What are some reasons for big difference in time usage and small difference in mAh? I have found an android phone with really good specs like 1.5GHz Quad Core, 1GB RAM, 5", HD screen. My question though is on the battery

Battery Size: 2000mAh
Usage Time: 6 Hours
Battery Standby: 72 Hours

In comparison with let's say Samsung S4, it comes with a battery of 2600 mah,

Stand-by     (2G) / Up to 370 h (3G)
Talk time    (2G) / Up to 17 h (3G)

Why is that big difference in the time of usage with just 600mah? I got the numbers for the S4 from Gsm Arena and the other one from the manufacturer.

Thank you for your time

I'm not sure where you got those figures from, they seem a bit too good to be true. 370 hours is next to impossible for Li-ion batteries (when they are attached to smart phones). 370 hours is more than 15 days. As of 2013 there is no Android powered smart phone that can last in standby for more than 15 days. It doesn't cost a ton of battery to be connected to a cell tower, but over hours and hours of being connected, it adds up to be a lot. Plus add in a ton of background processes to the mix and you have yourself a battery eating machine.

And your figure isn't really practical anyway because I could not think of anyone who could let there phone sit on standby for 15 days without using it.

I know 2 people who have the S4 and both of them said that they can't get more than 2 days out of their charge with practical use.

So to answer your question, there is not a big difference between the two, but the S4 does come with some nice software to help you make the most out of your battery with practical use:

If I had an S4 I would definitely check this out because if you want to get the most out of your battery, this "Smart Screen" is a great start.

from Wonder How To

I think that this is the article you were referencing. This artical states that the "average" battery life is 57 hours:

now 57 hours is a more manageable number. I was interested in how the S3 did in the same test. Here are the results:

Now all of that said, the difference between the two is only 14 hours. 14 hours is a great improvement for Samsung's next S generation phone.

  Don't always believe things you see on the net =)


Copying files from a android phone without display or touch My Oneplus X phone fell and the display and touch are not functional anymore. When I connect to my Linux laptop, an empty "Android" drive and "OnePlus X drivers" drive gets mounted. I tried copying the contents, but been unsuccessful. Is there a way to get the contents?

You could trying plugging in a mouse to your device via an OTG cable. Then you should be able to access your notifications bar and configure your phone to communicate with the PC.


How to disable double tap for page-home on Samsung Galaxy S2? After wondering and getting annoyed by my phone sometimes just jumping to the beginning of a web Page, I finally found out that it's a new Feature of the internet browser. Double tapping on the top of the phone jumps to the top of a web page.

How can i disable this?

I'm using Samsung Galaxy S2 running ICS 4.0.3.

Look under Settings > Motion for an option to disable double tap feature. I disabled the whole motion category.


What running applications and services are safe to turn off? Possible Duplicate:
  Knowing which applications to stop

I just got a used Nexus One and I see a lot of running services and applications.  I'm wondering what negative impact there would be if I just started switching them off?

For example, obviously, I don't want to mess with "Calendar," but what about "Calendar Storage?" If I install Handcent SMS, do I still need the Messaging-related services/applications?  Same for Media: if I install Winamp, do I still need those?

Calendar depends on Calendar Storage; Handcent still relies on the device's services for receiving messages; and I would guess that even if Winamp doesn't rely on Media, your wallpaper or notification sounds or something else does.

I would mostly leave these "System" services alone.  If you have battery trouble, it's likely due to user-installed apps.


Swype installed but does nothing I downloaded and installed swype on my HTC Droid incredible 2. I went to settings > keyboard > text settings and checked swype. Now when I use my keyboard I draw across the letters and nothing happens.

Am I missing a step?

Did you remember to switch to Swype from the default keyboard?

Press and hold inside any text box (like Google Search, for example).  A pop-up should come up with one or more options.  Select the "Input method" option and then select "Swype".


I want to play my new game! I recently downloaded an app off of an unknown site because it was too large to install off of Google Play. It downloaded as an apk and now I do not know how to access it.

First, avoid downloading APKs of the apps, always install from Google Play. To access the downloaded APK, open your phone's file manager or install one (like ES File Explorer). Navigate to the path where you have saved the APK file, and just tap the APK file. It will take you to the installation process.


Rooting Samsung Galaxy Young 2 (SM-G130HN) I am having issues in rooting the Samsung Galaxy Young 2 (SM-G130HN).

I did search online and found a root file named G130HNXXU0ANH2_ROOT.tar. The method described in various android forums did not work : everything seems fine, but when I restart my phone and check with SuperSU, I am not root.

and I suspect the reason is that my phone has a different baseband number. Mine is G130HNXXU0APA2. Considering the name of the root file name, it might only work on baseband number G130HNXXU0ANH2.

I've checked on this list How do I root my Android device? and I'm afraid my phone is too old (for this sh**)...

Am I right in thinking that the reason of the fail could be the band base number? Is it possible to change this number so the file I have would fit?

Another solution could be having the right root file corresponding to my baseband number but I can't find it.

The standard way of rooting is to use a custom recovery to install a SuperSU zip, which not only contains the SuperSU app itself, but also proper binaries and tools. Luckily, this unloved device still has a custom recovery available in this XDA-Developers thread.

Install the CWM package via Odin, then install SuperSU from it. Don't bother with the build.prop and custom ROM mess, those are for another purpose.

I was helped by @Andy's answer and I wanted to add more details about the rooting of the Samsung Galaxy Young 2 (SM-G130HN).  Bebs

Root

After the first steps described in the question, I had to try another rooting method. I found one in this post How do I root my Android device?, and the ont that worked is

  Kingoapp

I had to download it from my hpone because my PC navigator detected a troyan. It indeed worked with one clic.

CWM

At this moment, I still could not use SuperSU --the one dowloaded from Google Play--, my phone was seen as rooted, but there were a problem with SuperSU.

I learned from this page I could manually install another SuperSU package but first I had to allow my phone to be CWM.

Download CWM.
Start Odin.
Start the phone in Download mode by holding Volume Down, Home and Power. Plug the phone via USB to the PC.
In Odin, check AP and browse to CWM.tar file. Click Start.
Rebbot the phone (in my case it rebooted itself).

Now your phone can be CWM.

SuperSU.zip

SuperSU.zip file can be downloaded here.
Store the file into a mini SD card, and plug the card in the phone.
Start your phone in CWM by holding Volume Up, Home and Power.
The the menu is clear and you can install the zip file.
Then browse in the menu to reboot the phone.

Now SuperSU works.

I also finally could remove crapy bloatware with Titanium Backup.


How to hide calendar but receive reminder notifications? I have a calendar containing only regularly recuring dates. I would like to hide this calendar or these dates from the ordinary Google calendar app and the Google calendar widget.

The reminder notifications of these dates should not be disabled.

I activated synchronization in the Google calendar app and deactivated the display calender. Now the dates do are not being displayed, neither in the app nor in the widget, but I either do not receive the reminder notifications.

P.S. What is the difference between those two settings?

The easiest way to achieve this is to install a 3rd party calendar app which uses the Google calendar backend, and tell that app to not show that specific calendar, while leaving it enabled in the default Google calendar app (aCalendar  would be a good and relatively light-weight choice here). As the Google calendar is responsible for the alerts, you still would get them (and the corresponding notifications), while its content wouldn't disturb you working with the 3rd party app. I do something similar, and use the mentioned app, so I really can recommend it.

To the detail question: Synchronization is what the name suggests: updating changes made on either side (for a disabled calendar, obviously only in one direction). It's probably separated from (de)activating a calendar so you can activate it up-to-date even when having no network connection -- just my guess, but that would make sense.


How do I install live wallpapers I get from outside the android market? I have downloaded lots of Live wall papers from Android market.They work like charm.
I was trying to figure out a way to install Third party  live wall papers (Non-Android Market Specific) on my Samsung ACE 5830 Phone. Is this possible?

Check if on your phone you have the following option: Menu -> Settings -> Applications -> Unknown sources.  Make sure it's checked to allow non-Market installs.

On older (and newer) Android OS versions this option could be under a different menu, or be absent altogether because some carriers disable this it.

Once the option is enabled and you have some Live Wallpapers downloaded from elsewhere, you should be able to side-load them.  Just copy the APK file to your SD Card, then use any one of the free file browser apps from Market to "launch" the APK from the SD Card.  This should invoke Android's built-in package installer and complete the installation.


Bootlooping LG Volt will not connect w/ ADB Rooted LG Volt is bootlooping after build.prop and cpu setting changes, and I am unable to connect via ADB to restore build.prop or reflash system

How can I get the phone to connect via ADB?

Attempted to do factory reset from stock recovery, which was successful but there was no change in bootloop When phone is connected to PC during bootloop, it connects as Charge Only, and ADB doesnt recognize the device. When phone is in recovery and "Apply update from ADB" is selected, the phone connects to the computer, but Windows throws error "configuration descriptor request failed", and device is not recognized by ADB. Uninstalled all phone drivers from computer using USBDeview and Device Manager.

Have Android Studio, Android SDK, and ADB installed on Windows 8.1 computer. There are no issues with the ports or cable, tested several different ones.

I do not have CWM recovery, was previously using rooted stock OS

I solved this by booting into Download Mode (with the phone off, hold Vol+ while plugging in USB to computer).

There were some files that needed to be downloaded, including the LG Flash Tool, which was used to flash the stock ROM to the phone.

After flashing, the phone was in its original pre-activated state but at least it functioned!

Unbrick method for LG Volt (Boost/Virgin)
GSM-Forum: LG Flash Tool
Android Forums: Fix Factory Reset Status 2 errors - for an after-flash fix to boot


his is a s4 mine is a s6 gmail logged in on his i want it off not connected to his google account I signed into my gmail on my boyfriends phone once quite a bit ago ,few months and all of a sudden yesterday was getting notifications on my phone asking if I was trying to sign in cause he kept getting notifications that action was required for his and my account, so I told him to leave till we could have both phones together to see what was happening and when we click on his email if you touch the drop down arrow it shows mine too we have tried everything to remove if from his google account so my email will not be accessible on his phone but when we click on mine and manage accounts its takes mine to the page where u can sync everything and if I click all the syncing boxes all my email come up on his phone how can I get my account off his phone please help ??? how do I take my gmail off his phone if it doesn't sync properly and give me the option to remove my account

Under Accounts in your boyfriend's phone's system settings, there are probably two instances of Google. This may look different depending on your exact version of Android, but something like this (but with two instances).
Click the images for larger versions.

Unless the caption for each account tells you which is which, you'll need to open them to find that out. Once you've found the right one, there should be an option to remove the account. On my Samsung Galaxy S5 running LineageOS 14.1 it looks like this after I click the three dot menu at the top right.

And on my Honor 8 running stock EMUI 4.1 it looks like this (the language is set to Swedish on this one, but you get the idea).

The red rectangles were added by me, to indicate where the option is found. Unfortunately I don't have a phone with Samsung's stock rom at hand, so I can't show exactly how it should look on the S4 or the S6.

Once you've deleted the account, the phone should forget about it, and concequently stop logging in to it and syncing with it. It only deletes the account from the phone, not from Google's servers, so you won't lose anything.

If the above doesn't work, then something is wrong. A last resort is a factory reset.


How can I remove YouTube's uploader image overlay? I have the latest version of the YouTube app for Android (v5.1.10). At some point, the app began overlaying the uploader's user image in the upper-right-hand corner of the video. I can't click on it (it acts as if I clicked anywhere else on the video) and I can't remove it.

It never moves (unless I switch to/from full screen) or goes away, and sometimes blocks important portions of the video. Is there any way to turn this annoying non-feature off?

What you are talking about is called InVideo Programming. As a viewer, I don't think there's any way to remove this through the YouTube app. The content creator has to disable this themselves.

Related topics:

How to remove InVideo Programming from a single video?


What signature does TWRP look for? The stock recovery will look for a valid signature from its manufacturer.

What signature does TWRP look for?
Does it have a built in keychain of known developers? Does it just check for any signature and accepts it regardless of the signer to check for integrity only? Does it check whether the signature is from the same signer as the currently installed ROM?

(I'm asking because LineagOS recently started releasing signed builds but TWRP failed to verify it. Probably you'll want to use the LineagOS OS recovery but those haven't been released yet)

It will for an md5 checksum of what you're flashing if its present.
If TWRP won't let you flash a file, likely the checksum is turned on and can turned off in settings at the TWRP gui and possibly at an extended menu when selecting the file to flash.

If the file you're trying to flash doesn't work with TWRP, for example its contents isn't in a format that TWRP handels, then it won't work. Files from phone manufactures often have their own signing signatures that are only going to work with the recovery that is also from the manufacturer, and some manufactures are going to use an encrypted image that the stock recovery and bootloader are going to work with.  The rule of thumb, here, is not to flash OEM files with TWRP unless you know its okay with your device.


Recover Whats-app database files (.crypt12) Today I had to uninstall whats-app as my storage was 100% and all the apps were constantly crashing. I thought I would recover it later. However my file manager app ES file explorer offered me to delete app data which I accidentally okay-ed. Now I have only backup of Media files as of date and Google drive backup of a month back.

My phone is running Android Kitkat 4.4.4 and is not yet rooted.

Is there any way to restore msgstore****.crypt12 files from whatsapp databases?

I have all the whatsapp media but without messages it wont make much difference.

Please help.

P.S I have uninstalled whatsapp and have disabled sync so not new data could get overwritten to simplify recovery.

Is there any way to restore msgstore****.crypt12 files from whatsapp databases?

Yes, but you have to deactivate Google Drive sync. The only way is to remove Whatsapp from the authorized apps on this page:

https://myaccount.google.com/permissions

After that, locate the backups directory where the .crypt12 files reside.

Make a copy of the newest one that you would like to recover
Call said copy exactly msgstore.db.crypt12
Reinstall WhatsApp
Wait until the setup asks you if you want to restore from the local backup (it won't suggest the one on Google Drive because you removed the authorization before)

Done!


Titanium Backup cannot Backup Accounts I want to move to a new phone. But Titanium Backup does not work in backing up my accounts. It always says success even though the backup is only 1KB big and has nothing in it. Is there any other app or a manual way to backup the accounts? Or has anyone a fix for Titanium?
To clearify this I'm talking about the accounts in the settings like this:

Thanks to the https://github.com/machiav3lli/oandbackupx/ project I found out that the accounts are saved at /data/system_ce/0/accounts_ce.db, at least for me. I then tried, editing this file very careful, but I think there are some dependencies to other things I don't understand yet. Even with the smallest editions my phone got stuck in a bootloop. Also recovering an backup of the file, didn't fix the bootloop. I had to restore a whole nandroid data partition backup.


Lenovo Vibe P1 display toggles on and off while charging I have a Lenovo Vibe and using it from a year and a half. Recently I observed that the display turns on and off on it's own, while charging (only while charging)

I tried to change Display Settings and upgrading the device. But the problem still persists. So even if I charge for 3 hours, it fills only for 50 %. This was not the behaviour earlier.

How can I fix this please?

Current Android Version: 5.1. I don't remember the previous version .

This is not a solution to fix your device problem. It is a workaround only to keep your screen off, while charging

Automation is the preferred option. Many apps are available. I prefer using MacroDroid , since it is free (upto 5 macros) and easy to learn. To understand how MacroDroid works and required settings,  my answer here

Your macro would look like this

Macro : Screen Off (name of macro )

Trigger:

Power Connected

Action:

Screen On/Off →  Screen Off

Constraints: None (leave blank)


How can I get the newer version of android? My device (Samsung S4 mini i9195) carries a 4.2.2 version. When I ask for a software update manually, it says that the latest version is already installed. How can I force it to accept the actual latest version (4.4.2) as depicted in this page?

To the best of my knowledge you have to wait until your carrier pushes the update. Unless you are on a Google Play edition or Nexus device, your carrier reviews the updated software from the manufacturer and adds what it deems to be necessary additions, applications, etc.


Android 5.0 not downloading IMAP emails my nexus 4 cell phone upgraded to android 5.0 lollipop, and now it doesn't want to download my POP3 or IMAP emails (used to work fine in Android 4.4)
It just gets stuck in "getting your messages" - even for 2 hours.

It does download my GMAIL accounts and Hotmail account properly.

I setup the accounts manually (as I always did in previous upgrades..it worked fine).

I encountered similar issue on my Moto G 1st generation.

Below steps worked for me:

Go to App Info of the app. Press Clear Data
Open App to check whether mails have loaded, if still same message appears restart your phone.
Check your app again and see.

Make sure Sync option is enabled in Data Usage of the email app.

I hope it helps!


How can I block ringing of incoming calls of unknown numbers? I would like to make sure that phone calls from unknown numbers never cause my phone to make any noise. I'm OK with it showing in my call log, but I don't want to be disturbed by someone who isn't in my phone book. How can I do this?

Samsung phones

Samsung's website has this article: How do I block unknown or hidden numbers from calling me?

Here's how you enable this feature:

Open your phone app.
Tap the three dots icon, or the "more" icon.
Tap "Settings"
Tap "Call rejection" or "call blocking" (you can skip this step on some phones)
Tap "Block numbers" or "Auto reject list" or "Block list"
Enable "Block unknown callers" or "Block anonymous calls" or "Unknown"

I'm not sure what exactly happens when someone who is blocked calls you. Does their call still show up in the call log? Can they tell that they have been blocked, or does it look like I just didn't pick up? I'll edit this answer once I've tested it out.


Android 4.2 Nexus 7 Update "Assert failed: apply_patch_check()" When I try to update my Nexus 7 from 4.1 (Jelly Bean) to 4.2 (also Jelly Bean) it works fine up to a point where the little android (with the rotating shape) lays down and has a red warning triangle with an exclamation point. When I press the power and VolUp buttons simultaneously to see what went wrong, the log shows this:

Verifying current system
Assert failed: apply_patch_check("EMMC:/dev/block/platform/sdhci-
tegra.3/by-name/LNX:5013504:c48f8e86e73fb2c2ba1794f5ec98e27c9e206ed5:
5060608:319331fae14fec8a88063751475fce26bae328e0")

I searched for the error message online and couldn't find anyone with the same problem. I even removed the random letters and numbers after "by-name" (I assume these are device-specific), and still found nothing. I also tried factory resetting and still the same problem.

I'd like to know what went wrong, and how to fix it.

Q- What is an assert script?

A- All it does is check to make sure you are flashing the ROM on the correct device.

How to fix Android Custom ROM Status 7 installation Abort assert failed error in Recovery Easily [Ultimate Guide]:
http://mobotechie.com/tips-tricks/how-to-fix-android-custom-rom-status-7-installation-abort-assert-failed-error-in-recovery-easily-ultimate-guide

Assert failed [SOLVED]:
http://forums.androidcentral.com/optimus-v-rooting-roms-hacks/182438-solved-assert-failed.html

Thanks for those cool guys, and good luck.


Entering Samsung Codes on the Galaxy S4 - Verizon This is likely an embarrassing question, but I may not be the only one struggling.

I am trying to figure out a problem with my phone by using these secret dialer codes. I am entering these codes into my phone, but nothing is happening. When I call the entered number, I get the typical Verizon lady saying "The call cannot be completed as dialed..."

I specifically have used a code from this link (this addresses the problem I am having) and have tried multiple others from here*, but all give that same problem. Is there something that I am missing? Do I have to be a super user or something along those lines?

*Note: I know these may not be specific to my device, but some of these look to be universal regardless of manufacturer or model.

You shouldn't trust such a list of secret codes, simply because secret codes are not only device specific but mostly app specific.

Secret Codes are generally defined by the applications installed on the device.
If you want to have a valid list of secret codes available on your device, you should use an automated secret codes crawler.

I recently developped an Open Source app that crawls AndroidManifest.xml files on your device to found secret codes, and allows you to execute the secret codes available on your device.
You can get it on the Play Store or on the GitHub repository Android-Secret Codes.

But keep in mind that sometimes, secret codes are just executing themselves silently (without visual hint)


Can't uses keyboard in setup I'm trying to setup a LG LS665 and I can't put my internet password in or anything that requires text entry. I think i might have deleted the default lg keyboard. Anything i can do to fix it? Is it possible to install an apk from my pc without any interaction from my phone?

If you already have a Google account set up, and the device connected to the Internet, you can simply visit the Google Play Store using a browser on your PC, log in, find a keyboard app, and click the button to install it on your device (it will then be pushed).

As I somehow doubt that the requirements for that are met (or you wouldn't ask about setup), a second variant would be to download the .apk file of a keyboard app and use e.g. adb install to get it installed. Problem: for this you need to have usb-debugging enabled on the device. Not sure if you can achieve that.

Last resort would be to "flash" a keyboard app via a special update.zip in recovery. But that would require a custom recovery, and the update.zip must be created (there are posts on that here on this site as well). Some custom recoveries also offer ADB access (e.g. twrp has that built-in), so you could try the adb install approach with them. However, I cannot tell if there is any (or which) custom recovery available for your device.

Very last resort: flash the entire firmware again – the keyboard app should be part of it.


Will a UK Android telephone work in Japan? I am on the UK carrier Vodafone, and wish to upgrade my phone soon. I am going to Japan for five months next year, and would ideally like a phone which I can use out there, with a Japanese sim card.

Will an android phone I get here (e.g. the HTC Desire) work in Japan? Will it need to be unlocked?

Sim-locked phones need to be unlocked for use on other carriers.  Almost every phone you get will be sim-locked.  The most easily unlocked phones I know of are the Galaxy S line.

The only other thing you need to check is the radio frequency bands used by the device and the carrier.  If they match, you're in luck.  "Quad-band" devices should work on every GSM network.


About WI-FI battery usage I keep reading about how much battery does WI-FI use, but when I look in settings > battery, WI-FI shows with < 5% usage when I barely use the phone. And when I use it, the screen takes most of the battery and WI-FI doesn't even appear in the list! Does this mean I can leave WI-FI on all the time? Because 1-5% is not that much

I have the same experience with Wifi, I find leaving it on is much more convenient (your phone will prioritize Wifi over 3/4G, resulting in faster speeds and lower bills), and power consumption is negligible.

The only time when turning off Wifi conserve me some serious battery is back from my days with a Sony p990i, which runs UIQ3. Ah, old times...


Google account login broke on old tablet/android I have an old Galaxy Tab 8.9 (GT-P7300) tablet with Android 4.0.4 (Samsung original firmware update, not rooted). It mostly sits in the drawer and sees very infrequent use.
Today I booted it up and everything related to Google account on it is locked up (including Play Market), giving following error:

Google

That's an error.

The requested URL /o/oauth/GetOAuthToken was not found on this server. That's all we know.

If I click on Google logo I get dumped to the regular Google web search page, where I can login fine but which doesn't resolve the issue.
Had Google just abandoned older Android versions or something?

I went to accounts in settings and tried to force sync on Google account. It threw the same error multiple times, but must have shaken the issue out somehow — login suddenly worked after that.


Is any of the Android rooting software open source? As an example, the post here for rooting the LG G3:

http://www.reddit.com/r/LGG3/comments/2cdz0y/guide_rooting_roming_xposed/

Gives links to posts elsewhere for downloading APKs which do something and then allow su to work, I think:

Stump:  http://forum.xda-developers.com/lg-g3/orig-development/root-stump-root-lg-g3-sprint-verizon-t2850906/

PurpleDrake:  http://forum.xda-developers.com/tmobile-lg-g3/development/root-twrp-root-twrp-tmo-lg-g3-t2821005

Are there any more details about what these or other root techniques actually do?  Are any of them open source?

I've been battling the same issue. Using closed-source from a private company is a huge mistake if you care about security and privacy. Open-source, though arguably not thst much more secure, has one benefit over closed source from a private company: paid programmers are expensive. What's their motive for paying people to do this? Money. Is the root software free/cheap? Don't use it.  Open Source, on the other hand, though while not totally free from malicious additions, is being handled mostly by programmers who, collectively, want to use the software they are helping create. That being said, here's what I've mustered up.

Most actively developed is by this guy, phhusson, who posted an article (https://www.xda-developers.com/the-importance-of-open-source-in-root/) about it in 2015. Then started this (still active) thread (https://forum.xda-developers.com/android/software-hacking/wip-selinux-capable-superuser-t3216394/page246)
Here's the repo:
https://github.com/phhusson/super-bootimg

Here's another
https://github.com/android-rooting-tools

Both of these are still under heavy development.


is a way to disable auto connect to wifi that don't need password? it is really annoying that my mobile phone will auto connect to wifi that don't need password such as those ones in shopping center, most of time they need you to fill up a form to register first before access granted, and I have to turn off wifi for this reason. Then when I go home, sometimes I forget to turn wifi back on and waste my moble plan data usage, is a way to fix this issue? I can't believe that Android doesn't have a mechanism to only connect to wifi you have previously provide password?

You can use ADB to disable it:
adb shell settings put global wifi_scan_always_enabled 0
adb shell settings put global network_avoid_bad_wifi 1


How to disable third-party apps without uninstall? Is there a way to temporarily disable apps I downloaded from the Google play store without having to uninstall them?

See Determine the package name of your app to get the package name of the concerned app and use adb shell to execute these commands:

adb shell
su
pm disable PACKAGE              # disables the app and hides it in Settings -> Applications
pm hide PACKAGE                 # alternative; for Android Lollipop and above
cmd package suspend PACKAGE     # alternative; package remains visible in Launcher and Settings app but cannot be used; a feature of Device Administration

PACKAGE refers to package name of the app

To reinstate the app, replace disable with enable, hide with unhide, and suspend with unsuspend in the said command and execute it with root privilege.

If you've Android KitKat or above and do not have root access, use adb in PC to execute this command:

adb shell pm block PACKAGE         # for Android KitKat
adb shell pm hide  PACKAGE         # for Android Lollipop only
adb shell pm disable-user PACKAGE  # alternative to `pm hide`; for Android Lollipop and above; this works just like disabling an app through Settings app

To reinstate the app:

adb shell pm unblock PACKAGE   # for Android KitKat
adb shell pm unhide PACKAGE    # for Android Lollipop and only if you used `pm hide` earlier
adb shell pm enable PACKAGE    # for Android Lollipop and above

Changes would take place immediately.


What's that icon (Oneplus one)? does anybody know what's the meaning of that icon ?
I have a new oneplus one since several days and today this icon appeared in my status bar.

The icon in question (on the very left of this image) is Vibration mode on the One Plus One.

Technically (I guess) it is the 'phone profile' icon, in this case Vibrate.


How can I get rid of "Caller Name ID" from notification panel? "Caller Name ID" appears on the notification panel constantly even though I clear all the notifications.

How can get rid of this?

(I'm not asking how to uninstall this app.)

Tap and hold on the notification. Assuming Samsung hasn't altered the Lollipop interface too much, you should see a small Info icon in the corner after it switches. Tap that, and you'll be presented with three options for notifications for that app, one of which is to block them entirely.

Alternatively you can access notification settings from the phone's main settings app (again, as I'm on stock, I can't speak to Samsung's exact method for accessing this) and find the app in that list and alter its settings. You can also use this to undo something you blocked in error.


Syncing playlists between Ubuntu and Android smartphone I'm looking for a simple and reliable way of syncing music playlists between Ubuntu and an Android smartphone. Some time ago I was using Banshee, but then it suddenly stopped working. My understanding is that Banshee still puts *.m3u files to Music/Playlists folder but the smartphone does not see them. I tried to use Rhythmbox instead but it also does not seem to work.

Spotify allows you to sync your local files to a mobile device (no subscription required). Of course this requires the desktop client installed on a computer and the app installed on a mobile device. Once your local files are downloaded to the device, you can listen to them whenever and wherever you want. It also does not require a data connection (after downloading).

*Note: the later versions of Android client have had issues with this. Give it a shot anyway! The only workarounds are to install an older version of the Spotify app and then download your playlist.


Can my phone be rooted? I have a HTC Desire 530, Android 6.0.1, can it be rooted? I want to make sure before I root it with Kingroot.

I've tried looking over the web for indexes of allowed devices, and I haven't seen it, but I'm not too sure about those lists as well.

So I'm just going to ask here, can this phone be safely rooted or not?

Yup, HTC Desire 530 can be rooted. Check out:

http://www.androidinfotech.com/2016/12/root-htc-desire-530-marshmallow-twrp.html

https://rootthat.blogspot.in/2016/06/how-to-root-htc-desire-530.html

The PC version of Kingo Root works as well.


How to decrypt the corrupt SD card formatted as internal storage? So I'm on Marshmallow and have formatted my SD card as internal storage. Its filesystem got corrupt two weeks later for some reason.

Plugging it to GParted, I see 16MB of FAT32 and the rest is an unrecognized filesystem. It's not unformatted, just unrecognized.

GParted is giving the "Unable to read the contents of the fileystem." error for both partitions, though the FAT32 partition is accessible from File Browser flawlessly.

It's a Samsung i9505 running on nightly built Cyanogenmod 13.

EDIT: I found out the unrecognized partitions is a static AES-128 bit encrypted ext4. Now I will try to decrypt it and recover whatever.

EDIT2: I changed my mind and won't bother. Formatting as external storage this time.

Even it does not fully answer the question, here's a guide to decrypt the external storage formatted as internal. You do need to be root on your phone, however.

The gist is that we search for strings including the keyword expand and ending with .key within vold using:

$ strings vold|grep -i expand
--change-name=0:android_expand
%s/expand_%s.key
/mnt/expand/%s

It returns a 16-byte key.

expand_8838e738a18746b6e435bb0d04c15ccd.key

Then you pass the key into this bad boy:

# dmsetup create crypt1 --table "0 `blockdev --getsize /dev/sdb2` crypt \
aes-cbc-essiv:sha256 00010203040506070809010a0b0c0d0e0f 0 /dev/sdb2 0"

And mount that in:

# mount -t ext4 /dev/mapper/crypt1 /mnt/1/
# cd /mnt/1
# find ./ -type d

Now you can cp everything elsewhere and hopefully save some data. Remember to exclude any key-related data (grep) when doing so, in case you want to reformat as ınternal again and put your stuff back in.


I got a new bluetooth headphones and I have a delay. is there a solution? Today I got some new Bluetooth headphones (i900000 max - Airpods Pro replica) and I know what you'll say - "You got a replica of Airpods, what did you expect?", but hey, I read a review before I bought them and people said that there is no delay, but I have a little delay when watching videos.. I'm using an Android phone (Samsung Galaxy A8 2018) and the only codec that the headphones support is SBC. Is there something I can do to fix the delay?

Thanks.

There's nothing you can do. That's how those headphones are designed to work.


Why is root access required for a custom ROM? I'd like to be clear, and as my question indicates, I'm very ignorant of mobile devices in general so my apologies if this is common knowledge.

Say I want to install a custom ROM onto a device, then it would appear I need root access. I'm able to find out from every web page on how I can root a device, but I'm unable to find how why I need to root a device. I understand that rooting a device simply gives me root access on the device, but why is this needed? If I connect the phone to a PC then doesn't that give me access to the entire file system of the device? If so, then why can't I just overwrite the relevant parts of the FS with whatever ROM I want?

Also, why would rooting and using a custom ROM cause a device to be bricked? Couldn't I just overwrite the ROM that was causing the issue with the original one (that I'd thought on to back up! ;)).

Short answer:
For security and warranty reasons.
Detailed answer:
This is mostly a precaution taken by most (not all!) device manufacturers to save them from too many service requests from "playing kiddies" (and the sort of people who want to try everything, even if they are not understanding anything). So those manufacturers took special actions to avoid "custom ROMs" (or, more precisely, any ROMs not provided by themselves) to be flashed.
As t0mm13b already pointed out in his comments above, by default you do not get physical access to your devices file system simply by connecting it via USB. Depending on device, Android version, and some more criteria, you get only to see parts. This might be the entire SD card (physical, in UMS mode), or even only "logical" access to parts of it via MTP. Some more privileged access can be gained via ADB when enabling USB Debug -- but with a stock ROM, in none of these cases you gain full access.
Now how are updates accomplished then? One very common practice is the use of a special ZIP file (update.zip). This is placed on the SD card, which is inserted into the device, and the device is booted into a special mode (recovery), where the update.zip can be applied from. BUT: the device checks the integrity of that update.zip -- it must be signed with the manufacturers key. For obvious reasons, that key is not freely available -- so no custom ROM can be installed this way on such a stock system.
All these things can be circumvented only with super-user access to the device -- which means: you must root it.
So that's for the WHY part -- while not handling the HOW part of rooting. Exactly as you asked for :)

Update for even more details
As Liam pointed out in his comment that using fastboot would be a method to flash Custom ROMs without the pre-condition of having the device rooted, I did a little more research to find out about this. I will continue looking into this, but still already wanted to add my first results here.
Up to a certain point, Liam is right with this: It seems not only valid to Samsung devices (as I assumed first), but some other devices (not all) also support this method, without root being involved (aside from the fact that most Custom ROMs will ship rooted, of course -- so you will have root available after installing them). However, there are devices which seem to require root even for fastboot flash (see e.g. TheUnlockr concerning the Iconia A100, quote: You must have rooted your device before doing this procedure. -- and yes, they use fastboot flash recovery recovery.img afterwards).
However, even if fastboot works for your unrooted device, there is one crucial point to consider:

To Flash a ROM for your Android device with fastboot you must have an unlocked bootloader or an engineering bootloader

(Flashing Guide - Android - XDA-Developers)
Which means: If your bootloader is locked, you need to unlock it first, which will wipe (factory-reset) your device. So all data will be gone for good this way -- while with root you could have done a complete backup (Nandroid, Titanium Backup) before this step. However, starting with Android 4.0, this is no longer a real problem -- as you can do a full backup via ADB (see: Full Backup of non-rooted devices)

Summary:
There are devices requiring to be rooted before you can flash a Custom ROM. If your device falls into this category, the reasons for Why is root access required to flash a Custom ROM are those mentioned above.
However: There are also devices which can be flashed using fastboot without being rooted before. If your device falls into that category, the question Why is root access required to flash a Custom ROM becomes invalid (the answer not, as ex falso quodlibet sequitur ("from false can follow anything") you can draw any conclusion from a wrong premise :)
That is: IF rooting is required, the above is WHY.


Device got bricked while installing JELLYBEAN I was trying to update my ICS4.0.4 to Jellybean and clear cache partition and also Dalvik cache and unfortunately my tablet got restart and now it is hard bricked just show vendor logo and boot infinitely and now usb debugging was off now anyone please help me to get it unbricked.Thanks in advance. I know last option is to go to vendor service centre don't want to do so.

Now one more thing that if someone can help me to install any android version from starting then all posts are welcomed such as new device with no boot loader. Delete completely and install new boot loader hope you understand what i am saying.

Thanks in Advance.

with fastboot tools you should still be able to access your device via usb. get the android-sdk-tools from google, and give it a try

http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Doc:_fastboot_intro

http ://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Doc:_adb_intro

in this wikis you will also find plenty ways to unbrick your device:

unbrick android xda - Google-Suche
https ://www.google.de/search?q=unbrick+android+xda

Unbrick Any Android Phone
http ://www.beingtricky.com/unbrick-any-android-phone/

These 6 methods will help you unbrick any Android Device - Droidiser
http ://www.droidiser.com/2013/07/how-to-unbrick-any-android-phone.html

FASTBOOT-UNBRICK YOUR DEVICE WITH 'NO DISPLAY' - My Community
http ://forums.droidbeans.com//tutorials/fastboot-to-unbrick-your-device/

xda-developers - Threads Tagged with unbrick
http ://forum.xda-developers.com/tags.php?tag=unbrick

[RELEASE] One-Click UnBrick updated 10july11 - xda-developers
http ://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1153310

hope this will help


Easily record GPS coordinates in OpenStreetMap I live in Argentina and use OpenStreetMap since the maps are really accurate in that area.
I travel in a specific area with my Android smartphone using GPS. In that area mainly I like to save GPS coordinates in my map (my clients) and make notes to them. Additionally, I would like to add roads that are not recorded in OpenStreetMap yet, but that is not really necessary.
Currently I use the OsmAnd app on my phone. It contains offline maps, which is important since I don't have any Internet connection out there. I can record favorites, but I can't really make many notes to them, like some kind of history of my visits. And I can't extend the map of unknown roads with that app.
Is there a better way to achieve that?
I would like to use the favorites to see where I have to make my visits next and what would be the best route for that.

OsmTracker will meet your requirements. It can upload the GPX tracks directly to OpenStreetMap, but I prefer using JOSM to upload the data.


Kali Nethunter Terminal Keep Crashing Device : OnePlus 2

OS : OOS 3.5.6 on android 6.0.1

I tried to install nethunter many times, unlocked phone, rooted and install    modified super su for oneplus 2, flashed overlay-rom nethunter,    everything is ok except that the nethunter terminal is just crash and    shutdown with no error when i try to start it, i even tried to wipe    system clean and try over, but it still same, also installed    different terminals but chroot can't find it,

Installed using the guide :

git clone --depth 1   https://github.com/offensive-security/kali-nethunter
cd    kali-nethunter/nethunter-installer
./bootstrap.sh ( Type N for    Experimental Devices and Type N again when prompted to download full    Download History)
python build.py -d oneplus2 -m -nosu -fs full    then flashed the zip file created.!

after that flashed the kernel    from the main site "    https://build.nethunter.com/nightly/3.15.4-20170211-0304/"

Make sure you are flashing your phone with oxygenos 4.0.2 as it is the version the nethunter kernel is based on. I had the same issue until I realised. I'm using the 3t and slowly working through small issues I've found but as a whole it works great. Any more questions just ask


Does wireless charging work in Cyanogenmod 12? I'm curious if anyone has successfully tested wireless charging. I was thinking about getting the back cover for my S5 and a wireless pad, but don't want to invest if it doesn't work.

Thanks!

I'm using Cyanogen 12.1 nightlies on my Nexus 5 and while wireless charging works it does seem slower than with stock or cataclysm. I was using Franco and ElementalX on those ROMs but stock on CM12. Hope that helps!


Display multiple app screens at the same time Is it possible to display multiple apps on the screen?

Normally, apps load fullscreen, and app-switching switches between fullscreen apps. Is it possible for an app to use only half of the screen and another one to use the other half?

If you have a Samsung phone, there is a split screen option. I personally have not used it, so you would have to look into it. The option is not available as stand, no.

There are some third party ROMs, that are capable of doing it but you would need to root your phone.  Have a look at the link below. I had a quick look out on the web and found this:
How to Get Multi-Window Multitasking on Any Android Phone or Tablet


Can I access the filesystem of an android device? I have an android device that doesn't start because it tries to activate carrier's network.  Its out-of-contact CDMA mobile which was ported to another carrier. I accidently did a reset and after that it awlays tried to activate carrier.

Currently when I connect it, I can see it as MTP Device, but I don't see the filesystem. Is it possible for me to go to the filesystem directly and remove possible apk's that cause this?

I am thinking of chroot-ing or something similar into the system and remove all the stuff that could trigger this activation. Do I need to use ADB shell or to connect to the device?

To get access to the filesystem you need to be rooted and you need to use ADB. MTP is way to limited for the low level access your needing.


Is it possible to restore Google Authenticator on another phone? Suppose I lost the phone with Google Authenticator on it. How do I restore it on another phone?

Yes, it's possible, if you had stored the initial QR code of your service. In that case, just scan your initial QR code when creation in the Google Authenticator.


In the Hangouts app, how do I "mark all as read"? I'm using Hangouts for texting with my Samsung Galaxy S4. Usually the preview is enough to see the whole message. I hate having to open a message just to mark it a read. Is there a way to mark one, or several, or all messages as read without opening the message?

Unfortunate that this question had never received any love. Despite it being an entire year later, this functionality is not available as a feature in the Hangouts app on Android, iOS, or the web.

Here is the most relevant discussion from the Google Hangouts Product Forum

  Thank you for your feedback!
  Yes you are right, there isn't such a button yet. I think Hangouts wants to make sure that you really have read the messages without missing any information.
  However, I'll move your topic to the idea section for the team to consider it as a feature request.
  Nick Ross


Can the WhatsApp group icon or title be locked? Is there a way for a WhatsApp admin to lock the group icon and title? As of this time, any group member can change the group icon or title.

No. It is impossible using the standard app.


What is the dominant factor for evaluating performance for TTS & ASR? We know that CPU speed ("MFLOPS") alone is not the only factor that determines the performance of an Android device.

Other factors include the I/O subsystem, memory speed and, of course, the software that drives this hardware.

But in the case of evaluating various phones in terms of TTS and ASR performance (e.g. minimal delay from the moment you say a word, until it is recognized, given the default built-in engine), can we say that MFLOPS is the dominant factor?

In other words, do you happen to know whether TTS & ASR involve mostly CPU cycles with relatively little memory and I/O transfers? Or is it the opposite?

I would expect TTS and ASR to be very memory-intensive as they process input (which needs to be stored and transformed) and generate output.  So slow memory would probably be a limiting factor with a fast CPU.  There should also be a little I/O -- loading voice samples for comparison and playback -- but I would not expect it to be as much of an issue.  I can't get any more specific since I don't know how the default engine works (I suspect few people outside Google do).

You might get a better answer on StackOverflow, since this is more of a question about the specifics of an algorithm and not really about Android use.


How do I stop com.google.process.gaps force closing randomly? Motorola Xoom running Honeycomb 3.1, for the last few days, every few minutes I get a popup in the middle of the screen saying:

  Sorry!
  The process com.google.process.gaps has stopped unexpectedly. PLease try again.
  Force close

This happens when I'm running pretty much any app: browser, Google Reader, Gallery, GMail, File Manager HD, etc. Can't work out any pattern to i, sometimes  it happens every couple of minutes, sometimes I can go for 10 or more minutes without seeing it.

What's causing this (or how can I tell what's causing this) and how can I stop it?

Update
This does appear to only happen when I've got a network connection (mine's a Wifi only tablet) - after installing alogcat, I did a 40 minute commute on a train using Google Listen and playing Angry Birds, with no errors popping up at all (and therefore no way to catch anything in the log. Will have to wait until I'm home again to investigate further.

After a lot of experimentation and backwards and forwards and disabling and enabling various things, I've got it to the point where I haven't seen that error popup for about a week now (which is a huge improvement over it appearing every 10 minutes).

Unfortunately Logcat never seemed to show any obvious, enlightening errors when the Force Close messages popped up, so there was nothing to work on there.

Various posts on web forums suggested that going into Accounts and Sync disabling sync on Calendars and Contacts, then clearing the data on the Calendar and Contacts app should help, but it didn't seem to for me.

In the end what I think solved the problem was:

Completely deleting all my non-primary Google Accounts off the device (I have a primary Google account, which is a Google Apps one, plus another Google Apps account and a normal GMail account)
Disabling all of the sync on my primary account
Clearing the data on the calendar and contacts apps
Leaving it an hour before re-enabling the sync on my primary account
Leaving it a day before adding back my secondary accounts, and enabling their sync

Not 100% sure which of those steps solved it, but after doing all of those steps in that order my problem has gone away.


Samsung Note 2 input language selector problem (Android 4.3) I have a strange problem for about a week. I have 3 input languages enabled on my smartphone (EN, RU, DE). To switch between them, I usually could slide the space-bar of the on-screen keyboard to the left or to the right.

However, recently this function has suddenly disappeared. The triangles do not appear on the space bar. I've found a few other posts on the internet, and there the authors connect it to the 4.3 Android upgrade. I am not sure though. I thought I upgraded quite a while ago and everything was OK. But I may be wrong.

Interestingly, if I switch to the hand-writing mode by tapping the "T"-button to the left from the space bar, the triangles appear on the space bar and I can now switch the language.

Any ideas?

I had faced the same problem myself.

System settings > device > accessibility > services.
Something in there is set to On. Switch it to off and you will be OK. I had the same problem because I had an application set to on.  Instant fix!


The GPS on my Galaxy Note IV is often wrong While I'm at work the GPS location on my Galaxy Note IV is very poor, taking a long time to pinpoint a location, and often being off by a few streets when it does.

I have less issues while in a densely populated zone.

I understand why that is, the GPS itself doesn't get a strong signal from the satellites, so the phone uses celltowers or wifi access points to guess my location to the best of its abilities, and since there aren't a lot of those around me its guess is wrong.

My question is : Is there a way to fix this situation ? Can I indicate to Google that my location is wrong, or configure my phone to adjust for that error ?

Nope. Since there isn't anything technically wrong with the gps in your phone and it's just the location of where you are that throws it off, the best thing to do is just go outside and see if the signal is stronger from outside the building or deal with it.
Google maps doesn't currently have any features that allow users to correct their location. You can type it in the search bar if you're trying to get from your current location to another but it won't exactly "stick".

Hope this helped.


This app promises to run "fstrim" without root but I am not sure if it works I am not sure if this app works. Can someone please help me? My phone is new and in its warranty period so I can't root it yet. I tried this app but I am not sure if it actually did something. Unlike the other famous app on the PlayStore for fstrim, it doesn't require root access which is quite incredible.

Here is the link how this app works you might not understand the language its English title is LagFix Trimmer to cure the machine without root | Easy Android Click here


Cannot open PDF file using Google Drive app My device is running on Android Oreo, and I have study notes as a PDF file on Google Drive (link to the file for testing), but I can't open it on Google Drive app.

My file is not opening and it's saying "No connection" even though I've got an awesome connection. I don't know why it's not syncing my file.

I've even cleared cache, refreshed my Google Drive, and also rebooted my phone.

How to fix this issue so that I can open my PDF file from Google Drive app?

It looks like a bug with Google Drive. I had the same problem in opening the link

Workaround

I pasted the link in Chrome and it opened! You should report the bug, also
in Playstore

(Click to enlarge)

To download the file, open Chrome in desktop mode and click the  option (print).


Install android on windows 8 tablet I have a Windows 8 tablet (an Asus VivoTab) and I want to dual boot it with android but I am having a rough time figuring out how to flash the android iso to tablet. It has no cd, usb or microSD port. I also thought about booting from network but I don't see this feature in BIOS settings. I read a couple of tutorials about it but all of them tell to burn a usb stick (like this one). The only port my tablet has, is that small micro-B usb where I can't really plug any memory sticks. What am I supposed to do?

Okay, I decided to spend a few bucks on dual USB flash drive so that I can plug it to micro USB port. Actually I was wondering whether there is a way to flash iso to tablet memory with something similar to ADB but this also works fine.


Is there a concern as far as memory when running ICS ROM on 512MB device (DroidX) Based on available evidence so far, are there legitimate concerns that people with older phones that have 512MB memory (e.g. Droid X) would experience memory issues when running 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) based ROMs?

To be more specific:

If my stock Froyo 2.2 ROM boots up with ~170MB memory free, and during my day to day use I end up with ~50-70MB memory free (this is with ALL my actively used apps loaded, and Android not killing any of them to make room for others), what would the expected memory footprint be on an AOSP based ICS ROM?

If there is a ICS ROM available for the Droid X, it should run on a device with 512MB. The minimum requirements for ICS specified by CyanogenMod team is 256MB and a "decent GPU". I am not sure what kind of GPU the Droid X has, but you will probably have a better experience with Gingerbread then ICS on that device if the GPU isn't that great. My brother had that device and complained constantly about lag and lock up. If you have the "stock" MOTOBLUR, you will probably have a better experience just by installing any AOSP based ROM.

You can expect the footprint to be about the same, maybe a bit less, then what you see now. This is because the android OS will always try to use as much memory as possible in order to try and keep your experience better. If the application is in memory you can switch back to it faster then if it has to reload the entire application, plus it can "remember where you were".

As a side note, I don't currently see any CyanogenMod 9 builds available on the CM forums for the Droid X, but that doesn't mean that there aren't any, I just don't see them.


How can I downgrade my HTC Explorer from Android 4.0 to 2.3 Android 4.0 is installed on my HTC Explorer, but now I want to install again the previous version which was 2.3 Gingerbread.

Could anyone please tell me how to do that?

One option is using RUUs. A few Google searches should get you going.

Another is flashable stock ROM zips. A few searches in the XDA Developers forum for that device should put you in track.


Change TMPDIR for Android shell script I am working on a script that will be run from an android shell (e.g. adb shell). I have a problem with writing temporary files, as this demonstrates:

$ cat <<-EOF > foo
> EOF
sh: can't create temporary file /data/local/shd1v7x1.tmp: Permission denied

I want to direct the shell's temporary directory to somewhere that is writable. I would usually do this:

$ export TMPDIR=/path/to/somwehere/writable
$ cat <<-EOF > foo

but it makes no difference.

Is it possible to specify the location the shell should use for temporary files?

(I know that running as root is a work around but that isn't a solution)

/data/local/tmp should be writable on all Android and it works with that :-).

export TMPDIR=/data/local/tmp


Volume Panel Android 7.1.1 Ever since Android 7.1.1 I am unable to find the page (activity screen) to set, on one screen, the volume for the various audio outputs, such as notificatios, media, etc. Is there such a screen inherent in Android 7, or do I need to find an app for that.  Thanks for your help.

Yes this is found under Settings → Sound i.e

If for some reason you can't find it or is hidden, then just grab a third-party activity launcher application from playstore e.g Quick shortcut to access com.android.settings/com.android.settings.Settings$NotificationSettingsActivity

Install Quickshortcutmaker from Playstore
Select normal search - under input box type sound and click search

In search results it will show Settings click it,  and expand the list you will find "Sound & Notification"  then click try (or create shortcut by pressing create).


Prevent user to uninstall application from android phone I have Moto G5 Plus Android phone. I don't want to allow someone to uninstall the application from my android phone. The android phone allows to press on the application and drag it to delete icon and allow uninstallation.
I want if someone does the same operation in my phone then before uninstall it ask password or pattern lock.

Thanks.

When a user tries to uninstall an app through the home launcher, Settings app, or through any third-party app, the system app Package Installer is invoked and user is asked to confirm the uninstallation. So the solution for you is to either disable that Package Installer app (or at least its component which is invoked for user confirmation) or find an app locker which can lock this system app.

I tried some app locker apps and found that AppLock - Fingerprint can lock down Package Installer app. It even recommends it. From then on, anyone trying to uninstall an app would need to authenticate  with your preferred choice of authentication before proceeding to uninstall. At the risk of redundancy, this does take care  of uninstallation via Settings app too, as I explained the reason for it in the beginning.

Note: app locker apps alike many privacy protector apps are notorious for floundering a user's privacy and shoving ads down the user's throat.


Insufficient storage error on android phone Please help me, my thL T6 pro device has enough memory available but I can't download. It's so annoying. Please help me.

Available storage 3.5g but it says insufficient storage.

Download Clean Master (Boost & AppLock) and clean your device. Then try to install the apps. I think this would work.


How do I logout of Hangout on Android 4.4? Hangout is the default messaging app in Android 4.4. I know that it's possible to use a third party application for SMS, but it there a way to log out of hangout entirely? Or at least to block the notifications? I keep receiving chat notification both on my phone and my computer and it's really annoying.

I do not want to uninstall/deactivate it because I still want to be able to use it while I'm on the road.

https://support.google.com/hangouts/answer/3118600?hl=en

this doesn't work? I haven't tried it, because I don't have hangouts on my phone.

EDIT 1

Sign out of Hangouts

TIP: If you don’t want to receive notifications, enable Snooze notifications.

Touch Menu  > Settings > Touch your Google account > scroll to the bottom and touch Sign out.


"You must be a primary user to find this device" on Android Device Manager Whenever I try to locate my new phone in the Android Device Manager, the following text is showed up:

Thing is, I am logged in as the primary Google account that my device uses. I also have the remote options in Google Settings > Security set to On, and the "Android Device Manager" checked in Settings > Security > Select Admins.

I don't really know what's going on, I've tried everything. Can someone help me? My phone is a Moto G2 XT1069, retail version.

Android Device Manager won't locate the device if it's currently not logged-in as the primary user. This applies to devices which support multi-user, including the default guest account on Android Lollipop.

Change the current user to your Google account on your device and try again.

In case it's still occurring on Android Lollipop, then try removing the guest account (refer to this question) and try again. It might be a bug related to guest mode.

Reference: Artem S. Lebedev's troubleshooting on Android Device Manager shows "No Active Devices" - Nexus 5 - Lollipop 5.1

  Action: Switch to Guest Account in Lollipop interface.
  State: ADM says that you must be a primary user.


Cannot change wallpaper on Samsung Launcher I want to change the wallpaper on Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge's stock launcher (Samsung Launcher) but it fails. I can change the themes, but not the wallpaper. When I try to change it from System's Settings or Samsung Themes, I press the "Set wallpaper" button, but nothing happens. When I try to do it from Gallery, it says "Unable to load photo".

I've checked that Samsung Themes have Storage permission, tried clearing the cache, clearing the default app, but it still fails.

How to fix this issue?

Use file explorer like es explorer/Solid explorer. There you can get the option to use picture as wallpaper.


CM 11 Link volumes when toggling through (Silent, Vibrate, Noise) I have a question about CM 11 volumes.  I have a Sprint Galaxy Note II, running cm-11-20140226-NIGHTLY, and this is referring to the volume toggle that you can add when you pull down the right side of the notification bar (quick access tiles).

Basically, for the sound tile, is there a way to force all three of the phone volumes (ringer, media, and alarm) to go to zero when I am in silent or vibrate mode (well, the ringer volume would be set to vibrate for vibrate mode, but you get the point)?

Go under Settings - Sound
Volumes -> check Silent mode affects notifications. Click OK
Under Notifications, check Vibrate on notification - In vibrate mode, all notifications will vibrate regardless of individual app settings.

Hope that helps.


Is there a way to adjust the memory allocation to increase the allocation for apps? I have an Mi Traveler Android model 10R2 tablet and I am continuously getting a "memory low" message. I have added a SD card and moved some apps to the card, but still get the same messages. In checking the storage area, it shows the allocation of memory as follows:

Total space 3.09GB
Apps 84.95MB
Downloads 116MB
Misc. 19.16MB
Available 2.87GB

Then under Apps, it shows the following:

Total space 252MB
Apps 204MB
Available 21.94MB

Is there a way to adjust the memory allocation to increase the allocation for apps?

It seems that I am only getting the low memory when apps are updating or new apps are being downloaded.

as it stands your internal memory is unable to increase. Adding a SD card will only increase space for music, pictures and some apps.
My assumptions are that your phone is a lower end affordable device. These are plagued with smaller memory, that are almost always maxed out right out of the box. Your solutions are limited to your device and the applications you install.

One solution would be to move as many apps to your SD card as possible. The problem lies with many apps not supporting this feature.

Second solution would be to run only the apps your phone came with and not update them. Of course this is not what a user would want, and is not recommended.

The last option would be to buy a new phone with internal space of at least 4GB to not run into this trouble, of course the more internal space the better.
Also note that alot of apps use more space because higher end phones have the ability to have them installed. This leaves lower end phones in trouble because they can no longer run the apps they use to.
Sorry to be bearer of bad news, I hope this information was of help.


How is Edge So Fast? I have the BLU STUDIO 5.5 on T-Mobile, however its not a T-Mobile device. I only get Edge. It's pretty slow for video watching. However, it loads sites in less than 2 seconds. Sometimes less than 1. How is that possible? On 4G sometimes I didn't get that, especially when I was throttled after using my complementary LTE data.

Some sites which you recently visited are stored on your browser memory as cache and cookies, so when on slow speed data connection it comes up as a plus point because sites load in a second.

Try this: clear cookies and cache and now try to load the same site on edge. It will take long!


Android 2.2.3 - long delay after phone call end There's a long delay between the call end (even when I press "End Call" button) and when I can use the notification bar again for example.

The in-call green phone icon stays in the notification bar for another few seconds.

Is there anything I can do about this, please?

This is usual Android disconnection response.

It's to do with your phone checking in with the closest Antenna when you end a call.

Perhaps this will help explain the speed a little:

http://images.cellphones.org/cell_phone_calls.jpg

p.s. I just hit end call then home or lock screen and put it in my pocket :-)


Printing data from Android phones to the printer via computer I can transfer data (images, string) from android to computer via bluetooth.
This computer is connected to the printer (Brother MFC- 7360) by USB port.
How do I do for the printer to print received image automatically when the computer receives the image?

I heard that when we install driver of the printer into the computer. There are the windows servers running in the background to listen printing event from computer. But I have no knowledge about that.

Can anyone helps me? Thanks in advance.
P/S: Are there any solution for generic printer?

The method your are describing doesn't seem possible, you are trying to have your photos printed as they arrive to your computer!

What you can do is to print data directly from your android device to a printer:

Print directly from an Android device with the right Wi-Fi or Bluetooth printer that are available to the device.
Print to a printer connected to a computer, by using the Google's free Cloud Print technology:

  Google Cloud Print

  Google Cloud Print is a new technology that connects your printers to the web. Using Google Cloud Print, you can make your home and work printers available to you and anyone you choose, from the applications you use every day. Google Cloud Print works on your phone, tablet, Chromebook, PC, and any other web-connected device you want to print from.

Requirements:

You will need to have a computer where the printer is connected to, with Google Chrome installed and connected to the Google Cloud Print service, in order to have it receiving files from your devices.

Printer Connected and installed on your OS;
Google Chrome Installed;
Cloud Print set up on Google Chrome;
Logged on with the same user as your device.

Setup the computer:

Launch Google Chrome;
Access the menu (icon in the upper-right corner);
select "Settings";
On the Settings page, scroll down until your see "Show advanced settings..." and click it;
Keep scrolling down until you find the "Google Cloud Print" section:

The available options may vary, but usually you will see a "Add printers" or a "Manage print settings" button.
The first will add your installed printers to the list. The second will allow you to see what printers are there.

Start Printing from your Android device:

To start printing what you want you'll need to install the following app:

Cloud Print

  Description
  With Cloud Print for Android you can:

  Print from any compatible Android device to any Google Cloud Print connected printer
  Share a picture or a document from apps like Gallery directly to Cloud Print
  Track the status of your print jobs

  Printing from Android has never been easier.

You open the document, photo, etc on your device and access the "Share" options, where you will find the "Cloud Print" option.

Links:

Cloud Print - Google Play Store
Google Cloud Print Homepage
PCWorld - Answer Line: How to print from Android
TabletPC Review - How to Print from a Tabet: Google Cloud Print & Android Solutions
LifeHacker - Add Wireless Printing to Your Android Phone with Cloud Print


Unable to download apps I have a zte phone. No space pops up when downloading apps; however,  have phone storage space of 411MB available and SD space of 1.82 GB available.  Can someone help me with this problem?

Upgrade to Android 6 or 7 and use sdcard as internal storage. Use cyanogenmod if zte won't accommodate.


Samsung Galaxy S2 - Screen Lock Options Disabled Following the recent upgrade to Jelly Bean on my Samsung Galaxy S2, I have enabled the lock screen with password but when I want to change the other options to like Swipe, Motion, face Unlock Pattern, PIN and None which they are disabled.

Other than the option "password (High Security)" option rest of the above mentioned are disabled. Don't know how to disable the screen lock password.

I have gone through various website & forum and YouTube videos none explains this issue.

How can I remove the screen lock?

Try checking the "With swipe lock" checkbox and see if that enables it.

I have no idea what "With swipe lock" does, other than enabling the "Lock screen options". You can enable it, change the options, and disable it, and the options will stay changed. shrug

No, it doesn't make any sense to me, either.


Where is the "android_id" stored and when does it change? I want to build a device_id with android_id, any one knows the answer to these three questions?

Where is the android_id value stored?
When is the android_id value initialized, i.e. the first time the value is set?
In which cases does the android_id value change?

Where is the android_id value stored?

On Android 5 and earlier this was stored in secure namespace of device Settings. So you can extract using:

~$ content query --uri content://settings/secure --projection value --where "name='android_id'"

Or:

~$ settings get secure android_id

Or directly read the secure table of settings.db database file. For device owner:

~# sqlite3 /data/user/0/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db 'select * from secure where name="android_id"'

Since Android 6 settings are saved in xml files. For device owner:

~# grep android_id /data/system/users/0/settings_secure.xml

Since Android 8, android_id is "unique to each combination of app-signing key, user, and device" so as to deny "developers the ability to track users across multiple applications". These unique IDs are stored in /data/system/users/<User_ID>/settings_ssaid.xml.

  When android_id value init, the first time set the value?
  Which case does the android_id value change?

As evident, android_id "is randomly generated when the user first sets up the device and should remain constant for the lifetime of the user's device" unless a factory reset is performed which clears all settings.

On Android 8+ the app specific android_id "value may change if a factory reset is performed on the device or if an APK signing key changes".

Keeping all in view it doesn't seem a good idea to build a device_id with android_id.


4.3 OTA Update Install Fail With Motochopper Root 4.2.2 Google Nexus 7 I am using Stock Android 4.2.2 on Nexus 7 2012 Tablet. I rooted my tablet using the Motochopper Root. I was able to download OTA 4.3 Update using normal procedure on my tablet however, when I tried installing the update, it just stuck at the android guy with error at startup. I tried downloading the OTA update again as it just disappeared, however it is stuck at waiting to download. I tried Nexus Tool Kit downloaded Stock 4.3 OTA and tried to install it using ADB sideload command. However it gave an error and mentioned some error file and exited. Please Help me out . I also tried full unroot with SuperSu but it also did not work.

Download stock ROM from Google, and flash it.
To check correct version for your Nexus 7 2012, see this question.

Since it would now be stock, you'd have to root it again.


Youtube videos open in browser by default When I'm browsing the net using the Internet app (the default browser), youtube links open up in the browser and not in the youtube app. I don't get to choose any option like before. In Applications Manager > Internet there are no defaults set. I tried clearing cache & data for Internet & Youtube app but I still have this problem. Same thing with Facebook youtube links, they open in the browser, no option to have it opened in youtube...it's driving me crazy

I'm using a Samsung Galaxy S3 with Jelly Bean.

Turns out this problem is also on the HTC EVO (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1688866), something to do with an Apple lawsuit. If I remember correctly, I didn't have this problem when I had Ice Cream Sandwich on.

Also, if I long press a YT link in the browser, no option shows up to open it in the app? What gives?

Try resetting app preferences. Go to Settings->Apps, choose from menu Reset app preferences and confirm Reset apps. This will reset all app preferences.

To reset preferences for specific app (e.g. Browser), choose it in Settings->Apps and press Clear defaults button in Launch by default section.

Next time you try to open YouTube video you should be asked which app to use.

These instruction were verified on pure Jelly Bean (on Galaxy Nexus).


How do I enable USB tethering on a JellyBean device? Does JellyBean support USB tether?

Is there a way compile the JB source so USB tether is always enabled?
I would like to have the support through the OS and not depend on an App.

Yes.

On ICS the setting can be found at

Settings -> Wireless & Networks -> More.. -> Tethering & portable hotspot -> USB tethering

I think it should be at the same place on Jelly Bean. Note that you need a device with a cellular data chip for this feature. Devices without (e.g. the Nexus 7) won't show this option.

USB tethering support was added with the 2.2 (Froyo) release


Once uninstalled, is data stored by an app on SD card also removed simultaneously? As an example - newer games once downloaded and installed from the Market (Play Store), also subsequently download extra data to a user's SD card. When one opts to uninstall said app/game, is the additional downloaded data also deleted off the SD card?

It depends on where game has downloaded data.

If its under <sdcard_root>/Android/data/<package_name>, the data will be cleared.

If its under some custom directory like <sdcard_root>/GameName/, the data will not be cleared.


help me out making my transition from iphone please I am used to doing a long-press-on-the-home-button to trigger the voice- search. That's a bad iphone habit. Here with Android, it is always switching to the currently-running-apps screen.

I tried so many ways ( including the home2 share app) but I could not figure it out.

Could you tell me an easy way to configure note 3 ( or s4) hardware buttons so that I can program them to do certain things upon long press, double click, even triple click etc...  What's the best app for that?

And secondly (and more practically speaking), please tell me how I can configure that a long press on the home button puts the phone into the listening mode?

Thank you...

To put Android into "listening mode", do your Long press, then click on the Google logo at the bottom of the screen. That's Google Now, your Siri counterpart.

For Samsung devices with S-Voice, double-pressing quickly on the Home button will trigger S-Voice.


Unusually high data usage by Google Play Store I've just noticed that my data usage for Google Play Store this month is >350MB. I've got it set to update over WiFi only and background data is restricted, so I don't know where this has come from. I haven't been downloading any apps either. Does anyone know what could have caused this and more importantly how do I stop it? It's a Sony Xperia Z3 running 5.0.2. Thanks!

I recently had problems with my phone eating up an extra 4GB of my data plan in one month. Not fun.

First try, Settings -> Apps -> All, and reset cache for each Google Play Services, Google Play Store, and Google Services Framework. Restart the phone, and watch.

If that doesn't do the trick, try resetting the cache AND data for each of the three. Again, restart.


How Do We Set the Default Camera App in Android 11? In Android 11 Beta 3, Google is blocking the ability for third-party camera apps to handle photo/video requests on behalf of other apps. Interested developers can read the release notes for the rationale behind this change.
However, there is one odd sentence in that explanation:

A user can set a third party camera app as the default camera app.

Here is the "Default apps" screen in Settings:

I don't see "Camera" on there. And if I search for "default" in Settings, I do not see an option for setting the default camera app.
So... how do we set the default camera app in Android 11?

I am on Android 11 (Pixel 4a) and was searching to do this and I recalled this question (had posted an answer and deleted, not being correct) . Here's the answer from Android 11 Changelog — Full List of All 50+ New Features

You Can't Change the Default Camera
To prevent malicious apps from capturing your location, Google has removed the ability to set a third-party camera app as default. You can continue to use the third-party app as usual, but if an app requests to use the camera app, it will use the preinstalled one. But the change isn't as dramatic as it sounds — you can still use the cameras that are built into apps such as Snapchat and set shortcuts to third-party apps.

As Andrew said in comments(now deleted)
, the release notes do not include that sentence to the effect that third party apps can be set as default camera app.


Why is my Samsung Galaxy S constantly dropping its wifi connection? When I attach my Galaxy S to my home wifi network it will stay connected for about 1-2 minutes. After this the wifi icon will be enabled, however no connection seems to actually be there.

I've tried a few wifi re-enablers on the marketplace but they haven't been successful.

I would start at the router and look there first. Do a reboot of the router and see if it still happens. if it does, there should be logging in the admin of the router that you can turn on (if its not already) and maybe you can see something causing the drop.

Try getting Wifi Analyzer from the android market (free) to check if your router is on the same channel as other networks around you. try to put your router on the "clearest" channel.


USB Debugging: PC doesn't recognize that my Moto E (2nd Gen)(Upgraded to Marshmallow) in on debugging mode So I'm trying to root my Moto E (2nd Gen) using PC apps such as Kingo Root, One Click Root etc. But the problem is that my PC doesn't recognize that my phone is in debugging mode. Moreover on my Android the following dialog box appears:

Please help me.
I have installed the Android drivers on my PC.

The USB Mobile Monitor allows you to connect your Android mobile phone
  or tablet to your PC with a simple USB Cable. All that is required is
  the download of the USB Mobile Monitor App on your device and the
  installation of the USB Mobile Monitor software on your PC.

  The USB Mobile Monitor allows you to replace the keyboard, mouse and
  computer screen of your PC with a single device.

Source: http://www.usbmobilemonitor.com/home.html

This is a kind of built-in system shipped with your device I guess. So,I think you need to install the APK version to get this works. It can be found here. Then follow the usage on this page.

After that, try enabling USB Debugging again.

For the rooting part, follow this guide on XDA Developers.


Accidentally deleted superuser from CyanogenMod installation. How can I re-install superuser again? I have rooted galaxy s3, but I somehow deleted superuser. I still have CWM, and my phone can boot into download mode. Am I able to flash CyanogenMod without bricking my phone?

Because you still have a working CWM, you can just reflash it.

There are 2 competing implementations:

SuperSU from Chainfire
Superuser from ChainsDD

Most rooting utilities install the latter, so you're safe to also flash this.


How can I recover contact information from a stolen phone? My phone got stolen yesterday. The problem is that all phone numbers are in it, and I don't know any numbers now.
I tried many different solutions to get my contacts to PC.

Google
I went into my Gmail account, and on the left side of the screen selected Contacts > My Contacts, but none of my phone contact's names or numbers are there. Only the e-mail contacts are there with the e-mail addresses.

Bluestacks
I installed Bluestacks on my PC, managed to login with my Google account, but the contacts are not there, and most of the apps require SMS verification.

Is there any way that I recover the contact information from my phone?

IT depends, if you were using the built-in Contacts, then the contacts are stored on the phone. There are apps. that allow you to remote control your phone via Internet or SMS, but, if you didn't install any of these (like Lookout, etc.), then your contacts cannot be retrieved.


Trying to factory reset, but it's not listed at all as an option Possible Duplicate:
  How to hard reset a Samsung Galaxy GT-i5800?

I'm using a GT-I5800L (firmware 2.1-update 1) and I'm trying to do a factory reset to see if I can get the Wi-Fi working again. I've done a factory reset on the phone in the past but it's no longer listed as an option.

When I go to Settings -> SD Card and Phone Storage, this is all that I see:

External SD card

Total Space

1.84GB

Available Space

1.47GB

Unmount SD card

Unmount SD card for safe removal

Format SD card

Format (erase) the SD card

Internal phone storage

Available space

80.7MB

At the bottom there used to be a factory reset option... Any ideas? I'm not overly computer smart either :/

This is a quite often asked question -- so please see the "Linked" and "Related" sections for more answers.

A good place to check for answers concerning factory reset is always hard-reset.com. At Samsung I5800 Galaxy 3 Android hard reset, they write how it can be done for your phone. Basically, it involves the following steps:

Using hardware buttons only

Press MIDDLE of the VOLUME + MENU (middle key) + POWER ON for 1-2 sec
Release Power. Recovery menu appears.
Select Wipe Data/ Factory reset with volume down, then press MENU
select Yes - delete all user...
press MENU or POWER button

They further recommend: to hard reset i5800 Galaxy 3 battery must be fully 100% charged.

Alternative approach

As you still can turn on your phone normally, there's a second option available:

open up yout telephone app (dialer)
dial *2767*3855#
follow the instructions

This is not a real phone call, but rather a "magic number" (shortcut to system functions).

Last word: Be aware that with a factory-reset all your manually installed apps and all your data on internal/phone memory are lost, so backup what you need before! I guess you knew that, but just in case ;)


My Windows laptop wants to repair my phone, but my phone is happy When I initiate a USB mount of my phone, Windows 7 tells me the disk is going bad and wants to know if I want to rapair it (Motorola Droid 1; FRG22D if that matters). I am assuming this is a problem between the two disk systems talking to each other (like when you try to mount any EXT4 partition with Windows).

A) Is it really in need of repair? If so, should Windows be doing it? (Windows has no actual, practical problems with R/W of the drive and the phone is not reporting any issues or taking too long when remounting the SD card)

B) If Windows is just spitting up irrelevant error messages, how should I mount to disable the error message? Is this is just an annoyance anyone else has encountered?

I had that on my old HTC Magic a couple of times, it is supposedly down to not properly doing the Eject Disk bit in Windows and Unmount drive bit on the phone before unplugging it.

After it had annoyed me enough times by asking me to repair the disk every time, I unplugged the micro-SD card from my phone, put it in a USB SD card reader, plugged that straight into the PC and let Windows run the repair. This time the repair completed successfully, and after plugging the SD back into the phone I didn't have any more problems with it (for a few months at least).


Youtube 5 is always syncing on Android 2 since I updated my YouTube app from the pre-installed version to 5.5.30 on my Android (version 2.3.5, kernel 2.6) which is running on a Samsung GT I9003, YouTube tries to sync something all the time.

I'm logged in with a YouTube account an can play all the videos without problems.
But, YouTube uses most of the battery and the sync icon is always there.

Forcing the app to stop with the task manager sometimes fixes this issue.

Removing the update fixes the problem, but the default version is not really nice.

Any help would be really appreciated!

You can also download version 4 of youtube from 3rd party sites. It's more powerful than default version and does not have sync issue.


How to automatically backup everything to a safe location I would like to discuss the best way(s) to automatically backup all data on a phone including system, data and sdcard to a server or computer. This should be scheduled so that one will loose as little data as possible if the phone or tablet gets lost/stolen.

I don't want to exclude Googles Backup system totally but I personally look for a different solution because I don't want to hand over my data to any cloud service, so if the best way would be the cloud it had to be encrypted.

Incremental Backups would be great but I don't see that happening.

My devices are all rooted, otherwise a system backup wouldn't be possible of course.

Tools that come to mind and their respective disadvantages:

Clockworkmod Recovery / TWRP > cannot be automated
Online Nandroid Backup > would fill up the SDcard because incremental is not supported
Bittorrent Sync > can only sync folders not the whole sdcard (what about App2SD partition?)
Rsync > only works for SDcard and hard to automate (on Windows)
Airdroid > only for SDCard
Titanium Backup > no SDcard backup, only selected data backup

What kind of backup system would you suggest?

I can only suggest Titanium Backup - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.keramidas.TitaniumBackup, since I haven't really tried any other apps.

I used to use it when I first got Android after I rooted, I used that to do a backup before installing a new ROM. Was incredible. Don't know about the scheduling though, but that wouldn't surprise me if it had it.


Track republic wireless texts over wifi My son has a republic phone and I'm trying to find a way to monitor his texts without modifying anything on his phone because he's fairly tech savvy so he'd be able to remove it. I was thinking about a way to track the texts when they go over wifi. is there a possible way to do that?

SMS messages (aka "text messages") don't go over Wi-Fi, so it's not possible to track them that way. If you don't think you can install anything on the phone, the only way is through the carrier, and since intercepting other people's communications is against the law in most places, they're not likely to help you do that.


Missing notifications in lock screen after update to Lollipop After upgrading my Galaxy S5 to Android 5.0, notifications now are not showing in the top bar when the screen is locked. I understand that there is an option to show notifications in lock screen, from the sound and notification settings, but these still do not show in the top bar of the lock screen, but rather as annoying white boxes. Is there any way to bring this feature back or even an app that can do this? I don't understand why several useful features have been removed in the new update!

Sorry to tell you, there is no way to get them back to the status bar. You can only have them shown as you mentioned in your question. On Google I found a lot of discussions about this. However, I couldn't find a solution anywhere on the internet. Hope Google will give an option for this in later updates for android. I also miss it. And the "contents hidden" is useless. Why couldn't they make that option restore the icons to the statusbar...

Hope my answer helps!


2 step verification fears My company have set up all of their shared work via Google apps. They are now insisting on everyone setting up two-step verification. I am a freelance and although they want me to share via Google, I have other Google accounts that are personal and for college that I can't risk losing access to. The main issue is with emails on my phone, but I'm worried about the whole safety of these personal accounts should I leave my firm/lose my phone. I understand they can just block accounts. Is there any way of separating the accounts out?

The 2 step verification process does not affect all the accounts in the mobile. It would only ask for the account which is registered with the 2 step verification process.


SD won't encrypt or decrypt or work after removing phone battery I removed my phone battery when the phone was on without turning it off first, my SD card was encrypted, so now I cannot access my SD card contents on my phone while phone detects the SD card.

Moreover, when I turn my phone on, encryption page shows after boot, giving me the option to encrypt or decrypt the sd card and selecting either encrypt or decrypt won't do anything.

So how can I decrypt my SD card and access my data?

My phone uses android version 6

First, apparently, the phone thinks that the SD card is in the middle of encrypting/decrypting so it will not allow access to SD card while not encrypting/decrypting the SD card either.

to remedy this I removed a .MetaEcfsFile on my SD card using my computer, after removing this my phone now thinks that the SD card is not encrypted.

Second, I encrypted my already encrypted SD card, the reason that this will not corrupt my data is that starting with Android 5, android uses fast encryption that will only encrypt edited blocks, so enabling encryption will not encrypt your files the second time if you don't change them.

From source.android.com:

  Full-disk encryption was introduced to Android in 4.4, but Android 5.0
  introduced these new features:

  Created fast encryption, which only encrypts used blocks on the data    partition to avoid first boot taking a long time. Only ext4
  and f2fs    filesystems currently support fast encryption.

Last, after encryption you decrypt the SD card, android now decrypts the whole SD card not just changed blocks and you can access your files.

I also observed that removing the pattern and lock screen will not make your SD card data inaccessible.


How to reset your Android system folder I've done some messing around with root and I want to just restore my galaxy s4 to how it was when I first got it. I've done "factory resets" but all it does is wipe data. I need to restore my system to get everything back in order. It's not that I want to get back to jellybean or anything, although that would be fine, I just want to ACTUALLY factory reset and not just wipe data. I need to do this to upgrade to lollipop and I don't want to flash software. Thanks so much

You must be referring to a firmware reflash. Keep in mind that this is a dangerous process if you're not sure what you're doing; so if you do choose to continue, follow these instructions to the letter. Oh, and I'm assuming you're using Windows.

Download Odin from here, and install the Samsung ODIN drivers from here.
Type *#1234# in your phone dialer and take note of the CSC value. If SuperSU appears instead, reboot to stock recovery and take note of the CSC value. If you're using a custom recovery, you should now try to recall where you bought your S4 and whether you bought it unlocked or not.
Now that you have your phone's region, head over to SamMobile and search for your phone's model number. When the list of available firmwares appears, look for the listing that matches your CSC or whatever info you have about your phone's place of purchase.
Download the firmware once you've found it. If the download comes as a ZIP or a RAR, extract it so you're left with a .tar.md5 file.
Switch your phone completely off. Now, press and hold Home + Volume Down + Power and hit Volume Up when your phone asks you if you're sure.

Here comes the part where you should really be praying that nothing bad happens. Any mistake from here might turn your phone into a nice expensive doorstop!

Open Odin. Click the AP button if you downloaded Odin 3.09+, or the PDA button otherwise. Now, browse to and select the .tar.md5 file you downloaded.
Open up Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc) and make sure no processes related to Samsung Kies, such as Kies.exe or KiesTrayAgent.exe, are running. Close them as necessary.
Uncheck everything except Auto Reboot and F. Reset Time. Now, connect your phone thru USB and wait for a blue box to appear in ODIN. Say your prayers now, then hit Start.

After a few minutes, the firmware reflash should be done and your phone start to boot up. Don't worry if it takes too long to boot, this is usually normal if you didn't do anything wrong.


View running processes and CPU usage in Android 7 (Nougat)? In previous versions of Android, when my phone battery was going down quickly I could open an app like OS Monitor, see what process is using a lot CPU (often it was Evernote or Maps.me), and then kill that process.

However, OS Monitor and similar apps aren't working with Android 7 anymore, I guess due to some change in the system.

So I'm wondering, is there a way that would allow me to see what's consuming CPU in the latest version of Android?

You can use adb shell /system/bin/dumpsys cpuinfo.
This should also work with Oreo.


Why a phone gets slower as time passes? I did a hard-reset, wiped everything everywhere, reinstalled firmware and changed SD card. However, the phone still works extremely slowly, not as when it was bought. What can wear out in phone? Inner flash memory or something else?

This is likely to be caused by one (or both) of two things.

1: Your phone does not have TRIM support - something that was only recently added in 4.3. This makes some devices slow down significantly over time - notably the 2012 Nexus 7 - and they stay slow even after a factory reset.

2: Aging flash. Depending on the quality, type and age of your device's flash memory, it may be deteriorating and you could be losing performance because of this. Note that you won't usually lose any noticeable speed or storage over the life of most flash products, but that depends on a lot of factors.

These are two likely culprits, but it really could be other things as well. We would need to know more about your device, more about the software you're running, things like the brand and model of your SD Card, phone, etc. Your question gives almost no information about any of this.


Issue with Samsung S5 Music player My Samsung S5 music player no longer shows the track alphabet on the right side on my screen. How to get it back?

Go into phone settings>application manager>music>storage>clear cache. The press the back button and press force stop. See if that helps. If not, go to where you cleared cache, and press on 'clear data'