USB To 3.5mm Jack mircophone I want to record live music directly from my sound board on my Samsung Galaxy. I assume this would be done by connecting the 3.5mm microphone jack on my sound board to the Galaxy's USB port.  There are plenty of products that work on Windows, but what about Android?

I assume the USB connection isn't the main point? You could look into a TRRS splitter to fit your 3,5mm plug into the headset jack on your phone. Here's one example, just to give you an idea of what I mean.

This way you can use a normal recording app to capture analog audio from your soundboard. Just be careful to check the levels since the jack isn't a line in jack, but a mic in jack.


Leanest android mod? What is leanest android mod out there?
I do not particularly like new Android or Cyanogenmod 12. Too much flashy animations and too much bloatware with tasks running in background.

Or if not specific mod, what are ways of achieving this?

You can disable animations from Developer Options and can uninstall bloatware using System App Uninstaller or Titanium Backup.

The background tasks you mentioned are usually services that can be disabled using Servicely. I've heard that Amplify is also good.

Note: All of the aforesaid apps require root access.


Android App Force Closing 01-02 15:30:21.361: E/AndroidRuntime(3764): FATAL EXCEPTION: main
01-02 15:30:21.361: E/AndroidRuntime(3764): java.lang.NullPointerException
01-02 15:30:21.361: E/AndroidRuntime(3764):     at com.htc.music.browserlayer.fragment.HtcMusicFragment.initLyricsView(HtcMusicFragment.java:8905)
01-02 15:30:21.361: E/AndroidRuntime(3764):     at com.htc.music.browserlayer.fragment.HtcMusicFragment.initialUI(HtcMusicFragment.java:2305)
01-02 15:30:21.361: E/AndroidRuntime(3764):     at com.htc.music.browserlayer.fragment.HtcMusicFragment.onCreateView(HtcMusicFragment.java:662)
01-02 15:30:21.361: E/AndroidRuntime(3764):     at android.app.FragmentManagerImpl.moveToState(FragmentManager.java)
01-02 15:30:21.361: E/AndroidRuntime(3764):     at android.app.FragmentManagerImpl.moveToState(FragmentManager.java)
01-02 15:30:21.361: E/AndroidRuntime(3764):     at android.app.BackStackRecord.run(BackStackRecord.java)
01-02 15:30:21.361: E/AndroidRuntime(3764):     at android.app.FragmentManagerImpl.execPendingActions(FragmentManager.java)
01-02 15:30:21.361: E/AndroidRuntime(3764):     at android.app.FragmentManagerImpl$1.run(FragmentManager.java)
01-02 15:30:21.361: E/AndroidRuntime(3764):     at android.os.Handler.handleCallback(Handler.java)
01-02 15:30:21.361: E/AndroidRuntime(3764):     at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java)
01-02 15:30:21.361: E/AndroidRuntime(3764):     at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java)
01-02 15:30:21.361: E/AndroidRuntime(3764):     at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java)
01-02 15:30:21.361: E/AndroidRuntime(3764):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
01-02 15:30:21.361: E/AndroidRuntime(3764):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java)
01-02 15:30:21.361: E/AndroidRuntime(3764):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java)
01-02 15:30:21.361: E/AndroidRuntime(3764):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java)
01-02 15:30:21.361: E/AndroidRuntime(3764):     at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
01-02 15:30:21.541: E/EmbeddedLogger(2496): App crashed! Process: com.htc.music
01-02 15:30:21.541: E/EmbeddedLogger(2496): App crashed! Package: com.htc.music v522301810 (5.1.2320352112.658919.648253)
01-02 15:30:22.081: E/EmbeddedLogger(2496): Application Label: Music

I open Music app in Android but it force close. I have taken logcat and found this problem causing.

At Line 8905 here is the code :

> if-eqz v11, :cond_1
>
> const-string v11, "[HtcMusicFragment]"
>
> const-string v12, "onServiceConnectedHandle, mActivity is null

Conclusion

This is a programming error within the HTC Music app (based on the package id). The best option is to report this error to the developers using the force close dialog.

More details

As a programmer I recognize the nullpointer exception thrown in the HtcMusicFragment at line 8905. The package (and class name) indicate that this is an app from HTC for Music playing.

Since this code is closed there is no reason to look further into this yourself, even if you had the knowledge. Let's say it would be perfectly possible to decompile the app (it isn't) and fix the nullpointer even then you wouldn't be able to replace the app on your phone since this is a vendor app. That is without root.

If you want to read about the nullpointer exception try this link https://stackoverflow.com/questions/218384/what-is-a-null-pointer-exception In short there is a method called on an object that hasn't been initialized properly. It's up to the programmer to check for these kind of issues.

My advice

Go get a better music app on the google play store.


What are the advantages of Android apps being single threaded? I read a statement on http://developer.android.com that said:

  When an application is launched, the system creates a thread of execution for the application, called "main." This thread is very important because it is in charge of dispatching events to the appropriate user interface widgets, including drawing events. It is also the thread in which your application interacts with components from the Android UI toolkit. The system does not create a separate thread for each instance of a component. All components that run in the same process are instantiated in the UI thread, and system calls to each component are dispatched from that thread.

I just wanted to know why Android has opted for this single threaded model architecture and not gone for multi-threaded. What are the advantages that they are getting out of this?

Android apps aren't single-threaded. Although there's one main thread as described in the documentation you quoted, apps can start as many other threads as they need.

The advantage of all GUI interactions being on one thread is that the GUI code can be simpler, faster, and more predictable, because GUI state isn't being changed concurrently from different threads. It also makes thread-safety easier for app developers by providing a message queue, similar to those found in other OSes' GUI frameworks. The app author just needs to make sure all long operations are performed in background threads, sending messages back to the main thread to update the GUI, and that way the GUI remains responsive all the time.


Email widget: How to show inbox instead of subfolder? I have a question regarding email on my Nexus 7 3G:

When I try to add an email widget on my home screen I'm asked to choose a folder, but I only have the option to select a sub folder in my inbox, not my actual inbox.

How can I let the widget show my complete inbox instead of a sub folder only?

Try to scroll down the list to find the inbox.  I think it is listed below, but it seems missing at first. I could not see it at first. But after several tries, I got the list to scroll down to find the inbox.


PC crashes when I tranfer files from Nexus4 I have a problem with my Nexus4 stock.

When I connect the smartphone to the pc (both Linux and windows) and I try to transfer files (video and photo) it copy few Mb then it gives me an error and the pc crashes.

I try with both mode connection settings from Nexus4, and I also hard reset it but I do not understand how to solve it.

Instead of using the unreliable USB connection to transfer files, I would suggest using Wi-Fi. You can easily create a FTP server on your phone and then access it from Windows Explorer or Linux. You can easily transfer files after that. I would suggest using ES File Explorer for this. Here's the tutorial on how to create FTP Server using ES.
Alternatively you can use any other FTP Server apps available in Play Store.
Servers Ultimate, FTP Server
Also SuperBeam is a great way to transfer files. It has apps for both Windows and Linux. You might want to take a look at it.


Galaxy S GT-I9000: how to fix boot to recovery with Volume up+Power? I have Samsung Galaxy S (GT-I9000) and I've installed Cyanogenmod 10 M2. I can reboot into recovery from Cyanogenmod (Hold Power button, select Reboot and Recovery). However, I cannot boot directly to recovery holding Volume up + Power or Volume up + Home + Power when the phone is powered down.

Do I need to do something to the phone hardware to get some button combination to boot to recovery mode? As far as I know, the button combination I've tried is the correct one for this device. I can boot to download mode with Volume down + Power.

The recovery is the one installed along the official galaxysmtd Cyanogenmod 10 M2 ("CWM-based Recovery v6.0.1.4").

I would want to fix the issue because now I'm afraid to flash ROM updates because getting into recovery in case of boot loop is much harder if I cannot get the normal key combo to work.

OK. I found the correct combination. It seems that the recovery distributed with Cyanogenmod 10 M2 for galaxysmtd is really picky about the hardware buttons.

Here's how you can boot to recovery:

Start with Galaxy S powered off
Press and hold Volume up + Home
Press and hold Power button
Wait for (factory default) Galaxy S GT-I9000 boot display to show up
Release the Power button before the second boot display with text "Cyanogen(mod)" shows up. Keep holding the Volume up + Home buttons.
Wait for Recovery to start. After you see the recovery menu, you can release the Volume up and Home buttons.

If you fail to release the power button before the second boot display, you cannot get it to go into the recovery mode. Instead it will enter the normal boot sequence which seems to fail if you keep holding the Power button. On the other hand, if you don't keep buttons pressed long enough, it will enter the normal boot sequence, again. I haven't figured out if holding the Home button is really required but at least it does not prevent entering the recovery mode.


Difference between bootloader and Download mode in Samsung Galaxy tablets I'm working on Samsung Galaxy Tab tablets, specifically with Tab 3 (SM-T210) and Tab 4 (SM-T230), and being learning a bit about the boot and recovery images and the bootloader. I have not being able to find the answer to this very simple question: Is Download Mode Samsung's Bootloader? If not what is the difference?

Yes and no. The Download Mode is an interface between the Loke component, which resides in the bootloader, and Odin/Heimdall. In fact, if you issue the reboot bootloader from your device's command line, it will boot the Download Mode. (thanks to @death-mask-salesman)


5.0 update not received Hi guys I searched alot but not found any thing related to this. So if anyone tell me what's the reason for this.

I just purchased Google nexus 5 and upgraded from 4.4.2 to 4.4.4 and now waiting for 5.0 update on my device. But It has been over a month that I didn't received any updates and where others guys have received 5.0.1 as well. So anyone having same issue or something wrong with my device.

Thanks in advance

You could just wait it out, as you will eventually be prompted, or you have a couple of options.

You could try and speed up the update by trying to trigger it again, try wiping google play services data (it worked on my nexus 4).

Or you could flash the system image

A better option however would be to just flash the ota file, which can be done without unlocking your bootloader.

Get the ota, and follow the instructions at this link:

http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/12/23/flash-all-the-things-lollipop-ota-update-zip-file-roundup/


Which version of Heimdall to use with S2 or S3? I think this is a pretty straight forward question.

I have a Galaxy S2 (i727) and a Galaxy S3 (i747) and I'd like to use Heimdall with both of them, but can't seem to find which version of Heimdall supports them.

Working with the 1.3.1, for example, when I boot my S2 into download mode, zadig.exe does not list the Samsung driver everyone mentions.  Heimdall Frontend says it detects a device when I click Utilties->Detect, but I can't seem to interact with anything on the Flash tab.

I'm trying to flash recoveries.

I never did find out which version of Heimdall to use with either device, but settled on using ODIN3 v1.85 with my S2 (didn't work with an S3, after all).

If you have the AT&T Skyrocket version of the S2, a great place to start looking is: [HOWTO] THE ULTIMATE NEWB GUIDE > | INSTALL CWM/TWRP | ROOT | UNROOT |the SKYROCKET


What is the difference in 64bits TWRP and 32bits TWRP? I am new to android.
Can someone tell me what is the difference between 32bits TWRP and 64bits TWRP?
What would happen if I mixed up both TWRP?

I think you are probably using a Xiaomi or Moto phone hence the question. Well, most Android devices stick to one Architecture either 32 bit or 64 bit. But some OEMs push out 32 bit OS on 64 bit SoCs (like Moto and Xiaomi). The OS needs to be compiled separately for both these memory sizes. In Moto's case they stick to 32 bit throughout the device's shelf life, so you'll only find 64bit custom Roms, and they need 64 bit recoveries. For Xiaomi they did upgrade few 32 bit devices to 64 bit, so for flashing newer updates you'll first need an updated bootloader + stock recovery of 64 bit.

TL;DR - If your custom ROM mentions "64 Bit" anywhere, use 64 bit recovery, else stick to 32 bit.


Can't Access internet through laptop wifi in my xperia u I was able to create a hotspot through Connectify software in my laptop, but when i connect my phone to it ,it shows i am connected but i am not able to access the internet. Is there any option that should be enabled on phone?

Here's a useful post from XDA-Developers website: refer to this link.

Configuring laptop/pc

First, you need to create an adhoc network:
Open network and sharing center on control panel
click on manage wireless networks then add , a windows is shown, select create an ad hoc network click on next then input a network name(for example name it 015) then choose the security type (you can select either open or WEP) then check the box save this network
Now reopen network and sharing center on control panel then change adapter settings.
Right click on your internet network and click on properties then select the tab sharing and check the "allow other network users to connect through this computer's internet connection" (choose wireless network, if multiple networks are shown).
check also the "allow other network users to control or disable the shared internet connection"
next click on setting and check all items..
Right click on wireless network connection and double click on "internet protocol version 4(tcp/ipv4)"
on the new window select use the following ip address 192.168.137.1
and subnet mask 255.255.255.0
now activate your new adhoc network (if not already) go to the network icon next to the clock and select it and connect.
Congratulation your laptop/pc is now configured .

Configuring the android device :

Now, we will configure the android device to make it able to access this new adhoc network

Go to setting on the menu of your device
then wireless and networks then wi-fi settings then activate wi-fi .
Right click and choose advanced. Check the "Use static IP"and fill in :

ip address: 192.168.137.5 (for example)
Gateway : 192.168.137.1
Netmask : 255.255.255.0
DNS 1: 192.168.137.1
DNS 2 : 172.168.137.1

right click and save.
Finally, click on the adhoc network (and input password if you use WEP security) then connect.
If you encounter problems connecting ,try to disable then to reactivate wifi, else reboot your android device.


Messenger - How to not automatically turn group messages into MMS? How do I prevent the lollipop (5.1) from turning my group messages into MMS?
I have some friends who can't receive MMS so this is a bit peeving.

This question has been asked before but not answered, or is for previous versions and no longer applicable.

This is applicable to Google Messenger version 1.8.268 updated on 17 May 2016.

Go to Settings>Advanced>MMS>Group messaging

Select "Send individual SMS messages..."

Hope this helps.


Android Tablets: Use USB to Ethernet connector? Do Android tablets generally support USB to Ethernet adapters? And if so, which models?

Looks like 'no', with some xda-developers work.  If you want to connect to a LAN, why not go with an access point the size of a deck of cards?  If you want extra security, you might turn off your wifi router's beacon, use WPA2 without WPS, and turn on its MAC address filtering.  Your device will connect without the beacon if you 'Add Network'.


Are Android OS updates region specific? Well, I have a Galaxy Ace with 2.3.3, build XWKPY and Samsung Kies doesn't show an update to 2.3.4 yet.

I'm thinking of manually updating it through Odin and I need to know if I can just download any Gingerbread 2.3.4 update file or is there anything else that I need to be worried about?

Android OS updates can be region specific. It depends on the OEM builds. In case of Samsung, yes.
You can update through Odin, but other region binary may not have the required operator information or other settings related to your region.
I suggest you wait for an update in Kies. Should be available soon.


MTP usb driver failed I upgraded my Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 GT-i8160. Everything went smoothly during the upgrade, but when it's almost finished, it got disconnected from the PC for no reason. When it reconnected again, it says that the MTP USB driver failed.

I can't connect my USB cable to the PC no matter which port I insert it in. Now my phone won't open.

I had tried tons of proposed solution and it seem doesn't work for my Samsung Note 3. However i finally solve without installing/uninstalling anything.

Problem Solved as following;

1) Reboot phone to Recovery Mode.

2) Wipe Cache Partition.

3) Restart phone and connect to PC.

Bum!!! Window successfully installed your MTP driver.


How can I get push notifications for emails in sub-folders? How can I get push notifications for emails in my inbox's sub-folders? By default it pushes just inbox emails, not the other folders that are in inbox.

You can't, the Gmail client for Android only syncs the Inbox folder. The other folders are only synced when you enter into each one.

If I'm not mistaken the K9 Mail client have the ability to sync more than one folder.

EDIT to add some new information provided by "Mr. Buster":

The current version of Gmail client for Android phones actualy have this option.

In order to configure the gmail client to sync more than one folder you have to go to: Gmail Settings > *@gmail.com Account Settings > Sync inboxes and labels


Plug physical keyboard to Samsung Galaxy SII Possible Duplicates:
External hardware keyboards
Can I connect an Android phone to an external monitor, keyboard and mouse?
Bluetooth keyboard with Android?

Is there a way to plug a physical keyboard to my Samsung Galaxy SII? Ideally they would connect via Bluetooth.
I wonder if it is possible at all to do some advance text editing, something like programming on the phone, and I clearly feel that the virtual keyboard is a bit limited.

There are free apps that enable Bluetooth connectivity of keyboards like BlueKeyboard JP, Bluetooth Keyboard Easyconnect. There is also a paid app Bluetooth (Null) Keyboard. Try one of these for connecting your keyboard with your phone.


How to change contacts name in Whatsapp? I have a friend and I have added his real name in my Contacts. I want to put his nickname in Whatsapp simultaneously. I am using it in Android. How do I accomplish this?

You can follow these steps:

Rename the contact in your phone book and save.
Go to Settings > Account > whatsapp > sync now (or any similar option)
Check if this has worked.

TIP you can force close whatsapp and try.

If the above method doesn't work

Backup contacts
Go to edit contact of the one you wanna change.
Copy the number of that contact.
Delete the contact.
Go to whatapp and refresh whatsapp contacts.
Add the contact number you copied with the desired name you want as a "new contact" in your address book.


Galaxy S2 9100 Apps Sms download or not notification in China I recently bought a Samsung Galaxy S2 GT-I9100 in China. It is a great phone for apps, but I constantly get notifications via sms for new apps mostly in Chinese.

If I click on it, it says install or cancel. Now I don't mind doing this 20 times a day, but the real annoying thing is it keeps making my SMS notification noise, so I dash to my phone, only to realise that it is another app, which I don't want.

Can anyone help me stop receiving these app request sms things? I am starting to question whether or not it is because I live in China, as my Sony Ericsson Xperia is the 1st version, which I bought in the UK, doesn't do this. Maybe because it was the early days of Android?

This sounds like an SMS/Push message sent by your carrier in China.

I would suggest you contact your carrier, and ask them if they are sending these - and ask them if they can be stopped.

You can use this app to block these if your carrier won't.


Why does my myTouch 4G lose battery so fast? So I formatted my phone today. I have not used it, and it was at 100% this morning. No apps installed, the screen was only on for about 10 minutes. Yet when I go to check it now, about 12 hours later, its battery is at 13%. I got a new battery a few days ago, so the battery isn't worn out. My phone is a myTouch 4G from t-mobile. My android version on it is 2.3.4

You can install BetterBatteryStats (from Play Store or from XDA, the latter is free) and see which is causing this.

If you're running the phone without a SIM card this might also be the reason:

Some phones aren't tested well if there's no SIM inserted (my old Xperia X8 is such a phone for example).

Narrow it down this way:

Switch the phone to airplane mode (switches wifi/bluetooth/gsm off)
Then re-enable wifi (plus maybe bluetooth) again. Just leave it for a while and see if it's better now.


How can I enable USB debugging on my HTC One with Android 4.4? I have recently updated my HTC One from the stock 4.3 firmware it came with to the stock 4.4 firmware via an OTA update. Since this update occured, I am no longer able to connect to the device with adb for the purpose of installing apps in development on a Windows laptop. adb devices tells me no devices are found HTC Sync Manager is also unable to detect the phone.

However, I am able to transfer files via MTP, something I was unable to do on 4.3 while USB debugging was enabled. Additionally, Windows detects the phone and installs drivers for the device (recognised as "HTC One" though some resources seem to indicate it should appear as "My HTC"). When USB debugging is disabled, it also installs MTP drivers. When USB debugging is enabled, it fails to install MTP drivers and states that the device was disconnected during installation. This does not appear to have any impact on the functionality of MTP however.

However, I have USB debugging enabled under developer options, I have my Android SDK completely updated and HTC Sync Manager fully updated.

I have tried:

Different USB cables which did not work.
A different phone (my old HTC Desire HD) which still works over adb.
Uninstalling and reinstalling HTC Sync Manager & Drivers.
Using a USB 3.0 port
Not using a USB 3.0 port

As it turns out, the issue was that my phone was no longer being recognised as a composite USB device by Windows, meaning only one of ADB, MTP or HTC Sync was capable of running at a given time. After the update, MTP was always recognised first. This explains both the 4.3 issue of MTP and ADB conflicting, and the 4.4 issue of no ADB.
The solution was provided by HTC's support website:

Step 7. If you could see your phone as the portable device on your PC, but there is still no "Android USB Device" in "Device manager", please try to manually update the driver for your phone.

Expand "Portable Devices" in "Device Manager"
Right click on your phone's name or "MTP USB Device"
Update driver software
Select “Browse my computer for driver software”
Tap “Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my
computer”
Don’t check “Show the compatible hardware”
Select Standard USB main controller
Select USB composite device in the right hand side list as the screen shot below and then click Next
After you click Next, if there is Warning message window pop up, please choose Yes.


Share virtual machine between Genymotion and Android AVD Manager? I've installed Genymotion and configure it to use the SDK folder from Android SDK. (In preferences, ADB -> Use custom Android SDK tools, and select /Users/XXX/Library/Android/sdk)
But when I open both Genymotion and Android AVD manager, it can't see the same virtual machine created in each other:

Is there a way to share the virtual machine, without taking extra disk spaces?

Genymotion and the Android emulator for Android SDK can not interoperate because the used virtualization system is totally different:
Android Emulator from SDK uses an QEMU 2 based emulator for running the emulator images.
Genymotion uses VirtualBox emulator as the underlying virtualization system. As VirtualBox only supports x86 emulation for example ARMv7/ARMv8 based emulator do not exist for Genymotion.
Effectively this means that the emulated devices are slightly different. For example they are different regarding the emulated devices (e.g. graphics chip) and the used file formats.
As different devices require different drivers converting an emulator image from one system to another is also not that easy.


How can I not have my screen turn on when I receive notifications? My screen turns on for ~5-10 seconds for every notification I receive. I get Slack notifications too so my screen is turning on all day even when I never touch my phone and by the end of the day it's almost dead.

I downloaded the application 'Screen Notifications' and tried to turn off notifications but it didn't work.

How can I make this happen? I only want the LED to blink I don't want the entire screen turned on.

Update: It is posible to disable notifications of individual apps on system level in Jelly Bean (4.1).

Under each application info screen there is now a checkbox for "show notifications" (assuming the app sends notifications). Uncheck that and no more notifications from that app.

You can get to the screen by going to Settings | Apps | {application} or, more conveniently, long-pressing the notification itself and then tapping "App Info".

More details in this article.

Notifications are handled on a per-app basis.
The only way to turn them off is inside that particular application's settings.
This menu - unlike on iOS - can he accessed from inside the application. It's usually an option that comes up after pressing your menu button, or if your phone doesn't have one than it's hidden behind the overflow menu ie. The three dots.

In the case of scramble with friends there's a settings icon on the main screen. There's an option to set the polling interval. The default is 5 minutes.

Richard Borcsik's answer on May 6 '12 at 8:55


Prevent application to make silently install file(s) or making changes 'Request Install Packages' let's say if an app has this permission ex- facebook(Check it in playstore head to facebook then 'app permissions' and click 'see more'. I used to read articles related to security threads to the device and while reading what this permission can bring to the device is look suspicious as it can trigger to install/make change to an existing app silently(without taking any permission from user).

  I have then checked many apps that i was going to install but this setting makes me think that it may include security issues. Isn't it ?

Is there any way to prevent making changes silently ?
Can an antivirus prevent these changes to the device's app ?

Android Version: Nougat 7.0

Request install will require the user to accept the install, this permission is probably used for two things on Facebook specifically

Redirecting users to install Messenger
Redirecting users to install Updates to Facebook

I understand your concern with allowing an application to install other applications without notification, but this is not possible, the permission only allows the application to redirect the user for installs, you still need to accept the installation.

You can prevent the application by using a permission manager, some of them recompile the application and completely disable the permissions, other use AppOpps to disable the permission.


How do I view root ( / ) with Termux if termux-setup-storage doesn't help? After reviewing this, I used termux-setup-storage on my phone and Andy Android emulator.

After running the above command, I am able to view root directory with ls
on Andy emulator but not on phone.

INFO:
Android version 7.1.1
Xperia XZ
SoftBank locked the phone BIOS (or whatever it was) so I can't root it.
Storage permissions are granted.

What else can I try to use ls on root directory on my phone?

termux-setup-storage only grants android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE that lets the app access internal SD card i.e. /sdcard.

Android's init creates rootfs / with permissions 0:0 (uid:gid) and 0755 (mode). So the root directory should be accessible to any non-root user.
However SELinux plays its role restricting unauthorized access to rootfs. You can view such policy denials by:

dmesg | grep 'avc: denied'

* Most probably SELinux will deny this command too if run from non-root app

To view all SEPolicy rules, sesearch tool from setools-android can be used.

To set SELinux permissive:

echo 0 >/sys/fs/selinux/enforce
# or
setenforce 0

Or add an exception to SELinux policy:

supolicy --live 'allow untrusted_app rootfs dir { read open }'

* supolicy tool is provided by rooting solutions e.g. Magisk, SuperSu

This policy allows reading rootfs but still you may get errors because reading attributes of files/directories under rootfs isn't permitted by policy.

Also both solutions need root privileges and are nonpersistent i.e. need to be set after reboot.

So if you are running a non-rooted production build of Android (with enforcing SELinux), you won't be able to read rootfs /.


USB connection without unlocking screen i am connecting my phone with USB (using MSC) to my car for listening to the music on the phone's microSD card.

It only works, when the screen was unlocked before connecting the phone.
Also, when turning off the car's engine and starting it again, I must disconnect the phone, unlock the screen, and connect it again.
This is very inconvenient.

Is it possible to allow USB connections without unlocking the screen?

Phone info: Sony Xperia Z3 with Android 5.0.2.

From comments, since you are using pin lockscreen, it wont allow you to have any type of access to internal files with usb connection without unlocking pin.

You have two choices->

1) Dont use PIN/Pattern/Password and just use simple swipe (or no lockscreen at all for that matter).

2) Disable internal lockscreen and download a third party lockscreen from play store with PIN or pattern etc support like smart app locker. As far as I can remember it supports acting as lockscreen too and not just app locker (additionally, you might also want to check this to use along with this app for extended functions). I suggest you explore this app or get some other lockscreen alternative app.

Hope that helps.


How best to block ads on non rooted phone? How can you block ads on a non rooted phone. I tried rooting and have no success.

Adguard is a good option (as suggested above) given it can employ more than one way of filtering ads from traffic. It can utilise local VPN or local HTTP proxy, but can have significant battery drain.

A more lightweight option may be using DNS66, an open source application available for free on the F-Droid Repository.

  DNS66 uses DNS level filtering to filter ad traffic. This means that
  it only filters the ad traffic for a specific amount of time after
  your device is connected to the internet. Therefore there will not be
  any significant battery drain when you are using DNS66 to block ads
  across the system of your Android device.

After installing, head to the Hosts tab at the top of the screen. From here, you'll have to pick at least one ad-blocking hosts file, which is basically a list of known ad servers that DNS66 will block for you.

Now you have to select the hosts file which contains the list of popular ad servers that are hosting the ads you see across the websites and apps.

The most recommmended one is  Adaway hosts (as it covers most popular ad servers) and then click on the Action option and select deny. This will now block all the ads that are hosted by the servers in the Adaway host file’s list.

From here, head back to the Start tab from the top menu, then tap the "Start" icon near the bottom of the screen to start the VPN ad-blocking service.

acknowledgements

Block Ads in All Your Android Apps Without Root or Extra Battery Drain


Why are some contacts missing in some views after an android update followed by restoring the contacts? Here is what happened: I upgraded my android version (to 2.1 on an Xperia X10 ), restored my contacts using the native apps. Some contacts are missing, but when I look at speed dial I can see some of the contacts. For example, I have contacts ABC and AYH: I see only AYH in phonebook but when I look at speed dials I see ABC also. I don t understand why is this happening. Am I, by any chance, not using an option to display all my contacts in phone book?

Go into your contacts Tab.

Press Menu > Display Options

You can then select 'Display only contacts with phones'

Also There is a list of accounts with 'Choose contacts to display' above it.

If you select each one of these you can choose which groups to hide or show, this may be were the numbers are being hidden.

Also within your text messaging app, you can press:

Menu > Settings and there is a setting that says 'Only mobile numbers'

deselect this as sometimes it hides numbers thinking they're not phone numbers when they are!


Is it required to unlock the bootloader to root (normally)? So, a long time ago I rooted my device using a Windows app called KingoRoot, and after that my tablet didn't boot. The exact same thing happened with my other device. I did not unlock the bootloader because I didn't even know what it was. The tablet will sorta boot but the OS just refuses to load. Is this device bricked? Is it fixable? If it's any help the device is a Thomson QM-736 running Android 4.4 KitKat. I also have both the ADB and Fastboot installed on my PC, however the tablet will not connect (I assume the charging port is dead) so I don't actually know how those will be helpful. Thanks in advance.

To answer your title, no you don't need to unlock bootloader to root your android device. I rooted my device two months ago, with bootloader still locked.

Unlocking bootloader lets you change to which operating system is launched, install/remove operating systems in your device, etc. While rooting gives you root/admin right INSIDE the operating system (i.e. after the OS has been launched), via an exploit. I also used KingRoot, but I installed the KingRoot apk on my phone and let it do the trick. Had ADB and Fastboot configured on my computer, in case it didn't go right, but I didn't needed them.

Remember, unlocking bootloader will wipe all the user content from your phone, like a factory reset. Plus it will wipe the TA partition (which holds DRM keys that lets you use manufacturer's proprietary technology).

In your case, it seems the rooting process wasn't successful. So you can either unlock the bootloader and then reinstall the android operating system (or install a custom version/fork of android), or perhaps you can get your manufacturer's stock OS and install it using some tool that does not require you to unlock the bootloader. Can't say whether it's available for your device/manufacturer though, but I got XperiaFirm and the android image in (.ftf format) ready for myself if my root failed.


How to open FTP URLs on Chrome for Android? I can open the following link in Chrome on my PC, but my phone browser, which is also the latest version of Chrome, doesn't open it: ftp://tchdata.eili.ir (can only be accessed from Iran)
How can I open such links on my phone (Huawei P smart, if relevant)?

Chrome initially planned to depreciate support for FTP from version 81 but paused it because of COVID-19 (to help hospital staff access FTP resources) . In version 86 (currently latest on Play Store) , support to FTP has been depreciated for 1% users and by Chrome 87, it will be  depreciated  by 50% (Source).
So if you are lucky (not in the 1%), enable FTP flag by pasting chrome://flags/#enable-ftp in the address bar and launching Chrome again by pressing the prompt at bottom right.
Verified with this FTP site ftp://ftp.heanet.ie/   since link in OP can be accessed only from Iran.
If you can't access using browser, see this for other methods
How to connect an Android device to an FTP server?


Can I Install Stock Android 7 N On Any Device? I currently own a Redmi Pro running Android Marshmallow with MiUi 8.  Is it possible to install Android 7 Nougut on my phone.. I already have root...

Not stock, you would have to install a custom ROM that is specifically designed for your device, they are not generic... Check XDA here: https://forum.xda-developers.com/redmi-pro in the Xiaomi Redmi Pro ROMs, Kernels, Recoveries, & Other Development section. Make sure to do your research and understand the implications and process of installing a custom ROM before starting. Reading in the various XDA forums under your device is a good place to start.

In looking in the development area for your device, it seems the only Nougat ROM in active development is LineageOS 14.1, which is still in alpha stages since some things are not working, major things like calls, camera, mobile data, and more, some major hurdles to overcome yet.

So to answer your question regarding your device, yes, you can but you will not have a fully functional device at this time. I would monitor those areas and see if development continues otherwise it appears you are stuck on Marshmallow.

To answer your generic question, "Can I Install Stock Android 7 N On Any Device?", no you cannot... Android ROM's must be built specifically for each device, they are not generic and not even the same for very closely related devices in almost every case. Some devices have Nougat support from their manufacturer, some have it from third party ROMs, and many do not and will never have it.


Google maps navigation doesn't stay in status bar anymore When using google maps navigation I remember there used to be a constant notification item which let you switch back to navigation easily. This is not showing for me anymore and I can't find a setting to turn it back on.

Has this feature been removed or is there still a way to turn it back on?

I had notifications disabled for the maps app. :0

The app still closes when i press close all apps. Don't think it used to do that earlier. But at least I can switch to it easily.


Kerberos authentication Does the android web browser support kerberos authentication?  If not, is there an open source web browser for android that works well, which can be extended to support kerberos?

No, it does not.  Unfortunately all the major Android browsers that I know of -- Firefox, Opera, Dolphin, Skyfire -- don't appear to support it either.  Firefox does support NTLM, and I'd expect it to support kerberos sooner or later.


How do I find my contacts? My contacts have dissapeared from my phone, over night, for no reason. (Galaxy S) Althoug nothing else in the phone has been affected. The messages still exist, the history is there, but only listed with phone numbers and not my contacts. I have pulled the battery, I have pulled the sim card and battery together and I have restarted the phone. Nothing seems to work. I beleive the contacts are in the phone because under my history some names appear but not all of them. How do I trace /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/contacts.db  to see if my contacts exist at all. Where do I start?

Maybe you just unchecked some/all contact sources from showing up in the contact list?

Open the contact list -> open the context menu -> hit 'more' -> choose view settings


Problem purchasing android apps I bought humble bundle for PC, which comes with some games available on android market, played the games a bit, uninstalled, then I went to market and wanted to buy a second copy of OSMOS HD, but it still shows as purchased and I don't have it on my Galaxy S2 anymore, and yes, I cleared cache, uninstalled market updates, cleared dalvik cache, reinstalled and uninstalled game to see if it worked...I wanted to buy it again because of the easier updates, but market won't allow me.

Also, I installed another game, Generation of Chaos which I didn't pay for it, then uninstalled, did the same procedures as OSMOS HD above, and I want to buy it on market, but it still shows as purchased and will not download.

Any ideas/tips ?

The issue is that the Play Store falsely linked some apps to your account that you installed from third-party sources.

This has been in some 3.5.x version, and now it works as expected.


magnifier glass app, on fingertip only I am looking for an app (maybe it never existed and I imagined it), but it is a screen magnifier that only magnifies a small circle around your fingertip, like the equivalent of a 5 letter word, ideal for magnifying specific words or areas of your screen, I think I saw it once (on iphone maybe?), you just need to keep your fingertip on screen for about 2 seconds then a small circle appears above your fingertip magnifying anything under it, and you can move it all around your screen, and disappears when you lift your finger, is there such thing?

There is the triple TAP but it zooms the whole screen and I do not want that.

I think you are most likely to have seen what you are describing on an iPhone, however there is a similar function available as of Android 9.

You can use the Magnifier Widget on a piece of text by highlighting it and dragging the selection handle as shown on this page.

You can drag the handle around to magnify any of the text on-screen, one downside though is that the magnifier will 'snap' to each line of text which can take a little getting used to.


What user agent does Chrome Mobile Beta have? I don't own any Android device and right now nobody is online that I could ask: What's the user agent of the new Chrome Mobile Beta?

Could someone visit this site http://whatsmyuseragent.com/ with Chrome Mobile and copy it in here? I'm trying to match all mobile browsers with PHP and the user agent string and Chrome Mobile is missing! :)

// I know the user agent will be a little different for every device, so the question title is not exact.

Here is the useragent from chrome beta on my transformer prime

Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.0.3; en-us; Transformer Prime TF201 Build/IML74K) AppleWebKit/535.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) CrMo/16.0.912.75 Safari/535.7


Reachability feature like in iPhone 6 I've got Nexus 4 and not big enough hands to be able to fully control my phone with one hand. I've seen an amazing feature on iPhone 6 called "Reachability mode" (when home button is double tapped, whole UI shifts down to a thumb's reach).

Is there an Android app creating similar reachability mode? I don't have my phone rooted but I can do so.

For all the trolls: please don't write me 'buy an iPhone' not even Samsung, that's not the answer to this question.

Thank you very much!

Actually, here is a research paper doing it on android before Apple implemented it, but better ;-)
Go to minute 1:05
Backpat: improving one-handed touchscreen operati…: http://youtu.be/6obUW7uhWOk

Not that the platform matters, though. It's a usability feature for a form factor after all.


How to Slave Chromebook's Display for Android by RB/HDMI? Condition: Slave Chromebook's Display for Android by Microcontroller/HDMI
Proposal: Microcontroller as a router in the local network which streams phone output to the local network, which Chromebook can access and view real-time
Support: Chromebook's display cannot work as a real slave itself for the phone

I would like to use my Android phone on the external monitor. I am thinking if any Chromebook's monitor could work as a slave for your Android phone, although it is not supported by their design. A microcontroller is needed in the solution between Chromebook and Android phone.

Hardware: Chromebook 2 Toshiba 13", Chromebook 2 Acer 13" and/or any
Phone: Samsung Galaxy S4 gt-i9506 and/or any
Phone System: CyanogenMod 13, Temasek's rom with patches
Microcontroller open: Raspberry Pi 3 b (RB3b), FPGA (SnickerDoodle), Pine64
Network: localhost HTTPS

You cannot do this without changes in the Chromebook itself.


Why do I have an alarm symbol on my notification bar when I don't have an alarm set I recently started seeing the alarm icon on my notification bar even though I don't have an alarm set.
Why is this happening? What can I do to find what's making this show? I don't want to disable the icon since I want it show when I do have an alarm set.

When you enable Tasker it starts showing an alarm icon in the status bar. there is a setting in Tasker that is the culprit for this.
"Preferences -> Monitor -> Use Reliable Alarms" when set to always on it puts the icon there. Set it to When Off and the icon goes away.
See This post


How to sync Google Account every one hour? If I turn on sync of my Galaxy Nexus, it makes batter life short. But I need sync my Google Account. So is there a way I can sync automatically every one hour?

There are several approaches to accomplish this. Ready-to-use tools like JuiceDefender or GreenPower "stutter" data (i.e. turn data & sync on only in certain intervals, as you requested). The same could be accomplished using an automation tool like tasker or Llama, which then could be used for other automation as well.

Apart from that, you might want to check what you've enabled to sync (see: Settings→Account & Sync). Maybe you don't need to sync all of that, so you can uncheck parts. I found that about have the stuff enabled there by default I didn't want or need. Less stuff to sync also means less power needed for the job. And bandwidth saved as a side-effect.


How can I ignore the AT&T software update? (Update 2016-01-09: I got rid of the phone after it auto-upgraded to Android 5, so I don't have this issue anymore.)

I keep getting this message every 10 minutes or so on my Samsung Galaxy S3 (non-rooted Android 4.1.2):

How can I ignore it?

I want to skip this update as the penultimate one introduced some nasty bugs.

EDIT: Apparently I cannot kill the AT&T service:

Also, I restarted the device and the AT&T service is launched at startup.

So I tried to remove the AT&T service from the startup using Startup Cleaner 2.0, but the AT&T service still get launched...:

I called AT&T, and this is a mandatory update. Other than rooting, there's no way to avoid the message. You can avoid the download by not going onto WiFi. If you install the update, you need to re-enter WiFi passwords EVERY time you reconnect to a WiFi network. Horrible! I'm avoiding this thing even if have to keep hitting the home key when the message pops up.


Apps will not auto start on Android 9.0 Pie I bought a cheap Blackview BV5900 running on Android 9.0 (I assume a custom ROM) as I needed something rugged and with long battery life for testing purposes. I'm struggling to find any answers as to why apps won't auto start when they are supposed to. The app in question primarily is Grandstream Wave - Video which is effectively a SIP client. It auto starts just fine on an old Samsung Galaxy V6.

I've tried various auto-start apps to see if I could get around it, but it would seem they fail to load as well on boot, so they don't do the task they are intended to perform. I've been in contact with the manufacturer and their answer is it just won't do it.

As it's a test phone I'm quite happy to root it, although I'm completely new to Android, I'm sure I'll find enough info to get started with a bit of googling.

What I'm after is a bit of help on what to look for and how to find it. From what I gather, the app is looking for a BOOT_COMPLETE message of some sort, so I'm guessing that is disabled somewhere? Any answers, please assume I know nothing, you will be correct.

EDIT 11May2020

Tried the shell command as requested here - no Joy. Result from shell below. Not sure whether this just means I don't have enough privilege to run it or it's disabled in some way?

Broadcasting: Intent { act=android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED flg=0x400000 pkg=com.grandstream.wave }
Security exception: Permission Denial: not allowed to send broadcast android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED from pid=5834, uid=2000

java.lang.SecurityException: Permission Denial: not allowed to send broadcast android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED from pid=5834, uid=2000
    at com.android.server.am.ActivityManagerService.broadcastIntentLocked(ActivityManagerService.java:21774)
    at com.android.server.am.ActivityManagerService.broadcastIntent(ActivityManagerService.java:22411)
    at com.android.server.am.ActivityManagerShellCommand.runSendBroadcast(ActivityManagerShellCommand.java:690)
    at com.android.server.am.ActivityManagerShellCommand.onCommand(ActivityManagerShellCommand.java:174)
    at android.os.ShellCommand.exec(ShellCommand.java:103)
    at com.android.server.am.ActivityManagerService.onShellCommand(ActivityManagerService.java:16434)
    at android.os.Binder.shellCommand(Binder.java:634) at android.os.Binder.onTransact(Binder.java:532)
    at android.app.IActivityManager$Stub.onTransact(IActivityManager.java:3551)
    at com.android.server.am.ActivityManagerService.onTransact(ActivityManagerService.java:3397)
    at android.os.Binder.execTransact(Binder.java:731)

This would not be a complete answer to your problem.
But if you suspect that BOOT_COMPLETED broadcast is disabled for some reason, you can try to send it manually using adb shell and see if your app starts up.

It better to send the broadcast directly to your app by specifying its package name. If you do not know the package name of your application, first you need to find it. To get a list of all installed packages in your device, you can use following command.

$ adb shell pm list packages

After finding the package name of your app from the output of above command, you can use following command to send the broadcast to your app, and see if it starts after it received the broadcast.

$ adb shell am broadcast -a android.intent.action.BOOT_COMPLETED -p <com.your.apps.package.name.comes.here>

In above command replace <com.your.apps.package.name.comes.here> with your app's package name.


Can I restore downloaded paid apps after a factory reset? I need to factory reset my phone.
However, I need to know whether I will be able to download
the applications I paid for on Google Play once I do the
reset, and download them onto my phone at no additional cost.

If once I do a factory reset I need to pay again to download
all the apps, then is there a way to back them up prior to
doing a reset, and then reinstall them back again?

Once bought, always yours. New device, factory-reset, does not matter -- as long as your account stays the same. Paid apps are bound to the Google-Account you've purchased them with.

To give some proof: I use several apps I bought once on 3 devices simultaneously. I never was asked to pay again when installing them on the next device. Provided I used the same account, of course.


How to fully back up a phone's content to a PC, possibly for restoring on a similar phone I have an LG X-charge phone whose screen is broken, but still functional. I purchased a replacement screen module, but before going ahead on the "open heart surgery", I want to fully back it up. I have another X-charge which is not in use.

I'd like to make a backup on my PC and restore it to the fixed phone, if necessary, or the new phone, if the first one dies.

Can I transfer all of the content of the broken phone to the other one? By "all" I mean all media files, messages history, call history, applications, etc. IOW, make a full, restoreable, copy (to whatever extent possible) of the broken phone.

Also, it will be great to be able to access data from the backup (images, messages) on my PC.

Oh, yeah - and preferably, this should be a free solution.

LG provides different Software (or maybe just different names)
- LG-Bridge
- LG PC Suite
- LG Mobile Switch
- LG ANDROID BACKUP

For experts also there is LGUP flash tool which may shipped with qualcomm factory loader, with this you may able to create/restore full partition dump, root the device without data loss, or install TWRP via EDL mode


Swype remove special characters? Is there a plugin or any other way to use swype but force it to auto-replace special characters like č with c,  ž with z etc. ?

As currently Swype is predicting words - for example: "Španija" and it would be great if it would be replaced with "Spanija" as it would then have 160 characters in SMS message instead of 70, like when using special characters.

Enter the message application, click the menu button and enter Settings, select "Text input mode" and change the option from Automatic to GSM Alphabet. When you type in the message it appears as special characters but when the message is sent it is automatically converted to normal text.


Boot to ROM recovery instead of TWRP My phone is OnePlus 5t.
In fastboot mode I flashed TWRP
fastboot flash recovery twrp-3.5.2_9-0.img
and every time I try to enter recovery mode it just start the original recovery mode that came with the system.
But if i enter 'fastboot' and type:
fastboot boot twrp-3.5.2_9-0.img
the TWRP comes up....
How can I make it automatically TWRP? ty!

Edit: someone send me this: adb device doesn't listed on cmd {Lenovo K8 Plus}
And this was the problem:
Another common mistake after flashing TWRP you must not boot into android. Reboot straightforward into recovery right after flashing, otherwise your custom recovery will be replaced with stock recovery /system/recovery-from-boot.p

i think u need to flash 2 more files , called "force dm verification" and "decrypt" not sure that's the exact name but these basically get the job done


What is the point of a locked bootloader if a deep flash cable can bypass it? I was reading about how important is locked bootloaders for users security after Xiaomi decided to lock some bootloaders of its phones. 1

However, I found that there is a specially engineered cable that can bypass locked bootloaders and flash other ROMs into the phone. 2

What is the point then of having a locked bootloader, if anyone can get this so called "deep flash cable" and bypass the locking restriction?

Qualcomm 9008 mode is for emergency repairs as a last resort - without it your phone could remain bricked under certain situations.

However, in case of Xiaomi phones, even if you flashed the phone under this mode, the account lock (if there is any) will still be persistent and you won't be able to use any services related to it (i.e. Cloud). The original user will also still be able to lock the phone based on the IMEI.

Additionally, Xiaomi is well aware of the security risk, and a recent MIUI8 update has patched this (Chinese sources, can't cite), putting an end to the loophole people are using.


How to open ClockworkMod's .tar.a archives? To open the TAR archive on my PC, I have to rename the .tar.a to .tar, otherwise my archive manager will say "Archive type unsupported" or similar.

Why do they do that, and how to open these archives in a proper way?

It does this in order to break up large .tar files into chunks of 1000000000 bytes (or 1 GB):

-rwxrwx--- root     sdcard_r          0 2014-03-19 14:31 data.ext4.tar
-rwxrwx--- root     sdcard_r 1000000000 2014-03-19 14:33 data.ext4.tar.a
-rwxrwx--- root     sdcard_r 1000000000 2014-03-19 14:36 data.ext4.tar.b
-rwxrwx--- root     sdcard_r 1000000000 2014-03-19 14:38 data.ext4.tar.c
-rwxrwx--- root     sdcard_r  135127040 2014-03-19 14:38 data.ext4.tar.d

Even if the resulting file is under the 1000000000-byte split limit, the .a file will still be generated:

-rwxrwx--- root     sdcard_r         0 2014-03-19 14:29 system.ext4.tar
-rwxrwx--- root     sdcard_r 484504064 2014-03-19 14:30 system.ext4.tar.a

You can combine these split files back together using the following syntax:

On Windows: copy /b finelame* filename E.g. copy /b data.ext4.tar* data.ext4.tar
On Linux: cat filename* > filename E.g. cat data.ext4.tar* > data.ext4.tar


TWRP recovery: "pm install /path/to.apk" not working I'm making a flashable zip for TWRP, to debloat my phone. I also want to install apps in the same script.

However, when I do "pm install /path/to.apk" (whether in a script or through the terminal) I get the following error:

Error: java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke interface method 'android.os.IBinder android.os.IServericeManager.getService(java.lang.String)' on a null object reference

I get the same error when I try other pm commands, but when I input only "pm" I do get the help message.

Is it not possible to install .apks this way or is something else wrong?

Thanks!

Use script to place the APK file at the correct place in /data/app instead.

mkdir,mv,chown and chmod are to be used.

While pm binary is there, it cannot do it's work from recovery that is a completely different system.
See this as someone trying to install a game on his Windows system while booted on Ubuntu.


Is the secret flag "chrome://flags/#max-tiles-for-interest-area" a legit trick or scam? I've been seeing these "secret flags" (e.g. chrome://flags/#max-tiles-for-interest-area) for Chrome browser on Android posted all over the internet.

Are these legitimate tricks, or scams to phish users?

Chrome flags (accessed by going to chrome://flags on Chrome) are basically on/off switches for experimental and dangerous (hence the warning at the top of the flags page) features not yet officially announced in a Chrome release.

They are most definitely not scams, but are experiments intended for testing by developers and beta testers of Chrome.


Connecting a USB keyboard to Xiaomi Mi A1 I am trying to use a basic USB keyboard with my Xiaomi Mi A1 and it's not working.

I connected the phone to the keyboard using a female-to-female USB adaptor. Nothing shows up on the phone. I tried the USB Host Controller app, but it says "Root hub is not present, USB Host mode not active or not available".

I have tried enabling USB debugging. Not sure what else to do? I also tried plugging my mouse in instead but nothing happens.

I have the same device. Female to female adapter as pointed out in comments doesn't work. You have to use OTG adapter. I use it for USB storage

Aside, phone only works with vfat formatted USB / Ext. SD unless you use custom kernel


Google Cloud Print from Android GMail I have setup Google Cloud Print, and it works great.  I love being able to print to my home printer, from my phone no matter where I am.

However, the one thing I can't seem to print are GMail emails.  I'm using the GMail app (not website) on my Galaxy S3.

Everything else I can use Cloud Print and then just Share to it, and it will print.  GMail doesn't work like that however.

Regular email is a pain as well, as I need to save the email, then I can share it.

So my question is, how do I print email through Google Cloud Print, from my S3?

I was surprised there was no official Google app. I am using Cloud Print on my Galaxy S3.


How to root a Huawei in 2020 The question is just the title XD.

I have an Huawei mediapad t5 10 and is still using the f emui 8. Any solution to root it?

There is no official solution, this app does a bruteforce to try to find the code, but it requires the imei, and tablets usually don't have that. In issues someone said it didn't work with mediapads.


How to make my alarm as stable as a server? I have HTC Desire with original Android 2.2 (kernel 2.6.32.15-gf5a401c) with HTC Sence. I have not installed any task killers.

Now I have a stock alarm clock application.

Yesterday evening I set my alarm for 6:30am, but got up at 10 being 2h+ late for my work.
When I took my phone, I noticed 3 things

it was showing a message like "Adobe Flash Player cannot be installed without internet connection";
second thing I noted is "Low on space" notification --- common problem for HTC Desire;
my alarm was silently asking me if I want to snooze or dismiss it.

I want

to have an alarm clock on my phone as stable as my bicycle, i.e. which

works as expected;
does not turn off automatically after 1, 5, 10 or 100500 minutes;
does not stop working in case of update or any other event (except airplane mode);

to have Android update like Debian Squeeze, i.e. not to update automatically (at least if it causes problems), but gently suggest to install only security critical updates and to give any other suggestions only by special request;
some logging for my alarm to "debug" problems with waking up.

In the list above I mention not only the alarm, but the whole system (Android update), because I think that tuning off the system can help to stabilize my alarm. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Question

What can be done to make my system and, importantly, my alarm, very stable?
What is the most stable alarm clock app?
Is there any way to make it even more stable (for instance, turn off updates to stick with a stable version)?

What is done

I have found the following relevant threads:

"Is there an alarm clock event log?" has no satisfactory answer;
"Which Alarm clock app do you use to wake up in the morning?" suggests Smart Alarm Clock and Gentle Alarm, a similar thread suggests Alarm Clock Xtreme (ad-supported or paid ($2)); I do not have any information on stability of these;
the following threads about alarm clock incidents: [1], [2];
"disable update notification" - done.

Future

Probably at some point I will reinstall Android with a question of solving low internal memory problem in mind. So if there are some solutions for a different version of Android (say 2.3) or advice for installation to make my system and alarm stable I would like to know them.

Update
As roxan pointed out, probably alarm rings just for a few minutes. If it is so, I would like to turn off this feature or set this time to something big (2 hours or more).

I also use Desire and this has never/ever happened to me under any circumstances. Alarm would not work if you had killed it but you have clearly specified you don't have any task killer.

As you said there is Snooze/Dismiss screen, the alarm indeed went on. Are you sure you didn't miss when the alarm rang at the correct time? Or are you sure the volume is loud enough?


Android AVD throws errors, such as "Failed to sync vcpu reg" How do I fix “Failed to sync vcpu reg” error? does not help. I tried all the solutions I could for Mac on the post but none worked.

I started a new project and tried to run the emulator, but I get these errors:

HAXM is working and emulator runs in fast virt mode
emulator: Failed to sync vcpu reg
emulator: Failed to sync HAX vcpu context

It used to work yesterday. I didn't change/download anything.

Why did it stop working? I also made sure there are no other processes of the emulator running.

I'm running Android Studio in OS X Yosemite.

Make sure that you're not running any other virtual machines, then try again.

I was running a guest Windows 8 VirtualBox on El Capitan and I got the same error when I tried to run a virtual Android device in Android Studio. I shutdown the guest OS and VirtualBox then my AVD booted up.


Galaxy S5 S Voice unable to detect current location I used to use S Voice to bring up navigation: "Navigate to 123 Elm Street Springfield"  And it would take me directly to google maps navigation.  Now when I do that it says, "Sorry, I am unable to detect your current location.  Please check your settings and try again."

But when I go to google maps and ask it to navigate, it does so without problem.  So location services are working.

What setting do I need to change?

Software version: G900PVPU2BOD3
Hardware version: G900P.04
Android version: 5.0
Model number: SM-G900P

With the help of my carrier's support, I found the answer.  Settings > Location > Mode > High Accuracy solved the problem.


Can I get a notification when an email arrives in a sub folder? I have a number of sub-folders set up on my work email with rules moving certain emails into these folders automatically.  On the Galaxy S3 I can see these folders, and can 'auto-sync' the folder, but how do I set it up so that I get a notification when a new email arrives into it?

There are many email apps for Android, each one should have an option within the app itself where you can check or uncheck to be notified of a new email arrival.
This list covers the most popular ones:
Email
Allows you to have a notification on the status bar, when activated within the application:

Access the application;
Tap your device "home" button;
Tap "Account Settings";
Scroll your way to "Notification settings";
Tick the checkbox for "Email notifications".

Gmail
Allows you to have a notification on the status bar for each one of the configured accounts. Can be activated within the application:

Access the application;
Tap your device "home" button;
Tap "more";
Tap "Settings";
Tap over the desired account;
Scroll your way to "Notification settings";
Tick the checkbox for "Email notifications".

K-9 Mail
Allows you to have a notification on the status bar for each one of the configured accounts. Can be activated within the application:

Access the application;
Tap your device "home" button;
Tap "more";
Tap "Accounts";
Long Tap over the desired account;
From the popup, tap "Account settings";
Scroll your way to "Notifications" and tap it;
Tick the checkbox for "New mail notifications".

MailDroid
Allows you to have a notification on the status bar, when activated within the application:

Access the application;
Tap your device "home" button;
Tap "Preferences";
Scroll your way to "Notifications" and tap it;
Select the icon for the status bar from the dropdown;
Tick the checkbox for "Show separate notification", aditionally you can tick the checkbox for "show once";

Yahoo! Mail
Allows you to have a notification on the status bar for each one of the configured accounts. Can be activated within the application:

Access the application;
Tap your device "home" button;
Tap "Options";
Tap the desirable account;
Tap "Notification Settings";
Tick the checkbox for "Show in Status Bar".

Hotmail
Allows you to have a notification on the status bar, when activated within the application:

Access the application;
Tap your device "home" button;
Tap "Account Settings";
Scroll your way to "General Settings" and tap it;
Scroll your way to "Notifications and Alerts" and tap it;
Tap "Email Notifications";
Tick the checkbox for "Message Notification".

Notes:

Some Email apps, in order to notify you of the arrival of new mail, need to have the "auto-sync" and the "Background Data" active on your phone settings:
This options are found on your device settings, under "Accounts & sync".

"Tick the checkbox" stands for having the checkbox with a green tick on it. The gray tick is the disable status.

If your email app isn't present on the above list, feel free to @Zuul me and I'll be glad to add it to the list.

Only email app with Notification capabilities will be present.


Is it possible to remember a network but manually initiate connection every time? I occasionally use my phone to connect to the work network for quick diagnostic purposes. I do not like being connected to it for regular use, as I don't like my phone activity to be traceable by my employer.

Is it possible to remember a WiFi network, but only connect when manually triggered?

This is not possible, but as Matt said, the best thing to do is just to turn off your Wi-Fi. There are apps that you can download that will be able to automatically turn off Wi-Fi at your workplace. However, I personally keep my Wi-Fi off at all times, regardless of whether or not I am home. Wi-Fi, despite what most battery saving apps will tell you, consumes more power than cellular when you are not using it heavily. For streaming and updating apps, I connect to Wi-Fi, but that is about it.


Unknown "________ would like to send a message to 45567" notification I keep getting these random SMS permission notifications. The app or service requesting to send the message is always changing.

Pixel 2 XL on Android 9 on Freedom Mobile in Canada.
Play Protect and Malwarebytes don't detect any malicious apps.

How do I determine what's causing this?

Looks like this is an issue specific to Freedom Mobile users happening since May 9, 2019. Possibly caused by a software update from Freedom around that time, it appears to affect Google Phone (beta) users with Visual Voicemail enabled.

Background

There is a thread on Google's official support for Pixel Phone, which mentions the same issue about some multiple random processes requesting permission to send an SMS to 45567 on multiple setups:

Device model: Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL, Pixel 3, Pixel 3 XL,
Android version: Pie, Q (beta)
Process name: com.android.sdm.plugin, Connectivity manager, Oemdmtrigger, com.qualcomm.data, uceShimService, Phone and Messaging St..., Modem Service, SDMService, [etc.]
Software update: After the May security patch, or after an update to "Carrier Services" and "Actions Services" but before the May security patch.

Temporary fix/workaround

As per Matthew Naugler Klassen's post, the (temporary) fix is to disable Visual Voicemail in Google's Phone app:

Open Phone app
Open Settings
Under Voicemail, disable Visual Voicemail

Additional Remarks

Freedom Mobile seems to aware and has acknowledged the issue, promising to escalate it and deliver the fix as soon as possible.


Is there an easy way to count the number of installed apps in my Android phone? Maybe this info is in some file. I can also have it mounted in my computer and run a bunch of linux commands.

Was about to say the same as Firelord – he missed the "ease" part, by the way, and has you counting lines manually. Rather try adb shell pm list packages -3 |wc -l (when on Windows, better use quotes: adb shell "pm list packages -3 |wc -l"). Takes a few seconds, and then shows the number.

Example, with one of my test devices:

Linux $ adb shell "pm list packages -3 |wc -l"
15
Linux $


All non stock apps are crashing Suddely without any previous event my application has started crashing. Only stock applications work? Cleared cache of some of them but nothing happened. Do you have any ideas, or I will have to make a factory reset?:S

EDIT!!!!

I have a great hint...I trie to reinstall an app and I got an error telling that there is insufficient space in my phone. Any ideas?:)

I have this happen from time to time. My issue is usually just about any application, not just "non-stock".

To fix it I have to reboot in to the recovery and clear the cache. I believe that it has to do with the number of applications that I have installed, ~105 total, and the amount of data they store in the cache.

Clearing the cache usually fixes it, but only for a short time, unless I remove some applications. I am now down to about 80 and I haven't had the issue in a couple weeks.


unable to use whatsapp on wifi xiaomi a3 device I am using Whatsapp on Xiaomi A3 device.
I am unable to use Whatsapp on Wifi of my home. I have a broadband ADSL router. Whose settigngs never changed. There are other people who use Wifi and their whatsapp works perfectly.
In my case it used to work but now it is giving problems. I am able to use internet using Wifi of my home on this Mi A3 phone.But I am not able to use whatsapp. I mean to say neither any message gets downloaded and neither any message is sent on whatsapp when I am connected to Wifi of my home. But when I switch on my data plan immediately all the messages which are pending to get delivered, in the que get delivered.
Also I receive the pending messages.I restarted the device after a restart I do get my whatsapp usable for 10 minutes on my Wifi. But after some time again the same situation is there.
I am using WhatsApp 2.20.108 (it is not business edition). The phone is android 9,model name M190F9SI.
What should I do?

Is there an X icon bottom-right side of the wifi icon? Try "forget this network" and reconnect. It happened to me a few times and this is how i solved. Check network related whatsapp settings also.


How do I use stock UI on HTC Desire HD? How do I disable HTC Sense on my HTC Desire HD without having to root my phone?

I looked at a guide for the regular Desire and attempted to follow that but it didn't work (was missing the ability to force close HTC Sense).

You can't :o(

You can install another home screen app from the market if you don't want to use the Sense home screen.

If you want to avoid Sense altogether, you will need to root your phone and flash a non-Sense ROM.


Repartitioning /data partition For a project requirement I am trying to resize the memory partition on userdata (/data filesystem) to create a new file system. I am using parted on the device. When I tried to use resize command in parted mode for /data memory block, I am unable to do so because it is used by default in the device.

Error obtained :
Error: Partition /dev/block/mmcblk0p4 is being used. You must unmount it before
you modify it with Parted.

As this is /data folder I am unable to unmount it. When I tried to unmount I am getting following error.

umount /data
failed: Device or resource busy

I tried killing all the processes using this folder using lsof command. However, this contains all apps data so killing all those processes reboots device.

Can somebody help me ways to resize these partition? I need commands only through adb as I am trying to create an automatic script for this.

If you want to modify any partition, reboot into a custom recovery.

Most partitions are in use whenever a normal system is running. You can't play around with them unless you are in an alternative system, like recovery.

BTW, almost anything that runs OK in Android also runs well in recovery, so simply go ahead.

Can you resize C:\ in Windows without rebooting?


Answering a phone call When someone calls me I can't see the call screen but I can feel the vibration and I hear my ringtone. But the screen is total black. I have to push the lock button to wake up the screen. How can I fix it?

First go to Settings -> Apps and check if you have disable the Dialer or Phone app. If so please enable it and then check after restarting your phone.

If your Phone/Dialer app is not disabled then try these steps,

Settings -> Apps -> All(Tab) -> Dialer
Clear Cache and Clear Data
Disable it, restart phone and re-enable the Dialer app.


How do I screen pin an app in Android Lollipop using command-line? I'm aware that I can go to Settings → Security → Screen pinning → On, and then tap Overview → touch the pin icon on the app listed there and it would be pinned, effectively putting the app into kiosk-mode.

(Click image to enlarge; hover to know details)

But how do I pin an app using command line? I tried input command but with no success.

I'm using rooted OnePlus One running CM12.

Activity Manager among other things manage Screen pinning. You can invoke the am command to pin an app regardless of the Screen pinning being activated under Settings.

However, know that the pinning wouldn't be fully automated this way i.e. you still would have to confirm on the screen whether to pin the app or not, although I provided a way to interact with the screen only the very first time.

Google mentioned here:

(Emphasis mine)

  If the requesting app is not a device owner, the user is prompted for confirmation. A device owner app can call the setLockTaskPackages() method to enable apps to be pinnable without the user confirmation step.

Also note that an app cannot be made device owner just by using some set of commands, unless it fulfills the criteria set for it i.e. it must be a candidate for Device Administration (the apps you see in Settings → Security → Device administrators), which is hard-coded into app's manifest. Google has mentioned here what must be included in an app's manifest to use Device Administration API.

Even then, you still have to make the app the Device Owner -- a specialized type of device administrator who once activated cannot be deactivated unless you have root access or do factory rest on the device. Contrary to simple kiosk mode which you activate by pinning an app from recent tasks list, a device owner app can make it extremely hard for you to evade the kiosk mode which means the normal evading technique like holding down Overview button or Back button or both could be rendered useless.

It is up to you to choose a method for making your favorite app the device owner.

That was just a bit of context to explain why you need to interact with the screen, and why there is no complete command-line way to screen pin an app.

Things to do

Setup adb, connect the phone into PC, enable USB debugging in phone,  launch the app you want to screen pin,  launch a shell on PC, and enter:

NOTE: It has come to my notice that in Android 6.0 lock-task has been replaced with task lock. Hence, make appropriate changes in any command  before using the latter.

adb shell
task_id=$(dumpsys activity | grep -A2 "(dumpsys activity recents)"| grep '#'| cut -d ' ' -f 7| cut -c 2-); am lock-task $task_id

As an alternative: This command would work if the app is launched from scratch i.e. not resumed from recent tasks list:

adb shell
cur_act=($(dumpsys activity | grep mFocusedActivity | rev)); task_id=$(echo ${cur_act[0]} | head -c -2 | cut -c 2-| rev); am lock-task $task_id;

You would get an output Activity manager is not in lockTaskMode. Ignore it, and if you've read the links I mentioned in the context you would know why it has been outputted.

Tap Start on device's screen to confirm screen pinning.

(Click image to enlarge)

I uploaded the screen recording here (5.62MB size) which would show you that the command can also screen pin the launcher app.

As an alternate of going to screen and tapping the confirmation dialog, you can use any of the following approaches:

Issue keyevents  to go down, go right, and simulate enter on the confirmation dialog.

adb shell input keyevent 20
adb shell input keyevent 22
adb shell input keyevent 66

(Here are listed  some common keyevents)

Enable Pointer Location under Developer options, pin an app and hold Start on the confirmation dialog, and locate the X and Y coordinates.
Alternatively, use adb shell getevent -l to get X and Y coordinates. Here is a good solution by Tomas.

Once you have them, use this command:

adb shell input touchscreen tap <x> <y>

where <x> and <y> are the respective coordinates you noted.

Since the X and Y coordinates will always going to be same whenever the confirmation is shown (provided that you are not trying Landscape mode coordinates on Portrait mode), you can use it for complete screen pinning using command-line.

As for the  command doing the screen pinning, it's very simple. The part responsible for activating screen pin is am lock-task, and its usage goes as:

Type adb shell am and notice this line:

am lock-task: bring <TASK_ID> to the front and don't allow other tasks to run

Bring <TASK_ID> (which is the task ID of an app in use) to front while not allowing other tasks to run simply means kiosk mode.

I couldn't come to know what are STACK_ID and TASK_ID in general, but I know how to find them. Use any of the following approaches to get  TASK_ID of the app in focus or launched by a user:

dumpsys activity | grep -A20 "(dumpsys activity recents)"

or enter dumpsys activity recents for detailed output about all recent activities, but would be excessive for out goal. The former's output would be like:

* Recent #0: TaskRecord{68f58f6 #1441 A=com.slovoed.oald U=0 sz=1}
* Recent #1: TaskRecord{9888887 #1415 A=com.cyanogenmod.trebuchet U=0 sz=1}
* Recent #2: TaskRecord{29c6fe30 #1438 A=com.icecoldapps.serversultimatepro U=0 sz=2}

The numeric value before A= and after # is the TASK_ID of the app. In the example, it would be: 1441, 1415, 1438. These TASK_IDs would be found in the next command's output.
am stack list

It would list all of the activity stacks of which TASK_ID is part of.

Stack id=1 bounds=[0,0][1080,1920] displayId=0
  taskId=1438: com.icecoldapps.serversultimatepro/com.icecoldapps.serversultimatepro.viewStart1
  taskId=1441: com.slovoed.oald/com.slovoed.oald.SlovoEdTabActivity

Stack id=0 bounds=[0,0][1080,1920] displayId=0
  taskId=1415: com.cyanogenmod.trebuchet/com.android.launcher3.Launcher

dumpsys activity | grep mFocusedActivity

It would give the app's package name which is in focus (simply, the app displayed on the screen dominantly), its task ID, and some other details:

mFocusedActivity: ActivityRecord{30672d7f u0 com.slovoed.oald/.OALDTabActivity t1441}

The value after t and before } is the TASK_ID of the app.
You can also get TASK_ID from:

 dumpsys window displays

 dumpsys window tokens

 dumpsys window | grep mFocusedApp

There may be more ways but the ones I mentioned should suffice.

Cheers!


adb restore: 'Invalid restore data' My Nexus 6 had a hardware fault so I sent it off for RMA. Knowing in advance that it was highly likely the service people would factory reset it during the process of fixing it, I decided to do an adb backup.  My device is not rooted.

I made two backups, I believe using the command adb backup all -f backup-file.ab -shared -apk  My device is encrypted, so I set a backup password.

It generated a 1.6gb backup file which sounded about right.

My phone got fixed and I picked it up yesterday, and as expected it had been factory reset. I went to restore it using adb restore backup-file.ab

It brings up the restore prompt on my phone and I enter the backup password and it indicates the restore is starting - but then nothing happens.

Logcat says the following:

 BackupManagerService: --- Performing full-dataset restore ---
 ContextImpl: Calling a method in the system process without a qualified user: android.app.ContextImpl.bindService:1285 com.android.server.backup.BackupManagerService$FullBackupObbConnection.establish:3150 com.android.server.backup.BackupManagerService$PerformAdbRestoreTask.run:5904 java.lang.Thread.run:818 <bottom of call stack
 BackupManagerService: Invalid restore data; aborting.
 BackupManagerService: Full restore processing complete.

I tried playing around with abe.jar, but keep getting vague exceptions thrown on the unpack or info parameters (that's with the Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy files), but it's quite possible I'm doing something wrong.

Obviously since the device has already been factory reset there's no way I can re-run the backup if the archive is bad. Anyone got any suggestions might be going on?

I got the same error until I realized I was using the wrong password. After entering the correct password, the restore proceeded normally.


HTML Rich Text Emails From Phone I'm a teleworker and can work from anywhere in the world. I want to be able to send email messages from my phone without having them switch to plain text. My clients think I'm not working hard if I'm not glued to my computer and the plain text lets them know that I'm using a mobile device.

Thanks!

Enhanced Email claims to support outgoing HTML emails.


Key icon in notification bar lg aristo Sreen shot of home screen with notification bar

That indicates you are using VPN to connect to Internet

Either you installed a VPN or a firewall / ad-blocker app that uses VPN (I see you are using Orbot, that could be it)


Moto G 2nd generation soft bricked I've just downloaded Kingo Android Root and after some minutes my Moto G 2nd generation soft bricked and now stays in the Moto logo forever.

Since I don't know anything about how to root a phone with safety, I simply didn't enable USB debugging before installing Kingo app. Also, I don't believe this app indeed rooted my phone.

I only managed to unlock my bootloader and that's all. I tried to put the XT1068 firmware.zip file in my SD card in order to apply this update from the SD card but it didn't work. Moreover, when I run the command "adb devices" on OS X, nothing shows up. But when I run "fastboot devices" the prompt returns "0010235101  fastboot".

And of course I tried to wipe cache partition and data, but it didn't work either.

Any suggestions of how to solve this problem will be welcome.

Just in case you are in hurry i think you are missing wiping davlik cache
and then install zip from sdcard,and make sure the zip is the correct firmware for your device,and also once your bootloader is unlocked, to root your device is not a big deal,search for supersu package on google for your device and install it as "Install zip from sdcard" in custom recovery mode
Full Process:

first of all get the original firmware for your phone ,search the internet using your mobile phone name etc. and please be sure to check that the firmware is the same as your phone's original firmware.(Which i think you already had)
2.Now if haven't already please install custom recovery like CWM(Clock work mod) or TWRP,i was using CWM.(You also seems to have this from your question)
3.Copy the firmware to your device or memory card location
4.Enter recovery mode,Now once in recovery, wipe cache & factory reset, remove davlik cache, and or cache
5.Now Select the option install zip from sdcard
and continue all the verifications.
6.wait for a while until its done.
7.Now reboot your phone.
please note that this information is for successfully recover bootloop(soft brick) for android 4.2 ,while this must be the same steps for your device, please just be sure before proceeding


Battery drain with in no time in Samsung Galaxy Ace I have Samsung Galaxy Ace for almost an year now. The battery of my phone get discharged now with-in no time of charging. The battery status in Setting -> About Phone - > Battery use shown the following

Screenshot (Click image to enlarge)

I could not interpret what does this mean.

Is there some app which is eating up the battery or I need to replace the battery? Is it normal for battery of this model?

As we already have a lot of related answers to similar questions, just let me sum up here:

As said in my above comment, the screenshot does not provide much information without having related details available. All it says is: The overall battery consumption after ~14.5 hours is shared 50:50 by "Phone Idle" and "Cell Standby". Let's assume the battery level at that point is 80%, then each app had consumed about 10% of a full charge -- which could count as "normal". If on the other hand the battery level was 20% (or even less), it would be a bad sign -- pointing a.o. to bad reception (see: What is Cell standby and how can I keep it from eating my battery?) for the "Cell Standby" part.

I wrote we already have a lot of good answers on the "battery life" topic. Some are even listed in the "Related" (and now also in the "Linked") section of this question, as e.g.

What can I do to increase battery life on my Android device?
Is there any study on how which services/sensors consume the battery?

Many more can be found following the tag-link battery-life. Please follow those links for closer information.

As the "battery info" is giving you so few information, here's a hint to some helpful app: BetterBatteryStats. With that app, watch out especially for the "Wake Locks", as those keep your device from entering energy-saving modes. Check the configuration of the apps mentioned in connection with this (a good example could be an email app with a too-high polling frequency, where you e.g. could reduce the frequency from "every 5 minutes" to "every 30 minutes" to save a lot of juice).

EDIT: Another helpful app I just discovered is Battery Stats Plus, which helps you find the "evil apps" on your device. Brought to you by our friend at XDA Developers...


How can I disable the GPS functionality from my android phone at the kernel level? How can I disable the GPS functionality from my android phone at the kernel level? I know this requires (though not sure) disabling either device drivers for GPS or kernel module BUT how to do it exactly?

By kernel level, I mean that GPS is no longer there like in soft form, its hardware still exists but it is of no use. If I disable it application level, it still tracks me , apps might access it. What I want is that there is no communication between the hardware and software. So the apps perceive that this phone doesnt have a GPS. I hope you get my point. I have been able to do this with bluetooth i.e.I removed bluetooth permissions from xml files listed in the system/etc/permissions folder of its stock rom, bluetooth is no longer there but the same doesn't work for GPS.

Assuming you still have the original ROM installed on your mobile, this will not be possible, because on the original kernels there are no options in-build in the kernel to toggle the components at that level.

In case your phone is rooted, you can always use a custom kernel that would have this kind of option, which in my opinion is very rare because itsn't an option generally sought.

Also, assuming you can include a feature like this manually (in sources), you will have to re-compile the kernel, which is not necessarily easy for someone inexperienced in this field.


Family Link not available on OnePlus One? My son is using an old OnePlus One, and I wanted to install Google's family link on it. The browser finds it but the play store doesn't, and when I click it in the browser (and go into the play store) I get a message "Item not found".

Because the OnePlus One's software has not been upgraded for ages I tried to solve it by installing Lineage OS together with the play store (via OpenGapps nano) but for family link I still get the same message.

Is this a software issue that can be resolved? Or is family link not supported for all handsets (including the OnePlus One)?

As per https://families.google.com/familylink/device-compatibility/ the child version of Google Family link requires mostly Android Version 7.0 and newer, with a few exceptions.


Stuck in system recovery I have a hTC D626w, after an interrupted update, it does not boot any more. When I enter recovery mode, I see the following message at the bottom of the page:

No file end with factory_update.zip found in SD card.

The message persists after removing the SD card.

I chose wipe cache partition and wipe data/factory reset. But after selecting reboot system now, a white page appears on which I see hTC.

Does anyone know what's wrong with my device?

Interrupting an Android update is not a good idea as your device is now in an "in between" state that is not usable.

Most likely you have to flash a complete factory image (also called RUU image) of your device to recover it.

Usually HTC devices support fastboot, which should allow to flash such an image to your device. Check the HTC ROM Download page for an image matching your specific device.


How to stop Skype from starting automatically? I close the Skype app in my Android phone (samsung s3 mini)

If Skype is open on my pc and I receive a call it also starts automacically in my phone without my input!

How can I avoid such a strange behavior?
Thank you

Are you sure that you really closed Skype (not only hide it to background) ? In Skype main menu press "menu" button and then - logout.

If that doesn't solve your problem I see two possibilities :

Install a firewall (a good firewall is in avast! Mobile Security) and block access to newtork for Skype, unlock it only when you're using it (installing firewall requires root access)
Try to kill Skype service in application manager->background processes (it is located in Settings)

If you're true I think it is a bug and we've to contact Microsoft...


How can I install an app from GitHub on Android without a PC or root? I would like to install this fork of Phonograph. How can I install it on Android without any PC or Rooting? Also, is there any way that I could compile the data into an APK file?

Probably there is no way to do it, if you do not have the Android SDK on your PC, necessary to compile, you can not get the apk. I do not understand the reason for your question, because the application is in the Play Store, but you can download it on your phone and follow this: https://www.androidpit.com/how-to-download-apk-file-from- google- play and get the apk. That is probably the best and only way to get this apk.
Greetings


Is there a way to fix the sms notification in Galaxy S2, ICS The SMS notification behavior is inconsistent on the Samsung Galaxy S2 after upgrading to 4.0.3 ICS.  When receiving a text message, the phone does not make a sound or vibrate, regardless of the notification settings, and regardless of the sms app used (including the default).  The screen will turn on.  This problem will go away after rebooting, but then it will return after time. This is a problem that has been discussed in several forums.

Is there a fix for this?  I'm open to rooting my phone.  I have already done a factory reset since upgrading from Gingerbread to ICS.

I didn't see this issue on a custom ROM - is it an issue with the stock Samsung ROM?

I would suggest you find out - and if you really want to get rid of it, install a custom ROM onto your phone after rooting - I find Sapir's CM10 ROM to work well, and I do not see this issue.

Please check http://forum.xda-developers.com for more info on rooting and installing custom ROM's to your device.


Google.proccess.gapps has stopped working I have a Lenovo tablet and I updated the system. Now I keep getting the annoying messages, such as

  Google.process.gapps has stopped working

and

  Google play services are not working

I tried getting into the apps to uninstall Play Store and to clean the cache. It won't let me uninstall or clean the cache.

I don't have the regular settings like on a computer so I'm lost.

Go to into settings/ application manager/scroll to left until you reach the all applications screen/ touch menu screen left of the home button/ reset app preferences.


What’s the difference between stock Android, Android One, and Android Go? I'd like to know what's the difference between stock Android, Android One, and Android Go?

Each is a flavor of Android, each originates from Google and all have a few things in common.

Is it just the Theme/Skin/UI that's different or is there something else?

Stock Android is meant for Pixel devices/other OEMs who like to keep the Android experience stock. Pixel devices are guaranteed to get 3 years of OS updates and security patches. Features, functions, skins, update policies all change when it is ported by other OEMs.
android-one is a Google initiative in collaboration with OEMs to provide stock Google experience to users of other OEMs while guaranteeing 2 years of OS updates and 3 years of security updates. See Two years of operating system upgrades (Android - one) - how is it implemented?. More importantly, users are expected to get quick updates but that's not been the case with all OEMs. Also, in theory it's supposed to be stock experience but OEMs don't always follow suit and cut corners.
Android-go
is meant for entry level devices which have less hardware capabilities and less storage available (<2 GB) . Goggle provides apps for these devices in Play Store. For example, Maps for Android go is smaller than the regular maps app and obviously has lesser features. For more see this. AFAIK, there are no guarantees for OS / security updates


Send whatsapp message to all whatsapp conact and text message to rest of the contacts I want to send message to all my contacts, but I want to send Whatsapp message to those who use Whatsapp and a regular text message to others. How do I do it?
(I have 1140 contacts, out of which 662 also use whatsapp, manually doing it will take a lot of time.)

You could do this using hike(Best way to do this),whereas hike supports sms by the hike number....

Any how you need it in the whatsapp...
 so all you need is to create a broadcast list with all your contacts in it (broadcast messages will be sent to only the contacts who have saved your number in their contact list).

But to send the messages to those who dont have whatsapp you will need some contact app with specific filter...(search in play store)