How to use ADB to list remote directories? I used adb push lol.png /storage/sdcard0/ to push a test file to my Galaxy S6, and the file was transferred successfully while failed to show up in my Android File Transfer. This is probably due to the fact that S6 doesn't have sdcard0 directory.

I like to remove the file I transferred (and the sdcard0 directory I accidentally created. But I don't know how to list remote directory via ADB. Is that possible? And How?

Easy to do – as in any Linux system:

Connect your device as usual
log into it using adb shell
use the ls command to list files in the current directory, and the cd command to change directories (i.e. walk the tree / navigate through directories)

For details on the commands, check for the corresponding Linux man pages – e.g. man ls and man cd.

Edit: If you're "afraid" of the command line, you can also use an ADB file manager (see here for examples).


Stop 'in app' ads from loading? I noticed that ads inside apps are not loaded when Google Play Services' data connection is disabled and kind of formed the idea that it is responsible for loading these ads within the apps.
Is there any particular package (com.google.*) that I can disable to prevent ads from loading, that is, is any particular package solely responsible for this task (loading ads)?
Is there a way to stop these ads by disabling some such package or system app that would still let me use gmail, play store and other such services?
I am not looking for external ad blocking apps.

App are self-contained. Even for ads delivered by Google AdMob there is no ad-system component involved at all. Apps are loading ads and other data directly from the Internet.
Therefore what you want is not possible. You can disable every app package by Google on your phone, as long as Internet still works the apps will show you ads.
The only system package that might be used is the WebView - a component that allows apps to display web pages - and ads are typically web content.
The problem is that many apps also use WebViews for displaying non-ad content, some apps even mainly consist of an WebView and the whole app consists of web pages.
The used WebView can be configured in Android developer options. On some devices there is a separate WebView component installed, on other the default Webbrowser or an installed Chrome app is used as WebView provider.
It is possible to develop an app that provides an WebView with integrated ad-filter but I have not heard of such an app.
Ad-blocking webview
It seems like there are already such apps available. Base don the information I found Adblock Browser should provide a WebView implementation with integrated ad blocking (not yet tested).
You have to install this app and make it the default WebView provider as shown in this answer.
However using that app has one major disadvantage: It bases on Chromium the open source part of Google Chrome. Therefore all vulnerabilities found in Chrome also applies to this web browser. So if you want to stay secure every time an security update for Chrome is published (which happens some times multiple times a week) the developers of Adblock Browser need to update their project, incorporate all necessary changes and also publish an update. Otherwise app that use WebView for regular (non-ad related) purposes may otherwise vulnerable to an attack.
In the end this is an advantage of ad-filtering external apps like Blockada or on network level in your Wifi network you can install a gateway like Pi-hole. Both filter apps and Pi-Hole work very similar. You don't need to update them so often as security vulnerabilities are not so often found in such apps/systems.


How to flash stock ROM over ADB sideload After successfully rooting my phone, I mistakenly soft-bricked my phone by modifying the build.prop file. Some research tells me that the only way to repair it was to flash the stock ROM.

I have already downloaded the stock ROM. All I need to do is flash it.

I tried flashing the ROM using SP Flash Tool, as my phone uses a Mediatek processor. However, it doesn't work.

So now I thought of flashing over ADB sideload. So could you please tell me how is that supposed to be done?

In the command adb sideload <filename> whether the <filename> has to contain the zipped version of the stock ROM or something else.

Thanks.

I finally was able to solve this problem, as Firelord said, adb sideload wasn't able to help in the case of this ROM. And SP Flash tool turns out to be the best for MediaTek devices.

Most of the ROMs (Stock or Custom) are available on http://www.needrom.com, so I would recommend it to others for downloading ROMS. However, the website requires signing up in order to download ROMs.

SP Flash Tool, in order to work, needs the following things:

A formatted SD Card in your Mobile Device
Battery to be re-inserted after removing (within 10-15 seconds)
Media Tek VCOM drivers to be installed in your PC. (Link: https://docs.google.com/uc?id=0B9srKhKuVIMnalFkV3EzWjVXdUE)
A scatter-based ROM for your device.

  Note: SP Flash tool needs to be Run as Administrator while using it.

A factory data reset from the Recovery mode is advisable after successful flashing.


Editing the built-in autocorrect dictionary in AOSP keyboard I'd like to remove some words from the built-in dictionaries* in my AOSP keyboard (Cyanogenmod 11), to avoid autocorrect from suggesting/applying them.

Is there a dictionary file that can be edited to remove such words?

I suspect it might require root do be able to change it, but I don't mind if it does.

Note: I'm not talking about words added to my personal dictionary, which can be erased using the appropriate interface. I'd like to remove, for instance, the word Said from the French dictionary, which often appears when I mistype sais (a quite common French word). I never intend to use Said, but since it is already in the built-in dictionary, there is no standard way to simply delete it, AFAIK.

* Including languages other than English.

This other SE answer might be of help if your phone is running under CyanogenMod. That answer, in turn, points to this article where author shows the location of built-in dictionaries on the phone filesystem, as well as the location of built-in dictionary source files in Android open source project.

The rationale (all to be tried) should be grab the source of a builtin dictionary you want to edit, modify that, generate a new APK file out of that, and finally substitute the original dictionary APK with the custom APK.


How are SetCPU frequencies formulated? Are the frequencies suggested by SetCPU for each device based on a certain algorithm or was it worked out device specifically or are they just arbitrarily formed upon extensive testing?

I have an old HTC Wildfire which has a maximum frequency at 768MHz

The steps of frequencies show by SetCPU itself is 176,264,352,518,576,614,633,652,672,691,710,729,748,768 all in MHz.

I eventually created a setcpu.txt file which I put in the root of the SD-Card. The thing is when I had a frequency of 800MHz SetCPU still read it but the max frequency it could obviously touch was 768MHz.

I repeat, my question is how are the frequencies listed by SetCPU formulated?

The answer lies in the kernel source for that HTC Wildfire - look in arch/arm/mach-msm/acpuclock.c to see the table of the accepted frequencies. Since the WildFire is based on MSM-7x25 chipset here's the excerpt of the frequencies table hardcoded, assuming its a GSM handset:

/* 7x01/7x25 normal with GSM capable modem */
static struct clkctl_acpu_speed pll0_245_pll1_768_pll2_1056[] = {
    { 0, 19200, ACPU_PLL_TCXO, 0, 0, 19200, 0, 0, 30720 },
    { 1, 122880, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 1,  61440, 1, 3,  61440 },
    { 0, 128000, ACPU_PLL_1, 1, 5,  64000, 1, 3,  61440 },
    { 0, 176000, ACPU_PLL_2, 2, 5,  88000, 1, 3,  61440 },
    { 1, 245760, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 0,  81920, 2, 4,  61440 },
    { 1, 256000, ACPU_PLL_1, 1, 2, 128000, 1, 5, 128000 },
    { 0, 352000, ACPU_PLL_2, 2, 2,  88000, 3, 5, 128000 },
    { 1, 384000, ACPU_PLL_1, 1, 1, 128000, 2, 6, 128000 },
    { 1, 528000, ACPU_PLL_2, 2, 1, 132000, 3, 7, 128000 },
    { 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, {0, 0, 0}, {0, 0, 0} }
};

First column, indicates that the frequency can be scaled, if it's a 1 in there, that chipset frequency can be scaled up or down, think of ramping up the CPU when there's a processor-intensive app running and that is done by the kernel dynamically within the confines of a safe threshold without burning down the chipset - please note:  This is only for the kernel to use, further on in the answer, that shows the overclocking table, that is "end-user" responsibility - not the kernel!!!!!!
Second column, the normal frequency in KHz as dictated by the what I think is called the a11 clock (somewhere within the bowels of the chipset itself)
Third column, not exactly sure but is specifically related to chipset itself
Fourth column, the selector used for the normal frequency setting
Fifth column, the divisor used for normal frequency setting
Sixth column, the overclocking frequency in KHz
Seventh column, the overclocking frequency selector
Eighth column, the divisor used for overclocking frequency setting
Ninth column, not sure either what that signifies

There's actually in fact, 12 fields used, the remaining fields are filled in at kernel boot-up, perhaps adding guards and ensuring that the conserved values are not explicitly over-ridden, a "gate-keeper" if you like, read on...

Further on in the source, there is usually a conservative over-clocking frequencies (the common MSM-7x 01 / 25 / 27 ) chipsets supports it), again same layout as the "conservative values" as highlighted above, notice every single one of the frequencies can be scaled up/ramped down for each overclock frequency That is how SetCPU can adjust those values as it has a 1 in there in the first column

#ifndef CONFIG_MSM_CPU_FREQ_OVERCLOCK_AHB
/* Conservative AHB overclocking */
    { 0, 403200, ACPU_PLL_2, 2, 2, 134400, 2, 5, 122880 },
    { 1, 480000, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 1, 160000, 2, 6, 122880 },
    { 1, 595200, ACPU_PLL_2, 2, 1, 198400, 2, 7, 122880 },
    { 1, 604800, ACPU_PLL_2, 2, 1, 201600, 2, 7, 200000 },
    { 1, 614400, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 0, 204800, 2, 7, 200000 },
    { 1, 633600, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 0, 211200, 2, 7, 200000 },
    { 1, 652800, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 0, 217600, 2, 7, 200000 },
    { 1, 672000, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 0, 224000, 2, 7, 200000 },
    { 1, 691200, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 0, 230400, 2, 7, 200000 },
    { 1, 710400, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 0, 236800, 2, 7, 200000 },
    { 1, 729600, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 0, 243200, 2, 7, 200000 },
    { 1, 748800, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 0, 249600, 2, 7, 200000 },
    { 1, 768000, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 0, 256000, 2, 7, 200000 },
    { 1, 787200, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 0, 262400, 2, 7, 200000 },
    { 1, 806400, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 0, 268800, 2, 7, 200000 },
//  { 1, 825600, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 0, 275200, 2, 7, 200000 },
//  { 1, 844800, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 0, 281600, 2, 7, 200000 },
#else
/* Agressive AHB overclocking */
    { 0, 403200, ACPU_PLL_2, 2, 2, 201600, 1, 5, 200000 },
    { 1, 480000, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 1, 240000, 1, 6, 200000 },
    { 1, 595200, ACPU_PLL_2, 2, 1, 297600, 1, 7, 200000 },
    { 1, 604800, ACPU_PLL_2, 2, 1, 302400, 1, 7, 200000 },
    { 1, 614400, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 0, 307200, 1, 7, 200000 },
    { 1, 633600, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 0, 316800, 1, 7, 200000 },
    { 1, 652800, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 0, 326400, 1, 7, 200000 },
    { 1, 672000, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 0, 336000, 1, 7, 200000 },
    { 1, 691200, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 0, 345600, 1, 7, 200000 },
    { 1, 710400, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 0, 355200, 1, 7, 200000 },
    { 1, 729600, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 0, 364800, 1, 7, 200000 },
    { 1, 748800, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 0, 374400, 1, 7, 200000 },
    { 1, 768000, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 0, 384000, 1, 7, 200000 },
    { 1, 787200, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 0, 393600, 1, 7, 200000 },
    { 1, 806400, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 0, 403200, 1, 7, 200000 },
//  { 1, 825600, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 0, 412800, 1, 7, 200000 },
//  { 1, 844800, ACPU_PLL_0, 4, 0, 422400, 1, 7, 200000 },
#endif /* CONFIG_MSM_CPU_FREQ_OVERCLOCK_AHB */
    { 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, {0, 0, 0}, {0, 0, 0} }
};

Depending on the table lookups, and depending on the chipset, only the max is specified, and is re-inforced by the kernel (in the remainder of the fields of the record that the kernel reads from and process it - as mentioned above!)

  I eventually created a setcpu.txt file which I put in the root of the
  SD-Card. The thing is when I had a frequency of 800MHz SetCPU still
  read it but the max frequency it could obviously touch was 768MHz.

That is why you can never override the maximum as dictated, as in the OP's case, to prevent thermal damage to the chipset and clock frequency!

Random reboots, random freezes, battery overheating quicker than normal (normal as in within the regulated CPU clock frequency threshold) are all symptoms of a overclocked chipset.

This is a big give-away clue when someone asks about random reboots but does not say that it is probably overclocked!


Battery shuts down at 25% I've read that battery calibration apps are only a placebo effect and they do nothing. Is this true? What to do if your phone suddenly shuts down at 25%?

Battery calibration being a myth was asked here Bought a new battery, do I need to calibrate it? - incidentally by you :-), so yes to repeat, it's a myth (see Izzy's answer that stressed this)

To address shutting down at 25%:

If the battery is old or heavily used I would first change the battery
Check if the behavior persists in safe mode. If it does go to next step. If it doesn't it's caused by some app you installed (unlikely)
Do factory-reset. If it continues, flash stock ROM (updated if available) or custom ROM
If none of these help head to service center get an estimate and choose between repair or replacement of the device


can't update, can't do a factory reset I have a Nexus S running Android 2.3.4. For a while now it's been trying to prompt me to install newer versions.  Every time I try, it restarts, displays the cute robot error screen and doesn't come back on until I take out the battery and restart it. Pressing power+volume+/- doesn't help.

I also tried to do a factory reset. Same result.

Before I got this phone (it was a gift), the shop did something to it "to enable Hebrew." Not sure what exactly but I suspect they dinkied around with system files and that's what is causing this.

Anyone have suggestions for what to try next?

This a solution to bring your device to a stable, stock, factory default state.

NOTE: this will wipe your device (not the SD card) and return it to stock, unrooted factory defaults.

Download one of these two files:

This file if you want to restore to Gingerbread
and this zip file if you want to restore to the OTA 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) latest update.

Extract the file you downloaded to your computer, in a location you remember.
On your phone, enable debugging

this is usually found by going to the home screen, then pressing Menu and choosing Settings->Applications->Development and check the USB debugging option

Plug your phone into your computer
Locate the run.bat file in the location where you extracted the .zip file
Run this file and wait for the process to finish.
You're done! Reboot and enjoy!


Can you play Pokémon Go on Oneplus 2 with CM13? It worked in Oxygen OS but now lagging.  Fig. 1 No appearance of poketops and pokemons, loading sign at the left top corner

System: CM13 with GApps installed
Phone: Oneplus 2

Oneplus 2 and Pokemon Go do not work well together as of August 2016 if GPS is in the high accuracy mode.

If you enable GPS only mode and restart then Pokemon works normally.


Receiving animated image in WhatsApp, what is this? Recently my friend send me this animated image on WhatsApp.

Link to the animated image

I was shocked to see an animated GIF in WhatsApp. When I shared to Facebook, it was shared just like a static image, and when I save it to my Mac via http://web.whatsapp.com, it was saved with extension of MP4.

When I shared a GIF from the web, it doesn't animate in WhatsApp. Also, when I shared a video, it also doesn't play like this image.

I am not able to figure it out what's unique with this.

Update: All WhatsApp versions now have GIF support.

The latest version of WhatsApp supports GIF images.

If you're on Android and Play Store shows that your WhatsApp is up-to-date, then download the beta version by joining the official WhatsApp beta program.


Is there any way to know the cause I cannot install app from Google Play I'm using Sony Xperia S (also I have old SE Xperia X10 Mini) and want to install mytaxi app. But Google Play says that I'm not eligible to do this and I do not understand why! I've found an apk in the internets and it works fine, but I want to know the reason and have updates.

This problem is rather frequent and only the developers can fix it.

Reason is probably that the app wants features like GPS, certain screen sizes or a minimum Android version. One of those requirements is not met although it runs just fine.

So the obvious way to get this fixed is to contact the developers and have them relax that declaration..


Check which IPs or web-sites an app is communicating with? Usually they do it behind the scenes. So I'd love to know where apps are actually sending data and from whom they are actually getting responses.

Some apps offer a network monitor, e.g. OS Monitor does:

As you can see in the second screenshot, it even allows you to look-up the destination and show it in a map.

Quick System Info offers a similar feature:

As you can see in the last entry of this screenshot, it even names the app which holds this connection.

These are two examples of real-time monitoring which do not require root. If your device is rooted, you might also want to take a look at DroidWall: This app offers to keep a log of all network accesses for each app. Plus, as a Firewall app, you can restrict apps to WiFi, mobile network, or even forbid them network access altogether.


Locating stolen phone after factory reset I assume any reasonable thief will wipe the phone as soon as possible, thus removing any tracking apps and user accounts.

I there a method to track the phone any way?

A possible method is to use a tracking app (and it's configuration) that's embedded in a custom ROM.

There are such solutions, if your device is rooted. In that case, some anti-theft apps such as Cerberus are able to integrate into the system part (ROM) of the device, so a factory-reset wouldn't help the thief.

However: As we are talking about the "clever thief", he will first grab the device, switch it off, take it into some Faraday cage before switching it on again, then boot into recovery/download mode, and flash a new ROM. Bummer. Protection gone.

So there is no 100% protection. Technically, it might be possible if it's integrated into the hardware itself – but I've never heard that such a thing was done for a consumer smartphone.


Is it possible to update the Android platform my phone runs on? I just got my first Android phone. The ZTE Score which runs on Android 2.3.4.. I'm curious if I can update to a newer Android os, or if I'm stuck with 2.3.4..

As I stated in the Comments, version 2.3.4 is the latest version for phones. Versions 3.0, 3.1, and 3.2 are all for tablet devices. Version 4.0 will be released on the Galaxy Nexus sometime this month. Version 4.0 (code named Ice Cream Sandwich) was designed to run on both phones and tablets which may clear up the confusion surrounding the numbered releases.

Though Google controls the Android operating system and when it gets released, it is up to the manufacturers to decide whether to put it on their devices. Some companies, like HTC and Motorola, actually rewrite pieces of Android with their own special features, like HTC Sense and Motorola Blur. The companies have the choice to push out an update or not. Some of those companies have come out with plans to update their phones to 4.0.

ZTE has not announced (as of a couple weeks ago) any plans to upgrade their phones to 4.0 but there's no doubts they won't.

The second option is to wait until Google releases the code for 4.0. Once they do this, the Android community (like XDA) will work on a ROM of the operating system which you would then be able to install on your device manually. Doing so is not an easy process and involves dedication and a free weekend. If you consider this route, you should also do a little research to make sure doing so won't "brick" your phone or cause side effects with your service provider. However, it will provide the most clean and pure Android experience you can get.

EDIT: As @eldarerathis pointed out in the comments, Google did release a version of Gingerbread numbered 2.3.7 but it is only to support there Google Wallet product which at this time is only supported on Nexus devices or devices with NFC. If you'd like to build this version yourself and install it on your device, you can download the Android source code and build it yourself. There are instructions on how to do this at the site. However, I would strongly recommend waiting until 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) is released. For documentary purposes, I will update this answer upon release of 4.0.


Blue light filter turns on automatically at sunset, but often doesn't turn off at sunrise I have a manufacturer-unlocked Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (purchased directly from samsung.com), which came with Marshmallow but has been updated OTA to 7.0 Nougat, and is not rooted.
One new feature Marshmallow brings is the Blue Light Filter, which has options for automatically turning on and off, either according to a schedule you specify, or at night based on your local sunset and sunrise.

I'm using the latter option, and while I've found the filter to reliably turn on every day at sunset, I frequently have to manually turn it off the next day. It's not 100% of the time though, and in fact, on rare occasions, I have woken up before sunrise and been using my phone when the filter suddenly turned off, so I know it is at least capable of working properly. (Note that it has never, to my knowledge, failed to turn on at sunset, regardless of whether I'm using it at that time or not.) I'm speculating that maybe it's failing to turn off if the phone is in deep sleep mode at sunrise. The times of sunset and sunrise are determined based on your location, so an as-yet-unnoticed issue with Location Services could theoretically be a factor as well.

I did a Google search and was able to find informational articles about the feature in general, as well as multiple forum posts from users experiencing problems getting the feature to turn on or work at all, but found no reports of it otherwise working properly, but not automatically turning off.

Am I the only one experiencing this issue? Is it something specific to the S7 Edge, or to Samsung builds in general, or is the same problem known to occur on other devices? And of course, most importantly: How can I get the Blue Light Filter to reliably turn off at sunrise?

It turns out that it seems to be related to the power-saving features on the S7. Apparently at some point, the background process that automatically turns the filter on and off at scheduled times got added to the list of processes to be managed by the power-saving mechanism, after which point, any time my phone was in power-saving mode and had not been used recently, the scheduled toggle of the filter's state would not fire. I'm assuming that was just never the case at sunset, as I'm much more likely to have used my phone recently at sunset than at sunrise.


Android OS update with out active service I have an HTC device which we use for development currently running Android 2.2.1. While trying to update it from:

Settings > Software update > Check new

it shows the following for quite some time and then goes to an error message:

  Software Update

  Checking for new Software available now.

This phone doesn't have active service right now though I am connected to WiFi. Does this matter? Does Android prevent you from updating the OS if your device is not activated on a cellular carrier?

No Android doesn't block if you are not on a cellular network. Did a OTA update of my Galaxy Nexus a couple of weeks back without inserting a SIM.

I think HTC has released no more newer builds for your phone hence you don't see it.


Migrating to a custom rom I'd like to ask if there is a way to backup all my apps and data to transfer from miui to a custom rom. I've switched before, on another device but had to reinstall everything, which was pretty annoying, thus losing all my app data. I was wondering if there is an app which just backups everything, including contacts, messages, apps and app data, etc and then restoring everything back to normal. PS. I have gained root rights.

After I tried using the migrate app, which force closed everytime I tried to enter system apps, I went on with an app I had lying on my phone, called app2sd. I've backup up everything and I'm good to go. Thanks everyone. Case closed


How can I find the submodel of an SM-G900? In About device -> Device name it says:

SM-G900

The model name have does not a final letter. I can´t find a SM-G900 (without final letter) firmware.  How do I find out what submodel I ahve?

I am not sure where you are from, or where you bought the phone, but this list might help:

SM-G9006V_CHN_CHN (China)
SM-G9008V_CHN_ZM (China)
SM-G9009D_CHN_CTC (China)
SM-G900A_NA_ATT (AT&T)
SM-G900D_JPN_DCM (Japan)
SM-G900F_EUR_XX (Open Europe)
SM-G900H_EUR_XX (Open Europe)
SM-G900I_SEA_XSA (Asia)
SM-G900J_JPN_KDI (Japan)
SM-G900K_KOR_KTC (Korea)
SM-G900L_KOR_LGC (Korea)
SM-G900M_LA_VF (Vodafone)
SM-G900P_NA_SPR (Sprint)
SM-G900R4_NA_USC (US Cellular)
SM-G900S_KOR_SKC (Korea)
SM-G900T_NA_TMB (T-Mobile)
SM-G900V_NA_VZW (Verizon)
SM-G900W8_NA_BMC (BMC)

Source


Google Drive has taken over my internal memory OK so I decided to migrate all my pics (10gb+) from Dropbox to Google Drive. Everything went as planned but surprisingly after installing the Drive app from the Play Store, it synced all my 10gb data back onto my internal memory

Forgive my "noobness" but isn't the whole point of cloud storage the avoidance of such nuisance? How do I get back my internal memory without losing my data on Google Drive

Thanks in advance.

Logically, from what I know about Drive, all items that are marked appropriately will automatically sync to all devices where Drive is installed (to provide offline access).

I don't personally use Drive often at the moment, but I believe there is both a switch for offline access while viewing detailed file info, as well as a star feature, that both function to show which items are set to sync to all devices (there's been a few updates since I used Drive often).

You might have accidentally checked a setting that told Drive to mark all those uploaded items as favorites/offline accessible files, while uploading.

I've never personally added so many files to a current versions of Drive, web or app. So, I'd have to compete a test of the activity with some test files and follow directions based on what exactly you did to identify, with certainty, what happened.

And in order to correct the issue, regardless of the cause, it may be easier to use one interface rather than another. For instance, Drive via webpage/PC may allow you to select all folders and mark all internal contents as not available offline in one click, but the app may not.

I'm not sure which would be more efficient for such a purpose, I just wanted to suggest that it may be worth experimenting.

And there's always the possibility that it is just because of a glitch in drive.


Google Music eating battery life while idle Device: X9076 Find7, Nameless ROM 5.1

gMusic is hammering my device. Normal battery burn is about 4.8% per hour. Fine, I can live with that no problem. I've used GMAA since it became available but problems only for the last little while. Actually listing seems fine most of the time, battery use is a little elevated but nothing major. But then idling battery just plummets. I'll take my phone out of my pocket and it'll be on the verge of overheating while doing nothing. If I freeze gMusic then its fine, but obviously regular freezing-defrosting is a pain.

I've uninstalled, re-installed, wiped data etc. Problem persists.

At one point BetterBattStats found it had used 1GB on LTE and 350MB on wifi over the space of 5.5hrs which is really excessive. The usage then "disappeared" from the list 10 mins later.

Any suggestions as to how to resolve it? Interestingly the gMusic chrome plugin has a bug at the minute that causes excessive CPU usage and with the plugin removed you get major memory leaks. On the verge of cancelling my sub now.

UPDATE: Regarding answer below, blocking wakelocks resolved it, blocked loads without and behaviour issues.

Are you currently using Android Lollipop?

If yes then go to Privacy guard in Settings and  revoke all permissions of Google Play Music.


Adjust magnetic auto-lock sensitivity I just bought a case for my Nexus 10 tablet (EasyAcc Smart Cover), but it seems the magnetic auto-lock sometimes thinks the cover is closed when the cover is flipped to the back side, behind the device. This especially happens when holding the tablet open in my hand, and it's easy to accidentally adjust the position of the cover on the back.

Since this false positive condition doesn't always happen, I'm guessing a simple sensitivity change might be enough to make the auto-lock feature of the cover work proprely. Another possible fix could be to have some sort of delay, os that when the system detects the lid as "closed", it'd wait for a few secs to see if it stays in closed state, and only then put the device to sleep.

Is there a way to adjust the magnetic auto-lock sensitivity?

(Nexus 10 tablet, running Android 4.2.2)

It's very unlikely that you can control the sensitivity. Most of these magnetic switches are simple reed switches: the magnet pulls two contacts together, closing the switch. The software simply gets an on/off signal, not a quantity it can filter.

It might be possible to add the delay solution you suggest in a custom-rom, but I don't know of any with this functionality.


I keep getting alerted regarding unread Facebook messages even though there is none My phone beeps and tells me I have an unread Facebook message even though I don't. I've got a hunch what the source of the problem is. I have both the Facebook app and the Friend Caster app and they are connected to different Facebook accounts (one's for work one's for my personal life). Is there way I can stop getting these false "new message" alerts?

I want both my Facebook accounts on my phone because then all the contact numbers get pulled off both accounts. If anyone can think of a better way I'm open.

It looks like Friend Caster is considered end of life so that may be the problem. Facebook apparently made changes to their api, so it has been discontinued. Source https://support.onelouder.com/hc/en-us/articles/204558634-What-Happened-to-FriendCaster-

You should be able to have 1 account on the app and one on the preferred web browser, or you could go the route this page talks about https://android.gadgethacks.com/how-to/set-up-two-different-facebook-accounts-one-android-device-0161254/

There are probably other workarounds but these are the ones I found with a quick google search.


How can I set a default contact for a phone number? In my contact list I have a number of contacts that share the same home phone, because they are family members.  For instance:

my mother
my father
my brother
the family's house

I keep the home phone number for each contact so that when I want to speak to one of them, I can choose the contact and then where to try to reach them.  I keep a separate contact for the house so that I can call there when I don't want to talk to anybody specific.

When anybody calls from the family home phone, I want the phone to display the family house contact, not anybody in particular.  Is there any way to specify that a phone number has a default contact?

New contacts are added to the internal contactslist at the bottom.

They are displayed in the way you want: FirstName/LastName or LastName/FirstName.

When you are called by the family's House then the phonenumber is searched in the internal contactslist and returns the first match found.

What you have to do is: Make sure that the family's house is the first contact te be found.
You can't do this by changing it to another name, because that doesn't change the order of the internal contactslist.

One way to do it is: Export all your contacts and edit the .vcf file so that the family's house is above all other contacts. Erase the contacts in your phone and import the edited file.

Another way is to erase all your contacts and type them in by hand, but make sure the family's house is before the other contacts with the same phonenumber.

You must actually do this with all contacts that are not one person, but multiple persons (i.e. Father and Mother) or a place (such as the family's house).


How to enter recovery mode in a watch with one button (power)? I try to enter recovery mode in watch with one power button and no additional buttons , but failed to do that.

Is it possible to enter recovery mode with this single button ?

I try this with 2 different watch:
microwear H5,
kingwear 98

One of them is using android 5.1 , the other android 6.

Thank you

It seems that OP got an answer from Xda-developers for Microwear H5.

  You can enter recovery mode via adb command or installing a reboot to recovery app from play store.

The adb command is the usual one for rebooting to recovery:

adb reboot recovery

The answer also applies for Kingwear KW98.


Will sdcard0 be encrypted on HTC One XL? If I want to connect to our company Exchange server I am forced to encrypt my android (cm11).

Q1) My question is whether ever /sdcard0 will be encrypted too.

Note that HTC One XL got only internal storeage, no external SD card is present.

That is the location where I got pictures taken, installers for cm etc.

Q2) if /sdcard0 is encrypted too will I be able to access the files on sdcard0 via Mass Storage?
Q3) from the research I did, I would be able to update cm using "using a tmpfs mount for /sdcard and 'adb push update.zip /sdcard' just seconds flashing". Is that correct?
Q4) if I update cm will the data on /sdcard0 be still accessible?
Q5) I read that the only way to decrypt android phone is factory reset. That's something I do always before installing new version of cm. But this does not touch any data on /sdcard0. If /sdcard0 is encrypted what is the way for me to decrypt my phone?

Too many questions btw but the answers are follows :

Ans 1 : Yes your /sdcard0 will be encrypted.

Ans 2 : No, if the /sdcard0 is encrypted you will not be able to access your storage in anyway.

Ans 3 : Yes, you will be able to update your cm but it will not be updated in seconds, it will take several minutes.

Ans 4 : Yes, all your previous data will be accessible. Data is lost only if you are installing cm for the first time, if you are updating it, your data will not be lost.

Ans 5 : Upto I know, you can decrypt your phone without factory reset but I don't know step by step process for decryption.


Disabling screen lock Suppose my android phone is locked by any locking method like password , pin, or pattern.
Suppose my mobile is not a rooted phone , neither have custom recovery installed.

Is there is any way to unlock it with the stock recovery or anything like that ?

Without WIPE USER DATA . I don't want the data to be removed.

Also suppose no Google accounts help is available.

there's some ways to do it, but 90% of it will wipe User data. If you did OEM on, you can save your data on backup then wipe the phone by fastboot mode.


Logon failure with ES File Explorer and Windows LAN With ES File Explorer when I try and access my Windows 7 pc under LAN I'm  greeted with the error "Login fail. This may be caused by: plain text passwords are disabled." I am sure the username and password entered when adding the server to LAN page are correct.

Login fail screenshot

How do I enable ESF to use encrypted passwords?

Failing that what do I need to do in Windows to make plain text passwords work? (not really desirable, but I need the ability to copy files to the pc more...)

Solution

Restart the Server (LanmanServer) service, restart ESF on the Android device, browse to LAN connection, done. Doesn't require plain text passwords or any other registry hack.

Make note of any dependent services that may also need to be restarted:

The following services are dependent on the Server service.
Stopping the Server service will also stop these services.

   Media Browser
   Computer Browser

Do you want to continue this operation? (Y/N)

On Android, make sure ES File Explorer is closed completely, not just exited (suspended). Samsung's [Close All] seems to be effective (don't remember the Nexus equivalent).

Interactively:

  Start >> Run >> Services.msc >> select "Server" and Restart

Command Line:

Sc \\server stop  LanmanServer
Sc \\server start LanmanServer

Research

a.k.a sources a.k.a. other paths which might be fruitful for you if the above isn't.

Suggestion: Enable Plain Text Passwords in Windows

  …you could attempt to enable plaintext SMB authentication just to see if it fixes your problem, though. Its unclear to me whether this would work on Windows 7 or not, but you could try setting the DWORD value "EnablePlainTextPassword" to "1" at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkStation\Parameters". Reboot (or stop and restart the "Workstation" service) and see what that does.

  Check out Chris S comment below. It's very likely that the default LMCompatibilityLevel of Windows 7 (which is "3", meaning "Send NTLMv2 only") is causing your problem if your LaCie device is using an older SMB server (like a Samba version pre-3.0.21, for example).

From https://serverfault.com/questions/145666/how-to-enable-old-networking-protocols-in-windows-7/145675#145675

This is what I did last time this irritated me enough to do something. However when I checked that setting now, it's still set.

Suggestion: Reboot Server

  …a dirty workaround: reboot your Windows file server. All your Android devices will immediately be able to connect again... for a time being. For me it usually lasts 1-2 days. Then SOMETHING happens - obviously on the Windows side, and it's again "login fails" from all Androids with ES, yet Windows machines keep being able to access all the shares.

From http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2165494/connect-win7-share-android-fine-windows-machines.html

Suggestion: Re-enable SMB Protocol

  I had the same problem and fixed it by reenabling the SMB protocol as described here:
  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2696547?

  To enable or disable SMB protocols on an SMB Server that is runningWindows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, or Windows Server 2008, use Windows PowerShell or Registry Editor.  […] paste the following cmdlet into the powershell:

  Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters" SMB2 -Type DWORD -Value 1 -Force

  and hit enter. Reboot.

From http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2165494/connect-win7-share-android-fine-windows-machines.html

Suggestion: Enable Server File Sharing Mode

  WIN7 machines when left on for a while, tend to have their shares just "disappear". There are registry setting that can fix this PC to PC problem […]  in the release of WIN7. […] They changed the numbers in two registry settings, and that caused your PC-to-PC shares (in your home network which has no server) to disappear. […] By changing the registry BACK to normal settings, you essentially tell it to act like all the other versions of Windows did. The recommended settings for a machine that has shares in use, is

  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\LargeSystemCache=1
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters\Size=3

From http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1938243/access-win-android-phone-wifi.html

An answer on Super User to Connect from Android (ES File Explorer) to Windows 7 Share suggests the same.


Force a download manager not to manage downloads I have a nexus 7 and I use chrome on it for my browser. I have a download manager installed, and I use it to download files by URL. However, it has usurped the downloading of chrome, and I like chrome's way of downloads better. Can I change the default download opener in chrome? (I'm running Jelly Bean 4.2)

Android has a "defaults"-system for handling predefined requests such as opening a URL or pressing the home button. If you go into Android's System Settings -> Apps -> Android Download Manager and scroll down to "LAUNCH BY DEFAULT", you should see a button to clear the defaults. The next time you open your chrome browser and tap on a URL that has the <a download=""> property, a screen should pop up, asking you to choose which application to use for downloading.


Missing Fedex cloud print on OnePlus w/ Androind 4.4.4 / T-Mobile On my moto x 1st gen on T-Mobile I had an option when printing to print to a FedEx office. I'd get emailed a retrieval code to use at the store. On my oneplus I only have a save as PDF option in the print list (Google drive PDF viewer). I installed the FedEx app but that didn't add the printing option for FedEx.

I had a very similar issue.  I don't use Chrome on the desktop (Firefox) but I don't think that is relevant.  I am also using Nexus 5 with Android 5.0.1.  On my PC on Firefox I could see the Fedex printer listed along side the Google Drive printer but on my Nexus I could only see the Google Drive printer.  I fiddled with this for a while but I eventually got it to work.  I'm not totally sure what I did that fixed it but this what I tried:

Visited https://www.google.com/cloudprint/learn/ and clicked Try It Now
Select Print to Fedex Office and clicked the checkbox to agree to the terms (this only showed up once and maybe this was blocking it from showing up on Android?)
I didn't bother trying to print a test page to Fedex but I did go back print a test page using the Save to Google Drive option (again not sure if this was needed)
I verified that it showed up properly in my drive account
Finally I went back to my phone: Settings -> Printing -> Cloud Print.  Still only Google Drive printer listed (damn!).
But then I hit the back button and tapped Cloud Print once again (hey why not?) and all of a sudden the FedEx Office printer was listed!

So I'm not really sure what the deal is with this (definitely still beta I guess).  I think either agreeing to the terms on the PC and/or printing a test page kind of forced a refresh of cloud print settings down to my phone.  I wonder if clearing the data of the cloud print app would have a similar effect?  Anyways, I hope this helps a future person that got here via Google like I did...


Which camera gives more accurate image, the front or the back camera? My phone is Kyocera Hydro Icon with Android 4.4.2.

I use its back and front cameras to take pictures of my head and face at distances around an arm's length. I found the front camera gives more pleasing pictures than the back one, for example,
the pictures taken by the back one often shows my eyes are proportionally smaller.

Also the front camera seems to produce completely dark pictures when the lighting isn't good, while the back camera can still produce clearer pictures.

Which camera gives more accurate or realistic pictures of my face and head at distances around an arm's length?

Resolution governs quality of pictures

The back camera invariably is of higher resolution and is meant for better quality. Typical resolution is upwards of 10 Megapixels
Front camera is not meant for high resolution and was intended for visiting the image during video chats. With demand for better quality (including "selfies", it is now typically upwards of 2 megapixels and in recent phones 5 or more. Dark images as reported is less for to quality of  camera but more to do with subject focus and lighting conditions

Edit

OPs concern is more about "distortion". To reduce distortion

Take the snap at arms length, picture would be smaller but less distortion
Reduce aspect ratio (if default is higher) to 4:3
Keeping the subject and camera at same level and experiment with aligning your face to the top/bottom edge of photo to see if it reduces distortion
Try an app like Cameringo, which augments photo taking capabilities considerably and adding effects (I use the pro version of this but more for rear camera shots and both trial and pro versions are good). This may also help tackle the rear camera issues faced


How to take screenshots without using buttons? My android phone has weak buttons, so I don't use them frequently. I even change my volume from the settings!

But to take a screenshot, I need to press the volume down button and the power button. I have a Motorola Moto E4 Plus running Android 7.1.1.

Is there any other way to take screenshots? I don't want to root my phone.

NOTE: This question is not a duplicate as this is asking specifically without buttons and so helps those who can not use their physical buttons.

Another way to take screenshot without hardware inputs (physical buttons) would be to do so with software inputs (on-screen buttons).  I remember using a software to capture images and videos of my phone a few years ago.

Samsung Galaxy comes with gesture software that is embedded to the OS that a user can slide edge of one's hand across the screen to take screenshots; but I am not sure if it is available to Motorola phones as it seemed like an extention that Samsung added to the Android.

You should be able to find a number of screen capture applications if you search for "screen capture" in Play Store.  They usually display a floating icon or a notification bar icon that you can touch to capture screenshots.


Will a Factory Reset on an unlocked Samsung S2 4G T989 from T-Mobile relock the phone? I have a Samsung S2 4G T989 from T-Mobile which is unlocked. It is currently using ion Indian carrier.

I want to Factory Reset it. Will it be locked again after performing a reset? I don't have any code with me.

NO. A Factory Reset does not re-lock your phone.


How can I view and examine the Android log? There is a lot of interesting stuff in the Android system log, that is helpful in many ways

find root causes of problems
identify misbehaving apps

How can I view and examine the Android log?

Android 4.1 and newer
The preferred way is to download the SDK and use adb logcat (requires to activate "developer options" on device).
There are apps available for viewing the full system log, however they only work on rooted devices or require issuing a manual command via adb to make them work. For more information view see this question.
Android 4.0 and older
You can either download the SDK and use adb logcat or get Logcat Extrem from the Google Play Store, which shows the log directly on your phone.


G1 Unable to get past android boot logo I have a T-Mobile G1 (HTC Dream), this morning it vibrated once and then restarted, it then went to the android boot logo went through that and stopped at a black screen.

I've tried pulling the battery and restarting but it has the same problem.

The phone is rooted but it has NO custom boot screen, boot loader, rom. It has stock everything apart from the ability to use root.

Running Android 1.6

Anyone any suggestions, I intend to take it back to T-Mobile tomorrow night when they have late opening hours, but I'd like to get it working before then.

Have you tried doing a factory reset (you'll lose all data)?

Steps to do a factory reset are found here.

1. Power off the G1
2. Hold Home Key + End key for 20
seconds or until you see a "triangle with an exclamation point
and a picture of the G1"
3. Open the QWERTY keyboard and hit Alt+W
4. Restored!


How to use an ext4 formatted sd card as external storage with working app permissions? I'm using LineageOS14.1 (Android 7.1.2) on a Moto G 3rd gen

I'm using a 64GB sd and my phone technically doesn't support it, it worked fine until I put more stuff on it and then it started to randomly unmount without any warning. So I tried formatting it to ext4 to escape from the lack of official support for exFAT.

The problem is that the SD mounts and i can read from it, however when i try to write or delete any file in It from an app (Solid Explorer and all other apps, even the build in file manager) it fails.

The sd is correctly mounted ($ df -l: /mnt/media_rw/c91[...]19  58G   14G   42G  25% /storage/c91[...]19) and if i try creating or deleting a file in It using adb everything works.

I tried giving the apps permissions to use the sd via the system file explorer, but nothing changes

I simplified my way to apps see my ext4 formatted [1] on internal something apps will see folder usb1 and may read it (I have to check the write) .

[1]

mkdir /data/media/0/usb1
su -mm
mount -t ext4 /dev/block/sda1 /data/media/0/usb1/
mount -t ext4 /dev/block/sda1 /storage/emulated/0/usb1/

Full answer here : https://android.stackexchange.com/a/204616/119381


CWM bypass md5 checking Is there a way to bypass the md5 checking before restore in CWM?

This is not an issue with an md5 mismatch (the solution to which can be easily found via google/search)

The idea is that I am performing many restores (currently tinkering with some of the inner workings) and am not too concerned that the recovery has been altered/corrupted since it's probably been not too long since I last reflashed) and checking the md5sum takes up a fair amount of overhead (2x the read operations).

It's not a huge deal but if anyone knows a solution please let me know!

hmmm, if you can i would highly recommend just using TWRP it has alot more features and allow you to skip all the md5 stuff. plus it has a built in file manager for swapping out systemUI.apk ext.

AND it has a command mode to allow for more advanced scripting and modding.


How can I detect Malware and/or viruses? I'm buying a used Droid phone (Verizon) that has been rooted.

Is there anyway to scan it for viruses (and more importantly) malware?
Or maybe even a firewall?

(I may be being overcautious).

Some preliminary research shows several malware apps. Well worth $1 or so.

I'd love any feedback on these.

Norton Mobile Security
Lookout Mobile Security
AVG / DroidSecurity Pro
Webroot Security
Trend Micro Mobile Security

I use DroidWall for this purpose - it's a firewall with a whitelist or blacklist configuration. Also AVG Antivirus Free and Lookout for detecting virus and other malware.

Set DroidWall to Whitelist mode with log enabled, which disables internet access for all apps and services except the ones you explicitly allow. Then use the phone for a while, open up all the apps once, restart the phone (all this to give a malicious app a chance to get activated). Then, open DroidWall and view its log. You'll see all the apps which tried to access the internet and the IP addresses they tried to connect to.


OTG support in Android Smartphones It seems that Samsung are phasing out OTG support in their latest devices, i.e. the S6 no longer has OTG support.

Is this a general trend across smartphone manufacturers? Also, I cannot see the reason for it, it makes the devices less flexible in how they can be used. Is there a downside to having an Android device support OTG that I may have missed?

"OTG support in Android Smartphones
the correct term is:
USB host support
can be easily detected if supported or not, connecting usb mouse to your smartphone via OTG cable.
If mouse is powered up and red laser is on, so supported.
The other way to detect if USB host mode is supported, is to install and run
USB OTG Checker app
Some claim USB Host Mode can be hidden and to enable it you should edit xml permissions configuration file


How do I find media downloaded to phone from XMBC? I am using XMBC for Android on my HTC One and downloaded a movie to /storage/sdcard0/Download/

Where is that going to show up and how do I get to it? Is it possible to download to maybe a cloud or a computer?

You can use a file manager app to access the files in your SD card. There are many good ones out there. Androzip and Astro file manager are some of the bests.

If you want to copy files into your PC, use a USB cable and connect your phone. If you want you can use an app like WiFi File transfer to transfer files using WiFi.


How do I delete the frequent SMS list on my HTC One S? If I write an SMS and go on contacts I see the list of frequent contacts. How do I delete these frequent contacts?

There are methods to clean this list, but not every may work in your case (maybe no method will work on your phone).

Enter contacts/groups/frequent, then press menu and select "remove from group, (UNTESTED).
Phone/call history/ press menu and delete call history (UNTESTED).


Answer my phone on my Tablet? I have an Android phone (HTC Desire Z), I also have a Android tablet (Acer Iconia Tab A501).  I would like to link up my phone to my tablet so I can answer my phone on my tablet.

Is this possible with Bluetooth?
Is this possible with any apps?
Is this possible with Call-Fowarding to a VOIP?

Not sure if there is anything else to try.

You can use your Google Voice number and receive calls at any computer.  The following snip comes from Google's web site for Google Voice:

  Make and receive calls in Gmail Google Voice lets you manage all your
  phone communications and seamlessly make and receive calls on any of
  your existing phones. But what if you don’t have your phone with you?
  Or what if you’re in a place with poor cell phone reception, or you’re
  travelling internationally and don’t want to incur expensive roaming
  charges? Wouldn’t it be great if you could use your computer to make
  or receive calls?

  Starting today you can use Gmail to receive or place Google Voice
  calls.

  To get started, check the box next to Google Chat in your list of
  forwarding phones and the next time someone calls your Google Voice
  number, Gmail will notify you of an incoming call. You can take the
  call or even listen in as the caller leaves a message, in a single
  step right from your computer

There you go, straight from the Google's mouth.

;-)


Can I receive text messages when mobile data turned off If I have my mobile data function turned off, will I be able to receive text messages?  If so, how can I retrieve them?

SMS messages are not normally sent over mobile data.  You should automatically receive them, exactly like normal.

Even MMS messages typically have their own APN set up so that they can be received without other data services.


Can a mouse emulate swiping? I use Moon+ Reader software to read pdf files on a Sony xperia tablet. Instead of swiping on the screen to scroll the pdf, I would like to use a mouse with scrolling wheel instead to scroll. Is this possible and what do I need?
Using 4.2.2.

This answer shows that you can capture touch input from the raw device (`/dev/input/event2') to a file, and then play it back whenever you like. You could then automate an event to play back the captured touch input each time you want to scroll.


Can't connect to Walmart in-store WiFi with LTE ZTE Maven Z812 The problem started about 10 days ago (10/01/2019) after some changes were made to the Walmart in-store WiFi configuration. Since then I can't connect to the in-store WiFi from my LTE ZTE Maven Z812 smartphone.

The phone seems fine, connects to all other networks. Other phones also connect just fine to the Walmart in-store WiFi network. But when I try to connect to Walmart WiFi with Z812 I get an error WiFi connection failed and no IP address.

Resetting the adapter, forgetting the network, and rebooting the phone did not help.

I noticed that the store recently split 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz access points, there are different ESSIDs for them ("Walmartwifi 2.4" and "Walmartwifi"). The Z812 does not see the 5 GHz AP but sees 2.4 GHz just fine. I tried connecting to 2.4 GHz AP from another smartphone and it works just fine.

Any ideas what might be wrong? Is Walmart blocking certain models/manufacturers from using in-store WiFi?

Additional info: I don't think it is MAC filtering. It feels like something is broken in the IP negotiation process, but I don't understand why this specific phone and this specific network.

This appears to be an interesting but known issue with 2.4Ghz only capable phones. Here is an article that explains the issue and why it is happening. If that doesn't work or you don't trust the url, just do a quick search on Android Central Forums for "why does my phone disable wi-fi connections" and it should be the top result there.

https://forums.androidcentral.com/ask-question/865480-why-does-my-phone-disable-wi-fi-connections.html

I recommend going to your Wi-Fi settings, possibly advanced settings, and disable smart network switching. It might be "Switch to mobile data" or something else like that. Once you have that disabled forget the SSID and then try to connect again and see if it works for you. Hope that helps!


How to stop Play Store from auto-updating itself? How can I stop Google play from automatically updating to the latest version? I tried deleting my hosts file but it's not being deleted. My phone is rooted.

In order to disable Google Play Store:

You must have version 4.8.2 installed (just replace it in /system/app with the new com.android.vending.apk).
Download a root service from the store called Disable service (again make sure root is installed and the app is given root permission).
Now, in the disable service app, navigate to the system app tab and find Google Play Store. Tap on it and you will get a list of services.
Scroll to the bottom and uncheck Check Wi-Fi and Update service.
You will see a Please wait notification, and at the bottom BusyBox should appear, notifying you that the app was given root access.
Exit the app and voila! Google Play Store will never update itself or Google Play Services ever again (unless you install a new version, in which case you would need to repeat the process).


Device Can't Power Down I have an Android device which had a custom os..It was for educational purposes and I could not even open another app on it. After the end of the subscription period I thought of using the device. I tried opening it's recovery mode but instead opened some factory or diagnostic mode which was in Chinese. By mistake I pressed the power key to select an option ending with "emmc" and now It boots but shows a black screen with navigation buttons and time...Any keys pressed make no effect and I am unable to shut it down. When I press the power key for a few seconds it reboots but shows the same screen. I just want to shut it down somehow. Please Help!!

Edit: I found a way to shut my phone down. I connect it to my pc and then press the power button for 10 seconds then the screen goes off and the charging percentage shows up after a couple of seconds, I pull the usb cable out and the screen disappears and voila ! My phone is switched off.

Thanks for all your response.


Low media sound volume on huawei nova 3e The volume is to the max but is a bit quiet. Is there a way to increase it without installing apps? Android 8.0.0

Try testing your phone speakers first and play some high dB audio... You can also try testing by using speaker phone during a call.

There are several cases that it is a damaged speaker or loosed contact on speaker.


About WhatsApp voice record Someone sent me a voice record in my WhatsApp, and the problem is I can play it only in my WhatsApp. When I log out from WhatsApp and try to play it from my phone memory it's not playing. And I try to copy it into my external memory but it's not copied. If there is any solution for this, tell me please.

The audio recorded in WhatsApp will be in the format of .opus. It cannot be played by apps. Just change the format to .mp3 by renaming the file in explorer. Now it can be played.


Rooting & Flashing Huawei Ascend Y330 I have Huawei Ascend Y330 with Android 4.2.2. I was wondering what is the best approach to root my device and what is the best way to flash custom ROM with higher Android version (4.4 or even 5.0 if possible)?

I saw a lot of links on the internet, but all of them are not about Huawei Ascend Y330. I saw even strange guide how to flash my device to Android 5.0, but I don't think it's possible.

Based on this thread you can root the device using KingoRoot (see here).

As for custom ROMs, it seems the device is not popular enough amongst hobby developers to have attracted someone with the time and skills to create a custom ROM. It seems you might have to wait for custom ROMs, or ask somebody over at Modaco or XDA if they could perhaps try creating such a ROM.

Custom ROMs are almost always hobby projects, so if your device is not sold very much or nobody with the required skills for building a ROM has bought one, you are out of luck.

This post contains a link to a few articles about running a modded ROM on your device (source). This is the stock ROM with some added features/functionality. Please keep in mind that this might void your warranty.

Here are the contents of the pastebin mentioned above: (by C.G.B. Spender at XDA-developers)

  Stock UK ROM (takes forever to download, but handy if you brick the phone)
  To unlock bootloader
  To install CWM Recovery (it can't mount external SD because it looks for it in wrong place, but flashing etc works):
  Rooted Stock ROM
  Rooted stock material themed

Note: You should always make a full backup before switching/modifying ROMs, just to be sure! Some devices require a factory reset when rooting or upgrading to a different ROM.


Google Maps show location history where I've never even been I have a Samsung Galaxy Core Prime and it has Google Maps downloaded on it as well as other Google apps. My husband went through my phone and in the Google Maps app, under timeline, apparently it showed that I had actually went to several places on days when I had never left the house, but the worse part is that it's saying I've been to places I've never even been.

This whole situation is frustrating because I love my husband very much but now he is completely convinced that I'm cheating on him, and I'm not; there has to be someone out there that can explain this total mess cause my husband doesn't believe a word I say.

Please help me figure this mess out and convince my husband that I'm not lying and in definitely not cheating!

There are many possible reasons that places could show up inaccurately in the Google Maps tracking.

If your device is indoors, it will not have a good GPS signal (or possibly have no GPS signal at all) and will have to use less accurate location methods. Each of those methods has problems, some of which are discussed below.
If your device is trying to locate itself using WiFi networks (now called "WiFi Positioning System" or "WiPS" for short), it looks for nearby WiFi networks that Google knows about and then uses the locations that Google has on record for those networks as a way to determine your approximate location.  However, that means that if someone from a particular area moved into your area and Google has not updated their database, then Google's database will think that you are in the area where that person's WiFi network used to be.
If your device is trying to locate itself by searching for nearby cellphone towers, it could determine that it is anywhere in a large area in which those towers can be detected. The effective range of a cell phone tower could be anything between 1 and 45 miles, depending on how dense your area is.  That means that the numbers could be up to that far off if they only came from cell tower data.
Even if you do have a good GPS signal, Google will sometimes "snap" your location to a nearby "point of interest" if you drive by.  I don't know exactly how far away this snapping can happen, but I have seen it make some pretty bad guesses.

Here's one extreme example that I just read about: People keep going to this home looking for their lost phones and nobody knows why.

In the end, the fact is that the location-tracking systems available on consumer devices today are not that accurate.  I worked from home today because of the "Snowzilla" blizzard on the US East Coast, and left home twice to go to the library and run one errand, but my location history shows me being up to a mile further away from home than any of the locations which I visited. (I am actually working next door to a research group at the University of Maryland that is working on more-accurate location technologies, but it will be a while before any of them are on the market.)


How can I force Dropbox to upload even if the charge is low? The battery percentage on my tablet has reached 30%, which is still reporting as about 11 hours left before it goes flat. However, my Dropbox app has stopped uploading files reporting:

  Camera Upload (x left): Low battery, charge to resume

I'm not anywhere near anything I can use to start it but I want it to continue uploading screenshots I take in the mean time.

How can I force Dropbox to upload even if the charge is low?

Currently the official Dropbox app doesn't support automatic camera upload if you have charge less than 30%. You can do it manually though or through a browser.

Only 3rd party apps like DropSync can upload when it is at low charge.


How to connect to Internet from Windows 7 laptop tethered over blue tooth to Samsung S4 Android Samsung S4: Tethering and Mobile Hotspots > Bluetooth (enabled)
Windows 7 laptop: Bluetooth enabled, paired with Samsung S4.

Windows Bluetooth Device Control window opens.
By default, the Samsung S4 has (Disconnected) below it, even though they were just paired & my laptop has no Internet connection.

My S4 has a working Internet connection.

If I try to click Connect, under Windows Bluetooth Device Control > Personal Network and Communication, a green tick appears over the Bluetooh icon located between the diagram of the laptop and the S4 at the top of the Bluetooth Device Control window. However, it reverts back to the default bluetooth icon, and the the S4 continues to display (Disconnected) below it.

I have download the Samsung Android USB Drivers for Windows, and the S4 displays as a device with no driver problems in Windows Device Manager.

How do I have my Windows 7 laptop use my Samsung S4's mobile Internet connection while tethered over bluetooth?

The steps which I follow:

1.Goto Settings then tap on more settings under wireless & network.

(Click the images to enlarge)

2.Tap on Tethering & portable hotspot under Network

3.Next tap on Bluetooth tethering to enable Bluetooth tethering

Now Pair your Device to your Computer, to do this...

1.Hit the Bluetooth Icon in the system tray

2.Click “Add a Device”

3.Wait for it to search for your Bluetooth Internet Access Point, then click to select it and press “Next”

4.Click “Yes” then click “Next”

5.Wait till your Computer to install the drivers.

(Click image to enlarge)

6.Now the Bluetooth access point has been setup.

7.Click the system tray, then right click on the Bluetooth icon and then hit Join a Personal Area Network

Else,

Goto Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Devices and Printers
Right Click your device and connect using Access Point

  Note : Again your device have not connected means try these

Setting up the modem

On the PC, Click Control Panel

Right-click on the Bluetooth icon in System tray, click Add

An Add Bluetooth Device Wizard will appear

Select My device is set up and ready to be found

Click Next

Select the handset from the list and click Next

Select Let me choose my own passkey

Type 4 to 16 digit passkey (example: 1234) in the available field

Click Pair Now

On the handset, enter the same Passcode (Passkey) entered on the PC Press OK

An Accept connection request prompt will appear, press Yes

Ensure that Dial-up networking (DUN) is checked

Click Next

On the PC, click Finish

Then Click Control Panel

Double-click Phone and Modem Options

Click Modems tab

Select Bluetooth Modem

Click Properties button

On the General tab, click Change settings button

If a User Account Control prompt appears, click Continue

Click Advanced tab

In the Extra initialization commands field, type at+cgdcont=1,"IP","internet"

Click OK and OK again.

Setting up the connection

On the PC, return to the Control Panel

Double-click Network and Sharing Center icon

Click Set up a connection or network

Select Setup a dial up Connection

Click Next

If prompted, Select No, Create a new connection

Click Next

Click Dial-up

If prompted, click Bluetooth Modem

In the Dial-up phone number, field, type *99***1# or *99#

Leave the User name and Password fields blank

In the Connection Name field, type the corresponding APN (Ex: XXXX.com or YYYY.internet)

To Know APN :

On the Mobile, Goto Settings\More settings\Mobile Networks\Access Point Names and then Tap the required network to view it

(Click the image to enlarge)

Select from the available options

Setting up the connection

On the PC, click Connect

On the handset, an Accept connection request prompt will appear, press Yes

If a Set Network Location prompt appears, click Cancel


How can I shut off sync or change its frequency? I think the term is: how do I pull not push? I don't want the phone constantly checking for FB, new email, etc. every 30 seconds. But I cannot work out how to:

Limit this to once every hour or less
Stop it so that I can refresh when I want to know (and it doesn't keep doing it in the background)

Please advise.

As well as the other answers, you can change the frequency that some accounts sync by going to Settings -> Accounts and sync.  For instance, when I click on my Facebook account from there I can change the "Social networking sync interval" to none, 3 hours, 6 hours, 12 hours, or once per day.


Problem upgrading Samsung S5302 from 2.3.6 to 4.0 Device: Samsung S5302

Somebody gave me a link to upgrade my Gingerbread phone - from 2.3.6 to 4.0. I heard that some features won't work in my phone like GPS, dual SIM, and camera.

How do I upgrade this phone?

There no official upgrade of 4.x.x for samsung S5302.
However you can install custom ROMs like Cyanogenmods to upgrade your phone. but you need to ROOT your phone before installing custom ROM.

Check this out Custom Rom For Galaxy Y Duos Lite GT S5302

also this :  CyanogenMOD 9.0 [ICS 4.0.4] for Galaxy Pocket


Stream media from Play Store on Android To PC I was just wondering whether it is possible to stream play store content from android to your PC. I know there are ways to stream movies that are stored on the actual device, but I want to be able to stream movies that I might buy on the Google Play Store to my PC for watching when I'm at home.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

You can play movies straight from Google Play after you've bought them; Music, go to music.google.com and you can stream and download your music. If you want to get the HD versions, you can download on your phone/tablet and then pull it, I think. Never actually tried it with movies, but I've done it with music before.


In Android 10, is there a way to prioritize notifications (i.e. their lockscreen order) WITHIN the alert category? In Android 7 (Nougat), there was a special option that allowed for improved granularity in managing notification order, see e.g. this report. I made extensive use of this feature but, alas, it has been dropped. Now on Android 10, I only find two notification classes, "alert" and "silent/gentle".

I have a lot of calendar reminders and messages that are both required to be alerted to me. However, I need the messages (Slack, Whatsapp, etc.) to be ON TOP of all the other notifications, especially on top of the calendar reminders, so that incoming messages do not get lost among the many reminders of a day.

Previously, in Android 7, this was readily feasible by giving the messenger apps "highest priority" and the calendar app "second highest priority". Both generated palpable alert notifications, but the messenger notifications would always be moved to the top and remain there, even as new calendar reminders come in. Currently, the only way to move the reminders below the other notifications is to classify them as silent, which defies their very purpose.

Is there any way to change the order of notifications on a per-app basis within the alert category on android 10? I looked extensively for an Xposed module or custom rom that could do that. So far, in vain. Help very much appreciated!

The only thing I've found is to scan active alerts for "now" in the time received.  Why, oh why is this obviously vital feature of a "notifications" dashboard neglected????   I'm so sick of hearing the Antroid notifications sound and knowing I will not be able to find what it refers to without having to dig!!!!  Beware, sometimes there is no "now" item, I have no idea why.


How to know 3g DNS setting on Android? I want to know what is the DNS configuration of the 3G connection of my Android. Only to know, not to change (yet).

I managed to install ConnectBot on my device.

I can get DNS information by using getprop | grep dns


Lenovo Tab 2 Partition Layout I own a Lenovo Tab 2 A7-20f.

When I try cat /proc/emmc:

partno:    start_sect   nr_sects  partition_name
emmc_p1: 00000400 00000002 "ebr1"
emmc_p2: 00004800 00005000 "protect_f"
emmc_p3: 00009800 00005000 "protect_s"
emmc_p4: 0001ec00 00003000 "sec_ro"
emmc_p5: 0002e800 00300000 "android"
emmc_p6: 0032e800 0003f000 "cache"
emmc_p7: 0036d800 00b18000 "usrdata"

And when I use cat /proc/partitions:

major minor  #blocks  name

   7        0       9570 loop0
 253        0     524288 zram0
 179        0    7613440 mmcblk0
 179        1          1 mmcblk0p1
 179        2      10240 mmcblk0p2
 179        3      10240 mmcblk0p3
 179        4       6144 mmcblk0p4
 179        5    1572864 mmcblk0p5
 179        6     129024 mmcblk0p6
 179        7    5816320 mmcblk0p7
 179       64       4096 mmcblk0boot1
 179       32       4096 mmcblk0boot0

I don't think this is the typical Android Partition Layout. Any Idea which one is the Recovery and the Boot partition?
Or how to find it out?

Update:
When I lookup /proc/dumchar_info I get

Part_Name  Size    StartAddr   Type    MapTo   Region
preloader    0x0000000000040000   0x0000000000000000   2   /dev/misc-sd     BOOT_1
mbr          0x0000000000080000   0x0000000000000000   2   /dev/block/mmcblk0     USER
ebr1         0x0000000000080000   0x0000000000080000   2   /dev/block/mmcblk0p1   USER
pro_info     0x0000000000300000   0x0000000000100000   2   /dev/block/mmcblk0     USER
nvram        0x0000000000500000   0x0000000000400000   2   /dev/block/mmcblk0     USER
protect_f    0x0000000000a00000   0x0000000000900000   2   /dev/block/mmcblk0p2   USER
protect_s    0x0000000000a00000   0x0000000001300000   2   /dev/block/mmcblk0p3   USER
seccfg       0x0000000000020000   0x0000000001d00000   2   /dev/block/mmcblk0     USER
uboot        0x0000000000060000   0x0000000001d20000   2   /dev/block/mmcblk0     USER
bootimg      0x0000000001000000   0x0000000001d80000   2   /dev/block/mmcblk0     USER
recovery     0x0000000001000000   0x0000000002d80000   2   /dev/block/mmcblk0     USER
sec_ro       0x0000000000600000   0x0000000003d80000   2   /dev/block/mmcblk0p4   USER
misc         0x0000000000080000   0x0000000004380000   2   /dev/block/mmcblk0     USER
logo         0x0000000000300000   0x0000000004400000   2   /dev/block/mmcblk0     USER
expdb        0x0000000000a00000   0x0000000004700000   2   /dev/block/mmcblk0     USER
tee1         0x0000000000500000   0x0000000005100000   2   /dev/block/mmcblk0     USER
tee2         0x0000000000500000   0x0000000005600000   2   /dev/block/mmcblk0     USER
kb           0x0000000000100000   0x0000000005b00000   2   /dev/block/mmcblk0     USER
dkb          0x0000000000100000   0x0000000005c00000   2   /dev/block/mmcblk0     USER
android      0x0000000060000000   0x0000000005d00000   2   /dev/block/mmcblk0p5   USER
cache        0x0000000007e00000   0x0000000065d00000   2   /dev/block/mmcblk0p6   USER
usrdata      0x0000000163000000   0x000000006db00000   2   /dev/block/mmcblk0p7   USER
bmtpool      0x0000000001500000   0x00000000ffff00a8   2   /dev/block/mmcblk0     USER
Part_Name:Partition name you should open;
Size:size of partition
StartAddr:Start Address of partition;
Type:Type of partition(MTD=1,EMMC=2)
MapTo:actual device you operate

Now how can I found out which one is the system partition and why are Boot and Recovery one partition?

Why are Boot and Recovery one partition?

This you can find answered in a Wiki entry at Github. Quoting the relevant part:

  Since MTK devices use the uboot mechanism, partitions including boot and recovery, are not revealed as separate partitions, but rather accessed sequencially by size and start parameters.

You can see that reflected in your output of /proc/dumchar_info: size is the second column, start sector the third. Think of it like "disk images stored on a raw medium" (not an exact description, but easier to visualize).

Which one is the system partition?

My first guess (by the name) was sec_ro (as system is "ro", read only). But that's not exact enough. To find out, you'd need the sector size and the size of your /system partition, then you can do the maths: /proc/emmc gives you the "number of sectors" each partition occupies, in HEX. sec_ro accordingly occupies 0x3000 sectors, that would be 12288 in decimal. At a sector size of 512 bytes1 that would be 6 MB – too small :) A better guess probably is p5 named "android", which sums up to 1.5 GB – that seems to be the correct size. cache is /cache and usrdata will be the /data partition.

1: according to Understanding MTK’s MBR/EBR File Format


Office 365 can't modify files directly on dropbox I try to get my office 365 installation on my Android 10 (Huawei) Smartphone to modify excel files that are stored on dropbox.
But the files are allways read-only. Even if I create a new one on the android smartphone, they are read only after saving.
I can't find something about this via google, thats why I think it is some minorr issue.

According to my research, editing is available for the following file types on Android:
.docx
.xlsx
.pptx
Any other Office files will be read-only.
So please check the Excel file types, if they are not .xlsx, try to modify it.


Typing in Web Browser (Firefox and Chrome) Text Boxes and Text Areas on Android is Awkward There are several sites which have web browser text areas which you can type stuff in. When these sites are visited with Firefox or Chrome, and you want to enter more than 3 lines of text (for instance your text may end up wrapping up and spanning 5, 6, 7, or 8 lines), then it becomes awkward to move to the lines in the middle, since the android placeholders that can be used to select text will scroll up or down too fast to select the middle lines.

I would like to know whether there is a workaround for this (personally I would suggest that the text box / text area on such browsers running on Android devices be resizable by dragging the lower-right-hand-side corner of such text area box. Not sure if this is possible at the moment.

The best solution I've found for this so far is to try and download the corresponding apps for the websites you need to visit and enter this kind of text in, but this is a non-solution given that some websites will not have corresponding Android apps to be used to enter the given information more conveniently.

Anyone know whether Firefox and Chrome plan to support the feature I just mentioned?

You don't need to drag the placeholder, in a text area whose content is larger than the editing area, you can scroll the text by dragging on the editing area itself. This works in both Firefox and Chrome for Android.

Regarding to text area resizing, yes, this is possible. Resizable text area works in both Firefox and Chrome for Android (demo), but they must be enabled by the website with a CSS3 code.

If the website you frequents doesn't enable text area resizing, in Firefox Mobile you can use the Stylish Add-on to force all text area to be resizable with a userstyle CSS like the following:

textarea { resize: both; }

Stylish add-on is fully supported in Firefox Mobile.

AFAICT, Chrome Mobile does not support Chrome extensions.


Can I use the CyanogenMod installer on Samsung Galaxy S3 (EE)? (Note: EE is a british phone service provider.)

I was wondering if I could use the CyanogenMod installer on my Samsung Galaxy S3? It's in the supported devices list.

I can't think of any reason why you couldn't try it, because it should either work and install CyanogenMod or it won't manage to install anything.  It doesn't always work with my SPH-L710 S3 despite my being able to flash with Odin just fine.

Just do not install the wrong firmware on your own.  There are over ten different revisions of the S3, and going against what's showing on http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/SGS3FAQ for which specific model you fall under (most are considered d2lte now, but not all!) will likely end in a bricked phone.  The differences between the international and the primarily US-only versions are somewhat notorious for bricking the careless.


Open DJVU files on Android (set default app) I have an android phone. I have two apps on the phone, both are able to open djvu files (FBReader & EBookDroid). But when I'm trying to open a djvu file in "my file", the android system says that it is unable to find an application toopen the file.
How I could set a default application to open djvu files?

This is usually a problem with bare-bones file managers. Switching to a more feature rich file manager should solve it.

Head to Play Store and try a famous file manager. I can recommend Solid Explorer because I own it and use it, and it gives the option of assigning an app for a file type (subject to mime-type limitations).


How can I see my NFS share in any file manager on Android 6.0.1? I mounted my NFS shares successfully in Termux with busybox. I mounted the network folder to /data/media/0/Music.

I'm also able to see the content of the network share in the terminal with ls -l /data/media/0/Music. But when I click the location in my file manager the location is empty. I tried different file managers as well but all display nothing.

Is is a permission issue? What do I have to change in Android to make it work?

Turns out an option in SuperSU blocked me from seeing the content of my mounts. I needed to disable the "Mount namespace separation" option in SuperSU app. Only then the mounts will be visible to other apps! Disabling namespace separation may cause security flaws, but I don't see any other solution yet. Reboot the device, mount your shares and everything will be as expected.

Found the solution here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/33611664


How can I trace which user account my kids dead phone had? My kid broke his phone. (Well actually, a bully classmate broke it..) It's all black, but probably runs. Not-rooted.

Problem: I've forgot his gmail-account. Can I grab the used account (not password) through adb or fastboot somehow?

Is usb-debugging enabled at all? Then you definitely can. That's one of the things my little tool Adebar does:

adb shell dumpsys account

gives you all the account information (which accounts exist on the device), including the Google one. No root required.


Cyanogen nightlies updates There are daily nightly updates on CyanogenMod, and I have some waiting.

Can I just omit the older ones and update straight to the newest one?

Unless the maintainer of your device states otherwise, this can usually be done with no issues as long as it's the same version (CM13 to CM13, but not CM12.1 to CM13).

CyanogenMod's update system contains a script which "saves" Gapps from being overwritten, and writes a new /system partition, then clears caches, essentially just refreshing the core operating system... Basically the same way as doing it manually. Skipping is not only safe general, it is actually quite common as many people do not take well to the idea of flashing their phone daily. Many users often do it weekly or monthly, or just as they deem necessary.

You can always post in the official forum for your device and reference your current build and what you want to update to, if there is an issue the maintainer or other users will likely let you know.


Get alarm alert when receiving an email from specific sender Is there an app or setting in gmail where I can get alarmed for urgent email based on the sender.

From googling, it seems Gmail had a setting to set a ringtone for specific label, but this feature has been discontinued and no longer available in the newest version.

You are correct Gmail no longer allows to select individual sounds for labels. If messages from a particular sender are way too important to miss, then create a filter for that sender using Gmail via the browser not the app. Select a message from the sender, then on the right, click on the 3-dots and select "Filter similar messages". At the bottom, select "Create filter with this search".  Tick "Apply the label", then select "Choose Label" followed by "New label". Give you label a name and click OK. After creating the label, click on "Create Filter".

Open the Gmail app, go to Settings, select the account you have just created the filter and  label from, if Notifications is not selected, then select it. Click on "Manage Labels", select the label you created for the sender, enable "Label notifications" and "Notify for every message".

Go back and Disable notifications for the other labels.

It is the only way for now to get notifications for that sender only until the ability to select ringtones for labels is restored.


Use android as xbox360 wireless adapter? I have a rooted cynogen mod Lg P500.

I can connect my xbox360 to my laptop for bridging a connection. but have recently moved to ubuntu so the bridging is a mission and a half.

So I was wondering if it was possible to use an android phone as an xbox360 wireless adapter.

By this I mean:

My android is connected to my networks wifi.

I want to connect my xbox360 to the android and connect to xbox live.

Is this possible?

This will almost certainly be impossible.  Your XBox doesn't have USB drivers for your Android phone.


my Nexus 7 device is formatted accidentally My device is Google Nexus 7 wifi only version.
I rooted this device by using Team Win Recovery Project.
I wanted to upgrade to android version 4.3 so I am looked at this article and video

I follow their instructions and I selected following items

Dalvik Cache
System
Cache

and wiped them all.

But unfortunately, I found out that there is no file in my device with such name

AOSP-4.3-JWR66V-grouper-rooted_Androguide.zip

I need to get this file onto my device. But my device has no OS because I already wiped it.  Now I cannot access my device using my pc ( win 7 ).

Could anyone please give me suggestions on how can I solve it.

Don't worry, you have a few options!

Option One: (I don't have an N7 anymore, so I don't remember if it supports adb push in TWRP. But I think it does) Boot into TWRP and use adb to push the file from your computer to your device. You can try to open a Windows CMD prompt or Linux Terminal Emulator, navigate to the local file, then do the following:

adb push AOSP-4.3-JWR66V-grouper-rooted_Androguide.zip /sdcard/

This will push the file to the /sdcard/ directory - which should exist already (Even on a Nexus device).

Option Two: Boot the device to Fastboot/Bootloader Mode and flash any of the Factory System Images via the fastboot tool. Because using fastboot can be intimidating. You could also use the Nexus 7 Toolkit to automate the process.

This will put stock Android back on your device, and will also remove TWRP. Fortunately, you can use the Toolkit or Fastboot to reinstall TWRP immediately afterward.


My Google Voice services keeps getting stuck on “restarting” The "UpdateService" for Google Voice constantly keeps getting stuck on "restarting" and therefore I miss out on receiving SMS messages from Google Voice. I've already been trimming down on some unnecessary services and it doesn't seem like it has helped a whole lot. Any other suggestions or thoughts about this problem?

I'm currently running CM6, but it happened before on stock too.

I haven't seen this particular issue before, but Kevin Purdy's "Holy Trinity" of steps to take with apps that just aren't working properly is:

From Settings | Applications | Manage applications | <application>

Force stop

if that doesn't help

Clear cache

if that doesn't help

Clear data

and if that still doesn't help, try the nuclear option:

uninstall and re-install


Enable/Disable application-specific settings (updates, upload) for a specific WiFi I would like to automate my android phone to do the following:

if connected_to_wifi(ssid=my_mobile_3g_router) then
    (1) disable automatic google play updates
    (2) turn off dropbox camera upload
    (3) enable VPN from no root firewall
else
    enable (1) (2), disable (3)

Can tasker or llama automate do it? I have tried automate but I haven't seen application specific settings. I could buy tasker if it could handle my case.

The reason should be clear: I travel a lot and being abroad I use 3g wifi mobile router to share Internet with my devices. Unfortunately, for my phone any wifi is seen as a resource without data limit which is not always true.

My question is a bit different but related to: Auto sync only when connected to a specific wifi network
In my question, I ask for application-specific settings. The related one is about system sync.

Tasker can indeed do what you are looking for!
Using the Wifi-Connected State profile inverted (profile on when not connected) you can trigger a task that does the following:

1) Disable Google Play updates via Synker

    In newly created task Add an Action ('+' at bottom, center of screen),  select 'Plugin' category, select Synker, select 'Autosync Settings', select Configuration, uncheck the Google /account name/ App Data)
    Source: Is there an App Update Scheduler app? Reply #6

2) Stop auto-upload of photos using Dropsync (replaces Dropbox built-in tool)

3) Use Secure Settings to connect to stored VPN (requires root)

    In newly created task Add an Action (new Action> Plugins> Secure Settings> Root Actions> VPN)
    Source: VPN Verbindung (keine Zusatzapp) per Tasker starten?


Recovery image without root functionality for an Xperia Z1 Compact A friend of mines child has a Sony Xperia Z1 Compact and a lot of what I would call Criminal Energy (he proved that on several occasions).

Because he did a lot of stuff on his phone which he is not supposed to do, we want to prevent him of finding out how to boot into the previously installed TWRP Recovery Mode, where he could root his phone and do other uncool stuff.

From what I found out, I am not able to remove TWRP, but could totally replace it with something else.

So my question is, are there any simple, Backup/Restore only, no root option, no File editing (eg. build.props) Recovery images available for me to flash on that particular smartphone or do i have any other options? (We already installed and configured Family Link, but that of course does not prevent booting in recovery mode)

Re-flash the official recovery and boot images of the device.
Lock the bootloader and disable Developers option.

Official recoveries do not allow to do much i.e rooting, changing/editing build.prop file and other system files. It will buy you time until the child studies enough and figure out that it is possible to change the recovery and root the system.


I have a Moto E with a storage problem! Tt the time before installing i had 322 MB free storage and was about to get Dead Trigger 2 but I didn't have enough space so it stopped and now I have only 77 MB free? Did it keep half the app on my phone still?

If you look in Settings > Storage > Misc, there should be a temporary file called 'temp' or similar for downloading.

Delete this and you should be fine.


Cannot make calls in Microsoft Lync 2010 app Device: Sony X10a
Android: 2.3.3

Can the Microsoft Lync 2010 app on the play store make calls?

I can login to my office365 lync account and send messages, but the phone icon is greyed out.

Is voice not avilable on Android, or am I doing something wrong?

Lync 2010 has support for calls:

  Lync 2010 for Android extends the power of Lync to your mobile device
  – including rich presence, instant messaging, audio conferencing, and
  calling features from a single, easy-to-use interface.

However, you will need to check with your IT Department if it has been enabled for your account.


How do I prompt the user for "Device Administrator" on Tasker? I made a Tasker app via the Tasker App Factory that locks the screen based on various occasions. My app works fine except from the initial run which would require the user to enable it as "Device Administrator". How do I prompt the user to do this instead of having to instruct them to go to Settings > Security > Device Administrators? I'm quite positive it has to be done by using Send intent (a Tasker function) but I'm not sure how to go about doing it.

Just to clarify, I want to show the user the dialog box for "Device Administrator" automatically on first open of the app.

Okay so I tried using Intent Intercept but even that, doesn't seem to intercept the Device Administrator prompt. See my video below on how the Device Administrator prompt appears when I select it to be enabled on Secure Settings (a Tasker plugin).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TprkAYoDVDI

As you can see above, Intent Intercept never prompted me and the Device Administrator dialog still popped up.

I'm no expert on intents but this is the best answer I can offer...

There are intents that can enable the Device Admin status but since Tasker is not yet a device admin I don't think your prompt will allow the user to enable this directly.

The next best thing would be to have Tasker open the Device Administration settings page with a popup that instructs them to enable it.

In tasker, using the "Settings Dialog Action" you can create an action that opens to the Security Settings page but the user would have to manually go to the next step to open the "Device Administror" menu.  You can create a popup message directing what to do with the "Alert/Popup Action".

If you want to go directly to the Device Administror Menu you may be able to do that with the "Misc/Send Intent Action."  To find specific intent for the Device Admin Menu you can try an app called Inent Interceptor.  If you are able to identify the specific intent that opens that menu it's pretty straight forward from there.


Lock screen shortcuts cannot be changed When my mobile had 4.1 version of Android, I could go to Security -> Lock screen -> Shortcuts to change the shortcuts. But, after Android 4.3 update, I am unable to find a way to change the shortcuts on the lock screen. Could you guide me through how I can achieve this?

I tried Settings -> My Device -> Lock Screen, but there is no Shortcuts button there.

See the screenshot below:

(click image for larger version)

What kind of security are you using on your phone? If you are using Swipe to Unlock (no pin) you should be able to see the shortcuts.

If you have some other sort of security, the lockscreen changes for Android 4.3 and TouchWiz integration have made some of these features disappear.

There is a pretty good discussion about it here.


App page sorting after app uninstall My Galaxy S3-alpha runs Android version 4.1.1. Recently I uninstalled some of the apps I didn't use. But when I go into the "Apps" page, with all the apps lined up, the places of the old apps (that were un-installed) is still empty! So there is a lot of empty space between the apps that make navigation between them hard. I have also tried restarting the phone several times, the OS has also been updated once, but the empty space in the apps page remains! I wanted to see if there is a way that once an app is un-installed its place won't be left empty in the apps window.

Or more generally, is there a way I can sort the apps in the apps page so for example they can be sorted by their name or date installed?

Thank you very much in advance,

Chances are you are using a stock launcher (maybe Samsung's TouchWiz) that leaves empty spaces when you uninstall an app.

If you are using Samsung Galaxy S4 (using stock launcher), you can go to the Apps screen, and click on left menu key > View type > Alphabetical grid. If you are not on an S4, see if you can find something similar to this.

If you do not have the Alphabetical grid option, you can install a 3rd party launcher like Nova. Nova can sort your app drawer alphabetically.


Where does WhatsApp store Images/Videos when Media Visibility is disabled? WhatsApp has a Media Visibility feature which if disabled, hides the media files from phone gallery. It is claimed that "apparently" it reduces file storage.

But WhatsApp still has to store media in some location, otherwise how would it show in chats. I am able to access the media while scrolling through a whatsapp chat, even while offline, so the media is definitely getting stored somewhere on my phone. Can I access this location? I have to access many media files that whatsapp must have downloaded somewhere on my phone.

I am using parallel whatsapp on my One Plus 5 android phone. It creates a "999" directory under emulated.

In most devices, I have used WhatsApp creates a folder in internal storage. The folder for media files is /internal storage/WhatsApp/Media. It contains subfolders for images, videos, etc.

/internal storage/WhatsApp/Media/WhatsApp Images
/internal storage/WhatsApp/Media/WhatsApp Video
/internal storage/WhatsApp/Media/WhatsApp Animated Gifs
.
.
.


Acer Iconia Tab A500 - Rooting & Honeycomb 3.2 I just bought a brand new Iconia Tab A500. I just unboxed it and it shall be charging for the next 14 hours :)

While I wait for first booting it, I have a question on rooting with 3.2. The tablet comes with Honey 3.0, but I read that the 3.2 update is ready to be delivered OTA. But I absolutely want to root it!

Can I root the device after the OS upgrade?
Or should I root it first?
Or, does upgrade remove rooting and currently there's no [yet] rooting for HC3.2?

Thank you

As far as I know, the 3.2 update on the A500 has not been rooted (some discussion here). There's one XDA thread where someone has described a method of downgrading so you can root, but nothing that lets you root 3.2 in and of itself.

If you want to have root access then I would suggest rooting the shipped version, then manually upgrading to a pre-rooted version of the latest OTA update.