Network mode switch quick settings tile I have a bootleggers ROM (Android 9 pie) installed on a Motorola Moto E 2015 phone. Can I add a quick settings tile that would switch between 2G only and 2G/3G/4G network modes?

In Lineage and ResurrectionRemix ROMs there is an "LTE" tile, which can achieve this, I think. But Bootleggers rom doesn't have it. I solved this with Shortcutter app, but it opens a list of network modes every time, so I have to click twice instead of once. Ideally, the tile should switch between these two network modes and display the current mode.

For everything you want to automate on your Android phone I highly recommend you to use Automate. Automate is a powerful visual scripting app. Imagine it to be the BluePrints for Android. Or should you know Scratch, it's just like that. Changing default Network Type is a system setting you can easily do using Automate.

Automate offers the "Quick Settings Tile Show" block that sets up an QS Tile and can be interacted with. For use of that block, refer to
https://llamalab.com/automate/doc/block/quick_settings_tile_show.html

This app is an scripting app. This means you still have to create your program according to your wishes, but I suppose that should not be a problem for you.
https://llamalab.com/automate/

Your script will look like this:

At first you need to set your preferred network type. Let's go with LTE here. You pick the "System Settings Set" Block, choose "Network Preferrence" and enter LTE. Note: The actual value your system uses to express "LTE" may vary from device to device. To find out which term YOUR device uses, you can utilize the "System Setting Get" block: In your settings, set LTE as preferred network. Then, within Automate, you use the System Setting Get block and ask for the current preferred network. You assign the block output to a variable (You don't need to manually create one. A variable with the name you enter will be created automatically), for example "Type". Then, you pick the "Toast Show" Block, and enter the name of the variable. Note: Automate uses text as primary input. You can change between these modes by clicking the "fx" icon right next to the input field.

It will change into a Stamp then. Text always has these "" around them, while variables don't. When entering the variable into the Toast Show block, be sure to switch into Variable input mode and enter the name of your variable without these "".

When you have found out how your device calls "LTE" in the settings, go back to our original script. Here you can add it to the System Setting Set block.

So far, our script has two blocks: The Flow Start and System Setting Set block. Now we add the Quick Settings Tile. For that, you pick the Quick Settings Tile Show block and set it up according to your wishes. For example you can call it LTE, choose an appropriate Icon and make it "Active".

Now, add another System Settings Set block, that changes the network preferrence to whatever you want to have instead, for example EDGE or WDCMA. To find out by which name your system calls these network types, you can recycle the "System Settings Get - Toast Show"-Script.

And then, once again, put another Quick Settings Tile Show block with the same input arguments, except for the "Active" button, which should be left inactive this time.


How to retrieve data from perfectly working phone without a touchscreen? I have a Motorola XT615, which fell into water a year ago. Everything works fine, except the touchscreen which is completely unresponsive. I've kept it because inside it has the log of dozens of last.fm scrobbles that I don't want to lose (and I'm a perfectionist when it comes to logging the music I've listened to). I asked the dev of the scrobbling app about how to get this, and he said I'd need to retrieve the "sql lite database".

Phone:

Is Froyo
Is rooted
Probably not in USB debug mode
Has physical volume buttons that I can use (could be remapped somehow?)
Is recognized by the computer, but not in USB mode (can't enable it without a touchscreen)

If there is no solution via software, and before I start trying to track down a digitizer for this really old, abandoned phone, is there any way I can pick up the insides of it, and put it in another phone, in order to get all of this info?

Use a keyboard to put it into USB mode and enable USB debugging. After that, you could clone entire phone from PC if you want to due to root. You could also use ADB if the phone supports ADB without debugging.


How can I use a Bluetooth keyboard with my Android 4.0 phone? My phone recently received an upgrade to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) over the air and want to connect a Bluetooth keyboard to it.

My phone is a Samsung Nexus S 4G (Sprint) and the keyboard is a Logitech Bluetooth Keyboard for Android 3.0+. I had tried to connect the keyboard earlier, while running Android 2.3.x, with little success. What information I could find at the time suggested that Android lacked a Bluetooth keyboard "driver" prior to Honeycomb, so I was enthusiastic about the upgrade to ICS.

Sadly, however, doing what's obvious isn't working for me:

Enable Bluetooth in my phone settings.
Turn on the keyboard.
(Keyboard appears in list of Bluetooth devices on phone.)
Select keyboard from list of devices.
(Prompt with PIN appears on phone.)
Enter PIN on keyboard.
(Keyboard shows on the phone as paired.)

At this point, however, no further settings present themselves. The configuration for the keyboard only allows renaming and unpairing. The keyboard doesn't appear in the Keyboards and Input settings at all. Nor, of course, does simply typing on the keyboard cause input to appear on my phone.

Can this combination of hardware be made to work? How can I proceed?

Do you have any custom keyboards installed? I've found that when I pair the external Bluetooth keyboard (tried two models) the phone errors and reports you must change back to the standard Samsung IME keyboard before the it will type. You can manually change the input method with the hot key inside any writing app, but the message will reappear and convert the keyboard back to Samsung IME.


What is this lock screen with ads and how do I remove it? I think my device got a malware. A lock screen with ads sometimes appear, and I must swipe an area at the bottom of the screen to open the phone. I am in Eastern Europe, some ads are in Slavic languages, and they are seemingly related to travel.

Image resized. Click to view the full image

I have seen ads for Lot Air (Polish carrier). I recently went to their site.

Considering my recent surfing activity and the nature of the ads, I guess the malware is connected to airlines active in Eastern Europe.

The lock screen also promotes the app "DU Quick Charger" by claiming it has recharged the phone extra fast during screen off. (!?) It also shows battery level. I have never installed DU Quick Charger. I doubt DU Quick Charger is installed on the phone.

The problem started after installing Ryanair app. The problem is maybe, but not surely, related to this. Uninstalling Ryanair and restarting the phone doesn't remove the occasional appearance of this lock screen.
After a while the situation has changed for the worse, now this lock screen appears after EVERY screen off.

I have always used Avast. I am not rooted and only install via Google Play.

What is this? And how do I remove it?

This lockscreen replacement is caused by an ad from DU Quick Charge
I am pretty sure that this lockscreen was added to the app "ES App Locker". Many User-Revievs are stating that this app comes with lots of unwanted ads and lockscreen-replacements.
See this review:

This is what they are answering to most people:

So you either have the option to turn this settings off apparently or remove this application.
You can check the user-reviews here: Google Play Story
Disabling DU Quick Charge may not work on devices. In this case insure that you completely remove the application. If the quick charge screen continues to display, check to see if you have any other apps that have this "adware" and remove them.

EDIT:
Based on the information seen in another question I wanted to update this answer. It seems like quite a handful of applications have added this lockscreen replacement in their latest updates. There is one Reddit discussion which mentions a few apps.

ES App Locker and ES File Explorer Pro
Xender
Touchpal
Amber Weather
GO Weather Forecast & Widgets / (infact most Apps related to GO)
Z Camera
Kitty Play
Locx
Peel Remote

As @Andrew T. pointed out - the main cause of this lockscreen replacement is the advertisement of DU Quick Charge - developed by DU APPS STUDIO.
If you are experiencing similar problems then check this helpful answer by @Firelord to check which app might cause this.
I'll try to update this answer from time to time.


Gallery Albums issue In android, the gallery app is showing albums from other locations which were not in gallery before. I have a folder on the internal storage which never showed up in gallery before, but now it does. Did I tell it to do that? no. So my question is: how do I hide this album so its just viewable as a folder from the file manager app. My version is 50.1. I fear that deleting the album will delete the folder.

Hiding your files from the Media Scanner

Include an empty file named .nomedia in your external files directory (note the dot prefix in the filename).

This prevents media scanner from reading your media files and providing them to other apps through the MediaStore content provider. However, if your files are truly private to your app, you should save them in an app-private directory.

Source - Android Developer


Backup locked huawei p9 before hard reset Is it possible to backup a locked Huawei p9 phone before hard reset; even with USB Debugging off?

I think it's not possible to backup all your data via USB with 'USB Debugging off'.

But it may be possible, if you make a backup using TWRP (android app.) with root access in mobile's external card.


Why can I not assign exec permissions to a file on the SD card? shell@android:/sdcard/SW # ls -l
-rw-rw-r-- root     sdcard_rw      128 2012-09-22 11:42 usb0config.sh
shell@android:/sdcard/SW # chmod 777 usb0config.sh
shell@android:/sdcard/SW # ls -l
-rw-rw-r-- root     sdcard_rw      128 2012-09-22 11:42 usb0config.sh
shell@android:/sdcard/SW #

Why can I not assign exec permissions to a file on the SD card?

$ adb shell su -c mount |grep -si sdcard
/dev/block/vold/179:97 /mnt/ext_sdcard vfat rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,uid=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0002,dmask=0002,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0
tmpfs /mnt/ext_sdcard/.android_secure tmpfs ro,relatime,size=0k,mode=000 0 0
/dev/fuse /mnt/sdcard fuse rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other 0 0

$ adb shell su -c "mount -t vfat -o umask=0000 /dev/fuse /mnt/sdcard"
mount: Block device required

Now it seems remount successfully.

$ adb shell su -c "mount -t vfat -o remount,umask=0000 /dev/fuse /mnt/sdcard"

but the file yet cannot be assigned 777 mode.

shell@android:/sdcard/Sw # ls -l
-rw-rw-r-- root     sdcard_rw      128 2012-09-22 11:42 usb0config.sh
shell@android:/sdcard/Sw # chmod 777 usb0config.sh
shell@android:/sdcard/Sw # ls -l
-rw-rw-r-- root     sdcard_rw      128 2012-09-22 11:42 usb0config.sh

The mount info doesn't change comparing to before remount's.

$ adb shell su -c mount |grep -si sdcard
/dev/block/vold/179:97 /mnt/ext_sdcard vfat rw,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,uid=1000,gid=1015,fmask=0002,dmask=0002,allow_utime=0020,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro 0 0
tmpfs /mnt/ext_sdcard/.android_secure tmpfs ro,relatime,size=0k,mode=000 0 0
/dev/fuse /mnt/sdcard fuse rw,relatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other 0 0

Unless you've done something unusual with your device, the SD card will be formatted as a FAT file system, which does not support *nix file permissions. This Linux FAQ entry from one of MIT's professors explains it a bit, and also explains how you can potentially use mount options to change the permission mode of the device (this would require root, though, and affect all files/folders on the device). Also, the SD card in Android is mounted by default with the -noexec flag.

For the exec bit you'd probably want to remount with a umask of 0000, since the umask is essentially a binary NOT of the permissions you want (so umask 0000 says don't mask out any permissions, allow them all). Untested, but doing it temporarily would be something along the lines of:

mount -t vfat -o umask=0000 /dev/your/sdcard/device /mnt/sdcard

The mount point may need to be changed from /mnt/sdcard to something slightly different depending on your device. Again, though, I believe mount requires that you have root permissions for this.


How to update or remove pre-installed Swiftkey from Alcatel One Touch 2 Mini S My girlfriend's new smartphone comes with preinstalled Swiftkey 4.1.
She installed 5.0 (so she can download her dictionary from cloud), but the old version still exists. How can we uninstall, or update it?

The phone has Android 4.3. She doesn't want to root it.

You can only uninstall with root.

If she doesn't want to root it, you can uninstall all the updates, and disable in the options to dont show in the keyboard selector.

More Info: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2614022


Why is my GPS reception poor? I get very poor GPS reception on my Droid X.  When I turn GPS on, the little icon in the overhead bar has a flashing center, which means it hasn't found a satellite.  It takes forever to lock on, if at all.

I've found it's better if I move around -- if I walk a 100 yards or so, it will often lock on, but not always.

This seems to have changes recently.  It was great, then something changed.  I just hard-reset the phone, so it has fresh settings (and I was having the problem previously, so it's nothing I did then reset).

Is something wrong with the phone?

There are a lot of potential variables here, but a hardware failure is certainly one possibility.

After over a year of use, my Nexus One's GPS became terribly slow to lock until I had moved a bit (like you said, maybe 100 yards) or was outside in a relatively clear area. I assumed this was because the GPS chip had, over time, started to develop problems and was likely throwing errors - oftentimes it would have my location totally wrong, and it wouldn't come on/off correctly.

Download a GPS test app, like GPS Status and Toolbox (link here), and see how long it takes to pick up satellites.

Also, are you using a custom ROM? I've found some ROMs "tweak" Android's default GPS settings, and this could potentially cause issues.

Really, there a ton of possibilities here, so it's hard to say. But aging hardware sounds the most likely to me, unless you've recently started using a different custom ROM or kernel, or recently received an update from Motorola.


Lollipop Brightness too much hey.

I am on running on a mediatek device and today did an upgrade to Lollipop 5.1 through flashing

Still exploring.

But one of the things I've noticed is that the brightness level is too much. Even in manual setting, I've set the bar to the lowest level, but still. Adaptive brightness seemingly works but only for a short while. Since, if I move to a Bright room/sphere,it brightens the screen.

Any work around?

Regards.

Try lux on playstore, let me know

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vito.lux&hl=it


Annoying wifi scanning popup wont stop in Huawei Honor 9 lite few days ago I started getting a popup message which read
''by turning on WiFi scanning, apps and services can scan for WiFi networks at any time, even When WiFi is off.''
I proceeded to turn WiFi scanning off but message won't stop appearing every 5-10min.
Restarted my phone and it still kept happening.
Phone is a Huawei Honor 9 lite.
it happens after my Emui 8.0.0.185 update

I tried everything I could think of:

Disabled Wifi Scanning in Location Services/Scan Settings
Disabled location
Made location use only GPS

NO use

Try to turn off Wi-Fi+ as a temporary solution. See this post for more information.


How do i move apps and then information from the phone to the sd card How do I move apps from my phone to the external memory. There is no option in settings to do this.

Try Using this app to move your application to your SD Card (Clean Master). If this does not work for your device then you have to root your device so that you can apps can be moved to SD Card. If your device is rooted then try (Link2SD).


Galaxy S3 GT-I9300 Stuck at Samsung logo with no recovery and no download mode Background:

I was having CWM recovery with custom ROM "CyanogenMod" and recently I flashed "LineageOS" successfully but I noticed that phone internal storage is being occupied by previous ROM files and folders so I tried to delete everything to have a phone in clean condition with only "LineageOS" files. By mistake I format /boot, /system, /data, /cache and /sdcard and after that I reboot to system.

Weird Stage:  (don't know if its soft brick or hard brick)

:( At this stage, my phone stuck at Samsung logo with no access to recovery mode and download mode. I tried

Volume up + home + power  = No recovery mode and
just Samsung logo
Volume down + home + power = No
download mode and stuck at warning screen with a yellow
triangle but pressing volume up is not entering to download mode

:(
 Also, phone is not detected by Odin or ADB in PC with having correct Samsung USB drivers and also tried Kies but phone is not recognized by pc at all.

I tried some solutions like

flashing debrick.img into SD card and try to boot with it but no success
pulled off the battery for many hours and after putting it back have no success to access download mode
Tried with different USB cables and different OS like Windows 8, 7 on different PC

Update:

With the help of @esQmo_

I just found that Volume up button is not working and thats the whole reason why Recovery and Download mode are not accessible. Can I do something directly from SD card to boot into recovery or download etc?

Does your volume up button work? If i'm not wrong, Download mode never fails to boot into.
Let's assume it is not working and in this case, you'll need a way to force boot in download mode.
There are two methods I could find:

Using a USB JIG (and here)
Using a software called Samsung 300K Tool (Video)

After that, flash stock firmware and everything should work now.

Other solution would be replacing the volume buttons flex cable or making jumpers from the volume contact to the motherboard. Schematic below:

And

Source: gsmhosting.com


ADB server version (40) doesn't match this client (41) {Not using Genymotion} Disclaimer: this is not a duplicate to this SO question as the source of the question is different and the answers don't apply.* I hope, it is correctly placed in AE and that the note about not using Genymotion does not confuse the reader. The reason to include it in the title is that it is so dominantly present in other answers, but it does have nothing to do with this question, as I don't use any emulator including Genymotion.

So I'm trying to install LineageOS on my Fairphone FP3+ using Windows 10. But: This also applies to other products with other respective versions - in this case, the device uses Android 10 (with Build number 8901.3.A-0054.20200929). For the installation I need ADB - at first to access the fastboot mode. For that, I first installed the latest Android Studio from here but actually only needed the SDK Platform Tools, which you can find here (not to be mistaken with the Command line tools from the link before). I unlocked the bootloader and  ran the following command which is displayed with it's output:
D:\Setups\XXXXX\Lineage FP3\platform-tools_30.0.5(ADB_1.0.41)>adb devices
adb server version (40) doesn't match this client (41); killing...
* daemon started successfully
List of devices attached

This SO question I mentioned in the disclaimer didn't help, as abd didn't even print any devices - so the setting is quite different.  I also went through these linked questions: link 1, link 2, link 3 and link 4 among others. Genymotion is as said not used here, but referred to in almost any Q/A except here, but also no soulution for me to be found there. I already checked the PC for any software that could have installed another adb version, but neither me nor cmd's where could find any (4, 7, 8; 9, 11 or 10).

adb kill-server
adb start-server

Did also not change a thing as suggested here or here. I restarted all devices and software multiple times and tried getting rid of all adb processes too (6, 13 or 12).
I also reinstalled Android Studio to try it without using the cache as suggested in this SO answer from a possibly related question that unfortunately also has no leads. I can imagine that some questions like that one or this SO one could also be helped here.

Since this adb server version (XX) doesn't match this client (YY); killing... seems to be a very prominent question, let me present the quite straight forward solution - I actually wonder why it wasn't answered anywhere else or at least, I couldn't find it. To find the version of ADB you are using, type adb version to get something like:
Android Debug Bridge version 1.0.41
Version 30.0.5-6877874
Installed as D:\Setups\XXXXX\Lineage FP3\platform-tools_30.0.5(ADB_1.0.41)\adb.exe

The Android version simply doesn't match the adb version. Android 11 for example uses the API 30 and ADB 41. Android 10 (API 29) and that phone needs ADB 40. You can check your Android version to find the corresponding ADB version to get or easily read the error message above to find XX (in this case 40).
I was able to find ADB version 1.0.40 from here and it works like a charm:
D:\Setups\XXXXX\Lineage FP3\platform-tools_28.0.1(ADB_1.0.40)>adb devices
List of devices attached
A2XXXXXXXXX1    unauthorized


How do I unlock my Tablet (using a pattern lock) when there is no "Forgot Password" button? I forgot the password for my account on my brother's tablet, and being that it is not mine I cannot factory reset it, and even after about 100 failed password attempts, there is no "Forgot Password" option.

Back up data etc using the restore function obviously on a SD card!then remove card and perform factory reset and after phone is set up then restore data or restore data on computer isim USB cable!my thoughts


Why does wiping the /cache partition keep fixing my problem? My phone Droid Turbo 2 on Android Marshmallow for some reason my Audio in and out keeps going out.

Wiping the /cache partition seems to fix the problem most of the time.

Any idea why this might be the case? Could this be related to why it takes the phone so long to turnoff and reboot?

Gave up with debugging this. Fixed by rolling back pre-android 6.x


Enabling USB Debugging on locked (FRP) android phone I have a Samsung J5 Prime (SM-G570F/DS) that has been factory reset and now asking for Google account.

I've read this can be bypassed if ADB is enable. So I would like to know a way to do so.

As I have access on Recovery menu and Download Mode, should I flash something that can enable USB Debugging?

Your help will be appreciated.

Solved by flashing an Eng ROM aka Combination file with Odin in download mode. But flashing just a modified SBOOT is necessary.


Android Tethering - Shell To Python Code (SL4A API) I know I can convert how I call an activity from within a shell to python code. So given the correct code can someone help me in that conversion? I know I can use pyjinus so that should be another valid option. I can send keystrokes from shell and pyjinus. I'm root as well.

Shell

am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -n com.android.settings/.TetherSettings

Python

Android.startActivity(String action, String uri[optional], String type[optional]: MIME type/subtype of the URI, JSONObject extras[optional]: a Map of extras to add to the Intent, Boolean wait[optional]: block until the user exits the started activity, String packagename[optional]: name of package. If used, requires classname to be useful, String classname[optional]: name of class. If used, requires packagename to be useful)

Here is a code to start SL4A that should serve as reference:

am start -a com.googlecode.android_scripting.action.LAUNCH_SERVER -n com.googlecode.android_scripting/.activity.ScriptingLayerServiceLauncher --ei com.googlecode.android_scripting.extra.USE_SERVICE_PORT 45001

I've tried with no luck:

Android.startActivity('android.intent.action.MAIN',None,None,None,'False','com.android.settings','com.android.settings/.TetherSettings')

Well I guess I was a little bit impatient... I came with the solution by removing some content on the python code:

So I'm posting what I changed:

Android.startActivity('android.intent.action.MAIN',None,None,None,False,'com.android.settings','com.android.settings.TetherSettings')

I only removed de '/' character. I'll post a working code later on.


How to unbrick a samsung galaxy S5 (Softbricked no hardware keys)? So the phone is a S5 SM-G900P, it is stuck in the Sprint logo when booting and the volume keys are broken (power and home keys work).

Developer mode and adb weren't activated in the phone previously

What I have tried:

adb (doesn't recognize my device)
bought a JIG that gets me to the download mode screen
I have flashed 3 official firmwares using odin (
G900PVPS3CQD1_G900PSPT3CQD1_G900PVPS3CQD1_HOME.tar
.md5
G900PVPS3CQC1_G900PSPT3CQC1_G900PVPS3CQC1_HOME.tar
.md5
G900PVPU3BOK4_G900PSPT3BOK4_G900PVPU3BOK4_HOME.tar .md5).
Tried flashing TWRP recovery via odin so i could do the factory reset without pressing keys, it gave me a pass and i was hoping that it took me to that screen after that but same story getting stuck

All the flashing goes smoothly, but like i said gets stuck in the sprint logo
   on all 3

I've read that going into recovery mode and wiping dalvik cache and cache plus factory reset fixes the stuck in carrier logo screen, but with no volume keys i can't access recovery mode.

So i'd love to hear any input or any ways you guys come across that can help me

Much appreaciated

You didn't mention what caused the brick as it can be a hardware issue, a damaged eMMC chip for example.

However, instead of flashing one file, you should try flashing ''repair'' files which are 4 flashable files you can load individually. These files contain the full set of Samsung firmware files. Inside these packages you will get PDA, AP, Modem, Phone, CP, BL, Bootloader, and CSC file.

Download theme from here and flash using Odin.

Fell free to ask if you encounter any problem.


Services without a process In the Settings > Apps screen, under "Running", a few apps are listed as having as active (i.e. a service is running) despite having zero running processes and taking no memory.

Why are they in this state? Are they waiting for some kind of event?

Yes, these are cached services. They are used to boost up service start time. From Android Developers - Processes and Threads (as of Feb 13, 2015)

  Empty process

  A process that doesn't hold any active application components. The only reason to keep this kind of process alive is for caching purposes, to improve startup time the next time a component needs to run in it. The system often kills these processes in order to balance overall system resources between process caches and the underlying kernel caches.

  Android ranks a process at the highest level it can, based upon the importance of the components currently active in the process. For example, if a process hosts a service and a visible activity, the process is ranked as a visible process, not a service process.

  In addition, a process's ranking might be increased because other processes are dependent on it—a process that is serving another process can never be ranked lower than the process it is serving. For example, if a content provider in process A is serving a client in process B, or if a service in process A is bound to a component in process B, process A is always considered at least as important as process B.

  Because a process running a service is ranked higher than a process with background activities, an activity that initiates a long-running operation might do well to start a service for that operation, rather than simply create a worker thread—particularly if the operation will likely outlast the activity. For example, an activity that's uploading a picture to a web site should start a service to perform the upload so that the upload can continue in the background even if the user leaves the activity. Using a service guarantees that the operation will have at least "service process" priority, regardless of what happens to the activity. This is the same reason that broadcast receivers should employ services rather than simply put time-consuming operations in a thread.


Exclude App from Android 2.1 on Android Market for Performance Reasons? I published a computationally intensive app for Android 2.1+ that has been very well received.

But there have been some negative reviews and comments pertaining to performance. These are from people who want to use the app, but can't because they say it's running way too slowly.

It works smoothly on my Sprint Evo 4G (Android 2.2). Moreover, from the many positive comments, I can see that many people do not have performance issues running this app on their devices.

Let's assume there are no programming issues and the code is maximally efficient. I am considering blocking the app from Android 2.1, and making it accessible only for 2.2 and above.

Have other people encountered this situation? Are there really some 2.1 phones out there that are very slow, say, using the speed of the Evo as a benchmark?

Are there really some 2.1 phones out there that are very slow, say, using the speed of the Evo as a benchmark?

Yes, absolutely.  I can't play Angry Birds on my HTC Hero running 2.1 because of poor performance.  The game plays fine on my wife's newer Evo.

My advice would be to see if you can buy an old used handset to test your apps on yourself.  That way you'll be able to head off any negative reviews by targeting devices where you know your app performs well.


Is my brother's phone unfixable? This is the screen my brother's phone stays at, no matter what action is done, after his phone died and he tried to plug it in. I've seen similar images but most ways to fix it seem to be "flash a new rom" and even then, the images that were posted in that case didn't have those invalid_ver_info notices.

Is my brother's phone dead or can it be fixed, preferably without flashing the rom and possibly doing more harm than good.

The same thing happened to a friend of mine and according to him, the following solution worked:

Use the volume buttons to turn the phone off
Switch it on using the power button
If this screen appears again, reboot into fastboot
reset the phone via a windows computer

fastboot devices
fastboot erase userdata
fastboot erase cache
fastboot reboot

If nothing works, play around with the phone and learn something new!!


Is it a Virus? : " HTMLViewer " For one time in my live, I accidentally set the option "Always" (tick the box) when Android ask me the question "which application must be used  to open this type of file?"
Android suggested some text application and " HTMLViewer".

I found out this was not a good idea at all!

I tried to change the default application but " HTMLViewer" does not appear in the applications list, even if system files are displayed.

" HTMLViewer" is not known on Google as it seems, and I am now suspecting it perhaps is some kind of malware.

I only installed apps from "Play Store"..

Does anyone know something about this, and maybe solution to stop this behaviour?

Here are my device's specs. As you can see... We can not update more ☺

The inoperant changes done with "Better Open with" :

HTML Viewer is not a virus and you shouldn't be alarmed.
Actually it is a core application in most android versions (It's also present on my device running android 4)
HTML viewer (as the name suggests) basically lets you read HTML files stored on your device and it occasionally handles some .txt or related extensions of files present on your device and normally appears alongside other .txt handling applications.
Under normal circumstances you should be able to remove defaults of the HTML Viewer as an individual app:

Go to Settings → Apps → Tap 3 dot menu → Show system.
Select HTML Viewer → Open by default → Clear defaults:

You also can reset default applications by following this procedure:

Go to Settings → Apps → Tap 3 dot menu → Reset app preferences then click Reset Apps to confirm:

Alternatively as beeshyams suggested: using an app like Better Open With provides flexibility to choose the prefered app even if its one.
Update
Lib Caris is right by claiming that "even by clearing defaults/resetting preferences" HTML Viewer still opens .txt despite these interventions, and I agree with him.
Don't know if I can call it a bug, I reproduced this issue again and even if defaults are cleared the changes are not confirmed in android (Android 6).
Nevertheless I have two workarounds to bypass this "bug":
1. Temporarily disabling HTML Viewer

Go to Settings → Apps → Tap 3 dot menu → Show system.
Select HTML Viewer → Disable:

After disabling HTML Viewer, navigate to your device storage and look for any .txt file and open it.
You will notice it will open with any available text viewer (not HTML Viewer)
Next follow the above procedure and re enable HTML Viewer.
Then try opening the .txt file again, this time around the defaults are cleared automatically and you have a chance to choose your preferred text viewer:

2. Choose open as with file manager

Alternatively, directly navigate to any .txt file on your device storage with a suitable file manager e.g ES explorer .
Long press the .txt file and choose "Open As"  → Clear defaults

Final Update
Due to problems in language barrier, it was a challenge to provide a conscise solution, nevertheless I will express my sincere gratitude to Lib Car, in his quest to address the problem and identifying pointer that ultimately solved this issue:

I did not find it since the beginning because it's name is NOT "
HTMLViewer ".  The NAME is " Visionneuse HTML " :


My android phone location history shows locations not visited My Android phone is enabled for home WiFi as well as cell tower connection. My location services have been enabled as well to use Google Maps for tracking Location history. Whenever I go to my balcony of my apartment I find lot of secured WiFi connections available in addition to my connected home WIFI. Others are secured and not connected.

The are lots of blue dots for various locations in location history closer to my home where I have not even visited but shows up in the location history.

Is it possible that wrong locations appear in my location history?

Yes its possible because the location tracking is not always accurate. It's based on your GPS reception, Wifi Hotspots etc. Please take a look at the answers for more information. Make sure you set your location settings to High Accuracy for better location reporting results.


Can I recover the events deleted from my phone local calendar? I have an LG P700.

Yesterday I tried to use LG PC Suite to back it up. PC Suite got stuck at some point of the process and asked me to disconnect the phone and restart it, in spite that the screen of the phone had a warning not to touch it. I rashly followed the PC Suite instructions and restarted the phone. After doing so, I found that no backup had been created and all the events in Google Calendar had disappeared. Everything else in the phone seems to be working fine. I was using the phone local calendar, and I didn't have it synchronized to the cloud.

About an hour before I started the PC Suite backup I set up the Backup & Reset options for my Google account (Settings -> Backup & Reset), so I understand that the phone started to back up itself automatically at that point. I don't know if this might help.

So, is there any way to recover my lost events? I'm really crossing my fingers here 'cause I lost around 400 - 500 events.

Ability to restore deleted entries really varies from each calendar.

Assuming you made your entries to Google Calendar and didn't sync it to the cloud, then no it's not possible to restore it.


Is there an open source or other equilvent to Android Sync Manager? I am looking any suggestions of an an open source package or web software that I can manage both my Android devices (Galaxy 10.1 tab/Galaxy S Smartphone.  My computer OS is Ubuntu.  I want to be able to back up my devices and manage my files on my PC. I have tried Airdroid with limited success.  I current have the ability to view and manage my devices as data store devices.

If you are just talking about files, I'd take a look into FTPSyncX or FolderSync. I can only talk for FTPSyncX, as I am using it myself -- but most of the following should be valid for both apps:

You can setup directory pairs (one on your device matching another on your PC), and have them sync bidirectionally or unidirectionally. You can configure the sync interval: globally, per server, or even per directory-pair. You can even tell it to only sync when you're in your Home WiFi, or only when you request it (via Widgets, from within the app, or even event-based controlled by Tasker.

If this answer didn't catch your intention, feel free to comment, ask, or update your question :)


Micro SD card problems My Samsung 4s doesn't have enough storage to update. So the whole reason for my switch from apple to android was that I can add storage to it. Yet here I am I put the card in and reboot my phone and still no extra space to be found on my phone.... what am I missing?

Adding an SD card doesn't add space to your phone, it provides an additional path for storage.  Your phone has limited internal memory that can't be increased.  After adding the SD card, it should mount on its own.  After that, you should try moving some media or apps to the SD card to clear enough room on your phone to install your update.


how to get the address of video from android gallery How can i get the address of video from gallery.
for example:
open gallery and pick video
then get the video address : /sdcard/myvideo.mp4

Goto: Android gallery > Mark/ check the video you want to get the Address > Options > details.

Now look at the bottom.


WiFi is "saved secured" but won't conenct This only happens with one particular network (my device (Samsung galaxy s4, on 5.01) connects to other networks fine), but I know the issue is on my end because other devices connect. My device connected to this network as recently as yesterday, but now it won't.

It shows "WiFi networks available" but when I press connect, nothing at all happens, it doesn't even flicker,still showing "saved,secured" by the network.

It is really strange that my device connects to other networks, and that other devices connect to this network, but I can't. Help?

If it shows only "Secured", then it will ask password. But it doesn't ask password because it was already " Saved". Just Forget that WiFi network, turn WiFi off and Turn on & Connect. Enter correct password. Else it doesn't connect. Your problem may be in putting wrong password


How to unlock number lock in android 6.0 when i removed the SD card and restarted my smartphone , oddly the pattern lock that i had set was no more and i got a number lock instead.

I tried using googles device locater but it could not locate my device. How do I unlock my phone now

enter in the numbers of in the same order and location as where the dots would have been in the pattern unlock EG

...   123
... = 456
...   789

so if you pattern was a square then you number pin would be 13269874 that would be a square starting at the top left corner. if this dose not work for you then you can always flash stock img with cmd and restore form back up


Apps like Viber, Messenger, WhatsApp, etc. whitelisted from Doze mode on Samsung without asking I noticed that some applications are whitelisted from doze-mode on samsung devices without having ever asked the user. I tested this on a galaxy s8, galaxy A5 2016, 2017 all running android 7.0 or 7.1. These apps are for instance Viber, WhatsApp, Messenger - they're what I have seen.

When I first noticed this on a samsung I was not 100% sure that I have not by chance given them that permission myself... So I have done a fresh test by hard resetting a Samsung A5 2016 and installing only Viber onto the fresh phone. After the install, I have not even logged into Viber (and it had not had a chance to ask me of any permissions at all), I immediately checked the Battery Optimisation whitelist and Viber was there.

So the first question is how - according to Android specs an app must ask the user to explicitly allow whitelisting (Am I wrong here)?
The second question - is this maybe possible on Samsung despite the spec.
The third question - maybe Samsung just knows some well known apps and whitelists them by default itself?

--EDIT
The initial research on this was hindered by the fact that if you google "samsung doze-mode whitelist" maybe with "not asking the user" it still serves you many links to the official doze mode specs and media articles, but not Samsung related. But then I searched with "samsung smart manager whitelist" and found the following

Question on SO (second answer gives a list of apps which are whitelisted)
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37205106/how-do-i-avoid-that-my-app-enters-optimization-on-samsung-devices

the list of apps in the second answer was of undisclosed source but I can confirm that I checked nearly 10 of them and they are whitelisted by default

2.https://seap.samsung.com/forum-topic/whitelist-app-batteryoptimization-smart-manager-application

Funny thing - the user asks a question and a part of the question is the same as mine - why Viber etc are whitelisted.
The answer is carefully avoiding that part and only answers the other part - that he should ask the users consent or use Knox (also asking the user for permission)

So answers to my own questions

According to the spec the app must ask users consent to be whitelisted - yes.
not possible on Samsung for a simple app, either
Yes, Samsung has a whitelist of well-known apps in its Smartmanager

2 more pieces of info

A. Samsung is reluctant to talk about it(see above SEAP link) or maybe not everybody there is aware of the fact.

B. If you have an issue with Samsung doze-mode, do not google for "Samsung doze-mode", google for smth. like "Samsung smart manager doze-mode" (add "smart manager"), because it will yield more Samsung specific results (And Samsung part of battery optimizations is pretty specific).

May I answer your question in a reverse order:

  maybe Samsung just knows some well known apps and whitelists them by default itself?

Definitely. It's a common practice in China to have a built-in battery optimization whitelist to contain famous Chinese apps like QQ and WeChat (and Weibo and such) for convenience issues. So I suppose it's not restricted to China, but also that Samsung could make the same approach.

  is this maybe possible on Samsung despite the spec?

Yes. Not only Samsung, but also OnePlus, Xiaomi, Huawei, etc. IMHO Samsung is very considerate when designing their ROMs.

  according to Android specs an app must ask the user to explicitly allow whitelisting (Am I wrong here)?

Partially wrong here. An app cannot whitelist itself without user intervention. But it's not required that the ROM does the job instead.


When I connect via USB (Android to PC), it automatically starts charging. How do I transfer files? According to what I've read, a 'File Transfer' window should open.  Mine just says, 'slow charging'.

1. first check your usb cable
a. your cable could be a "charging only" cable (i.e. only has wires to carry power and no data wires)
This cable could be a charging-only cable, which doesn't include the D+ & D- cable streams. If you're unsure on the type of cable, try using a different cable that you're sure works.
b. if you are using usb-3, it could be "bad"
USB-2 minimum cable requirements were easier to manufacture because of the lower data rate requirements. Ever since USB-3 lots of USB-3 cables don't meet "spec" and therefore can not work or damage your phone. Make sure you have a brand that you know is good.
2. After checking the cable, you need to check your phone's settings. make sure it is in "file transfer" mode and NOT "charging only".
From Android 6.0 onwards File transfer is disabled by default when a cable is connected to the device, mainly due to malicious USB hubs which pretend to be normal charging ports, but instead copy data from your device whilst charging.
To enable File Transfer Mode

Turn on your device and connect it to your computer (using a cable which supports data transfer)
Unlock your device and open the notification labelled USB charging this device - you may need to swipe down from the notification bar
Select Transfer Files from the menu that appears.
You should be able to access your device on your computer.
]3

3. try a different USB port on the PC
I tried a bunch of cables on one USB port but nothing was working. So I tried a differnt USB port and it all worked again!
4. lastly. Try... restarting the phone... restarting the computer.
Some might say this is the first thing to try.


Google don't track my location anymore I was using location history all the time, on one quick walk when I took photos with my DSLR I've notice that my location was way off from my walk so I've set in settings for my location to use only GPS (no WiFi and no GSM data) and now when I check my location for that day there was no tracking. I've set it back to all data, but still no location for second day.

In mean time I've installed GPS Logger application.

How can I make my tracking working again?

change the settings to HIGH ACCURACY and turn on 'google location history' and restart(reboot) the phone.


Is it possible to change the answer swipe direction on Android 4.3, Motorola Moto G, or Samsung Galaxy S4? I have a problem. My personal phone is a Samsung Galaxy S4 Android 4.2.2. I just got a new company phone which is a Motorola Moto G Android 4.3.

The problem is that if I swipe left when answering a call on Samsung it answers the phone. If I swipe left on the Motorola it ignores the call. Needless to say, I keep ignoring people on my business phone.

I need to figure out a way to change the direction of the answer swipe on one of them, preferably the Moto G since I'm already used to the Samsung way but I will settle for changing it on the Samsung if need be.

I know that Android 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3 don't allow that by default (i.e, there is no setting for it.) You could, however, get another dialer or locker app. GO Locker is both a great locker and dialer, but it can get annoying, as it sometimes needs you to answer the Android OS dialer screen as well.


How to have my phone guide me through a specific route Every weekend I go out and ride my bike through the exact same boring old route.
Now I've decided I want to start exploring new parts of the city, but I need my
phone to help me that.

Today, using google maps, I decided on a new route I want to follow next weekend
(and I'll probably have a new one each week). The problem is that I've never
been to these streets, so I need my phone to guide me through it.

Specifically, I need something very similar to android's GPS navigation. I'll
define where I want to go, place the phone in my pockets (with earphones), and
just listen to the turn-by-turn "driving" instructions and follow them.

The reason I don't just use android navigation is that the route isn't a simple
Go from A to B, it's more like Go from A to B, then to C, ..., then back to A.
That means I would have to re-type these destinations one by one in the phone, which is far from ideal.

Ideally, I need a system that allows me to do something like:

plan a complex route on the computer,
send it to my phone,
have it guide me with turn-by-turn voice instructions.

Is there an app for that? Or is there a way to do that with standard GPS navigation?

The solution I use for similar situation is Trekbuddy.  I am sure you will discard the idea of using this app if you didn't understand it well. Hence, read through its description in its Play site and their forums. It requires little homework before any such serious use. But once you know your way (pun intended  ) through the application, it will be a breeze.

With this app, you can plan your route on computer export it as GPX and together with few MP3 files you can create a turn-by-turn pre-planned navigation.  Be aware that if you miss your turn this will not reroute you back. You have to see the map that and continue either on the new route or try to join the pre planned route.

To know about its other uses, take a look at my answer for the question "How to import GPS coordinates track for using offline"

You may also try OSMAND. You can create a pre planned route and export as GPX file. OSMAnd can be configured to use this pre defined route. I could not get my head through the options and configurations to make this work. But from reading its help, I understand that this can do the above and even reroute in case if you miss your turn.

Personally, I like Trekbuddy for its simplicity and its many features as I described in my answer to the other question.

If you happen to succeed with OSMAnd, please share your procedure with us.

Update:
After reading through the forum pages of Trekbuddy,  I finally figured out how to use a pre planned turn by turn navigation feature and I tried today to ensure it is working.

The steps involved are (from scratch):

Install Trekbuddy either from PlayStore or from their download link.
Run the app with GPS switched on. Press Menu and press Start and wait for GPS fix. If GPS fix is a success you will see the cross hair at your location in the World map.
To display a map, you have to download raster map tiles from the service provider.  These tiles are to be placed in a particular format and an application called Mobac comes for rescue. This app creates such map tiles, indexes and even compress. Various map sources like OpenStreetMap, OpenCycleMap, Google Maps*, Google Terrain*, Google Earth Satellite*, Yahoo Maps etc can be used. Explaining how to create a map will be bit out of scope here, and I will leave it to a rare tutorial available here in German.
Assuming you had successfully created a TARred atlas (collection of map tiles as said above), you have to place the .TAR file and its subfolder inside \mnt\sdcard\Trekbuddy\maps folder. To load the map, press Menu button and touch Maps option and select the *.Tar file. Depending on how you had layered the atlas, layers might appear in the next screen and if so, select a layer. Trekbuddy might prompt you to mark this as default atlas. If acceptable click Yes and you will save all this step doing again.
One map is loaded, you can ensure it by tapping any where in the screen, which will show the cross hair on your location in the map as identified by the GPS.
In your computer plan a route and mark turning points as waypoints. As an example, in this following image
 six waypoints are marked as WPT1..WPT6.
In computer, using a text editor, create a GPX file with following template.

Place the GPX file created as above in \mnt\sdcard\Trekbuddy\wpts folder.
Place sound files in AMR format (MP3 not tested) in \mnt\sdcard\Trekbuddy\sounds folder. The file name of these files should be as mentioned in the GPX file.
And finally, in Trekbuddy app, press Menu, Navigation, Waypoints and choose the above GPX file. Then choose the final waypoint, in this case WPT6 and press menu again and choose NavigateTo.

When you start moving approach WPT1, the sound assigned to WPT1 will be played. The setting Settings->Navigation->Wpt Proximity determines the proximity radius. The value is in meters and when the current GPS position is within this imaginary circle, the sound will be played.

  I believe it has been discontinued since Mobac version 1.9 onward due to legal pressure. Old versions are not officially available but are still at large.


Alert Dialog List View Shows White Text on White? I updated my Motorola RAZR to ICS lately, and was using the Go Launcher Ex launcher, and when I tried to select a widget, it popped up a "Choose Widget" dialog that showed the icons, but the text was white on white background.  I can see them if I select them, but not otherwise.

At first I thought this was a problem with Go Launcher Ex, so I installed the Apex launcher instead, and it's choose widget dialog shows the same white on white text again (see below).

I've tried changing Go Launcher Ex and Apex themes, but still have the issue so I began wondering if it was an issue with the underlying color palettes.  I've seen a few posts about this being an issue with the "Light Theme", and they suggest choosing a different theme when you create the alert dialog.  However, I'm just a user, not a developer, so I'm wondering the following:

1) Is this just a bug in Go Launcher Ex and Apex Launchers respectively, and I should complain to both of them?

or

2) Is there something goofed up with the color palette of my phone's light theme and I can tweak it?

Thanks in advance...

Screenshot (click image to enlarge)

Aparently this is an issue with several of the launchers in many of the ICS builds.  Will just have to wait for it to be addressed by Verizon, I suppose...

Droid Forums: ICS and Go Launcher Problems


Disable Missed Call Notifications Is there a way to disable missed call notifications? I haven't found it in any settings on the device, but I'm wondering if anyone knows a trick to disable them. Possibly an app that someone knows of?

Background: I use Google Voice, which also tells me about missed calls. When I miss a call that the phone itself gets, I get a duplicate notification that sticks around until I go into the call log. I don't want to lose the Google Voice notifications, because they also tell me if I missed calls outside of signal range or when the phone is off.

EDIT: I don't think there is a real solution to this, so I have submitted an Android feature request. If you are interested in this feature, please go star the issue or post your thoughts.

Tasker is a pretty awesome app that basically lets you write little apps/functionality, yourself.

A simple solution, using Tasker, is as follows:

Create a new tasked called 'MissedCall'
For the '1st context' choose State>Missed Call. Click OK
Click Done
Task selection, choose New Task
Name it 'GetRidOfMissedCalls'. OK
Click Add, choose Phone > Call Log. Click Done
Click the + button to add another task
Choose App > Go Home. Click Done
Click Done, again
Your task is now setup and you should be in the Tasker profile list, click Apply.

Basically what happens is that when you have a missed call Tasker will open up the Call Log list, which will get rid of the notification, Tasker will then return you to your home screen.
I assume that most of you missed calls occur when the phone is in your pocket etc. so hopefully the behaviour of returning to the home screen is ok.

There will be a system flag for missed calls, and if I could find out what it is then we could just get Tasker to switch the flag to false (or missed call count =0), which would be a more elegant solution to the problem.


Updated Galaxy s3 and SD isn't recognized I recently updated the software on my phone and it works great!! It's lollipop 5.1.1 , the problem is that the phone doesn't recognize the sd card anymore and my computer doesn't recognize as a removable drive anymore. I just want to know with that being the problem is there a way to downgrade back the the old software? and how if I cant use the sd card?

There could be simple fixes that will allow you to keep your upgrade. With each new "flavor" of Android new APIs are released with relation to enhancements to the OS. Have you tried a brand new SD card? or backup and format for the current one?  Also a reinstall of the USB drivers may help. I hope you backed up your previous stock ROM because if not you will need to find one online(if possible). It will help if your device is rooted.  Good Luck!


Can I share Google Keep notes between people? Is there a way to share the notes of Google Keep between different persons? For example, could I link the notes to the todos of Thunderbird Lightning, or can I share the notes between two different Google Accounts?

Currently there is no way to share notes on Keep in the same way that you can share a document.

However, if your goal is to share notes between a fixed amount of persons (e.g. family members,) you can always create a new Google account, add it to all Android phones that you need to share on, and enable sync of Keep only on that account.


How to format TEAC TC-7120 Tablet I have  - TEAC TC-7120 tablet and I want to entirely format it using just with the "volume +/-" and "power" on buttons .

I haven't any approach to its OS since it locked and I don't have any idea about its password or Google account for recovery .

Is there any solution for that ?  I looking for solution like this approach  - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtKDpawgeLs (just button using) .

Askmefast.com provides a hardware reset solution for that tablet:

Power off
Press and hold Power and Volume Up together
When it turns on (nothing may appear on screen or only the logo) release Volume Up (keep holding Power)
Keep holding Power and press and hold Volume Down

This should launch the reset mode and after a restart it should erase all apps and settings.

Read more: How can i do hard reset for teac tablet tc-7120? - Tablet teac classic 103 factory reset :: Ask Me Fast at http://www.askmefast.com/How_can_i_do_hard_reset_for_teac_tablet_tc7120-qna4269703.html#q4563363


Does Android's implementation of SELinux's MAC inhibit apps with root privileges from accessing other app's data? Starting with Android 4.4, SELinux's MAC is enforced. Does this mean that if an app somehow can get installed and exploit the kernel to get root privileges, that MAC will still prevent that app with root privileges from accessing private app data?

Android Documentation says,

  SELinux can be used to label these devices so the process assigned the root privilege can write to only those specified in the associated policy. In this way, the process cannot overwrite data and system settings outside of the specific raw block device.

As a reference, I am implementing a Mobile Device Management system and in the process I have to determine how secure Android OS is itself. That is why I need to know how secure corporate data stored on a device is to rootkits, spyware, and other malware.

P.S. This was posted on the 'Unix & Linux' site but no one has been able to answer it, and I was suggested by one of their users to ask this community, any help is much appreciated. Thank you.

For future visitors' reference, it depends on the SELinux context of the root process. In DAC UID 0 is the super user which can access any resource on the device allowed by kernel. MAC (SELinux in our case) is denied by-default i.e. no process can access anything unless a policy rule is defined to allow the access.

So there is no super context in SELinux but it's possible to define one. That's what rooting apps do since Lollipop. Magisk, for instance, defines u:r:magisk:s0 with unrestricted access to any other context. Any process running with UID 0 and u:r:magisk:s0 would be able to access everything on device including other apps' data.

It depends on the exploit with what context it's able to run a process. With SELinux enforced, it's very hard to inject something to policy.

For details see:

What sepolicy context will allow any other context to access it?
How Magisk works?


what is latest android version for samsung s7562? i want to know which is the latest android version for samsung galaxy s duos s7562. in my phone android 4.0.3 is installed but it is very slow.though not much applications installed still it takes 8-10 seconds to respond to touch commands

4.0.4 is currently the latest version, and updating your device does not make it any faster.
Try formatting your device as S Duos is prone to lag after some use.


How to use Android Auto in Poland? Has anyone managed to successfully use Android Auto with any car based in Poland?

My Motorola Moto Z2 Play fails completely when I am trying to connect it to my Toyota Aygo 2018+ (tried many good quality USB cables): Android Auto shutdowns itself automatically after about 0.5 second and car's display shows "Unrecognized device".

After reading some stuff in the Internet and contacting Motorola and Toyota support it turned out the entire thing doesn't work, because I don't have Android Auto application installed on my phone and I don't have it installed, because it is not available in Poland.

Yet, I've heard and read some stories about people here, in Poland, able to use Android Auto without any problems. Does anyone have any idea, how this was accomplished?

The only idea that comes to my mind is that these people somehow managed to force-install Android Auto on their phones, somehow omitting Google Play store limitations (i.e. unavailability of this application in Poland).

You can download the apk from apkmirror.com and then manually install it.


Turn on USB debugging using command-line I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 and a PC running Debian 8. How can I turn on USB debugging using command-line on my PC without touching the phone?

If the question is simply "using the command-line"

Let it be simple (root possibly[1] required):

settings put global development_settings_enabled 1
settings put global adb_enabled 1

And then you need to

echo "mtp,adb" > /data/property/persist.sys.usb.config

If you want to do this without touching your phone

Then I'm feeling interesting because in most cases you won't gain access to command line via PC before enabling ADB, so it's impossible to enable this prior to touching your phone.

It is in any case possible but made extremely difficult. Please also bear in mind that if your bootloader hasn't been unlocked yet, unlocking it will wipe all data on your phone, making this alternate way mostly useless except for rescuing a brick.

1. Actually you only need either 'system' or 'shell' privilege, but 'system' is impossible to access without rooting and 'shell' is granted only if you're already logging in via adb, where it makes no sense to enable adb while it's already active.


Google Image Search using Android I have an image on my smartphone and I want to paste it into Google Image Search to see if I can get similar images.

I can do this by pasting the image using desktop but not using Android ...

Is there such a possibility?

Instructions performed on Firefox for Android on stock Android 6.0.1.

Switch to Desktop mode in your preferred browser (it changes the user-agent).
Open https://images.google.com and tap the camera icon next to the search bar on the page.
Tap Upload an image
From the bottom sheet pick Documents. (This option might not be available in some Android versions.)

(Click image to enlarge)

In the left pane, select Images or Internal Storage and select your image file. That's it.


How can I clone a microSD card from a 32GB card to a 128GB card so that all saved/cached data is recognized on a Motorola/Lenovo Moto G5 Plus? I've tried using file explorer with hidden and system files viewable to copy across all files from the 32GB to 128GB microSD card but when I try to view offline videos in YouTube for example it's greyed out and I have to re-download.

This works on Linux and Android. On Android you need one of the following:
a) Two micro-SD card slots
b) One micro-SD card slot and one USB cardreader with a USB-OTG adapter
c) A USB hub with two USB cardreaders on a USB-OTG adapter

On Android Termux from the Play Store can be used for this, on Linux open a terminal.

Use lsblk to find out the drive names for your two SD cards.
Here I will assume sdd is your old SD card and sde the new one.
Clone the old card onto the new one 1:1: dd if=/dev/sdd of=/dev/sde bs=1M
Resize the partition with fdisk - Execute fdisk, then hit d to delete the partition (this won't actually delete any data!) and return to confirm. Then hit n to create a new partition. Select p for primary and then hit return three times to create the partition. Then hit w and return to write the changes.
Resize the new partition: resize2fs /dev/sde1

That's it. Please note that if you want to do this on your android device, you need root.


How to completely clear my device of a particular company's apps? Owing to a recent Motley Fool report of Google's actions pertaining to Cheetah Mobile apps, it occured to me that I would like to either uninstall or disable (in case uninstall fails), the apps related to this company, and other companies, if need be. Now exposed as employing questionable techniques on even one app, it is unlikely I would ever trust any installed app from that company.

What easy technique to recognize a company's apps are on my device and uninstall them, even if their app names, or their developer names, or their company names are obscure?

The easiest way is through the web for Google Play. Using the seach bar, bring up the name of one of the suspected apps like Clean Master or any of the apps listed in the article like Kika. Using this page, click the hyperlink for the COMPANY, below the appname. This will bring up all apps for that company, and the card for each app that you have installed will have a green check mark in the bottom right of the card. Selecting in this fashion allows the user some confidence that all his apps from that specific company can be identified. Unfortunately, while the specific app card yields a pseudo-button "Installed", it does not allow uninstall or disable via the web interface. Using the list however, the user would search out, uninstall (or disable) the now-exposed apps directly from the device.

Settings > Apps > <selected app> > Uninstall or Disable


how can i use an android tablet that I am locked out of I was given a cheap, basic, tablet a few months ago, third hand, via my sister who couldn't get on with it.  I tried it a bit then put it to one side to look at another time. When i came back to it (several months later) it asked for a password. I don't remember there being one, and nor does my sister so I'm stuck.  I know there normally ways to do factory resets in a state like this I've tried all of them, nothing works.  The tablet has no markings so I can't even look up that way.  I hate the idea of throwing it away, I'd like to use it as a monitor, or install a linux distro on it, but I've no idea how without the password. if anyone has any suggestion I'd be grateful

You should be able to access the recovery menu or similar and perform a factory reset by pressing and holding some button combination as the tablet first starts.  On most Nexus devices, for example, it's done by holding both volume buttons and the power button.


Weird display on screen before swipe lock Samsung Galaxy s6 edge plus Pressed the onscreen button on my s6 edge this afternoon and a strange new display swipe screen is showing up - picture included. I have no idea where this came from and I have to swipe it just to get to my pin lock. I've checked my apps, my settings, my locked screen, I've disabled some of the apps I thought it could've been but to no avail. Does this look familiar to anyone, and if so how do I get rid of it? It's eating up my battery life.

Looking around, this reddit comment pointed me in the right direction.
Using ES Task Manager I found all apps with a name containing "photo", and all were recently updated.

Photo Collage Editor was the culprit.

So if you don't like random ads forced on you, don't install this app:

I'm sure there's plenty of other apps that do collages, and are made by slightly more polite people.. I'm sure I'll find out when I need to make a collage again, but I'm not using this app ever again.

EDIT
This app, by the same developer ("Zentertain"), is doing the same thing:


Install custom rom ACE PLUS without voiding warranty I read somewhere that we can install custom ROM in our devices without voiding warranty ace plus is not getting updates soon.

Is there any method by which  we can install that and please suggest a good custom rom.

thanks

Sum-up from the comments:
Warranty
First, at least as of today and outside the EU, it is not possible to install a custom ROM or even only root your phone without voiding your warranty. Even if it can be done in a way not increasing a (possibly existing) "flash-counter": In case your device "bricks" for some reason, not giving you a chance to restore to "stock", your custumizations would be found in the service center.
Existing Custom-ROMs
As said, here you might want to take a look into the question Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?, which lists a lot of ressources where to find different Custom ROMs. A good choice might be CyanogenMod, which is e.g. dealt with in the XDA-Developers thread about CyanogenMod for Ace Plus. To find more details, you can simply use this Google Search.


How to lock camera and volume control when phone is locked When my phone is locked, the camera and volume controls still work which I find strange.

How can I lock these down also, I don't want these controls to be pressed when in my pocket by mistake.

My device doesn't have a separate camera key, so I was able to test my solutions only with volume up and down keys. AutoInput with Tasker (full 7 day trial; userguide) is what you can try. You would either have to buy or enable full trial of former since the solution featuring AutoInput would not work.

Important: Launch AutoInput and enable its accessibility service.

For Tasker:

Profile: State → Display → Display State → Is: Off
Task: (Action):

Plugin → AutoInput → Modes

Configuration:

Key Suppress: Enable
Keys: tick the entries viz. Volume Up, Volume Down and Camera

Timeout: None

Exit task: (Action):

Plugin → AutoInput → Modes

Configuration:

Key Suppress: Disable
Keys: tick the entries viz. Volume Up, Volume Down and Camera

Timeout: None

That did the job in stock Android 6.0.1 in Nexus 6, at least for volume rockers.

On a rooted Android, you can try Xposed Additions app. It requires a compatible Xposed Framework1.

Instructions:

Launch Xposed Additions → tap Buttons
Tap Add new key and when the dialog appears press your hardware key once to register it
Tap the newly created entry for the button you pressed earlier
Tap Add new Condition → Screen Off
Tap the newly created Screen Off entry → tick Click under Single Actions

Follow the said instructions for the rest of your relevant hardware keys.

Note: If Ambient Display is enabled, then during the moments when the display lightens up briefly, pressing any of the relevant keys would result in their actual intended effect and not the one the two solutions aim for.

1  Xposed Framework: Android 4.x, Android 5.x and 6.x


Why do I need to use "Android File Transfer" to transfer files from my mac? I'm curious as to why I need to download and use 'Android File Transfer' so that I can transfer files from my mac to my nexus 5. I assumed because they had a similar file structure that viewing files on one from the other wouldn't have been an issue.

I think it's because Mac does not have all the required drivers. It's like you can't connect your iPhone to a Windows computer properly without iTunes.


How can I sort / specify separate storage locations for my audio files? So, this question is a little off the wall, so I'll first explain what I'm looking to do.

I have a bunch of MP3s from a 'Learn to Speak Japanese' program, and I'd like to listen to them on my phone while I'm in my car. Ideally though, I'd like to keep them in a separate music player app so that they're not linked to my Google Music or scrobbled to Last.fm. If possible, I'd want to be able to set a custom directory for the app to look for music in, so that I could keep my music and language-learning MP3s organized into their own directories.

Is there a music player app that does this, or am I asking for something too ridiculous? Should I just suck it up and use the default music player?

MortPlayer allows you to specify folders that should be read/ignored.

Note however, that if you use the default player, it will still scan and display the tracks. You might also consider adding the files into a playlist and then playing only that playlist, if you don't want other songs/files to be included.


Is there an ICS ROM for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 that has camera support? I'm keen to upgrade my Galaxy Tab 10.1 to Android 4, ICS. My Tab is already rooted and running 3.2.

However, it seems most ICS ROMs, for some reason, don't support the camera, which is a deal breaker.

As time goes on, it seems that ROMs and the places they are available multiply and it gets harder and harder to keep track of what's the latest and where to get it.

So is there an ICS ROM for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 with camera support? If not, where should I be paying attention in order to be made aware of it?

I cannot lock down a feature list, and I don't have a tablet to try it on, but I've found that the AOKP ROMs are pretty far along. I think it may have camera support, but you'll have to let me know.


Why Google Play services upload nonstop 1MB/s everytime the device is connected to wi-fi? Device: Nexus 5, Android Version 6.0.1

Every time the phone is connected to my home wi-fi after a couple of minutes the phone uses my whole bandwidth to upload something to varying Google (1e100.net) Servers. I checked the Network Monitoring app and it tell me that the bandwidth is used by Google Play Services.

The Uploading has been going on for three days nonstop and the only way to stop it temporarily is to disable and re enable the wi-fi connection.

What is causing this, and how do I stop it?

I think you are infected  with a malware that spy on your phone and upload to a comand and control server almost everything from your phone like: pictures, sms, whatsapp conversatin, facebook converstion, viber conversation etc, and to not affect your mobile data plan it starts the comunication with the server whenever you are connected to a wifi network...
Im not a pro on android but I've done it before and I already know what happens behind, how it works and how it affects your phone.
Do a backup but dont backup apps and after it try a factory reset.
Install the list of apps u had from Play store again
(Its better to backup only pictures/videos and contacts and nothing more)
I hope it helps u.


Automatically Extract Text from any app using Tasker I've recently started playing with automation of simple routines in my Android device, and I've encountered an issue I cannot seem to solve.

What I need is a way to detect if a change to the Clipboard has been made (preferably after I copy a piece of text from anywhere), and automatically paste that text to any app of my choice (either Evernote or Keep, doesn't really matter).

Is there any way to open an app using Tasker ONLY when a copy event was fired?

After doing some thorough reading of the Tasker Documentation I believe I have found an elegant way to accomplish this:

Basically this is a recursive task, constantly checking against a variable called %CLIPTEXT that it is equal to %CLIP (which is a predefined variable containing the contents of the Clipboard) and acting upon accordingly if it is not equal (aka changed) by opening the desired app.


HTC Sense crashing often on Incredible since update to Froyo (Android 2.2) Since I upgraded my Incredible to Android 2.2, Froyo, the HTC Sense UI has been crashing often, but always when I am in an app.  In other words, sometimes when I exit an app, I see that the Sense launcher is restarting.  Anyone know why that is happening and/or how I can fix it?

It could be a memory issue.  How much memory is available on the phone? (Settings -> SD card & phone storage -> Available space under Internal phone storage)

Additionally, do you have too many unnecessary services running?  (Settings -> Applications -> Running Services, look at the memory bar at the bottom of the screen)


Touchscreen falsly registering multiple taps on single tap Half of the times my phone's capacitive touchscreen works fine, but the other half it registers multiple taps on a normal tap or on a long-press.

This malfunction happens much more often when the phone is operated while laying flat on the table (i.e. not hand-held).

When a human body part, like the palm of a hand in a normal operation scenario, is resting firmly against the back of the device the problems usually goes away.

I'd think this somehow has to do with the so called "parasitic capacitive coupling problem".

Is this something characteristic of capacitive touchscreens in general?

Can it possible be fixed by tweaking some timing parameters in the touchscreen driver settings?

A common fix for this kind of problem is usually buying a case for your phone.

I also have this problem in Galaxy Mini, but ever since I bought a thick silicon case, my problem is solved. But this did not get rid of the misbehaving touchscreen while charging problem, which is probably caused by the flux of electricity messing with the capacitive display.


Is there a way to get Android Market on galaxy s? How can I get the android market on a Galaxy S on on the Turkish carrier Turkcell. I think that Google's absence in Turkey as a tax paying entity may be why the android market is missing.

Is there a way of sideloading the android market? If not, can you direct me to a ROM that does (preferably Gingerbread)?

P.S. It have 2.1 installed, and the phone model number is GT-i9000

The Android Market is on the Galaxy S, it's a Google-approved device.

Edit: Since you aren't on Froyo already I recommend getting it through Kies Mini, download from: http://samsung.com/uk/.  That should have the Market since it's not through your carrier.  You have a GT-i9000, so you could also try a JPX-based ROM like this one: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=854799


How do I get sound on sms and NOT on emails? I just bought S4, came from Iphone 5.
Nice phone, but I have a problem with the setup...

"Messages" seems to be both sms and email - so I cant get notifications on ONLY sms without also get notifications on emails.

I use Outlook & Gmail for emails, and the standard "Message" program for sms.

Can anyone help a new Samsund Galaxy S4 user please?

Usually apps that serve notifications provide their own ways of controlling them.  You will need to open each app that you want to stop notifications from, open their settings, and look for notifications.  There you will have many options including changing the ringtone, frequency, and even turning them off completely.

For example in Gmail app:

Tap on the top-left "three lines" icon, then scroll down and tap "Settings".
For each account you've added you'll need to tap it, and then modify the Notification settings.
To disable notifications altogether - uncheck the "Notifications" option.

The Outlook app should have similar controls for notifications.

For apps that don't provide any way to control notifications, you can completely suppress them via Android's 4.x built-in feature. On the home screen go to Settings -> Apps -> All apps, then find & tap the app you wish to silence, and uncheck the "Show notifications" option.

On Android 5.0 and above the per-app notification overrides got more options rather than just a simple on/off toggle.  See this site for details.  You can long-press on the offending notification and tap the "info" icon to get several options that include privacy features, along with the above mentioned toggle.


Why does Google Talk never appear on the "Recent Applications" list? I frequently will get a message on Google Talk.  I will drag down the notification bar, click the message, and answer.  However, if I then press "Home", and it occurs to me that I wish to send yet another message to this person, I am forced to go find the Google Talk app icon, launch it, select the relevant conversation, and enter my message.  Why does Google Talk not appear on the Recent Applications list, accessible by holding down the Home key?  Every other app I have does...

Google talk and Gmail each behave this way. I found this out by asking here actually. So when you drag down the notification bar, GMail and Google Talk will not appear in the recent apps list. However, you will see them in recent apps if you navigate to them using an application launcher.

I'm not certain if the same is true for Google Voice.


how to populate external SD for Android Contrary to advice given here I'm not observing LOST.DIR folder created in cases of corruption. Here's my sequence of steps:

Unmount external SD card in Android.
Put it into external card reader for faster file transfer.
Eject from external card reader. (Using "software eject" of the drive in Windows should which is equivalent to "safely remove hardware".)
Put SD card back into Android phone and let it "scan media files".
Directories end up read-only through Android and some files cannot be read because they're reported to be "modified or deleted".

This is sad, transferring files through my phone is very slow which is why I'd like to use my external reader for this.

It appears that Android remembers only the files that were indexed last time and rejects files added externally. Media scanning is suspiciously fast when I insert back the card.

It sounds like your filesystem is being corrupted by whatever else you're using to write to it with the external card reader. Probably you need to be sure to unmount the device correctly before removing the card from the reader. For example, in Windows you need to select "Safely remove hardware".

When you write files to the SD card, from any kind of computer, the writes happen in the background: like when you're noting down what someone tells you, you're always a few seconds behind them. Removing the card before the write is finished is like snatching the paper away as soon as you're finished talking, before you write down the last few words. The "safely remove" operation, whatever it's called on your OS, ensures all writes are finished.


What is HuaweiOnlineUpdataService? I have just seen this line in logcat:

I/ActivityManager(  235): Start proc com.huawei.updata for service com.huawei.updata/.service.HuaweiOnlineUpdataService: pid=24608 uid=10048 gids={2001, 3003}

on a HUAWEI U8150 IDEOS with Android 2.2.

Any idea what is the goal of this HuaweiOnlineUpdataService?
Google has only 5 results for this term, with not enough information.

this service will running in background to show any updates is available for your phone.


What will I lose when I do a factory reset? I have Locked myself out of my phone because I entered too many pattern attempts. I can't sign into my Google account because my wi-fi isn't turned on. So I need to factory reset it. I'm just wondering what will I lose. My photos and videos are saved onto my phone, will I lose them?
If there are any other options in getting back into my without factory resetting it, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
By the way I have a Samsung Galaxy Xcover

A factory reset wipes the internal storage of your phone. This includes all apps, their settings, and all the files and data saved onto your internal storage. Any apps or other content you've downloaded from Google Play, you can download again (you don't have to pay again).

If you previously updated the system or flashed a custom ROM, it will still be updated or have the custom ROM (because system updates update the ROM, not the internal storage.) Similarly, if you rooted the device or unlocked the bootloader, it'll still be rooted or unlocked.

It won't erase any data from the SD card. Usually photos and videos are saved onto the SD card but it depends on the software and the device.


How to reduce power consumption? - Honor 7 so I have an honor 7, had it over 2 years now. It has seen better days, I need a new phone however don't have the money as of yet. The phone must always be connect to a charger, using a fast charging source and cable (I've got decent power bank). If it isn't charging it will turn off almost instantly - always says the power is at 100% - and if it's charging with a non-fast charger, it also turns off. However even while connected to a fast charger if i use it too much (15min) it gets very warm and again, turns off.

I'm looking for as many ways to reduce power consumption as much as possible, but will still allow me to use my phone normally - e.g snapchat -
I'm happy to root my phone if it's needed to turn off certain stock apps for example.

Any and all help/advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

I'm happy to root my phone if it's needed to turn off certain stock apps for example.

If the problem is related to apps then the battery drain will not be instantaneous as in your case .

It looks like a battery problem to me, try replacing a new battery and it think it should fix the problem


Bluetooth headset and HD voice I'm trying to achieve better quality for remote communications. Thus, I'm trying to use a high quality headset for Skype calls.

The problem is, when connecting a headset to Android phone (both of them have HD voice support), the sound quality is very limited, i.e. much worse than Skype gives via the same phone's speaker & microphone.

Supporting cases:

When I listen to music from phone using headset via bluetooth, the quality is good.
When I use USB dongle (which is provided for headset with UC support, and appearing as audio device in system) for Skype with my laptop, the quality is good.

In all cases, I was using WiFi (NOT mobile data).
I was using Skype call testing service for all tests.

Is there some way to force codec or bluetooth profile to enable HD voice with Android for headset?

Phone: Galaxy Note 3 (has HD voice support).

Phone OS: Android 5.0.

Skype version on the phone: v6.13.0.608

Headset: Jabra Motion UC (has HD voice support).

Laptop: HP EliteBook 8460p

Laptop's OS: Ubuntu Linux 14.04.03

Skype version on laptop: 4.3.0.37

I've found that it's an issue of Skype application.
E.g. Google Hangouts gives good sound quality with and without bluetooth headset both.

I've filed a bug report here: https://community.skype.com/t5/Android/Forced-low-quality-voice-with-bluetooth-headsets/td-p/4366926


Having problems with my phone please help :( My phone has been making these weird blue and red shapes for a while now and I have no idea how to turn it off, anyone got any ideas?

This could be the result of enabling the developer option: Show layout bounds. If that is not the case you could try backing up your data and factory reseting your phone. This will delete all your apps and all user(s) info resetting all your settings to default and returning the phone to its factory state.

Your SD card will be deleted as well so remove it before the reset. So any apps that you dont have an apk file for you will need to download and install again. You can then use your backed up data to restore the apps to thier original configuration in many cases. Take care not to use any suspicious apps from questionable sources. If you installed some sort of app with permission to write over other apps this could be the cause as well.


How to geotag photos uploaded to google photos I've uploaded some photos to google photos, these photos do not have any location information in their EXIF metadata as my camera didn't have the GPS enabled at the time of capturing images.

Now I want to geotag (add location information) these photos. Since I know the location (GPS coordinates) where these pictures are taken I am looking for an option to geotag them in google photos.

It seems that the google photos app does not have any option to geotag the photos.
Is there any way I can geotag the photos from google photos?

You can geotag the photos from google photos web site.
Follow the below steps to geotag your google photos.

Go to photos.google.com
Select the photos that you want to geotag
Click the options menu and select Edit Location
Type the location and choose the appropriate one from the dropdown
Done. The photos are geotagged now


ICS Mount SD all EXT4 Want to know if ICS can mount an SD when formatted as EXT4 or does it still need a FAT32 partition like Gingerbread. Googled for 30+ mins, can't find an answer.

Two separate issues.

Does your current ROM force vfat or not? For example, I'm pretty sure CyanogenMod does not force vfat and will not forcibly reformat an ext4 when it finds it back to vfat. This is what will happen on some stock roms. If it does not force vfat, great.
Ext4 is almost certainly supported, if it's not forced instantly into vfat. I quote from CyanogenMod FAQ: "Is ext3/ext4 safe for my SD card? Probably, unless the SD card is very old and does not support wear leveling."

In short, it's impossible to answer if "ICS" works with ext4. It might work, but force ext4 into vfat instantly. It might not work at all. What's important is that you check if the ROM you are using both supports ext4 and does not force it back to vfat. Only one way to find out, except asking around xda-developers ;)


Updating ROM is stuck as TWRP does not see zip files In the process of trying to install 4.4.4 on my galaxyTab 10.1, I've installed TWRP 2.7.1.0.

At this point when in recovery mode I need to select the Zip to install, but none of the previously downloaded zip files are visible to TWRP.  Neither under the install command nor in the file manager.

I had backed up, removed caches et al. When rebooting in normal operation mode, those files are browsable.  Permissions are set to 777.

So I don't understand where the hang-up is?

Somewhere in TWRP there is an option to show IMG or ZIP. You should change it back to ZIP.


Android 2.1 - MyTouch 3G Slide - Preparing SD Card mal-function - Formatted SD Card after taking out and putting back in :( Operating System: Android 2.2
Device: HTC MyTouch 3G Slide
SD Card: Micro SD 8GB Sandisk card that is less than 1 year old

Background:
This feature formatted my working SD Card w/ all my pictures on it after i took it out and put it back into the same phone. I didn't add or delete any data from the device when i took it out... I checked the sd card on the computer and it only had 2mb of cache files on it while before it had 6gb of music and photos. I already tried mounting and unmounting the card. That doesn't help. The phone has recently been factory restored.

Questions:
1) Why is Android / MyTouch3G Slide formatting my sd card?

2) How do I know if it's an sd card problem or a phone problem?

3) How do I get the card to work w/ the pictures and mp3s on there?

I'm thinking maybe I should prepare the card for android somehow- with a sd card formatter

Update:  I recovered the files w Easeus Data Recovery, put them back on the card, and it formatted the files again. I'm thinking I should format my card for android 2.2 or mytouch3g so it accepts the pictures or put the card in while the phone is off to prevent this from happening again?

Android has to mount your SD card; that's all that "Preparing SD Card" does.  If that doesn't happen, then the device can't use the SD card.  Hopefully the format was just a fluke.  You should put test files on it (unimportant / already backed up) and see if it happens again.


Is copying an .apk into /{system, data}/app sufficient to install an Android application? If not, what else is done under the covers?

Also, what are the differences when installing applications

From the android market
sideloaded from web download
sideloaded using adb install
sideloaded using adb push

Yes, I believe apps can be installed just by placing them in the appropriate directory.  I'm not sure what the app installer does beyond this copying, if anything.  The Market does update the system's list of apps "linked" to the Market however, so that the Market can check for updates and such.  Apps installed by other means won't show up in the Market's list.


Can I mod my phone with bootloader locked? I have a Motorola Defy ('jordan') that I have just recently rooted. I would like to add a mod to it though as it is running on Android froyo still but my bootloader is locked so i'm not very sure how to go about this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Even if the Defy's bootloader is locked, you can still root it and install custom roms. It's with the help of a software called 2ndInit.

As mentioned in the comment, you can search in the xda forums to get the details. You can start here by rooting and then install any custom rom. :)


Hide Facebook friend's events from calendar I added my Facebook account to the calendar to sync up my Facebook friend's birthdays in my calendar. But along with the birthdays, few useless events also got added automatically. Like if my friend who is a football fan, is attending a Football match somewhere, that event is displaying in "MY CALENDAR".
It is very annoying to see my friend's events in my calendar. How do I stop that?

Has your friend invited you to the event? I've never seen my friends' events in my calendar, only when they've invited me too. For these events you need to remove the event by going to the event's facebook page, scrolling all the way down and clicking the "Remove from My events" link in the footer. Facebook won't sync the RSVP info for some reason, so "Hide declined events" in the calendar options won't hide events that you're not attending (which is very annoying by the way).


Text-to-Speech Going too fast I have recently installed this app into my Samsung Galaxy Y mobile phone running on Android 2.3 Gingerbread.

The speed at which words are being spoken by this system is too high for me to grasp. Also, I suspect that there is absolutely no pauses after commas and full stops.

I am not able to find any settings too. What should I do? Is this problem solvable?

I'm not sure about Samsung GB, but on my Galaxy S3 running JB 4.1, the setting for the TTS speech rate is found in Settings -> Language and Input -> Text-to-speech Output -> Speech Rate.

Wbogacz suggests that setting may also be found at Settings -> Accessibility -> Text-to-speech Output -> Speech Rate


Configuring VPN on a Samsung devices I'm traveling in Iran and I would like to update my position on a website that uses Google Maps. The problem is that on my both Samsung Android devices I can't see the maps (the web site is not filtered and I can see everything but the map which is the main part of the application).

I think that Google Maps is filtered although in some internet cafe I can use maps.google.com but I still can't see the map on my application (and other international web sites that use Google Maps).
Is there any way to configure a VPN network on my Android devices (a smartphone and a tablet).

I don't know how it works and I can't access almost any tutorial (filtered)
. Thanks for any kind of help.
Last thing most of the time I use the wifi network in the rare hotel that have one.

Some VPN providers, such as HMA, have instructions specific to Android devices, so its best to check with your VPN provider via their support page, as you're going to need their server and other info. All android devices support PPTP VPN, and there are some VPN's you can use for free such as Hideman which you can find in Google Play.

Here is a tutorial on basic configuration
http://www.vpntraffic.com/index.php?action=content&cont_id=26


Tablet showing 0 internal storage even after flashed My Envizen V917G just shut down one day and restarted with the factory reset.

I have since flashed it with the software from their website (several times, it fails to format the cache in the automatic mode but claims to be successful if I do it manually) but it still shows 0 space available and it won't shut down on it's own but I presume that is because it can't save any settings since it says it has no space and it restarts in it's factory setup state every time.

Anyone know of any other software I could flash it with to get it working properly, or other things I could try? Or is it just a useless toy now?

This was a gift and I can't claim the guarantee without a receipt and the original serial number intact, which was just a sticker that rolled off the back after 4 months of use.

Disclaimer - I don't have enough reputation to place comments - so here is a suggestion.

I have been looking around and found a blog from a user with the same device who has rooted it successfully here.
Plus the comment from a user here.

I suggest to get your device rooted and then install (clear some temp files before installing if you can) the disk utility from here

From the app, you can see where your data is being used.

PS: You don't necessary need root privileges to get this utility working. However, I am presuming you have flashed the device perhaps to death and may have lot of old data which may be stored from within the system data part of your Android device.


Is there a way to configure custom keyboard layouts? There are a lot of apps out on the market that you can install to have a customized Keyboard with different languages and functionality, but I didn't find a way to get my own custom Keyboard layout on my device.

Is it possible to get this running easily?

I would like to have the left half of the single handed Coffee++ Layout on my device:

One way to do this (although I can't say it will be too easy) is to create your own custom IME (input method editor).

While it may seem like a daunting task, and there is a good chance that it is, you aren't the only one who wants their own input method. So here is a pretty popular Stack OverFlow that could help you out: How to develop a soft keyboard


Whats ASKS Security Software and Device Protection Manager? My phone updated and when i check about device i got something i never know about that ASKS Security Software thing and a new appication named Device Protection Manager with no accessable interface

So what are these and what does it do?
And is it recommended to remove these features because so far i think its useless

The phrase 'Device Protection Manager' is an uncommon name for this software. Usually it is truncated to 'device protection'.  I found a link that may help you.

https://www.greenbot.com/article/2904397/everything-you-need-to-know-about-device-protection-in-android-51.html

Basically, it is anti-theft software, plus...  You could have 3rd party software that is doing the same thing, so you may want to scour your device for such and eliminate all but one. Choose one that doesn't drain your battery so much.