LG G5 wont turn on and get flashing red light Lg phone battery drained and reached critical level and shut off. Plugged it in to charge and nothing was happening (no flashing light or anything). After 4 hrs of being plugged in to wall (made sure outlet and cord are ok) still not showing any signs of charging. Tried taking battery out and re-inserting and now red light flashing while phone plugged into outlet but doesn't seem to charge and not able to get to home screen (because not charged enough hopefully). Just wanted to also note my phone memory was pretty full because of pictures (not sure if that matters). Don't know if my phone is fried.... :( I bought a new battery and this didn't help either. Could somebody please help

the red flashing light could be just due to a battery problem. Try this first https://thedroidguy.com/2016/09/fix-lg-g5-wont-turn-troubleshooting-guide-1060702 However it could very well be a problem with software. Most phones shutdown before the battery gets completely drained. I don't know if such chargers are available where you live, but technicians use chargers with prongs that connect to your battery to jumpstart it (You should not do this yourself) Try using a charged battery. If that does not work, you should take it to a repair centre.


How to manually set a roaming network (Pixel 2) I am having trouble setting a specific roaming network on my Pixel 2. These are my options in the Mobile Network settings. Does anyone know how to set the roaming network here?

I managed to figure it out. The secret was setting the 'Preferred network type' from 'Global' to 'LTE / GSM / UMTS'. That displayed the 'Automatically select network' toggle which I disabled in order to select my desired network. See image below. Thanks for your help, beeshyams!


Writing structured text documents I recently bought an Android tablet with a keyboard, and would like to use it to take notes of conferences, lectures, meetings etc. On a Windows or Linux notebook,  I would use the excellent LyX system for this. LyX basically allows you to write structured text without worrying about the layout, saying "this is a #3 heading" or "this should be emphasized" instead of "this should be bold and a larger size". LyX then allows you to export your text as PDF, DOC, ODF, LaTeX and so on.

I am looking for an App that allows a similar approach to writing for Android. What I already tested:

Writer is almost what I'm searching, a minimalist text editor that understands Markdown and saves its document as plain text on the Android device (no network necessary). I'd like a few more formatting options and an export feature, though.
Write:Tablet doesn't seem to have many structuring features
Most "office" packages like Polaris Office do not offer format templates, but restrict the user to bold / italic / font size types of formatting
Google Docs needs a constant net connection

So, I'm aware that this is a very small niche I am looking for here, and such an app would probably not make sense on phones, but is there another interesting tool for structured text creation?

Thanks for introducing Lyx, pretty impressive open source app.
There are two products from Verbosus. I understood that Lyx is a Latex based tool and hence producing this link.
I am not confident enough whether suggested Latex editor will be equivalent to Lyx, but just trying to help.


Tethering issues on OnePlus 6T (not operator related) My 6T (unrooted) Android 10.3.5, won't tether - not by USB, not by Wifi nor by Bluetooth.
Not a carrier issue - I can tether with my wife's phone.
Weird behaviour - occasionally the tethered device (PC) will have internet, but not the phone, sometimes the phone will have internet and not the tethered device.
I have AdGuard and NordVPN installed, but I turn them both off before trying to tether.
I have disabled Private DNS before trying to tether.
Doesn't work in Safe mode either. Shows connected device to hotspot on phone.
If I connect the phone to Wifi then the PC has internet and the phone does also - not very helpful.
It used to tether months ago.
Any ideas please?

Editing the APN didn't help.
Recreating a new APN from scratch resolved the issue - even though they look identical to me on the screen.
Leaving here for others to hopefully benefit.


Input quick text inside status bar There are apps that display buttons in the notifications for a quick feedback.

What I need is a way a that a text input in a file stays in the background and displays inside the status bar/notifications   (input text that is  40 characters would suffice). I do NOT mean a notes app for displaying notes.

Is there any way to achieve this?

There is an app Notin which was amongst the top apps of the year as per XDA and by a coincidence had downloaded today  and works well

With notin, never forget the little things anymore. It's an easy way to save notes or reminders as a notification.
notin helps you in reminding things you need to do, random numbers you do not want to save in your contacts and many more through the help of Notifications. The reminder doesn't pop-up or rings, it just sits there and still does it's job most efficiently.


Reinstall a new OS on zigo nebula 6.9 tablet I have no idea about hardware, installing and configuring Android OS. I have Zigo nebula 6.9 tablet, which has MediaTek 1.3 GHz Dual Core - Cortex-A7 processor and 512MB ram. The tablet's OS is corrupted. I want to know:

Can I install stock android on this? If yes which version? How?

If not can I install any other android version after jellybean? If yes, How?

If both of above is impossible can I reinstall the same OS it has now?

NEBULA6.9_V46_MT6577_V1.26 FIRMWARE :

NEBULA6.9_V46_MT6582 FIRMWARE :

FIRMWARE FLASH TOOL WITH SUPPORT

The above links should be everything you need,
from what i can gather, your device comes in two different CPU Models, a MT6582 and an MT6577.

You'll need to identify your exact model before attempting to "DOWNLOAD" the system partition only.

DOWNLOAD ?
SP Flash Tool has a few different options when you flash a new firmware, The first being DOWNLOAD, the next is FIRMWARE UPGRADE ...
 You should never use FIRMWARE UPGRADE, EVER ... It is specifically for changing the entire android partition scheme, meaning that you will loose alot of partitions that aren't included in online firmware's such as the NVRAM, among other partitions, that hold your IMEI number and modem information, these partitions can not be restored after FIRMWARE UPGRADE and will need to be rebuilt by another software, however most imei, nvram repair tools no longer work on many newer MTK device's.

HOW TO USE THE FILES ?
• Download & Extract the correct firmware
• Download / Extract / INSTALL SP Flash Tool v 5.16+ ( link is 5.17 )
• Open SP Flash Tool
  - select load scatter
  - find and select the MT65xx_Android_scatter.txt file from the extracted firmware
  - unselect all partitions except system to be flashed
  - select DOWNLOAD as the method of flashing
       NEVER SELECT FIRMWARE UPGRADE !!!

• Turn Off your device and remove the battery
• Put the battery back in, and DONT turn it on.

• Place a USB cable into the computer, and then select START or FLASH "I can't remember the exact text"

• NOW Quickly insert the other end of the USB into your switched off device

• You should see the it loading and changing colors

• After it's finished, a big green OK sign will pop up if it was successful

NO GREEN OK SIGN    ?
Usually this is caused by a mismatched firmware, however their are a few different errors that may occur..

Incorrect Scatter File

Chipset Mismatch

Partition Scheme Changed in Firmware

Sometimes you'll get the wrong error response for the wrong reason, I'll explain.

First we need to look at the scatter file with a non destructive text editor like notepad++ , Wordpad and Notepad will change line endings to a different format and destroy a good scatter file, so don't use them.. and if you do, don't replace or add any line endings, like pressing Enter.. at all.

Ok so let's say i change my scatter file to say it's for an MT6578, now SP Flash Tool will say Chipset Mismatch, instead of incorrect scatter file...

If i correct the chipset in the scatter file to correspond with my device, it'll bypass that problem with chipset mismatch, but i can only do this if I'm sure that the firmware is designed for my device...

Usually with a working device, you can cross reference the scatters partition scheme by looking at your devices partition scheme...

on your device or adb,  you'd use the command

adb shell cat proc/partinfo

or

cat /proc/partinfo

and then crosscheck the partitions are correct.

In your case, their are methods of checking SP Flash Tool log files to find the partition scheme mismatch information, that'll include your devices scheme, and the scatter files scheme ( as to compare them )

Their is many ways to fix any flash errors, but using FIRMWARE UPGRADE is not one of them !

If you must try, use notepad++ and edit the scatter file, it's the only way for a successful flash...

Even if the system partition is from a different firmware with the same Android Version and Kernel Version and bit version x32 or x64, it can be used... This is because it purely contains system software that is designed for the corresponding hardware.

All other thing's like graphics drivers, modem drivers etc, are stored in separated partitions from the system partition.

Anyway, good luck on your endeavor. I have had lots of valuable lessons breaking my MTK's and needing to do exact clones to get it back ( not recommended )   ... and i hope some info here will help save you a few bucks, while also stop you from making the many mistakes that i have.

P.S
Every new Flash attempt, requires removing the USB cord from your device and then plugging it back in for a new connection to the preloader.

HANDY TIP :
I wish someone had of told me this years ago, but i know that it's kept pretty quite for good reasons, but here's how to put SP Flash Tool into Advanced Mode

1 - Open SP Flash Tool
2 - Hold CTRL + ALT + V and release

You should see it change to Advanced Mode in the title,  this allows full read write access to every single partition on your device, so be careful !

You can now READ your device and WRITE back to it at any partition sector, this allows you to ignore the devices partition scheme, as with FIRMWARE UPGRADE, but without the Automatic removal of all sectors.. meaning you can still flash a file to an exact location represented as hex start position and length of image to flash ( you essentially become the scatter file ).


cannot recover data from or unlock my phone Lenovo Z2 plus I needed some data from my old phone Lenovo Zuk Z2 plus (Z2132) but I have forgotten the lock screen PIN.

I tried a lot of recovery software, but all of them had a pre-requisite to either have the phone's USB Debugging mode enabled OR the device being rooted AND it's neither of those things.

I tried to enable USB Debugging mode using adb, however it doesn't detect any device when my device is on the lock screen. It detects it as (no serial number)    unauthorized only when the device is in recovery mode (that I got to via holding Volume Down & Power button).

I researched and found that if I run the command adb usb or some adb command, it would request me to allow USB Debugging via a popup. But the device is only detected when in recovery mode (hence, no popup there).

Is there any way I can access my data OR get my device to be detected when on lockscreen OR enable the usb debugging mode somehow.

There are couple of methods to unlock your device. It depends on you whether you want data from you internal storage or you want data from your applications.

If you want data from your internal storage, you can just download Aroma File Manager and flash it from your boot manager in your android device. Aroma File Manager let you browse your Internal Storage and can let you copy and paste file from your internal storage to external storage like SD card.
If you want your android device back to normal state without loosing your device Storage you can simply delete the Gesture.key or pass.key file from your root folder /data/system/gesture.key which you can browsed with the help of Aroma File Manager.

Conclusion is that you need Aroma File Manager to have access to your android device storage which can help you to get all you data back to you even if you don't know your password.

MAIN POINT IS THAT THE ABOVE STEP WILL VOID YOUR ANDROID PHONE WARRANTY.


How can I disable auto-rotate on my phone? I have a Droid 1 now running CM7.

Previously in CM6, there was an option to prevent the phone from auto-rotating (a rotation lock of sorts).  The only time it would rotate was when I slid out the keyboard.  I can't seem to find the option in CM7 (it might have been removed). Is there any other way to replicate this behavior (or am I blind and missing the feature in CM7)?

if you need easy access to it then

Menu -> Settings -> CyanogenMod settings -> Display -> Interface -> Notification power widget - > Widget buttons -> Toggle Orientation

will add a widget on the notification menu that lets you enable or disable rotation. just about the only time it seems useful is if you are lying on your side and you want the phone to stay in landscape, but it sure is convenient for that.


Are all Xperia Play Optimized games compatible with the Xperia Z/ZL's native DualShock 3 support? The Xperia Play is a one-of-a-kind phone that supports a physical keyboard for mobile gaming. Many games on the Play Store have been optimized to take advantage of these inputs.

Now, I've seen some videos showing that the Xperia Z & ZL have support for the DualShock 3 (the PS3 controller) without the need of rooting (1, 2). However, I was wondering: are games compatible with the Xperia Play keyboard automatically compatible for controller play on the Xperia Z/ZL? Or both types of optimization are completely different?

User poo-tang provided an answer in the xda forums:

  Xperia Play games don't work this way so won't be interchangeable. These new games are HID (Native Android built in virtual controller/mouse) supported (only available on Android 3.1 and up) Xperia Play uses Sony framework only. The games are coded for one or another (sometimes both if developer has added support for both)


Unlock Screen with ADB Android 4.1.2 I have a Sprint Galaxy S3 (v4.1.2?) that I've rooted with CWM. Last week the glass and display cracked, so now I can't access it directly.

I'm able to access it with adb so would like to use something like droid@screen or androidscreencast to access it.

The problem I'm having is with the screen display lock. It's set to press-then-tilt-forward to unlock the screen but I can't figure out how to send those events using adb to do it successfully.

Why doesn't droid@screen or androidscreencast do that directly anyway?

I've tried sending various keyevents including 82,83,1,3, among others, and none seem to have any effect. What is the proper keycode to send to disable the screen lock?

Thanks,
Alex

You could check whether there's a way to disable Keyguard (there must be some intent to use, as many apps like e.g. Tasker support that). That would turn any keylock off. One example how to do that I just found at Google Groups. First, that thread says the keycode should be 59 (keycode.KEYCODE_SHIFT_LEFT), but then also offers alternatives like:

$ adb shell
# cd /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases
# sqlite3 settings.db
sqlite> update system set value="-1" where name="screen_off_timeout";
sqlite> .quit
$

Heavy hack :) I'd recomment to check the value beforehand, so you can use the same way to revert things back (i.e. lock the screen again). Also, that rather looks like it would only disable the screen timeout (but not actually disable the lock if the screen is already locked). As a similar trick is used in Cannot unlock tablet as have no internet connection?, that might serve as an alternative:

> adb -d shell
# sqlite3 data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db
sqlite> update system set value=0 where name='lock_pattern_autolock';
sqlite> .exit
# exit

But this one only applies if you use pattern lock.

As written above, there should also be a way to do that via some intent, but I could not find a clue on which one that might be.


Enable Developer Options on Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 I'm having trouble enabling developer options on my Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 tablet. I click the build number 7 times and get the toast telling me it's enabled, but it doesn't appear in the menu items.

As you can see, developer options are unlocked but it's not listed in the menu items.

UPDATE:

So it turns out this is a problem with the latest version of Android on this device, Samsung  were not aware of this bug but are now and it will be fixed in the next release!

This is a bit of a desperate idea, but try rotating your device between portrait and landscape. It doesn't seem likely, but it's possible somebody at Samsung may have accidentally left out the Developer Options item from the layout or changed something that caused it to remain invisible.

If that doesn't work, try installing an app from the Play Store that acts as a shortcut to developer settings (like this one). It's not the most elegant solution, but it should be enough to get you there.


Call a phone number from app (or text)? Is there way to call a number displayed on the phone (as part of text, although support for images would be nice too) that takes less steps than:

long press to switch into text selection mode
adjust selection begin and end to match the number
tap the "copy" icon
press/tap the "home" button
tap the Dialer icon
long press on the number field
tap "Paste"
tap the Call icon
?

I see there is an app that dials a number from the clipboard, but that only shaves off one or two steps.

Also this question is mentioned many times on the web, but I did not find any conclusive answer/solution.

Note: There is a similar question that is specific to phone numbers that appear on websites (and has no answers anyway).

Google Now on Tap
on Marshmallow does something similar but not perfectly

Long pressing the Home brings up the Google Now on Tap with various options , one of them being calling the number listed ( others being- text, share and add contact). The number gets pasted on the  telephone app without any user intervention. One can directly call from there

This is from a resturant search using an app. It works well in this case

This is from a random telephone directory search on mobile browser (details blacked out for obvious reasons). Here, it picks up only the first number, so this option is a hit and miss , if there are several numbers in the image


Sideload non-'Android TV' app to show on the home screen I've sideloaded an app on my Xiaomi Mi Box adb install myapk.apk. It worked and I can start it. My problem is, that it got installed as system app, which is only accesible over the settings and  prevents me from adding it to the home screen, which makes it really anoying.
Can I sideload an app directly as user app or can I convert a existing system app to a user app?
EDIT:
The app I sideloaded is a tv app of a provider which is supposed to only run on mobile devices, as the distribute apple tv.

I found a working solution for me.
As I cannot add the sideloaded app to my home screen, I used this service to generate a launcher app which can be added to the home screen and will start the main app:
http://atvlauncher.trekgonewild.de/index.php


Small clock icon above AM/PM on 4x2 clock widget Just received JellyBean 4.1.2 on my Sprint Samsung Galaxy S3. I have always used the 4x2 digital clock widget and I noticed a small icon that looks like a clock appearing just above the AM/PM. This also appears when displaying the weather for the various cities. What does it mean?

Going by your description, you're referring to the object circled in this screenshot

That thing indicates that the city the time is being shown for is currently running on daylight savings time.  In this screenshot, we see that New York is observing daylight savings time, and Phoenix isn't.


how do I download jorte calendar on new tablet I cant download my jorte calendar from my htc phone to my new tablet becuz the port to recharge my phone is faulty and so the battery keeps dying and wont hold a charge and according to the sprint store, that is the same port that connects my phone and tablet, so therefore I cant link phone to tablet, and the phone keeps dying,  and the sprint store says it can't save my calendar to a new phone becuz its not a goggle calendar.and i cant charge the phone to access the calendar. I need to access and download my calendar at least, even if i cant save it to my new phone. ideas?

If you can turn the phone on, set jorte to sync with a google calendar. Then you can get it on any android device you want.

If the phone is dead and you can't charge it you may try charging the battery with an external charger then following the step above.


How do I sync all mail folders on my HTC Desire? The mail application only synchronizes the inbox, both for IMAP and Exchange accounts.

I auto-sort my mail into folders at the server and need to see all folders in the phone to not miss any e-mails.

Do I need a different mail-application to poll subfolders or what?

I'm afraid this is not possible with HTC Email application. This email app sync the "Inbox" folder automatically, but every other folder you have is not synced, the app gets all mail in the folder when you enter that folder to see what's inside.

You have the option to use K9Mail, a free e-mail client for Android which supposedly has support for push mail and sync of multiple folders.


Is there a way to turn a web page into an app-like link on the android home page? I'd like to be able to move to a specific page without having to (as I'm currently doing,) click on Chrome, then go to bookmarks and then have to go through the logon procedure to get back to the exact page I want.

Is there a way to have that precise page live as a pressable app-like icon so that I can get right back there quickly as I access this page often.

Bookmark the page in Chrome for Android. Go to your bookmarks, long-press on the bookmark, and click "Add to Home Screen".

Source:
http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57416489-285/how-to-add-chrome-for-android-bookmarks-to-your-home-screen/

Works on my Galaxy S4 and Nexus 7.


How to convert a number to words in MS Excel Android app automatically? Excel macros are unsupported in Android and there is also no SpellNum function. I want a function which can convert a number to words.
Also, I am unable to find any relevant ways of doing so in the Google Sheets Android app.
Is there any way we can achieve this?

The simplest approach is to use a VLOOKUP() table
put the number in A1 and in B1 enter:
=VLOOKUP(A1,C:D,2,FALSE)


Did I just brick my HTC One X So today I unlocked bootloader on my HTC one X then flashed CWM recovery then attempted to install cyanogenmod. It said in the recovery that zip file installed successfully, but when I reboot it is stuck at the cyanogen logo boot screen. I did a full wipe before I installed the ROM. Now I cant use adb, device not detected, can't install another rom because I cant use the phone storage. All I can do now is go to the recovery or bootloader screens, the device is detected by my pc though. Did I just brick my phone? any leads to what I should do? I can lock/relock bootloader and flash the recovery

Don't panic. Try this:

On your computer, browse your ROM .zip file, there should be a file named boot.img at top level. Extract it somewhere on your computer.

Plug your phone into your computer via USB cable.

Boot your phone into bootloader mode. (Power + Volume Down button for 5 seconds.) At bootloader screen your phone should say FASTBOOT USB.

Assuming you know where your fastboot.exe is on your computer, issue this command in cmd:
path/to/your/fastboot.exe flash boot path/to/your/boot.img

After that restart your phone and see if it can boot into your ROM:
fastboot reboot


Best Car stereo for my android phone I just got a HCT EVO and was thinking about getting car stereo with bluetooth, car mount, and car charger to go with it (for my 2005 Civic).

First of all, are there any products that will do all of these?  A mount/charger that can also be hooked into the car audio?  It doesn't even have to be bluetooth if it can just directly hook my phone into the car speakers, but I haven't been able to find anything like this.

Otherwise, I am having trouble finding a minimal bluetooth device... I don't really need anything features except routing bluetooth to my car audio, because my phone does everything else.

I am also concerned that I've read some reviews that say they only work with the phones bluetooth calling and not with playing media.  I'd like to be able to listen to pandora in the car.  How can I make sure that when I see "bluetooth" I can know it supports both?

Can anyone give me some tips on what to look for or where to look?  Are these things hard to install yourself?

Check that the device supports A2DP and AVRCP.  You'll find many handsfree kits that connect to your stereo support those (it's what I use) - check out Parrot's range for examples.

Then you can use a separate mount and charger so that when you replace your phone you don't have to replace everything.


Nova launcher shortcut to Google location accuracy Is there a way I can make a shortcut so I can go straight to it other than go through a shortcut to location and hit Google location accuracy and Flipper switch?

https://i.imgur.com/z1rxC07.jpg

Press and hold on free space on home screen. Then it will display three options, home settings, widget and wallpaper.
Tap on widget, and scroll down to select settings app icon, and drag it to home screen.
It will open a screen which ask for specific settings, select Location from it.

After that you can move to location settings just tap on that widget.


Unix utilities (cat, grep, ls etc.) for Android? I'm transitioning to one folder with many (txt-)files, adapting (letters instead of symbols, lowercase only, no spaces) Merlin Manns txt-setup. With cat, grep, head and other Unix-utilities, it's better than a folder structure.

I use this on Ubuntu, storing the files in my Dropbox-folder. I'd like to have the same functionality on Android, but have come up empty handed. They don't have to be the same tools, and if I can only cover part of the functionality, that's a great start.

How can I get this (or similar) functionality?

Busybox is a single utility that contains the functionality of many of the basic Unix tools. It's used on most embedded-Linux systems instead of having separate executables for each utility, which wastes space owing to code duplication.

There are several Busybox installers available on Google Play, and one on F-Droid. Custom ROMs often have Busybox built-in.

In addition, grep and cat (and a few more) are already built into Android. Android has its own Busybox-like called Toolbox, but it's a lot smaller (i.e. more limited) than the full Busybox.

You can access Toolbox commands (or Busybox commands once you've installed it) from a terminal emulator, in just the same way as any Unix system.


Android USB not recognized on PC I have Samsung S4 Mini phone which I bought about 10 months ago. I used to transfer my files from phone to my PC and vice versa without any trouble using the USB cable. Recently, I enabled the Developer Settings (by tapping the build number 7 times), turned on USB debugging mode. I could transfer files even after this.

After a few days, my PC stopped recognizing the USB. I don't see the the USB button in the notification panel. I get a notification - "The last USB device you connected to this computer malfunctioned, and Windows does not recognize it".

In the device manager, I find Other Devices under which I see "Unknown Device". If I disconnect my phone, I don't see this entry.

I had searched quite a lot on Google for the same, but couldn't come up with a resolution. In fact, I did factory reset as my last attempt on my own and still couldn't find any result. (Lost all my apps for no reason).

Other Details:
1. I tried connecting my friend's phone onto my PC with the same cable, his device was recognized.
2. And yes, the cable was provided by Samsung itself, which used to work in the past and now it is not working.

Some one, please help me in connecting my phone to laptop using USB.

This is definitely being caused by the drivers. You have to uninstall everything related to your phone from your computer. The drivers, and anything else it installed. Remove all of that, then re-download the drivers for your phone off of google. Install these drivers, then plug the phone in. It should download anything missing now and hopefully recognize the device.

You could even try reinstalling the USB device's drivers itself.
On my phone, I can specify whether to host the android device as media storage, image, or charge-only. Try switching between these (if your device allows) and see if that makes a difference.

EDIT: Using DriveDroid, creating an image and hosting that image as a USB flash device would be an appropriate workaround.


Issues after updating Nexus 4 to Android Lollipop I am observing the following behavior after upgrading (flash and upload factory image, no OTA) my Nexus 4 to Android Lollipop.

When I clear all the recents, and again try to view recents, I am
still able to see apps over there (most of the times, I see Android System )
Battery is draining very fast.
Battery charging speed is drastically reduced.
While trying to call from the Speed Dial tab, the call screen comes up after a while. I kept on tapping the contact but the call was already started in the background.

Is it currently possible to install/update to Android Lollipop on the Nexus 4 without these being an issue? If so, how?

I did a factory reset and its working fine now. May be there was a problem in upgrading.


Recovery is rewritten I am using a Lenovo p70 which I flashed with AOSP 6.0 ported from Lenovo k3.

The ROM keeps overwriting the TWRP custom recovery with stock recovery (which doesn't even boot).
As far as I know this problem is caused by the fact that /system is mounted as read-only. In most cases twrp must promp you and take care about that but that is not my case.
Also I tried editing "fstab.mt6752" but it gets overwritten on boot/reboot and the default values are returned.

So the question is how do I stop the ROM (AOSP) from overwriting the TWRP?
And in case I am right, how do I make system to be mounted as read-write by default?

Don't know if you already done. But, most customs like CM, have an option in developer settings to not overwrite recovery.


Change default Chrome Built-in dictionary I have recently noticed that once I select a word in Chrome, I get an option "Dictionary" that would take me to this app.
This is the icon of the app:

I can't uninstall this app, thus this means that this is an app by default/built-in.

Is there any way of using another dictionary from the contextual menu of a web page in chrome? By this I mean when you select one word in a webpage there is this popup that comes up with the last option dictionary. The built-in dictionary is quite poor for certain languages, and I'm using dictionaries quite a lot.

Ideally I'd like to use GoldenDict: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mobi.goldendict.android

but any other dictionary would be fine.

My android verison is 8.0 on a Galaxy S7.

I also do not like this built in dictionary. I don't think you can get rid of it, but you can add a better dictionary with pop up functionality, like OnTouch (cheap but good) or Oxford English Dictionary (more expensive)


Can I rollback the stock system by just installing an older image zip? I received the 4.2.x updates on my Nexus 7 and the performance has been awful.  I tried the Forever Gone hack and it helped but it's still much worse than 4.1.x.  I'm not so excited about doing a factory wipe in order to make my system almost as good as it was a month ago.

I've never tried rolling back a stock system before, is it possible to download the official nexus image zip and install it from CWM recovery?  Or do I have to do a more involved wiping and flashing process?  My system is stock 4.2.1 rooted and unlocked, with custom recovery.

Don't use full image at recovery! It contains recovery too (CM can repair itself, but reflash of bootloader is not needed).

Use fastboot and flash partitions: system, data

You will lose all of your data on the tablet, but it is needed because of the different filesystem structure. Without reflashing data you will get a bootloop.


Launcher3 not working on Android 7.1.1 I have a Moto Z Force Droid running Android 7.1.1. Today Launcher3 died repeatedly and wouldn't let me do anything. I found a note that suggested clearing either the cache or the data for the app. I chose to clear the data, and now Launcher3 won't let me place app icons on the main screens. I have to find them on the app list, and a long press shows a series of information buttons on the app instead of letting me place it on a screen. Rebooting to safe mode didn't help.

Any suggestions for (a) fixing this, or (b) getting a new launcher? I tried Evie Launcher and Smart Launcher 3 and didn't like either.

Still shaking my head over this.  Turns out the little balloons that rise up in the app list (and only on certain apps) are IN ADDITION to being able to move the icon to the main screen, via a long press.  After having lunch and calming down, I tried repopulating the main screen and it worked.  Sigh.


How to root Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini? Does anybody know how to root the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini?

Model Number : GT-I8190
Android Version : 4.1.2

You can root your Galaxy S3 Mini without computer without PC.

Go to Settings>Security>Check Allow Unknown resources.
Download Root Master 2.0 apk from here.
Install it as normal apk. Open the app and click root.
Now the phone will restart and you'll see Kinguser in your app
drawer.
To Verify Root, Download Root Checker Basic from Playstore.

Regards,

Phantasam


Transfer sms data from a Samsung Gal. 3 with black screen of death I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 with the black screen of death. I was able to download files from phone and sd card onto my computer.

However, I would like to access my old sms text messages. I have "sms backup and restore" app on phone, but it hasn't backed up any recent messages. I also have Kies software on my computer, which I used to recover all media, contacts, etc., but it will not backup/restore messages for some reason.

How can I recover my sms text messages?

Assuming the device is running Android 4.0 or higher, you could use adb backup to get all data to your computer. Then you could extract your messages from the backup file, see e.g.:

How do you extract an App's data from a full backup made through “adb backup”?
Is there a way to look inside and modify an adb backup created file?
Backup using adb on a phone with a dead screen

If you have root access, an easier way might be to directly exctract the corresponding database using adb pull. While the SMS database usually is located in /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/mmssms.db, it seems on Samsung devices different locations might be used. See e.g. Where on the file system are SMS messages stored?

A third variant would be utilizing VNC to substitute your screen: Broken Screen + Using adb shell to run vnc server.


Play Services 8.3.0 crashing - Android 4.4.4 I've PAC rom with Android 4.4.4 on my n7 (2013) and sgs3 and everything is working fine.

Google Play Services on version 8.3 crashs all the time. 8.1.15.x is working fine.

Are there any solutions?

Clearing data of GPS (not the location service) didn't help: services and store.

Can I disable auto update of services?

It is really annoying to downgrade it with Titanium Backup all the time. (The crash messages are not better)

Well, that is custom rom, so first chect the theme of that rom if you found it on the forum, maybe it is a known bug for rom. And maybe, just maybe you flashed the wrong gapps package, did you tried flashing another package of gapps for that rom?


Turning my mobile into wifi hotspot using computer connection? I know that my mobile can turn into a hotspot using a configuration option.
I know that my PC can use my mobile internet through the usb cable.

But is the other way possible ? Can my mobile use my PC internet connection and then broadcast it as a hotspot ?

If you're using a PC with Wi-Fi, you don't need the mobile to create a hotspot: How to Turn Your Windows PC Into a Wi-Fi Hotspot

You should also be able to use this method if you're getting the Internet connection on your PC through a mobile device via USB.

Hope this helps!


Batch remove entries from Multiling dictionary In the Android dictionary, there are hundreds of abbreviations and all-caps combinations that are hardly ever used.
However, when typing, these words keep popping up instead of the intended words.

The system in question is a non-rooted Android 7, and the keyboard is Multiling O Keyboard.
Since apps cannot write to the built-in dictionary, I assume that Multiling stores user dictionary entries (like the addition or removal of words) in a separate file, and compares this file to the built-in dictionary.

Where does Multiling keep its word lists (for each language)?

Is there a way to remove all of these abbreviations and all-caps words, e. g. by batch-processing a list or by replacing a database file?

You can edit the file in the preferences (gear symbol), then Misc, then Import/Export and there you find the user dictionary.

I’ve written this down, because I’ve been searching so long to find how to backup my user dictionary of the Honso Multiling O Keyboard.


Is there a way to make a page in the Kindle app less brighter than the options available within the app? I have my bright setting on the lowest in my app and my phone is at the lowest possible brightnes too but I find it too bright to read a page in the Kindle app in the dark.  Is there any way to lower the brightness? I only find that the Android stock browser's lowest brightness setting to be bearable in the dark; even the lowest possible brightness setting in Chrome is too bright.  Is there some radical way to make the brightness in the Kindle lower than the default?

Samsung Galaxy S3
4.1.1

You can change the brightness in the Kindle app by touching the "Aa" icon near the upper right. This will bring up the font, size and brightness settings, which you can then adjust to your liking.


Is there a solution for poor Acer Iconia A500 playback of MP4 video? When playing back MP4 video files my Acer Iconia A500 will drop frames and produce video artifacts. Does it just not support MP4, or is there a better MP4 player I can download?

Update: Turns out it was just an issue with 1080p video. 720p video plays back great.

You could give a try to a pre-alpha version of VLC. Be warned this is not a finalized application and there might be errors, but it's still worth a try.


A second Boot Loop, any underlying causes? Recently, a while after I rooted my Galaxy SII, I decided to take the plunge and flash a custom rom.

I went with the stable slimbean roms, It survived for a little over a month or two, with 1 maybe 2 updates to newer builds, but about 2.5 weeks back, it went into a boot loop.

I tried most solutions I could find, and nothing helped, so in the end I flashed AOKP rom, and that worked really well for 2 weeks. Now even that is stuck in a boot loop.

I am trying to figure out if these are one off things or if it is something I am doing wrong or could it be a hardware fault?

Details-

When I went from slimbean - AOKP, I did do a clean wipe (tried once without wipe and it was stuck in boot loop) but after the clean wipe I came across Nandroid Manager, and used it to restore my user apps data back.
The couple of days before it died I experienced some general sporadic slowdown along with a wierd problem that sometimes it would completely freeze when playing a song for a second or 2. I put that down to either sdcard issues or song corruption, but now I am not sure.

You could try connecting the phone to PC and reboot. After powering down, start  adb logcat on computer. In this way you could see system logs during booting and may find what's wrong with the phone.


How can I stop Google photos to show images from my google drive So I have some private images that I would rather not like to show up on google photos, I have them on my google drive but today I wanted to show some pictures of my office to a friend of mine when some other pics showed up that I uploaded on drive the day before,

Is there anyway to hide those images from google photos?

You may choose to show or not all images from Drive to Google Photo, not individual one. There's a Google Drive setting in Photo for that.

There's also an analogue setting in Drive, to show images from Photo. You may turn off the setting in Photo and turn on the Drive one, so you may upload images in Drive if you want to not show it in Photo or upload them in Photo to show them also in Drive.


Dead spots on touchscreen: Could it be related to software corruption? I have a Sony Xperia P running stock Android 4.1.2. A few days ago, my phone started misbehaving and I found some dead spots on its touchscreen. I can't click on some of the areas. Could it be a software problem? I've already tried a factory reset but it didn't work. I've installed CWM recovery image and taken a complete NANDroid backup. Before flashing a new ROM, I wanted to make sure if I'm headed in the right direction. I'm not sure if my screen digitizer is damaged or what. Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance.

First thing flash stock ROM to check the issue and most probably in these cases its a hardware fault as you described you have dead spots on touch they can be due to pressure of some kind which can also cause touch to get damaged too , to be sure flash with factory/stock ROM and see if things change or remain same


HTC One internal storage performing very slowly Using A1 SD, I can see that my HTC One (M7)'s 'internal SD card' (ie, the embedded storage) is incredibly slow compared to other benchmarks listed by anonymous users for the same phone. I'm only getting  6.68MB/s read, and 2.76MB/s write. However, others are getting 50MB/s read and 33MB/s write (for the same HTC One M7 and the same storage location)

Any idea why my phone might be performing so slowly? And how might I improve its speeds?

Its important to note that I've run this diagnosis because for months I've put up with slow speeds and only now getting around to doing something about it. Quite often when saving a photo or a video it will hang for many minutes. I typically find that performance is worse when the card is nearing on full, but now even clearing out storage doesn't seem to give back much performance.

Resetting my phone did the trick.

This isn't a very good answer, as I don't know the root cause. I'm going to slowly add back apps and see if there's a particular one that might have been a bit IO greedy. So far I've added most back and its still fantastically fast again. Haven't signed into Facebook yet... I've always had my suspicions...


Samsung Note 8 Firmware I'm just new to android as i have been using ios for all this time, my question is, I have recently bought a Note 8 in the UK, due to cost and I'm now back home in Australia, can I change the samsung firmware from the UK to AU Firmware if i have been able to download the AU version?

Both UK and Australia are slated to get the SM-N950F (international) variant, so theoretically you are free to change the firmware. Firmware for this variant is available on SamMobile, where you can see both UK and Australia firmware listed.


Do System Apps get Root permissions to theirselves? The Question is: If I would install the famous App "Tincore Keymapper" as a System App... will It get the required root permissions without my Phone being Rootet or damaged? And If the answer is positive:
How to Do that via Adb?

If your phone isn't rooted, then none of the apps can get root access, regardless of whether they are installed as system app. Also, I quite doubt how you can install extra system apps without root. Rooting may require a custom recovery and may not be easily done with only ADB.


Asked to set PIN for credential storage I've never had a smart phone before. Now, I'm being asked if I want to set a pin or pasword for my "credential storage" before using it. I'm not even sure what this is. It looks like I do not have much storage left and I've had this phone only a few months.

It's for installing VPN and SSL client authentication certificates that you use to access VPNs or web servers that use certificates as logon credentials. It's fairly rare to need to use credential storage for the majority of Droid users. If you don't possess any digital certificates that identify you,it has no value to you.(found in some forum)


Soft brick after dunking phone in coffee I (accidentally) dunked my Samsung Galaxy S S7562 in coffee. When I found it, it was swimming around in the coffee in my bag. It seemed to be working when I shut it down and took out the battery.

I left it in uncooked rice overnight. Then, I dried it under the sun for a few hours before putting the battery back. I can only get to the Samsung splash screen and (for a few seconds) to the custom ROM installation screen. Is this a characteristic soft brick?

I suspect there might be hardware damage because of coffee particles. What can I do at this stage?

My brother's S3 Mini had a nice water trip on Espain beach. It turned on, but it had software issues such as apps opening randomly, volume changing itself, and random reboots. When the battery went empty, it didn't turn on.

My brother tried his friend's S3 Mini battery, and it worked fine, but all the problems remained. So, he bought a new one.

Try another battery. If still doesn't boot, take it to the service center. Last thing is to buy a new phone.


How To Install Latest Cyanogenmod From Clockworkmod Recovery - Galaxy Note GT-N7000 (Intl) (Short Version)

How to install Cyanogenmod from ClockWorkMod Recovery. What tools do I need as a first timer? (I already have ClockWorkMod Recovery installed)

(Long Version)

I tried to install Cyanogenmod with the get.cm and get.cm/app instructions. But the install process was interrupted by windows driver recognition.

All I have now is a ClockWorkMod Recovery and, apparently, nothing more. The Cyanogenmod Windows Installer recognize the device but can't continue from this point (it asks for enabling/allowing USB Debugging).

What tools do I need to copy Cyanogenmod in Windows 7 or Ubuntu 12.04 to my Galaxy Note GT-N7000 (Intl) with only ClockWorkMod Recovery and proceed with the install process?

Thanks in advance!

(My devices)

Samsung Galaxy Note GT-N7000 (Intl) - and a notebook with Ubuntu 12.04 and Windows 7 64 Professional

I recently installed Cyanogenmod on a galaxy note 8.  What worked for me was to copy Cyanogenmod to an microSD card.  Then with microSD plugged into phone, boot the clockwork, and install from SD card.

Hope that Helps!!


Where are kernel modules installed? I am trying to find Linux kernel modules on my nitrogen board.
I have unpacked kernel config from /proc/config.gz and I see kernel was compiled with a lot of modules.
I see only one in /vendor/lib/modules, zero in /system/lib/modules.
Can somebody explain where modules installed, what is procedure to install modules?

There are two ways Linux kernel modules are built: 1. as a part of kernel executable binary (compressed image) i.e. with CONFIG_*=y options at build time, or 2. as separate kernel object (.ko) files that can be loaded and unloaded with some conditions i.e. built with CONFIG_*=m options.
In second case the .ko files are placed on some standard location(s), usually /lib/modules/ on Linux and its equivalent on Android /system/lib/modules/ or /vendor/lib/modules/. These paths are hard-coded in binaries that load them e.g. insmod, modprobe.

On pre-Pie releases (1), by-default Android kernel is built without option CONFIG_MODULES=y, so there are no kernel modules built as .ko files which can be loaded or unloaded with insmod, modprobe or rmmod as is the case with standard Linux distros. Nor they are exposed through /proc/modules from where lsmod reads information. However each kernel component that can be built as a module has an entry in /sys/module.

Now those modules which are compiled and loaded as .ko file has a corresponding /sys/module/<module>/initstate file, others don't have. You can confirm this way if there are any loaded modules:

~$ ls /sys/module/*/initstate


How to stop apps writing to "Android" folder on the SD card? I have a (seemingly) simple question to which I haven't found a clear answer to. My phone creates an "Android" folder on my SD card and I'm wondering if it could be moved into the phone's internal storage instead.

I just got a new phone and it's got way more storage than my last phone, so I'd like to make the most out of it as I can, so I'd prefer that all the application data is on the internal storage rather than on the SD card.

That's the way it worked on my old phone, so I'm a bit puzzled that it doesn't seem as easy to do anymore.

Apps usually don't write data to external SD card, but starting with Android 4.4 up to latest release 10, there is no permission to stop apps writing to Android directory on external storage. The reason is more historical than technical.

ANDROID'S STORAGE JOURNEY:

Android provides two types of storage to apps: private (or internal) and shared (or external). As names suggest, private directories of every app (in /data/data/) aren't accessible to other apps, but data placed on shared storage is.

External storage used to be physically external SD card (with permission-less filesystem from FAT family) in early days when flash storage was costly. So apps used to place a lot of data on external SD card.

Android enforced WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission as early as in Android 1.5 to control which apps could write to external storage, so almost every app had to request this permission.

As the internal flash memory grew in size, OEMs created a separate partition (usually named sdcard) "to provide external storage internally". Now there were two external storage: primary (sdcard partition) and secondary (external SD card). Since primary external storage was still smaller, apps continued to widely use secondary storage by placing files wherever they wanted, creating random directories on both storage.

In Android 2.3 FUSE was introduced to emulate primary external storage (/sdcard) over actual filesystem of sdcard partition which majorly remained vFAT. But the primary intention was to retain a permission-less virtual filesystem (like FAT) over a permission-aware Linux filesystem (like ext4) so that data could be shared among apps (UIDs).

Android 3.1 switched USB Mass Storage (UMS) to Media Transfer Protocol (MTP). It means that sdcard partition or external SD card was not mounted as partition when connected to PC. So actual filesystem contents aren't visible over MTP, instead MediaStore (one of Android's built-in content providers) provides an indexed list of files. Also apps can make use of this content provider. See details in this answer.

Starting with Android 3.2 apps write-ability to external SD card was restricted to only system apps (using WRITE_MEDIA_STORAGE permission). See details in How to move files to external SD card?. On rooted devices this restriction is hacked by mapping GID media_rw (1023) to WRITE_EXTERNAL_SRORAGE permission.

By the release of Android 4.0 (started with 3.0) OEMs started emulating /data/media on /sdcard as primary external storage, which eliminated sdcard partition. This was not possibly with UMS because /data could not be un-mounted from Android to mount on PC. This is true to till date.

Android 4.3 merged multiple fstabs used previously to a single /fstab.<device>  file and introduced voldmanaged flag for external filesystems to be mounted by vold. With Treble support in Android 8, fstab was moved to vendor partition and in DTB. See What is default “fstab” file in Android?

In Android 4.4 making use of FUSE-based synthesized permissions, apps were allowed to write to their "private directories" (inside Android/{data,media,obb}/ directories) on "shared storage" without requesting Storage permission. It made it officially possible for apps to use multiple external storage (primary and secondary). Also READ|WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE was necessarily required to read external storage, including other apps' private directories.

Storage Access Framework (SAF) was introduced to let non-system apps write to SD card and direct write access to secondary external storage was strictly stopped. So now it was made clear that external storage is not always removable storage, the former could be physically internal. Transient storage like USB is in addition to these.

Coming to your question:

  I'd prefer that all the application data is on the internal storage rather than on the SD card.

Third party apps cannot write directly to public directories on secondary external storage, but cannot be stopped from writing to their private directories (1, 2, 3, 4), thanks to synthesized permissions based on directory structure:

  "The WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission must only grant write access to the primary external storage on a device. Apps must not be allowed to write to secondary external storage devices, except in their package-specific directories as allowed by synthesized permissions. Restricting writes in this way ensures the system can clean up files when applications are uninstalled."

And:

  "Starting in Android 4.4, the owner, group and modes of files on external storage devices are now synthesized based on directory structure. This enables apps to manage their package-specific directories on external storage without requiring they hold the broad WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission. For example, the app with package name com.example.foo can now freely access Android/data/com.example.foo/ on external storage devices with no permissions. These synthesized permissions are accomplished by wrapping raw storage devices in a FUSE daemon."

By accessing / creating their private directories, apps confirm if the secondary external storage is available. So in most cases the directories under Android directory on SD card are either empty, or the files are a copy of those on primary external storage. Though it doesn't make sense most of the times, but some app developers may prefer to save data on secondary external storage, it's up to their will. E.g. for quickly expanding raw video files or large OBB files as mentioned by Andrew in comment. Android's suggestion:

  "... the device has two different external storage directories, so you need to select which one to use when writing "private" files to the external storage.
  ...
  The first entry ... is ... the primary external storage, and you should use that location unless it's full or unavailable."

And the other one:

  "An application may store data on any or all of the returned devices. For example, an app may choose to store large files on the device with the most available space"

Since private directories on external as well as internal storage are deleted on app uninstall, the preferred storage for apps to store persistent data (like photos) is primary external public storage. This norm continues to till date. Therefore it's usually safe to delete Android and other empty directories (some Android versions also create standard directories) on external SD card but those would be recreated.

STORAGE JOURNEY CONTINUED...

SAF (file picker) was extended in Android 5 (for Directory Selection) and then in 7 (to Scoped Directory Access). Android 10 further extended it to Scoped External Storage Access entirely removing filesystem level access to primary external storage as well, replacing with filesystem APIs.

Android 6 introduced Adoptable Storage to use SD card as primary external storage by encrypting it (vold flag in fstab: encryptable=userdata). Now even apps and their data on internal storage can be moved to adoptable storage. See How to move apps from internal to external storage? This was previously achieved by OEMs and custom ROM developers by applying patches like "Default write disk" or "Disable Internal Memory" to AOSP. Apps like "Link2SD" also filled the gap on rooted devices.

Additionally Storage Configuration (storage.xml) was removed from framework-res.apk and merged to fstab. UUID based mount path was introduced.
Also many install-time permissions were shifted to runtime permissions and in order to make WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE a runtime permission, mount namespaces were used. For details see What is the “u#_everybody” UID? and What is /storage/emulated/0/?

FUSE was removed completely in Android 9. sdcardfs is now used for emulation. Read full story here.


After rebooting phone, app shortcuts from sd go missing I own a Samsung Galaxy S Advance (i9070) with stock android 4.1.2

There is not a lot of internal storage, so I tend to move all possible apps from phone to SD card. However, when I reboot the phone, the shortcuts from the homescreen dissapear and i have to put them back in place all over again. Very annoying.

How can I fix this behaviour?

So I have found a great solution. Using a micro SD-Card with 2 partitions. One normal fat32 and second ext2 so the app link2sd can use it as a fake mobile memory on the second ext2 partition. Now all the Jelly Bean internal apps run on the mobile itself and all the other apps I have installed on the second sd-card partition. Have more apps than ever and still over 150mb left on the mobile. GREAT. And the great side effect is, that all the shortcuts and widgets of other apps now work perfectly and dont disappear after reboot. YES!


How much of the Android filesystem is visible over MTP? When I plug in my Android device to my computer it gets connected as a media device under MTP mode. I can browse a bit of the folders on my device via my computer. I'm wondering how much of the device am I actually able to see? What sort of folders and content specifically is not visible over MTP? Does MTP have a corresponding set of file permissions associated with it?

MTP - an extension to PTP - is a client-server protocol, roughly like FTP. MTP client on PC sends operation requests (like GET_OBJECT, SEND_OBJECT, DELETE_OBJECT) to server running on Android device and gets responses back.

Unlike USB Mass Storage (UMS), MTP doesn't expose filesystem at all. Instead contents of shared external storage (/sdcard - a subdirectory of /data/media/ - and physically external SD card) which are indexed in database of MediaStore Content Provider are shown to PC. Everything else (including /data, /system, /vendor and other filesystems) is not visible over MTP.

Since there's no filesystem level access, there're no filesystem permissions. Related details:

Why does MTP show wrong directory location?
Android Storage Journey
What is /storage/emulated/0/?
Android Device Partitions and Filesystems


Advanced "Find in page" in Google Chrome mobile? Regarding the "Find in page" feature of Android's default and/or Google Chrome web browsers:

Is there a way to fine-tune the search parameters in order to search for strings with more precision or specificity (i.e. inclusivity/exclusivity)?

I've tried using regular expressions to narrow results, but they don't appear to be supported.

With Chrome for Android, you can't perform "advanced" search for example using regular expression. There are extensions such as Chrome Regex Search or find+ | Regex Find-in-Page Tool that allow to fine tune your searches on a page, but Chrome for Android does not support extensions.
If you are not opposed to the use of other browsers than Chrome, you can use Yandex browser or Kiwi browser (they are both based on Chromium. Install one of the extensions mentioned above as you will on your PC, then you will be able to narrow searches on a page.


Samsung Galaxy Nexus Bootloop. Cannot format or write data Model: GSM Galaxy Nexus I9250 Takju Maguro
ROM: CyanogenMod 11 Kitkat
Recovery: Clock Mod
OS: Android 4.4

Basically, my phone has been working fine for the last 2 years. I had only one issue of phone getting slow down. That I fixed by rooting and installing Lagfix. I've been using this CyanogenMod 11 ROM for the last 6 month and it was working fine. Suddenly though, I got the error, "Unfortunately, the process com.google.process.gapps has stopped". Then the phone went into boot loop

I've tried rebooting into recovery, formatting data, wiping cache, davlik cache, system, internal storage. I did the factory reset. When I reboot, nothing seems wiped or erased. I tried using the android toolkit and installing the stock JWR66Y boot image from fastboot mode. When I restart, nothing has changed . No apps or data deleted.

I have pulled all my data via adb pull. It seems i can read data but cannot delete or write data.

I also tried Flash stock + unroot from NEXUS ROOT TOOLKIT 1.8.8. But even though it shows everything completed. All the data is intact in the phone and no new data is written.

I tried locking back the bootloader. Its showed Lock Status: LOCKED after locking. But after a reboot it is again showing Lock Status: UNLOCKED.

It seems I can't write any data at all.

Here is the log after Flash stock + unroot from NEXUS ROOT TOOLKIT 1.8.8

--------------------------------------------
Bootloader Version...: PRIMEMD04
Baseband Version.....: I9250XXLJ1
Serial Number........: 0149C2DC16009006
--------------------------------------------
checking product...
OKAY [ 0.011s]
checking version-bootloader...
OKAY [ 0.200s]
checking version-baseband...
OKAY [ 0.013s]
sending 'boot' (4376 KB)...
OKAY [ 0.454s]
writing 'boot'...
OKAY [ 2.551s]
sending 'recovery' (4924 KB)...
OKAY [ 0.514s]
writing 'recovery'...
OKAY [ 4.537s]
erasing 'system'...
OKAY [ 0.017s]
sending 'system' (474180 KB)...
OKAY [ 47.790s]
writing 'system'...
OKAY [1611.793s]
erasing 'userdata'...
OKAY [ 0.040s]
sending 'userdata' (137559 KB)...
OKAY [ 14.088s]
writing 'userdata'...
OKAY [243.999s]
erasing 'cache'...
OKAY [ 0.016s]
sending 'cache' (8832 KB)...
OKAY [ 0.922s]
writing 'cache'...
OKAY [ 14.482s]
rebooting...

finished. total time: 1941.733s

Booting up your freshly flashed stock device...
------------------------------------------------------------------

Wait for your device to finish booting up...

- It may appear to be boot looping; just wait...

- It could take 5-10 minutes; please be patient...

When its finally booted back up, please remember
to re-enable USB debugging if you plan on using
the toolkit to perform other operations.

NOTE: If this process was too quick and your device
is still in bootloader mode, then flashing stock may
have failed or been incomplete. Simply check the
log above: if you notice it skipped steps because it
didn't meet certain requirements, like the bootloader
or baseband version, then consider enabling 'Force Flash'
mode in the toolkits options menu and trying the
'Flash Stock + Unroot' processs again. Cheers.

Press any key to exit...

Anyone knows how to pretty much reset my phone because it seems as if I can't even erase data?
Is there any way to fix this issue?
Is my internal memory dead?
Is there any way to replace the internal memory?

So after searching lots of forum, chatting with experts in XDA, I found out that:

  Samsung used a cheap substandard emmc.

I have tried everything from adb, Odin to jtag. The emmc just died,no way to fix it.

First there was this awful lag issue : Galaxy Nexus GSM bad eMMC chip type V3U00M phone is almost unusable

Later within 2 years, emmc will die and you will stuck with bootloop issue :
Galaxy Nexus GT-I9250 with hardlocked NAND ?!? need help !
Galaxy Nexus S (i9250) stuck in reboot loop - gets to OS loading and restarts

Almost all of us with V3U00M chip and other defective mmc chips would have now got there emmc fried.

  What to say, on my side I'm blacklisting Samsung, this phone has been a joke for me since the beginning (the fstrim bug has been a nightmare), if you dare you can try to replace the board.


What is in a backup.ab file? Using ADB tools for Android (my device had root), I executed the following command:

adb backup -all

After confirming the backup operation, I got a file titled backup.ab that is 350MB. A month later, my device booted with a System UI crash, and would not let me access anything on it. I got a new one (same model), and it is unrooted. What would running the command

adb restore backup.ab

restore to my Android? I want to know what is in the backup (and what restoring it would do), because I want to keep my current userdata. The new device also has a more stable system, so I would not want to restore that, either.

NOTE: This question was marked as duplicate and then ignored, so it has been deleted and reposted.

.ab backups only apps data and their apks as well as system settings.

What is contained:

apks and their data
user vocabulary
wallpaper
launcher settings

What is not contained:

contacts
sms
ringtones and custom sounds
activated input layouts

More detailed is here.


My Phone keeps on force closing! I have a my|phone brand phone. It's a filipino brand. Whenever i play games it just keep on going back to home menu. I tried shutting my phone down or just restart it so i can play and use my apps. But sometimes it doesnt work. It will just go back to home menu. Please help me solve this. Im not good at phones and such things. Thanks.

You are probably running out of memory.  I would go to setting and in developer options, background limit, set that to at most 2. You have to set that after ever reboot, just so you know. Also in KK open your resent places and close/kill all those.    I recomend download an app called cooltool. It will display current available mem in status bar.    Hope that helps


If we install the apk outside the Play Store, does it affect Google Play statistics? If we install the apk outside the Play Store, does it affect Google Play statistics?

NO, apps installed outside Google Play do not affect statistics.

Those apps are considered to be coming from Unknown sources,
and you cannot install them if you do not manually allow (or check) them in
Settings > Security > Unknown sources.


Disable magnetic screen on/off *without* Xposed? Long story short, looking for a way to either disable the behaviour of screen turning on/off in reaction to magnets, or disable the Hall sensor (the sensor responsible for the reaction) altogether. The flip cover I have in hand has a weak magnet and thus doesn't turn on/off the screen reliably, hence I want to simply disable the feature and take things into my own hands.

There are a bunch of Xposed modules that do just the job (example), but Android 7+ probably never will get Xposed from what it looks like right now, so a solution without using Xposed is required.

The device in question is a Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 (Qualcomm, Wi-Fi) with root access.

EDIT 1: after some poking around, it seems that /dev/input/event6 corresponds to the Hall sensor on this device - every time I open/close the magnetic lid, it shows an event there. Unfortunately, I still haven't found a way to disable a particular input device.

EDIT 2: I have tried a way to prevent the Hall sensor from reporting back its status, thus effectively disabling the sensor, and it works well. The problem is it requires me to modify the ROM's source code, and although I can handle that as a ROM compiler, I'm sure there are much more people who can't. So still, waiting for a more feasible solution.

You can delete /dev/input/event6 directly. Then everything with the Hall sensor will stop working.

To make this happen automatically, you can write a simple script and let it auto-run at boot.

#!/system/bin/sh
exec rm -f /dev/input/event6

To restore without rebooting, examine it with ls -l before deleting (or you have to reboot)

Assume ls -l gave this result:

crw-rw---- root input 13, 68 1970-01-01 00:00 /dev/input/event6

Take note of the two numbers after owner/group, run this to recover

mknod /dev/input/event6 c 13 68


My Samsumg s2 locked. How can I enble the USB debugging? My phone is locked (I forgot the PIN number). I want to back up my files. So I need to enable the USB debugging.

If it's the PIN of the SIM card, remove the SIM from the phone and you're in.

If it's the PIN you set in Android, you can try to install a custom recovery via ODIN. You can then boot into recovery and download your data from there, since most (if not all) recoveries provide an ADB interface.

In the prevoius version of this answer I expressed my concern that most phones erase their data prior to flashing and I didn't know if Samsungs do. But as Adi Inbar pointed it out, Samsungs don't erase their data when flashed through ODIN so this is a solution. You are lucky to have a Samsung phone which can be flashed in an out-of-spec way, because otherwise:

You can not retrieve your data if you can not unlock your phone. This is a security feature of Android which keeps your data safe if it gets stolen.

You can take the SD card out and copy the files from that, but unless you remember the phone's PIN, your data on the phone's internal memory is not accessible.


Any way to schedule a passive profile-change? (connectivity, volume etc.) What I am wondering is if there is any way to make Android change its profiles passively from one state to the other at e.g. 3 pm in the afternoon local time:

Through Android internally (with some tweaks)
Through an Android app
Through a 3rd party mod (Cyanogen etc.)
Through ...?

Whereas the state change should be:

From "Airplane mode" (set) to Wifi/3G
From "Mute"/vibration (set) to maximum volume, i.e. visible sound
Optionally: From E-Mail/Notifications on-demand (Pull) to "Push", i.e. the moment I get out of airplane mode and mute/vibrate mode, I want to get the push alerts of the last hours.

I wonder if 3. is possible, I never changed much concerning my notification settings.

Any Android version welcome, currently I run 4.0, but plan to upgrade to CM10.

What I don't want (and don't have) is NCF, because it involves me being active.
The whole reason for having a scheduled, predefined activity is that I can "set and forget" it and can focus on my work being assured that I will keep my deadline or whatever. I don't want to be actively involved.

Try the Profile Scheduler app.

With Profile Scheduler, you can define many 'profiles' (a set of settings covering Wifi On/Off, Data-Sync On/Off, Volume settings, Display Brightness, Bluetooth state, and many others -- for full set of settings, please refer to the Play Store page I linked above).

After creating your desired profiles (e.g., Sleep, Work, Outdoors, Driving, etc.), in the next tab (of the app) you can create 'rules' that will trigger a profile to automatically be activated. The 'rules' can be as simple as a 'time-of-day schedule' rule, or something more complex like geo-location based rules, wifi SSID-based rules, etc.


After the Lollipop update, SD card not detecting After the update on my Moto G gen 2 to Android Lollipop, the phone is not able to detect the SD Card which I did not remove at any point in time even after successful installation of software. I'm using a 16G Class 10, Strontium Chip.

I tried resetting the phone, but the issue prevails.

Best recommendation, after you've presumably tested the card on your computer and verified it works:

Use a disk imager such as this one to make a full image backup of the SD card onto your computer. This will ensure things like permissions are preserved in case that becomes an issue later.
Separately just copy all of the data off of the card onto your computer.
Reformat it from your computer as FAT32, then load all the data back onto it.
See if it mounts on the phone.
See if it actually functions the way you want, and all your apps can access it the way they need to.
If step 5 doesn't work out, then try restoring the image you made in step 1, and see if it works properly now.


Check system VPN statistics? Is there any way to check VPN stats for stock PPTP VPN applet? Maybe some stat-file or GUI-way? If not, can we utilize Tasker for that?

I particularly interested in uptime indicator, i.e. was my VPN disconnected during last 24h or not?

I saw this question and this app, mentioned in the question, but it was last updated in 2015 and seems to be not working on Marshmallow, which I am on (LG G3).

Since you mentioned Tasker, try setting up an appropriate task for the profile State → Net → VPN Connected. No clue if it works on Marshmallow though.


An update from Jelly Bean fails at 30% I have a galaxy S3 SGH i747, Jelly Bean 4.3.  The update is downloaded but every time it attempts to update, it fails at 30%. What to do now?

Im sorry, i dont think there is any other option. The KitKat update for Galaxy S3 on AT&T is only downloadable via OTA (Over The Air). You cannot update for some unkown reason, that is, unless you are willing to FACTORY RESET your phone in order to be able to update.

(there is another VERY COMPLEX WAY on fixing this, it will involve ADB, Rooting, Putting your phone at risk, and voiding your warranty.... So i would not reccomend that, but tell me if you STILL want me to tell you the other way. But please note that you would be putting your phone at risk.)


Android(Oreo) 8.1.0 Set DeviceOwer app causes "Workspace has been locked" I've been using my app as a deviceOwner App since lollipop.
I have a new device here which I want to be DeviceOwner too.

It is a Samsung galaxy Tab A 10.5(2018) SM-T590.

I am currently running this Version of the rom: T590XXU2ASC1.

I am not using NFC method.
I usualy create the /data/system/device_owner.xml file by myself.
But since it is not working I tryed this method:

Factory reset the tablet in recovery mode
Pass through the annoying startup menus
Set lock screen to none
Enable Usb Debugging
Install my app adb install MyApplicaton.apk
adb shell dpm set-device-owner com.example.myapplication/.MyApplicationReceiver
It always says success when i execute the command.
Start my app, i can pin/unpin my app without problem.
Reboot, and then the famous message appears everytime:
Workspace has been locked
Unauthorized software has been installed on your device.Workspace has been
locked to prevent any unauthorized access. Contact your admin.

Then if i press on the FACTORY DATA RESET button the workspace app crashes then pops back.

I tryed the kioskModeDemo app and the androidDeviceOwner sample app and they all do the same problem.

Anybody have any hints of why this is not working anymore on Android 8(oreo)?

Thanks

I found the problem:
Once you oem unlock(custom os) your device on a certain samsung knox level API, you can't be device owner anymore on this device.

This is from Samsung Knox page:

  "Cannot create work profile" "The security policy prevents the creation of a managed device because a custom OS is or has been installed on this device".

The device could be vulnerable to potential attacks with custom os.


Touch input does not work right when phone is plugged in Basically touch input either doesn't work at all, or works erratically.  This includes the the lock screen too.  It happens both plugged in to a USB port or to the outlet.

I've had this problem on two phones, and HTC Nexus One and and Samsung Nexus S.

Does anyone have any idea about what the cause of this and if I can do anything to fix it?  Have you seen this problem?

I had the same problem with the HTC Nexus One and it was directly related to heat. Whenever the phone got too hot the touch screen would flake out. Charging the phone makes it heat up, the worst time for me was when it was in the car dock, heat from charging and from the screen being on all the time. When ever it did this all I had to do was hold it in front of the AC vent for 15 - 30 seconds and the screen would work normally.


What App do I need to use NFC on an android phone to pay for things in the UK? I'd like to know if it's possible to use NFC on an HTC One X to pay for things in the UK and if so, what app do I use?

Google wallet doesn't seem to be supported here in the UK.

A more generic answer, not specific to the UK alone:

As Ross pointed out, there is not "one specific app to rule them all". That payment stuff is very much vendor-specific – whith "vendor" meaning the company dealing with the payments. Unless several shops/companies join up for a "standard", it might very well be you'd need a separate app for each shop even.

So this question cannot be answered by a "this-is-it" app, but rather would become a pretty long list (Ross' answer already indicates such), which would be subject to (almost daily) changes whenever a new "vendor" joins or another gives up.

To give you an example: Here in Germany I know of two grocery chains using NFC payments, each using its own app – though both belong to the same "mother corporation". If not even those can figure a "joint approach", I very much doubt there will be a "global approach" any time soon.


How do i use a lockscreen from another rom I want to use only the lock screen from another rom for the same phone.
I own Micromax A52.

And I am using Xzoom v3 as my rom with Dark Angel theme.(to be precise if anyone knows and if it matters :P)

But i want to use the lock screen from another rom 'SuperStock52' which is also a rom for the same device.

How can i port that lock screen to my rom?

Unless the lock screen is some kind of 3rd party app (like GO Locker), then I believe you would have to modify the ROM yourself, and port the lock screen over manually, into your 'new' ROM. - In which case you might be better off asking for advice over at XDA, or another developer forum.

If it is some kind of 3rd party app, chances are you can download & install it from the Play store, or download the APK online from the developer's website.

EDIT: Rereading your question it's occured to me you might actually be asking how to port over the lock screen (IE: which files to modify in the ROM) - in which case, you should probably go to XDA (see above link) and ask for advice.


cant download ANYTHING on My LG G2 anymore My phone went in for repairs and since then I am unable to update or re-install whatsapp or chrome. I go to google play store to download whatsapp but when I click the install button nothing happens, its the same when chrome prompts Me to update, I click updaye but nothing happends, I can see that the button to install is responding when I press it but nothing happens after. is this something to do with settings or drivers or what?

This can occur sometimes when your phone is doing a large amount of updates. Especially after a factory reset. Check to make sure there are not a large amount of apps being updated. You would check that in the play store under my apps. If there is a large amount of updates in que, you may want to stop them and download them over wifi only.


Root Access to avast moble How do you grant root access to an anti virus program manually on a Samsung tablet.Because I want to enable a firewall to be more safe

You might want to install an app that manages root access for you such as SuperSu or Superuser. These apps give you various options for controlling root access for apps. These apps prompt you to ask whether you want to grant an app root access or not.

SuperSu: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.chainfire.supersu

SuperUser(by ChainsDD): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.noshufou.android.su


broken screen and touch, how to control? my acer s500 has a broken screen and the touch dont work anymore, after that happend I connect it to my computer with USB and happily USB debugging was turned on so I could get al my stuff from my phone.

but my question is, how can I control my phone from my computer? My phone wasn't rooted so I realy dont know how to do that without touchscreen.

I know there are al lot of the same questions like this but all the answers din;t help me,  I am realy a noob with stuff like this, thus please help me ;)

salute

Use a USB-OTG cable, then you can connect a mouse to the phone and you'll get a cursor on-screen. You can also connect the OTG cable to a USB hub, then you can connect both a mouse and keyboard. You could also connect a wired mouse long enough to pair a Bluetooth mouse/keyboard to the phone.


Android disk encryption - using as a removable device I'm about to upgrade my Desire HD to ICS so that I can use the full disk encryption functionality.

Does anyone know if its possible to still use the device as a removable disk when plugged in via a USB cable?

If this is possible, am I right in assuming that the device will need to be unlocked with the PIN/password before being mounted (as this surely defeats the purpose of it, if you can access the SD card without unlocking)?

In the official HTC ICS ROM for HTC Desire S, it is possible to encrypt the SD card in addition to the internal storage. It seems likely that the same would be true for the HTC Desire HD. I haven't been able to find details of how this encryption is done, yet.

With an encrypted SD card it is possible to mount the device as a removable disk when plugged in via a USB cable -- I do this myself for backups.

I assume that the SD encryption uses the same passphrase as the internal storage encryption as no other passphrases are required. It could conceivably be done using some internal passphrase invisible to the user, though I would be surprised.


Changing file permissions with root, will they remain if I unroot? I currently use the run-as command through adb to be able to access the data folder of an app that I am developing directly on my phone using AIDE.

When connecting to the phone locally, using connectbot, I can find the run-as command in /system/bin/ but it has no executable permission. There are other programs/scripts in that folder that do have executable permissions and I can run them.

My question is this. If I root my phone, I can change the executable permissions of run-as. If I then remove the root, will these permissions remain?

I'm not totally averse to rooting my phone permanently but if I don't need to, I'd rather not.

This is on a Galaxy Nexus.

I'm aware if I leave run-as executable then I'm possibly allowing myself wide open for security risks. But I am willing to risk it, even just to see if its possible.

Yes.

There's nothing magical to restore /system partition to original state. Many users gain root access temporarily to remove bloatwares from /system/apps & then unroot.

But, remember, if un-rooting method involves flashing /system image, you'll lose your changes. So, use proper un-rooting method.


Garageband equivalent for Android? I am thinking about getting an iPad 2 just so I can record music on Garageband, provided I find a way to input a USB mic. Anyways, I am admittedly a Google and Android fan and would much rather go that route and record music using an Android tablet where there would for sure be much more interoperability and maybe even a cloud sync service where I could collaborate with another musician 1,000 miles away in high quality, lossless form. Is there an app on Android or a web app that would support this kind of user experience on par with the user experience of Garageband?

I don't mind sticking with an iPad 2 for a year and then going back to Android when something more mature for Android comes out, but just thought I would ask here first.

Looks like the best options would be:

uloops
caustic
nanoloop

I haven't tried any of these on my tablet yet (advent vega). Let me know what you find


My Tab SM-T380 no longer accepts my PIN Set a PIN to unlock my Tab before using. Worked fine for a long time. Today when I enter the PIN it loops back to the enter PIN screen over and over. Tried to reboot but the restart/power off screen loops me back to the enter PIN screen. Tried hard reboot: vol up/power down/home screen. No affect.

This happened to me too. I knew the pin was correct as if I deliberately entered an incorrect pin it came up with the message saying it was incorrect. I tried the reboot too but it doesn't work as the "loop" won't let you turn it off. So I let the battery run down completely (which took a week as it is obviously using very little power; then I found you can have the torch on and that helped the drain). Then once completely dead, plugged in the charger and lo and behold back to normal!


How to turn off "Suggested: ..." video pop-ups in the YouTube android app? I don't know if this is something new or I've only just started to notice it but very often a few seconds into most YouTube videos viewed on the app I'm finding an annoying white box with a letter "i" in a circle pops up, promoting some other video. It's possible to swipe it away, but that is also distracting and several times I've been hit by more than one of these in the same video.

Is there any way to turn this off?

I've looked through the app settings but couldn't find anything. I've already got all YouTube notifications turned off, and it seems to be unrelated to the "info" that some video creators add.

Here's an example of what it looks like:

These are Youtube cards (also known as Info Cards or Interactive Cards as described here: All about cards on YouTube and here: How To Setup and Use Youtube Info / Interactive Cards.

There are inserted into the videos by owners to (for marketing, advertising or information etc)  the viewer.

As described on the support page:

  You can choose which apps and websites show cards in your feed, and
  you can turn off cards from apps and websites at any time. You can
  also get more personalized cards by letting Google learn which apps
  and websites you use most.

The fix: Turning off cards from apps & websites

On your Android phone or tablet:

Open the Google app Google Search.
At the top left, tap Menu Menu → Customize → Apps & websites → Receive Now cards from apps and websites? → No.

Sources

Add cards to videos
See or remove cards from apps & websites

Note: For other ads not related related to info cards you need to use an ad blocker or patch host file to prevent ads, this fix is only for info cards and not ads.


How can I prevent Android from auto-installing all of my apps? I usually install different ROMs regularly...

When I set up my account on a fresh ROM, I don't want my phone to start loading all of the apps that I had installed with the same account on previous ROM. I want to choose what I want reinstalled on a new version.

Can I control this behaviour or is there a another way around this?

Make sure to disable the auto-restore under Menu -> Settings -> Privacy -> Automatic restore before installing a different ROM.


Scheduled Backup of Files / SMS / Contacts to Email Currently I am using SMS Backup & Restore to regularly backup my SMS to Gmail daily. It works perfectly.

Now I am looking for a similar software that backs up files (on folders I select from SDcard) as well as my contacts regularly (daily/weekly for example).

Does anyone know apps that can do this? Preferably no root required but if I have to I might as well just root.

If root is an option, the ultimate answer would be Titanium Backup. Scheduled backup of everything, support for Dropbox and more.

As for folders, I'd say FolderSync is certainly worth a try. Support for many cloud services, as well as your own servers via FTP and more.


Share apk via bluetooth I have to receive an apk by bluetooth to my phone, but i can't do it, because in my phone(nexus 5 running android 6.0.1) blocks the file, the devices are paired, I tried with others files like images, and i can receive them, but not apk files, why?

You can try to either compress the .apk (using a app like RAR) and then try to send the compressed file, or you can try to sent the file using another software like "Bluetooth File Transfer".


Obtain package name AND common name of apps via ADB I'm looking for a possibility to retrieve both, the package names and the common names of apps installed on an Android device via ADB – or at least to retrieve the common name if the package name is known. A quick search on our site brought up two related questions, but they don't solve my issue:

How do I get the common name of an app having the package name (like com.android.blabla)? (command line or included app) doesn't work via ADB (but uses an app you've got to lookup with manually), matching the request of the OP
How to find app based on package name? just reverts to an URL lookup at Google Play, which doesn't always fit (as not all apps are available there).

I'm looking for a way to retrieve the information directly from the device, if possible – not "any" way (including "web lookups" or "via an app") as those two questions have it.
I know there are multiple tools available to obtain package details:

adb dumpsys package: While this lists all packages with a bunch of details, the "common name" is not shown
adb shell pm list: only gives the package names
aapt would be able to obtain the common name, but would require to first pull the .apk file from the device, which is not really convenient (and obviously will be pretty slow with many and/or large apps installed)

Did I miss something? I know the information must be on the device (how else could it show the app names in the GUI? I doubt Android parses the .apk file each time the GUI need the "common name"). So is there a way to get hold of it, using ADB directly?

TL;DR
Background (if somebody's curious): I want to be able to quickly obtain a list of user-apps from any of my devices, without having to revert to acrobatics. A list of their package names I can retrieve using adb shell pm list -3, but as those are package names only, recognizing apps is a guess-work. So if there were some ADB command to retrieve the common name for a given package name, I could simply use a loop like for pkg in $(adb shell pm list -3); do echo "- $(adb <whatever_the_command_is> $pkg) ($pkg)"; done – and get a listing of all the installed user-apps in a "human readable format" together with their package names.
Use-cases:

See what "superflous" apps are installed (which I could remove)
Cross-check lists from multiple devices
Documentation ;)
and probably more (but the above 3 are what I need it for)

Here is my solution for a non-rooted phone which needed some slight changes from above which I ran on a Moto G 2nd gen running android 5.0.2.

I didn't have aapt binary in /system/bin, so I first tried downloading from: https://android.izzysoft.de/downloads

but when I tried to run it I got an error saying:

error: only position independent executables (PIE) are supported.

So then I searched for a PIE version and found: https://github.com/Calsign/APDE/blob/master/APDE/src/main/assets/aapt-binaries/aapt-arm-pie

and this worked by copying binary to /data/local/tmp:

adb push aapt-arm-pie /data/local/tmp
adb shell chmod 0755 /data/local/tmp/aapt-arm-pie

So then:

adb shell pm list packages -3 -f

gets list of 3rd party apps (apps you have installed, not system apps) and then you can use package from command above in aapt to get information on package - example:

adb shell /data/local/tmp/aapt-arm-pie d badging /data/app/com.facebook.katana-3/base.apk

So below is script (for a Linux client) to get just "common" name for 3rd party apps:``

for pkg in `adb shell pm list packages -3 -f | awk -F= '{sub("package:","");print $1}'`
do
  adb shell /data/local/tmp/aapt-arm-pie d badging $pkg | awk -F: '
      $1 == "application-label" {print $2}'
done

If you want package and version too, then
change last but one line from:

$1 == "application-label" {print $2}'

to:

$1 == "package" { split($2,space," ")
name=space[1];version=space[3]}
$1 == "application-label" {print name, version, $2 }'

Example output:

name='com.ultimarom.launchnavigation' versionName='1.28' 'Navigation'
name='com.enhanced.skineditorstudio' versionName='3.3' 'Custom Skin Creator'
name='com.mojang.minecraftpe' versionName='1.2.6.60' 'Minecraft'
name='org.videolan.vlc' versionName='2.5.13' 'VLC'
name='com.jrustonapps.myauroraforecast' versionName='1.7.2' 'My Aurora Forecast'
name='de.j4velin.wifiAutoOff' versionName='1.7.6' 'WiFi Automatic'
name='com.facebook.katana' versionName='153.0.0.54.88' 'Facebook'
name='com.metago.astro' versionName='6.0.5' 'ASTRO File Manager'
name='za.co.hardrive.smartinfo.parkrun' versionName='2.0.2' 'My 5krun'
name='com.PYOPYO.StarTrackerVR' versionName='1.0.1' 'StarTracker VR'
name='cz.aponia.bor3.offlinemaps' versionName='1.1.19' 'Offline Maps'
name='com.groupon' versionName='16.11.63973' 'Groupon'
name='com.ebay.mobile' versionName='5.16.1.2' 'eBay'
name='com.runtastic.android' versionName='8.1.1' 'Runtastic'
name='com.google.android.diskusage' versionName='3.8.3' 'DiskUsage'

Mike


Google app shouts whenever I get a call I don't know what setting I have done but every time I get a call, my google app starts shouting "Call from.." how to stop this.

i am mobile technician at Samsung, we do get lots of phones with these problem and it is a simple solution to it. please try tapping 3 to 4 times on home button, that disables the voice command.


Is it safe to manually delete the contents of the .Trash-1000 folder on my SDCard? Can anyone please provide an explanation (or a good resource) of how the folder /mnt/sdcard/.Trash-1000 functions and whether or not it was safe to manually delete its contents?  Based on the name and the way it seemingly acts it would be logical to assume that it's a garbage folder, but you know what happens when you assume...

In case it matters I'm running CyanogenMod 6.2.1 (based on Android 2.2.1) on my Motorola Droid.

.Trash-1000 is a metafolder like Windows's Recycle Bin, normally created by Ubuntu (and perhaps other Linux variants).  Have you deleted anything on your SD card from your PC?  That would explain it.  You can safely delete it.  See also: https://superuser.com/questions/169980/what-is-trash-and-trash-1000


Cast Chrome desktop browser tab to Android device I want to mirror the content from a Chrome desktop tab on my Android device.
Is it possible to cast a Chrome browser tab from desktop to an Android (OS 8.1) device?

You can install WebRTC Desktop Sharing extension on your Chrome browser for Desktop. Click on its icon → Chrome tab + Speakers → choose your tab to share → wait for the extension to give you a URL.

Use that URL into your Android device's browser. It will take few seconds to initialize everything and then you can have a real-time Chrome tab sharing from Desktop to anywhere.

Alternatively, if you are using Windows, enable Remote Desktop Sharing in it, setup a Remote Desktop connection and use Chrome Remote Desktop app to share the whole screen with Android. I haven't tested this one though.


Locating lost android device in home Possible Duplicates:
  An app to locate my Android device around the house?
  My phone was just stolen an hour or so ago. Are there any options for tracking?

Ok so i lost my Samsung Galaxy player 4.0 somewhere in my house. It was connected to Wi-Fi. And i've heard that i can track devices that are connected to my router, how do i do so?
Router- Belkin Play N600. Please Help!

Install Plan B using the web version of Google play. Trigger it with a text message to sound an alarm.


Remote login into the phone from a PC Possible Duplicate:
  Any VNC solutions for an unrooted device?

Is it possible to remotely control an Android phone from a PC. Is there a program similar to VNC server that runs on the phone, with the client displaying phone's UI on the PC?

When I'm at my desk, it would be much easier to manage the phone (read/type SMS, install apps etc.) from the PC instead of poking the tiny touchscreen.

Searching brings many solutions in the other direction (VNC server on PC, VNC client on phone).

Yes, but your phone needs to be rooted: Droid VNC

With an unrooted phone and other apps you can do certain things like access the SD card, send SMS messages and manage apps, but to gain total control of the device it needs to be rooted.

See my related inquiries here and here.


Romanian Layout for Physical Keyboard is absent I have just picked up my Samsung Tab S2 Keyboard a couple of days ago. The tablet is amazing, but the thing is I need to type Romanian text with specific accented characters (ie ș, ă, î, ț). This is a must-have feature. Without this, I'll probably try to return the tablet.
It never crossed my mind that Android would not have Romanian Language on the physical keyboard! The virtual keyboard has it, but what I'm particularly interested in is having the physical keyboard configured with the Romanian layout. To clarify, I don't want a keyboard with Romanian characters painted on it, only the software layout to be Romanian. That is when pressing such keys [ ] ; ' they should produce such characters ă î ș ț.
Under  System -> Language & Input -> Physical Keyboard, selecting the keyboard and then "Set up keyboard layouts", Romanian is absent:

So, can I set this up?

Have you tried this? https://android.stackexchange.com/a/103494/241518

  What you have to do is pair your external keyboard then

  Go to Settings -> Language & Input -> Physical Keyboard Then tap on
  your keyboard and a dialog for choosing the keyboard layout should
  appear. Choose the layouts you want (note that you have to select two
  or more to be able to switch) and then press back. Near the bottom of
  the dialog a label saying "To switch, press _____ " which, in my case,
  is

  CTRL + SPACE Hope this helps!

I don't have a way of trying it out myself, so I don't know what languages are available for physical keyboards.

If that doesn't work, perhaps this app could help (External Keyboard Helper Pro- looks like there is also a demo version)? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apedroid.hwkeyboardhelper&hl=en or free demo version: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apedroid.hwkeyboardhelperdemo


Is there a quicker way to turn on WiFi Hotspot? is there a way to automate (or at least reduce the number of steps) to turn on or turn off the WiFi hotspot on my Galaxy 3.

I have to

unlock
press the menu button
press settings
press More Settings
Tethering and portable hotspot
Slide portable hotspot on.

I can only recommend CyanogenMod, or, if you want to keep your ROM: HotSpot Widget.

CyanogenMod allows you to create a HotSpot Quick Setting Tile.

The widget is placed on your home screen and if you want to enable/disable the hotspot tap it.