Can't setup phone because Google play store has stopped working After doing a factory reset of my phone, I'm trying to set it up and going through the initial steps. After logging into my google account, the next page shows options for restoring the phone using a previous backup. Before I can choose any option, a message appears saying, "Unfortunately Google Play Store has stopped". I have no option but to press ok, this then returns me to the previous screen. I can't get passed this step. There are solutions to the google play store issue but they involve changing settings on a setup phone. Can anyone help?

Solved! (sort of). I was trying the setup on WiFi. When I tried outside my house on data, it then followed different steps and Im now in my reset phone, so I should be able to follow the normal process from here.


Shutdown a device without power button My Samsung tablet just fell down and now the power button doesn't work. Is there any other way to shut it down?

If you have got root acces then install an app from the play store that can shut down your phone. Like this one: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=GRuV.PowerOff.PowerOff

Hope it helps!


"Please sign in using one of the owner's previous accounts for this device." After resetting my Huawei Honor 8 I'm asked to log into a previously added google account.

I clicked on "I forgot my email" and added my phone number. After this google showed me all the email accounts attached to this phone.

I then tried to log into the account with all of those accounts but I always get the same message: "Please sign in using one of the owner's previous accounts for this device."

This phone has always been mine so the account can't be someone elses.

If for sure you have forgotten your primary mail, for as far as I know, there's no guaranteed way of knowing the mail, you should rather prefer bypassing the lock instead of trying to get to remember the mail, here:

At the very beginning from the Welcome panel choose appropriate language.

Afterwards connect your device to one of the available wifi networks.From the Verifying your account panel active the keyboard to input the email.

In the next step press and hold the icon from the left-down corner of keyboard.

 As soon as Huawei Swype menu appears on the screen choose the Help.

After that tap Version and the select Swype.

From the text in front of you click the first link and choose Browser.

You can now use the Internet browser. Type in the following phrase in the searcher: download.hardreset.info

Next choose Huawei folder and download Huawei Bypass Google file.

 Open the menu of the browser by tapping the Middle key.

Then select Download options.

In the next step open the Bypass application.

When the Install blocked screen appears on the screen choose Unblock.

Afterwards tap Install and accept necessary conditions.

Tap Open icon and Cancel for the Delete installation package.

Excellent! You are right now in the Main screen of your phone.From the main menu choose Settings .

In the next step tap Backup & Reset and select Factory data reset.

Then choose Reset phone, and confirm the whole operation tapping Reset phone again.

Good job! Wait to accomplish the process! This operation removes your Factory Restet Protection.

If incase you switched to another input method. Hard reset the phone again as below:

First of all, hold down the Power key in order to turn off the device.

Next, press and hold the Volume Up + Power button at the same time for a few seconds.

Let go of held keys as soon as the Huawei logo appears on the screen.Then select by using Volume buttons option "wipe data/factory reset", and confirm that with Power button.

Once more choose "wipe data/factory reset"  from the menu, and accept it with Power key.

When the Recovery Menu pops up accept option "reboot system now" by using Power button.

Congratulations! You have just performed the hard reset operation

Boot it up and try again the previous procedure to bypass the verification


How to diagnose battery drain on Android device using logcat? I have been facing a severe battery drain issue on my official Cyanogenmod custom ROM. After discussing it on community forums, it was suggested that I use logcat for troubleshooting the problem.

Problem:
Every time I disconnect my device after a complete charge, it drains battery  rapidly. It loses almost 50% in 15-20 mins. As mentioned above, I am planning to use logcat to try and capture the issue. I am planning to run adb logcat immediately after unplugging the phone from power.  However, I have used logcat in the past and found it very very difficult to extract specific data from the large output. I already went through the official logcat help page and Reading and Writing Logs to see if I could find something useful, but I could not find a solution for my problem.

Question:

Is there anyway to use filters or some other feature where I can limit the logcat output to the stats which are only related to battery usage?
Can something like adb shell dumpsys batterystats > batterystats.txt be of better use to me? If so, how do I use it to get what I want?

UPDATE:
BatteryStats for my drain can now be found here at Patebin. Also this is my Battery Historian Chart:

Are you sure, it's not any app that is draining your battery? You can find this out by booting you phone into Safe mode. Read How to boot your phone into safe mode for instructions. If your battery doesn't drain in Safe mode, try uninstalling the apps that you installed after you started seeing this weird behavior. If you are not able to figure out which app it is, try factory resetting it. Also, if the battery is draining so quickly it might very well be a faulty battery.


Can I use Gmail while offline? Is it possible to download the new emails from the Gmail account while online, and then read them while offline? Is it possible to write emails while offline that will be sent when online?

Yes.  And not just for the inbox, but inbox and sent may be the only folders synchronized by default.

From within the android gmail client:
Press menu
select more
select settings
scroll down and select labels
change the number of days from which you want messages kept on the phone
change individual labels (effectively folders) to none, this number of days, or all

NOTE: this answer was written about a now obsolete version of the gmail app, which continues to change in its user interface over time.  The answer will not be updated to track that evolution, as there are multiple versions in use at any time which behave differently, and it is ultimately the idea rather than the specific steps which are important.


Cannot change weather permissions on HTC One M9 I've managed to disable to location permissions to my weather app that shows on the lock screen (I do not remember what I did to create this problem).  I am using the "default" weather app.

When I go to the weather app, in settings, and chose permissions I am not allowed to change permissions. I get the following error.

"To change this permission, you first have to turn off screen overlay from Settings -> Apps".

Weather does not appear in the screen overlay settings.

I have turned off Screen overlay for everything. And I still am not able to change the permission.

Any ideas what to try next?

I'm posting this in response to the comments above.

HTC delivered an android update to my phone and now I am able to change permissions on the weather app. I was able to remove the permission to my contacts and add back permission to location. The version of the Android OS now installed is 6.0 Marshmellow.

I do not recall which version I had prior to the update.  I do believe the update fixed the problem however.

If there is other information you would like about the software versions on my phone please ask.  I can post as comments here.


Data is being used with Mobile Data off I recently bought a new Galaxy S5 (SM-G900T), updated it to Marshmallow, and have service through Pure TalkUSA on a barebones plan that only comes with 50MB of data. Because of that, I only ever turn it on when I have a MMS that I need to download; I use wifi for everything else.

A few days into using this phone, I noticed something strange happening when I wasn't connected to a wifi network. Even after unchecking the "Mobile Data" box in "Mobile Networks", the Gmail app can still check for new mail, use the internet browser, receive WhatsApp messages/pictures, etc.

The only way I receive a "Not connected" messages in any of these apps is if I turn on airplane mode, which of course means I can't receive any phone calls or text messages.

The only similar post I've found here mentioned data might being used when a call switches from 4G to 3G, however it is supposedly minimal. My full 50MB is used up usually by the second day in my billing cycle, whether I use it or not.

I called my carrier's "tech support" line but they just told me to make sure "Mobile Data" is turned off. When I told them it was, they said it is an issue with a phone and couldn't help me any further.

Anyone know why this is happening? I can't imagine I would be able to do any of these things if I wasn't using data, but I don't know why the phone seems to be ignoring the setting. If it helps, here is the summary of my data usage for this billing cycle (all of the data was used by the second day):

Any help would be extremely appreciated.

EDIT

My current APN Settings are (all others were left blank):

APN:          att.mvno
Proxy:        proxy.mvno.telrite.com
Port:         80
MMSC:         http://mmsc.cingular.com
MM proxy:     proxy.mvno.telrite.com
MM port:      80
MCC:          310
MNC:          410
APN protocol: IPv4
APN roaming
protocol:     IPv4

Check your GPS on the device. Whether it is turned on or off. Sometimes GPS uses a combination of WiFi and Mobile network to determine your exact location. Disable your GPS in order to solve the problem.


Locale powersave plugin & Power Control widget I use Locale app with powersave plugin. 3G is usually switched off except  during scheduled syncing to save power.

There are occassional situations when I would like to use 3G and I would like switch it on by hand. I would like to use Power Control widget.
I have two problem with it.

I can't reenable 3G that powersave plugin disabled previously
I cannot override the behaviour of the Locale. In the Default profile 3G shouldn't be allowed so it would disable it all the time when it's enabled.

For now I can't found any Power Conrol plugin for Locale.

Do you have any idea how to solve this problem or do you have any workaround?

Thanks,

Hubi

I am the developer of Locale.

To get started, please read this article on our website about toggling 3G which should answer your questions: http://feedback.twofortyfouram.com/forums/5655-locale-feedback/suggestions/67867-3g-support-for-network-setting?ref=title

From that article, I think you'll find that using APNDroid will be the best solution: it is free, has a Locale plug-in, and it contains a widget that can be used to manually toggle Internet access on the phone.


How does emulated storage actually work? I recently bought a Xiaomi Note 4G. An amazing piece of technology. I transferred the apps I had on my previous device to it.

The reason I bought it was partially to have a good gaming experience. But what I witnessed is after you have filled your internal memry with apps and games you cannot free up space: there is no option to move apps to SD, a big disappointment. Even third party apps with root permission don't seem to work, but they hinted that my device uses emulated storage and that it treats both the storage spaces as one.

My question is, then: why can't I install apps anymore if I have 23 GBs of free space? Is there any workaround to this problem I am not able to see? I will be grateful if someone could help out here. Thanks!

This does not depend on stock Android, it depends on Xiaomi. Your system is only installed in a partition (system), it does not alterate the whole partition table on your device.

I had the same problem with my MI2S. Only recently I repartitioned the whole phone, giving 10 gigs to the apps' section. It seems like it's the only way. Here are the detailed instructions.

http://xiaomi.eu/community/threads/mi2s-extending-size-of-storage-partition.21391/

Obviously you have to do the opposite, as stillka is removing space from the data partition to give it to the storage one. Giving that you basically have to delete both partitions and recreate them with different size, the procedure is the same, you just have to make your own calculations as you have to give startpoint and endpoint, not size.

I did this procedure twice in a row, because the first time I also removed system1 partition to get another 500 MBs, and I didn't brick my phone nor the first neither the second time so, even if the procedure looks scary it is quite safe. Obviously it means losing every single data you have in your phone, both apps and such and personal data. So, you must use some backup app to save your apps and data and then copy the whole sdcard (including the backup you just did) to your PC, restoring once you recreate the partitions.

Note about chache and system1: you can also delete these partitions (really, shrink them to 3 MB - the minimum to make them ext4 filesystem - as you shouldn't change the original partition table) to gain even more space, but there are consequences.

Cache: some people say this partition is used by Google's Play Store to temporarily store (pardon the play on words) apks files before installing the app to your phone. That means, if you remove it you won't be able to install apps from there anymore, and if you shrink it too much you will be able to instal small apps only. If you use other sources than the Play Store (or, maybe, even Xiaomi's official market) you should be good.

System1: this is for the fake dual boot MIUI uses: every time you update your system through the built-in Updater app, the new ROM is written to the system you were not in, alternating between the two at every update. This is to have a correctly functioning system in your phone, not overwriting the previous system while updating (so, it is like a system backup). If you remove it, you won't be able to use the Updater app anymore, you should every time flash the newer ROM when you want to update. I did not do this as I use MI2S' Sepcial Edition MIUI 6 ROM, and the only easy way to install it without third party tools is installing the regular v5 ROM and update with the Updater app. Your choice.


can i get lost images/ videos from broken phone if i had a google account I lost all the pictures and videos on my last phone because it got wet and wouldn't come back on. On this new phone (same exact phone as broken one) under settings> backup & recover its was already set to automatically back up files so I'm assuming the old one was too. But I don't know what I need to do to find them or get them back. I have the info for my old google account but I also set up a new account when I got this phone

If you enabled sync with Google Photos, you would find it here: https://photos.google.com/


Nexus 5 stuck on "flying color dots lollipop" screen after Hard Factory Reset I just did a wipe data/factory reset on my Nexus 5. I followed this YouTube tutorial.

I'm stuck on the boot screen, which was my problem in the first place, and it's been on the boot screen for 25 minutes.

Should I wait or do something else?

If you have been waiting an excessive amount of time for your phone to boot (eg. leaving it overnight to boot) but it is still at the boot animation, you may be in bootloop. This is when the phone fails to boot due to some errors in the /system partition. As a preliminary measurement, you should perform a factory reset (or wipe /data) to see if that helps. If  that does not help, you should reinstall the /system partition.

First, you have to format your /system directory; you will need a custom recovery to do this. I recommend TWRP (Nexus 5), but regardless of which recovery you choose, you should download the latest version.
Power off your Nexus 5, then press and hold Vol-, Vol+ and Power simultaneously. Don’t release the buttons until Fastboot Mode menu appears. Excessive force is not necessary and may break your buttons.
Now, you will have to use the adb and fastboot tools. Open a terminal/cmd in your adb/fastboot folder on your PC. If you have the Android SDK, they are usually located in /path-to-sdk/sdk/platform-tools/. Alternatively, you can install the Minimal ADB and Fastboot tool for Windows (or sudo apt-get install android-tools-adb android-tools-fastboot for Linux).
Now plug in your phone to your PC. Making sure that your phone is in fastboot mode , type into terminal/cmd: fastboot devices to make sure that your phone is properly connected (it should return a serial code to you). This next command will perform a factory reset on your phone, so be wary that this will wipe all user data from the phone: fastboot oem unlock. After you have issued that command, type fastboot reboot. You will be presented with a screen containing an android logo and a progress bar (this may take up to ten minutes to complete). After that, your phone will try to boot up again. Just power it off after the android logo and progress bar are no longer on your screen.
Now we will use that recovery.img file we downloaded earlier. Reboot your phone into fastboot mode with Vol-, Vol+, and power, as in step 2. Make sure it is connected with fastboot devices. In the same terminal/cmd, type fastboot flash recovery /downloads/recovery.img, replacing /downloads/recovery.img with the full path to your downloaded recovery.
After that is done, on the phone, use the volume buttons to scroll onto "Restart Bootloader" and hit power to select it. After the bootloader reloads, use the volume buttons to scroll onto "Recovery Mode" and power to select it. You should then be greeted with your newly installed custom recovery.
These are instructions for TWRP: Once your recovery is running, tap Wipe > Advanced Wipe and tick only system, data, cache, and dalvik cache. Now swipe to Wipe. This will wipe all system and user data from the device; data on external sd cards will be preserved if you only selected those 4 partitions.
Now, you will download a fresh system image. If you want to stick with a stock ROM, here is one from XDA (This version is rooted). There are many custom ROMs available on the XDA thread. Download the ROM image.
Now, back in TWRP, make sure you are on the home screen (there should be a home button on the bottom) and go to Advanced > ADB Sideload then swipe to activate the mode. Type adb devices to make sure your device is properly connected, then type adb sideload /downloads/ROM.zip, replacing /downloads/ROM.zip with the full path to the ROM (.zip file) you just downloaded. This may take up to ten minutes to complete.
After that is done, just reboot! From the TWRP home screen, go to Reboot > System and it should boot correctly. Keep in mind that the first boot may take up to an hour to complete, so keep it connected to a power source!


Samsung Galaxy Tab drivers Where can I find the Windows 7 drivers for the Samsung Galaxy Tab? Can't seem to find them on the samsung website.

http://www.samsung.com/us/support/supportDownloadCenter.do?prd_ia_cd=N0000407&prd_mdl_cd=SCH-I800&prd_mdl_name=SCH-I800

Ultimately, I need to deploy an application that I'm developing :-)

I used the same drivers that I installed for my Samsung Galaxy S (Vibrant).

64 bit drivers
32 bit drivers


Removing Alarm From Lock Screen - Galaxy SIII I just got an updated replacement phone - a Galaxy S III. I can't figure out how to remove the alarm icon and wake-up time from my lock screen.

I need the alarm set but hate being reminded I have an alarm to go off at 5:30 am every time I look at my phone. And I need the time to show on my lock screen. Just not the dreaded alarm.

Any ideas?

AFAIK all the android mobiles have this problem. You can not customize it. You should look for Lock Screen replacement in Play Store which is customizable.


Why are some files under /proc are universally readable? Why are some files under /proc are universally readable by anyone using adb?
e.g.

/proc/<pid>/statm
/proc/<pid>/maps
/proc/<pid>/smaps

We can even cat the content of these files, which is dangerous to leak sys info.

Is it because other system components are also using/reading/writing these files under /proc, so that these files under /proc are universally readable to anyone?

There are perfectly good reasons why those informations are readable, and that's nothing dangerous (writing, however, would be). This is inherited from the Linux system Android builds upon -- and I will give you a few short examples to show you the good of it:

If you list contents of the /proc (virtual) directory, you will find things like e.g.:

/proc/meminfo: This is where all apps can obtain information about total/used/available RAM -- so e.g. system monitors can present these details
/proc/devices: Shows all devices available on the system, so e.g. a camera app can tell if (and where) there is a camera to be used -- or exit otherwise
/proc/uptime: to show you how long the device is already running

And more. Nothing dangerous about knowing this -- just the opposite: to many apps these are essential information so they can do their job.

Now to your special /proc/<pid> sub-tree: Again it is the system monitors (and the task killers) depending on this information. Here they can get a list of running processes. All the details on those apps (how long have they been running, how much memory are they using, etc.) is to be found here. No system monitor could do without this. And again, there's nothing harmful about reading here. The maximum "bad" thing about this is any app could look what other apps are running, and what resources they are using.

From a user's perspective, we won't dig much deeper here. Just one more thing to say: these informations can be very useful if you have to go troubleshooting. Some of my answers even included this already.

And for sure you don't need to be afraid of "dangerous leaks" just from the fact this all is world-readable. Moreover, as Lie Ryan makes clear in his answer, not all of the information here is world-readable: Some sensitive information is, in fact, protected.

Also keep in mind that ADB generally has more privileges than any other "normal user process". Especially starting with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) its privileges have been increased (e.g. to make a complete backup possible even if the device is not rooted), so you cannot take "access via ADB" as a reference here -- but rather should check from a (local) terminal. Additionally, risks are increased when connecting via ADB with USB debugging enabled, as this again increases privileges granted to ADB.


Make phone wake up using the volume keys? Is it possible to make the phone (N1) wake up some other way than using the power button without rooting the device?

Unfortunately I do not believe this is possible. No app can interact with the phone once the phone has been locked / put into standby mode... therefore without installing a custom ROM (which has modified the code allowing other buttons to unlock / wake up the phone) this is not possible.


Security error when trying to add an Exchange account I use Zarafa as my private Exchange server and that account works fine with my phone.  When I add a second Exchange account for my company it does install at first and connects to the MS Exchange server, but when synchronizing the connection is refused due to a security error.

How can I fix this? Does it have to do with signature or certificate problems? (I have tried enabling "Accept all certificates")

My phone: Samsung Galaxy S2, Android 2.3.3

You probably need to enable or disable TLS or SSL for the account.


Determine if my Galaxy is 8 GB or 16 GB I just got my Galaxy from eBay.
The auction said it's 16GB, but I am afraid I was a fraud victim; I'm checking at Settings->SD card and device storage->USB storage, and Total memory says 5.01GB.

Am I missing something?

My Galaxy S Vibrant has 16 GB internal SD storage, and Settings -> SD card and phone storage reports 12.78 GB.  I would assume the ~3 GB difference is due to the reported size being actually in GiB, not GB, and partitioning (the internal data partition is 1.84 GiB as reported by Titanium Backup) and formatting.  The numbers work out, anyways.

Given that 8 - 5.01 is also ~3, I would say that you have an 8 GB model on your hands.  Checking with Titanium (requires root) or something else might be a good idea.


Why do cell phones don't really turn off (unless battery removed)? I've known this for a long time.
A quick google confirms that many people think the same.
Basically, that when shutting down a cell phone, the antenna still communicates with the tower. Triangulation will still work, as well as some other stuff.
Only when the battery removed, is a cell phone "really" shut down.
Not that I care but it's interesting to know why!
If possible, please provide primary sources - it's time to shut all the myths around this down!
Update, the following question has been suggested:
What is the fastest way to shutdown unrooted Android phone?
Obviously, this is semantically NOT equal.
The answer there, despite being a very detailed answer, does not provide the reason WHY the baseband processor remains ON.
For a technological feature to exist on perhaps Billions of devices, there must be a need for that... Especially since it drains battery and costs cellular tower bandwidth.

A telephone that is not in contact with the local cell phone tower cannot detect an incoming call.  When someone places a call to your phone,  you probably want to get notified that your phone is ringing, even if you have hit the power button.  The power button turns off the display,  but doesn't actually shut down the phone.
Being in communication with the tower uses some battery power.  It's quite low,  but it isn't zero.
This is true for a smart phone, and also for a dumb phone.  A cell phone of 20 years ago also used battery to maintain contact with the tower.
Addendum:  When I tap the OFF button on my phone,  it goes into Standby mode.  The screen goes dark, and I have to enter a password before using it again, mostly.  But it still can accept incoming calls, and it alerts me when one comes in.  When I go through the POWER OFF procedure,  and somebody calls my number,  they receive a notice from the phone company that my phone cannot be located.  I do not know whether baseband operations are still drawing current.


Android 6.0: Where are the cookies of a native Android browser stored? I have a phone with Android 6.0. I'm trying to download the cookies file of a native browser.

For Android 4.4 version the valid path is:

/data/data/com.Android.browser/database/webviewCookiesChromium.dB

Where are the native Android browser's cookies stored in Android 6.0?

On Moto X Play , running 6.0.1, it is here

/data/data/com.android.chrome/app_chrome/Default/cookies


Moto g 2nd gen, lollipop bootloader unlock issue I have just bought Moto G 2nd generation smart phone with 16 gb internal memory. To root device, I tried to unlock bootloader. But it didn't go smooth. When I hit command fastboot oem unlock <key>, I got success message with status Device unlocked. Status 3.

But what the heck this status 3?. I am not getting any info about this.

Google search is showing that, at time of unlocking bootloader, few messages are shown like unlocked then restarted and device restarts. But this didn't happen with me. So I manually restarted my device for custom recovery. And flashed rom using TWRP2.7.1.1-titan-motog-2014. This command also showed me success message. Before this I copied UPDATE-SuperSU-v2.02.zip in device.

But after restarting and hitting recovery, device is not showing any thing and just black screen and then turning off.

Apart from this device is working fine, with normal boot.

P.S. RootChecker is showing that Root access is not properly installed on this device.

So what is the way out to root the device again properly?

Thanks in advance.

Device Unlocked. Status 3

This means that your device has it's bootloader unlocked. So, all you have to do is just reflash the latest Update Superuser V___.zip. And,you have the recovery installed which should make this a easy process.

Hope this works. Good luck!


Entering safe mode from adb shell My question is similar to this one, but I don't necessarily have a powered off device.

How can I enter Android' safe mode (or make it boot into safe mode the next time) from within my recovery image?

I suppose it is possible to mimic the actions the actual Android system would do when you select safe mode from the reboot menu.  However, I don't even know what selecting safe mode actually causes Android to do with the system.

Note: The solution is tested on Android 4.2.1, 5.0.2 and 5.1.1.

The value for the system property persist.sys.safemode  determines whether the phone should boot into safe mode or in normal mode.

When booted into Android OS, provided root access, the value can be changed as

adb shell su -c 'setprop persist.sys.safemode 1'
adb shell su -c 'echo "1" > /data/property/persist.sys.safemode' #alternative

When booted into a custom recovery, given the data and optionally, system partition are mounted, do

adb shell busybox printf "1" > /data/property/persist.sys.safemode         #works if recovery has Busybox. If Android OS has busybox then system/xbin/busybox would work
adb shell echo "1" > /data/property/persist.sys.safemode                   #alternative
adb shell chmod 600 /data/property/persist.sys.safemode                    #required; changes the permission of file to rw-------, identical to rest of the files under /data/property

It is to be noted that, if you've never booted into safe mode since last factory reset, the file persist.sys.safemode wouldn't be found.

Android resets the content of  said file at every reboot, so you need not to worry about getting stuck at safe mode. However, for the purpose of fail-safe requirement, change the value to 0 or empty the file (NULL), should you ever get stuck.

In a nutshell, the property that you set is stored in a file, hence it remains persistent when you shutdown the device. You can see your value inside the file from recovery mode, provided that you've not booted into Android again after editing the property. Now, once you begin to boot into Android OS, Android et al reads the file, and based on the content, prepares the safe/ordinary mode for you. After reading the file, it resets the content of the file, so the next time you reboot, it would always be in ordinary mode.

I, in my experiments, noticed that Android would boot into safe mode even if the value is any positive or negative integer or even a decimal value.

I got a good hint from source code of ShutdownThread.java that safe mode requires a system property to be set. However, I reached the final conclusion using a comment by pylerSM and a post from ZiT777.


How can I trust ROMs? My device is a few years old (it's a Wiko Ridge 4g) and the last official update was Lollipop 5.0.2. This means I can't get security patches anymore, and the recent Meltdown and Spectre attacks made me think about how bad that is.

From what I have read if the manufacturer does not provide updates I have to get a custom ROM, downloaded from somewhere, or give up and get a new device. I am not opposed in principle to flashing a ROM but how can I trust the source (and the tools)?

Background: I am a software developer but know next to nothing about the whole mobile ecosystem.

"Trust" is a small world for a large field. You have to look at each variant individually:

Trust that the custom ROM does not brick your device or destroy smartphone components

The more people use a specific custom ROM, the more likely all serious problems are known and may be even already fixed. For that reason, I personally prefer LineageOS-based ROMs without any modifications (or the minimum to support the specific device).

Trust that the custom ROM does not contain malware

I assume that purposely infected ROMS are very unlikely. Most custom ROMS are created by experienced developers that are active for years. Publishing an infected ROM would result in a loss of reputation for such people. As a lot of users use their ROMs rooted, the chance is high that the infection would be detected. Therefore (as long as the developer account has not been hacked), infected ROMs are unlikely.

However, I would recommend to check the history of the author and only use popular ROMs from XDA-Developers or better those directly provided by Lineage OS.

Tust that there are no backdoors or similar

Custom ROMs contain a lot of compiled code. Especially the kernel and other sensitive software running with high privileges is usually compiled by the author. Even if the sources for the kernel used by the ROM are public (and is free of backdoors and so on), it is a common problem to prove that the source code is really the one used to build the kernel. Detecting something malicious in a kernel or a different compiled software is very problematic.

Again, you have to trust the author of the custom ROM...

Trust that the all security features work as intended

The main factor of security is that some actions are forbidden/denied for certain entities. The usual testing approach of custom ROMs is "it works for me". Therefore, I assume that most of the security features are not well-tested in custom ROMs. If something goes wrong in the build process, it may remain undetected for a long time.

One common problem for example is that custom ROMs are signed with AOSP private key (which is public). Therefore, it is easy for malware developers to sign an app with the system keys to gain special system permissions.


LG DoublePlay: Boot looping after replacing framework-res.apk I modified and replaced the original framework-res.apk on my LG DoublePlay (C729) and now it keeps bootlooping on T-Mobile logo. Even the recovery mode didn't help - the recovery mode displays only a unpacking icon and then it reboots the phone. I have the original framework-res.apk but I'm not able to get it into my phone. USB connection with PC is stable. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

I don't think anything can be done at this point, you should've been more careful when you messed with Android System itself. If it was SystemUI your phone would reboot into system, but unfortunately that ain't the case. The only reasonable thing to do would be flashing a new ROM.

ADB won't work until your phone reboots to system. I don't think fastboot will help you either, so that leaves only one option, flash it.

Next time you try to change either "framework-res.apk" or "SystemUI.apk" try this script.
It will get the job done without any mess.
Remember to run the script as root and put the apk files in external sdcard(extsd).

#!/system/bin/sh

mount -o rw,remount /system

if [ -f "/extsd/framework-res.apk" ]
then
    cat /extsd/framework-res.apk > /system/framework/framework-res.apk
    chown 0.0 /system/framework/framework-res.apk
    chmod 0644 /system/framework/framework-res.apk
else
    echo "Error: File(s) not found."
fi

if [ -f "/extsd/SystemUI.apk" ]
then
    cat /extsd/SystemUI.apk > /system/priv-app/SystemUI.apk
    chown 0.0 /system/priv-app/SystemUI.apk
    chmod 0644 /system/priv-app/SystemUI.apk
else
    echo "Error: File(s) not found."
fi

reboot


adb sometimes won't connect untill after a lot of tries, and sometimes never adb sometimes won't connect. I get this behaviour. What's going on?

$> adb kill-server
[ user@host ] ~
$> adb connect 192.168.3.160:5556
* daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
* daemon started successfully *
connected to 192.168.3.160:5556
[ user@host ] ~
$> adb shell
error: device offline
[ user@host ] ~
$> adb connect 192.168.3.160:5556
already connected to 192.168.3.160:5556
[ user@host ] ~
$> adb shell
error: device offline

(Note: It also occurs with adb using port 5555)

I would write this as a comment but I can't. It may be because of the cable. I had this problem with an old cable that kept disconnecting my phone. Even cables that look fine may do this. The problem went away after I bought a new cable.


Broken device after uninstalling King Root I uninstalled the King Root app after rooting my phone. Now my system isn't working correctly.

Symptoms:

When going in Settings->Storage it says "System Used : 16.00GB" (All my storage). I do not have an SD card and because of this I can't take pictures or download files.
When connecting my phone to my computer (Ubuntu 16.10) a folder pops up but it is empty.

I tried reinstalling KingRoot but I can't download the app since I have no storage space.

I'm willing to do anything (ex. reinstall os) if necessary. Please just explain how.

Phone model: BLU studio M HD

Thanks in advance

As @EthanZ said the factory reset solved the problem. Press the up volume key and power key when the device is powered of to get to the boot menu. Select Factory Reset. Done! Thanks EthanZ.


How can I set up my Google account without syncing Gmail? I got a Nexus 7 tablet. Is it possible to use my Google account just to download apps and for backup purpose?

I'd rather not see my emails, chats and contacts on the device as it's not with me all the time and shared with kids, and basically anyone in the house has access to it.

I couldn't find any options to do this. Without logging in with my Google account, the device is kind of useless. I tried turning off sync for everything after I logged in, but the emails are still syncing. Plus it's only a couple of clicks away to turn back on if anyone wished. I can't add password just for these apps either.

Please don't ask me to create another Gmail account just for this. Are rooting and installing custom ROM the only option? Any other suggestions?

Here's a working solution to add a Google account and prevent it from syncing everything.

Before adding the Google account, disable Sync (from system settings
or from your pull-down menu).
With sync disabled, add the Google account.
Enable Airplane mode to prevent all data transfer.
Enable Sync. You must do this to modify the specific sync settings next.
Go into sync settings for the Google account, and uncheck all services you don't want synced. For your case, you only want Sync App Data enabled.
Disable airplane mode.

You now have the google account on your phone, and it hasn't synced anything except the services you chose to let it sync.

I follow this procedure to prevent emails and contacts from syncing. Contacts in particular are very annoying, since disabling sync doesn't delete the synced contacts from the phone, so you must prevent them from getting on your phone in the first place with this solution.


Tasker: Wi-Fi On When I Turn Screen on in the Morning I want to set up Tasker to turn on my Wi-Fi in the morning, when I FIRST turn the screen on that day AFTER 7AM.

I've managed to create the Wi-Fi On task and I assume I would also need to use the Display On event. This is my first time using Tasker so I'm unsure how to set it up to be triggered as mentioned.

How do I setup the task mentioned above in Tasker?

First you have to decide when the morning ends, but let's say this is between 7 - 9 am.

Create a profile that's active between 7 and 9 am. Also, this profile is ony active if Wifi-state is set to Off and if Display state is set to on.
Run the task "wifi on"-task you previously created.

Now when all the conditions in step one is true, the task will run.


Insufficient memory with my andriod phone I have 16GB SD card but I still get the message insufficient memory when I want to download any app.

The issue is that apps aren't by default stored on the SD card. The SD card is for extra data like music/videos/downloads etc.

You can however move existing apps to the SD card most of the time (some apps don't allow that). You go to Settings > Apps and pick from as many apps that are large (the list should have a filter for this). After selecting an app you can often click "Move to SD" or something similar.


My Mac doesn't recognize my Galaxy S2 through USB My Snow Leopard Mac doesn't recognize my Samsung Galaxy S2 for file transfer over USB, and it's starting to drive me nuts.

I've tried the following:

Connect Storage to PC

Settings > Wireless and Networks > USB Utilities > Connect Storage to PC

I've tried this several times on my phone, following the procedure stating that I should only connect after the phone asks me to, but it does not work.

There is no "attach-button" in the pull down menu, like some claim there should be. Yet it seems that the phone notices that the USB-cable is connected. However OS X does not. No external storage pops up in Finder. I've also tried waiting for several minutes as I know this sometimes can take a while, but to no avail.

USB Debugging

Settings > Applications > Development > USB debugging

When set to on, nothing happens. When set to off, nothing happens either. (It is automatically shut off when using Connect Storage to PC.)

Android File Transfer

I've also downloaded Android File Transfer, and while the phone finally recognized something by stating MTP-Connected in the pull-down menu, nothing happens in OS X, nor the Android File Transfer program itself. It just continues to demand that I attach the USB cable.

I've also tried it in conjunction with both USB Debugging on and off, to no avail. When it's on, the phone doesn't detect any MTP. When it's off, the phone detects MTP. Either way, it seems that OS X doesn't detect jack...

USB Prober

The USB Prober on my Mac does detect something when I connect the USB to my phone, but I do not understand the message after the timestamp, that is: [1] AppleUSBOHCI[0x56f9800]::SuspendUSBBus Processing WDH before suspending.

USB Cable

I've tried with two different brand new cables. Made no difference.

Please do not post answers suggesting the use of Kies, Bluetooth, Wireless, and the like. I want my phone to work over USB for a reason (speed and convenience).

tested on mac osx snow leopard and Mountain Lion:
with your device unplugged go to settings->developer options disable usb debugging;

Go to Settings, in wireless and network section, go to "more"->usb utilities Tap on "Connect storage to PC". Plug in your device to your mac and the tap on "Turn on USB storage" and OK. You should see your device just like an USB pen.


Can an app installed from Play Store being dropped support due to changing requirement in Android version? Can an app installed from Play Store being dropped support due to changing requirement in Android version?

If a very low percentage of app users still uses a very old Android version, and the developer decides to drop support for this old version, does the Play Store offer an option to refund the payment?

Can an app installed from Play Store being dropped support due to changing requirement in Android version?

App developer (free/paid app) is at complete liberty to support/not support later Android versions, with or without continuing support for earlier versions. You will find many apps not supporting Lollipop or Marshmallow, and on other hand supporting/not supporting earlier versions.

Developers have two choices (nothing is binding), as cited Support Lower Versions of Android as an example, relating to autoback up feature of Marshmallow:

Updating an existing app to support auto backup.
Giving your new app support for lower versions of Android

Google Play Store policy doesn't discuss this, so only inference is that the app will be on Play Store:

As long as it complies to Play Store policy
As long as developer wishes

  developer decides to drop support for this old version, does the Play store offer an option to refund the payment?

No refund is possible. See this answer for details and also read the comments, which relate to your question If a paid app stops working, can I get my money back?

Edit: An important point of compatibility pointed out by Izzy. I have a paid call recorder app bought 4 years ago, which worked fine but is not compatible with  current Huawei phone and developer can't fix it since information about chip set (Kirin ) is not made public by OEM. I can't obviously ask for a refund


Ally Phone Voice Search problem I have an old Verizon Ally Android phone that keeps popping up a prompt "Try saying 'call john doe.mobile phone'" literally every half second to the point I can't even reach the settings screen to attempt to disable Voice Search. The factory reset does not help. Is there a way I can fix this somehow?

You can try wiping your cache partition:

Turn off your device
Press a combination of Vol +  + Vol - +  Power key buttons and hold them down.
Release only the Power button when the device vibrates
Release the other buttons when the Recovery Menu screen appears
Using the Vol +/Vol - buttons to navigate, select Wipe cache partition
Press the Power key , which will act the enter key on your keyboard.
Wait for the process to finish.
You can then reboot the device and see if the issue is  fixed
.


Is there a 'User manual' for Android 2.1? The user guides that came with my Android 2.1 phone are pretty basic and mostly geared to the mobile company's interface and apps. I've come across this PDF guide to Android 2.2. Is there something similar for 2.1?

Update:
Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) user manual now available here (PDF).

This Nexus One user manual seems to be basically the same document as you linked, but specific to that phone and Android 2.1. Since the Nexus One was a "pure" Android experience, the vast majority of the document should cover what you're looking for.

(That link seems dead, but this link from the Internet Archive Wayback Machine seems to be working. There's also this link from T-Mobile.)


Install linphone on kyocera e4610 Is there a way to install LinPhone on this android based flip? The other option would be "signal" as an alternative voip idea...
Let me know, David

Yes it's possible just sign thought app with a test signature int should install via adb.
Is thought still having issues just rename the package to com.android.cts.linphone and thou should be fine.


Update heavly customized but stock rom Nexus 5 keeping data? I have a Google Nexus 5 with Stock Rom 4.4.2 and:

Unlocked boot-loader
Custom recovery (TWRP)
Custom kernel (franco)
Root
X-posed framework

What is the best method to upgrade to the upcoming version 4.4.3*, keeping data?

Please answer with a step-by-step guide, possibly referring to this configuration (like: disable #5, revert #3 and #2 to stock, don't use OTA but this package from here, etc...)

Would be great to have technical explanation for each step, to make this Q&A useful for any 4.4.x-to-4.4.y Android upgrade.

Thank you.

*look at first comment

You don't need to disable anything :-)

Step-by-step guide:

Update your recovery to the latest version
Download this 4.4.3 update and SuperSu
Place these files in sdcard
Boot in recovery
Wipe Cache and Dalvik Cache
Flash 4.4.3 update and SuperSu (~15/25 mins)
Reboot
Re-install X-posed framework from its installer
Re-install custom kernel

Now you have 4.4.3 and all of your customization without losing data ;-)


CM11 - chmod and chown on internal sdcard not working I have a Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE phone (GT-i9505) and I put CyanogenMod 11 (M12) on it.
Previously I put CWM_6.0.4.7_Touch_GT-I9505.tar as Kernel to get root.

Now I want to use TitaniumBackup Pro and the feature to protect single backups, but this is not working.
I noticed that a chmod or chown (as root) doesn't change anything:

Example:

su
chmod 075 /storage/emulated/0/TitaniumBackup/somebackupfile.tar.gz
chown system /storage/emulated/0/TitaniumBackup/somebackupfile.tar.gz

It is still 660 with root:sdcard_r

If I cannot set these I cannot protect the backup.
What am I doing wrong?

frank

EDIT 2015-01-29: I solved the problem with chmod 777 to /mnt/media_rw which I had to put into init.d as it reset again after reboot.
So I did this in my init.d:
busybox chmod 777 /mnt/media_rw
after this I can find the media_rw folder in Titanium and chose it.
Now it works.

the chmod and chown binaries you are using there are from the android toolbox and are pretty lightweight. You can use more powerful binaries from busybox. Maybe this solves your problem as I also encountered issues with the small set of features of the toolbox ultilities.

busybox chmod 075 /storage/emulated/0/TitaniumBackup/somebackupfile.tar.gz
busybox chown system /storage/emulated/0/TitaniumBackup/somebackupfile.tar.gz

EDIT: Sometimes it just helps reading carefully. Didn't get that your sdcard is an emulated sdcard which is implemented permissionless. This means it is right behavior that chmod/chown do not work at all here:

From: https://source.android.com/devices/storage/config.html

Devices may provide external storage by emulating a case-insensitive, permissionless filesystem backed by internal storage.


Camera app is missing from my Galaxy Nexus I ran bigxie's 4.1 jellybean for a while, worked great, switched to the same brand but 4.1.1 instead (I always do a full wipe) and since then I have issues with my camera. I think the installation of Camera 360 might have done something to cause my regular camera and Gallery app to have problems (both of them simply crash upon start).

I just installed the latest AOKP (4.1.1) and tried two separate gapps, the most popular one from somewhere in april that some forums claim fix this issue, and also the absolutely newest one. Both give me the same issue as the 4.1.1 bigxie ROM.

Is it possible that Camera 360 did this? What can I do to troubleshoot this? When I go to "manage apps" and then "all" I can't even find an app called "Camera", and also nothing called "com.android.camera". Are system apps even included in gapps? Can I find the system app "Camera" from somewhere and just install it to fix this issue?

Thank you in advance.

This issue was resolved by reinstalling bigxie's 4.1.1 ROM from scratch (with a full wipe). I suspect that fiddling around with TitaniumBackup caused me to remove the system camera app, and for some reason this was not put in when I installed AOKP + gapps.

Please note! Full wipe and complete reinstall of a ROM that is missing the Camera app will not help. Therefore, choose a stock ROM or a ROM close to stock that you know include the Camera system app.

If this does not help, try reseting the phone completely to locked bootloader, unrooted stock ROM and so on as you will probably want to return it anyway if the Camera app is still gone in the stock installation :)


Accessing internal storage on Moto G, locked phone, broken screen my girlfriend dropped her Moto G and now the screen is completely black, the phone is secured with a lock pattern. It's very important for us to recover the pictures, because unfortunately they weren't backed up.

I'm a software dev, so don't hesitate to offer solutions that involve ADB, the Android SDK or anything else. Another important note, the phone is not in Debugging mode.

This cannot be done without unlocking the device. If the touchscreen still works try to boot the device, let it settle, press the power button to wake it up and then draw the pattern from memory. You can print a photo of the phone on the lockscreen and mark the point on the display as a reference.


wireless crash in android 4.3 and 4.4 after updating my google nexus 4 android version to 4.3 , my wireless get crashed. in just one way. if it was on and i turn off my screen, and it goes in sleeping mode, after turnning on my screen it just crashed. always off , and in just two ways i could fixed it. restart or flight mode. sure i used flight mode. but it wasn't the big problem. the big one happened in version 4.4 . after this happend i can't fix it even by flight mode. just restart. now is there any solution for that?

it seems my problem was in my battery saver app (in this case 2x battery). i read a question in this site couple days ago. the problem of questioner was like me and he/she answer it, and said problem was from battery saver app. i think if i disable this option (wireless saver) it goes well. but just after disabling the hole app it fixed. for now i check it and i didn't have any problem.
p.s: i really forget the title of that question or link of it. if i find that, i set it here for others.


Can you send texts from iMessage to someone who has Android and uses Handcent? Can you send texts from iMessage to someone who has Android and uses Handcent?
And if yes does the iPhone user need to have Handcent?

If you are wondering if the text will be received through Handcent: yes.  If you are wondering if you will get the group text styled messaging from iMessage while using Handcent: no, I don't think you will.

There are several other SMS options that do support group messaging though.  Android 4.2+ offers group messaging built into the native Messaging app, so if you are on 4.2+ then you probably just need to enable the settting in Messaging app.  If you are on something before 4.2 then you could use GoSMS.  That is what I used until I was updated to 4.2 and it does a great job.  It's not perfect, because Apple likes their iOS exclusivity with iMessage, but it will do the trick.

Again, I am assuming you're looking for a group text solution.  If you are not, disregard my advice.  If you are wondering if Handcent can receive an iMessage, it should, but you wont have a group text to reply to.


Is there any way to block flurry? I noticed that an app I installed also added Flurry to my phone. I noticed this while doing some development work, and saw some activity relating to Flurry in my LogCat. Is there any way to block Flurry from sending reports of information gathered from my phone?

I am waiting for it to send another report, and I will update this question with the exact messages from LocgCat.

You could always edit your .hosts file and define the domain the info is being sent to as 127.0.0.1.  You could also use an app like Titanium Backup to "freeze" the app. or chmod it as non-executable yourself.


Is there a way to reinstall a built in application in my Android phone? I accidentally  (unknowingly )  disabled  built in apps, I recently realized that I really need a few of them back. How do I reinstall them or bring them back?

You can find disabled apps in Settings, Then App Manager(might be named something similar, per your device) Then you should be able to swipe left and right to find Downloaded apps, Apps on SD Card, All Apps, Then there should be one for disabled apps. Select the app and it will bring up the menu you used to disable them. Then you can re-enable them.


Screen orientation on Samsung Galaxy 9000 When I have my samsung galaxy 9000 (with Android 2.2) on a flat surface (table) and start an application, then the application is shown in landscape mode, even when the start/home screen was in portrait mode.

This does not happen when I hold the phone in my hands.

Is there a way to disable this behavior?

Update: I think I got something wrong: the home screen is never rotated, so the problem is simply that the galaxy thinks it is in landscape-mode when it is lying flat.

Try recalibrating the orientation sensor from Settings -> Display -> Horizontal calibration. My phone does this too occasionally, since when the phone is lying flat, the difference between portrait/landscape is very small in the sensors.


How can i activate, if it's possible, usb debug mode from fastboot in a 3rd gen moto g? It is basically dad, it's possible from  fastboot mode to activate de usb debug mode, and if it is, how can i?

I was just commenting on another similar question. Is your phone rooted? You can try this post's solutions to see if one of the methods work.

I believe you can flash a custom recovery via fastboot in case it's not present.
Eg. -

fastboot flash recovery <<recovery-name.img>>
fastboot reboot-bootloader
Then use volume keys to select recovery, power button to enter.


Change device on google find my device? I just had one of my android phones stolen, thankfully it was just a backup burner phone, but I still used my google account on it. I though I should be able to either find or wipe it from google's "Find My device" android.com/find , however it does not let me change the device like I can if I'm on the web google play store. It only shows my main device. Is there any way to get this to switch to my other device?

If it doesn't show up on the app, it's probably because the person who stole it has done a factory-reset. If that is the case it will not show up on the web version too

I just checked using the app and devices associated with my account show up when if they are switched off


Download Photosphere images I have Google Cardboard which works great with Photosphere. I've created a few of my own, but I'd really like to get some spectacular images (e.g. Times Square, Grand Canyon etc) to install on my phone to demonstrate to people.

I have found Photosphere images online, but they are only viewable online - is there a way to download these images** so they can be viewed as photosphere images on my Android phone ?

** Assuming of course that appropriate license allows me to download a copy.

As photosphere pictures are just "normal" jpg-files, you just have to download the photosphere image. If you use android you can view photosphere images with the google+ app. There is no real download-button, but you can use the share button and then send the picture to your email-adress for example. The standard android gallery viewer will open the picture like every photosphere picture you make with your mobile by yourself.


Unable to update or uninstall LiveWare I have a Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S, and I am unable to update or uninstall LiveWare.

Every time I try to update, a message pops up saying:

  Error package file was not signed correctly. Uninstall the previous copy of the app and try again.

However, I am unable to uninstall it as there is no option for me to do so, only the option to update. I also cannot open LiveWare, and because I can not update it my SmartWatch is not working properly as I am unable to install apps to the watch.

My phone is up to date as I have downloaded the latest updates to 4.0.3

I have reset my phone to factory settings updated it and done everything I can think of. What's causing this issue?

To reinstall LiveWare™ manager or Smart Connect

From your phone’s main application menu, find and tap Settings > Applications.
Select LiveWare™ manager or Smart Connect.
Tap Uninstall, then tap OK.
Install LiveWare™ manager or Smart Connect application from Google Play™ again.

Note: The Smart Connect application only works for Sony phones running Android™ version 4.0 and later. All other Android™ phones still need LiveWare™ manager application.

(Source)


Do I need to root ( unlock boot loader) to flash Factory image for Nexus 5 Do I need to unlock boot loader to flash official factory image of Android L Preview ? And will it void warranty? Is it rooting the phone ? I have never rooted phone before and I don't wish to do so. Please provide useful link on how to flash such images.

Yes you need to unlock the bootloader to flash the factory image.

Yes it will void your warranty but you can lock your bootloader again and reset the tamper flag to get the warranty back

No unlocking bootloader is not rooting.

Here is the useful link.

Unlocking bootloader
Flashing factory image


how to back up contacts from oneplus one to google account how do I backup my contacts from my oneplus one to google account or make a vcf file? i have tried to sync with setting>accounts>google>contacs(sync) on my phone but it doesn't save the contacts to google account. please help.

Yiou have to move your contacts from SIM card or Phone storage to the Gmail

Go to the contacts app and in the menu ( 3 dots in top right corner ) there is Import/Export.
Select Import from SIM.
Now mark all contacts you want to move, there is button to Select all
Click Ok and select to move them to Google account
Now wait till it sync your contacts into Gmail, they will be visible at Google contacts


Storage problem in Marshmallow Since the day I started using format as internal in marshmallow, my phone's ( Lenovo k4 note) memory is totally doomed. Everything I install goes only to the actual internal storage of the phone. There is no option to transfer stuff in the SD card. My phone always shows 'insufficient space' every time I try to download new stuff. Right now my internal memory says 0 bytes free of 10.3 GB and my SD card shows 8.7 GB free.

How can I use that? Please help.

Format as internal sets the SD card up in such a way that to apps it appears as internal storage, effectively replacing you internal storage:

How does the "Format as internal storage" feature work in Android 6.0+?

So of course you internal storage appears full (As everything is now stored on the SD Card), and of course you have no options to move stuff to your SD Card (As everything is already there, and it is being used as internal storage).

Your SD Card is 16GB I'm guessing? Of which 7.3 is used up by apps, games, pictures, etc (Your 'internal storage'). Your internal storage is reported as full as it can't be used.


replace internal memory Is it possible to replace internal memory of a android phone ?

How difficult it is?

Is internal memory part of System On Chip itself, so that it is next to impossible to remove them ?

Have anybody tried this out ?

My device is "Redmi Note" - but you can consider this as a generic question. If these is any device where replacing internal memory is  possible, I will switch to that device :)

Thanks

Is it possible to replace internal memory of a android phone ?

Yes.

Lots of Taobao (think of it as Chinese eBay?) merchants actually offer services of enlarging RAM and internal storage by replacing the chip, and these are actually quite popular, at least around me. Most are for Apple and Xiaomi phones which are popular and often lacking in storage. For example, they could expand the storage of a Xiaomi MI 5 to 6GB+128GB, a configuration Xiaomi themselves never offered.

Here's a very simple search with the keywords "Xiaomi" + "capacity enlargement" (in Chinese):

The internal storage chip (eMMC/UFS) is not an integral part of the SoC, but on most modern phones, it's packaged together with the SoC, often stacked on top of it, as the picture below demonstrates:

(AP≈SoC)

(Source article - also worth a read)

  Have anybody tried this out ?

There are several factors preventing you from trying it out, however:

The tiny size and mass amount of pins connecting the two together means you need professional devices to de-solder and re-solder them. The merchants above are usually situated in Shenzhen in real life - known for flourishing electronic industry, so they are well-equipped for such, but same can't be said for a random DIYer.
You can't handily buy replacement chips unless you are familiar with the supply chains, and even then you can't make sure what you bought is compatible.
You also need to load the blank chip with basic data (such as partition tables), which usually only professionals have access to.

Even if you are professional enough to overcome all of this, the stability of the modification is questionable - there are numerous examples of unstable re-solder job undermining the connection, causing the phone to fail. Such mods, naturally, are not covered within warranties, and therefore only you get to shoulder the consequences.

TL;DR: YES technically, but NO realistically.


PanDigital Novel - how to replace/update certificate store? After the DigiNotar fiasco, the Guardian Project put out the CACertMan application which allows a user to modify their certificate store on a rooted device.

It doesn't work on Android 2.0, which is what the PDN runs. What are my options?

The CACertMan application, while it does not support 2.1 as compiled, is trivially modifiable to compile against 2.1 SDK and minimum version can be dropped with no seemingly ill effects.

Now to get that patch submitted.


How do I retrieve my contacts from my google account to my phone! So I saved all my contacts by selecting the google account instead of saving on the phone.

But I removed the accounts from the phone, and when i added back the accounts to the phone, i could not find most of the new numbers..

Please help!

As MemCtrl mentioned, go to http://contacts.google.com and see if your contacts (with the new numbers) are there. If not, you can restore them using "Restore contacts..." option (hit the "More..." button to see it), provided they weren't deleted more than 30 days ago.


Google Now Launcher is not displayed in Bluestacks emulator I have latest version of Bluestacks emulator(v 0.9.25.5401) installed on my Windows PC 64bit. I installed Google Now laucher from the playstore in the bluestacks. And after installing the launcher it requested to download also the Google search app which I don't want but installed it anyway.

After successfully installed both the apps I opened the Google Now laucher and it showed me to clear defaults of my previously installed Apex launcher and press Home button. I did clear defaults and after pressing home button Google Now laucher is not displayed in the list.

Its not available also in the Settings menu. I can access them only in the menu drawer and in desktop two icons are created. But I click the icon it shows to select a default launcher for Home which shows only three other 3rd party lauchers but not Google Now.

Screenshots - Click to enlarge images

How to make Google Now launcher as the default launcher for Bluestacks? Any ideas?

Restarting the PC fixed the problem. I restarted the Bluestacks and also tried Restart option from the tray icon options menu. But restarting the PC fixed the issue and the fourth option Google Now Laucher is shown in the list. Wierd I dont know how this fixed it.(May be some registry or some other system reset changes required with restart.)


Phone won't boot after Cyanogenmod 10.2 update I just updated my HTC One X from Cyanogenmod 10.1.13 to 10.2 RC1, which seemed to go smoothly.

It completed the "Checking apps" stage, and when it rebooted, it got stuck on the boot screen (the spinning concentric circles) for about 15 minutes, at which point I held the power button to turn off the phone, but it just restarted and it's stuck in the same place.

What are my options? The problem I have at the moment is I can't turn on or off the phone (just restart) and I also can't get adb to work when I connect it to my PC.

(oh, and no...I didn't backup before updating - because that would have been a smart thing to do)

Thanks for any help.

I managed to fix the problem myself in the end.

The solution: I had to flash the boot.img file.
To do this:

Download the CM update from here that matches the update you installed. Make sure you choose the correct device as well. (HTC One X is "Endeavoru")
Unzip the file, and copy the boot.img file to C:\Android\android-sdk\tools (or wherever you have the Android dev stuff installed).
Boot your phone into the bootloader (power button + volume down for HTC One X) and choose Fastboot from the menu, using the volume buttons to go up and down the list and the power button to choose.
Connect your phone to your PC via USB. It will install Fastboot drivers.
Open a command prompt window and cd to the \tools directory mentioned above. Run the command fastboot devices to make sure your phone is connected.
If it shows, run fastboot flash boot boot.img to flash the boot.img file to your phone.
Finally run fastboot reboot to restart the phone. Your phone will go through the "Android is upgrading" process and you should be back in business once that finishes.

You will also need to flash gapps or any other custom mods/addons you had installed before upgrading. There are plenty of guides online explaining how to do this.


How can I transfer files between Samsung Galaxy Note 800 and usb pen drive? Is it compulsory that I need a Desktop or Laptop to transfer files between Samsung Galaxy 800 and a usb pen drive.

No, there are other ways to copy files from a USB pen drive to a phone.

According to USB Host Diagnostics, the N8000 can support the USB OTG (on-the-go) cable, assuming you have the latest firmware. Just plug-in the USB pen drive (or USB stick) into it. This cable will cost you USD1 or less.

If you have root, you can use StickMount to make the mounting of the USB pen drive easier.


Why cannot I open an .apk file though download "unknown sources" is checked? On my S8 I wanted to install "Blockada" (an app that needs to be sideloaded) but when I click on the .apk to install it says "can't open file".  I have "download from unknown sources" chosen in Settings too!

What is the cause and how do I fix it?

Possible cause can be a corrupted download. Try downloading again. Also try to open in a third party file explorer, many (like ES File Explorer) will let you see package name and version of the apk (without installing) which can help to make sure that the downloaded apk is not corrupted.


Getting double message notifications after replacing Talk with Hangouts I've updated Google Talk to "Hangouts (replaces Talk)". Now whenever I get a message, I receive two notifications: one from the new Hangouts app and the other from the old Talk app. How do I disable the notification from Talk?

Device is Samsung Galaxy S II running Android 4.1.2.

I had exactly the same problem. I solved it by doing the following:

Settings
Applications
Manage applications
Tab 'All'
Google Services Framework
Clear data
reboot the phone

Good luck


How to change various settings of wireless connection in Android Short story: I upgraded my phone to Kitkat and can't get to the Internet using wifi. After a few check I detected Android had wrong setting: my wifi router use AES, not TKIP (WPA2,802.11n mode)

I find it nowhere to change the setting, is there anywhere to set it? Google ain't my friend this time :(

Any ideas are appreciated :)

I manage to get it works by change the router wireless mode from 802.11n only to bgn mixed, or better option like Izzy suggests gn mixed


How do I upgrade my Android OS from 2.2 to 2.3 on an HTC Desire? Possible Duplicate:
  How do I update the OS in my device?

I am carrying a HTC Desire. I want to upgrade the OS from Android 2.2 to Android 2.3. How do I upgrade the OS?

Check out on this following forums

modaco
Cyanogen
XDA Developers

Note:  Please ready instructions carefully before performing anything. You can break your phone. You have to do everything on your own risk


How does Firefox Mobile decide which text to scale up? Consider this screenshot of regular desktop version of the site Stackoverflow on Firefox Mobile:

As can be seen, some text is larger than other. This odd text scaling only seem to appear in Firefox Mobile. On desktop, or in other Mobile browsers (that I've checked) the site appears normal.

I tried to inspect various CSS and tagnames but couldn't arrive at a conclusion myself. <p> and <span> tags seem to be larger than others. I also don't think it could be any other CSS property as it would work on other browsers as well.

It seems to be Firefox Mobile that's doing all this, but how does it decide which text to scale up?

Possibility text-size-adjust which is non standard and that's why not detected using other browsers
Extracts from MDN document

Because many web pages have not been developed with mobile in mind, smartphone browsers differ from desktop browsers in the way they display web pages.....

Because text that has been scaled down to fit a small screen is very small, many mobile browsers apply a text inflation algorithm to make the text larger and more readable. When an element containing text uses 100% of the screen's width, its text size is increased until it reached a readable size, but without modifying the layout.

This property only works on smartphones and some tablets


Where on the file system are SMS messages stored? Where in the file system are SMS messages stored?

I'm using ES File Explorer to browse around but can't seem to find this - is it on the phone or the SD, and where?

I have an HTC Wildfire but I would imagine it doesn't vary hugely from vendor to vendor (although I am an iOS developer who knows little about Android).

See here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4809874/how-to-access-the-sms-storage-on-android

The gist is that SMS/MMS are residing in databases on the phone and the answer to the question contains the link to this tutorial.

The location of the database might vary from phone to phone, but you can look it up with this command via adb (you need to be root to find it because it's in the protected storage area):

find / -name "*mmssms*"

On my device (Samsung Galaxy S) these databases turned up:

./dbdata/databases/com.android.providers.telephony/mmssms.db
./data/data/com.jb.gosms/databases/gommssms.db

The first one being the native db and the second one is by the sms app I'm using.


Zeroconf mDNS on Android? Is it possible for me to run a Zeroconf mDNS server on my Android phone? Something like Avahi on Linux.

The reason I ask is because I run an SSH/SFTP server on my phone for transferring files to/from the phone. Right now I have to connect using the local IP address (10.1.0.x) and the IP changes via DHCP. I'd like to simply be able to connect to my phone using a .local address.

I don't think Dynamic DNS will work, because I want my LAN address (the private IP, 10.1.0.x) not my public NAT IP.

Currently there is no Avahi daemon on Android and open ticket #354 at Avahi tracker, where there are attached patches, needs to be addressed to make a build for Android possible.

You can try to build it manually, if really needed.


Titanium backup history setting ignored Hello

I am a happy user of Titanium Backup, except for one thing. The maximum backup history is set to 1, a single backup, but over time, the backup folder now contains 88 backups.
How can I make Titanium Backup only keep the most recent backup?

Screenshots are attached.

With kind regards,

Isaiah van Hunen

Short answer

I'd say everything is working as expected, just your interpretation of the "88 backups" is wrong :)

Explanation

Titanium Backup doesn't make "one huge backup file covering all", but creates one set of backup files per app (usually 2 files: the .apk and the app settings as .tar.gz), plus one set per system data type (call logs, SMS, WiFi APNs, contacts, and such).

So the message "88 backups" is a bit misleading here: you should read that as "88 backup files" (which again would not be correct, as it rather means "88 objects" here; hard to find a proper term for this message: had you set a backup history limit of 2, and 2 of your apps had 2 backups, it would report "90 backups" here).

You can check this out yourself when investigating the backup directory using e.g. a file explorer: Navigate to /storage/emulated/legacy/TitaniumBackup (which should correspond with sdcard/TitaniumBackup and check the files therein. Naming convention is each file starts with the corresponding package name of the app, followed by either a time-stamp or a corresponding HEX string, and ends with either .apk or .tar.gz.


My PC doesn't recognize my GTablet through USB I have a GTablet GingerEdition. It has no OS, hence I need to install it from my PC, but when I connect the tablet to my PC I can´t see it as a USB device. The PC says that there are no drivers.

I am not sure if it works. But first of all update the driver from sdk\extras\google\usb_driver for your device. Also, check in root mode if any help is available.


My Galaxy Nexus can't hold on to a signal I have an unlocked international-version Galaxy Nexus on the German T-Mobile network.  It's only about a week old, but more than once in that time I've seen the signal drop completely out, and won't come back until I reboot -- and sometimes not even then.  In the same location, my old AT&T Captivate (rooted, running a custom ICS ROM) gets 2-3 bars of signal, around -100dBm.  I've read a lot of Verizon users complaining about the GN's radio, but I haven't heard of people having problems with the International version.

Is this fixable?  Are there newer revisions of the phone where this issue is fixed?  If not, does it vary between individual handsets?  Would exchanging it for an "identical" handset stand a chance of getting better hardware?

It look is like this is a pretty widespread problem. It doesn't answer my shopping question (should I return it) but at least I can say with confidence that it's not just me, so it should get addressed eventually.


Dialog boxes only work when tablet is tipped! DDouble letterss? One of my Samsung Galaxy Tabs v10.1 will not accept certain dialog input unless the tablet is some other direction than right-side up (left portrait, right portrait or upside down all work fine). For example hold the power button to turn it off, it asks "are you sure you want to shutdown?" It ignores all touches including "Ok" or "Cancel".

Also when you use the keyboard it often inserts two letters on one key push.

Thinking that this HAS to be a software issue I rooted and installed clockwork Mod ROM manager and restored an image from another working tablet. No change. This is the weirdest issue to date with my tablet adventures. Any idea what is going on?

UPDATE: Samsung repair said the screen was bad. They didn't elaborate but at least I have a working tablet now!

I'd suggest a full wipe, maybe it's a glitch. Otherwise it sounds like a hardware problem. By the way, I have understood that it's a bad idea to use a Nandroid backup from another device since some device-specific information could be moved as well.


DroidExplorer won't find Android SDK I'm trying to install DroidExplorer, and before finishing the installation the program asks me for the "Android SDK path". I have created the folders and downloaded the the Android SDK from Android.com (only the SDK) but the installation program keeps asking me for that sdk path.

How can I resolve this?

You need to open the SDK manager and download the SDK.

Click the button that has install xx packages.

Leave it run it course and once completed add the path


Rollback to Stock ROM without having backup of it i have XOLO Q1000 device which is rooted. I installed custom ROM of cyanogenmod on my device currently , i don't have previous backup of the stock ROM (jelly bean 4.2.1). Now i want the stock rom for my device from where i get that back

In this page you can find the stock rom as well as other tools for IMEIs, drivers and other ROM updates for your phone, the procedure for installing the original firmware should be the same as installing the cyanogenmod, so wipe all and then install

http://www.xolo.in/software-update


Automatically connect to VPN when connecting to WiFi? My university has an open WiFi that requires me to log into a specific VPN before I can access the internet.

Is there any built-in way or app that allows me to specify which VPN I want to start together with a certain WiFi connection? (Similar to Ubuntu's option to combine a WiFi with a VPN) Right now I have to start the VPN manually every time, and if I loose connectivity, the VPN will not automatically reconnect together with the network connection.

I am using cyanogenmod 10.2.0

EDIT:

To clarify, this is what the option looks like in Ubuntu's network manager:

I want to achieve a similar effect in Android/Cyanogenmod.

Feature of VPNroot does exactly do what you want:

auto connect/disconnect on a specific WiFi (only for Pro)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.did.vpnroot&hl=en


Play Store not installed error I had the Play Store App on my Android running Jellybean.  The icon still shows on my main screen, but I can't find it in my apps folder.  When I tap the icon I get an App not installed error message.  What happened to it, and how can I get it back?  Apps don't download anymore.  I get  message that an app will be installed soon, but I am never able to find it.

Who is the manufacturer of your phone? If the phone comes with android per-installed and its a licensed one from Google, Play Store should be installed and working in it. In that case, you should contact Customer Care and get your phone flashed with the Stock ROM.


It takes a long time to load the home screen Returning to home screen after sending an SMS or making a call takes up to 7 seconds on an average where as it used to be much faster six months back. Its a Aug 2011 model. System hangs often coming alive with Force Close application message. Why?

Because Sammy's software is buggy! If yours is a galaxy S i9000, then there are ICS Roms on XDA forum which I found far smoother and usable on my phone than Samsung's touchwiz Gingerbread.

If you don't want to go through the hassle of rooting, flashing a custom ROM, then I suggest that you backup your data and do a factory reset.

settings=>privacy=>factory data reset


Getting Virtualbox Ready with Android X86 and ARM without Emulator im sure there are tons of questions regarding this topic.

The question is: How is it possible to get Virtualbox ready with an Android-X86 ISO Image which supports ARM v7 armeabi-v7a.

Genymotion seems to do that but as soon as i start the VirtualBox from VirtualBox it does only display the terminal. Same with all the other Emulators like AndyRoid.

Ive tried installing several X86 ISO Images. Installed the arm translator (libhoudini) and so on.

Ive tried to install the buildroid image, same results.

Some games work, but Clash of Clans don't. This is what im pointing at. Clash of Clans need ARM v7. V5 does not work in this case.

Has anyone ever handled installing Android X86 with ARM v7 or a way accessing the VirtualBox from Genymotion without GenyMotion?

The Acorn RISC PC ran ARM and x86 processors natively. That may be what Izzy was referring to; anyway you do need an ARM emulator or translator if running Android x86 and wanting to run ARM-only software. ARM and x86 are totally different processors!


Where to find a PIN lock screen that scrambles the keypad on every use? Is there some way to get a lock screen whose PIN pad changes number layouts every time it's used? It seems like a very basic way to thwart smudge attacks and yet my (broken?) google-fu can't find any implementations.

I'm using 2.3 Gingerbread, would prefer solutions not involving rooting/flashing new ROMs if possible.

You have a great point, and a valid question. Looks like this was raised as an enhancement request two years ago, if that means anything. I found two apps that seek to address your concern:

Whisper Systems has a different method of working around smudge issues by asking users to wipe over the smudges they just created.
Number Track Lock advertises the exact functionality you're looking for. This is a paid app that has mediocre reviews, so proceed at your own risk.

Neither of these to me are a perfect solution. I'd love to see this built into Android - perhaps you can find a ROM with something like this baked in?


Proxyserver as Home button I am using Nexus 5 and recently did factory reset. Now I have Proxyserver as Home button in Android settings along with Google launcher and because of that I am able to see annoying Google ads on screen. Have any solution?

That should be a malware or something related. Try disabling it in Apps or root your phone and uninstall it. Hope it helps.


phone not charging but lightning bult is on my Android marshmellow phone isn't charging or connecting to pc, at first i thought it's the charger so i got a new one but the problem is still there, it shows that it's charging but the pourcentage doesn't increase or dicrease and if i connect it to my laptop it keeps connecting and disconnecting really fast.
also sometimes i can get it to charge by moving the charger around.
it became a frustrating game of luck so i'm wondering what may be wrong with it

It sounds like hardware issue. Moving charger around? Do you move end connected to phone or end in laptop? Depending on which end is one you moving it is probably charging connector broken or usb on your laptop. Try connecting other phone to that laptop, and connecting your phone to other PC so you will se where problem is. And maybe the battery is near dying.


My samsung galaxy player 5 does not connect to the internet, but apparently connects to my router I have a cisco  linksys E1500 router, secured with WPA/WPA2 PSK. My samsung galaxy player 5, fresh out of the box, conencts to it but cannot access the internet. Based on this thread, I made myself a static IP of 192.168.1.12. It still doesn't work. This other thread talks about MAC cloning, but I'm not sure how to do that

EDIT: I remembered we have a messed up router/provider. We have to use DHCP addresses only, and set the DNS servers manually. How do you do this?

I'm afraid that's something the Android system does not provide by default. But you might take a look at e.g. Zakus WiFi Profiles, which lets you create profiles by access point (Android itself has only global settings here, which would apply to all WiFi APs you connect to):

As I never used this myself, I'm not sure whether it only deals with static IPs, or can handle DHCP with special settings as well. The app description doesn't explicitly state this.

Alternatively, IP Manager might prove helpful. It says to manage different IP profiles for different access points, but unfortunately gives no closer details (and the screenshots don't tell that much). Still worth a try, as it sounds promising.


How can I set up a 6to4 tunnel (NAT traversal)? I'd like to get IPv6 including NAT traversal on my Android phone. Root is available.

It is so easy to get a 6to4 tunnel on Linux.. Just install aiccu and then aiccu start. On Windows there is gogoClient which is also quite easy.

I tested IPv6config but my phone does not work out of the box and the author seems more interested in a proof of concept rather than supporting all phones. He does not reply to my e-mails, and after Googling this app it seems that I am the only one using it.

Are there any working ways to setup a 6to4 IPv6 tunnel on Android?

The title of this post says "6to4 (NAT traversal)". This is fundamentally impossible. It does not work on your standard Linux, let alone Android. The 6to4 protocol relies on having a public IPv4 address on the same machine you terminate the tunnel on.

Leaving that aside, it may be that you are simply using the word "6to4" when in fact you mean "IPv6 tunnelling". Other tools, such as AICCU or gogoc, utilise different protocols that encapsulate IPv6 within UDP within IPv4 to allow the NAT traversal to work. These do not use 6to4.

Your Android distribution must support the necessary kernel modules for tunnelling to work. You must have the sit module available for 6to4 (or the tun module for many VPN products, and so on and so forth) as well as the ability to add tunnels such as via ip tunnel add mode sit. It may be that you do not have that available.

I have a device (Motorola Milestone running CM7) that is supported by the IPv6Config app you mentioned above. The app does not appear to do anything phone-specific. I suspect that the fundamental problem is that simply having "root" on your phone is not enough — your Android must ship with the appropriate kernel modules.

You may need to run another distro (e.g. CyanogenMod instead of a rooted stock Android) that includes the proper support to allow such tunnelling to work.


Galaxy Tab 3 won't boot - dead battery? I'm kind of disappointed, this morning I wanted to start my GT3 but I get this logo instead (sorry for the poor quality) :

I've try AB testing with my Nexus 5 battery loader, both works on my Nexus. The GT3 flash sometimes and boot a few times but stop after less than 1 min.

I can't launch the tests (Power + Vol +) because it "needs battery to be above 3.4V.

Is the battery dead ?

Have you tried powering it off and charging it for 6 hours? If not, that should be your first course of action. If after charging it still doesn't power on, you may have either a bad charger or a dead battery (or some other strange bug I've never run into). If you have a different charger, give that a go for 6 hours and see what changes.

On my Galaxy Note 10.1 I've had that logo show up when I have very low battery. It won't actually power on until the battery is partially charged once you've taken the battery all the way down to zero.

Also, youtube: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CEQQtwIwAw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dl1jrrVcQ8f8&ei=3HPSU9LIOIqiyASgmoCwDw&usg=AFQjCNH9B0sbXK8q_fWhhpNVUnHmlmcXxg&sig2=lVcDHD3B7ilruFW4gPiMQA&bvm=bv.71667212,d.aWw


Video Player in Galaxy Note 10.1 keeps starting itself when connected to computer through USB The Video Player app that came with Galaxy Note 10.1 will start at the background when connected to a Windows computer through USB. And there's no option in that app to disable it. It always appear in Task Manager when connected. Is there any way to disable this auto-start?

If this is the stock system, then the only way to change it would be to root it and install a Custom ROM (or remove the stock video app and replace it with a 3rd party video player).


How can you sort apps alphabetically in android jellybean 4.2.2? I use a Lenovo S600 tablet with Android Jellybean 4.2.2 OS,  the problem is that the apps are arranged randomly as I install them which leads to a lot of confusion.  I would like to arrange all the apps alphabetically so I know where to find the specific one I need. My previous tab had ICS OS which provided the option to arrange the iapps according to date or alphabet. But my current tab does not do so. How do I arrange them alphabetically?

Help would be appreciated.

From a Home screen, touch Apps.
2. Touch Menu ➔ View type.
3. Touch Alphabetical grid


Does disabling 3G while having WiFi save battery? If I have WiFi enabled and 3G data disabled, does it save any battery relative to having both WiFi and 3G enabled?  With WiFi enabled, I didn't know if 3G enabled would make any difference since it wouldn't be used.

Short answer: yes.

It depends on the currently enabled Wi-Fi sleep mode.  By default, Android disables Wi-Fi when your device goes into a sleep. In this case, 3G is the remaining mode of network communication, and it gets used by Gmail/Gtalk push notifications, etc. Obviously, this network communication takes its toll on your battery time. If you disable 3G you'll save some battery, but your device will be completely offline while in sleep.

However, if your Wi-Fi is "always on", your 3G will never be used, so it doesn't really matter if it is on or off. However, "always on" Wi-Fi is a big battery drain by itself...

Update: Note that sleep modes and sub-system energy consumption differ from phone to phone. Moreover, 3G energy consumption varies greatly, depends on which background services are enabled, proximity of the cellular tower, etc. I haven't seen any "authoritative" documentation on this subject.

I suggest you check your battery stats (in Settings -> Battery) and see how cellular communication affects your battery time overall. Usually, it is a very small percentage, so in general dialing your screen brightness a down a notch will have much greater effect on your battery life.


Is there a way to clear your Google Play App history? (Not the search history) Possible Duplicate:
  How to remove apps from “all downloaded” in Play Store

I'm looking to see if there is a way to clear the actual history of installed apps in Google Play, as opposed to the history of searches (which one can do right from the app).

It'd be nice to be able to wipe out the old apps that I tried months ago and uninstalled. The sorting of the "All" apps list is actually pretty good, in that such apps tend to be at the very bottom; but if I go on a tangent trying a dozen different similar apps until I decide on one, I'll have those in my list for a bit.

And, sure... there are a few apps in that list I installed then removed that might generate a blush or two if someone else saw it.

I wouldn't expect to be able to remove apps that I have installed on any of my devices (nor would I want to, anyway)... just apps that I installed previously but do not have any longer.

Is impossible the only way is changing of account. That way the apps you have deleted or uninstalled will not appear because is not the same account.

EDIT:

It is now possible

Go to apps then choose all

From the list hold the app you wish to delete, remove will appear in top right corner, tap remove and your done


Default rotation direction for landscape apps My device is Samsung Galaxy S5 with Android lollipop.

Some games run on a landscape mode and the top-side becomes left-hand side and bottom becomes right-hand side.
Can I change this so that top goes right and bottom goes left?
I don't want to rotate my phone every single time I run these apps.

You can easily achieve this by automation. I prefer MacroDroid Being easy to learn and free

To understand how MacroDroid works and the settings required for your Android version, see  my answer

Your macro would look like this and you can tweak as you like

Trigger: Application Launched / Closed → Select your application

Action:  Force Screen Rotation →Force Landscape (or) Force Landscape 180 (Screen shot below shows possible options)

Constraints: None


How to type "Control" on Termux? There is a good App "Termux" which can provide a powerful shell environment without gain root permission. However, the touch-screen keyboard doesn't include "Control" and "Alt" button. But some interactive program (for example, nano, emacs) require these button.

Is there any way to add this button on, or use some other way to replace this button?

You will want to use Hackers Keyboard (available on playstore as well as on F-Droid) for that, which was explicitly written for such purpose:

Hacker's Keyboard (source: Google Play; click image for larger variant)

That would be the most convenient approach – though the app hasn't been updated lately. But if you don't want that, just take a look at the corresponding Termux help page (or the matching Termux Wiki page): Termux utilizes the volume keys for "special combos". You can also have the most common keys shown on the screen to be "tap ready":

The docu writes: To enable the extra keys view you have to long tap on the keyboard button in the left drawer menu. You can also press Volume Up+Q.

Or, as Death Mask Salesman stated in a now deleted comment: "Volume Down equals Control, while Volume Up is the same as Alt."


why my nexus 6 dosn't open as a folder on my laptop three month ago I have bought a phone Nexus 6. Firstly when I connected it to my laptop all its folders appeared on a window on my laptop.
Some time later on I tried to move some files out of the phone to laptop but all of a sudden on the window appeared a script 'This folder is empty'.
Today I reset my phone but no any difference.
My question is why my Nexus 6 couldn't be open as a folder on my laptop?
Now I can't remove files from the phone or to place file in it.
Any clues?

When you connect the phone using USB, a notification comes up saying USB for charging. You just need to click on it to change the setting. Ankush's comment helped me arrive at the solution.


How to disable "Verify HUAWEI ID" notification? How to get rid of this reminder if I do not have any HUAWEI ID, and have not ever used HUAWEI cloud?

Device: HUAWEI P20 EML-L29 8.1.0.164
EMUI: ⠀8.1.0
Kernel: 4.4.103+

If you pull down the notification bar and slide the notification message to the right you can access the notification settings via the cog symbol.

Alternatively this notification comes from the Huawei 'Files' app, find it in apps and notifications and kill that app!.


Purchased music won't play without wifi Why won't the songs I purchase from Google play actually play without wifi? I have set the settings to download without wifi.  I don't care about the data. I don't like waiting until I get home to be able to finally put the music I have purchased on my phone

Stumbled across this thread since I am having a similar issue with my unlimited google music subscription; hope your issue has been resolved by now!

I had this issue happen randomly to me. I was able to stream all the songs in my library, then suddenly half of them were grayed out and wouldn't play ("Can't play this song without internet connection").

I contacted Google customer support and they helped me fix the issue. They said that my phone hadn't checked in with their servers in 24 hours, so they had me force my phone to do that. They had me change the date, time, and time zone in the Date and Time settings. They recommended to change it so there were no similarities (i.e. if its AM there, choose a time in the PM; if its 2015 change it to a date in 2016; etc). I verified the time and date changes on the home screen, then changed the Date and Time settings back to Automatic.

They then had me fully close the music app and reopen it, and voila, all my songs would play via cellular data again.