A:2NNN (my localhost, port 2NNN) and get to C:NNN as if it were local.  I have to leave the shells open, but it works well enough.


Can video recording be auto activated when camera app is started? In Nougat, the camera app can be started by double pressing the physical middle button on the phone. Many times I forget to press the video recording button and keep holding the phone up, thinking video recording is going on and much later realize it wasnt started.

Is there a way to start the video recording without having to explicitly press the record button? Ideally, I'd want to take my phone out of my pocket, press just one button and that should be enough to start the video recording. I shouldn't have to spend time typing my pin to unlock the screen or searching for the brightness slider when running from an indoor location to an outdoor location and then start the camera app and press the record button.

If it would be possible to program a patch for it, I should be able to do so, but I need to know what would be an efficient way to get the one-button-press-video-record functionality.

A custom widget ( start recording ) on your homescreen would work, but you still need to enter the PIN...

Maybe a custom lock screen with a record video button and unlock button, or maybe use the stock lock screen shortcuts to open the camera, manually switch to video and start ( no PIN entry )

The best way to do what you want might be to use key overrides and designate a volume key to camera key...

Your main limitation is the lock screen PIN, you could hypothetically use a shortcut to the record video intent, placed on a custom lockscreen, but not sure.


How does su regulate app permissions? I seen a lot of apps in the market that give superuser functionality to applications. However there is a pre-requisite of rooting your phone. I am curious how a rooted phone has those permissions already?

I've downloaded the source code and have managed to locate the su.c file that might invoke an application to change. But im still not sure. Can anyone give an insight on this?

Which actual files delegate permissions? Are all system apps given root permissions at startup?

Once upon a time, there is a walled city with a large, closed gate bound by magical lock that can only be opened with a magical sword. According to the cityfolk's traditions, anyone who brings the magic sword and unlocked the magical gate is destined to be the lord of the city.

One day, a young hero comes to the city, bringing with him the magical sword he took from the root of the Yggdrasil tree. He tapped the sword lightly on the door, and immediately the magical gate unlocked itself and peered open. The cityfolks cheered, and as per their tradition, they anointed the young hero as the city's lord.

As a city lord, there are many tasks he had to do, one of which is to ensure the security of his people, especially now that the gate is open and bandits and thieves may attempt to enter the city and rob the cityfolks' of their belongings.

To ensure the peaceful days of the cityfolks, the wise lord hired a trusted SU manager to guard the gate; dutifully, the SU manager enters the city, and he closed the gate behind him, and he put a lock that only he can open, then he creates a big door knob for strangers to knock the gate, a small hole on the door where he can peek outside and look at the strangers, then asks the city's lord whether or not to allow strangers in.

In eternity, the wise lord ruled the city for a long time and the cityfolks lives happily ever after.


i am locked out of my android after forgetting the pattern I forgot the lock pattern to my android zte groove and the phone has locked me out.  I attempted to use my google email as it requests and it still won't let me in.  Is there anyway to unlock my phone?

Yes, at the bottom it should say "unlock by email" and type in your gmail account that you set your phone up to and voila it should be unlocked. And then change your password in the settings


Red Star And Green Cross Icons? Possible Duplicate:
  Is this red star icon malware? How to get rid of it?

I have a Motorola Defy and in the notifications bar I am always getting red stars and bright green crosses. The Red Star is advertising 'dating' and 'meet hot couples' and the green cross is advertising 'get free apps now' 'win an ipad' and stupid things like that. The apps I have on my phone are Wheres my water, a flashlight map my run, picsart and two live wallpapes i got for free. Please help me get rid of these.

Install Addons Detector or Airpush Detector to find apps which are causing those push notifications. And, uninstall those detected nasty apps.

If you are rooted, you can install Airblocker - Airpush Block. It simply blocks airpush notification and you'll not have to uninstall those nasty apps.


Where is the iTunes equivalent for Android? I have searched this forum with no success for a few days, I apologize if this question has already been answered.  I am a new Android user, switching from an iPhone to a Galaxy Note 3 with Ice Cream.  I have tried using Samsung Kies 3 to replace the features I had with iTunes with no success.   It reports complete syncs, but the information is not complete.  It does not allow the user to manipulate the screens and organize apps the way iTunes allows.  I am looking for software that has all the features of iTunes.  I have found a few that are loaded with ads and very few features.  So far, I have not found any app that allows me to manage apps in terms of updates. Google could have an app that can handle the basic needs of an Android user.  I have not been able to find this.  Your help is appreciated.

You won't find a good "iTunes for Android" for your desktop computer, because Android was designed from the start to eliminate that dependency on a desktop computer. An iPhone uses a protocol that only iTunes understands, so iTunes is the only way to get music and photos onto it (Originally, you had to install apps through iTunes too: there was no App Store on the iPhone itself.)

In contrast, Android phones use MTP to act like any media player device, so they show up as a drive on your desktop computer. (Originally they used the USB mass storage protocol, but that approach had shortcomings.) You can just drag and drop files onto the phone, or you can use a more specific piece of software.

For example, if you want to put music on your phone, and you don't want to drag and drop files, there's a choice of music software that support syncing to non-iPhone music players, including Android phones. Rhythmbox and Clementine are two examples.

Similarly, if you want to put some photos on there, you can just drag-and-drop them if your folders are neatly organised on your desktop computer, or you can use a photo manager like Shotwell or Geeqie.

In your question, you say:

  Google could have an app that can handle the basic needs of an Android user. I have not been able to find this.

and the answer to that is that you've been looking in the wrong place! If you want to organise your home screens and install, update, and remove apps, don't run to your desktop computer: the place to look is on your phone. All that functionality has been on Android phones right from the start, so there's no need for a huge "manage my phone" program on your desktop.


My phone is no longer downloading from playstore Please I bought solo aspire 4 phone I was doing downloading from play store but I noticed since 18hrs now I  cant download again when my download from play store reaches 23%-45%. It's stop downloading and will won't install too
Please what is the solution for that.

As you are not seeing any error, it is really hard to provide you a solution.
but as part of troubleshooting.

just go to Settings > App > Play Store and clear cache and clear Data.

If that does not work, you can download latest Google Play Store (Google it for APK) and copy it on your device and manually install it again.

Even if that does not work, then last resort is to do a factory reset.

Lastly, you recently bought your phone and so you have warranty, let the service center guys take the headache.
(I am assuming, you are not rooted).


Google Calendar Sync issue in Xiaomi Max 2 (Android N 7.1.1 NMF267), doesn't ask for "storage" access I'm on a Xiaomi Max 2, MIUI 8 (Android N 7.1.1 NMF267).

Google Calendar sync works when I choose "Refresh" from the top right inside the Google Calendar app. But a few hours later, the calendar shows up empty. When I click "Refresh" again, it works again. And so on.

This seems to be a widespread problem judging from online complaints. I'm savvy with computers and phones, and have tried every fix mentioned online. Including clearing cache in the Google Calendar app, uninstalling it, clearing cache in Google Play Services, and re-installing the Google Calendar app.

The Google Calendar Sync Android Docs say to "make sure that Calendar storage is turned on"

HOWEVER, on my phone, Google Calendar doesn't even ask for App storage permission. It doesn't show up below in the list of apps asking for "storage permissions" (Note: the "Calendar" below is MIUI's internal Calendar app, not Google Calendar. MIUI is Xiaomi's Android skin):

I'd appreciate any suggestions on resolving this issue.

Answering my own question.

I'm now on Xiaomi MIUI Global 9.0 Stable 9.0.3.0 (NDDMIEI) with Android N 7.1.1 NMF26F.

I found a separate app called Calendar Storage. This app shows up under Settings / Apps / All It doesn't show up under Settings / System Apps or under Settings / Apps / Downloaded which is probably why I missed it earlier.

After doing "Clear data" and "Clear cache" inside this app, my Google Calendar app's sync seems to be working.


Space Issue on data directory Android using Galaxy Note I am using Galaxy Note 1 and have 2GB of data directory in which i install and use thirdparty apps. But the data directory was almost always full, so I rooted my device to find out what was taking the space. i.e 500 MB is taken by apps and have 200 MB free but cant account for the Rest.

I have deleted stock apps from system/apps directory using no bloat but it dosent free space on data directory.

I know how to use adb shell but doing ls -l at every directory dosent sounds v good. How can i find out whats taking my space. And can we delete files in dalvik cache?

If by "data" directory you mean internal storage, then it doesnt have anything to do much really with system apps. System apps use space from /system partition which you cannot use for storing normal data anyway. And whatever used/free space in this partition has nothing to do with your space in data partition (or space you can use, in other words).

Infact, /data/media/0 is whats used for storing personal files or as internal memory.

Now how to find out whats taking space. First, run the command adb shell df inside adb. This will list you the total space allotted to every partition. Out of this, you can use the space allotted to storage/emulated/0 or /data (names may change according to android version). Check there the amount of space allocated to data directory. Unless you repartition, you cannot gain any more space than this for storing personal files and downloading apps.

  And can we delete files in dalvik cache?

Dont do it. Its useless. Dalvic cache has to be present for sure. Even if you delete it, it will be recreated with almost same size. So deleting this wont gain you much storage.

This leaves you with only two things that can use data, your apps and their cache, and your own data inside internal memory.

What can you try to free up space?

Most mainstream method, delete useless apps.
Try clearing cache (although it will be recreated, but sometimes there is cache of things that no longer exist or are needed, for instance deleted photos or play store cache or even themer apps cache).
Do not use any cleaner apps. They are hoax.
Remove useless files.
You can also try moving apps to external storage using apps like link2sd. But this may not work for Every app.

Hope this helps.


Mirroring PC screen to Android via USB-C A few months ago I found software for Windows which could mirror Android screen to PC via USB (not sure if it needed to be type-C or not) and also capture mouse clicks as touch inputs.
I also know there is some software that mirrors PC screen to Android with Wi-Fi and such, but firstly they are not free and don't function as I want it to, and secondly, most of them use wireless which I don't want.
Is it possible to mirror (part of) PC screen to Android with USB-C?

There are plenty of apps that allow to remote control a PC from an Android device. You are correct that most of them use Wifi or in detail TCP/IP for communication with the PC. But some of those tools establish a direct TCP connection - hence using Android Debug bridge and adb forward you can forward the server port from your PC to your Android device and therefore tunnel the TCP connection through the USB cable.
On Android side in the app you then connect to localhost:<forwarded port>.

Microsoft Remote Desktop (Requires WIndows Pro edition or server)
VNC Viewer
...

Each of this app requires a different software installed on your PC. Only Remote Desktop is bound to the used Windows type.


Moto G6 audio sending through wrong audio channel My unrooted, basically stock android decided to stop sending audio through any channels except call audio today. I have not installed any new or unstable apps recently. Symptoms include:

the lower speakers (the ones used for playing music, etc.) are completely nonfunctional.
The upper speaker sounds like I'm in a call all the time. When I am actually in a call, it is nearly silent unless I'm on speakerphone, at which point it's as quiet as any other app.

I have attempted general troubleshooting. To wit, this includes:

I closed all current apps and then tested sound. No change.
I rebooted the device. No change.
I booted into 'Safe Mode.' Problem persisted.
Connection over Bluetooth seems to be immune to the issue. I connected a headset and nearly blew out my right eardrum.

Any suggestions on what the heck is going on and/or how to fix it?

Update:

Appears it was a hardware issue, as it spontaneously corrected itself a few days later.

So basically, I waited for a few days and it fixed itself in the middle of the night. I don't know why. Sorry, future humans!

Given that it both spontaneously started and stopped, that it persisted through multiple restarts, and that it was present during safe mode, I suspect that this was either a hardware issue or it was embedded in the registry.

note to editors: this answer is here simply to successfully close the question.


What system app handles the screenshots in Lollipop? When I take a screenshot using Power button + Volume Down, does anyone know which system app deals with taking that screenshot? I need it for a setup I'm doing on my phone (Xperia) but I can't figure it out which it is

SystemUI handles the global screenshot.

SystemUI/src/com/android/systemui/screenshot/GlobalScreenshot.java

SystemUI/src/com/android/systemui/screenshot/TakeScreenshotService.java


Globally disable vibration? Is there a way to disable vibration on HTC One M8 regardless of individual application settings?

I can't conceive of a situation in which I would ever want my phone to vibrate so I'd just assume kill it at the source, if possible. If no soft solution exists I may need to resort to ripping the motor out.

To any hardware engineers out there - build a phone without vibration and I'd buy it in an instant.

Sure!

Though a rooted device is needed, and in the case of HTC phones, probably also s-off. Just download VibraFix, which will allow you to completely turn off vibration. It will also allow you to pass through calls and texts, if that is needed.


How to re-download in-app purchase I've done a factory reset of my HTC One S and I re-downloaded the game Angry Birds. I had previously purchased the mighty eagle, and when trying to get it again in-game, it takes me to the play store. Play store shows a dialog "you already own this", I can either click OK or Details.

When I click OK, it just takes me back to the main screen of Angry Birds and it doesn't redownload. When I click Details, it takes me back to Angry Birds with the message "Unfortunately, Play Store has stopped". I can only click OK and what follows is a loading screen from Angry Birds itself that never stops loading.

Looks like a bug. Are there any alternatives to get the mighty eagle back?

To answer your question 'Are there any alternatives to get the mighty eagle back?' Unfortunately not. It's up to app developers to support redownloading of in app content, and it certainly seems that you have found a bug.

Get in contact with Rovio at http://www.rovio.com/en/about-us/contact  or contact@rovio.com and explain your issue - they will be able to help you further


Multiple Music libraries My primary music library is English music (~15 GB) but I have a huge (>10 GB) of Hindi music too. My problem is:

I want to maintain these two libraries (preferably on the same device)
I want the songs on the Hindi music library to not show up when I "Shuffle All".

How I managed this until now was that I have been using iPod and I check the "Skip while Shuffling" for the Hindi songs. On Android, I can't figure out a way of doing this.

Any ideas?

To hide media in any folder showing up, you need to add .nomedia file to it. If you search your device, using file explorer (either stock or your preferred),you are likely to find quite a few of these scattered around. Copy-paste one of these into the folder you want to hide (Hindi in your case) and the contents should not show up in your player

If you can't find .nomedia file, you can easily create

If you want an  app to do this and offer more functionalities, you could try nomedia app from play store. It offers you the flexibility of choosing folders to hide. App claims to do this (Works on 4.4.2 on Honor 6)

"A tiny tool to hide multimedia files and prevent media scanning. Touch and hold the directory to toggle. Media library will not display the files in red colored folders."

Alternatively, you could use MortPlayer Music, taken from Izzy's  list, which takes the approach of choosing which folders you want to play and which folders you want to ignore. It over rides .nomedia file presence and provides an easier alternative

Thanks to Izzy for completing the solution and suggesting alternatives


Greenify and BootManager in Xposed Modules for Lollipop 5.0.1 I installed the latest Xposed Framework(alpha) module for lollipop and all its modules are working fine. But am not able to run modules like Greenify and Bootmanager which I use frequently. Is there any workaround to solve this issue ?

I tried reinstalling the Framework and am still stuck.

For Greenify:

You can participate in the Greenify beta program by joining their Google+ community, which should work with Xposed for Lollipop. As part of the beta program, you'll automatically receive beta updates through the Play Store.
Otherwise, you can grab the APK from this mirror and install it yourself.

For Bootmanager:

Someone notes that it still works with this workaround

  [You] can click outside the popup message at start of boot manager and it works regardless of the "module not enabled" message.

Also note that as of today (4/Mar/15) Xposed for Lollipop is still an alpha version. It is not yet complete, and therefore several modules may not yet work with it. Even when it is finalized, it may take more time for the modules themselves to be updated with support.

The latest status update (Feb 19) to the Official XDA Forum also states:

  Keep in mind that this isn't my fulltime job and that an alpha phase might take some time. It would be illusionary to assume that we reach a stable state after a few days, with all the changes that have been done." source

The most you can do is contact the module developers and support them in the process of updating their apps for Xposed Lollipop support.


photo recovery for Samsung A5 without using a computer how do I recover my photo album  that I deleted  if I don't have a computer? I have a Samsung A5

I've had the same problem a while back, and I'm glad to say I know how to fix it :)

I have an A5 too, and I used this app to fix the problem: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.defianttech.diskdigger
Diskdigger is specifically made for this purpose, and has helped me a lot in the past.
Hope you find this helpful :)


Play audio of flash video while screen is off? I want to listen to the audio portion of flash on my Droid preferably with the screen off.  Sites like InfoQ.com have great interviews in flash that I want to just listen to.


How to know when my smartphone is EOL? Long story short, I have been under the impression that my Samsung S5 had still been receiving security updates even though I was aware it wouldn't be getting any major Android updates. One Google search later, I find out that this is not the case. After some reading, I went on Samsung's page and found a list displaying what Samsung apparently plans to keep updates for.

What I don't understand is why I'm not being told that my phone is effectively a legacy device and is not being supported anymore.

It's one thing to lose out on Android updates but it's another thing to be missing critical security updates.

All vendors should be sending out some kind of message to outdated/unsupported phones, otherwise everyone will be under the stupid impression that they can keep the same phone forever and still be secure.

Is there some way to find out when my particular smartphone vendor effectively stops pushing out updates for a particular phone?

There's got to be something better than checking their crumby website every now and then.

Any leads?

The only way easy way to have a phone with current software is to buy from one of the 4 companies (Google, Honor/Huawei, OnePlus, Xiaomi) that bother to keep older devices up to date;

https://www.xda-developers.com/list-android-devices-project-treble-support/

so that the OS will notify you of updates when they are avalable.
You can double check by cross referencing the kernel version and android security patch level with

https://www.kernel.org/

https://source.android.com/security/bulletin

Lineageos is a nice alternative for unsupported phones but is not without  issues;

https://web.archive.org/web/20170517160235/https://cve.lineageos.org/


SMS time stamps are behaving strangely I am having an issue with the time stamps of incoming SMS messages when backing up messages. The time stamps of the messages I send out are correct. The time stamps of the incoming messages in the backup files are 8 hours before the correct time. I read elsewhere that this can happen when you are roaming. I have a Motorola XPRT on Sprint and I live in California.

I downloaded and used about 5 different SMS backup applications (both free and paid) to try to archive my messages. They all have this problem.

Now here's the interesting part. The time stamps rendered in the stock SMS application are correct. I tried 2 third-party SMS applications with different results. Handcent SMS shows the time stamps correctly. Go SMS Pro show the incoming messages with the same incorrect time stamps as the backup files.

This leads me to a point of reevaluation. The database that stores the messages on the phone is storing multiple time stamps. I'm guessing they have sent time (the time that is 8 hours behind what it should be) and received time fields. The backup applications and Go SMS Pro are probably using the sent times. The default SMS application and Handcent SMS are probably using the received times.

Ok so now I need a way to solve this issue. To do that I need answers to some questions:

Does Android use SQLite to store SMS messages?
Where is the SMS database is located?
How and where are MMS messages stored?
How can I copy the database to my computer?
Do I have to root my phone? How do I do that? Does doing this affect my warranty with Sprint?

UPDATE:

It looks this is a known problem where the time zone offset is applied 2 times instead of 1. There is a ticket for it here http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=1305. This ticket is more than 3 years old and is still open.

What timezone are you in? It sounds like when you back them up, it is saving them in a different Timezone (maybe UTC).

to answer your other questions:

Yes, SQLite is used for the messages
/data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db
Same way as SMS messages : /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db
You can use ADB from the android SDK and copy it to your PC by doing:
c:/android-sdk/tools/> adb pull /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db c:/users/my-account/desktop/mmssms.db
Yes, you will have to root your phone to get access to that directory.

maybe check out SMS Backup + in the android market. It will backup your sms messages (doesn't do MMS yet) to your GMail account and put them in an SMS label. It will also restore them too.


Prevent Chrome from opening certain links in certain apps The Stack Exchange app is a good one but I don't like it, because whenever I install it, Google Chrome will open all links to Stack Overflow and Stack Exchange in the app rather than a new tab.
Can I make Chrome permanently ignore this app and open any SO/SE links itself?
Android 7.1.2, Google Chrome 62.0.3202.84

Well, This is the way to do it:

Open the app info of stack exchange app in your phone.
Click on "Open by default".

In the next screen that appears, click "Clear Defaults".
That should give you a prompt whenever you click on an SO link.
Just select chrome and it will open in chrome only.


Need a file explorer that supports root as well as showing the folder size There seems to be a serious dearth of quality apps on Android. I'm having memory issues in my Xperia L phone and I'm trying to determine the root cause. (No it's not the Album memory leak issue - I've already fixed that). There is a folder that's taking up a horrendous amount of space for some reason and I need to locate which one it is.

So my requirements are:

A file explorer so i can check out different folders
which supports root access so I can check out all folders
which shows the folder size
which allows me to sort folders by their sizes

So far I tried File Commander since it was so highly recommended. Weird that it doesn't support root.

Then i tried a couple of more file explorers each of which had 1-2 of the above features but doesn't have the others.

I also come across one file explorers that did have all these features but almost everything was locked up for "pro access".

Is there any File Explorer that supports all these functions? (IMO these are all basic features but maybe I got spoiled by Windows).

ES File Explorer supports all your requirements. Once installed, turn on the Root Explorer option from the side menu.


Restrict Background Data When I enable Restrict Background Data the pop up says that some apps and services will not work unless the device is connected to WiFi.
How can I know which specific apps and services?

The apps that requires constant internet connection and cannot be run without it. But they will notify you.


I cannot hear Google maps voice after update After the last update, I cannot hear Google Maps voice while navigating. I only get a nerve breaking bell like sound every time I am close to a turn. I cannot see anything obvious in the settings on how to fix that.

Why did this happen and what can I do to change it back to voice navigation?

My OS is android 6.0 (LG G4 device)

Found why this was happening. I suppose that after an update voice through bluetooth option was selected automatically. Since I didn't have (never had actually) any bluetooth device, no voice could be heard.

Fixed this by going to google maps settings and deselecting voice through bluetooth option.

hope this helps others with a similar problem.


How can I download an APK file from the Play Store? I can't download apps from the Play Store on my Android device (maybe due to a network issue), so I'm wondering how could I download the APK file of an app on my PC from http://play.google.com/store?

I spent a decent amount of time trying to figure this out because I don't feel like having the "google experience" and as far as I can tell, it isn't possible. I've worked around it:

The F-Droid repository and Amazon Appstore are both reasonably well maintained -- either will manage any apps you install, which is handy.  That's where I start.

Otherwise, I track down and download the .apk outside of the google-run market. In many cases the Android market will point you to a developer's web page and contact information -- if they don't publish the .apk on their web page, you can always ask for it.

Two answers worth checking out:

Where can I find open source Android apps?

What are the alternative Android app markets?

PS. Don't forget: to install apps from .apk you have to turn on unknown sources (Settings > Applications > Unknown sources).

PPS. Once you have the .apk on your computer you know you need to turn on USB Debugging so you can copy the .apk to your phone, right? Settings > Applications > Development > USB debugging


Push notification not working the problem I am having is with Push notifications in Android.
In order to receive my WhatsApp notifications I need to manually launch the application, which I don't want do. I want to be able to receive my notifications at any time...

I've heard that it might be due to the Push Notification not working so, I decided to download from Google Play the app PNF No-Root which changed the heartbeat interval to 5 minutes (I use WLAN connection) and it didn't work at all (the same for similar apps). I tried looking for other solutions. I went to Settings > Data Usage > WLAN > WhatsApp to check if the Restrict background data box was unchecked, it was unchecked.
I also went to Apps > WhatsApp to see if the box "Show Notifications" was Checked. Went to WLAN > ADVANCED and set "Keep WLAN on during sleep" as "Always". Finally, I launched WhatsApp and all the settings are correctly set for me to receive, but I don't. When I go to Apps > Running > Whatsapp it says that there is 1 Process and to Services (although it shows 1 service sometimes), ExternalMediaManager and MessageService.
My device is a Lenovo A5000 with Android OS 4.4.2
 I don't know what else to try, thanks.

Do you have any power save mode set?

Otherwise Download the app "Wifi settings" and change the DNS Server to Google and hit apply . I hope this will help


How can I know if the rooting files have malware? I'm learning about how cellphone rooting works. Every procedure I've seen this far asks you to install a series of files that you download from random websites. Is it possible to know for sure that the files you are downloading will only root your phone, and that they are not 'trojans' or other types of malware?

Thanks,

There are two possible counter possibilities:

First possibility:
In case the rooting is done by scripts and certain binary tools you can check if the binary tools are standard tools, and e.g. included in the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). In such a case you could compile the tool yourself or search the net for multiple sources. In the ned use the one from the most trustworthy.

Second possibility:
Use a virtual machine for executing the rooting software. Using a virtual machine like VMware you can connect an USB device like an Android phone into the guest OS. Therefore rooting the device from within the guest OS is usually possible and does not affect the host OS.


How do I use an external USB keyboard? My tablet's running Android 4.0.3, and I'm trying to use an external keyboard with it. My tablet isn't detecting the keyboard, but it works when I plug it into my computer. This keyboard uses a normal USB output to connect, but my tablet uses MicroUSB, so I bought an adapter. How do I get this keyboard to work?

If your tablet doesn't provide a USB host port, you'll need an USB OTG adapter to connect your keyboard. There are many cheap USB OTG adapters on eBay and other electronics shops.


Do Android Default apps (phone, browser,...) support NFC? Is there any default support on Android basic apps (phone, browser, contacts...) for NFC?

Because if I want to develop for NFC, the user will need to install my NFC app. But for simple tasks that use default apps like phone, is there any default support? For example if I want to make a NFC tag to call my phone number. Or would I need to create an app even for this?

Essentially the individual apps don't need to have any understanding of NFC at all, they just respond to one of their standard intents that's been pushed to them by Android's central NFC Service. By default, that NFC Service handles reading the NFC tag and triggering the relevant intent to pass info on to another app on the device, like the Dialler.

One very easy way to play around with triggering actions by NFC is using Microsoft's ON{X} app (yes, bizarrely this is a Microsoft app that's only available on Android). As long as you've already got the hardware support, this lets you trigger a whole lot of actions with an NFC tag, with an absolutely minimal amount of simple scripting. See their recent blog entry on NFC for some of what you can do.


Do I need root to install xposed modules? Is it necessary to root my phone to install any xposed module?

You don't need root to install xposed modules and you can avoid using root to install the framework if you have a working recovery that can install unsigned zip files.


How do I remove the screen lock that I placed on my device from the online android device manager? I placed a password on my phone from the online android device manager. I was just testing it out, and now I can't remove it. I keep reading go to settings > security > screen lock but that is not an option on my phone. I can remove android device manager from my device administrators, and under the password section the only option is to make passwords visible. I have always had a password on my phone but I do not want this type of password on my phone. Please help!

I had the exact same issue. Totally frustrating! I finally figured out the solution. Go to "Settings." Find the tab or section that shows your lock screen options. Mine was found under the "Display" tab. Choose "lock screen." Type in the password used in Android Device Manager. You should now be asked what Screen Security option you want to use. After selecting this option, you will be free from Android Device Manager's grip!


How can I tell if I have mini port or micro port on my Android tablet? I was given an Android tablet. I want to hook up a keyboard and a mouse. By looking at it, how can I tell if it has a micro port or a mini port?

This one is mini:

and this one is micro:

There's also another new micro version for USB 3.0, which looks like this.  The port is backwards compatible with the previous micro USB cables (you just use half the port and it'll just step down to USB 2.0 speeds).  I'm not sure if any Android devices use the new port as yet.


Reduce delay when waking up the phone The delay between me pressing the power button and the phone actually waking up is annoying. Is there any way to optimize this?

On a ROM supporting this, setting the CPU governor to "performance" will help a lot. This is not a practical solution though as this means that the CPU will always run at its maximum frequency which wastes a lot of energy.


How to View System Apps in 4.2.2 How are the System Apps viewed in 4.2.2?
There is not a More, or Show System Apps that I can see,

I'm answering questions for a Samsung support person (Print spooler Version?) about Samsung Print Service Plugin problems.(it works on a 4.2.2 Tab & 6.0.1 Tab, not on a Galaxy S5).  Only Downloaded, SD Card, Running, and All apps are listed under 4.2.2 apps.

Any help appreciated.

The system does not provide such option, apps are not filtered, all apps are listed in All tab.
You can filter apps by type  using an app such as ES Explorer.

Open the app, touch the android logo labelled APP, then touch the dropdown menu and select system apps.

Click image for larger version


How can I set an alarm for the first Monday of each month? I can set an alarm for every Monday, but how can I set one for only the 1st Monday each month?

I can have calendar events set in Google that are for first Monday, is there a way for an alarm to be set on a calendar event?

You didn't mention whether you are willing to buy an app to do this. I recently got an app called Alarm Plus Millenium that I see can do this (and lots more).  I mainly got it for its task manager abilities, but I also needed a newer alarm clock app to replace my old unsupported Gentle Alarm, and this app was the best I could find for what I wanted.

Also, FWIW, I've had some email exchanges with the developer, and he was very responsive, quick to reply, and although in Paris, was very proficient in English (my only language).

Just saw your question about setting an alarm for Calendar events.  Yes, Google Calendar allows you to set all sorts of alarms for the events.  You can set more than one if you want.


How can I install wpa_cli on my rooted device? I rooted my device, then I go to adb shell and type su to enter wpa_cli. I was surprised that wpa_cli: not found appeared, although I get information when I type wpa_supplicant.

I know that wpa_cli is from same library wpa_supplicant .

Install the app: WiFi WPS WPA Tester or AndroDumpper..

It has the latest compiled wpa_cli binary..
You can get the binary from the app's data from /data/data, and you might push it to /system/bin/ or /su/bin/ or wherever you need..

Edit:

Instead, you can use the wpa_supplicant binary, which can be found in many devices by default, if that's enough to do what you want..

Or if you wish, you can compile wpa_cli from source.


How can I find which apps/packages reference a given permission using command line? Given some permission tld.developer.app.permission.PERMISSION how can I use adb/root shell to find all the installed packages that define/depend on it?

The permissions are defined in the manifest files and it is possible to transfer each apk over from /data/app, /system/app, /system/priv-app, etc., unpackage, and check, but is there a better way?

The first section is ideally supposed to be OS (on PC) independent. The solution heavily depends upon the output of package service. It has been successfully tested on Android 4.2.1, 5.0.2 and 5.1.1 - all these versions are not heavily modified from stock Android.

Dependencies

Requires adb to be setup in PC.
Requires busybox binary. If the device is rooted, install Busybox app. Else, download busybox binary from official source, rename the binary to busybox, set Linux compatible executable permission on that binary for everyone and move it into device using

adb push LOCAL_FILE /data/local/tmp/   # LOCAL_FILE is the file path where busybox binary is located in PC

Requires aapt binary. If you're running a CM or its derivative ROM then ignore this requirement. Otherwise, for Android 4.x, you can consider downloading the binary from here, rename the binary to aapt, set Linux compatible executable permission on that binary for everyone and move it into device using

adb push LOCAL_FILE /data/local/tmp/   # LOCAL_FILE is the file path where busybox binary is located in PC .

Android 5.x users: ask Google for assistance.

Here's my little script:

#!/system/bin/sh
# Check if the busybox binary exists under /data/local/tmp/ or /system/xbin. Set the detected binary's path into the variable busybox or exit if file doesn't exist or executable permission is not set
[[ -x /data/local/tmp/busybox ]] && busybox=/data/local/tmp/busybox || { [[ -x /system/xbin/busybox ]] && busybox=/system/xbin/busybox || { date +'busybox binary not found or executable permission is not set. Exiting' && exit; }; }

# Check if the aapt binary exists under /data/local/tmp or /system/bin or /system/xbin. Set the detected binary's path into the variable aapt or exit if file doesn't exist or executable permission is not set
[[ -x /data/local/tmp/aapt ]] && aapt=/data/local/tmp/aapt || { [[ -x /system/bin/aapt ]] && aapt=/system/bin/aapt || { [[ -x /system/xbin/aapt ]] && aapt=/system/xbin/aapt || { date +'aapt binary not found or executable permission is not set. Exiting' && exit; }; }; }

# Validate input
! [[ "$1" == +([0-9a-zA-Z._]) ]] && { $busybox printf 'Permission field should not be empty or contain anything beyond these characters: a-zA-Z0-9._' && exit; } || perm=$1;

# List package name of all the installed apps and save them in the file packages.txt under /sdcard
pm list packages | $busybox sed 's/^package://g' | $busybox sort -o /sdcard/packages.txt
$busybox printf "List of apps defining and/or depending on the permission $perm:\n\n";

# Take each line (a package name) from the file packages.txt. In the output of package service for that package name, see if the permission is granted or defined and set appropriate variable state. For different states, we're either dumping the label of the app using aapt, printing the status of define/granted permissions for package or simply moving on.
while read line; do
    [[ `dumpsys package $line | grep -Eo "^[ ]+$perm"` ]] && granted=1 || granted=0;
    [[ `dumpsys package $line | grep -Eo "^[ ]+Permission[ ]+\[$perm\][ ]+\([a-zA-Z0-9]+\):"` ]] && defined=1 || defined=0;
    [[ $granted == 1 || $defined == 1 ]] && path=$(pm path $line | $busybox sed 's/^package://g') && label=$($aapt d badging $path 2>&1 | $busybox sed -ne '/application: label=/p' | $busybox cut -d "'" -f2);
    [[ $granted == 1 && $defined == 1 ]] && $busybox printf "$label ($line)\nDefined: Yes\nGranted: Yes\n\n";
    [[ $granted == 1 && $defined != 1 ]] && $busybox printf "$label ($line)\nDefined: No\nGranted: Yes\n\n";
    [[ $granted != 1 && $defined == 1 ]] && $busybox printf "$label ($line)\nDefined: Yes\nGranted: No\n\n";
done < /sdcard/packages.txt

Save the script in PC into a file named perm_script.sh and move it into /sdcard using

adb push LOCAL_FILE /sdcard/   # LOCAL_FILE is the  path where you saved that file into PC

Run that file

adb shell sh /sdcard/perm_script.sh PERMISSION   # replace PERMISSION with the android permission for which apps are to be shown

Demo output:

List of apps defining and/or depending on the permission android.permission.FLASHLIGHT:

Android System (android)
Defined: Yes
Granted: No

Automagic Premium (ch.gridvision.ppam.androidautomagic)
Defined: No
Granted: Yes

MacroDroid (com.arlosoft.macrodroid)
Defined: No
Granted: Yes

Google+ (com.google.android.apps.plus)
Defined: No
Granted: Yes
...
Bluetooth (com.mediatek.bluetooth)
Defined: No
Granted: Yes

DS Battery Saver Pro (com.rootuninstaller.batrsaverpro)
Defined: No
Granted: Yes

Webkey (com.webkey)
Defined: No
Granted: Yes

Do note that all those apps and their permissions among other things can also be found in the file /data/system/packages.xml.

(To get app's label using its package name, use GAThrawn's answer - works if only the app is available in Play Store; use Izzy's answer - works for any installed app.)


Cannot access all my folders from my SDCard via USB I plug in the USB cable to my computer. I click on Open Device to view files, I get to the root of my SDCard. The problem is that there is a directory missing.

I can see it with my file manager on android but not on the computer.

Any ideas why? I created this folder with an app I am developing.

You could try installing the Rescan SD Card! app and running it. You don't mention what phone you have sometimes you need to tell Android to scan the sd card to pick up changes.

This answer over at StackOverflow appears to suggest that sometimes the MTP cache gets out of date until a reboot of the phone or an app such as Rescan SD Card! is used. This no longer works as of Android 5.0.2, and a reboot of the device is the only fix.


Any way to force an app to rotate? I've got an app that refuses to open according to how I'm holding my phone.  So, it makes it uncomfortable to use it so I uninstalled it.  I do have auto-rotate on but I guess this app doesn't recognize it.  Is there a safe way to get apps that run upside down to work the right way?  I can't function without the home button near my left hand.

OS: 4.1
S3

You might try the Ultimate Rotation Control app -- when I tested, I found that it could force any of the apps I tested to rotate.   It's a seven day free trial, then requires a license purchase (US$2.99).

It turned out that I didn't really consider the app that inspired me to download this any better when force rotated, so I did not purchase, but your mileage may vary.