Can I save a "star-hash" (*#) code as contact? I'm developing on a Huawei phone, and to enable logging on this device one must dial *#*#2846579#*#* to get to a hidden service menu, as described in this answer on Stack Overflow.

Is there any way I can save this code as a contact and "dial" it from the favourites list for easy access? Of course I tried just adding a new contact with the code as the number, but when I "dial" it the phone actually dials the number instead of opening the hidden service menu, resulting in a "Sorry, you can't dial this number" voice message from my phone operator.

It is not meant to be dialled as an ordinary contact number

Quoting from this answer

  What the dialer really does when you enter the code is extracting the number between *#*# and #*#* and then broadcasting the following intent....

Saving it as a contact and trying to dial means it is a treated as a regular, valid number

Which is rejected by the service provider , since it is not a valid number
Expected code is not launched since the corresponding intent is not triggered

You can try creating a shortcut to the intent using an app like this or apps like Tasker


ADB command to dial Code *#06# I am wondering if there is any way to run *# codes on android using adb command

I have tried this:

**service call phone 2 s16 "*#06#"**

tried with % instead of # as well.

Any help will be much appreciated.

Here's the command to type in ADB mode to show IMEI info:

adb shell am start -n com.android.settings/com.android.settings.deviceinfo.ImeiInformation

For Terminal Emulator from device:

am start -n com.android.settings/com.android.settings.deviceinfo.ImeiInformation


ADB shell-ing to wifi connected device when usb device present I have two devices connected to my workstation simultaneously, one by usb, the other over wifi.

C:\>adb devices
List of devices attached
Cxxxxxxxxxx2            device
192.168.60.69:5555      device

I'm not sure how to shell into the wifi connected device while the usb one is present.

I've tried the following

C:\>adb shell
error: more than one device and emulator

C:\>adb -s 192.168.60.69 shell
error: device not found

C:\>adb -s 0xxxxxxxxxxxxxx1 shell
error: device not found

where 0xxxxxxxxxxxxxx1 is hardware id of wifi connected device

Only way that works is to disconnect the usb connected device. However, I'm going to eventually have multiple wifi connected devices, I still don't know how to distinguish between them when trying to shell in?

Edit (6/13/2014)

I see why I was omitting the port, b/c the connect command returns the following error when trying to connect and cannot (say for instance the devices wifi was accidentally turned off)

C:\>adb connect 192.168.60.69:5555
unable to connect to 192.168.60.69:5555:5555

This made me think that adb would append port based on ip. However this is not the case, since after wifi was enabled on the target device, the above command did work

C:\>adb connect 192.168.60.69:5555
connected to 192.168.60.69:5555

I needed to mention something to show that I atleast know tcp/ip connect fundamentals (ip and port). Kinda embarrassing...

You need to include the port number.

adb -s 192.168.60.69:5555 shell

If you're using a sensible shell with configurable tab-completion (i.e. not Windows), then you can type adb -sTab to get a list of devices.


Script to pull from directory containing spaces I'm trying to pull Whatsup images from my android phone via ADB using the following script:

HOST_DIR=/myImageDirectory
DEVICE_DIR="/sdcard/WhatsApp/Media/WhatsApp\ Images"
echo started
for file in $(./adb shell ls $DEVICE_DIR)
do
    file=$(echo -e $file | tr -d "\r\n"); # EOL fix
echo $file
    ./adb pull $DEVICE_DIR/$file $HOST_DIR/;
done

The space in the source directory is escaped successfully for ls but not for pull. That is, i get the list of files but cannot pull them.
Here are 3 lines of the output:

IMG-20171101-WA0003.jpg
adb: error: remote object '/sdcard/WhatsApp/Media/WhatsApp\' does not exist
adb: error: remote object 'Images/IMG-20171101-WA0003.jpg' does not exist

What gives?

Get doublequotes:

for file in $(./adb shell ls \""$DEVICE_DIR"\")
                               ^           ^

./adb pull "$DEVICE_DIR/$file" $HOST_DIR/;
           ^                 ^

And remove backslash escapes:

DEVICE_DIR="/sdcard/WhatsApp/Media/WhatsApp Images"
                                           ^


Can the Samsung Galaxy Tab be used as a wifi-hotspot? Is it possible to use the Samsung Galaxy Tab as a wifi-hotspot so that non-3G iPads can use the Samsungs connection to the phone network?

The Galaxy Tab comes with Android version 2.2 (Froyo), this version of the Android OS comes with the ability to work as a WiFi hotspot for up to 5 devices built in. This lets you share your Tab's 3G connection out to other devices over Wifi.

I've tethered wifi only devices like my Kindle 3, and a wifi Skype phone to my Galaxy S's wireless hotspot in this way and connected them to the internet with no problem, so I can't see any reason you'd have trouble doing that between a 3G Galaxy Tab and a Wifi iPad.

(it is possible for your phone company to block this facility, to date I think Verizon in the US are the only company to block it)


Samsung Note 5: Heimdall recovery flash completes, but device stuck "Downloading..." I downloaded TWRP from twrp.me, and ran

heimdall flash --RECOVERY recovery.img --no-reboot

On my Samsung S5 that was in Download Mode. heimdall seems to have completed successfully:

Heimdall v1.4.2

Copyright (c) 2010-2017 Benjamin Dobell, Glass Echidna
http://www.glassechidna.com.au/

This software is provided free of charge. Copying and redistribution is
encouraged.

If you appreciate this software and you would like to support future
development please consider donating:
http://www.glassechidna.com.au/donate/

Initialising connection...
Detecting device...
Claiming interface...
Setting up interface...

Initialising protocol...
Protocol initialisation successful.

Beginning session...

Some devices may take up to 2 minutes to respond.
Please be patient!

Session begun.

Downloading device's PIT file...
PIT file download successful.

Uploading RECOVERY
100%
RECOVERY upload successful

Ending session...
Releasing device interface...

But the phone remains in this state:

Notice the download bar is about 99% of the way there. Forcing a reboot to the phone from this state makes it stuck on the "Samsung" loading screen.

Edit:
Product name is SM-N920C, CA_ type is CA_2.

How might I fix this?

This seems to happen if you download the wrong twrp - I had downloaded the S5 twrp. The only other thing to note is when in the stuck Downloading... screen, you can hold Power + Volume Down button to turn off the device.


Samsung Galaxy S3 SCH-I535, rooted, won't switch over to T-Mobile Recently, I changed carriers from Verizon to T-Mobile. However, when I inserted my T-Mobile SIM card into my phone and rebooted, the status is always "Searching for Service" (not just for data, NOTHING works). I've looked on Android forums and they all have instructions for turning the SCH-I535 into a world phone, but that's not what I want. I just want to switch to T-Mobile (do I need to have a "world phone" to do this?)

I've installed APN Manager and tried to change APNs, but entering the details found here

The phone is rooted and not on a stock TouchWiz ROM (I'm using Paranoid Android, a JB ROM)

Why won't my phone recognize the T-Mobile SIM?

SCH-I535 is not a GSM phone so will not work with any 2G or 3G T-Mobile tower. Also that phone only supports LTE frequencies of 700 MHz & 1900 MHz, neither of which are bands that T-Mobile use to any significant degree. Instead T-Mobile uses 1700 & 2100 MHz.

T-Mobile is however in the process of rolling out 700 MHz & 1900 MHz, so you might get data in the near future however you will not generally be able to make calls as that is currently handled by the 3G networks. And even where VoLTE is available this phone will may not have the software update to support it.

Update: Despite not being listed in the specs of Samsung's website, nor GSM Area, or Wikipedia SCH-I535 does infact support GSM beyond LTE. It appears that Verizon pushed out an update with 4.1.2 Jelly Bean which enabled support for GPRS/EDGE/GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz and HSPA/UMTS 2100 MHz (band 1). T-Mobiles 3G support requires AWS-1700/2100 (band 4), however they do support 1900 MHz for GSM/EDGE 2G service.

So you can get EDGE but not HSPA, although you may soon get LTE depending on T-Mobiles rollout.


How do I get the Android 4 web browser to read arbitrary web pages out loud? Can the Android browser in ICS read any web page out loud with TalkBack? How? It reads user interface elements, and some parts of specially scripted web pages (google.com) but I don't see how to make it read ordinary web pages.

I have no idea how to achieve this natively -- but you could try Talking Clipboard, which can not only read everything you copy to the clipboard -- but also handle web pages directly. It even supports picking the web page's address from Pocket / Read-it-Later, can read from arbitrary text/html files stored locally, and also ePub books.


Bluetooth Headset not recognizing my phone as no phone I've got a new Bluedio T2s headset. I use  Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Pro mobile phone. When connecting the bluetooth device, it's showing 'Connected (No Phone)' on my mobile phone. I can still listen to music, but can't make calls or receive and headset battery level is also not showing.

It appears to be a pair of headphone, not headset. In other word, it doesn't have a microphone builtin.

Hence the product probably isn't supposed to be used for communication, as in, it doesn't support HFP/HSP in Bluetooth but only A2DP.

As far as I know, Android does not have audio route written for outputting "voice" to A2DP-only device.

EDIT: You may also see if the settings of the paired item has a Call/Phone Audio checkbox in addition to a Media Audio one. If it does and the box is "checkable" (i.e. not greyed out), then you should be able to use it for communication by "checking" the box. After that (No Phone) should be gone.


Android and Network attached storage server I am trying to organize my digital archive (pictures and movies).  My wife and I store a lot of stuff  on our Android phones. Before I buy a NAS device I would love to hear which protocol I should be looking to use with a NAS. What I want is to connect my Andoid phone in most natural way to a NAS and to be able read, write and use pictures from the NAS.

Is there any good client for NAS servers, or is there any file explorer which cloud be integrate whit NAS so I can browse files.

It would be ideal if I could find some sync software that would automatically backup data from my phone to a NAS.

I have a NAS that uses standard Windows shares (SMB) and I use the Image Transfer app to push all my new pictures and videos to my server over wireless (it's a paid app but very cheap and in my opinion worth the small fee).

Also see this previous question: App to sync photos to a network drive over wifi? which has a few alternatives and where Image Transfer came top.

My device comes with a web-page interface, which is how I do most viewing of pictures, files etc


How to choose micro USB cable for my device? The plug sure looks like any old micro USB plug.  Will another cable (like the one from my digital camera) work to charge the battery, or do I need one specifically designed for my phone (incredible)

Any Micro USB cable that has the capability of charging your phone does excactly that.

I found a link on USB powering. The source is from 2005 but the issue remains the same.

Some cables do charge your device due to a sufficient power flow through the cable while others don't.


I uninstalled an app,but did not clear space So i am using a Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 and i recently had this game called 'Bully:Scholarship Edition'(got tired a while of the GTAs) and i saw the app was having 5.30GB memory size
I tapped uninstall and the app,the obb(2.5GB) and the data are gone from my device,but i keep having only 500MB free
I do not have any cache to delete
I did restart my device a couple times
Nothing seems to work

Please help me if you can

Cleaning apps like Clean Master will find and get rid of residue files if there are any present on the device, you can then uninstall it when your done if you don't want all the advert notifications.


Can Tasker/Locale tell me what BT device is connected? I want to change the phone's state dependent on which specific bluetooth device is connected -- can Tasker or Locale do that?  Thanks!

Yes. Tasker will do this. When you're setting up the state, choose "bluetooth connected", then click the magnifying glass next to the "name" field. It will search for paired bluetooth devices. Choose the one you want and configure states/actions. Then do it again for the other BT device.


Long term battery capacity degradation I've had a Nexus 6P for about 14 months now and recently I discovered the app AccuBattery, for those not familiar one of the features is to estimate the capacity of your battery by taking measurements on every charge (percentage indicated by your device and the charge measured in mAh). With using this app based on 122 charging sessions it estimates a full battery capacity of my device as about 2,300 mAh or about 68% of the originally designed capacity (3,450 mAh).

So my question is this: Is this amount of capacity degradation considered "normal" or "acceptable"?

The real world implication of this is that now I'm charging my device almost twice every day, which I suspect probably only amplifies the problem of degrading it faster. When I first got the device I could go roughly 2 days without having to recharge and I don't believe I changed my usage patterns since then.

It seems that the battery indeed passed through enough cycles to degrade. However, I don't think that there is a "normal" or "acceptable" level. If you feel that you are not satisfied with the battery, probably the time to change it has come


External sd card is not recognized in my pc When my phone MOTOROLA G3(2015) is updated to Marshmallow, it's not showing files when connected to PC. While connecting, it shows options as charging only, PTP, MTP, MIDI. When I select MTP, it shows the external card, but not showing the contents, where as internal memory is detected and all files are shown.

Goto

Settings -> Apps -> Show system (three vertical dots) -> External Storage -> Storage -> Clear data and Clear Cache
Settings -> Apps -> Show system (three vertical dots) -> Media Storage -> Storage -> Clear data and Clear Cache
Reboot your device and connect device as MTP and now you can access files in Internal as well as External SD card from your PC.

Verified in Moto G2(2014) with Android Marshmallow and should work in Moto G3 too. If you are still unable to access the files, you can clear cache partition and reboot your device and check it.


Unlock the SMS Limit on Android Marshmallow On Android, there's an SMS Limit that prevents a new message from being sent after a certain amount of messages have been sent in a certain period. Due to a personal need, I need to send more than the limit by unlocking it.

I already tried downloading apps from the Play Store that unlock SMS but no luck, although I completed the required prerequisites, seems like it's not working on Marshmallow. I also tried using ADB command, but the Settings.db was not found in provider settings.

How to unlock the SMS limit on Android Marshmallow?

This method work on a non-rooted phone, I use it on Android 7/8:

On the phone, install Settings Database Editor and open it
On the PC, install the driver for your phone, then connect to the phone using a USB cable
Download this zip file containing a folder with minimal ADB and extract it to a folder
Open a command prompt and browse to the extracted directory
Type adb devices to check if the phone has been detected by the PC. If the status is "unauthorized", a pop-up should appear on the phone, accept it to allow ADB to communicate with it
Type

adb shell pm grant by4a.setedit22 android.permission.WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS

to allow the app to overwrite Android settings
Restart the phone
Open the app and add a new setting in these categories: system, secure, global. Push "+Add new settings" button on the top, then input sms_outgoing_check_max_count with value 99999
Restart the phone

And now you can send a lot of messages.


Can I override the default DNS settings on an HTC Evo without root access? Is there any way to override the Sprint DNS server(s) used by default on the 3G connection of an HTC Evo running Froyo without root access?

The reason I want to do this is because some sites are able to resolve when I'm using OpenDNS or Google DNS while connected via WiFi at home, but when I'm on 3G, the same sites come up as page not found, so the easiest culprit to blame is DNS.

Everything I've seen suggests you can only do it if your phone is rooted.  Here's a tutorial for those with rooted phones.


Does motorola milestone work in these rangers I want to move between mobile providers in my country.
Its seems as though the mobile provider I wish to move to only supports these ranges:
850 and 2100 mghz.

Does the motorola milestone support these ranges?

Thank you

From gsmarena:

  2G Network    GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900

  3G Network    HSDPA 900 / 2100

  UMTS 850 / 1900 - American version


Does "Image Privacy" (EXIF remover) app still exist? Does the "Image Privacy" app exist in some form?  It was a very handy method of removing EXIF data from an image expressly for sharing the metadata-free image.  You select "Share" -> "Strip metadata" (the Image Privacy intent) and then the target app.

A screenshot:

image source

You can try Photo Editor for EXIF removal.

See screenshot below


Samsung phone keeps restarting I have a Samsung GT-S7273T (Android 4.2.2) and yesterday something happened while I was sleeping. After that, the phone can't stay on for more than 30~50 seconds: it hangs and then restarts itself. I've noticed that any change I make to the phone is "reverted" after it restarts (like deleting a file or switching off Wi-fi). While it is on, everything works normally (facebook, watch videos in youtube, receive notifications, even play games, etc).
I've tried booting up in Safe Mode, same thing happens. I've also tried a data wipe/factory reset through recovery mode, but when I restart the phone, everything is just like before, as if no reset was made (although it says the the data wipe was successful). I've also tried a cache wipe only, but it gives an error and restarts itself when I try.
I've also noticed that if I try to restart the phone (hold power button, tap on "Restart" option), the phone starts to switch off, showing the "switch-off animation" and then stops there, instead of restarting (but it keeps working, even receiving notifications). After a few seconds, it hangs and then restarts (just like it normally does).
The phone is not rooted and I never downloaded any custom firmware or anything like that.
Is there any other way I can force a reset on my phone?
UPDATE
I've just tried to flash to stock ROM and then wiping data, but it seems to not have worked, although Odin reported success. All my files, apps and configuration are still there and the problem persists.
UPDATE #2
I've tried "wipe all" in shell, but it reported several errors with message "Read-only file system" and one "Permission denied".
I've also tried "wipe data", and got "permission denied" on opening /data.

First solution : Since you tried both wiping all data and only the cache the only thing as far as I know left to do is to install either a backed up rom you made earlier or install a fresh official one from the manufacturer's site(samsung in your case) trough recovery mode.

Second solution:
Try to wipe manually(this solution is assuming you use windows)

Visit the Android Developers site to download the Android System
Development Kit (see Resources). Right-click the ZIP archive and
choose “Extract All.” Click “Browse” and choose your “C:\Program
Files” directory.
Click the folder you extracted and press “F2” to rename it. Give the
folder a simple, descriptive name, such as “AndroidADT.”
Right-click “Computer” in your file browser and choose “Properties.”
Click “Advanced System Settings” and, in the System Properties
window, click “Environment Variables.”
Click “Path” and “Edit” in the System Variables window. When the Edit
System Variable window opens, your path variable is selected, so
press “End” to move the cursor to the end of the selection. If you
type while the path is selected, you'll erase your path variable.
Type “;C:\Program Files\AndroidADT\sdk\platform-tools\” (without
quotes here and throughout) and ensure that you include the semicolon
at the beginning of the path. Click “OK” to save your changes.
Point your cursor to the upper-right corner of the screen and click
“Search.” Type “cmd” in the Search box and click the program icon in
the search results to launch the Command Prompt window.
Turn on your Android phone and connect it to a USB port on your
computer. Type “adb shell” and press “Enter.” When ADB connects to
your device, type “--wipe_data” and press “Enter.” Your phone
restarts in recovery mode and restores Android to factory settings.


Issues with the TouchWiz music app on my Galaxy Note 2 I've recently received a Galaxy Note II, and am still in the phase of getting to know Android and Touchwiz. I've managed to sync some music onto it with iSyncr, but am having some problems playing it. I have two main issues:

Half the time when I'm in the music app on the now playing screen, clicking the back key or song list button takes me to the current artist/album I'm listening to, and clicking back from there (presumably to go to the full list of artists/albums) takes me back to the now playing screen. So I have no way to choose another song to listen to. Sometimes it does this, sometimes it doesn't. It's weird.

Second, I can't seem to find a way to get lockscreen music controls (short of installing a new lockscreen) that works. Supposedly TouchWiz puts music controls for you if you have a pattern or passcode, but that didn't seem to work. I tried as a replacement using the notification bar's music controls, but those sometimes just weren't there (I have no idea why).

And one other thing- is it possible to set a volume limit as you can on iOS? Because when I listen to music anything above half is too loud and the increments below that are too big.

These are pretty specific issues, but if anyone could help that would be great.

Well, since no one answered, I'll answer with what I eventually figured out.

I just installed a new music player, because I hate Samsung's.
I used WidgetLocker to put widgets on my lockscreen, and Phantom Music Control to get a better-looking widget to put on my lockscreen.


My pixel 3xl wont charge when I plug it in. I have to plug and unplug it a zillion times. I tried cleaning it My pixel 3xl wont charge when I plug it in. I have to plug and unplug it a zillion times. I tried cleaning the port, different cables, different chargers. No joy. I can use the wireless charger, but it's slow. Plugging and unplugging it, and waggling does eventually start it charging, but takes ages to find the exact orientation so it charges. Do I need to buy a new phone???

I had this problem for like 18 months. It started happening after cycling in the rain a few times. Anyway, I finally found the solution last week. Never seen the solution anywhere else. It's so easy in the end. Very easy:

simply plug the cable in. no wiggling or anything. It probably won't charge yet. I mean, if it does, then you're good. but if it doesn't ...
go to 'settings'
go to 'connected devices'
find usb, and change from 'controlled by other device', to 'controlled by this device'
if you are lucky, your phone will start charging :)


Storing & getting the device orientation (yaw, pitch, roll) when taking a photo I want to take a photo and use the stored GPS coordinates and the orientation of the phone to do some calculations. How can I access that information?

Alternatively if there is an API to do that I could make my own app.

This is one of those problems that I believe requires a documented standard:  the same reason every platform trivially accesses the GPS location of a photo is because of EXIF and it's standardized tags.

EXIF is not user-extensible, and side car files are too namespace-y (proprietary).

Unless I'm wrong about there not being a standard place for Euler angles or even the quaternion that establishes device attitude.


taking control over a phone with broken touchscreen I have an old sony xperia z with a broken touchscreen, the phone holds a lot of important data but with the broken touchscreen I cant get the data.

I've tried a lot of things but I do not have  usb debugging enabled and it is not rooted.

If your phone support OTG
Then connect your phone with mouse,copy your all data..

Hope it will solve your problem...


Most secure peer-to-peer exchange of public keys? Just what the question asks: I would like to have two Android users exchange public keys for use in a mobile app while not connecting to a centralized hosted server or website.

Public Keys are PUBLIC: they are meant to be shared. So, I think it wouldn't matter how you transfer those keys. What is more important is how strong those keys are encrypted, so they aren't easily hacked or bypassed.

You might also want to check on these two questions:

Strong encryption for base64 encoded public key in Android
how to secure Android Market public key


None, or choppy, 3G/LTE data transfer with T-Mobile US on international HTC One M8 I have an international HTC One M8, and an off-contract plan with T-Mobile (highest priced, unlimited LTE).

If I go into settings and set mobile data to only use 2G, everything works reliably.

With either 3G or LTE, however, none of my apps can send or receive data most of the time. The notification icon reads "3G". Data is only transferred when it changes to "H+", which almost never happens to me.

What I've done so far:

I've gone into *#*#4636#*#* and switched between LTE/GSM auto, LTE/WCDMA/GSM auto, LTE only, and almost all the rest of them.

I've traveled in the States. I live in Puerto Rico, but I have been to New York, Washington and Baltimore with this phone and SIM card already.

I have tried APNs fast.t-mobile.com, fast.tmobile.com, epc.t-mobile.com, epc.tmobile.com, and even pcweb.tmobile.com.
I have tried combinations of APN types default, hipri, internet, admin, dun, mms, as well as leaving it blank / putting an asterisk.

I'm on a rooted phone with a custom ROM (Carbon), so I tried several different ROMs, both Lollipop- and KitKat-based.
(This is the only reason I haven't talked to T-Mobile reps directly yet, because this still might be an issue with the custom ROMs).

Symptoms are still the same.
Is it a known issue? What can be done?

For anyone experiencing this, it's very likely that your phone is intended for a different geographical region.
I will provide an answer for my own device, however the rationale and the process should hold true for other cases of this sort.

Mine was an Asian version that supports, at most, LTE bands 1, 3, 7, 8, and 20.
LTE in North America uses bands 2, 4, and 12.

A potential solution to get full LTE speeds is to flash custom radio firmware (at your own risk). I couldn't find a zip for T-Mobile, but the word is out that GPE radio firmware is the same.

A solution that gives you 3G (in my case) and doesn't involve flashing: go into *#*#4636#*#* and pressing the menu button in the top right. It opens a very old-school dropdown, and you can't really see which option is selected. Chances are, yours is in "Auto" mode. Try switching to particular bands instead. In my case, there was just one band in common between GSM 3G implementations for Asia and the US: PCS 1900 MHz.

Additionally, you may want to switch to "GSM auto," and in "Settings -> Mobile networks" to choose 3G as preferred rather than LTE. However, I haven't tested whether it makes any difference.

Most of the credit goes to the posters in this reddit thread.


Please check your user name and password error message when I am trying to log in andFBChat1.3.0 I installed andFBChat app on android emulator and when I am traying to log in using my facebook account , it says wrong username and password although they are right

why !!

If you're sure they're right, the app is buggy and we can't help you, Facebook has changed their protocol/accessibility (and the app is out of date/won't work anymore) and we can't help you, or possibly you aren't connected to the internet and you should connect, or the port the app uses is blocked and we can't help you.


Information regarding /proc file system Yesterday I rooted my android phone. By using Es File Explorer when I see the file listing then I find various folders.

For the sake of curiosity I would like to know that what the proc file system contains.

You could have a detailled explanation of what is in the /proc directory in the linux man page


Unable to access text messaging after updating to ICS I have a Droid RAZR and the stock messaging app just keeps loading forever and Handcent SMS crashes when I access it. I have tried to leave it be and let it load but nothing happens.

I would use SMS Backup & Restore (or another backup app) like I have in the past but since the messages don’t load the progress bar just says “NaN 0/0″ and does nothing. This is the only thing preventing me from doing a factory reset/clear data since I have lots of messages on this baby that I need to keep.

I'm not sure if the messages have already been deleted, but if they were, wouldn't the apps work?

This is just one of my many problems I've been running into with ICS.

I do know that if you have a lot of messages on your RAZR before upgrading to ICS, it actually will try to pull them all in again to the text messaging app. I have seen this with both stock and GoSMS on a Droid 4 and it did take a little while on my RAZR MAXX the first time I opened up the messaging app after upgrading to see all of my messages re-appear, as they first appeared as if they had all been deleted.

If you are getting the little circular loading symbol, then it is likely the case - for a couple thousand messages, it took nearly all day to load them all. Not sure why, but this may also be what's effecting you. I guess the only solution is to wait it out and see what happens. Hope this helps and good luck getting your messages back.


I Need help unrooting my device Device: HTC Inspire 4g.

My Device was having some hardware issues, so i complained to AT&T and offered to send me a new device.  I have to now return my old device but it is ROOTED.  I do not want to send it back in this condition because I fear I will get caught and have to pay full price for the device.

My question is how should I go about unrooting this device.  I've seen many different forums and topics, but most of these methods are not working for me.

Install stock AT&T Rom - Could not find the zip file anywhere on the internet.
I've tried using an RRU but my device cannot be detected by my PC.

If anybody can help me get either of these 2 methods to work, or come up with a new method it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You

Check out this link that is what you want:HTC


Nexus 7 - moving pictures/videos to pc Have hooked by tablet up to a computer using a USB cord.  I have over 500 pictures and videos that I want moved to my computer, but when I click on the nexus 7 folder, it's blank.
I have been able to do this before so quick and easy, but not sure what the dealio is now.
Help!!!!!

If your N7 has been upgraded to Marshmallow (Android 6.0.x), then when connected, look for a notification in the notification dropdown that lets you change USB mode to "file transfer".


Enabling developer mode in Huawei Mediapad M2 10.0 Self explanatory.

Normally Android 5.1.1 allows to tap 7 times on "Build number" field in Settings->Tablet info.

Unfortunately the "Build number" field is absent in my Settings application.

What else can I do? I need to use the developer mode for rooting

Update: here is a screenshot. I have redacted the SN. Locale is IT

Needed to tap on the Serial number field. This is the answer


What is this type of headphone icon in notification bar? My phone (LG G3) shows two different types of headphone icons. They are the leftmost icons in the images below. The first is a normal headphone icon. What is the second one?

I think it might be USB headphone, but that doesn't make sense, because I don't have USB headphones and never use USB headphones with the device.

I have noticed sometimes when I use the aux cable for my car, it displays the second icon instead of the first one. It shows the first icon whether I use headphones with a built-in mic or headphones that don't have a mic - it's the same icon.

Image 1: normal headphone icon

Image 2: ??

Any thoughts?

Edited images to make them smaller

Second one is showing a line out or auxiliary audio
 icon, which means that it had recognised that a jack had been plugged in ( but it doesn't detect a speaker or maybe it detects the speaker ) but fundamentally to differentiate  between  regular headset (with or  without mic) and speaker connected with line out

If this happens when you connect to regular headphone, it indicates some dirt or pocket flint , preventing recognition of head phone. Cleaning with a tooth pick , ear bud and blowing air to dislodge muck should fix. If it doesn't, try app mentioned here
What is this icon in my status bar?

Later versions of LG also differentiate between headphone with speaker and without speaker

I had this icon show up on a Dopod phone, owned a decade ago


What data is initially sent when inadvertently connected to unsecured network? In my haste and ignorance I inadvertently connected to an unsecure wireless network from my Android phone. It didn't ask my for any login credentials, or any other information - it just connected.

After about 30 seconds I realised my mistake and disconnected from the wireless access point. I didn't use the browser while connected.

So what type of data is sent by the Android phone on initial connection?

The only thing sent by Android itself is the captive portal check: a single connection to a Google web server, containing no personal or special data. Google Cloud Messaging also connects to a server using SSL, to receive push notifications that are waiting for your phone.

But any app on your phone can register to be notified when a Wi-Fi connection becomes available, so if an app was due to sync with a server, it might have done that in the background as soon as your phone connected. That could be any app that syncs with a server. Many apps send analytics or crash reports in the background even if that's unrelated to their main functionality. There's no way for you to tell afterwards which apps might have connected at this time, unless the app itself tells you when it last synced (or if it gave you a notification or you noticed new data arriving at that time).

Well-written apps (including all Google apps) use SSL to secure connections to the server, so that information can't be intercepted even on a hostile Wi-Fi network. Not all apps are this well written, though, and which servers you're connecting to are visible on the network regardless. Even if every app you use uses SSL correctly, just the fact they're syncing with the server tells an attacker that you use that app/service. This is a reason why you might want an always-on VPN even if you don't normally use open networks.


No Internet using dual sim as mobile hotspot My phone has two sims both with large data caps that I'd like to use. I use my phone as a wireless access point for my laptop.

To switch between SIM 1/2 for data, I have to go to

settings-->wireless networks --> more-->mobile networks

and then set the network mode. The one which I wish to use for internet goes to GSM/WCDMA/LTE auto and the other 'just phone calls' I switch to GSM only.
I then go to

settings-->wireless networks --> dual sim cards --> data network

and set "Sim card to use" to sim 1 or 2.

This seems to work fine for access data on the phone. However, when I'm connected on my laptop via the hotspot, I only get internet access on SIM 2. With SIM 1, the computer wifi connects but says "no internet access". When I run the windows troubleshooting wizard, it says "failed to find DNS". I set my DNS to 8.8.8.8... but no joy.

I've also tried to connect via macs and Linux boxes with the same result. I think that the issue is in the droid.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance :-)

Solution 2:

Please Run "ipconfig" command in your Command Prompt. After running command you can find information's like "IPv4 Address", "Default Gateway", Subnet Mask, etc.
Use those values in respective fields of :

Open Network and Sharing Center-->Change Adapter Settings-->Right click on "Wireless Network Connection"-->Properties-->Select "Internet Protocol Version 4(TCP/IPv4)"-->Select Radio Button for 1)Use the following IP Address, 2)Use the following DNS Server automatically --> and finally "Ok"

Field to be filled:
1)IP Address
2)Subnet Mask
3)Default Gateway
4)Preferred DNS Server

NB:"Default Gateway" need to given as "Preferred DNS Server"

Best Regards


Why does the vertical size of the scroll bar change? When I scroll down a web page the scroll bar appears and constantly changes size as I scroll
 What does this size relate to?

Some websites load new content as you scroll down the page, to prevent new page requests thus reducing bandwith. i.reddit.com is one off the top of my head, the Market app does this also.


Does Android update and Google services still work on Huawei P30 Pro? It's one of the best smartphone in the market, with all the top specs, is it a bad time to buy it in 2020 given the fact of US Government bans?
I am concerned about Google services and future Android updates. Can anyone  provide some insight on these matters?

The situation is fluid and likely to change but,  based on available information :
It looks safe to buy

Huawei P30 & Pro: Release Date, Price & Specs - Tech Advisor

Note that the P30 was announced before Huawei was put on the US trade blocklist (aka its 'entity list'), and therefore continues to have full access to Google apps, services and security updates.

It's emphasised by this XDA blog

(entity list)... prevented Google from licensing Google Mobile Services (GMS) for new Huawei device models made available after May 16, 2019.

Speculatively speaking, given that Huawei's market share outside China has taken a hit, it's unlikely they will do anything to damage their product line business

Caveats

From the same XDA blog

As we explained last week Huawei won’t receive support from Google if any changes they make to their future software builds break compatibility with Google apps.

SafetyNet status-unknown

We reached out to Huawei, though, to clarify if the company can continue to implement GMS into software updates for its existing devices indefinitely without collaboration from Google, and also to find out if existing devices will continue to pass SafetyNet Attestation following an update

(Emphasis added in quotes)
I suggest you keep a track of the XDA blog which is frequently updated and take a decision, if these inputs don't suffice.


Video calling options I don't see full support for video calling in my Samsung galaxy S.

I am not able to set a direct shortcut for video calling.
Not able to disable self image when video calling so that able to see full screen image of the caller.
No option to video call directly from logs. Need to go to the contact screen every time.

Is there any app that has better support for video calling?

Edit:

I am looking for more features in the video calling facility provided by sim provider (Airtel). I am not interested in video calling via internet like google talk/skype as I don't have internet connectivity all the time.

There are a few different options for video calling. i do not know how many of them will support the options you want, but i will try to specify their uses as best i can.

The new version of Google Talk It supports video calling and handles it well. You have to call from within the app though, i don't believe there is built in platform support for calling from call logs.

Fring
This is a widely used, multi-platform video chat app that has many options, and i know it allows you to remove your self image, group chat, and it pulls from your contact list to give you a list of other Fring users. On occasion, it has worked with Skype (mobile-to-desktop), but in my experience, this has been spotty.

Qik
The advantage to Qik is it's incredible online support. It has been improved greatly since it's introduction to the mobile market.

Tango
This got the last spot because it is personally my least favorite. You can only call to other devices using Tango, which i find extremely limiting, but it is the same scenario for Qik, so it'll have to be dealt with. It has very positive reactions from users though, so it's worth a look.

i hope this helps you get a jump start on finding a solution to what you want. Take a test run with one or a few of these and let us know what works best for you!


How to remove a persistent malware? My Samsung Note 8 has gotten very weird lately. I get programs I never have installed, and when I try to reboot/reset my device with no backup they still come up after I'm finished with the reboot.

I also have in my "SIM" 2 cards, but I only have 1? And I can't access number. It also shows 2 different IMEIs.

The programs with weird names have all the permissions in my device. Some of them I can't delete, and some can't force stop, and they start running after some time.

Facebook was already installed when I did a reboot and the programs started coming in. I have a secure file on my phone. But this program has permission to everything.

How do I get rid of this problem? Do I root my phone? Can some of you guys please help me with this? This is making me a little paranoid.

Some of the programs:

Dagger
Customrabsclient
flexbox
istrumentzip
OpenCenus
rxandroid2
agera
customclient

I have used many anti-viruses like McAfee, Bitdefender, etc. I have factory reset my computer 2 times, but nothing changes. I have now downloaded AFWall+ to try to stop all these files, but I want to delete them all.

And when I check root manager it says that my phone is not rooted in the proper way. I never ever have rooted this phone.

If bloatware (pre-installed system apps) is your concern, then I wouldn't recommended rooting just for that purpose. If your Note 8 is out of warranty, then rooting wouldn't be a problem. But still, if only uninstalling the pre-installed system apps is all you want, then you can use ADB to get rid of them, once and for all.

A few months ago I published a guide on my blog to do the same for the S10 series. Although, the method is generic and will work on an Android device. I have owned the Note 8 and moved to the S10e this year. Can confirm that it works flawlessly on the Note 8 too.

Here is the link: https://www.thecustomdroid.com/uninstall-samsung-galaxy-s10-bloatware-guide/

In case the above link goes down, here are the exact steps you'd need to perform:

First of all, download and install Android SDK platform-tools (This
includes adb.exe, which you will need) on your PC.
Make sure USB debugging is enabled on your device.
Connect it to the PC using the USB cable.
Launch a command prompt window inside the same folder
where the SDK platform-tools are installed.
Initiate the ADB shell using the following command:adb shell
Now, find the packages of the app that you want to uninstall using: pm list packages -f microsoft
Here "mircrosoft" is the keyword. You can replace it with the name
of the app, you want to uninstall and it will enlist all the related package names to the app.
Then use the following command to uninstall all those packages: pm uninstall -k --user 0 app-package-name
Make sure that you replace "app-package-name" with the exact name of the app package that you want to uninstall.
Repeat the previous command for every package that you want to uninstall.

Voila! All the undesired pre-installed system apps will be gone.


Synchronisation of contacts and calendar suddenly stopped working While working fine for almost a year now (since I've installed CyanogenMod on my device), a couple of days ago synchronisation stopped all of a sudden: Network indicators turned white (no longer green on Gingerbread / blue on ICS and up), which indicates the device is not "in-sync" with the Google servers.

First I thought it might be some Google Server outage (as all of us know them), I waited a couple of days. But it didn't solve up within a few days, so I decided to take a closer look. logcat then showed: Always when trying to sync, the network connection timed out.

Further side-effects: Google Playstore app did no longer open ("network timeout"), Google Talk insisted on a "username/password failure".

That's where I got stuck: What to do? Reboot didn't help, shutdown/restart didn't help either, nor did clearing cache/data from the contactssync app. I couldn't log off GTalk (which would be the next logical step), as GTalk immediately insisted on that username/password error.

Now what?

Analysis
Luckily, logcat gave the IP address along (in my case: 74.125.93.113). On my PC, I first checked with the browser ("https://74.125.93.113/") -- and in fact, connection timed out. Next I checked what's behind the IP:
host 74.125.93.113
113.93.125.74.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer qw-in-f113.1e100.net.

Didn't tell me anything. But checking with /etc/hosts on the Android device, I found the entry:
74.125.93.113 android.clients.google.com

A lookup of that host reveiled: The IP 74.125.93.113 no longer belongs to it -- which explains the trouble.
Solution
The solution requires root, unfortunately, as /etc/hosts is owned by root and read-only for everybody else. Furthermore, /etc is just a symbilic link to /system/etc, which means the entire file system is read only.
What you need

root
a terminal emulator app (e.g. Android Terminal Emulator)

What to do
Open the terminal app, and follow these steps:
# make yourself root
su
# SuperUser/SuperSU may require approval at this point. Give it.

# check how /system is mounted:
mount | grep system

#output will look similar to this:
/dev/block/mmcblk1p21 on /system type ext3 (ro,relatime,barrier=1,data=ordered)

#remount /system read-write, using the values obtained:
mount -o rw,remount -t ext3 /dev/block/mmcblk1p21 /system

#edit /etc/hosts
vi /etc/hosts
# put a comment-sign (#) in front of the line containing the bad IP, e.g.
# 74.125.93.113 android.clients.google.com
# save the file

# re-mount /system read-only (or simply reboot, that will do it as well)
mount -o ro,remount -t ext3 /dev/block/mmcblk1p21 /system

Now just wait a short time -- or simply call up Google Play to check. It shouldn't take long for the lights to turn green again.


How can I add a Corporate / Exchange account if there is no option in the "Accounts & Sync" list I'm on a Samsung Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0.2.

If I go to Settings, Accounts & sync, ADD ACCOUNT, there is no "Corporate" or "Exchange" options at all. I only have Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Dropbox. I haven't rooted my phone or made any modifications beyond installing apps from the Play store.

Under Settings, Apps, ALL, I have something listed called "Exchange Services" but it says that it is using 0.00B storage, cache, etc.

Any help on adding an exchange account to my phone would be appreciated. I've been using it with just my Google account for quite a while but would like to add a corporate exchange account for work.

Did you try to add it from the email app itself?

Go into the app and and select the "manual setup" option, and then you will be able to add a Pop3, IMAP, or Exchange account.


Samsug Galaxy J7 First charge? Alright so i got a brand new J7 and the first day was going fine, i waited for the battery to go to 5% and i'm charging it now. Am i supposed to let it charge to 100%? Or i can INTRERUPT (good grammar.) it at like 70% like that. I need answers fast please! Thank you!

YS JP

Charging the device to 80-90% is good and always put in one long charge cycle like from 5-10% to 80-90% rather then multiple small charge cycles


how can i make my phone not show "Other contacts" from my gmail account? I have a google acount set up, and i had lots of contacts in my address book that got synchronized with the ones in my phone address book.

I've found out that i can organize my contacts into groups, and then make those groups "not sync" with my phone, but i have no way of un-selecting the group named "other contacts", basically thats the group where all unassigned or recent contacts go. That is very annoying.

How can i make my phone not fill up my phone agenda with my email contacts? Is there any other sollution other than deleting the contacts from my "other contacts" every day?

I'm not sure how this works on Morotola Defy (Moto is known to replace the stock apps with their own versions), but in standard Android installation (2.1 and above) you can pick which groups are displayed in the Dialer/Contacts apps.  Launch the Contacts app, then go to Menu -> Display Options.  Under the "Choose contacts to display" section, expand your Google account and you should be able to un-check any group, which will hide its contacts.


Retrieve back ONLY ONE deleted WhatsApp message I have accidentally deleted ONE message from a chat conversation and I want to retrieve it back. I have read posts and articles on how to retrieve WhatsApp messages, but it talks about whole chat or whole conversation. There are solutions such as uninstall/reinstall WhatsApp before doing a manual backup and recover data, but this does not apply to my question.

I just want to retrieve the ONLY ONE message that I deleted a couple of hours back from a chat conversation. Is this possible?

EDIT: I assume something has to be done before whatsapp takes a backup. Appreciate an early reply. Thank you.

EDIT2 : Is there any way to change the autobackup time from 4AM to 4PM?

If you didn't take a backup after the message was received on your phone(and before it was deleted) then no you can't recover it.


Is there any way to disable Direct Share on Android 6? This looks like this

The problem is I very rarely send something to contacts. The case I am looking for some app is much more frequent, usually processing the image, e.g. share from google camera to VSCO cam, or from VSCO cam to Instagram, Facebook, etc.
Thus, app list must be shown first. But I see this contact list, I will very unlikely to use. I even doubt the contact in the rare ocassion of direct share will be in the list.

This functionality also slows down the dialog, it takes quite a while for it to be shown.

So, the question is if there is any way to disable this funcionality. I just don't need this.

If you are rooted but don't want to use Xposed you can use Android's native Intent Firewall to block direct share. This works on Android 6.0 all the way up to 8.1:

As answered earlier here:
Removing contacts (aka “Direct Share”) from Share panel on Marshmallow

It turns out that - for rooted people - there is a way to completely turn off Direct Share!

In my search for a way to stop this stupid feature from bugging me I had a look at how the feature is actually implemented in apps by developers. It turns out that they register a service with an intent receiver (read: event listener) and when I realized that, I started looking for a way to block certain intents from broadcasting through the system. Well, Android actually has that built in. It's called the Intent Firewall. I quickly figured out how to create a rule for it to block apps from receiving the "Hey are there any apps that want to bug the user by putting a couple of Direct Share buttons under their thumb as they're about to tap something?"-event.

You just create a simple xml file like and drop this into it:

<rules>
  <service block="true" log="true">
    <intent-filter>
      <action name="android.service.chooser.ChooserTargetService" />
    </intent-filter>
  </service>
</rules>

Now you have to put it on the phone and copy it into the Intent Firewall directory. On most devices that would be

/data/system/ifw/

I simply used Root Explorer to copy the file there (no chmod required), tried to share something that caused Direct Share targets to pop up and BOOM! Nothing!

I recommend to do some background reading (see links above), especially about how the Intent Firewall works and how you can find the folder.

Happy not-sharing!


How do I configure the keyboard and mouse in BlueStacks? What's the best way to edit the keymap and mouse controls for BlueStacks in any particular android application?

For example, right now I've recently picked up Future Fight and I'd like to bind 1 and 2 to the special attacks that I currently have to click with the mouse on icons in the lower right-hand corner.

You can currently in BlueStacks .9 hit Control+Alt+I to open a Keyboard Input Mapper Tool.  The sample file it generates for the current application has examples of how to bind keys to virtually tilting the device in various directions, but I'd really like to bind particular mouse clicks to the keyboard.

And of course (in many other games) find a way to bind the mouse roller to zoom in and out.

The newest (mid May 2015) update of Bluestacks adds a graphical interface for editing keystrokes for the current application.  It's a HUGE improvement for those who don't have the aptitude or time for programming.


XPrivacy: ability to batch-set one permission for all apps? I would like to select all (or multiple) apps in xprivacy, then revoke (for ALL of them, at the same time), the media/microphone permission (etc.)

(how) Is this possible?

I found that the ability to select multiple apps and then batch-applying a template is available in the Pro version of the app. That's not exactly what this question asks for, but it does seem that if applying just one permission change (instead of a whole template) exists or will ever exist, it will also be a Pro feature.

Source: https://forum.xda-developers.com/search/thread/2320783?query=batch


How to open Google Drive offline? (I.e. where is the Google Drive app icon?) I want to open Google Drive on my android tablet (Samsung Galaxy Tab S SM-T700), and I want to do this while I'm offline, as opposed to accessing my drive through Chrome.  (IOW, I want to access the items I have configured for offline access.)

I can't find its icon

...among the other app icons, nor anywhere else.  Also, I can't find any folder called "My Drive" in the tablet's storage.

(FWIW, I have rebooted the tablet, just in case.)

The Google Drive app is definitely installed (it shows up under Settings > Applications > Downloaded) and up-to-date.

Maybe you want to find the widget?

Google Drive has a widget which looks like a mini version of the Google Search Bar. It includes the main function to access Drive, another button for uploads ('Save to Drive'), a camera icon which I assume saves to Google Photos, and the '+' icon to create objects like folders, new Google Docs, etc.

I have this on my home screen as opposed to the normal Drive icon, though I also have that at my disposal.

In this image its in the top right slot.


Can I use two phones as one phone with two screens? I have two phones. I would like to have all my files on one, but be able to have two open at once.

Can I set up the second phone such that it extends / adds a second screen to my phone?

I do not want to use BTSync or similar (the second phone has limited storage).

Clipboard sharing + cloud drive.
With those two you can do a lot with minimum setup.

For PC like experience you may share your peripherals. Not trivial, though.

The biggest challenge is to sync the clipboard in a safe way. Most solutions are through WiFi router or internet and making a easy Bluetooth connection is a challenge.


Package Install via Market sometimes fails and gives seemingly random error message Some times when I install an application, the installation will fail.

However, the errors it throws are not only incorrect, but seemingly... random.

An example is, it'll fail and throw 'Insufficient storage space.' Blatant lie, I have plenty of space on the phone.

Another example is 'Package file is invalid.'

When I go to redownload the app, it usually installs just fine. On rarer occasions, it'll throw another (can't remember if it's the same) error, but then it'll install just fine.

I'm using stock market, on a stock Droid 3.

You can get 'Insufficient storage space' messages if you don't have enough space on the internal SD card for the market to be able to download the APK into a temp or data directory.  When you reboot your phone or exit from certain apps various caches/data directories are cleared, freeing up space on the internal SD card.  This is why this error appears 'randomnly' - because as you use and close apps, the amount of disk space changes.  There are several apps on the market that can force cache clean ups for you.

'Package file is invalid' can occur if you have disk errors or networking errors that corrupt the downloaded file.  This is why this error appears 'randomnly', as SD card file system issues or dropped/bad packets corrupting the file won't occur every time.  FYI, SD card file system errors are often a result of not unmounting the phone properly when connecting it via USB or by yanking the SD card from a reader without unmounting it first ("safely remove hardware" in Windows parlance)


How to reflash Htc Desire 628 properly? I tried to reflash my Htc Desire 628 using fastboot, but got following log:
PS D:\platform-tools> fastboot oem rebootRUU
OKAY [  0.042s]
Finished. Total time: 0.043s
PS D:\platform-tools> fastboot flash zip firm.zip
Invalid sparse file format at header magic
error: write_sparse_skip_chunk: don't care size 915918919 is not a multiple of the block size 4096
error: write_sparse_skip_chunk: don't care size 115920967 is not a multiple of the block size 4096
Sending sparse 'zip' 1/3 (781249 KB)               error: write_sparse_skip_chunk: don't care size 915918919 is not a multiple of the block size 4096
error: write_sparse_skip_chunk: don't care size 915918919 is not a multiple of the block size 4096
OKAY [ 36.254s]
Writing 'zip'                                      (bootloader) HOSD CL#788931
(bootloader) ERR lzipv2_init : Cannot open file /dev/fastboot_download_U
(bootloader) aJ4Bc
(bootloader) ERR [SD_UPDATE_ERR] update_fb_ZIP_buf: can not find ZIP hea
(bootloader) der
(bootloader) ERR [SD_UPDATE_ERR] sddownload failed: 22
(bootloader) ERR Update zip file failed.
(bootloader) ERR ZIP ERROR, exit read zip loop
(bootloader) ERR ZIP signature checking failed...
(bootloader) Update zip file OK
(bootloader) ERR ZIP ERROR CODE, 22
(bootloader) end@Done
FAILED (remote: '22: fail to flash via downloadzip')
fastboot: error: Command failed
PS D:\platform-tools> fastboot reboot
Rebooting                                          OKAY [  0.001s]
Finished. Total time: 0.008s

I took 2PVGIMG_V36BML_UHL_L51_DESIRE_SENSE70_HTC_Europe_1.16.401.1_Radio_0.1524V28P45.0504.0422_1_release_483251_signed_2_4_masud.zip
firmware from there:
http://forum.gsmdevelopers.com/htc-firmware-unified/11239-htc-desire-628-2pvgimg-v36bml-official-stock-roms-18-03-2017-updated.html
in download mode:
*** UNLOCKED ***
htc_v36bml_uhl PVT S-ON
LK-1.01.0000
RADIO-UNKNOWN
OpenDSP-UNKNOWN
OS-1.16.401.1
Aug  2 2016, 19:11:15(788931)

bootloader and OEM unlocked, usb debugging enabled, is there something else missing or it is a matter of firmware?
Update:
adb log:
PS D:\platform-tools> adb sideload firm.zip
Total xfer: 0.00x
PS D:\platform-tools>

in twrp:
Updating partition details...
...done
Full SELinux support is present.
MTP Enabled
Starting ADB sideload feature...
Installing zip file '/sideload/package.zip'
Invalid zip file format!

Update 2:
Updating partition details...
...done
Full SELinux support is present.
MTP Enabled
Installing zip file '/sdcard/firm.zip'
Checking for Digest file...
Skipping Digest check: no Digest file found
Zip file is corrupt!
Error installing zip file '/sdcard/firm.zip'
Updating partition details...
...done

Update 3:
handle_cota_install: install cwpkg to /ota/cwpg.zip
handle_cota_install: install cwprop to cota/cw.prop
Write host_mode error
handle_cota_install: Can't mount /sdcar, 1 times
handle_cota_install: Can't mount /sdcar, 2 times

HTC update.zip is encrypted and does not respect the standard file layout. META-INF is missing, content is:
info.bin
zip_0.zip
zip_1.zip
zip_2.zip
zip_3.zip
zip_4.zip
zip_5.zip
zip_6.zip

Therefore this file can only flashed from stock recovery.


How can I delete a Whatsapp group of which, I am the administrator? I am the admin of a WhatsApp group. I found that there is another group with same members, so the group I made is of no use. Now, How can I delete it?

Remove all participants other than yourself, first by pressing and holding their name
Finally, as Admin, exit yourself from the group by pressing "Exit Group" option underneath
Now, the delete group option should become visible: press "Delete Group"

It's all been explained on WhatsApp FAQ - Group for Android.


Skype message to open local video file I'm using Skype on Android 7. I have stored a video locally on the phone on the location /storage/emulated/0/myvideo.mp4.

How can I send a skype message (from another device) so that on the above mentioned device the video is opened? That means I would like to send a message containing a hyperlink to /storage/emulated/0/myvideo.mp4 and when clicked on it the video should open.

Links to local files on your phone only work on your device, not on other devices. If you want to share your video you have to send it via Skype (if it is less than one minute) or upload it somewhere and then send the online link via Skype chat.

Only if the both phones are next to each other an app that uses local sharing can be used, but that does not work with Skype.


Upgrading Unrevoked Desire from Eclair to Froyo I'm currently running my HTC Desire on 2.1 (O2 branded from the UK, if it makes a difference) which has been rooted via Unrevoked. I've just now been prompted to upgrade it to what I assume is 2.2 via an OTA update. I'd quite like to do this but I'm assuming this will cause me to lose my root. Unrevoked seems to now say it supports 2.2 as well as 2.1 so would it just be a matter of doing the OTA update and re-rooting with Unrevoked?

Also, I've never performed an upgrade before, do I lose all my apps/data/configs? How long does it normally take?

Thanks.

If this is a standard OTA update then you shouldn't lose anything at all, and the update should take less than half an hour, just make sure that your battery is fully charged before you start. All your apps, data and configuration should stay. The only exception to this is where things have changed between Eclair and Froyo, so some of your apps may not be compatible with Froyo (though it's been out long enough now that's very unlikely).

Yes, you will lose your root status, but should be able to root again afterwards, provided your chosen root method works on Froyo, or you can find a different rooter that will work if not.


Fixing "Couldn't install on USB storage or SD card" issue I recently had a problem that prevented updating any application installed on the SD card. When trying to update the application in the market, the update failed and the following message was given as detailed error:

  Couldn't install on USB storage or SD card.

A possible workaround is to move the application back to the phone, update it, and then move it to the SD card again.

How can we fix the error permanently?

A fix I've found and that works is to mount the SD card on a PC, open the *.android_secure* folder and delete a file named smdl2tmp1.asec.

It seems that it's a leftover file from a previous (failed?) installation/update that prevents another update to run correctly.


How to fix "error: device not found" when I try to use ADB I'm trying to get my phone (JiaYu G3T) working under adb on Windows 8 x64 (worked fine on Windows 7 x64 before reinstalling my OS).

Driver Android Composite ADB Interface, version 8.0.0.0, works fine.

My adb won't list any devices (adb.exe devices).

I tried:

installed Google USB driver
enabled debugging mode in phone
added my device's hardware IDs to the Google USB driver inf file and installed
installed Moborobo (phone works fine in there but adb still won't find the device)
tried switch Settings > Storage > Menu > USB Computer connection to "Camera (PTP)"
tried two different version of adb (1.0.31 and 1.0.26)

Those were some of the advices I found so far.

The drivers that come with PdaNet may work. Give it a shot


install apps on sd card My BLU Studio 5.5 won't allow me to install anymore apps. I have a 18G SD card installed. When accepting to install it says "Error downloading phone had insufficient space". What do I do to install more apps.?

You have to create a partition on your SD that you can then mount to your phone storage.

Here is a tutorial about it.

http://www.skyneel.com/2013/10/Increase-internal-memory-in-Android-Mobiles-in-easy-steps.html


Exchange Email on Android 5.1 I recently upgraded my Nexus 5 to Android 5.1. Now my corporate exchange email no longer updates.  I can not send or receive emails. I had my local IT department check it out and they can not find anything wrong.  All of the settings are exactly the same as they were prior to the update.  Any suggestions?

A fellow Nexus 5 owner in my office who had not yet upgraded his to 5.1 showed me his settings.  The security type on his was SSL/TLS, while mine was set to SSL/TLS (Accept all certificates).  I changed mine to SSL/TLS and it works now.  I'm not sure why this worked but I can get my emails now.


What can be saved before factory reset? My phone has a GPS problem and service says the need to wipe it completely.
They are probably just lazy and would rather do it the easy way.
C'est la vie.

The phone is SGS unrooted 2.3.4 - Touch Wiz. I don't want to root it.

Now, what I am going to do is this:
- Save contacts with Kies
- Save files

Is there anything else I can do or that I should know?

For example, I believe that apps associated with the Google Account will be reinstalled after I re-enter my account into the newly formatted phone, correct?
However, app data like savegames won't be ported, I have to search for them in the phone memory?

Can I backup SMS?

Can I back-up settings?

Will imported contacts keep all fields like I have them now, i.e. work phone, home phone, work email, home email etc?

I know it's a ton of questions, sorry about that.
Thank you.

Basically, you can back up everything which has a "data provider" available -- as e.g. contacts, call-logs, SMS, and the like. If you search the playstore for "backup", it will give you a lot of apps for that. One of the best non-root backup solutions for this probably is MyBackup Pro, which covers most of it -- though there are a lot of apps offering to backup/restore parts.

Most other app's data cannot be backed-up, however. Some of them provide possibilities to export their settings (and import them at a later point), others have dedicated backup apps (I remember e.g. something like that for Angry Birds).

For contacts and calendar, there's also the possibility to sync them with your Google account. I would not, however, rely on the "Google backup" for other things, as it is often reported to unsuccessfully restore. For that case, there are extra measures one can take. The easiest would be to logon to AppBrain with your Google credentials, and sync your installed apps. Appbrain then allows you to save that as a list with their service: you can then use this list to restore all apps you put into it -- or you could even send it to a different device (even a different user's device) for a "mass install".

In case you had some apps installed which are no longer available on the playstore, you could also take a look at AppMonster: in its payed (pro) version, it also allows batch-install. Plus, it captures each app you install/update and saves a copy -- which can be useful in the future as well: if some update breaks a functionality, you can ask AppMonster to simply restore a previous (captured) version.

And though this currently does not affect you (as your Android version is lower than 4.0), just to mention for other users (and your possible future device): starting with Android 4.0, there is the possibility for a Full Backup of non-rooted devices (rooted users always have this possibility with Titanium Backup ★ root).

Data stored on your sd card should not be affected by the factory-reset.


Is there a downside to keeping the HDR mode on my Moto G phone camera always on? My moto G allows HDR (in the camera app ) in three settings:

Always on
Off
Auto

I was wondering, what's the downside to keeping HDR always on? Is there such a thing as spoiling a shot with HDR when none was needed?

I sometimes feel the HDR in Auto does not always kick-in in situations where it ought to have!

No downside to it (barring some scenarios)

HDR increases the dynamic range between the darkest and brightest colours in your photo and there's no downside to it apart from lag (that may be fixed by using camera apps that respond faster -you would need to experiment)

But it's not a silver bullet to increase the quality. Some situations where it spoils rather than help :

If the picture you wish to take isn't already brightly lit with a bright spots and dark ones (like shadows)  , it's better to avoid HDR. In this case, HDR photos look artificial. As Izzy pointed out in comments, pictures that don't have much contrast between dark and bright (low dynamic range) don't come out well. HDR can only enhance range not create . Try taking a picture indoor with subdued lighting with HDR to see how poorly it comes out.
If you or the object is moving, the lag may cause blurry photos (HDR takes 3 photos – normal exposure, under-exposure, over-exposure – and combines them. (In professional cameras it takes even 7 photos). If the object moves in this process , it becomes evident as blur. This is called ghosting (anti-ghosting algorithms may be able to compensate, but they have their limits). Same result if you move while taking the shot.
Also if your picture has bright colours already like close up of a bunch of flowers in a garden, it adds artificiality.

For a technical understanding see this from our sister site What is HDR

You may feel that HDR is not kicking in when it is required, but then it is the software which decides when it should, so better leave the judgement to it ! (Setting on Auto)


Connect phone to tv usb I have plugged my phone up to my through the usb and on my phone it says connected as media device. But when I go to the usb in the settings on my tv it says there no device connected. Any ideas?

There are two common ways:

Some smartphones support MHL (Mobile HDMI Link) cables.
Most smartphones are equipped with Miracast. Screen Mirroring can be enabled/disabled in the quick toggle menu, which also contains WiFi,Bluetooth,Torch,etc.


How to send .gif files recorded in our device thro some chatting Apps to be specific ( WhatsApp, Hiken) I found an camera App named Cameringo from Playstore and it has an option to record an small time period of actions and save it in .gif format so i tried and recorded some .gif animations and it was animated while i see those on my gallery and when i share it via whatsapp or hike or instagram the file is sent as a normal picture and no animations were seen in my Friends device i tried it with many devices same result is found is there any way to send those .gif animation via Whatsapp and instagram

Use the app GroupMe with it you can send gifs and the other person will receive it with no problems.
Android GroupMe


Send multiple files via Bluetooth to PC from gallery I wanted to send about 30 photos from Gallery to PC by selecting them all, clicking Share\Bluetooth and then selecting the target computer.

It didn't work. All transfers failed. But if I selected a single photo I have been able to send it. Around 99MB.

I've been able to workaround by zipping (thanks ES File Manager!) and sharing the zip file only.

Is there something that I should know about sending multiple files via Bluetooth?

I use Bluetooth File Transfer app. Its worked really well to send file to my computer. you can check multiple files to send at the same time and this has worked well for me. It also works well to send file back and forth between two phones if they both have it installed.


Android device not mounting (neither USB nor Blutooth) I have an Android KitKat 4.4.2 Samsung Galaxy SIII Neo. All was working fine, and I could mount the device and copy files from the device to my Windows 7 PC. Now when I disconnect or insert the USB cable to my Android device I hear the ta-da, ra-ra sounds, and the hard drive LED on my Sony VAIO PC goes orange and then blinks orange for a while, but the Computer location in explorer.exe does not show my device as it used to (a folder used to connect also used to pop up). And when I try to connect via fsquirt.exe on the PC and click "Receive files" and on my Blutooth network device I click on the PC name, then the PC shows a number for the pairing, but such number never appears on my device.

So I can connect via neither blutooth, neither USB. Both are enabled at the top of the notification drawer.

What could be wrong here, and what should I do?

I ended up having to transfer my files to a temporary directory on Google Drive and download it from Google Chrome to my Desktop and then make use of them from there. Anyways, a couple of days later my Windows 7 OS (Sony VAIO) completely crashed (gray screen). I forced the laptop off with the off switch and after returning to it after a walk and turining it on, it said, No Operating System found

So it is possible that the mounting was not working because the computer hard-drive was about to crash.


Should I backup .odex files too? I have recently got an app that permits me to view the contents of my phone memory on my rooted Samsung Galaxy Y mobile phone.

In /system/app folder, I see all the system apps that came pre-installed with the phone, and also I see a .odex corresponding to every .apk file.

What exactly are these files?

I wanted to keep a backup of all these .apk files in my laptop, just in case.

Should I backup the .odex files too? Why or Why not?

You don't need to back up anything under /system since a factory reset or flashing the original ROM will restore everything there.  And if you were flashing a different ROM then the .odex files would likely be useless anyways, since they're for specific app/OS/device versions.


Deleting Pictures- Will They Really Be Gone? Lets say I were to delete a photo, is there any way possible this photo may be seen on this device ever again? Will anyone ever be able to see this deleted photo if they pull up my device on their computer or laptop? If I delete a photo am I going to have full reassurance that this photo will never be seen again?

There are lots of other points consider. Each of these cases provide a means to retrieve:

In ES file explorer app, there is a concept of recycle bin. If this is enabled, the deleted photo can be retrieved by visiting the recycle bin section. If the photo is not deleted by this app, this point will not apply.

The apps like Google Photos, OneDrive etc have an option to upload the photo to a cloud services. Deleting a photo might not delete in the cloud. If you do not have these apps installed or installaed, but configured to ignore the folder from which you deleted the photo, then the photo can't be found in the cloud.

And the last bit is if the photo is stored in an external storage, then it can be removed and mounted on a card reader in a computer and there are apps to recover. It is not assured recovery, but chances are there. If your device is rooted, there is an android app to undelete the photo as well.


How to get out of boot loop on Mi 4i? I got stuck in a boot loop. Can access Mi Recovery. Can't access fastboot for more than 10 seconds. I had accidentally wiped everything from my phone, without any backup. Also, I had USB Debugging off in my device. Now, how do I flash a new ROM and reboot into my system?

From Experience : The problem is with your battery. The battery can't produce stable power.
When you go to recovery mode, the power consumption is very low. So, it will stay for some time.
When you turn on the phone, the brand logo is shown, may or may not the Booting is done. Suddenly the phone turns off. Then again turns on and repeat this automatically about 15-20 times.
I have the same issue and after checking for a weak , I found that the battery can't produce the power in a stable manner.
How to check.
Since your phone has an inbuilt battery, I am not suggesting you to remove cover, which may remove the sensor, then taking out the battery and doing so.
So, if the phone is under warranty, go to a service centre. Else, go to a local mobile mechanic and ask him to test the phone by putting an alternate battery.
80% it will work.
Try it and if you are in the 20% part, let me know.


Remove mystery alarm from Android 5 I'm using a lender Android 5 phone. Apparently it's default settings were set to update over WIFI only. I do have an alarm program I explicitly installed however it is clearly not the cause of the alarms at 8AM "Get to Work" which only started happening this week. There is an analog alarm clock icon at the top (without sliding down) though no actual notification to click or hint to what is triggering this mystery alarm clock. At best I could take a screenshot in nearly 24 hours from now. If there is a list of recently updated programs then I am not aware of it.

How do I remove the mystery alarm program or setting from an Android 5 phone?

Clock, the native clock program was causing it. I can only guess that some developer somewhere decided that it should automatically start creating alarms for people. What about people who work incompatible hours? If anyone else encountered this please let me know. I had to go to the programs list, click Clock and disable the alarm.


How do I stop my device from sending my location to Google every second, even when the location setting is off? How do I stop my device from sending my location to Google every second, even when the location setting is off? (Which is illegal because I declined Google from taking my location data because I turned it off and they still collect it anyway.)

Google was caught collecting location data EVERY second from android phones when the Location setting is turned off. Now I know why my phone battery is so terrible.

If I leave my phone stationary in my house on standby, it lasts 6-8 hours, which is bad as it should last at least 12 hours stationary on standby. If I go outside and move around, 40% of my battery goes in 2 hours so on a 100% charge when outside moving around, my battery lasts 2-3 hours. The battery drains faster when I'm moving around than when the phone is still, and it drains even faster when inside transport than walking. How do I REALLY turn location tracking off?

Before anyone says, "maybe your phone has a virus", it was like that with a terrible battery since I brought the phone with a fresh installation, and I installed every app on my phone from Google Play except for Gab.

I have a Samsung Galaxy S6 and Android 6.0.1

Update

I have made the exact same journey with my wifi, mobile data and location off and my battery only drained by 5% in one hour intead of 35% in one hour. As the mobile network tracks my location with all 3 off, the battery drain is not due to the location tracking by my network. It's also not due to any apps, as apps can only track my location when the location is on (of which a window appears asking me if I want to turn location on so the app can use it) and the location icon shows in notifications. Remember that my battery lasts much longer when stationary but abysmal when moving around.

How do I fix this problem?

Even I had read that article, but possibly could do nothing to stop Google. Our lives are so very dependent on Google. We use lots of Google apps like Gmail, Gdrive, YouTube, Chrome, Maps and others. It is not always possible to eliminate Google from our daily lives.

As @Izzy has mentioned, you can flash a custom ROM and remove all google apps. That can eliminate the possibility of your location being sent to Google without your permission. But take that route only if you are sure that you can properly flash a custom ROM, otherwise you may end up with a bricked device.

Other than this, you can disable all Google apps, including PlayStore and Play Services. But I can assure you that many apps (even apps other than those by Google) won't work if you disable the latter.

You can prevent all Google apps and services from getting data access, whether WiFi or cellular. There are very good apps like DataEye which can block specific apps from accessing data connection, including system apps and services. I've been using it mainly to prevent apps from showing up ads, and it works great. In this way, you can stop Play Services from getting data access, but the apps based on Play Services will continue to work.

These are a few of the methods that a layman can use. If you can root your phone, then you can remove all Google apps except PlayStore and Play Services (don't remove these two, otherwise many apps won't function). Other than these, I don't think we can specifically do anything else to stop Google from reading our location.


Is it possible to root my phone without installing a custom ROM? I have a Samsung Galaxy Stellar on Verizon.

Whenever I hear anything about rooting a phone, people always say that you have to install a custom ROM. How do I just use my current stock ROM and root my phone?

Short answer
That very much depends on your device, as the rooting process often is device specific. Following up to the rooting tag wiki will give you some basic info, and also provide a link to our rooting index, which might even already include a link for your device.
TL;DR
Basically, rooting just means to push a binary (su) and a helper app (SuperUser/SuperUser or SuperSU) to the system partition. So as Compro01 wrote in his comment on your question, you're "customizing your ROM" somehow.
On most devices that's all you need, though how that's accomplished is a different thing, as it's a little chicken-and-egg: You want to gain root permissions on your device – and for that, you first have to push those two files to /system, which only can be done with root permissions. So in most cases, this requires some "hacking", which is what Sparx refers to in his answer might cause your device to be unusable. I rooted several devices already, and when sticking to the instructions the device should not become "unusable" (though I admit there might be rare cases). I had it once a device became instable (apps crashing, device rebooting itself multiple times a day), but that was easily cured by a factory reset.


Is there an app like ROM-control for non-AOKP roms? I found ROM-control very useful in ICS. But it can only work on AOKP roms. So is there an app can do the same job on ROMs other than AOKP?

The answer is no, you cannot, because ROM Control is an app that is geared and orientated towards Android 4 and in this instance AOKP, hence internal API's are different. Back porting it into a non-ICS/non-AOKP ROM may fail due to the dependencies on the aspect of AOKP, such as settings, and ICS internals are vastly different to non-ICS code.

If you are a programmer and like to torture yourself with the challenge of it, then maybe its possible to back-port certain aspects and build the ROM yourself.


Can't debug with LG Nexus 4 I am at my wit's end here trying to debug using a new LG Nexus 4 developer phone. Debugging is enabled on the phone, and the USB driver from the Android SDK is installed. When I try to run in Eclipse I get a message that says 'No compatible targets were found'.

I have previously used a Samsung Nexus S developer phone, and a Nexus 10 tablet with the USB driver from the Android SDK and it was not a problem. I have also debugged using my Samsung Galaxy S4 using the drivers from Samsung.

I plug in the Nexus 4, and go to Device Manager. In Device Manager, the device is listed as Android Phone > Android Composite ADB Interface. I right-click and select 'Update Driver Software...', then 'Browse my computer for driver software'. I then point it to the '\sdk\extras\google\usb_driver' folder of my Eclipse/Android SDK install, but I am notified that 'The best driver software for your device is already installed'.

I have tried uninstalling the driver, but as soon as I plug the phone back in, my computer automatically installs the driver, and when I go back in to Device Manager to 'Update Driver Software...', I am again told that 'The best driver software for your device is already installed'. And yet still, even after rebooting both my PC and the phone, when I try to run in Eclipse I am still notified that 'No compatible targets were found'.

Any ideas? This device is completely useless to me unless I can get it to debug from Eclipse. A co-worker was able to get it to work just fine on his PC, and we have the exact same PC specs. Please help!

Couple of suggestinos that might work:

First, try to update your Android SDK with the Android SDK Manager. Sometimes, due to a old version, newer phones are not recognized.
I'm assuming you are using Windows. Wich version? x86 or x64? When you go to Device Manager and see Android Phone > Android Composite ADB Interface, does it have a yellow admiration mark? If yes, the the drivers are not installed correctly.
This might be a bit trivial, but have you tryed to reboot your PC and your phone?
Also, what minSDK version do you have in your application set, and what version does your Nexus 4 have?


how to access privacy protection pin -ausus mobile I forgot my pin. It has considered as theft when I changed my SIM card.Now I want to access my mobile-AUSUS mobile.Please help me.

What you can do is enter recovery mode and do a full wipe/factory reset. You will lose all your data but it will unlock your phone. The instruction to perform the reset can be found online easily.

If you plan to ask how to unlock without deleting everything - unless you have USB debugging enabled and root - there is no way.


How to turn off the animation when locking screen on Nexus 5 running on KitKat? I need to turn off the CRT TV animation when locking screen in Nexus 5, running KitKat 4.4.3.

I was able to turn off the TV animation by keeping Animator duration scale to Animation off in developer options, but this caused the issue in dialer. The dial pad won't appear first time. You have to click again to get the dial pad.

So any other way to turn off the animation without affecting dialer? The phone is not rooted, though solution for rooted phone is also welcomed.

Update:

The CRT TV animation animation is no longer there in Lollipop.

As pointed out by a comment on the question itself: GravityBox, a module for the famous Xposed framwork, can be used for this (and for many other things: it's a feature-rich toolbox): you can select a different effect, or even switch it off.

If you're on a custom ROM, however, the dev doesn't recommend using GravityBox, as it might lead to conflicts (many of the tweaks GravityBox offers are already present in custom ROMs). In that case, simply search the repo for other CRT related mods – there are several of them dealing with this. One example would be XBlast Tools, which explicitely mentions: CRT Screen off effect (No Effect,Horizontal Effect and Vertical Effect) in its list of tweaks.


What options are there for permanently connecting a rooted Android Phone to a NAS? I keep all my documents, pics, music, etc. on a home NAS so I can access the data from around my home. For work I mostly use DropBox. But as my free 50GB are going to expire soon, I need to find another solution. So I thought I could move all my stuff from DB to my NAS and access it from there. I could use VPN but they aren't allowing outgoing connections and won't enable it for only that reason, which I can fully understand.

BTW I have a FritzBox 7390 as router and I plan of purchasing a low-power Shuttle PC for simple server-stuff. My Nexus 5 is rooted and runs the latest OmniRom build.

Are there any options here? If possible, it would be nice if my NAS could be mounted so I can move files around easily with an app.

First, you need a "DynDNS" account, so from outside, you can connect to your home network without knowing the (daily changing) public ip.
Then, you install ssh on the NAS (I guess you will use linux, e.g. ubuntu server lts).
I'd recommend forwarding another port to ssh, like 12345, in order to stop at least basic, automated scans from finding your ssh server.

As client, I would recommend ES File Explorer.
Connect to your NAS by sftp.  It's using strong encryption.


Does "test-keys" mean device is rooted? I have Android phone that fails to boot after working happily some time.

I'm trying to install official firmware update zip from manufacturer's site, but update fails with errors:

  E: footer is wrong
  E: signature verification failed
  E: install package error, result = 7

Google results suggest that official updates can fail integrity verification only if the device is rooted (yes, I've re-downloaded the update several times, the file is ok). As the phone does not boot, I cannot use the "root check" app or terminal etc. On top of the recovery menu, after the ROM version (I guess) there's a line: user/test-keys.

Is this a sign that the device is rooted?

It means that firmware on your device is not signed by release keys and is vulnerable

Signing Builds for Release  |  Android Open Source Project explains test keys as compared to release keys in building a ROM or OS

  The Android tree includes test-keys under build/target/product/security. Building an Android OS image using make will sign all .apk files using the test-keys. Since the test-keys are publicly known, anybody can sign their own .apk files with the same keys, which may allow them to replace or hijack system apps built into your OS image. For this reason it is critical to sign any publicly released or deployed Android OS image with a special set of release-keys that only you have access to.

(Emphasis Supplied)

This SO question supports

  Release-Keys and Test-Keys has to do with how the kernel is signed when it is compiled. Release-Keys means it was signed with an official Key from an official developer. Test-Keys means it was signed with a custom key generated by a third-party developer. From a security standpoint Release-Keys generally means the kernel is more secure, which is not always the case

and hence is a security risk as reiterated in this XDA post

Does it mean my device is rooted?

The fact that you have not been able to apply official firware updates ( which check for root  ) indicates that the device may be rooted  (in addition ).  You can verify in alternate ways (other than apps ) as mentioned here How can I tell if I have root?

Related Can I 'trick' my device into thinking it's unrooted?


"Hangouts (replaces Talk)" -- can I replace Hangouts with Talks if I don't like it? I'm disappointed that Google Hangouts is going away from XMPP.

If I download the "Hangouts (replaces Talk)" app on my Galaxy Nexus (Google Nexus 3), will I be able to go back to Google Talk, if needed?

Is there a way to keep Google Talk?  Or is there a way to communicate with people who use Google Hangouts through Google Talk or XMPP?

As far as Android is concerned, they're the same app, and Hangouts is just a new update for Talk which happens to change the user-facing name. (Apps also have a package name, which is how Android decides if they're the same app.) It works like any other update: it completely replaces the old version in your phone's internal storage. Like any other update, once you've updated, you can't go back to the version you had before.

But in this case, Talk is an app that's built into your ROM (assuming you're not on a custom ROM: if you don't know, you're not). Like any other app from the ROM, you can uninstall all updates and go back to the original version. To do this, go to the Settings app, go to the Apps page, find Hangouts in the list of apps, and click Uninstall updates. This won't restore the version you had before the update: it'll go back to the original version that was on the phone last time you did a system update. (If you've never done a system update, that's the version that was on the phone when you took it out of the box.) There's no guarantee that such an old version will continue to work.


How Can You Change Which Microphone Is Used During Calls? My LG G4 phone's main microphone is broken but it's secondary microphone is working. That is, during ordinary calls or voice recordings, the microphone doesn't pick up any sound (completely dead) but during speakerphone calls or video recordings that microphone works fine.

Is there any way to permanently redirect the primary microphone to the secondary one, so that for ALL calls, the secondary microphone is used to pick up sound?

I just found a way to do that. You can use Tasker to automatically start the loudspeaker(which starts using secondary mic.) and then also add a rule to Tasker to reduce the loudspeaker volume to minimum which will very closely simulate the situation.


How to import Wikivoyage tourism information to OsmAnd Wikivoyage is a collaborative travel guide covering 25,000 destinations.
It details hotels/restaurants/bars/attractions with opening hours etc.

OsmAnd is an open source navigation Android app.

How to make OsmAnd display all of the data from Wikivoyage?
So that when scrolling the map, one can see the hotels/etc with their details, even when offline.

(Update: The data is now available as .gpx at https://github.com/baturin/wikivoyage-listings)

1) Download the latest .obf file at https://sourceforge.net/projects/wikivoyage/files/Listings-as-OBF/

2) Using any file management app, move the .obf file to the root of your OsmAnd folder, probably /sdcard/osmand/.

3) Start OsmAnd, and enable the "POI > Any" layer (accessible in MENU > Layers).

4) Hotels/etc should appear, visible in orange circle. Sometimes it does not work immediately, in such cases just restart your phone.


Do I need a complicated root? Why? How (Samsung GT-S5660) I am trying to install  "Samba Filesharing" on my Samsung GT-S5660.

The requirements is that it is rooted, and also the application "Superuser".

Rooting, seems to be a complicated hack.
Why is that necessary?

This is a phone sold without a contract, and I am concerned that phones with contracts are a bit different, and i think in a phone like mine it should be a simple setting or something.

What should be the best approach in my case?

Ok if you havent checked out the link Uri posted, "root," to put it simply, is administrative privileges on the phone and gives you the ability to mess with core system files and configurations.

The "Superuser" app is just an app that is designed to grant or block root permissions to different apps.

Rooting android phones is sometimes complicated but it mainly depends on the phone and manufacturer as different manufacturers lock down their phones in different ways. Some developers have brought it down to you just plugging in your phone when a certain app is running and everything is done for you while other times will require you to run terminal commands, and download specific software onto your phone. Unlike standard desktop Linux, root has to be acquired through exploits apparent in the phones.

Now why gain root?

Well for android phones, it allows us to a variety of things such as have the ability to underclock our processors for considerably better battery life or overclock them for performance. We can also create wifi-hotspots with ease, run network based attacks such as ARP-Poisoning, conduct cookie hijacking and so on. Its like jailbreaking an iPhone (except its a LOT more power to tinker in the palm of your hands).

In your case, your app probably configures the network card on your phone for the File Server in a way that cannot be done with the traditional Android API and so needs more system access (hence the request for root permissions).

There is no "simple" setting to turn on root no matter what phone you have. This is because carriers make money by locking down your phone and forcing you to pay for more functionality (i.e tethering/wifi-hotspot). If they give you the ability to activate root, then some people could easily circumvent their control, thus making them lose money. The other possibility is that careless people who don't know what they are doing could seriously mess up their own phones and thus making it a support nightmare for carriers and manufacturers who now have to deal with bricked phones.

What should your best approach be? It all depends. If you really plan on tinkering with the phone or want custom software or want better battery life, then rooting is for you. If you just want to use your phone with no extra functionality or no hassle, then don't bother for root as you probably don't need it.

If you do want to root, CAREFULLY follow all instructions and do your research. Your best place to start is on your device forums on xda here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1404

The 1 click root also has a very good chance of working but this isn't verified to work with your device afaik.