How do you install Google Play on Huawei Enjoy 7? Recently I purchased a Huawei Enjoy 7 from China and brought it back to Canada. (This phone is available only for purchase in China but it works perfectly fine in Canada and the states)

Basically it isn't that easy to get Google Play / Other Google Apps (beacause the phone was meant for China)

I have tried just getting the Google Play Store, as well as Google Play Services from a APK downloader online, but it just shows "Install Core GMS Packages to use google play" This is my main problem.

Huawei phones like the Mate series or the P series (meant for America) can just download an APK for the GMS Installer. But on the Huawei Enjoy 7, it doesn't work. (same message when opening google play)

Here's where I find that it gets tricky, according to this forum post and this other stack exchange post, you need to use TWRP to install GMS. (the stack exchange one isn't exactly relevant to my situation because it is a Mate 9)

To anyone experienced with computers/android using TWRP or something that has full access to your phone can have damaging consequences if done wrong. The forum post has a small guide that can somewhat help but it isn't very clear. This other stack exchange post also shows how to use TWRP (there are also links to official guides) but it isn't exactly the same as what the forum post suggests me to do.

My phone is currently running 7.0 nougat and not rooted (EMUI 5.0 I think). And I have the correct "Open GApps project" file on my computer and my phone.

What I want is a very clear and detailed guide that has official information to back it up to show my how to properly install Google Play on a Huawei Enjoy 7 using TWRP. Or if there are any other methods on how to do so.

There are two methods here. If Method 1 fails or you don't want to go through with it, try Method 2.

Method 1:

I'm going to try something here. It may or may not work. I don't have any phone without play services to test this on.

First, download Google installer from Google drive link: Google installer
To install the file you will have to go to Setting >> Security >> Allow Unknown Sources. Once you check this option you will be able to install the files.
Tap the downloaded APK to initiate the installation process.
After completion, launch Google Installer by tapping open or from the home screen. It will have a Chinese name.
In the app, tap the big blue button at the bottom to start the install process.
It will then  prompt you to install the necessary  packages one after the other

Method 2:

There is a thread in the XDA forums for your exact problem with the Huawei Enjoy The steps you need to follow are linked here.
This method requires you to unlock your bootloader, flash a custom recovery and install the OpenGapps package of your choice. For your convenience, I am copying all the steps here, but I would suggest you follow the instructions from their source.
(Bonus note: with help from Google Translate, you can get some more clarifications here)

Download a Chinese version of TWRP from here. You don't need an account, just press the download button
Unlock your bootloader. Google will help. You need to get unlock code from Huawei. Go here, apply and follow the instructions. All data will get wiped. Backup important data. Once done you will get a screen with "Phone Unlocked!" written in the bottom
Then in the twrp folder you had downloaded you will find a batch file named something like "recovery-twrp一键刷入工具.bat". Run the batch file. The text in the console will be in Chinese but in Windows 10 you can copy and paste the contents of the console into Google Translate. Follow the directions and press 2 when prompted to boot into the recovery.
Download from www.opengapps.org and copy the compatible OpenGapps package of your choice (I suggest the micro) into your phone beforehand and then boot into TWRP, choose install, select the package you had copied earlier and then swipe to install. Once done, reboot.

I have not actually tried any of this, but if you get stuck somewhere, please share the screenshots and I'll try to help the best I can.


How does an Android app accesses any browser's history? I recently came across FamiSafe, a child monitoring app, through one of my friends which gives a lot of information about the activities of the mobile phone. I was awestruck as it gives a detailed information about the location, browser history, etc.

That got me thinking:

how is it possible for an application to access what websites are visited through a browser?
How is it possible for this app to know that a person has searched or visited a website and record it and show the same in the application?
Does this app interact with the OS for website data?

Since it gives data irrespective of browsers I assume it has nothing to do with the browser used. Instead, it has to be something directly to be dealt with. Anyone has any idea how this works?

The device is OnePlus 5 running Android 7.

That app uses Accessibility service (originally meant to assist users with disabilities) to read what is being displayed on the window. It also uses app usage permission to track what app is being used at a time. Combine the two features and the app can know when a web browsing app is active, and what is being typed in there and displayed there. That app has already declared in its description on Play Store that it uses the said service. Under Web Content Filtering & Web Monitoring heading, it states:

  This app uses Accessibility service to limit app usage and keep your children from internet dangers

Related:

How do certain apps record everything we type in android?
Unusual ways of using Android accessibility services (by Maksym Dybarskyi)


How To Install Froyo on HTC Bravo I have an HTC Bravo. Some time ago I installed Gingerbread on it and started to have trouble. If I connect to the Internet or do some memory intensive work it resets itself. Now I want to install Froyo again on my Bravo.

Can somebody guide me in the right direction, or did I burn too many bridges to go back?

Perhaps you can install Revolutionary, and choose the option to install the Clockwork Recovery Mod, look for a copy of the original Froyo rom from somewhere and then use Recovery to put it back on your phone?

Of course, while you're doing that you could check out CyanogenMod v7.1 and see if that gives you what you need.


Dual Booting a Windows 8 Tablet/Smartphone with Android OS? Is it possible and indeed practical to dual boot a Windows 8 tablet/smartphone with Jelly Bean 4.0 + ? Are there significant restrictions or limitations in doing so? If this is not achieveable as yet - What about running Bluestacks on these devices, just in the same manner that Bluestacks can run Android Apps as an emulator on a Windows PC (if i'm correct)

You could, but without support it would be difficult.

Android does not 100% support for all apps on intel/amd processors

As well as this, you would have to write a kernal / kernel object to support the specific hardware of the device.

This can be quite difficult if propriety information is unavailable.

You would be better to ask at http://forum.xda-developers.com and ask if someone has ported Android to your device, or a device you would be wanting to buy.


Sync ext SD to USB OTG **without** using a PC Device Details

Moto X Play - Android 6.0.1, Rooted (Systemless root)
Samsung 64 GB ext SD
San Disk 128 GB USB - came shipped with FAT 32 reformatted to exFAT since I have folders > 4 GB on external SD

Use Case

Sync entire contents of ext SD to USB (one way sync without deletion of SD card contents ) on weekly schedule / on demand , as incremental backup without using a PC ( I do have one but reasons for not wanting to use it are not relevant)

Other Details

USB drive recognised by device correctly connected by standard OTG (Settings → Storage & USB )
Busybox installed . It came bundled with ROM Toolbox Pro. I haven't used it directly. If another busy box is to be installed, it's fine as long it doesn't clash
Mount points as below

Things tried

Unsuccessful app search- I wasn't able to find an app that can do this (Folder Sync claims to but it can't see USB)
Googling for alternatives
MacroDroid automation fails, since app can't see USB (raised this in app forum)

Question: How can I do this ? I am open to any means

Please note that I intend placing a bounty of 100 , any answer meeting needs before I post bounty will be awarded similarly (I may delay posting the bounty to ensure I get a solution)

Please avoid solutions that

are not tested - it should have been tested on your device and USB configuration to give it credibility
Involve PC , uploading to cloud, transferring to remote server etc
References to claims from doubtful sources which can't be verified
Involving use of File Managers ( I had mixed results with these but then that is for another question)

Aim of the above is not to deter solutions but to discourage frivolous attempts. If clarity is needed, please ask

I discussed this need on chat and some potential candidates for solution included BusyBox, rsync and Tasker. I know nothing of these means so Please do provide complete details. Being a bounty question (almost), I expect that I should be able to straightaway implement successfully without seeking clarifications.

( Being a rooted device with systemless root, solutions using root are fine. However, if OS is to be modified on any way, please highlight as systemless doesn't permit it, though there is a work around )

I am strapped for time and need to get this working ASAP

As we figured out the solution you now use in chat, this answer should comply with "being tested", "not involving a PC or file manager" and "relying on verified sources". Though in the meantime there was another rsync answer posted, you've asked me to present our solution as well – so here we go:

The rsync command can be used to accomplish that. Taken all your requirements into account (including those mentioned later in chat), the command line would look like this:

rsync -a --delete /mnt/sdcard /mnt/usb

Explanations on the command:

rsync obviously is the executable/command
-a stands for "archive", i.e. keep all attributes. This includes to recursively copying contents (directories, subdirectories, files), keeping filestamps and ownership (the latter usually requires root), preserve permissions, etc. For details, please refer to What is archive mode in rsync? on our sister-site.
--delete takes care to remove files on the target (here: /mnt/usb) which are not/no-longer available at the source (here: /mnt/sdcard)
remaining parameters specify the source to copy from (/mnt/sdcard) and the target to copy to (/mnt/usb). Note that we specified both as directories, so all content, also hidden files, should be included as well (the latter wouldn't if we had used a mask like /mnt/sdcard/*).
Note: make sure to specify the real mount points or at least real directories here (e.g. not the /mnt/sdcard symlink as in the example), or it might just copy the symlink over and think that's all you wanted :)

You might wish to try the above on a small source first to see how it works.

Now that the "how" is covered, question remains: Where is rsync? It usually doesn't come pre-installed on the device, and most Busyboxes seem to not include it either. There once was an app on Playstore called rsync backup for Android, but it's no longer there. As this wiki points out, you can directly download the rsync binary from here¹, then push it to your Android device, and install it. Assuming you've pushed the binary to /mnt/sdcard:

su
mount -o remount,rw /system
cd /system/xbin
cp /mnt/sdcard/rsync .
chmod 755 /system/xbin/rsync
chown root.shell /system/xbin/rsync
mount -o remount,ro /system

The above should be done either in a terminal app or via adb shell.

That done, and successfully tested from a shell prompt, remains the question of automation. I know that tasker can execute shell commands as root (in the past this was done by simply prefix them with an exclamation mark, today there might even be a checkbox for it – I didn't check that for a while), but your Macrodroid might provide that as well. Alternatively, you can do it the Unix/Linux way and utilize Cron, which is provided by Busybox; for details please see: How to use crontab in Android?

Also see:

How to use rsync over USB on Android with adb
the rsync man page for further details on available parameters and possibilities
How to rsync to android (in case you want to advance this to include your Linux machine ;)
RSync is also available on other operating systems, see e.g. this list on Wikipedia
there's another RSync app on Playstore: Acrosync – but it wasn't updated since 2013 and neither is it well rated (2.7 stars at 82 votes)
Backup your Android phone with Rsync describes a similar approach as above, involving different resources
How to automate command line when specific application is launched? (for on-demand syncing; note that e.g. tasker also allows to create widgets for tasks, which then can be "tapped on demand" to execute it)

¹ Of course you can also try to find the original app on sites like APKMirror or ApkPure, or download the app from here – but then you had to first install that app, and afterwards grab the binary from it's data directory /data/data/eu.kowalczuk.rsync4android/files/rsync – which I find a bit inconvenient ;)


What is the right way to close apps in Android? I'm new to the Android platform, and this is probably a dumb question, but...

How do you close an app?

When I'm in an app, and I want to get out, I just click on "Home" and move on, but I just installed a Task Manager app, and I noticed everything is left running.

Is there a way to exit apps? Or do I need to use the Task Manager every time I exit something?

If you exit the app using the BACK button then it will call onDestroy() on the current Activity, If you press HOME it only calls onPause()
Don't be too worried about it though, Activities won't drain battery they are just left in memory so they can be opened faster in the future.

I wouldn't recommend using one of those task killer apps Android is designed to keep that stuff in memory for a reason, using a task killer is only one more extra service tugging away at your battery..  What you need to watch out for is apps that run services in the background like twitter or email clients pulling their servers, any good app that has a service like that will have an option to turn it off.


How does Google Play's "Market license check" work? About a month ago I bought a game called Whale Trail during a sale on Google Play. Today, when I tried to play the game on the subway, it asked to verify the game's license, and failing to do so (since there was no internet connection on the subway), shut the game down. When I got home, I took a look at the game's permissions tab and saw this:

  Market license check

  Can check if you have a license for this application from Market

It seems like this is a feature built into Google Play. So my question is, how does this "license check" work? How often does apps using this "feature" phone home to verify that indeed I'm not a dirty pirate stealing these developer's apps?

You can choose when, and how often, you want your application to check its license and you have full control over how it handles the response, verifies the signed response data, and enforces access controls.

From http://developer.android.com/guide/market/licensing/overview.html

So yes basically whenever the developer wants it to. I'd imagine the most common time to check is when the application is first opened.

  Your application does not query the licensing server directly, but instead calls the Google Play client over remote IPC to initiate a license request. In the license request:

  Your application provides: its package name, a nonce that is later
  used to validate any response from the server, and a callback over
  which the response can be returned asynchronously.
  The Google Play client collects the necessary information about the
  user and the device, such as the device's primary Google account
  username, IMSI, and other information. It then sends the license
  check request to the server on behalf of your application.
  The Google Play server evaluates the request using all available information, attempting to establish the user's identity to a sufficient level of confidence. The server then checks the user identity against purchase records for your application and returns a license response, which the Google Play client returns to your application over the IPC callback.

So:

The information about the application, the device and the user goes off to Google's servers.
Google then checks your name against the list of people it knows have paid for the application on Google Play. (It could also check the name of the application against a list of applications it knows that you've downloaded from Google Play)
If it can see that you have downloaded (and paid for) the application from Google Play it sends back that you have a license, if not then it tells the app you don't.

Obviously this is all done online so if you're offline then it won't work. If I was writing the application I would have a counter to let the person to use it offline 3 times or so before having to go online to get the license check in order to stop the kind of thing happening to you where you can't play offline. Of course if someone digs into the file where the counter is stored they could change the value back to 3 tries every time they use it and never have to pay but that's probably beyond the technical competence of most users.


How can I determine how much total RAM my device actually has? I bought a SIM locked ZTE v790 in Egypt. It tells me that it has 181MB of RAM, but it supposed to be 512MB.

Is there a way to check how much RAM my device physically has before deciding to get it replaced?

I know this is an old questions but it comes up first in Google so I thought I would put a simple answer.

Depending on the version of Android:

Settings > Applications > Running services
or Settings > Apps > Running services
or Settings > More > Application Manager > Running (at the top)
or Settings > System > Developer Options > Running services

At the bottom you will see RAM, used and free.  Add both number together to get total usable RAM for the device. Note that this might be less than the RAM advertised for the phone model, as the system may reserve some of the RAM for itself as explained in other answers.

Cheers


How to root a Nexus 10 without wipe? I would like to root my Nexus 10 without wiping its data so I can later install Ubuntu Touch on it. How should I do this?

Rooting a device does not require it to be wiped, although, to root it the device's bootloader needs to be unlocked.  This action requires the device to be wiped.

So, if you have not unlocked the bootloader yet then you need to wipe it, sadly.

If you have unlocked the bootloader then you can root the device without wiping it.

To root the device you can use the Nexus Root Toolkit by Wugfresh.  This is your best option.


Do permissions have to be declared in the manifest for an app to have the access they provide? I was using Universal Copy for a while to be able to copy text from fields that are not normally able to be selected, but due to it being able to see all contents on the screen when running, I would disable the it in accessibility settings until needed, which was a pain. I found Copycat, which does the same thing but with only one permission (run at startup) declared, and it states the following:

  This app does not use any internet connection at all, So it never syncs any of your saved data anywhere. You can confirm it yourself by checking the app permissions. Your data is safe in your device.

On the surface, this seems great, since it appears there's no concern about giving it the access involved with the accessibility service. However, I know that Android permissions aren't so well-defined, unfortunately, and that if an app has any permission in a category, it has all permissions in that category. Since the "run at startup" permission is in the "Other" category, which is also where the internet permissions are located, it would seem that it would have that access, even though it doesn't specifically request it.

So my question is, is that true, or does an app have to declare a permission in its manifest in order to be able to use it, and does that declaration always mean that permission will show when viewing an app's permissions in the Play Store? IOW, is Copycat truly safe, or could it potentially still be sending information, and the developer is either misguided, which wouldn't exactly be promising, or outright lying, which would clearly be bad? I emailed them a few weeks ago but have not received a response.

P.S. I wasn't sure if this should go on Stack Overflow, since it relates to programming, or not, since it's not related to any specific code.

A basic Android application has no permissions associated with it by default, meaning it cannot do anything that would adversely impact the user experience or any data on the device. To make use of protected features of the device, you must include in your AndroidManifest.xml one or more  tags declaring the permissions that your application needs. At application install time, permissions requested by the application are granted to it by the package installer, based on checks against the signatures of the applications declaring those permissions and/or interaction with the user. No checks with the user are done while an application is running; the app is either granted a particular permission when installed, and can use that feature as desired, or the permission is not granted and any attempt to use the feature fails without prompting the user.

Read more here https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/permissions/overview


hard brick? [asus zenfone 5 - lollipop] I have a problem with my asus zenfone 5 (root). I think it's hard bricked. I will explain better, yesterday I did a restore to "clean" the system, while restoring freezes, then I try to boot into recovery mode. I long ago, installed a custom recovery, the fact is that by inserting the recovery.img and trying to start it from the custom recovery. I get errors and does not install, so start in droidboot mode to adjust all manualmente by pc (GNU / linux), with fastboot flash recovery.img, but when I have to do the last step described by driving mistake.

Now I do not have a chance to get more in recovery mode, in fact, when I press power + vol appears the Android logo with red exclamation point, if I try to start it normally there is a loading of the asus logo with the infinite wheel, but when there is asus adb logo detects it, it just says chen is not "authorized", the phone has to be thrown away? There are hardware / software solutions ?
thank you so much

The BEST way to unbrick an Android device is to use Odin. This exe program has saved many android users from having to buy another phone. Although I am not a pro with Odin, try looking up on Google about how to flash with Odin. Odin supports both Windows and MAC but windows is better.

Did you ever make a backup of your ROM? Unless you didn't have a custom recovery, making a Nandroid backup is extremely important.

If your device is hard-bricked with no backup, then you will need to download your original STOCK ROM (which can be found on the internet), and flash it through odin.

Also you will need a PIT file for your phone. PIT files tell Odin where to correctly place the files when flashing.

You can obtain the correct PIT file by looking up your phone model and then add "PIT file" along with the model.

I hope this helps!


How can I test functioning of internal component (sensors, NFC, pedometer etc...) I recently dropped my LG G3 in water. I opened it and let it dry for a long time.

It now work properly but some components does not seems to work anymore. For example light sensor, proximity sensor or pedometer seems broken.

Is there any way, or application, to have a full check-up of my phone component to see what is going on ? I want to see if all component are still detected or not and if I can do anything about it.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Try these :

Sensor Kinetics

The Sensor Kinetics app is an advanced monitor for the standard sensors that are available on Android devices. It offers a comprehensive look at the dynamics of the combined functionality of the sensors. The app demonstrates the use of each of the sensors and provides a look at the charts associated with each of them to know how fast the sensors are operating. The chart viewers allow users to measure the accuracy and behavior of the sensors.

(Click Image to enlarge)

Sensor Box for Android

Sensor Box for Android detects all available sensors on your Android device, and vividly shows you how they work with amazing graphics. Sensor Box for Android also tells you which sensors are supported by the hardware, and provides extremely useful sensor tools that could be used in our daily life.

Sensor Test

The Sensor Test application is a capable tool that is ultimately designed with the aim to detect the functionality of each of the sensors that are available on the user’s Android device. It displays the default sensors and shows the real time data and information of each sensor. This app provides support to Triggers sensors and supports devices running on Android 4.3 and above.

Phone Tester

The Phone Tester is an application that lets users to analyze and detect if the components and hardware of their device are operating correctly. Apart from checking the functionality of the sensors on the device, users can also detect Wi-Fi, telephony, GPS, multi-touch, battery and system information. The app also comes in a Pro version that shows more information including phone memory, CPU speed and SD card memory without any ads.

AndroSensor

The AndroSensor is a complete diagnostic tool allows users to know everything about their Android device and its status. It supports all the sensors on the device and detail on which of these sensors actually work or which of them are supports by the device hardware. The tool displays the real time sensor details in both graphical and text form and users can also record sensor data using the AndroSensor QuickBar into a CSV file.

Sensor Checker

Sensor Tester checks the functionality from Your Android Device. Many Apps use sensors, but it is possible that Your device doesn´t support these sensors or are defective. With Sensor Checker You see which sensors are supported and if they work right. An example for a sensor app is a magnetic field sensor app like compass, or some apps where You have to shake your device.

Try also: Sensors Multitool & Sensors Test


Emoji viewing on Android 5.1 I've seen a number of similar questions, but none have worked for me.
A friend keeps sending me emojis, and 99% of the time, it's perfect and I see what I want.  However, the other 1% I can't see them.  I would like to know a specific one, but I am getting the little box.  I've tried copy and pasting it into a browser, etc. and it still does the same thing.  Please help.

Try Emojisearch.

It displays image of searched emoji so if particular emoji is not supported for your mobile you can still see it.

FAQs on Emoji


Is it possible to root directly custom rom? I have bought Xiaomi Mi 5c (bootloader unlocked) and tried to root it. I think I've used every possible software available on internet for rooting (like TWRP+SuperSU, iRoot, KingRoot), even tried to modify a system and boot image from custom rom by placing there SuperSu app and su binary. Also I have used some script which patches sepolicy and ramdisk with tools available in SuperSU app and do other necessary things to root the device, but after that my device does not even boot (stuck on fastboot).

I was wondering if I can use the same script (with some small modificatoins) to root directly a custom rom and then flash the whole custom rom with available root inside.

Intuition tells me that this should be possible, but till now I did not found any custom rom with root inside (except dev chineese roms which are already pre rooted, but that's a different story).

I want to root directly a custom rom and then flash it as I hope this could be the last chance to make it to work. So again, is it possible?

MI 5C is a fairly new phone and with Xiaomi's in-house SoC (harder to develop for than established ones like Snapdragon), therefore custom ROMs are expected to come out later and in fewer quantities.

Stock MIUI also employs a check on /system partition so as to prevent booting when it's modified, no matter how it's executed (modified before or after flashing).

There are a few tips on XDA about rooting, but I've examined them and none of them seems to be surefire. At this moment, the Developer version of MIUI is your only dependable choice. Since you're already unlocked, flashing it should prove no trouble.


Can we upgrade AT&T SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 Galaxy S to Android 4.1? I have the AT&T Samsung Android Mobile with 2.3.5 OS and it's model no is SGH-I897. Now I want to upgrade my mobile os to lates 4.1 or 4.2, So can any body help me how to do that. Thanks in Advance.

Can we? Yes (But you have to go for a custom ROM)

How?
Well, you can use a custom ROM like CyanogenMod or better, you can use Salty Bean ROM.

Steps:

Backup everything. (including messages, contacts, apps, settings and OS)
Download the ROM
After downloading ROM package & Salty Bean addons, connect your phone to the PC. Enable mass storage mode to access SD card data. Transfer both the files on it.
Disconnect the phone from computer. Now boot into the recovery mode. For doing the same, switch off the phone completely (until it vibrates). Press & hold Volume Up + Volume Down + Power Key together until recovery mode appears (you can release power button after         Samsung logo appears but keep holding other two until recovery mode shows up).
After getting into the recovery mode, take a nandroid backup of your current ROM so that it can be restored back in case if anything goes wrong. To backup your current ROM, select Backup and Restore option from the recovery menu & on next screen, select backup. Now It will make a nandroid backup of your whole system (excluding SD card).
Select wipe data/factory reset & wipe cache partition to wipe all the data & caches from the phone memory respectively.
Now Select install zip from sdcard & then choose zip from sdcard. Select the ROM file from the location where you’ve transferred it earlier & press on Yes to confirm the installation.

All the detailed information can be found here

If your are not sure of what to do, please do not attempt to do this. Get help from someone (as in getting help from someone who can hand your phone over to) instead


I don't know how these files got in my photos I get photos saved in a folder named files, I don't know the people in the pictures . there not photos I took ! How could they have gotten into my phone? and details show /storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com.littleengine.wordpal/files/ .......plz help.

This seems to be the Data asociated to an app called World Wars maybe some other (you can google "com.littleengine.wordpal" to know what aplication is, that is the package name), it's possible those photos are there because are saved data from gameplays or other players avatars, in this case there is not too much to worry about, except for the space of course. If you don't trust the source of the application i recommento to uninstall it, but if you installed it from the Play Store there are almost sure not problem at all.
Anyway, if there is not such application like World Wars or any other, find that folder with the pics and delete it, there'll no be problem, if the folder appears again, consider to install an antivirus or something


How to limit cache of internet browsers? I use the default browser as well Opera Mini.
I can't seem to find any setting to limit the cache to a certain amount (in MB for example).
They eat up disk space quickly.

Anyone knows if it's possible limit the cache disk usage of these browsers?
If not, can you recommend a browser that can do this?

There's no way to limit the cache of browsers or apps, however you could use one of many cache cleaner apps to sweep the cache/temp files in one stroke.

Take a look at Dolphin Browser as well - it has an option to store the cache on the SD card, so that will eliminate your space problem. There's also the option of clearing the cache/history each time you exit the browser. Also has sync, extensions and Flash support (depending on your device).

BTW - I don't think Opera Mini stores a cache as Opera Mobile does. Opera Mini does however store pages in folders specified by the user.


Wifi hotspot and Flashlight I am being told by my device (HTC one E8) that the camera flash (and thereby flashlight app) and portable wifi hotspot cannot work at the same time.

I dont see any logical connection between the two, question is can anyone explain the reason this is happening and any workarounds/alternatives

Both of those functions consume a large amount of energy. The phone's processor and other components require a minimum amount of energy to remain stable. The battery can only output so much at a time. The phone is not letting you use both simultaneously time to avoid a "brown-out" and potential crash or other failure (perhaps it is unsafe for the battery as well, overheating is dangerous). Many phones also restrict the use of the flash when battery power is very low.

If you use a third party flashlight app, you may be able to bypass the restriction. I know I can, however my phone is also rooted which makes everything easier.


How can I schedule Focus Mode on my Android phone? Google have launched Digital Wellbeing features in newer Android versions, including Focus Mode. Focus Mode lets you select a list of allowed apps and block all others, during periods when you want to focus and avoid distractions.
According to this blog post by Google, it is possible to schedule Focus Mode:

Their feedback inspired us to include a few new features with today’s launch. For example, we’ve added an option to automatically turn Focus mode on and off for the days and times that you choose (e.g. from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays). This is especially handy for setting daily schedules; you can minimize distractions during the hours you’re at work, school or home.

My phone has Focus Mode, but it does not seem to have a way to schedule Focus Mode. How is Focus Mode scheduled on phones where this is supported?

On one plus 7 Android 10,you can schedule this way: Digital Wellbeing &  Parental control → Tap on Focus mode → on next screen select distracting apps → Set a schedule → Set schedule (set days of week and time) → turn on now. From 3 buttons menu you can also add a quick settings shortcut.

(Click to enlarge)


Micromax a104 SP flash not detecting mobile and stuck in bootloop Device Micromax A104. The phone is not rooted neither the usb debugging mode is on.

the phone was fully affected virus or some other bugs. It was hanging and responding very slowly. so i decided to factory reset. I went to recovery by pressing Power+Vol up. the result was an android robot icon with a red triangle mark and saying No command. but by pressing the Power button again i logged into system  recovery. there is selected wipe data/ factory reset selection was difficult because phone was not responding properly when i press the vol down button either Vol up button somehow i manage to select the wipe data/Factory reset and wipe cache partition.

after that i select "reboot system now" then i am stuck in bootloop.
i downloaded stock rom SP flash tool. but my laptop Windows 10 64 bit is not detecting the mobile. i downloaded ADB drivers and installed it manually and by exe files. In device manager it still says Code 10 Error device will not work properly Yellow triangle. tried a several website for drivers .. all failed. I tried in Windows 8 64bit system also. Failed again
Is there any hope left for this mobile??? is there any chance to save this phone?

SP flash tool is latest version and in Ubuntu Linux also SP Flash tool is not able to detect the phone.

Just a suggestion - try using a Windows 32 bit system, preferrably Windows 7. After connecting the phone in Flash mode, check the Device Manager to see if drivers are properly installed.

I'd like to mention that I haven't heard viruses making even the recovery too slow. I am not sure, but you might have to consider the possibilities of your phone having a hardware issue. If under warranty, now is the time to claim it.


lineage OS encrypt phone --> bootloop I upgraded CM13 to LineageOS14.1 on a Xiaomi Note 3 (kenzo), setup everything, and decided to encrypt the phone (from settings/encrypt phone). It asked for a pattern, and then rebooted.

I never got to see a timer as seems to be expected from reading around. The phone got into a boot loop (vibrate, show MI logo, show lineage mascot for about a second, then reboot, over and over again). I left it doing this for about 40 minutes when I decided something was wrong.

I can now boot into TWRP 3.1.0-0, but any attempt to boot normally results in the above.

How can I get my phone to boot again? (if possible without losing data, I have backups, but if I can spare the hassle of reinstalling everything...).

The device was rooted, and I installed nightly lineage lineage-14.1-20170405-nightly-kenzo, along with gapps and lineage su package.

"Longer term", how do I encrypt the phone without breaking everything? Is there a bug in lineageOS (I've not seen anything on the bugtracker, except for another device (athene))?

For future reference, choosing repair for /data in TWRP seems to solve bootloops right after encryption. The device stays encrypted. This worked on two of my devices and I didn't notice any data loss.


How to set home launcher in Android 7.0 Nougat and 8.0 Oreo I could not find the way to set/change the default launcher in Android N (Nexus 6P). I think it is not there. Any help?

Changing the default launcher in Android O (as of 8.0 DP 1)

Go into the Settings app
Go to "Apps & Notifications"
Go to "Default apps"
Press "Home app"

Alternatively, you can just search inside the settings app for "Home."

Changing the default launcher in Android Nougat

Go into the Settings app
Go to "Apps"
Press the settings gear in the top-right (not the triple-dot)
Scroll down and press "Home app"

Alternatively, you can just search inside the settings app for "Home."

source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpXBDnSIeiM

Changing the default launcher in Android Marshmallow

Go into the Settings app
Scroll down, and under the "Device" header you'll see "Home"
Go into that and you'll be able to change your home launcher

Changing the default launcher in Android Lollipop

Go into the Settings app
Scroll down, and under the "Device" header you'll see "Home"
Go into that and you'll be able to change your home launcher

Changing the default launcher in Android KitKat

Go into the Settings app
Scroll down, and under the "Device" header you'll see "Home"
Go into that and you'll be able to change your home launcher

Changing the default launcher in Android (pre-KitKat 4.4)

You'll need a third-party app to change between home screens. One of the best ("Home Switch") is available here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.uk.captainstu72.homeswitch


Can I use Secure Folder without a Samsung Account? On a Samsung Galaxy A3 2017 (A-320FL) I want to use the Secure Folder feature. Clicking on the Icon opens a prompt to sign in to a Samsung Account.

I don't want sync anything (or create another account with all of its privacy implications), just want to have password protected clones of apps and storage.

I don't think there is a way to use Samsung's Secure Folder without logging in to Samsung. I don't know why Samsung requires that you log in to a Samsung account to use Secure Folder, as that seems to increase the potential attack surface.


From where on the network is time information received? From where is the time information updated when the option Date & time settings -> Automatic - Use network-provided values is selected?

Is it from GSM, WiFi, GPS or anything else?

I believe it is from GSM, but I'd like to get a confirmation.

Thanks to t0mm13m's comments:

The keyword is NITZ - that is where it comes from.

Certain ROMs fail to handle it, others do. If it fails, can always fallback on a NTP app like ClockSync (this requires root BTW) :)


I dropped my phone in water and now the screen isnt working - i cant remove the battery So my Phone is a "Alcatel" and i honestly didnt know what type it is. Yesterday night. I accidentally dropped in into my running bath water, being clumsy. i quickly grabbed it and attempted to dry it off. At first it was fine and The microphone and camera wasnt working so i thought it would be okay (Ive dropped my phone in water before). SO i set it down, About maybe 2 minutes later I went to check my phone that i had plugged into my charger to see the screen not working. I could see and turn it on but the screen itself isn't working. Then next thing i know my phone died, which scared me becouse it was at 25%. I turned it off and put it in a bowl of rice, ive only checked it once sense then. I dont know what to do, im scared i damaged my phone

The first thing you should do when dropping a phone into water is switch it off immediately and make sure it's completely dry before turning it on again. Keep it inside a case of rice so that the rice can soak all the moisture from the phone. Keep it inside for a day or so and try turning it back.

So try doing it now and hope it works else you'll need a new phone.


Phone number listed about this phone I found a phone that still has the sim card in it but it has been reset to factory settings.  Is there any way to find the phone number associated with that phone (I am sure the owner has a new phone and has had the number changed from the lost phone to the new phone) so I can call it and let the owner know I found their old phone?

Settings > about phone > status > sim status


Can WiFi be turned on without user interaction? If my phone's WiFI is off, can it be turned in without me doing anything?

EDIT: Using Stock Samsung Android on a Samsung Galaxy Tab E.

No. Without you do anything there's no way to do it.


In camera apps, if zoom is digital, how is (auto) focus achieved? In almost all Android devices, zoom is digital -- there just isn't a mechanism for changing the length of the barrel and gathering more info.

So how is focus achieved?

If you're not physically changing the lens properties, or extending the barrel length, you've only got dilation of the aperture as the last focus method. Which is mechanical. Unless you've got a fixed focus system -- which most android phones do not seem to have.

The android-spec for the autoFocus() method isn't much help - although it says it must be supported by the hardware, although most phones seem to have it.

So if it is hardware -- how? I'm not hearing any little motors whirring around in there.... And is there really even any room for a mechanism in these things?

See Also:

Android.SE: In camera apps, is “zoom” a digital zoom, or an optical zoom?
Understanding camera AutoFocus
Wikipedia:Autofocus

The focus function is achieved by moving the lens back or forth so it is actually a mechanical thing.

You can try it yourself. Download ZXings Barcode Scanner and fire it up. You'll hear a click every time it tries to refocus you can also see the lens moving back and forth.


Turn off TalkBack/double tap on Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 On the Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1, after downloading the latest OS, some settings got changed and the TalkBack comes on. However, I cannot find a TalkBack accessibility item to turn off.
What's the workaround to shut this off/remove it?

The TalkBack feature is now called "Voice Assistant" and accessible through Settings > Accessibility > Voice Assistant. From there, you can turn it off.


No service on Blackview BV 5500 Pro with Lineage 17.1 The issue
I installed Lineage OS on my blackview BV 5500 Pro and am facing the "No Service" issue since. There does not seem to be any hardware issue and I've exhausted all the options I could think of.

Specifications

Image installed: lineage-17.1-20201012-UNOFFICIAL-treble_a64_bvS
Build number: treble_a64_bvS-userdebug 10 QQ3A.200805.001 eng.crossg.20201012.051017 test-keys
Carrier: Ultra mobile
Phone: Blackview BV 5500 Pro

What I've tried
Here's what I've tried:

Restarted the phone.
Activated the Airplane mode, waited, and de-activated it.
Set the values for data and MMS manually, using the carrier's recommendations.
Tried to select manually the carrier (more on that below).
Checked the sim card in a different phone -- it works.
Enabled the cellular data.
Allowed roaming.
Checked the phone with a different OS (it was working just fine before I flashed the OS).
Made sure my sim card was correctly inserted.
Called *#06# and checked that my sim had an IMEI / ESN (it does, I actually have two since this phone accepts two sims).
Tried the other sim slot.
Called *#*#4636#*#*  and checked the information about my phone:

It does have a IMEI and IMSI,
I can ran a ping test,
Radio band is set to automatic,
Selected GSM / WCDM, LTE only, and other various network types,

Re-installed Lineage.
Re-installed Lineage with GApps nano.

Possible issues?
Manually select the carrier
When I try to manually select a carrier, I'm faced with cryptic choices ("310830", "311490", "311480", …), and all of them returns an "impossible to connect to this network" error message.
Comparison
I have the same phone with the same carrier at home, but with the stock rom on it (Android 9, build BV5500Pro_E535_V1.0_20191105V6). If I check in *#*#4636#*#*, I can see that the Network Mode is set to LTE / UMTS auto (PRL). However, that choice is not available on my phone.
Baseband?
Between the stock rom  and Lineage OS, I've tried another rom (BV5500Pro_EEA_E535_V1.0_20190514V8) to test that I could flash my phone. Could that have messed with the baseband, or something else? My current baseband is E535_39_P0_LWTG_V0.1.4_S190402.

Update
So, actually, I've tried to install magisk, which I believe is the culprit.
Following the documentation, since this model does not have Ramdisk memory, I've patched the recovery.img file using their Manager application, and then flashed my recovery partition, using
 fastboot flash recovery /path/to/magisk_patched.img

After rebooting, their application was still not detecting magisk's installation, and my OS could not detect my SIM card anymore.
After flashing back the stock recovery, the sim card was back.
This seems to be a fairly common issue, judging by

https://github.com/topjohnwu/Magisk/issues/2201
https://forum.xda-developers.com/mate-9/help/sim-card-reading-failed-magisk-xposed-t3819966
https://forum.xda-developers.com/apps/magisk/problem-sim-card-detected-constant-t3860135

Original Message
Ok, so I've done the following:

Installed the official rom, BV5500Pro_E535_V1.0_20191105V6, that blackview shared directly with me: the sim card was not even recognized!
Flashed everything, installed a previous version of lineage (lineage-16.0-20191017-UNOFFICIAL-treble_a64_bvN): sim card still not recognized.
Installed another official rom (that they share here, called BV5500Pro_EEA_E535_V1.0_20190514V8): the sim card is back, and I can connect to the network!
Re-installed lineage-17.1-20201012-UNOFFICIAL-treble_a64_bvS. The sim card is still detected, and I can now connect to the service!

Needless to say, I have no clue what actually solved my issue.
My network is set to GSM / WCLMA / LTE (PRL) and I have not noticed any value or configuration that would have changed…


How to disable Battery running low message in ES File Explorer I have installed ES File Explorer and I disabled almost all of its alerts.

When my battery charge is below 15%, an alert appears:

I can't find where to disable it, and when I press View, it shows the main launcher of my Android.

Do you have any idea how I could disable it?

You can go to ES explorer app info and disable every notification from that app .

P.S : I used be a fan of ES before it became AD hungry , now i use Solid Explorer . I recommend it to you too .


I'm trying to factory reset a phone. How do I erase "downloaded SIMs"? I have Google Pixel. When trying to factory reset it, it says "downloaded SIMs may remain on the device".
What does that mean? How do I erase these data?

The "downloaded SIMs" here refers to embedded-SIMs (eSIMs).
According to the AOSP source code, looks like the error message happens when the Factory Data Reset fails to erase eSIM data.

<!-- Factory data reset erase eSIM failure text [CHAR LIMIT=none] -->
<string name="fdr_esim_failure_text">Please reboot the device and try again. If you continue factory reset, the downloaded SIMs may remain on the device.</string>

To erase eSIM data, try resetting the network settings first. For Google Pixel series,

Tip: To reset all your network settings, in your phone’s Settings app, tap System  Advanced  Reset options  Reset Wi-Fi, mobile & Bluetooth.

Otherwise, to retain eSIM data through the Factory Data Reset, it should be possible to just continue the process when prompted.


How do I get my S2 to communicate with the bluetooth keyboard again I purchased the Samsung keyboard case when I bought my 9.7 inch S2 at Best Buy. After a short while, the bluetooth connection was lost and I was unable to get it back, so back to the store. They could not get it to work either, and replaced the keyboard with a new one, which paired up and worked fine for awhile... then after a few days, it stopped working. Both devices are fully charged. I have tried rebooting several times. The keyboard shows up on the bluetooth screen, but when I select it, it briefly pops up a message saying something like "unable to communicate with S2 keyboard". I plan to take the tablet to Thailand in a couple of months and would like the keyboard to function as more than just extra weight. Maybe I got two lemons, but I don't have much faith in just trading it in again for another keyboard... and other than this issue, I love the tablet. I am a touch typer, so using the onscreen keyboard is a big leap backward.

Turn on the keyboard and go into blue tooth settings.  Hold down on the selected device and it will pair.  Mine prompted me to enter a code on the keyboard then it was paired! It just came to me all of the sudden after searching for answers so i figured I'd post what worked.


If I do factory reset, set a different primary account, will I lose all the apps I already downloaded? Assuming I purchased and downloaded a few apps, via the existing primary account from the Android Market:

If I do factory reset, then set a different primary gmail account, will I lose all the apps I already downloaded?

If not, what is really being erased when a factory reset is done?

Yes, you will "lose" those apps, since they are tied to the Google account rather than to the device. As far as I know, there is no way to transfer a purchased app from one account to another.

A factory reset basically clears the /data partition.


How can I put a link to an SD card folder on the home screen on HTC Desire Z? I have a folder on  my SD card that I regularly access to open documents of different types.

Is it possible to have a link on the home screen that opens the contents of this folder, e.g. using a File Manager application?

Currently I'm using the Adao File Manager to open the folder, but every time I have to select SD Card and Folder to get there.

The answers to How do I copy pictures onto a folder on the home screen? provide a couple methods of creating shortcuts (it requires another file manager).

As well, the Root Explorer file manager allows you to set the default path when it opens; you could set it to the path of this folder, so you wouldn't need to browse to it.


full desktop backup using adb not working with yu yureka I am using a desktop with Ubuntu 14.04 installed to do a full desktop backup of my Yu yureka phone.

I used the command

sudo adb backup --all

then it shows

Now unlock your device and confirm the backup operation.

But nothing is ever shown on the phone. The phone is running on Cyanogenmod OS 11.(I want to do a full backup before updating it to CM12)

it means, the device, haven't any PIN password.

just do this :

  Goto Settings > LockScreen > Screen Lock

and set the password for PIN and after this, try again for backup and it showing you for enter the PIN password and then, Backup process will be starting.

Edit :

after Set the PIN, use this Command :

  adb backup -all

this command will be show to you the windows like this :


Phone call: Audio works only with speakerphone or wired headset The following issue with my Sony Xperia ZR (running CM 11-20141112-SNAPSHOT) started a few days ago:

When I initiate or receive an ordinary phone call, I can't hear the other side through my earpiece and the other side can't hear me either.
When I plug in the wired headset, I can use that without problems.
When I activate the speakerphone button during the call (without the headset plugged in), I can communicate with the other side.
I also have a "click" sound effect for locking and unlocking the phone and this sound effect is now also only audible through the headset.

Here is what I tried:

First of course, I checked my profile and volume settings to make sure they are on Default and the in-call volume turned up.
I re-started my phone multiple times, sometimes with, sometimes without the headset being plugged in.
I thought that the headphone jack might be broken, i.e. that it thinks the headset is always plugged in - especially since I use the headset a lot for listening to audio while walking. But as soon as I plug in the headset, the Apollo audio player app starts, suggesting that the headphone detection works fine. Unfortunately, I haven't found a way to see if the software thinks that the headset is connected or not - is there a headset icon or similar I could enable?
So I thought it might be a software issue.

I installed the Sound Manager app which allows to adjust all volume settings and
found that it behaved a bit strange when I touched the In-Call Volume slider, causing a sound blip coming out of my earpiece. Also the volume "overlay" (or whatever you call that window that pops up when pressing the volume rocker) became visible, but sometimes only its icon, not the slider itself.
After adjusting the volumes through that app, I could make a test call without headset and without the speakerphone enabled which worked fine. Also the phone (un-)locking sounds were working again.
However a couple of hours later, when I unlocked my phone again, I didn't hear the click and doing a test call I realised that the problem had re-appeared.
So I went back to the Sound Manager and adjusted the sliders once more, this time no strange effects as in 4.2 before. And no click when locking/unlocking and no audio through the earpiece & mic during my next test call.

Short of completely re-setting my phone (which I'd like to avoid), is there another way of debugging this issue? Does CM have a way to tell the headset detection status?

Any other things I could try?

Similar issue in OnePlus One (running CM 12.1). Check TTY Mode. If its off turn it back on and restart phone. Go back to TTY mode again and turn off and restart. It worked for me on OnePlus.


How to restore the Whatsapp Messenger icon? Not the app, just the icon Since quite some time now, the Whatsapp Messenger icon is not the proper icon, but the Android green trashcan icon. The app in itself is working properly, it just looks funny on the home screen.

Reinstalling is an obvious solution, but I would loose my chat history. Wouldn't I?

CAT B15Q, Android 4.4.2 (I know, ancient).

On my phone, you can bin the faulty WhatsApp icon and then reselect it from the installed apps list with the right icon.


How can I delete a WhatsApp chat with a specific contact from my app I am not able to find the URI for it.

To delete a specific conversation, open WhatsApp, find the conversation, long press on it, and you'll see a delete icon on the top right. Press on it, and it will ask you if you also want to delete media that was sent in the conversation. Choose accordingly, and press delete


Revert to stock Android email app? I've long used the stock Android email app to remotely access my work Exchange email account.

With the latest update of the Gmail app, the Gmail app has taken over this email account, and launching the stock Android email app results in forwarding to the Gmail app.

I'd like to resume using the stock Android email app for this email account.  How can I do that?

Thanks much.

Unfortunately, the only workaround for that would be to uninstall the most recent Gmail app and consider finding the previous update to it (ex, if it was 4.1.3, search Google for 4.1.2.)


USB OTG Extension Cable and DAC I am trying to get audio through my USB DAC on various tablets with OTG functionality and I don't know why it's not working!

First off. It works just find when I use the OTG adapter straight to the tablet, however, I want to power the devices separately to reduce the power draw on the tablet so I have instead created a Y cable which externally powers my DAC. The DAC has power, however, the tablet will not send power through the DAC in this configuration.

The cable itself is working great. I have tested it using my phone and the DAQ works perfectly on it, however, on 6 different tablets now I have had NO LUCK!

Any ideas as to why the tablets are not sending the audio over USB DAC when the USB DAC is externally powered?

The Cable has the red AND black wires snipped so there is no power coming from the tablet. I am wondering if the tablets need the black wire to be connected for some reason? My phone is USB-C while the tablets are all Micro USB.

Any help or thoughts are appreciated!

Solved!

I went home and soldered a piece of wire between the two cut negative wires and now the extension cable works! I assume it has something to do with grounding out the ID wire in the micro usb. In anycase, SOLVED! Yay!

So as summary, I have an extension cable which allows my devices to get external power while still receiving signal from the tablet. The reason for this is to minimize power draw on the tablet and to extend battery life.


Play Store Keeps Loading After Switching Google Account I removed a Google account and added a new one. Now when I go to Play Store > My apps > It just keeps loading. Any ideas how to fix this?

I solved the eternal loading issue by simply installing a new app (any app).


Any protected firewall available is there any protected firewall available? I have tried many & the problem was as follow:
- it works very well but ANY user can simply uninstall it!! how didn't they put this into consideration.
- i used a program to hide it, and when I hide it it becomes disabled.

I used AFwall+ (root), Netguard..

Try making them device administrators. I know that AFwall+ can be set as device admistrator. I have not used Netguard except for testing purposes in the last year but I believe it is also possible to set it as device admistrator.


Backup app data without root and no micro USB port How can I backup an app's data (i.e. Angry Birds scores and achievements) on my Nexus 7, running Android 4.2.2? My tablet is not rooted and my micro USB port is damaged, disallowing me to connect to the computer.

Any suggestions?

Probably Koush's Helium [which used to be Carbon previously] might be of help for you.

  Helium does NOT require root.

  All Android users can use Helium to backup and sync Android
  applications.

  Helium lets you backup your apps and data to your SD card or cloud
  storage [Dropbox, Box, Google Drive].

  Android to Android app sync [With Helium, you can sync app data from
  your other Android devices -- even if they are not on the same
  network].

I am not sure if you have to connect your device to usb if you want to sync to cloud though. I have not used this feature as of yet.


Many notifications show up when connected to WiFi I have Moto G (2nd gen) with 3G connection. During my office hours I am constantly conncted to my 3G network and when I am to my home I connect to my WiFi network.

I have noticed this unusual behavior for past 2-3 weeks. When I go home and connect to my home WiFi network many notifications start showing up - like notifications from apps like MakeMyTrip/Flipkart/Yatra and more. These notifications do not show up on my 3G network. It seems these pending notifications only show up when connected to WiFi. Notifications for apps like WhatsApp/Twitter work fine of 3G network.

What would be the reason for this and where I should be looking if I want to resolve this issue?

There are chance that you may turned on "Restrict background data" option. When its turned on apps don't have access to internet unless you open them.

Go to “Settings“.
Select “Data usage“.
Tap the “Menu” Menu icon icon located at the upper-right corner.
Select “Restrict background data“
Uncheck it to turn it off


Restore power button to default behaviour I have LG G2 (D801) on Android 5.0.2 Lollipop, rooted. The power button stopped working. I am pretty sure an app messed up its behavior - I don't know which one of the many I recently un/installed trying to fix another issue. I am pretty sure it's not a hardware issue.

How could I restore its default behavior: press to optionally lock the screen and long press to bring up the power menu?

Just go full stock with a factory flash. See if the problem is present then. If it is, it is a hardware issue, and you can claim warranty. If it works, be a lot more careful with your apps next time.


Unable to flash custom recovery in Samsung j1 ace I am trying to use the TWRP custom recovery on my device but am unable to do so.

First I made sure I had the latest ADB and Samsung drivers. Downloaded the TWRP .tar file which is compatible( I think so, its not the exact model number, which is SM-J110H) with my device. Then I proceeded to run Odin, connect the phone to the PC using an usb cable, and put the phone in download mode.

Everything was working alright until I 'flashed'(Put the TWRP file in AP, clicked Start, the log showed 'All threads completed. (succeed 1 / failed 0)
').
 After that, my phone rebooted. Now, whenever I try to go to recovery mode or boot my phone, it just hangs and a red exclamation mark is shown at the top left.
I have fixed it by flashing the stock firmware but would like to know why it doesnt work.

Any help would be appreciated.

Many thanks.

My first thought is that your recovery image (.tar file) is either uncompatible or corrupted.

To prevent this :

Double-check that your recovery image is compatible with your exact
phone model. If it's not, ask the developer about it.
Check the control sum (md5sum, sha256sum, etc.) of your file once downloaded. If it's different from the sum on the website, download
it again (from another miror if possible).

You may also use Heimdall instead of Odin to flash your recovery image : https://www.glassechidna.com.au/heimdall/


How can I change backlight intensity with root on lcd phone? I want to have the backlight on my phone dynamically change intensity, even turning completely off during completely black screens and such. How possible is this? It's a nexus 5 running cataclysm 5.0.1 with elementalx kernel.

You could consider capturing an image of the screen, then processing that bitmap for the brightness of each pixel.

The Android Screenshot Library (ASL) should give you information on how to do a screen capture. This link on StackOverflow talks about how to do it as well, but the main link seems to be to the ASL.

To calculate the luminosity of the pixels, you could do it in either of the RGB or HSV color spaces. I think I'd do it in HSV, since the Value (the V in HSV) is the brightness of the pixel's color. You could also do it with the three color parameters in the RGB color space, but then you're working with ratios and you're having to perform more calculations yourself. With HSV you would (I think) simply add up all the Values and divide by the number of pixels. (Possibly you'd throw in a scalar if a linear change in brightness doesn't look quite right. Eg: Have a slower backlight change when you have bright graphics, but move more quickly towards no backlight when you have graphics approaching black.)

With that working, you might want to consider doing the work using Android's RenderScript. Processing graphics is what RenderScript was designed for, and it takes care of parallelism for you. You might as well use all the CPU / CPU / DSP cores you have available.

Finally, you might want to follow this up by getting tricky and using the device's light sensor information. After all, if you're going to dynamically change the backlight based on what is on the screen, you might as well also consider the ambient brightness around the device. :-)

I hope that helps!

Edit: I hope you were looking for a programming answer. I hadn't really thought about the fact that this question was posted to Android Enthusiasts instead of to Stack Overflow. :-)


Android One Stuck in "Checking Connection" after Factory Reset I did factory reset to my Micromax Android One (Canvas A1). Before resetting it was running Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 with July 2016 security updates. Now when I reboot the device, after language and SIM options, it asks me to select a WiFi. But it is stuck in "checking connection... this can take a while", even when the same WiFi is working with other devices. The Select WiFi and Checking connection pages can't be skipped as the Skip button is grayed out.

My device is not rooted and I don't want to root is as long as possible, so this answer doesn't help me.

I have tried various options suggested in forums and nothing is working for me. I have tried with and without SIM cards and Micro SD card as well. So far I have tried:

Running in recovery mode and  "wipe cache partition"
Resting the device again in Recovery mode
Used different WiFi, even tried using WiFi host-spot from other devices

How to fix this without rooting? Is there any way to skip this step?

This happened to one of my friend some time ago. But his device and android version were different
Why you're trying to connect to any connection? Just remove the sim card and skip the "Connect to a Network" step. It will give you a prompt, select the `SKIP ANYWAY` option and you're good to go !. Later you can insert your sim card and connect to your favourite WiFi network and sign in to your accounts and whatever!. Just skip everything until you get to the homescreen.

 This is the easiest method. Good Luck! Tell me what result you get.


Where is "create event" on Gmail app? How can I create a calendar event on Gmail android app?

(On the browser this feature is really simple:)

The Gmail app simply doesn't have that feature. It would be an excellent addition.


Sync apps from specific device? My new phone got synced to my table instead of my old phone.  It didn't list my old phone as an option to sync from.

Is there a way to sync my installed apps and data from my old phone?
Getting the screen layouts synced would be nice too.

All the articles I can find are just "sync to Google", but not to sync to a particular device.

If it matters, the old phone still (mostly) works.

Check to make sure that you have Google backing up your data on the phone you want to sync from. On your old phone, navigate to Settings > Backup & reset > (Google Backup) and ensure that Back up my data is On. Also ensure that your Backup account is the account which you're logging into on your new phone.

After your old phone syncs (which may take some time, but it will let you know when), you should be able to see your phone on your new device as you are setting it up. You may need to factory reset your new phone in order to see the list of Google backup devices.


need help Nexus 9 stuck in endless reboot loop need help here. I to tried rooting my Nexus 9 and have ended up getting it into an endless loop of it trying to optimize apps.

I did see Firelord's post to do this...

Using Firelords' and Jan's suggestion is was able to unbrick my device and get it working again.

Downloaded the Lollipop 5.1.1 image for Nexus 9 on this site: https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images
Unpacked all the files into the folder where I had fastboot.exe.
Started my tablet by holding down the power button and the volue up botton to get into some kind of recovery mode.

Being new, what I don't understand is how do I get that file into the Nexus 9 if I can't get it to stop the boot cycle. I am pretty good following directions if there is some step by step way to get out of this mess.

Thanks for any help!

Bear in mind the following will wipe your device data:

To flash the firmware to your device:
While boot-looping, hold the power button until the screen goes blank. As soon as it does, hold the volume down button and your device will reboot into fastboot mode. From here, follow the instructions on the Nexus Factory Images to flash the firmware by flashing the bootloader and then the rest of the system using fastoiot on a connected PC. After this, you can run fastboot reboot if you're device doesn't automatically boot into Android.


How to disable MMS using APNs Is it sufficient to simply clear (leave as blank) the MMSC, MMS proxy, and MMS protocol in an APN to disable MMS messaging completely?

As mentioned here these are the three fields related to sending/receiving MMS.

I believe there is a setting in the stock messaging app to disable receiving MMS but my issue is sending.

(Stock Android Noughat 7.0)

To disable MMS

  Under your phones network settings you will see a section called
  “access point names” or “apn’s”. You will see either one or two apn’s
  listed. If you have two, the second one will be the MMS control. If
  you only have one the MMS control will be down the bottom of the apn
  settings. Just highlight the apn and choose “edit”.

  Look for:

  MMSC - http://mmsc.mms.o2.co.uk:8002

  MMS Proxy - 82.132.254.1

  MMS Port – 8080

  and insert a * or # at the beginning of each line.

If you're not on O2 then the details will be different in these three fields - or lines as phrased above, but this won't make any difference.


Galaxy S2 synced but no emails show I have created an exchange account on a Galaxy S2.  Upon creation of the account no errors were thrown or encountered.  Yet when the user open email for this account "refreshing" keeps popping up and going away at the bottom.  No emails ever show up for any folders, but all folders in the exchange account do appear.  When the user sends an email via the GS2 two identical emails are sent.  The exchange server that the account is on has a ssl certificate from a CA installed and working. Other android/apple phones are working fine.  Several different exchange user accounts have been tested on the GS2 even one created just for testing(one email was sent to this account for testing).  I'm perplexed and need a push in the right direction on what to look for to resolve this issue.  Using a different email app shouldn't be necessary and is not an acceptable answer.  The GS2 is Android's flagship phone and it's email client should be sufficient.  I appreciate any help on the matter.

Thanks,
Jonathan

Exchange server/ domain administrator needs to make a change to your Active directory account by opening ADUC, selecting View, Advanced Features, double clicking your account's property, and going to Security.

From there select Exchange Servers and click on the advanced button.  check the Include inheritable permissions from this object's parent and click ok a couple of times.  After that, the phone should start syncing.


Particular WiFi does not connect after trying to root Samsung Galaxy S10e with Magisk I followed this tutorial: https://topjohnwu.github.io/Magisk/samsung

All went well until step 14 (so, right after flashing the ROM and rebooting).

At step 14, Magisk tried updating, but could not. I realized the problem was that Android can not connect to my company's WiFi. I mean, I can see the WiFi networks, but I can not login to my company's WiFi.

Notes:

The WiFi hotspot itself is OK, my desktop computer is using it right now to post this question.
Android was able to connect to that WiFi and use its Internet, up to step 5 at least.
Strangely, I can connect to another WiFi network (my friend's mobile tethering)
This thread suggests it might be caused by modules, and suggest removing the modules then rebooting, but I installed no modules.

How to fix the problem?

adb logcat

05-21 22:20:33.559  5207  5207 D WifiHAL : Start get packet fate command
05-21 22:20:33.559  5207  5207 D WifiHAL : createRequest Get Tx packet fate request
05-21 22:20:33.559  5207  5207 D WifiHAL : error code -95 mapped to -3
05-21 22:20:33.559  5207  5207 E WifiHAL : Failed to register get pkt fate response; result = -3
05-21 22:20:33.559  5608  5873 E WifiVendorHal: getTxPktFates(l.2241) failed {.code = ERROR_NOT_SUPPORTED, .description = }
05-21 22:20:33.560  5207  5207 D WifiHAL : Start get packet fate command
05-21 22:20:33.560  5207  5207 D WifiHAL : createRequest Get Rx packet fate request
05-21 22:20:33.560  5207  5207 D WifiHAL : error code -95 mapped to -3
05-21 22:20:33.560  5207  5207 E WifiHAL : Failed to register get pkt fate response; result = -3
05-21 22:20:33.560  5608  5873 E WifiVendorHal: getRxPktFates(l.2283) failed {.code = ERROR_NOT_SUPPORTED, .description = }

I also get:

WifiVendorHal: getRingBufferStatus(l.2059) failed {.code = ERROR_NOT_SUPPORTED,

Go to the WiFi networks activity.
Long-press the problematic WiFi network
Choose "Forget network"
Turn WiFi off and on, just to make sure
Tap the WiFi
You will be asked for the WiFi password again, enter it
Now you should be able to connect, at least that is what worked for me


How can I monitor my phone usage between two top up I have a prepaid mobile subscription and I want to know how much I phoned between two payments. There are plenty of applications that can track my phone usage in general, but I am missing the feature to specify which days I paid my bills. Is there any such thing?

I couldn't find such a feature shipping with Android itself -- but: Yes, there is. Or rather: there are. Plenty. It would become a long list. Watch out on the Playstore for DroidStats or Call Meter 3G -- both apps allow you to specify the "payment day" (DroidStats is probably easier to use, while Call Meter can cover more complex scenarios).

There are also others like e.g. PhoneUsage, and more (you can follow the related apps for more suggestions).


Uploading files from desktop to remote FTP, using ES File Explorer to initiate and the related traffic? At home have an older Windows desktop with a TB of hard drive and I constantly send files to it over my home network from my Note 4 and have amassed quite the collection. This morning, I started to upload a lot of it to a remote FTP server using ES File Explorer on my Note 4. I can click on my Windows desktop then select a group of files, copy and paste them to the FTP server and I get a progress bar of the transfer from "smb://desktop/users/"  to "ftp://ftp.myserver.net/" and my question is if the data literally moves like that? The Windows machine is connected to the cable modem on an Ethernet wire and my Note 4 is on the crowded wireless network.

It should copy directly from source to cloud ...

unless you have a temp file scheme, Like it copy's from the drive to a temp directory and then from the temp to cloud


Turn a Android Phone with broken screen into dedicated Web server I have a Nexus 4 with a broken LCD/Digitizer, I have no control via touch at all. The other parts of the phone are functional.
Now, what I want to do and hope is possible is to clear the phone and install some Linux distro via Usb. The trick is, I need to be able to control the installation via wifi or USB directly after the upload of the Linux package. After this I want to run it as a dedicated Web server of some sort. I welcome any type of solutions. All I want in the end is to use my phone as a dedicated Web Server which I can control remotely.

Thanks.

Welcome to the Android Enthusiasts, Majk! We support end-users with Android-specific issues, but cannot help you setting up a Linux server on a device, though it was running Android before. Still, some helpful hints:

There are means to control your device even with a broken screen. We've got several issues reported where people wanted to do exactly that. Please check e.g.:

My screen got broken, how to see on the computer what I'm doing in my device?
Control Android with broken screen from PC
Use android phone with broken screen as WiFi camera
Broken Screen + Using adb shell to run vnc server

There are several web server apps available for Android as well. Even some supporting/including things like PHP and MySQL. Some examples:

AndroPHP
Ulti Server: PHP, MySQL, PMA
KSWEB: server + PHP + MySQL
NAMP nginx android web server

I guess that should get you started if you want to solve your issue using Android. And as I initially wrote: Doing that with any other OS, even on an "Android device", is beyond the scope of this site. But I would wonder if you will really need that, after these details – right? :)


Can the Nexus 7 send and receive GSM texts and calls? The Nexus 7 3G is out and I'm wondering whether Android 4.2 tablets are still data-only devices.  Can I install a custom ROM or apk to this tablet so that I can send and receive GSM calls and text messages on it?  If not, why not?  What's missing?

Added: Nexus 7 3G has many hardware features of phones, but not all: It has gps, bluetooth, headphone jack, accelerometer, gyroscope, ambient light sensor, compass and nfc, but does not have a receiver (earpiece), haptic feedback (vibrate) or a rear camera. IF the 8"x5" tablet can be used as a phone, you won't look funny putting it against your ear because it has no earpiece.

Added: The question is about GSM calls and texting, not VOIP or SIP calls or tethering.

Yes and no. The hardware is capable of sending/receiving GSM calls and texts but there's no way to do with via the stock software. I doubt any after market app would do the trick either, as it appears that tweaks need to be made at the OS level.

There are a couple of devs working on this on XDA. There's no eta, but they should get it done in time. We can only wait.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2025377


Size required for install much larger than app Using Marshmallow.
I usually have memory close to full.
It often happens to me that, while trying to install an app of a given size, I am request to free space for 6-10 times the size of the app, which seems very strange to me.

What are possible causes and solutions (if there is any other than doing what is asked for) for this?

Example: trying to install Join (for bike rides). App size is ca. 39MB. I was requested to free 290MB. After freeing some space I still have to free 190MB.

EDIT:
I have found possible similar questions, but with a little less detail on the sizes involved, older Android versions, or other perhaps minor differences, so I wouldn't be sure if the questions are really rooted on the same causes (thus I wouldn't call this one a dupe).
As for the respective answers, I would have to check if they apply; some of them are poorly documented or seem to be more conjectures than knowledge.
For completeness, I am listing here such questions.

"Insufficient storage" when trying to install new app

Something is secretly eating up my Acer Iconia A500 internal memory and I need help finding it

Google Play: Error downloading app - insufficient space

Cannot install some apps in Android 4.1.2

What space am I running out of when trying to install an app?

Google Play asking 100 TIMES the real size of the app

Related: How to compute all space taken up by an app and its associated files

Some app might use features that will be downloaded later on for example, google vision api require some space for it to able to be downloaded even if you are not installing it, but the app may need it. Apps also will caches files so this will also need somwle space. But from my development experience, the app may contains some features that require that amount of space. Even if the size of the app may be much less than the requirement size.


List all activities of an app I have an Android phone which is not rooted.

Is there any way I can obtain/export a list of all installed packages with their available activities?

ADWLauncher has an activity picker in its custom shortcut feature.
It lists things like:

Calculator
  Calculator(.Calculator)
Camera
  Camera(.Camera)
  Camcorder(.VideoCamera)
  Camera(.Camera_dual)
  Camera(.VideoCamera_dual) ...

I have apps which generate a list of installed packages, but how can I get something like this showing all the activities?

You can have a look at all Activities of an app by using QuickShortcutMaker app. It's quite a funny app which can make a shortcut to specified activity of any program, so you can even launch those hidden ones.


Why isn't all my storage listed in settings? As seen in the above images, internal storage uses way more then by adding Apps and Cached data to each other. This could be the Android OS, but I think it isn't bequase on the first picture it is deprecated from the other entries. What could be possibly using the unlisted usage and can I reclaim that space (by moving it to my adapted SD)?

If you have large apps, then the total size of the app is not displayed: The extra files which the app needs in order to run itself, do not show up in the description of storage. That means the total size of your apps might be greater than 1.40 GB. This might be one of the possible reasons.


Why does my LG G3 with Cyanogenmod 12.1 run so slowly? I own a LG-D855 which I bought refurbished running the bundled modified version of Android that LG provide.

After a few weeks I installed Cyanogenmod 12.1 and since then I've been updating weekly.

When I turn the phone on for the first time it runs very quickly. However after using the phone with a handful of apps for 15 or 30 minutes the whole phone slows down to a crawl.

I've installed an app which stops as many background processes as it can. After running this the phone speeds up again, but soon returns to it's previous state.

I bought an LG G3 as it rated very highly on lists of the best Android phones to buy.

Why am I having these problems? Are these common issues with the LG G3? What can I do to allow my phone to run more quickly?

First of all, G2 should be D80X, the 85X is the G3 line.

I am an owner of G2 on CM12.1, and I never had any problems regarding speed. It was always fluent without any hiccups.

You can try to hibernate apps using Greenify.
You can rollback to a previous ROM version/nightly because the current may have bugs
Apps that slow down the phone usually also drain the battery more, look for the apps that use the most battery life and uninstall them
You can swipe apps from the recents when you are done using them
Use some tools to help you out like Xposed, CPU Spy and similar to find and eliminate the problem

In the end, there could be also the case that your CPU is maybe downclocked, or some other hardware issue. Anyways, the G2 on CM12.1 should give you excellent overall experiance.


Full low-level backup and restore I've got some embedded system running Android. Before I start compiling anything for it I'd like to do full backup and then have possibility to restore it. The only way of backup everything I know is to use:

dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 of=/dev/block/mmcblk1

but how to restore it when something went wrong and system is not running?
Is it possible to burn back this image to Android system - for example using fastboot?
I've got development board with Qualcomm MSM8909.

Yes, it's possible. You can restore all partitions grabbed by dd like this:

fastboot -w flashall

Or write separate partitions by

fastboot flash boot

fastboot flash recovery

fastboot flash userdata

Prior to that your should put your partitions to the same directory where you run fastboot. Separate partitions can be obtained by simple unpack of the image got from your dd command.


Cloud Services for Android Phones I own an RugGear 702 Android phone. All of my apps get downloaded to my phone storage and not the SD card,  even when I select the SD card option form the phone settings. Is it possible to somehow treat apps like cloud services, where all the tasks of applications (or apps) downloading, executing apps, messaging (and other communication services) can be executed from the cloud?

You could install the Android emulator on a server and remote into it.  I also seem to recall the ability to test apps from the Amazon Appstore on their website but I can't find that at the moment.

Android apps aren't built on X-Windowing or anything like that, though, so there's no efficient way to locally display a remote app.  VNC/RDP/etc. is going to be pretty data-intensive, probably slow, and difficult to navigate and control input.


How to make run only a single application with all other application stopped? I basically want how to stop all other applicationa when my specific apllication is running. It's like in a BITSAT exam, when we log on for the quiz we cannot access internet and we can't access any drives of the computer.  So I bascially want that interface to work on my Android, is there any way to do that?

This is called Kiosk Mode which is hot these days. Try SureLock Kiosk Lockdown app. You can try searching "Kiosk" in Play Store, too.


Saving a bookmark in Firefox? This question might sound dumb, but I really don't understand how can I save a bookmark in Firefox for Android!!

I see no bottom menu option for that. If I click on the address bar I still have no option to save a URL as a bookmark!

Who can help me? Please!

On Android < 3.0 or on Firefox v8 or earlier I think you still have to use the clunky, not-so-intuitive method. You swipe the screen to the left and it will reveal a sidebar on the right side of the screen which has the bookmark star. Press that and it bookmarks the page. How they expected to you to find this on your own I will never know.

On Honeycomb devices with Firefox 9+ (currently beta) you just need to press the little star icon on the far right side of the address bar. It pretty much works just like the desktop version.

Annotated screenshot for the right sidebar:


How to use an Android phone or tablet to make a projector presentation? I have planned for some time to use a smartphone or tablet to give scientific presentations via projector, instead of using a laptop. I'm now thinking about buying a new Android smartphone, if I can be sure that in the end I'll be able to realize this goal with it. So my main question is: What do I have to look out for in order to get a device with which I can give projector presentations?

I apologize that this question is not exactly about a concrete problem I'm faced with right now – I just don't want to purchase a costly device only to find out later that I can't do with it what I want. I therefore did some thinking and research about the possible problems, and ask you for advice on how to avoid a concrete problem to occur in the first place.

Here are some issues that occurred to me:

In my experience most projector installations in lecture halls still only provide access to a VGA connector. I know that VGA as an analog signal requires D-A conversion from a digital signal, but I'm confused about how much effort this takes: Some converters have the shape of a box which needs an extra power supply, others are very small and don't need extra power. What is the difference between these different types of devices, and which kind do I need? Please note that the links are only meant as examples, I'm not asking specifically about these products.
Again in my experience, most installed projectors do not yet support Full HD, but still need signals at resolutions like 800x600 or 1024x768. At least some HDMI-to-VGA converters appear to support downscaling from Full HD to VGA resolutions. Since I probably can't control this from the smartphone/tablet: How does it work? Can I trust that the optimal resolution is automatically negotiated between the adapter and the projector? Can I expect a decent-looking result from the downscaling, or will it be all washed out? Practically speaking: Is there a specifically named feature of such converters that I should look out for when choosing one? Again, the link is only for reference.
Android apps normally have screen output optimized for the fixed, physically small screen built into the device and not the flexibility that is provided by changing the screen resolution or resizing a window on a Desktop OS. Is it a realistic goal to achieve a good presentation experience from a mobile device similar to the one from a laptop? E.g. it appears not to be possible to get Adobe Reader for Android into a proper one-page-fullscreen mode. Is there presentation software that does this better? I'm mainly thinking of presentations in pdf format.

And maybe there are caveats I'm not even thinking of?

Update 2017

Much has changed since the writing of this answer. The old answer (see edit history) is no longer the best answer to this question.

I'd recommend getting a Chromecast and using it with a VGA adapter. This gives you the benefit of giving the presentation wirelessly, instead of leaving your phone tethered to a cable.

Most modern Android phones have this capability, but double check before you purchase if this is something important for you.

Make sure that the phone that you get has a micro-HDMI port, in addition to the traditional USB port. This will allow you to transfer video more easily.

As you noticed, there are two types of converters- the tiny ones, and the large bulky ones with a power supply. The difference is, as stated on the link you sent, that:

  Unlike passive adapters Ligawo converter has a power supply, thereby allowing a built-in signal amplification and processing of the image. Provides the signal source sufficient current through HDMI This converter can also be used without power supply.

So yes, the larger ones with power supplies would probably be better in terms of signal quality, and could still be used without being plugged in. However, due to their bulk, the better signal processing (I'm not an expert on signal processing, so I don't know how large of a difference it would make- I've used the small kind, although with a laptop, and it worked perfectly fine) might not be worth it- it's up to you to decide which type is right for you.

As of how the resolution is scaled, it should work automatically for all, if not most, converters. Just double check if it says something like "Input resolution HDMI up to 1080p possible 480p - Output Resolution VGA" (from the link you sent). It shouldn't be a problem to downscale to a specific amount that you want- in the Settings -> HDMI -> HDMI Format, you should be able to change the output resolution. For more info, look here- it is two years old, but the features should still be the same with new phones running JB/KitKat.

As of the software to run, there are many free and premium solutions available in the Google Play store that will work well. If you prefer presenting with PDFs, PDF Reader or Office Suite 7 should work. However, PDFs are a somewhat unconventional presentation format (although they can work), so you should consider using actual presentation software for a better experience. Google Drive for Mobile would work well, since you could edit your presentation on a computer (or your phone) and then present it on your phone, plus it is free. You could also use Presentation Pal, or Office 2012: Presentations, or some other presentation software- there are lots out there, and there's bound to be one that works good for you. All presentation software in the play store should work well for your purpose.

I hope this helps!


Log off from GMail on Android 2.3 I have a Samsung Ace, with Android 2.3.6. I logged in with GMail and now I cant log off. I searched a lot of forums etc., but no answer.

I need your help, because it consumes a lot of battery juice and internet traffic.

Can you disable gmail sync in Settings > Accounts > [Your gmail account]?

I don't have a Gingerbread device to hand to test this out but it's available in ICS +


How can multitasking experience be improved on Android tablets? I have a 10 inch Nexus tablet that I like to carry around while traveling. I can also connect it to a bluetooth keyboard, and this almost allows me to do everything a laptop can, but there are some major annoyances.

For example, I want to do web development while traveling. I can SSH into a remote server and edit the code there, and open the page on the Chrome app. However, Android only lets me have one app open at a time, so whenever I need to switch between two documents, it's very inefficient since I'm constantly closing and re-opening my apps.

I would like to use my Nexus 10 as my primary computer for working. How can my multitasking experience be improved?

Android 7.x Nougat officially introduces multi-window. With this feature you can now run 2 apps side-by-side and drag the black interpolation bar to adjust the window size (3 tiers available).

With the aid of Taskbar things get even better - with proper settings you get Windows-like task bar and resizable, movable multi-windows.

Ultimately though, without the ability to natively open multiple instances of one app, document abilities will be crippled to an extent. Wired video output is also absent, making presentation difficult, though if you have Miracast-compatible devices this isn't much of a problem.

Get started loading your Nexus 10 with Nougat-based custom ROMs by visiting XDA-Developers.

Do note that, due to the age of the tablet, Nougat won't run very snappily and you can't expect to multitask heavily.


Remotely uninstall an app via Play Store Is it still possible to remotely uninstall an android application from a web browser via the Google Play Store?

According to the question that this is a supposed duplicate of, this was possible in 2012, but it seems to no longer be there.

Apparantly not. The Google Play Help documentation states that you have to uninstall the apps from your device. Either via the Play Store app, or via settings.


Internet - How to stop Popup windows appearing in a small overlay On my HTC Desire phone I use a chess website. One of the links on that website opens a popup window displaying a chess board and other items. On my PC it opens in a new tab of my browser, that is fine.

However, when accessed on my HTC Desire handset instead of opening in a new window accessible from the Menu --> Windows section it opens in a framed overlay on top of the current screen.

I’d prefer it to open in a full-blown Window if possible as I’m losing a little bit of screen real-estate with this overlay. Is there any way to disable this feature?

Rob

Those "Analyze Board" links are coded to open a popup window using JavaScript. Your desktop browser (using an extension) is overriding this default behaviour it would seem, in order to open in a new tab instead.

Those links are not programmed in a particularly accessible way unfortunately - if you don't have JavaScript enabled you get nothing. Under Google Chrome on the desktop for instance I cannot avoid opening a popup window, it simply doesn't work if I choose to open the link in a new tab (I get a blank page).

Having said that, using the default browser on Android 4.0, does open a new tab when those links are clicked - I don't get a floating popup window.

I would have said that the problem is a combination of the website (not being accessible) and of the default browser on your mobile that is unfortunately unable to deal with this situation. Can popup windows be controlled in the browser settings? In some cases you could disable JavaScript on the mobile to get around this, but on this website if you did that you would get nothing!

EDIT: You mention that you don't have much room on your device to install an additional (full blown) browser. Have you considered perhaps Opera Mini (858KB) or Dolphin Mini (1,014KB) - these have a reduced storage footprint.


Guest account on LineageOS 14.1 I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 (i9100) smartphone with LineageOS 14.1 (2017-02-22 nightly) which is based on Android 7.1.1 (Nougat).

I'd like to enable the guest account feature, but I can't find anything in  Settings. How can I do that?

Please notice my device is encrypted. Are guest accounts compatible with encryption?

See also this thread on Reddit.

Slide down status bar to quick access screen and you will see a blue icon in the top right side. press on it and click add guest.


Stop Chrome from opening Google Maps app My Google Maps app has got broken. I think I can use the web version of Google Maps. However, Chrome is redirecting me out from the browser to the app.
How to stop Google Chrome from redirecting me to the Google Maps app?

A few options - open the Maps app info and disable it is the easiest. I also just noticed that with the Xposed module XPrivacyLua if I block Chrome from being able to get applications no links are ever opened in another app.


Locked by Android manager I've used android manager to make my phone ring and Locked it by setting a password wish I never had. But unfortunately when I found the phone I was not able to deactivate the password because all option are dammed and the only one showing is password.
I need to change it again to none.

any ideas ?

if this phone is yours do the following :

login to you device manager on google website here
click on lock and set a new password this will over-write the old password
on your phone enter your new pass word

If this phone is not yours contact the phone owner and ask him to do the last steps


How to format an SD card directly inside Android? How can I format an SD card directly inside Android?

These steps were using an HTC EVO with HTC Sense - your menu options may be different but should be similar.

There should be a "Format SD Card" in the phone "Settings".  Open "Settings", then go to "SD & Phone Storage", then you should see "Format SD Card".  If the option is grayed out then you may need to unmount your sd card first and then format the card.  Make sure you have backed up anything you want to save with a backup app or just by copying whatever files off your card onto a computer because this will erase everything on the card.

Hope this helps