How can I spoof my mac address on Bluestacks? My Bluestacks is rooted already with terminal installed. (Busybox 1.21.1)

Thus far, I have tried

Mac Address Ghost - App runs, but simply does spoof MAC
Xprivacy - xposed framework keeps getting seg faults upon installation
# ip link set eth0 xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx - Operation not supported on transportation endpoint
# busybox ifconfig eth0 hw ether 00:11:22:33:44:55 - Operation not supported

Has anyone achieved this before or know of a way to change the mac address of Bluestacks?

Unzip initrd.img in c:\programdata\android\ folder (by default). It's a GZIP format.

Next, you should edit initrd file with hex editor.
Find your address,
for example
02C6400100C6400200C6400362C6400473C6400574

And Replace 02:00:00:64:73:74 bytes with your hex bytes (MAC ADDRESS)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rVumD8tmjg

Gzip initrd to initrd.img and replace original file


How do I force stop an application downloading from Android Market? As I posted Some of the applications are getting downloaded more than once ... I need to stop the downloading an application from the Market. Its really waste of time and waste of data(I use 2GB data plan for my mobile).

I restarted the phone, killed the Market app from Task Manager, but still no help. It still continues to download. After complete downloading its going to start download again. For this reason I wanted to stop the Download.

(Android 2.1)

Go to Settings... Applications...  Select Filter Options (contains All, Running, Downloaded).

This option can be chosen by clicking left/right option depends upon handset model.

Choose 'All'...so that you can see all applications. Select Download Manager; there you can click 'Clear data' button. It will stop all downloading applications.

Just now I analyzed and found it out.


Not able to tick items in SP Flash Tool after selecting scatter .txt file.How to check Boxes? I download SP Flash Tool And recovery file zip,extracted recovery zip which contain three files:
1)scatter .txt file
2)recovery image file
3)recovery read me file
After that i opened tool.exe and select the scatter file but don't able to tick the recovery name object

You need to select a file to write each partition you want to select. Double click on the location column for the partition you want to write to and select an img file, e.g. twrp.


Can all android devices be rooted? Out of curiosity, in theory can all android devices be rooted? It's my understanding that a root exploit needs to be found based on a vulnerability, and these vulnerabilities can be patched. So is it possible for a phone not to be able to be rooted?

Theoretically all Android systems can be rooted. Rooting is, basically, introducing an su executable to the system, mostly done under recovery environment. The basic rooting process is simply putting an su under a specific directory, while advanced rooting gives a complex su executable as well as a GUI application for you to manage root permission management, to grant and to revoke. Besides, an engineering build of Android OS has root already enabled (stock su), so there shouldn't be an 'unrootable' Android OS.


Unable to adb push on Samsung S4 I absolutely can't push to /system/app/ using adb
on a rooted S4 with rw remounted filesystem.

adb says:
Read-only file system

Mounts:

/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/system /system ext4 rw,seclabel,relatime,data=ordered 0 0

/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/userdata /data ext4 rw,seclabel,relatime,discard,journal_checksum,journal_async_commit,noauto_da_alloc,data=ordered 0 0

Nothing helps! What is wrong? I can't use adb root, because it gives me:

adbd cannot run as root in production builds

I have following permissions:

drwxrwxrwx root     root              1971-01-17 12:49 /system
drwxrwxrwx root     root              1971-01-17 12:49 /system/app
drwxrwxrwx root     system            2014-10-28 14:15 /data
drwxrwxrwx shell    system            2014-10-28 15:02 /data/app

Now I just installed Cyanogenmod, but it doesn
t work either.

If the ADB daemon is not running in root mode, you cannot push to /system/app even with /system mounted read-write, due to not be given the permission. As you correctly pointed out, adb root is no option on non-development-devices ("adbd cannot run as root in production builds").

To fix this up, take a look at chainfire's adb Insecure. This app requires root (a condition your device obviously meets), and (temporarily) patches the ADB daemon to run in root mode. So with "insecure mode" enabled, you should be able to push to /system/app.

Alternatively, push to e.g. /data/local, then login to the device with adb shell, execute su to switch to root-mode, and move the files (mv /data/local/whatever.apk /system/app) while /system is mounted read-write.


Will the Samsung Fascinate work without a battery? Can I use a Samsung Fascinate with no battery powered only by the power cable?

(I'm assuming this is a handset specific question, but let me know if I'm wrong and the answer applies to all Android handsets and I'll edit the question to be more general)

No.  I have another SGS model and it works with no battery for a second, as long as the battery's in when you start it up, but quickly shuts off.


Forgot password on Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, trying to access for Google Authenticator I never wrote my password down for my old S7 Edge and managed to forget it.  Overthinking the security and privacy, I also never signed up for Samsung's service and Google's Find My Phone only recognizes my current phone -- so I can't use those online services to reset the password.

I'm wondering if there's a super-user method to get into the phone (or extract data) without wiping the data with a hard-reset.

In the Android Recovery screen (volume-down, home, and power buttons held simultaneously), I have the "Apply update from ADB" option but sideload seems to be the only functionality and the handshaking seems wrong.  The resulting messages on the Android are:

    Finding update package...
    Opening update package...
    E:footer is wrong
    [...]
    E:signature verification failed

I found online somewhere that the password file for the phone model is in

/data/system/gesture.key and
rm /data/system/gesture.key

would be ideally what I'd like to bring about.  However, I can't use a command such as adb shell on it without the password.  I also haven't figured out a way to inject and run a script (particularly with the handshaking and with adequate privileges for the phone) with that rm command using adb sideload.

More details or seeming dead-ends:

The phone was not rooted.
I'm fairly certain I enabled USB debugging.
It's a SM-G935W8 (Canadian) model with hero21tebmc (firmware?).
Samsung's Smart Switch software is also not an option to transfer data (w/o knowing my old password).
The third-party software I've seen and tried on a friend's Winwoes laptop doesn't have the password-reset capability on the S7 Edge... it would work if it was an S6 or older unfortunately.
the Android Recovery screen has other options including: "Apply update from SD card", "Mount /system", "Wipe cache partition", and the dreaded "Wipe data/factory reset".
I'm using a Linux distribution (Ubuntu 18.04) and would use heimdall on the command line (instead of the Odin software).

These links, Official TWRP for Galaxy S7 edge (hero2lte) or Flashing Firmware on Linux/Ubuntu using Heimdall, are likely to be the instructions I'd follow with due care.

If I persist and try to use TWRP or some sort of program to "recover" my data it seems highly likely to wipe it (even if I don't proceed to root it).

Along the same line, I suspect installing LineageOS would wipe the data in the process and there's probably no way to sift through the wreckage of the data (which is probably without pointers/inodes but presumably not outright erased) in some kind of brute-computational-force way either.

Is there any way to get at the data (instead of waiting every hour to try to re-discover a strong and essentially gibberish password)?

You have two problems:
First, when the bootloader is locked, you can not use fastboot. Unlocking will wipe your data. If the bootloader is unlocked, you can just boot twrp without flashing (fastboot boot twrp.img).
Second, the data partition is encrypted, and even if TWRP should be able to manage decryption, the pin is reqired.
You have no other option than brute force. If USB-OTG is working and it is a 4 digit pin, this can be done with Teensy or any other microcontroller. But this may wipe your data after 10 attempts, depending on gatekeeper settings (afaik not for S7).


Cant do anything on my Htc one m8 My htc one m8 was all good since yesterday. It's age is about one year. The problem is when i open any apps or do anything it's just restart automatically and vanish my previous activity. As a example I uninstall an app then it restart and after restarting the is still there. I also try to factory reset the phone but it's done nothing all my apps was there.Can anyone help.
Thanks in advance.

That's because your memory is read-only! You can't write data to it: the delete operation writes to memory - at least modifies it.

Not sure about what may be causing this, but probably from malwares or as I can think of now a defective eMMC chip like you know those SD Card that suddenly becomes "Write protection enabled" .

I have myself experienced this and never found a solution so far. This seems to happen with HTC, HUAWEI and I had a case involving a Motorola phone.


genymotion icon is not shown in android studio i want to use genymotion in android studio. i have installed genymoiton and oracle virtualbox. in android studio i went to: File> settings> plugins , and installed genymotion. i should say that, previously, i have create a virtual device in genymotion.
the problem is: i expect that the genymotion icon to appear in android studio
but: nothing appears

any help is highly appreciated...

After installing Genymotion plugin and restarting Android Studio you should see the Genymotion device manager icon in the toolbar:

On newer Android Studio version the toolbar may be disabled or not fully shown. Make sure the toolbar is activated:  Menu View -> Appearance -> Toolbar

Additionally when you click the Genymotion icon the first time you have to manually specify the Genymotion installation directory, e.g. by default it should be this path:

C:\Program Files\Genymobile\Genymotion


Change Settings.Global.AUTO_TIME to always be 1 I want my android apps to believe that Automatic Time Zone is set to ON even though it actually is not. I read that Automatic Time Zone is detected using Settings.Global.AUTO_TIME variable, which returns value 1 if Automatic Time Zone is ON and value 0 if Automatic Time Zone is OFF. This variable is read using the below line

Settings.Global.getInt(getContentResolver(), Settings.Global.AUTO_TIME)

I read that this variable can only be set by a System App. Is there a way to change this variable somehow? Can I write an application that allows me to change this variable? Can this be done by rooting the android device? Is there a way to do this without rooting?

Since the phone is rooted, it would be possible for an Xposed module to achieve this by intercepting the call to Settings.Global.getInt and returning 1 regardless of the real value, but I don't know of a module that does this, so you'd have to write it yourself. You should consult the Xposed documentation to learn how; I'm afraid we can't help with programming problems on this site.


Transferring Pictures and phone numbers How do I remove pictures and emails from my Nokia android phone. And how do I copy my address book to my new Samsung Galaxy S5 phone?

To transfer any file/picture/etc.. between your phone and PC, you'll need to turn Developer Options on and enable USB Debugging.

Some Android devices already have Developer Options listed in the Settings menu. Most, however, need a certain "key combo" to bring it out of hiding

1) On your phone, navigate to Settings 》About Device (Phone) 》and tap your device's Build Number 7 consecutive times. A caption will display at the bottom of your screen, stating how many taps are still needed & when you're considered a "Developer".

2) Once Developer Options is turned on, navigate back to Settings 》Developer Options 》and enable USB Debugging.

Developer Options is located at the bottom of your Settings, above "About Phone"

3) After enabling USB Debugging, plug your device to your PC via USB cable.

4) Swipe down the notification bar on your phone 》tap USB Options  》and verify your device is set at MTP. If it isn't, change it to MTP.

WALA! You are now able to swap files, pictures, etc.. from your phone to your PC and vice versa.

Ensure proper connection between your phone and PC by clicking your PC's Start Menu, then navigating to the "Devices & Printers" section. Your phone will register as either an MTP Device or your phone's model number if properly connected. If not, it'll say a name you won't recognize and have a yellow triangle with an exclamation point (!) in the middle.


How to recover android My android Tablet PC eklasse Spark 4.0.3 7" Black Model No:ES01120905934.

Unfortunately using cleaner app some system file are deleted.

Can any one give me a suggestion what can i do now.

i can't found ROM of Frameware file in web to reboot.

If you have a Backup, just Restore it.

or, there is two way :

Use something like :  EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard Professional

  //for Recovery...

or another way ;

Download the rom and flash it for fix.

Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device?


How to read conversation while writing long message When I'm replying to an sms, writing area can take whole screen space.

As I've written text which is long enough, previous messages from that person at the top dissapear.

How can I view them?

Up-to-date Android 2.3.6 on Samsung Galaxy Mini 2

This may sound dumb, but have you tried to scroll the view ?

Or if there is really no space left to view the text list, just hide the keyboard (return key).


How does the Paypal 'Mobile Phone and PIN' login work? The Paypal app has a two ways you can log in, 'Email and Password' and 'Mobile Phone and PIN'.

How does the second one work? I can't seem to set a PIN code myself and it doesn't use the one from my phone.

First off, you gotta login to the PayPal app on your phone.
(In this case, obviously, your Android device ;) )

Next up, you gotta visit your PayPal account settings through your web-browser
(The gear on the top right)

Then, you gotta go over to the "Security" tab and click on "Mobile Devices"

From there on you should be able to figure out how it works.
I haven't linked my mobile with PayPal yet, so I can't help from here on.


Strange data plan speed on Nexus S I have a Nexus S and a GPRS plan activated, from what customer services of my mobile carrier have told me is that GPRS will give you max of 10-15 kB/s download speed.

In my Nexus S if i don't select "Use Only 2G" in "mobile network" setting i get speeds up to 80kB/S and the symbol in the status bar shows 3G symbol. As soon as i select the "Use only 2G Network" my download speed drops to 10 kB/s.

I have used spedtest application to check speed.
I have verified with my Mobile carrier and i do not have any 3G plan activated.

How is this Possible, i don't want to get any kind of shock when i receive my Mobile bill :)

Edit : My mistake, corrected capitalizations.

OK, so it's quite obvious that your phone is receiving 3G service (likely EDGE/UMTS), not just the 2G GPRS service.  GPRS is simply not capable of the speeds you're getting.  Since you've called the carrier and had them check, it's their problem.  I would say just go with it and enjoy the free service.  Don't let them charge you for it if they figure it out later, since you did try to make them aware.  If you're worried about it just call again and make the situation really clear.


How do I enable sticky keys for a Bluetooth Slide-out Keyboard on Android 4.4.2? I've got a slide out bluetooth external keyboard for my Samsung Galaxy S5. It's currently rooted and is running OmegaDroid as my ROM. I'd like to make it so that my modifier keys are "sticky", in that when I click the "shift" key, the next letter I type with be shifted. Right now, I have to hold the shift key down in order for the letter to be capitalized, and it is driving me up the wall. I much prefer the Droid 4 way of handling the shift key, as you don't have to do weird finger combinations or reach with your other thumb to get a letter to capitalize.

I'm totally rooted, and I'm happy with backing up my phone to try crazy things, as long as I can get this thorn out of my side :D.

Thanks!

I figured it out and verified that it works.

Basically, you need to use a Character Map that has a type of ALHPA. This should make it so that the modifier keys, SHIFT in particular, behave the right way for thumb typing.


Is it possible to set up an emulator with these specific requirements? At work we've been given an opportunity to work with some hardware running a (semi) custom Android build. The long and short of it is the app we make needs to fit certain criteria.

Uses TEGRA2, Android 4.0.3 Level 15, and supporting 1366 x 768 res with 90px system bar.

Can I make an emulator to simulate all these? The API level is obviously easy to set up, and the custom resolution, however, I can't see any options to do with tegra2.

As a note they do have a SDK available for this, which may include an emulator, but we don't have a copy yet so I'm looking for a quick temporary workaround until we get a copy.

No, the Android emulator doesn't emulate specific SoCs such as Tegra 2, and it doesn't support Nvidia's instruction set extensions.


How can I make the GMail app open to the accounts page when using multiple accounts When I open the Gmail application, it opens the last inbox I looked at. Is there a way to make it always open to the "Accounts" page instead?

I have an HTC incredible 2 if that matters.

Could not find a way to do this every time the app starts. I did discover that if multiple accounts have new messages at the same time, the app starts on the "Accounts" page.

It seems when you start the app it opens the account with new messages automatically, and only opens the "Accounts" list if multiple accounts contain new messages.


How can I prevent an APP from using my phone's camera I have some apps on my HTC One (M8) that want to have access to my camera and microphone (Yahoo Mail app).  I have seen on an iOS device that you can disable this access but still run the app.  Is there something similar in the Android world?

Not directly, but with a rooted device, Xposed or a custom ROM (e.g. CyanogenMod) you are able to revoke permissions granted to the app by Android.
If your device allows the installation of applications signed with developer keys, then you might be able to do that without root needed.

Side effects may be unexpected application crashes or hangs if the app decides to do something that needs one of the revoked permissions.
In the best case the application will just not be able to use e.g. the camera and show a black preview of the image (Camera App for example).


When phone starts to use adoptable storage? I've recently set 50% of SD card as adoptable, and everything went fine partition is showed in settings, but phone doesn't use it I have installed some apps and they all went in internal partition not adopted one.
When will phone start to use adopted memory, when I run out of internal?
An also can I use adopted storage to save files for example from chrome since it only uses internal memory it's imposible to download on external?

There isn't any rule which says move apps to SD under so and so condition.
Apps don't move on their own into the ext.SD card (which is now a part of internal storage, since you adopted it). You need to migrate them as described in DiAlex'sanswer here. Also note that some apps ( poorly designed ) after being updated may be
restored in device storage You will again need to migrate them)
You can move app data or store anything (media, files)  if the app can access it ( I am not sure about Chrome as I don't use adoptable storage)
For a better understanding of how memory is treated see Mathew's answer here


android phone + mobile network + chromecast I have unlimited mobile data on my phone. but i want to cast to the chromecast. But i cant find a way to do that using my current knowledge.

the setup require .
data streaming using mobile data in mobile
and casting using wifi from mobile.

i tried to connect to guest mode. but that allows only limited apps allowed by chromecast to cast to the device.

is there anyother options.

Chromecast can only use one network at a time. You need to set your phone up as a hotspot then using the google cast app connect your chromecast to the mobile network.


Blurry images in gallery Had a nexus 10 for nearly a year now. Before 5.0 came out w/e version I was on, the extra large images that I had imported from my computer to my nexus would properly resolve and keep their quality when I zoomed in. Now Post-5.0  my large images are just a giant blurry mess.

Any idea on how to fix this?

You could try going to app info of the gallery app and cleaning data and cache. That will force the app to rescan images again


Remove Wi-Fi Calling Notification How can I remove this notification without disabling Wi-Fi calling? This notification cannot be swiped away like most others, and I consider it to be a nuisance.

There was a "solution" to this problem, posted on Reddit, but it only works temporarily, the notification returns as soon as a phone call is made or you connect to Wi-Fi again. Another "solution," posted on YouTube, involves disabling notifications for the IPService app, but this does not work for newer versions of Android.

I am running android 6.0.1 and I'm on T-Mobile, but I would guess that this notification is here for all carriers and Android versions which support Wi-Fi calling.

Answer for for Android 7.0+ : It is not possible to turn it off. No little (i) after long press of notification. Only can be disabled for lock screen. So annoying.


How do I add bookmark on Android (Firefox or Chrome) so it appears on PC Both Firefox and Chrome has sync features, but they dont seem to work the way I want. Both Firefox and Chrome is having a top level grouping of the bookmarks, "bookmarks on PC" and "bookmarks on Android". And from Android the PC bookmarks are read-only. I can see them and visit them but not edit them or extend the collection with more bookmarks.

How do I add a bookmark from my Android device (in Firefox or Chrome) to my PC (Firefox or Chrome)?

At least my version of Chrome (32.0.1700.107) on OS X has a menu called Mobile Bookmarks under Bookmarks, where I can see my phone's bookmarks. And I can add bookmarks to my desktop Chrome from Android from Menu -> Favorite (the star) -> Folder -> Desktop bookmarks.

Try using Chrome Beta for Android if yours doesn't have that feature.


How to get rid of spying app (rooted) My android phone is installed with spyware (spying app). This can be a breach for my business leaking out passwords.
How to clean wipe android OS and freshly install Android OS again cleanly.
My system is rooted.
Phone Model : Samsung A7 2018.

It's called "flashing the stock ROM".  Look for the firmware for your particular model (N, FD, etc.) at https://www.sammobile.com/  There are pretty good instructions at https://www.getdroidtips.com/samsung-galaxy-a7-2018-stock-firmware/
(If you still want the phone to be rooted, you'll have to root it again - the stock ROM isn't rooted, it's what you got when you first got the phone.)


Can I connect my Android device to a laptop via WiFi to use file sharing? How can I connect my Sony Xperia U to my laptop using WiFi to use file sharing?
I tried normal connectivity by sharing my laptop WiFi and connect my Xperia U to the laptop -- but it only accesses the internet, not the file sharing.

What should I do to access file sharing and managing my laptop using my phone? Is there any application, setting, or procedure that can help me connect my laptop and my phone?

Plenty of solutions available here. Depending on which device you want to work (i.e. using your Android device to push things to/pull things from your laptop, or working on your laptop and accessing the Android device), your choices may differ, though:

ES File Explorer is a file manager app for Android which also can access remote resources via WiFi. Amongst others, it supports CIFS (aka "Windows Shares") and FTP.

ES File Explorer (Source: Google Play)

AirDroid is an app running on Android, and offering access via web browser. So you can work from your laptop and access your Android device via a web interface.

Airdroid (source: Google Play)

Both variants require your Android device and your laptop being in the same network (well, there are ways around this restriction — but this is how it definitly works). Using the same WiFi access point for both should guarantee that, for example.


How to edit init.rc in Samsung Galaxy S3 i9300? I would like to edit the init.rc in an i9300. I understand that editing the file as-is will not work as the file is reloaded from the boot image's ramdisk upon every bootup. After some googling, I read that I have to unpack, edit and repack the boot image. I came across the following link: http://android-dls.com/wiki/index.php?title=HOWTO%3a_Unpack,_Edit,_and_Re-Pack_Boot_Images

However, upon trying out the first command "cat /proc/mtd", I realize that my i9300 doesn't even have a /proc/mtd, so I'm wondering if any of the instructions there apply to this device.

/dev/block shows mmcblk0p1 to mmcblk0p12, but I'm not sure which one is the boot image. From my googling it seems that mmcblk0p6 is the recovery image though.

How can I edit the init.rc in this device?

Thanks!

You have two choices here:

Edit the stock kernel (or the kernel you're using) to enable init.d support or edit the init.rc
Use a custom kernel with init.d support already enabled.

I would suggest the second option as is far more easier to achieve. Once flashed a kernel with init.d support, you can add all the scripts you want to the folder that will be executed at boot time. The folder is located in /etc/init.d and all scripts inside that folder will be executed in order.

For example, if you have:

/etc/init.d/10-startup-daemon
/etc/init.d/50-mount-extra-partition

They will be executed in the same order I've typed them. You can change the order by changing the number at the begining of the file.


Disable Facebook auto sync in Android 4.4 Can I disable facebook auto sync in Android 4.4?

I could easily do this for my Google account, but I see no options to disable Facebook auto sync in Settings->Accounts->Facebook.

The sync options are located within the Facebook app itself in Settings.

For example, photo sync options are located under Account > App Settings > Sync Photos.


Can the Aldiko reader show pdf files in it's catalog screen which are not present in the ebook folder? I have the following situation :

I purchased an Android pdf book which was downloaded on my PC
I used Dropbox to transfer it onto my Android device (Archos 101)
When clicking the downloaded book in the Dropbox Android application , the Aldiko read was launched, ready for my to read my book.
However, this book was not present in the Aldiko book case view when I later on started Aldiko again

Hence my question: is it possible to let Aldiko list books which are not present in the eBook folder ?

I can't move the pdf into eBook, because Dropbox will download it happily again, when it doesn't find it.

I don't want to have duplicates ( the book is rather large , but even when it wasn't , I don't like the idea of having exact files in multiple locations ).

Possible workaround: Turn the ebook folder into a symlink to the dropbox folder.  Or if subfolders word, create a dropbox symlink inside ebook.


How can I open an epub+zip file on my S3? I got some files that say "epub+zip" undrr Properties and I wanted to know how can I open it?

OS: 4.1.1

You need an ebook reader that reads EPUB files. Aldiko (http://www.aldiko.com/) is a great ebook reader that supports EPUBs. Or, you could rename the extension to zip and extract the file. Inside, you will see some folders. Within one of the folders are HTML files that can be viewed in a web browser.


How to downgrade from Android 5 to 4.4.4 on an encrypted phone? After certain troubles with Android 5 (see How to fix file permissions on Android 5 so that a certain app can access certain files?) I decided to go back to 4.4.4 on my Nexus 4 for the time being. Thereto, I restored a backup I made prior to upgrading using the TWRP 2.8.2 restore function. The restore in itself went well, and after reboot the familiar 4.4.4 boot animation came up.

But when I entered my encryption password, I immediately (no discernible delay) got a "Try Again" message. I retried several times, but my password wasn't accepted. It was definitely the correct password I entered, for in TWRP, it works.

I now restored Android 5 from a backup I made immediately before restoring Android 4.4.4, and my password is accepted again, but of course the Android 5 problems are back as well.

So: how do I properly downgrade to 4.4.4 on my encrypted Nexus 4? Thanks.

In L, take a backup of things you want to save (photos, videos, app data, etc)
Go download a stock rom for your device, such as this one
In TWRP, wipe data, system, cache and dalvik cache
On your computer use fastboot to flash the system.img
Reboot
You should now boot into kitkat, without any encryption.
Restore any backups you might've had. Note that if you simply backed up the /data partition, that might cause problems when restored.

7b. If you did create a backup with twrp, you can still restore in a safe way
with titanium backup pro, assuming you root the device.


sleep of death nexus 4 I have Nexus 4 with Android 5.1. Recently it started to get Sleep of Death occasionally. I think it started after updating Android from 4.* to 5.*. I read that it's bug in Android Lollipop and some advises to fix it for example to turn off wi-fi when phone sleeps. I tried, but it didn't help.

Some other advises: one, two, three. I don't know which I should follow, it required a lot of time to try them all.

And I want to avoid rooting.

I have used my Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 Charger and had success every time to wake up my phone from SOD. It takes around 5-10 min before you can see on the screen that it is charging. But a fast indication can be that the fixed red LED will start to flash and after a couple of minutes the screen will wake up and show that it is charging.

PS: I have discovered that both Samsung and LG phones are very picky when it comes to which charger you are using. Samsung and LG phones usually accept each other's charger but they will not accept unbranded ones or ones from other brands like Sony. So if you don't have a Samsung or LG charger go to your local store and buy one. I can't guarantee that it will work, but it does work on my phone.


Roaming Icon on Home-Network I have an Xperia L mobile , I'm from India and having AirTel Network Connection.
The problem is on the mobile network icon,it shows Roaming Symbol since I'm in home network.I made a call to the customer care,they replied that the problem is not on their side (they haven't charged for Roaming). Can anyone help to get rid out from the issue.

Does keeping the mobile data on for all time have an impact on battery ?

Basically roaming icon comes on two chances,

When you are in the different state.
When you are in the same state but in a union territory or capital of the state(only in few states)( like : Airtel,Vodafone treats Chennai as one place, Pondicherry as one place and rest of Tamil Nadu as another place. So if I buy a SIM from some city other than Chennai in Tamil Nadu and when I move to Chennai, the "R" symbol appears.).

So, you don't have to worry. You wont be charged. And it doesn't drain your battery. And you can keep your mobile data on, it wont make any difference if you are in roaming or not.
Mobile Data wont charge you extra.


If a paid app stops working, can I get my money back? For example, the application Say it right! is using the Forvo third-party service. I guess the app can stop working eventually (for example if the API changes, or if the third-party service terms change)

Are paid apps purchased from the Google Play store supposed to work for lifetime?

Edit: The previous example costs 1 euro, and obviously if it stops working that would be no big deal. But the same applies for apps that cost 20 euros or more. I wouldn't be happy if an expensive app stops working after 3 months, and I'm curious if Google has a policy for this on its Play store.

Help section of Google Play Store (accessible from Google Play Store menu button on left > help and feedback> search for returns and refunds> Apps and games refunds) relevant to your question, says (emphasis mine)

  After 2 hours or more,Contact the developer
  If Google Play's 2-hour return period has passed, the developer is responsible for deciding if you are eligible for a refund. Contact the app developer directly and ask for a refund. You can find an app developer's contact information listed on an app or game's detail page on Google Play. For instructions, go to help with an Android app or game.

(Edit: 11 Mar 20 - just saw that it is 48 hours not 2 hours to claim the refund. I don't know when it changed)

So, it's obvious that the refund request approval rests with app developer and if the developer doesn't respond, it further says

  Optional: Contact Google
  If the developer hasn't helped, Google may be able to. Contact our support team for help solving your problem.

Reading between the lines, there is no obligation for developer to refund. Further, no where does a developer give a "life-time" guarantee, for that matter no software can guarantee that. It is simply not possible to do that for obvious reasons.

To sum it up, I don't think you are within your rights to assume and ask for a refund as in your case

Edit: In response to your edit, the answer still is the same, but the developer may be more inclined (guessing) to work on an update and release that to fix the problem occurring in three months, since other users would also be affected and would adversely impact his rating on Play Store, which they are quite sensitive to. Mailing him in this case may be the best option, with app /system logs and crash logs if any


Can not boot, mount, wipe, change file systems on android I had a Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2 with stock rom so i decided to flash a custom rom 7.1 Nougat by developer ishant (he has done a nice work).

I flashed it and it worked fine, but since it had some bugs like (dual sim not working and after logged out from Play Store, could not log back in because Play Store keep'd crashing). I decided to reinstall stock rom 4.4.x . But could not do that because i can not wipe, install, format, change file system or mount anything.

Every time i wanna try an option in TWRP Recovery its keep saying:

Unable to mount /system
Unable to mount /data
Unable to mount /cache
Unable to mount /efs
Unable to mount /preload.

Of course it does not boot.

On Wipe -> (select anyone of: System, Data ect) -> Repair or Change File System. It does nothing and every of this options shows: Present: No, Size: 0MB, Free: 0MB, Used: 0MB, Backup Size: 0MB.

I am able to connect via adb.

Any idea is appreciated.

Thank you

Just flash the official ROM or the appropriate PIT file and custom recovery via Odin, then try booting the phone. It will work.


Is there any way to Tether through wifi? I have a desktop without a wifi card. Can I tether my computer to the phone but the data should go through wifi rather than the plan?

I want  PC - USB -> Android phone - Wi-Fi -> internet

There's an app called Easy Tether (XDA questions about doing it) which can do that. You basically just set up USB tethering and disable the "use LTE" or "use 3G" settings, to force it to fall-back to wifi. Personally it seems a bit silly to do that, when a $10 wifi adapter that plugs into the PC with USB would likely work better.. but yes, you can in theory do it.


Cannot access internet via Wi-Fi on YU Yureka running Lollipop I have a YU Yureka mobile which upgraded to Android Lollipop version. I have been regularly using my office's Wi-Fi connection. For some days, the phone is showing that Wi-Fi is connected, but I can't access the Internet through Wi-Fi. When I connect the phone to a Wi-Fi network, I can access Internet for 30 seconds and then my phone would hang and then restart automatically.

There are more than twenty employees in my office, but only my phone has this problem. I have done soft reset and hard reset to solve the issue. It  works perfectly for Mobile data network.

Does anyone know how to resolve this issue?

Tweaking the DNS might solve the issue. Go to Settings>>Wi-Fi and turn on the Wi-Fi. If the network is known, 'forget' it and then connect it back. Once the password window pops up, click on 'Advanced options' and select 'Static' from the IP settings drop-down menu. Then scroll down and enter the IP address of the DNS server you would like to use in DNS1 and DNS2 box. Now enter your Wi-Fi password and connect it.


View Installed Apps on particular Device on play.google.com Before the redesign of play.google.com (the website, not the Android app), there was a way of viewing what apps where installed on a device of yours and what apps where in your library but not installed on the specific device.

After the redesign I have not been able to find this option to view your apps library broken down as such.

Is it still possible to view your apps library as two lists, one list of apps installed on a particular device and another of apps not installer on that device?

Luckily, this is possible again:

while logged in with your Google account, visit Playstore's your apps page (you can also reach this from your Google Dashboard, scrolling to Play Store, and hit the "view apps" link)
at the top of the page, you should see a "link" labeled "all apps". That's a drop-down, push it
now select the device you want to see the apps for.

Screenshot of the described drop-down (click image for larger variant)


Is my phone destroying my sd card? Recently, whenever I install an application on my phone, I get a notification: "blank SD card detected", then I will have to repair it using a computer.

I tried using another SD card but the problem persisted. I didn't have this problem before I rooted my phone. Instead, all media files will be deleted.

I tried formatting both the phone and the SD card (using Ubuntu), but the problem persisted. I installed an antivirus but it is useless.

Note: I have installed Link2SD to gain more space and I think it might be the problem: The ext2 partition works fine but the fat32 will always crash. I get:

  SD card blank or has unsupported file system.

I can format the SD card so it works but whenever I install anything the error will come back. What is the solution?

It seems like a very common problem among Android-based smartphones.
I had a Samsung S3 (or GT-i9300 if you prefer) and it burned six microsd cards...
I tried doing a factory reset (since I had a custom rom) but nothing changed. Thought it was the microsd manufacturer, so I began buying expensive and faster cards but, again, nothing changed. Then I returned the phone to Samsung but they told me nothing was wrong.
After nine months of memory cards being broken at a speed unknown by human race, I decided to sell the S3 and move to another company (Google and their various Nexus products): I don't have the chance to expand the memory with an external card, but at least I don't have to spend hundreds of dollars to buy new sds xD

BTW the only reason I can think of is that moving an app to the sd requires the phone to continually read data from the card, causing an over-heating situation that damages it...


Need help fixing system problems after downloading Lollipop 5.0 upgrade for Note 3 today My device is a Galaxy Note 3. I was prompted to download a new system upgrade late last night (Lollipop 5.0). I clicked proceed and went to bed. I woke to find two recurring system errors, first being "Unfortunately, System UI has stopped", and "Unfortunately, Package Access Helper has stopped".

The phone will allow for sending and receiving of text messages and emails, I can also call out. No notifications show up on my phone even though I hear them come in; the Phone rings when someone calls but I cannot see who it is or answer it; Background screen is black; none of the phones buttons work either (aside from the power button). Research shows people with similar issues have cleared app caches (didnt work), or done a factory reset (would prefer not to). Does anyone have a solution?

I found some people who suggested wiping cache data instead of factory reset.  Did that just now and it's working great, with no loss of data!

Power off.
Power on in recovery mode (this is for the Note 3) by holding down the power, home and volume up buttons until the screen flickers.   I got red messagesaying Booting to Recovery partition or something like that... you get a list of items.
Select Wipe Cache Partition using the volume buttons to move up or down. Power button to select.   It took maybe 5 seceonds to wipe the cache.
Select Reboot.

And my phone is back!


How can I wake up my Nexus One using trackball? I have Nexus One and the power button stopped working. It's a known issue but I'm not in USA and I can't get it fixed since I got it from there. Is there any way that I could wake it up without using the power button and without rooting the phone?

You can try using AnyUnlock from the android market. it is free and lets you set any button be the button to turn the device on. It has been tested exclusively for the Nexus One.

Actually, I read further in the description, the trackball can no longer be used as of gingerbread.


I've exceeded my unlock attempts (10). Is there any way to unlock my phone? Due to AT&T being a horrible company, I believe the customer "service" has led me through more than my allotted attempts at unlocking my phone. Because my phone was refurbished, the attempts may have already all have been used. I believe my phone is now "Hard Locked"

Anyhow, my contract is over but I'd love to keep using my galaxy s3 on a different network. Is there any way to reset the unlock counter so I can unlock my phone? I'm willing to pay for an unlock code or go through the process of rooting my phone if necessary.

If your sim card is locked then you can just remove it and put another one in.
If the phone itself is locked, you can do a factory-reset by using the recovery, hold power, home, volume-up until you get to the recovery screen and choose the factory reset option.


How to fix file permissions on Android 5 so that a certain app can access certain files? Background: I had a rooted Nexus 4 with Android 4.4.4 that was working well. Then I got the notification to update to Android 5. To this end, I flashed the stock recovery for Android 4.4.4 from Google and started the upgrade (but I did not unroot the phone, maybe this was a mistake). The upgrade process itself went smoothly. After the upgrade, I re-flashed TWRP 2.8.2 and re-rooted with SuperSU 2.36, and made a backup.

Then, I realised that some data (photos, E-Books, …) were missing. Well, not actually missing, but located under a spurious "0" directory (/storage/emulated/0/0). Additionally, when I attempted to access my E-Book-Folder directly with FBReader, it told me there were insufficient permissions to access the directory.

First, I tried the "Fix Permissions" button in TWRP, but that put me in a boot loop. After restoring the backup, I used the TWRP file manager to move all data from the spurious "0" directory to where they belong and deleted the now empty "0" directory. Rebooting once again brought up the "Optimizing apps" screen, but only for 7 apps. Now I can access my E-Books again, but still no (old) photos in the Google photos app. Photographs taken after the backup show up fine. With the file manager or the terminal, I can access all photos just fine once I call setenforce 0. The permissions shown by ls -Z /storage/emulated/0/DCIM/Camera look alike on all photos, both visible and invisible in the photos app: -rw-rw---- root sdcard_r u:object_r:fuse:s0. So my guess is that there is some additional SELinux permission I have to set on the older image files so the photo app can access them. Therefore my question is: what permission concepts are at work here, and what commands are necessary to assign files/directories to a certain app? Thanks.

Update: I just found out I can take new pictures only with setenforce 0, so there has to be some major SELinux breakage somewhere.

Try using Supersu 2.49 beta for Lollipop (LP) 5.0.

Do a full unroot first.

I have LP 5.0 Touchwiz on my Samsung tab with SElinux enforcing and functioning root. The Supersu version in your recovery can probably be replaced by unpacking your recovery with any number of methods and/or tool-sets, and replacing the archive. The better approach would be to update your recovery if one is available. Also, fix permissions scripts need a different/new approach as of Android 5.0.

This is my imperfect fix permissions script for my other Samsung tab running LP 5.1.1:

#!/system/bin/sh
mount -o rw,remount /system
find -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find -type d -name '.*' -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find -type f -name '.*' -exec chmod 644 {} \;
find -type f -name '.su' -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find -type f -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find -type f -name '*.h' -exec chmod 644 {} \;
find -type f -name '*.a' -exec chmod 644 {} \;
find -type f -name '*.o' -exec chmod 644 {} \;
find -type f -name '*.so' -exec chmod 644 {} \;
find -type f -name '*.so.*' -exec chmod 644 {} \;
find -type f -name '*.c' -exec chmod 644 {} \;
find -type f -name '*.cpp' -exec chmod 644 {} \;
find -type f -name '*.cgf' -exec chmod 644 {} \;
find -type f -name '*.xml' -exec chmod 644 {} \;


What is the difference between running/installing cm7 off SD and EMMC for Nook Color? I'm trying to decide whether I want to run CM7 off a SD card or run it off the EMMC (internal memory) for my Nook Color. I'm just not getting what is happening when I run off an SD card and when I run it off the EMMC. Also, the install instructions are confusing me. Here are two popular ones that people are using, I am wondering if someone care to explain to me what is actually different between the two. Thanks.

SD:
http://www.androidtablets.net/forum/nook-color-technical/13156-how-cm7-bootable-sd.html

EMMC:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1030227

Thanks!

Since the SD Cards are slower than internal NAND memory, by running a ROM off the SD  you will be sacrificing on the speed.  Things like booting up and launching apps will be noticeably slower.  The class rating of your SD Card will play a large role in how much slower your NC will feel when running in such configuration.  It's generally recommended to buy at least a Class 6 card for this purpose.

By running custom ROMs from the SD Card you will be able to easily keep the original manufacturer installed firmware intact.  In Nook Color the SD Card is set as a primary boot device, so if it contains a bootable ROM image, it will be used instead of whatever is installed on EMMC.  By just inserting such a card into the microSD slot and turning the NC on, you will be running a custom ROM.  Boot up without this card - and you're back on the EMMC ROM, be it stock or a different custom one.  This can be quite beneficial for quickly testing out new experimental ROMs (e.g. Honeycomb builds) without blowing away your main one.

Although it's possible to multi-boot off EMMC without utilizing the SD Card at all, it's a lot more complicated to set up and maintain.  This involves re-partitioning the internal memory, using a custom boot image, and modifying the start-up scripts for each ROM you'd like to have installed side-by-side.  Needless to say, this type of installation is not for a novice.


Rooting again after installing LineageOS? After following the following steps:

rooting a motorola g3,
installing TWRP
wiping the phone (without micro-sd present) with TWRP
installing lineageOS
wiping the phone (without micro-sd present) with TWRP
Installing SlimOS
wiping the phone (without micro-sd present) with TWRP
Installing LineageOS
Installing Root checker basic
Finding it does not have proper root acces
Rebooting to fastboot>recovery>TWRP>Install
Installing http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3655401&d=1456122222 (as linked specifically for the Moto G 3 2015 generation here: https://motog5.net/unlock-bootloader-install-twrp-root-moto-g3/)*
Rebooting,
checking Root checker basic
Finding it does not have proper root access
Noticing this explanation: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=root+lineage&atb=v119-6&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=L8rwPV5ZhhA
enabling in debugging mode:
Root access for ADB and All apps
checking Root checker basic
Finding it does not have proper root access
Reboot in fastmode>TWRP>Install the supersu file
Reboot check in Root check basic whether root has been obtained, root has not been obtained.
Root access for ADB and All apps
checking Root checker basic
Finding it does not have proper root access
Reboot in fastmode>TWRP>Install the supersu file
It does not give a red error bar but it reads:

  Boot image patcher

  Finding boot image
  --- Boot image:/ /dev/block/mmcblk0p31
  Extracting ramdisk
  Decrompressing ramdisk
  Checking Patch status
  Creating Backup
  Patching sepolicy
  --- Failure, aborting

  Important notice

  If TWRP offers to install SuperSU do NOT Let it!

I thought perhaps the supersu file needs to be changed since now it is for a LineageOS in stead of for the MOTO G3 2015 edition stock android, so I tried the following 3 files as well:

From:
https://www.lineageosrom.com/2016/12/how-to-enable-root-in-lineage-os-using.html
TO:
https://www.lineageosrom.com/2017/01/download-supersuzp-and-su-removalzip.html
To:
https://download.lineageos.org/extras

https://mirrorbits.lineageos.org/su/addonsu-15.1-arm-signed.zip
https://mirrorbits.lineageos.org/su/addonsu-15.1-arm64-signed.zip
https://mirrorbits.lineageos.org/su/addonsu-15.1-x86-signed.zip

Only the 3d did not give a red error.

So as much of a trivial challenge it may appear to be, I was curious if anyone can point out which mistake I am making in trying to give the device root-access again. Other suggestions are welcome as well!

*Note, this was also the file that allowed me to root it the first time.

As you've already found out, LineageOS has its own, built-in, lightweight SU solution (addonsu), which is the only one supported officially (the team does not adore Magisk/SuperSU).

Note that officially LOS only provides 14.1 builds for your device. Assuming that's the version you're running, using the addonsu for 15.1 you will naturally bump into problems. As indicated in the source, your device is an arm one, so use addonsu-14.1-arm-signed.zip instead.

Magisk/SuperSU are reported by other users to work well enough, but you will need newer packages that work with higher Android versions, and the one you initially used (SuperSU 2.62) isn't enough.


2X Parallels Client App - Too Many Shortcuts! Without going into too much painstaking detail, I'm connecting to a 2X server setup remotely on my Android phone (LG Nexus 5X) using the official Parallels 2X client app from the Google Play store.

It works well enough, but every time I log in to my work servers... the app creates a shortcut on my home screen for every application link we have, of which there are a ton.  Pages worth.  If I don't remove them, the client just keeps piling copies of the shortcuts on top of shortcuts on top of shortcuts. It's a huge mess, and I have to manually delete each shortcut one by one every time I log in to clean up my home screen.

Is there any system-wide setting on the Android OS (v7.0) to not allow apps to create shortcuts (not just when they install, I know how to disable that, but in general)?  Or perhaps anyone with knowledge on the official Parallels 2X client app might know how to stop this?  Thanks!

As far as I can tell, you only have the possibility to block an app from creating a shortcut on install.
I believe that it's against Googles Playstore rules to spam the user with such shortcuts. You can try to contact the developer and if they don't react you can contact Google.

[edit]
Additional information:
How to Block Third Party Apps from Creative Spam Shortcuts on Home Screen?


Google Hangouts keeps history regardless of settings I use Hangouts to chat with friends. As I don't want to keep history, I set it to be turned off.
So whenever I chat, in the input line I see a constant message of "History is turned off".

However, when I open Hangouts again, I can see messages that were sent days ago.

A simple question: how can I see older messages with history disabled?

The history setting only affects messages as they are sent. Turning history off doesn't delete old messages that were sent while history was turned on. If you want to delete your old messages as well as stopping new messages being saved, you can do this with Delete in the chat's menu (or Delete history in the web-based client).


Can I bypass the Google Verification on my Huawei Mate 8? I just bought a Huawei Mate 8 and I can't set it up due to the Google account verification in the setup process. I've messaged the seller asking for the account details but he doesn't know. I don't have an OTG cable or USB and I need a way to get past this so I can do a full reset of the phone. Please help! (This is different to the other questions as the factory reset option still leaves me with the same problem with FRP and I can't use ADB because I can't enable USB debugging)

Pretty much every phone can do factory reset while turned off, try this:

Turn off the Mate.
Press and hold at the same time: Volume Up + Home button + Power button, until you see Huawei logo.
Then select from Recovery Mode menu “wipe data / factory reset” using Volume buttons to navigate and Power button to confirm.
Select “Yes — delete all user data” to confirm the whole operation.
After that select option “reboot system now”.


How do I keep capitalization I put in? My Galaxy S7 switches it to lower case If I capitalize in a text message, my Galaxy S7 changes it to lower case.  It works fine with most names, etc. and leaves the upper case, but common words, like Stone Mountain (a town in GA), it keeps changing the s and the m to lower case.  Same problem with Piper my dog.  Note:  This is NOT the first letter of a text problem - I've found that the spurious space at the beginning of the message causes that.

Being that autocorrect is on, your keyboard will naturally change words to lower case when it sees fit. Being that the examples you gave, are regular words which are written in lower case,  the keyboard will not differentiate between the times that you mean to write the name of a city or just an English word. As for your dogs name, i would imagine that you wrote it once and now it's saved in lower case

Here are two things to try:

Add the upper case word to your keyboard dictionary.
To add a word to your Swipe keyboard, all you have to do is write the word a few times, and the keyboard will get used to it.

In your case you should type the word 'Stone' in upper case, and before you press on the space bar, press on the word on the suggestion bar where the word appears in orange font (as shown in the screenshot). Do this 2-3 time for each word. This way the keyboard will "learn" the word, and will not correct it next time.

Remove the lower case word from the keyboard dictionary.
Type the word in question, then before pressing the space bar, long press on the word in the suggestion bar and select 'remove'. After successfully removing the word from the dictionary write it again in upper case, and you should have an option to add it to the dictionary. If there is no such option, then write the word a few times in upper case till the keyboard 'learns' that this is how you want it.

Note: from now on, when you write the word mountain it will automatically turn into upper case even if you didn't mean to write the name of the city.

Hope this helps.


I am looking for a simple way to translate words highlighted in the browser This is my use case: I'm trying to improve my Spanish so I've started reading Spanish-language newspapers in the browser on my phone. What I'd like to do is this: when I need a word or phrase translated to English, highlight the text, hit the settings button, and have a translate option show up. Or something comparably simple.

Currently the only options that show up under settings when a word is highlighted are: Share, Find, Web Search

I have Google Translate installed and I realize that I could copy the highlighted text and then paste it into that app, but I'd prefer something that didn't require jumping between apps.

You describe the options displayed with a word highlighted including "Share". Behind this item hides an entire menu, the so-called "Share menu", where many apps plug themselves in as receivers for compatible content. A highlighted word might serve as such content for several things -- e.g. a web search (so Google Search could pick it), send by mail/SMS, or -- the interesting part here -- some dictionary/translator app. While I'd suspect Google Search could cover that as well, I want to give you another interesting idea:

ColorDict Dictionary Wikipedia is an app that can be used for online and offline "word lookup" in dictionaries, be it translation, synonyms, or definitions. The app supports a bunch of dictionaries for offline use, as well as several online dictionaries and, the name suggests it, Wikipedia. If it integrates with the "Share menu" (which I guess it does), this would make the perfect candidate for you:

ColorDict (source: Google Play; click images for larger variants)


Install USB host drivers on Android ICS I have a Desire HD running a custom rom: Android ICS 4.0.4. I ran USB Host Diagnostics software and connected my camera through a USB OTG cable but the phone does not detect the camera. I am thinking the ICS rom that I have on does not include the USB Host drivers. Can I install them on my phone in any other ROM or do I need to install a different ROM?

This doesn't belong here, but that aside...

You don't really "install" the drivers. The framework needed for USB OTG is often found in custom kernels, you should be looking there.

This question is also probably best asked on the forum thread of the custom ROM you flashed. A quick look at your device's forum on XDA shows a fully working stock-based Custom ROM that supports USB OTG out of the box.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2204384

I'd start with that.


How to turn off Samsung Galaxy a3 if the screen doesnt work? How do I turn it off? My screen is not broken it just stopped working and i tried to restart it by pressing the on/off button and volume down-button but it didnt work.

Thanks for you if you can help me!

If you know what adb is and how to use it, you can run adb shell reboot -p

If not, you can install the following drivers, and extract the following zip file anywhere. Once done, enable USB debugging, plug your phone in your computer, and double-click on adbprompt.bat. You're going to see the following text in a command prompt:

Portable ADB Interface - v0.2 Public BETA
Packaged by Kickface of xda-developers forums

adb

Simply type shell reboot -p. When done, close the window.

For the sake of simplicity, you can, if you want, remove the battery instead. Generally it doesn't break anything.


Using an Android phone like a SIP ATA I would like to get a few Android phones functioning as a SIP ATA so I can make and receive calls via SIP. I realize one could use Bluetooth to pair with something like Asterisk, but I had high hopes there might be a standalone application that would transform it into an ATA. Is there something out that that will allow me to do this?

Edit: Yep, searched Play Store nothing to be found unfortunately.

There is a SIP client built right into your phone (Gingerbread and above). You can find this either in general settings, or in settings for the phone dialer app.

E.g. in Jellybean:

go to the phone dialer page (as if you were going to make a call)
choose the menu (bottom right vertical "...")
tap Settings
Scroll down to "Accounts" and tap it.
enter your SIP account info.

Simple as that!

Depending on what SIP service you're connecting to, you may find yourself in the world of codecs. The built-in dialer will try to use the following codecs:

GSM-EFR
AMR
GSM
G711u
G711a

If you're using regular an Asterisk-based SIP server, then it will mostly likely end up using G711 (aka ULAW). I'm still experimenting, but so far I've had more luck with GSM and was able to tweak my Asterisk server to use that instead. If you're using a 3rd party service, then chances are they've enabled GSM already.

That said, I did use CSipSimple to get as far as I did. It allows easy selection of which codecs will be used when (WiFi vs 3/4G), so it made debugging much simpler. (Btw, their store version is quite old at the time I'm writing this. You can also download daily builds and try those.)


Recovering a Missed Call I just received a call today, but my phone locked up during the call, and when I went to the missed call list, the number didn't show up.  Is there any way to somehow recover the number that was calling?

Your network provider may provide a "Last Number Redial/Called" or "Call Alert" service.

This is usually a number that you call that will tell you the phone number of the last incoming call to your phone, or can often be implemented as a service that you can turn on and off (again, usually by calling a number or issuing a USSD code) which will inform you in some way (usually by text message) of missed calls.

For example, in the UK, O2 used to have a number, 1471, that you could call to hear an automated voice message telling you the number of the last person that called your phone.  Unfortunately, they have withdrawn that service however, they have replaced it with a free "Call Alert" text message service.

Note that there is no universal mechanism to retrieve the number of the last person that called you, if you no longer have (or never had) that information saved within your phones own call log.

Each of these services is specific to your mobile network provider who may or may not even offer such a thing.  If the last number that called you is truly missing from your phones own call log, you may try to get in contact with your network provider to see if they offer a service as described here.  Also note, though, that even if they do offer such a service, it'll usually only retain the very last number that called, so if someone else calls you in the meantime, the number that you're seeking will probably be lost.


Ffmpeg options for Android? What ffmpeg options should I use to make video playable on Android Phone (specifically, LG Optimus)? I tried various bitrate and codecs and all combinations I came up with doesn't work (tried theora, mpeg4, h264).

No luck with avi mpg4/mp3 codec? Plays like a charm on my HTC Desire w/ Froyo 2.2
You could also try another encoder, "SUPER" [1] for example. IMHO "Rockplayer" [2] is the best player for the android platform at the moment.

Hope that helps.

[1] http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

[2] http://rockplayer.freecoder.org/index_en.html


Repeated 'Force Close' and no signal - my device is unusable I have an Android Galaxy S2, running CyanogenMod 7. I was normally using my phone, in a middle of using Waze while driving when suddenly I started getting 'Force Close' messages like this:

  Sorry!
  The process com.android.phone has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again.

I get bombarded by these messages, for lots of different processes like com.android.phone, android.process.com.acore. If I try to run an app (in the milliseconds of intervals between these messages), they usually close immediately with their processes generating more 'Force Close' messages.
In addition, the phone has no signal at all.

Tried to find solutions online, but couldn't come up with anything other than trying to remove my SD Card, but that didn't help. Resetting obviously didn't help. I would appreciate any suggestion you can offer.

Your mention of 'reset' is a little unclear, if it's:

You did a reboot and it's still broken:
it might be broken settings, but that's not easy to debug and fix manually
BACKUP via recovery first!
Do a Wipe Dalvik Cache via Recovery
Else, reinstall your current ROM & Google Apps, maybe this helps
See what adb logcat outputs during boot/runtime, maybe this sheds some light
(hacky, via adb shell) You can also forcibly rename /system/app/Phone.apk to Phone.apk.off and reboot, then do a backup of all needed stuff and then reinstall your rom & GApps
If all that doesn't help, consider wiping.
Titanium Backup Pro allows extracting backups from your saved Nandroid dump (from step 1)
Fully wiped and still not better:
has to be something different than settings, either a faulty Rom or a hardware issue
BACKUP via recovery first!
Install CM7.2 (see last sentence), wipe cache & dalvik cache via recovery

PS: CM7.2 is out since June 16, 2012.


Using Tasker to know if I'm at work for more than a minute I use Tasker's Wifi Near option to activate some tasks in my phone when I arrive at my workplace. My problem is that sometimes I pass by my workplace, with no intention of entering, and the tasks get activated.

Is there a way to make Tasker activate the tasks IF I've been near my workplace's wifi spots for more than a minute?

Use Tasker › Wait in the task. When your WiFi near fired, just have it waiting for e.g. 5min, then exit if no longer WiFi near, otherwise continue with your task.

You could also bring variables into play, e.g. setting %STAYATWORK to 1 if the WiFi is still in reach after the wait, and have your other tasks using that as context. In this case, don't forget to reset %STAYATWORK to 0 (or unset it) if the WiFi is no longer in reach :)


Slide to answer is not working on HTC Wildfire S When trying to answer an incoming call, the slide up to answer never works! It moves, but doesn't actually pick up the call. Is there any way to change this??

At android 2.3.3 you have to slide up/down the bar trying to move out of the screen.

If you update the phone to Android 2.3.5 given by HTC the lock screen changes to

were you have to move the green/red phone in the down grey ring, which may solve your problem.


How can I use Public Key Authentication for SFTP in ES File Explorer? I want to use SFTP to transfer files from Android to a Linux box using Public Key authentication rather than a traditional user name and password.  Ideally I would like to use ES File Explorer (as I use it for everything else).

Can anyone tell me how to generate a suitable public/private key pair to allow ES File Explorer to authenticate with the SFTP server?

When I try to connect to an SFTP server using a Private Key, I can select a file containing the key, but when I click OK, I get the message "Error, cannot find the SFTP(mysite.com) server".
I know that ES File Explorer is capable of using SFTP because it worked when I was using password authentication. Now that I have switched passwords off on the server, it reports "Login fails. This may be caused by: Auth fail", which is pretty much what I would expect.
I know that the Android phone still has connectivity to the SSH server, because I can connect to it using Connectbot with Public Key authentication.
I know that SFTP is still working over SSH, because I can connect to it and transfer files using BitKinex running on a PC.
CLARIFICATION: I am not running a firewall on the Android phone.
CLARIFICATION: When the phone fails to connect, the SFTP server logs Received disconnect from my.ip.ad.dr: 3: com.jcraft.jsch.JSchException: Auth fail [preauth]

I have successfully authenticated with the server using 2048-bit keys generated by PuTTY KeyGen, both in PuTTY's .ppk format (in PuTTY itself) and exported to OpenSSH format (for BitKinex).  These keys didn't work; neither did exporting them to SSH.com format.  I've also got OpenSSH / OpenSSL available on the Linux box as an alternative for key generation.  Connectbot manages its own keys, but doesn't seem to be able to export the private key (option greyed out).

I guess the problem could either be that I am using the wrong key file format, or that I've got the wrong options set on the key itself.  I haven't been able to find any instructions in the ES File Explorer documentation or on Google.

It ought not to make a difference, but I am using a Huawei Ascend P2 with Android 4.1.2.  It is not rooted (and I'm not going to). The linux box is a Raspberry Pi with OpenSSH 6.0p1 Debian-4+deb7u2.

Your question made me try to use the same configuration.

Solution

Generate your key pair in OpenSSH key file format, I used my linux workstation:

 ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "KEYNAME"

(I left passphrase empty but I think it will work with it too, add the public key to your host:

 cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

(Assuming that's the same machine you want to connect to)
Copy private key id_rsa to your phone and use that one. :)

I found the clue on logcat:

 W/System.err(27250): com.jcraft.jsch.JSchException: invalid privatekey: /sdcard/key.ppk

and this answer brought me in the right direction.

How to copy private key from connectBot export workaround

Only private keys without passphrase can be copied, so you can change password and set it empty, this key is NOT compatible with ES File Explorer.


New icons do not display consistently I just added Nova Launcher and an icon pack to my phone. The new icons appear for some of my apps, but not all; I can't spot a pattern that determines which is which. (See screenshot below.) I don't do a lot of phone customization, so I'm not sure how to troubleshoot. How should I fix this problem?

Click image for larger version

This is probably because the icon pack you installed does not have an icon for those apps. Icon packs only include app icons for certain apps and clearly the one you've installed does not cover many common apps. If you download another icon pack you may find that includes more icons for the apps you have installed.

Another option would be to contact the developer of the icon pack you have installed and request that they include an icon for the extra apps.

If the icon pack does include an icon for the app but for whatever reason it doesn't change, you can do this manually.

Long press on the app icon
In the menu that appears, click on 'Edit'
Click on the icon in the popup
You should then be able to see all available icons, from which you can select the one you wish to use for that app.

This will change the icon everywhere within the launcher (i.e. app drawer and home screens).


How to force browsers not to reload recently seen page after resume? When I visit a website then switch to another app, then switch back to the browser the page is reloaded which I have just seen. It happens not just with builtin browser - I also tried Opera Mini and Maxthon.

How can I keep the recently seen page after resuming the browser?

You can't prevent that. If the system (or App) reload the content, this is because it has decided to reload it. There is no option to prevent that.

But you can create your own browser that will handle the resume as you want ;)


GPS Chip manufacturers and infos on Android tablets I'm working on some GPS tracking apps on Android tablets. We found out that depending on the type of phone / tablet we use, we can have results ranging from really accurate to really bad.

Those tests were conducted on the same track, with GPS only location - so I'm pretty sure the GPS chip quality is of great importance in those results differences.

Is there any way to access GPS chips manufacturers or infos depending on device models ? An app, command ... any means.

I didn't find anything up to date over the internet.

Thing is : nowadays gps modules in mobile devices get embedded with other components such as gpu / cpu / wifi receiver / ....

So what you have to do is googling for "cpu details Galaxy Tab 10.1" for example, and then see what's included in this particular kind of chip.

Anyway I started a list for my own personal use, feel free to use / amend it : https://github.com/mhicauber/android-devices-gps-chip-manufacturers


How can I remove the lock icon from Android lockscreen? Here is an image for reference. I want to remove the three arrows that are pointing upwards. I have no problem with rooting my device. I just don't know where to find these thumbnails and delete them. Can anyone help me to locate them?Will their deletion pose any issues?

The app is native keyguard.apk and the image files are under system/priv-app/keyguard.apk/res/drawable/ic_blinkscr_midbright.png

I have download root explorer but it does not show any option to delete the file. It just shows open and extract option. I have no idea how to delete it.

As you've already found the resource file to the arrow inside the APK, all you need to do now is to replace it with a transparent one. Root or custom recovery is required, and custom recovery is personally recommended, because there is a slight possibility that this will throw you into a bootloop, so having a backup in recovery prior to mods would be handy.

Sometimes simply extracting the APK, replacing it and repackaging it could work (this has been the case for me for simple framework mods). If custom recovery is available, trying this is fast and won't hurt.

The safer way is to decompile the package while keeping its signature. Virtuous Ten Studio is a friendly way to get your hands on this without getting lost in the command lines of APKTool - the site also has simple tutorials.

After modification and repackaging, overwrite the original one and set correct permissions (usually rw-r--r-- (0644)). Reboot for changes to take effect.

And at last - do not simply delete the file, or whenever the file is used, the app will error out, possibly leaving you with endless Force Close dialogs.


How to set default apps on Samsung Galaxy S II + Android 4.0 (ICS) On stock Android and 2.x ROMs on SGS2, default apps could be set in Settings -> Applications. However, when I go there with the ICS ROM, I don't see where I can set which default applications for certain actions.

Where are these settings found in SGS2 with Android 4.0?

Go to SETTINGS > MANAGE APPLICATIONS or APPS (depending on your ROM and version). Scroll through the list of apps and tap on an app that is the default for some action. This will bring up the app's properties that show the size of the app and other relevant stuff.

If the app is set as the default for a particular action - the CLEAR DEFAULT button will be active, else it'll be grayed out.

As an alternative - check out Default App Manager - it's an app that has similar functionality.


ViPER4Android not processing After a couple of times of trying many solutions I found on the internet, I still couldn't fix the problem.  I think, I have tried almost everything.

Actually, before this problem, I also have one more problem, which is now fixed.  That problem is that the Driver Status is "Abnormal", and the Audio Format is "Unsupported", like this:

Driver Version: 2.5.0.4
NEON Enabled: No
Enabled: No
Status: Abnormal
Audio Format: Unsupported
Processing: No
Sampling Rate: 0

Well, that problem is fixed now (solution here), but I still got a problem.

ViPER4Android is not processing, even if I'm playing a song.  I'm pretty sure that the music player that I'm using is supported.  I am using Google Play Music as my music player.

The problem is that, whatever I change (a setting) on ViPER4Android, it is still the same.  It doesn't do anything, but the stock equalizer does.  The stock equalizer is still working, which should be not.

Here is the driver status:

Driver Status: 2.5.0.4
NEON Enabled: Yes
Enabled: Yes
Status: Normal
Audio Format: Supported
Processing: No
Sampling Rate: 48000

Some things you might ask:

Have you tried turning it off and on again? (ViPER4Android):   Yes.
Have you tried turning it off and on again? (Android device):   Yes.
Have you tried disabling the stock equalizer? :   I "tried", but it didn't work.
What sites have you found on the internet for solutions? :   I can't remember 'cause there are a lot, but it's mostly on XDA.
Have you flashed a flashable zip? :   Yes.
What device are you using? :   See below.

Device:

  Device:   Samsung Galaxy J7 Core

  Model Number:   SM-J701F/DS

  Android version:   7.0 Nougat

  ROM:   Stock ROM

  Recovery: TWRP

  Rooted:   Of course!

The issue is found on "audio_effects.conf", which contains unnecessary things that needs to be removed and some to be changed, in order for it to worked.

For Samsung devices, "audio_effects.conf" is found in /system/etc.

Remove these:
Libraries:
output_session_processing {
  path /vendor/lib/libLifevibes_lvverx.so
}

mysound {
  path /system/lib/libmysound.so
}

myspace {
  path /system/lib/soundfx/libmyspace.so
}

soundalive {
  path /system/lib/libaudiosa.so
}

soundalive_sec {
  path /system/lib/soundfx/libaudiosaplus_sec.so
}

soundbooster_plus {
  path /system/lib/libsamsungSoundbooster_plus.so
}

Effects:
soundalive {
  library soundalive_sec
  uuid cf65eb39-ce2f-48a8-a903-ceb818c06745
}

lmfv {
  library output_session_processing
  uuid 989d9460-413d-11e1-8b0d-0002a5d5c51b
}

fens {
    library output_session_processing
    uuid cbcc5980-476d-11e1-82ee-0002a5d5c51b
}

dha {
  library mysound
  uuid 263a88e0-50b1-11e2-bcfd-0800200c9a66
}

sa3d {
  library myspace
  uuid 3462a6e0-655a-11e4-8b67-0002a5d5c51b
}

soundbooster_plus {
  library soundbooster_plus
  uuid 50de45f0-5d4c-11e5-a837-0800200c9a66
}

Output Session Processing:
output_session_processing {
  music {
      sa3d {}
  }

  ring {
      sa3d {}
  }

  voice_call {
      fens {}
      lmfv {}
  }

  sec_voice_communication {
      fens {}
      lmfv {}
  }
}

Change these:
Libraries:
From:
pre_processing {
  path /vendor/lib/libLifevibes_lvvetx.so
}

To:
pre_processing {
  path /system/lib/soundfx/libaudiopreprocessing.so
}

Effects:
From:
bassboost {
  library soundalive
  uuid a926a540-418a-11e1-b2f1-0002a5d5c51b
}

To:
bassboost {
  library bundle
  uuid 8631f300-72e2-11df-b57e-0002a5d5c51b
}

From:
virtualizer {
  library soundalive
  uuid c747f6a0-418a-11e1-a621-0002a5d5c51b
}

To:
virtualizer {
  library bundle
  uuid 1d4033c0-8557-11df-9f2d-0002a5d5c51b
}

From:
equalizer {
  library soundalive
  uuid c117b70-f97f-11e0-be50-0002a5d5c51b
}

To:
equalizer {
  library bundle
  uuid ce772f20-847d-11df-bb17-0002a5d5c51b
}

For Samsung devices, after doing those things above, also copy the modified "audio_effects.conf" to /system/vendor/etc.


App2sd - Changing the SD Card I plan to purchase a new micro SD card for my phone, I use app2SD for most of my programs, so what I wonder is what will happen if I get the new SD card, will I be able to copy the content of the old card onto the new card and still operate the phone as if nothing was changed?

Yes, I did that myself, like this:

power the phone off and remove the old SD card
mount the old SD on a PC, copy its entire contents somewhere on your hard disk
mount the new SD card on a PC, format it as FAT or FAT32 (make sure it's the same file-system as the old one)
copy the contents of the old SD card onto the new one
insert the new SD card into the phone, power it on.


Android NIC MAC address changed automatically This is very puzzling but my android phone's NIC's MAC address seems to have changed on its own (or at least this is what it's showing).

I have a MAC filter in my LinkSys router and I have given access to only my computer and android phone. I had connected my phone to the access point just a few hours ago. When I tried to connect it now, I couldn't. So I rechecked the MAC filter list (FC:A1:3E:77:57:76) , and I surprisingly found it to be different from what my phone (FC:A1:3E:77:57:F7) was showing. Is this some bug in android? Does this happen? Or maybe the address in my router got changed (which isn't plausible).

PS: Please don't say that somebody must have broken into my router and changed it there, because that's not possible. I use WPA2, and anyways the signal cannot reach outside since outside is very far.

Edit: I guess it's a fault with my LinkSys router, since more weird things are happening. The router is assigning the same IP address to my computer and android phone. Can someone please migrate this question to Server Fault?

Problem is with your phone and not router. Your phones software keeps assigning new MAC addresses every time you turn your wifi on. If you are using MAC address filtering then it will need a static address.


I used Google Takeout, how do I remove this data? Google Chrome Bookmarks, extensions and history. I don't use chrome anymore.

Google Play library, I cleared it in google play but the installs.json and library.json are still huge and contain uninstalled apps.

And lastly all Google Play reviews I did.

(This is not off-topic, since it is about google play and chrome)

There's nothing much we can do except giving you a pointer: if you're an European citizen, GDPR article 17 gives you the right to demand erasure of your personal data. Quoting from paragraph 1:

  The data subject shall have the right to obtain from the controller the erasure of personal data concerning him or her without undue delay and the controller shall have the obligation to erase personal data without undue delay …

After that, a list of conditions follows. For your case, the very first one (a) should apply:

  the personal data are no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which they were collected or otherwise processed;

Some of the others might as well.

Summing up: if you want those data erased, you should reach out to Google demanding erasure according to Article 17 GDPR. To my knowledge, "without undue delay" is interpreted "ASAP" with a cap of maximum 30 days.


Accessibility option in Android 2.1 I own Xperia Mini Pro which has Android 2.1-update1.
I noticed Accessibility settings in my phones settings.
What are these settings and why these settings are required ?
I opened these Accessibility Settings. I can see an option "Accessibility" with a unchecked check box in disabled state. It always in disabled state. I don't know when it is going to be activated.

You need to install apps that are classified as "Accessibility Apps". The most used ones are part of the Eyes-Free suite (Talkback, Kickback, Soundback, Accessibility Preferences, Eyes-Free Shell, Talking Dialer, Rock Lock, Walky Talky, Intersection Explorer), plus several useful 3rd party apps such as IDEAL Web Reader, IDEAL Magnifier, and K9 Mail.

More info - https://eyes-free.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/documentation/android_access/enabling.html


local headphone enabled FM radio app for nexus 5 (no internet needed) I just moved from S3 to nexus 5, and there are a couple of things that I miss from my s3.. one is the prepackaged FM radio app.. all i needed was my headphones and I could connect directly to the local stations.. is there such an app for nexus 5 (and other android devices in general)? apps like tune in require wi-fi or 3g, which isn't what i'm looking for. I'm looking to be able to connect to the local radio on the go without 3g.

AFAIK, Nexus 5 does not have a FM radio (just checked the specs at GSMArena.com).

So, you cannot listen to your local FM broadcast and should rely only on online radio stations.


Android Emulator appears in strange UI I am trying to create and run an AVD from command line using Android's Command line tools.

This means I used the sdkmanager to download the following modules:

platform-tools
emulator
build-tools;29.0.2
platforms;android-29
system-images;android-29;default;x86_64

Afterwards I created an AVD using call avdmanager create avd --name android29 --package "system-images;android-29;default;x86_64" where I selected no for Do you wish to create a custom hardware profile? [no].

When launching the AVD using emulator @android29 and booting it up afterwards I get an old-fashioned bootscreen followed by an old-fashioned homescreen. The settings page however shows that Android 10 is in use.

What is the meaning or the reason of the old-fashioned looking UI?

This can be solved by using system-images;android-29;google_apis;x86_64 instead of "system-images;android-29;default;x86_64".


Nexus 5X Nethunter has no linux-headers for 3.10.73-Re4son-3.5 So, i rooted my Nexus 5X oreo 8.1, installed nethunter, all good so far. I bought an tp-link TL-WN722N v3(EU) and now i'm trying to make it work. I downloaded the drivers from tp-link website but i can't install them because when i use command 'make' it's say:
/lib/modules/3.10.73-Re4son-3.5/build: No such file or directory.
If i install linux-headers with:
apt-get install linux-headers-$(umane -r)
It's say: E:Unable to locate package
How can i install the Linux-headers  for rtl8188eu drivers?
Sorry for my bad english.

Check the output of uname -a then use the full name of the linux-headers-$VERSION.
You can get the available linux-headers through:
apt search linux-headers

Then intsall it:
sudo apt install linux-heasers-$VERSION


Which program allows remote management of Android devices? I have 50 Android tablets. I want to be able to control from a central place the following things on the devices:

General settings like date-time, unlock method, display sleep time etc;
Chrome specific things like clearing the history and cookies, saving bookmarks, setting the homepage etc;
The ability to install or uninstall apps on particular device or all of them.

So I need a mini SCCM for Android. Is there such a thing?

There are a number of Mobile Device Management services on the market, with varying focuses and feature sets.

Mainly mentioning this, as SCCM is mentioned in the question, but Microsoft's solution (that ironically is far better at managing iOS and Android devices than Windows Phone devices) is either InTune (1) (for a cloud-based subscription service) or SCCM MDM (2) (3) (if you're happy managing your own on-premises infrastructure servers).

A good round-up of current services can be found here: 10 BYOD mobile device management suites you need to know. That round-up includes AirWatch, AmTel MDM, Dialogs Smartman Device Management, Exitor DME, FancyFon, Fiberlink MaaS360, IBM Endpoint Manager, MobileIron, Symantec Mobile Management & Zenprise. I've trialled and had good experiences using three of those, and we're actively using one of them to manage BYOD devices at the moment, I think there are different winners depending on exactly what your needs are.


Blocking Adult Content I want to know how can I restrict access to adult content on my android phone
What. Are the apps available in play store and is there any other permanent way to restrict such content on my phone. So that no one can ever ever get access to this kind of content on my phone.

An easy solution would be changing the DNS server used by your device, by using a DNS server that doesn't resolve porn website hostnames.

You might need a rooted device to change the DNS.

An universal method to change the DNS is by using an app like SetDNS or  OverrideDNS.

Other methods for changing DNS is available here:
(GUIDE) How to Change DNS in Android Device (7 methods)

A few DNS servers that don't resolve porn websites are:

OpenDNS:
208.67.222.123
208.67.220.123
Norton:
199.85.126.20
199.85.127.20

More here:
Source - 5 DNS Services to Block Porn Sites without Installing Software


How to delete a misnamed file on Android? I’ve a file called like t0.t1 t2 t3 on my Android Device.

first it had a bad name from download and I tried to rename it. Something has to gone wrong. It was o1.o2 before.

I tried to rename it to something else - only o2 should be the same and t0-t3 the name before the file ending

Now the name is like above, but without file ending.

RootExplorer shows me the file like above (first line)
the custom ROM file explorer .o2.

I cannot rename, move or delete it.

Any ideas?

You could install ADB on your computer (part of the Android SDK), plug in the device then use the adb shell to delete the offending file. Something along the lines of,

$> adb shell
your-android-device> rm '/path/to/file'


Copying the youtube url Is there a way I could simply copy the url of a youtube video to the clipboard in android 4?

I discovered that it is possible if you install the Google drive app (13.5MB) which adds the option "Copy to clipboard" under the sharing options, but this seems a waste of space for what should be a simple functionality.

There are several options out there, but nothing native.  Share to Clipboard by Alexey Lyubeznov is a much smaller app than Google Drive - only 11 kb - and doesn't require any special permissions. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sharetoclipboard


Insufficient space to save data in my mobile Data is not saving or transferring to the memory card, and the phone memory shows no more space available to save data in phone.

It happens to me also. You can solve it very easily.

Go to file manager and open DCIM folder.
In DCIM folder you can find a hidden file named thumbnails. This should be a very large file. Delete that file.
Now check free space in your SD Card. (Thumbnails will be created automatically after deletion. So delete it every day to free space.)


What are the various ways an android phone can be locked? I ask this question because the confusing terminology of different types of "locked" and "unlocked" like rooted and not rooted, Sim-locking, FRP locks, lock screens, adb active debugging, and black listed phones, and even carrier locking. These are very confusing.
Can someone disambiguate this for me?

Rooting is the process to modify core OS components so that apps/processes can be run with high privileges (UID 0).
See details in How Magisk works? and How to manually root a phone?
Rooting is not itself locked or unlocked. But Unlocking Bootloader is usually a prerequisite. Bootloaders are the initial components which load on device boot. OEMs lock them so that to restrict any deliberate or malicious changes to core OS components.
See Is there a way to root an Android phone without unlocking the bootloader?
Initially it was possible to unlock bootloaders just by issuing one or more fastboot - Android's standard protocol to communicate with bootloader - (or equivalent) commands. However now many OEMs, including Google, add an extra layer over bootloader unlocking called OEM Unlock. It's a toggle switch in Developer Options (in Settings app) which is a prerequisite to bootloader unlocking. That is, a thief won't be able to unlock the bootloader and refresh the device to completely new state (e.g. by clearing FRP, see details below) until the screen lock is active.
Also some OEMs may require the user to get approval from OEM before bootloader unlocking, others may provide no option to unlock bootloader at all.
Screen Lock backed by a password or PIN or biometrics is the one we are all familiar with. It restricts unauthorized use of (at least many of) device features. On older devices this was only software-based. New devices provide hardware backends (like TEE and SE) to store credentials more securely.
Factory Reset Protection ties the Google (and/or OEM) account to the device. This info is saved to a secure place (usually a tiny partition) on the device and cannot be erased by doing factory reset, flashing ROM or flashing Factory Firmware. After Factory Reset user is asked to enter the previously entered account's credentials. So FRP is more focused on anti-theft protection. Some OEMs disable FRP when OEM Unlocking is enabled (but it doesn't matter when bootloader is unlocked).
Also some OEMs now go even beyond that, and they'd ask lockscreen or account credentials before performing Factory Reset.
SIM Lock can be either SIM Card Lock or another term for Carrier Lock. Former is independent of Android or the device it's being used in. SIMs are Secure Element chips i.e. they have their own processor and OS. You can set a PIN lock on SIM to restrict any unauthorized use.
Carrier Lock or Network Lock binds a phone (or some other device) to a carrier i.e. a service provider. This bond is usually a part of device purchase agreement, and may end after a fixed time period. There also exist ways to do Carrier Unlock, which may not be legitimate.
See How does carrier/network lock work? How is it implemented?.
Not sure in which context you are referring the term black listed phones. IMEI blacklisted? IMEI is device's unique ID which the carriers may use to block a device from using their services after the device is reported lost or stolen or involved in some misconduct. IMEI/ESN blacklisted phones might or might not be unlockable depending on the reason of locking, the carrier's policy, and the availability of unlocking hacks.
See this answer for some details on device identifiers.
ADB Debugging is Android's standard way to let ROM and app developers communicate with Android device from a PC over USB or Wi-Fi connection. End users may also use ADB shell (like any other UNIX shell) to issue commands. ADB has no direct relation with any (un)locking mechanism.


Why the F-Droid repository doesn't show latest version of Firefox to download? The latest version of Firefox available for download is v50.0 but on Play Store v52.0 is available.. Why F-droid doesn't show latest version?

Firefox (Browse the web) - https://f-droid.org/app/org.mozilla.firefox

https://f-droid.org/wiki/page/org.mozilla.firefox

F-Droid doesn't include Firefox anymore (*) but some builds from Firefox code, such as Fennec and Icecat.

(*) It is due some privacy concerns, Tracking, UpstreamNonFree and Non-free Addons

At the moment
Icecat 52.4.1

Fennec 56.0
Version code: 560020,560010,560000
Current scheme: XYZAR, where X.Y.Z is upstream version, A is architecture (0 = ARMv7, 1 = x86, 2 = ARMv8), R is revision (if we need to re-release)


How can I recover my phone (factory reset doesn't work)? My phone is Asus Zenfone 5 and I want to recover my phone but I can't because it always stucks in the screen with the Asus logo.
I've tried recovering it by using the factory data reset in the settings and a hard reset but it just stucks on the Asus logo.
I also have heard about recovering it on a computer but I couldn't find the link to download a suitable recovery version for my phone.
Notes:

I use Android 4.3.

My phone version is:

ASUS_T00J_WW_user_1.15.40.35_20140715_3835release-keys 010175_201401130121

Get factory firmware here. There are versions matching exactly what you have (scroll down below), though ideally you need the one that also matches your SKU (region). It should come with instruction and tools (I can't verify), report back if not.


Audible does not download audiobook on mobile data I'm using Audible for Android, and when I purchased a book, I'm not able to download it over mobile data.

I have ensured that background data is enabled both system-wide and for Audible, but Audible still would not download. After I tap Continue on the "Data Usage Notice", Audible only shows the following on the book:

Waiting to download...
Retrying 2 of 5
Retrying 3 of 5
Retrying 4 of 5
Retrying 5 of 5
Retrying 6 of 5 (huh?)
Invalid data format

Is there anything else I should do to have it download the audiobook over mobile data? Or is it possible to do it over WiFi only? (I can download over WiFi without any problem.)

It is possible that my mobile network service provider actively blocks Audible downloads, however, there were no reports about this that I could find online.

My device is OnePlus 2 running stock Android Marshmallow.

I don't think it is a mobile data issue, since

You have not reported any problems with any other downloads on data

It is more likely a format issue (error says Invalid Data Format) and Audible website says Not all portable devices support all formats. Details below

What is an Audible format, and how do I choose the one that best suits me? says

Audible offers four different types of audio formats to choose from, depending upon the device you wish to use to listen to your audiobooks. The audio format is determined by the rate of compression.
Note: Not all portable devices support all formats.

These formats correspond to quality as in AM, FM, MP3, CD
To change these formats one would need to log in desktop site per instructions on the linked page (in essence, Library →Audio quality drop down menu)


OTA update (Marshmallow) failing with "error" while installing it on a device running Android One I live in Australia and during my recent trip to India, I bought an Android One phone called the Lava Pixel v1. The phone is running Android 5.1 and since I have gotten back to Australia, the phone notifies me that I have an update that I need to install. It downloads the 770 mb update and when I try to install it, it shuts down and restarts the phone and then starts installing the update, I can see the Android mascot. After it(the install progress bar) gets to about 20% or so, I just get a message saying "Error" that is all. The Android mascot is lying down or so and from it's open belly there is an exclamation icon (!have a look at the attached image for what it looks like). At this stage there is no sim card on the phone. Additionally, some apps like Facebook fail to install. Facebook messenger can be installed. I am a developer and I have purchased this phone mostly for dev purposes and would like to get the latest update for my new Android phone, so would appreciate some help with this.

I think the answer was quite simple, all I had to do was to switch off "Automatic date & time" and "Automatic time zone" in settings and I could install the updates. I no longer "use the network-provided time" or "use network-provided time zone" I am running Marshmallow on my phone right now.