Galaxy S3 Stuck on download screeen Today i've tried to root my phone so I ended up with my phone being stuck in this screen :

I tried to remove the battery and pressed the button down, home and power at the same time but nothing worked

Can I have some help here? Thank you

Edit: I have done a mistake, I used GT-I9300 instead of GT-I9305

You should reflash your stock firmware and root again via odin. You can also use framaroot or towelroot to root the s3.

https://towelroot.com/ - just download, install and 'let it ra1n'

http://forum.xda-developers.com/apps/framaroot/root-framaroot-one-click-apk-to-root-t2130276 - same as above: install and choose exploit, then reboot.

If the above does not work try the below.

Classical method:

First off all you should download the proper root-file written for your phone (e.g.  cf-autoroot) and odin  3.09. Activate the developers options by hitting the build number seven times and enable usb-debugging and unknown sources - then put your phone into download mode (vol-, home and power buttons) and make sure your phones usb drivers are installed to your pc. Then turn off samsung kies and your antivir, because they will cause problems. Now start odin as an administrator and connect your phone via usb. There should be a blueor yellow com:0 box lighten up. Press the pda button and select the unzipped content from your cf-autoroot file. Do not touch the ticked boxes on the left side!!! Press start. Your phone should load the data and restart by its own. The rest happens by itself.

Flashing a firmware is done the same way as above with the following exceptions:

you dont choose the autoroot file. You choose the firmware.
you can download clean and official firmwares at sammobile.com
flashing can take up to 40 minutes
i do not like samsung devices

Cheers.


How to sync Thunderbird calendar on laptop with calendar on Samsung Galaxy S III I want to sync my Thunderbird Lightning calendar on my office laptop with my Samsung S III calendar. How can I do that?

Have you considered using the Google calendar?

As far as I know you can sync the Samsung S III and the Thunderbird Lightning calendar with the Google calendar.

Samsung SIII:
http://www.samsunggalaxys3forum.com/forum/samsung-galaxy-s3-help/1278-samsung-s3-s-calendar-not-syncing-google-calendar.html

Lightning:
http://www.vikitech.com/7955/sync-google-yahoo-windows-live-calendars-thunderbirds-lightning


Android OS - strange UDP traffic on port 123 I have a Redmi Note 3 (unrooted) phone running MIUI Global 10.2 [Android version 6.0.1 MMB29M]

I have installed AdGuard to monitor the traffic that my phone sends/receives. While checking the 'Filtering Log', I see few connections that the app "Android OS" makes to the remote address "118.189.138.5:123" (see screenshot). As you can see from the screenshot, the requested URL is having a "UDP" connection protocol.

Now, when I do a search for this IP address, I see that it belongs to "M1 Connect Pte Ltd" in Singapore.

https://www.speedguide.net/ip/118.189.138.5

I also noticed similar UDP connections to these IP addresses:

95.216.192.15 belongs to "D2 Internet Investment Ukraine ETTH broadband" in Ukraine 133.243.238.163 belongs to "National Institute of Information and Communicatio" in Japan and the strangest of all 202.12.97.45 belonging to "Ministry of University Affairs" in Thailand

So my question is why would Android OS make connection to this IP addresses. What are these connections for? Am I missing something here or are these some legit connections used for some 'good' work? Is my phone connecting and leaking some information?

Hoping that some expert on networking will answer this.

There is a simple answer what is causing the UDP traffic.

The first indicator is the used port number 123 which is typically used by the Network Time Protocol (NTP). This protocol is responsible for synchronizing the time of your smartphone with a remote server.

To spread the burden among multiple servers and to make sure there is always a server available the NTP protocol usually does not use one specific time server to synchronize with.

Instead a large pool of servers is used. The three IP address 118.189.138.5 95.216.192.15 133.243.238.163 and 202.12.97.45 you mentioned are all NTP servers and they belong to the NTP pool "Asia 1".

Therefore if you capture more traffic earlier or later I assume you will see all of those IP addresses with UDP traffic on port 123.


NFC on S4 doesn't work at all I have an S4 with which I try the Yubikey Neo with NFC on. I also tried another tag but I can't get any response from the phone whatsoever. Not even a beep. NFC is turned on for sure.

I bought an (relatively) expensive original battery (not from any suspicious ebay dealer) and it says Near Field Communication on it, as I understand the antenna is located ontop of the battery.

Does anyone have any ideas why it doesn't work? Is there a way I can test if the NFC is completely dead, or some logs I can look into? I have tested various apps for my tags but can't seen anything.

Luckily a friend of mine has an S4, here its  back. See the 4 gold metallic pins? Those are  the NFC  antennas connectors

The antenna is on the back cover, not visible on the photo bellow, his back cover is not an original one, so no NFC antenna.

It doesn't make sense the NFC antenna be ON THE BATTERY ITSELF! Despite the fact  is it written on the battery. My S5 battery also has Near Field Communication writing on it.

If NFC doesn't work, you should check if your back cover has something similar to this from my S5:

EDIT:

Effectively, the  battery contains a built-in NFC antenna. And it is recommended to handle the battery carefully to avoid damaging the NFC antenna, may be that's what happened to you.


Email App for Exchange Server and alternatives I would like to set-up my company email in the Email app on my android device (Exchange server). After completing the set-up, it asked me for security update in which it lists lots of warnings such as erasing all the data on phone, etc. I got scared from these as I am not sure whether the IT dept would have all those privileges on phone or not.

Alternatively, I tried to set up an alias with my Gmail account to send email from my Gmail and it looks like it was sent from my company email, but I don't have the SMTP server address (I tried my best to get it, it seems that the exchange server doesn't have one).

Any alternative to use my company email on my android without give all these permissions to take control of my phone without my knowledge?

My phone is Samsung S3 GT-I9300 with Android 4.3

The security requirements set by the Exchange server admins are designed to protect their company information. They don't want to risk you losing your phone and having any random person read your company email. If a thief tries to brute-force the lock code, the email program will force a factory reset after a certain number of failures.

Personally, I think if they require you to read email outside of work hours (yuck) and have this security requirement, they should be willing to provide a phone and service for free. But I digress.

Here are some solutions you can try:

Email app that lies about complience

There are some email apps that will lie to the Exchange server about its adherence to the requested policies. I use Enhanced Email. It's a paid app, but it was a Free App of the Day on Amazon a couple years ago. There's also K-9, a free and open source app, but it only works with specific Exchange servers (2003/2007). There are probably others out there that work as well.

XPosed Module

The XPosed has a ton of modules for system tweaks, including one that should let you bypass Exchange Security Requirements. It will let you bypass the requirement while using any email app you want.


Locking the speed of the cpu on an android phone The battery life of my cell phone lasts for about 6 hours. About 2 days ago I downloaded the app CPUControl to reduce the speed of my CPU. This resulted in more than 20 hours of battery life. However I changed the settings and I haven't been able to achieve the results I had before. I have a 4 X ARM Cortex-A7 CPU with a top speed of 1.3 GHz.

When I change the speed to 600 MHz, the change only lasts about 2 minutes ant then the processor goes up to 1 GHz draining my battery life very quickly.

You can't tell the difference between the processor running at 600 MHz or 1.3 GHz, either way it's fast enough.

What happened, how come I cant lock the processor speed anymore?

I am not aware of CPUControl's settings but you can try some other applications to lock the speed. You can try KernelAduiter to perform this and many more operations.

You can change the CPU speed by specifying the minimum and the maximum and for best battery and if you're unable to do so, change the CPU governors.

If the CPU speed increases to 1.3GHz only for a few seconds randomly, set the governor to Conservative
If the CPU stays for long at 1.3GHz, check out which application is using the CPU so much.

2a. Open Terminal Emulator

Gain root access using su
Run top and let it display results on the screen
Press Volume Down + c to terminate the command
Scroll to the top and check out the process/app using the maximum CPU. If you find that process/app useless, terminate it


Can I 'trick' my device into thinking it's unrooted? I rooted my Nexus 4 in order to install a custom ROM, which I'm quite happy with. However, there are a couple of apps that I want to use but refuse to work because the device is rooted.

Is there a way for me to trick the device into thinking - or telling apps - that it is unrooted?

This depends on how the app is checking for root.

One method is for the app to actually attempt to find or use the su binary, or the Superuser apk file. These methods can often be bypassed by using an app that will move su to a temporary backup location, then restore it afterwards. Some root management apps have this built in to their settings (e.g. recent versions of Superuser and SuperSU). Otherwise you can try an app like OTA RootKeeper.

Another method that apps will use to determine if you're rooted involves checking the contents of your build.prop file. You can check this with any text editor, from your terminal, or using a specialized app like Build Prop Editor. The file resides at /system/build.prop, and it is a good idea to make a backup before modifying it since having a malformed build.prop can cause boot issues.

What you'll need to look for is lines that specify that you are running a "test-keys" build, such as:

ro.build.tags=test-keys

Change this to "release-keys" and the app performing the root check should assume you're running a normal release build. This is typically not needed if you're running a rooted stock ROM, but it would be necessary on many custom ones like CyanogenMod.

There are likely other root detection techniques, some of which may be somewhat complex to bypass. This blog post outlines a few, but I honestly cannot say which of these is being used in the wild. I have seen the two I outlined above, however.


When tethering, is there a way to turn off the phone's own data usage? Just a quick question, really.

When I'm tethering (via USB, or wireless, or whatever) my phone's apps (and there are a significant number of my apps which do this) are constantly using the phone's mobile data connection to push notifications.

My phone's mobile connection is poor at the best of times (Samsung Galaxy S3 on o2 in the North East of England), such as now, where it's constantly flicking between G, E, H, H+ and 3G.

As such, I'd like to effectively "disable" my phone for every purpose other than providing an internet connection my laptop via USB or wireless.

Is that possible?

Try Android Firewall from the Play Store. You could create a "White list" that starts off with denying all network activity for all apps, to which you'd then allow just your tethering to go through.

Then, when you want everything to go through again, just disable the firewall...Or better yet create another white list that you can switch to.


Can't find shortcuts for downloaded apps I have a Galaxy Tab S. At first, I could download apps and the shortcut would appear on the screen.

Now this has stopped happening. The app is there as I can find it using S Finder, and I can use the app. There is just no shortcut. How to get the shortcut?

Creating that shortcut is done by the Google Play Store app, which has a setting for that. So:

start the Google Play Store app
go to its settings page
check the setting for creating shortcuts (and enable it).

I currently can't tell you what exactly that item is named (I have no device with Google apps installed available at the moment), but it should be easy to identify. On the other hand, there's always a Google Image search :)

Google Play Store settings (source: ProgrammerGuru; click image for larger variant)

For a detailed description, please see the source of that image: How to create and remove shortcut for Android application?.


Transfer data from Samsung smartphone without unlocking I have Samsung A3. I accidentally broke display. Now I can't unlock the phone. I know I can change the display. But I want to know whether there is a way to transfer data to PC without unlocking phone. I generally use data cable for transfer.

One way in which you can do this is, if you have data stored on a Micro SD card, you can get an adapter and connect it to the PC.


Empty SIM contacts list, but they still show up in contact details I use solely Google contacts as my contacts repository and display only the Google "My Contacts" group in my contacts list.

When looking at contacts details, most of them have in the "connection" field both the Google and the SIM logo - implying that this is a fusioned contact between Google and the SIM (both small logos are also visible in the contact list).

Strange thing nr 1: When I limit the display to "SIM" only the list is empty. So what does that SIM logo mean?

Strange thing nr 2: in contact details I can separate both contacts (Google and SIM) - I am asked if I really want to separate both contacts and, abracadabra, the SIM contact is gone. The SIM logo is not displayed anymore and the SIM contact list is still empty.

I have no idea how the logos got there, some contacts have it, some others not -- apparently randomly (there is nothing special in contacts which have them and do not -- all are managed from my Google account).

Any ideas on how to fix this (= remove the SIM logo in batch if this is a bug -or- understand what the SIM logo really means)

Than you!

Once you're in the contact list, go into the options.  Your sim contacts are probably filtered.


Downgrading Samsung Galaxy S3 GT-I9300 Downgrade Confusion My Samsung Galaxy S3 GT-I9300 is currently running Android version 4.3.0. I wanted to downgrade it back to 4.1.2 and got confused with which values to look for when selecting a rom. I know that my carrier is TEN (Telenor) Norway and that my PDA is I9300XXUGNG3. Looking up that combination I managed to verify that my carrier is indeed Telenor. Based on that, can I pick any 4.1.2 firmware that is associated with my carrier?

If the phone is unlocked, then go ahead.
It wouldn't matter which carrier that firmware belongs to. As long as it's stock, then you can flash it with no worries.


Brand new Moto G6 won't send or receive SMS My brand new out of the box Moto G6 won't send or receive SMS. I'm using the official SMS app which has SMS permissions (triple checked this) and is the default SMS app.

I tried everything: cleaning cache, reinstalling, updating, rebooting, turning off both SIM cards, rebooting the radio through phone commands, etc. Nothing worked.

How to fix this?

After installing another generic SMS app and seeing it was receiving and sending SMSs, I uninstalled it and opened the official SMS app and it worked.

It makes no sense but I'm posting here to help.

And yes, the official SMS app was setted as the default SMS app AND had SMS permissions.


ICS upgrade to Thunderbolt deleted my Family Contact Group from Home Screen My Family Contact Group is still intact but the menus have changed and I can't seem to find a way to move it back to a Home Screen or even change it with the Favorites Group which is on the Home Screen and I don't need. Thanks.

I had the same problem and just figured out how to fix it.

Go to the screen on which you want to display your family contacts group.
Press the screen until the 'Drag to rearrange, edit, or remove' message appears at the top of the screen.
Drag the screen to the 'Edit' icon at the top left of the screen.

You will get options to 'Select a group for widget' or 'Edit group.'

If you choose 'Select a group for widget,' it will pull up your list of contact groups.

Choose the one you wish to display.


Hangouts, Google Voice, and SMS is no longer supported Notification Although I have been a long time user of Google Voice and Hangouts, I only recently got my first Android tablet(WiFi only, no cellular).

The way the first two interact with the tablet is puzzling and frustrating:

As far as I can tell Hangouts is the tool that Google wants us to use for Google Voice SMS messages.
It seems that recently Google removed SMS support from Hangouts except for Google Voice SMS that is still supported, and provided a way to choose what app to use as the main SMS app.
With Hangouts installed everything seems to work but I get constantly spammed by a Hangouts notification saying that SMS is no longer supported.  I have found no way to silence this notification unless I disable all Hangouts notifications, which would make me miss other Hangouts IMs.
In the attempt to silence the SMS is no longer supported spam notifications I tried to install other SMS apps, but since my tablet is WiFi only, I am unable to install them.
I only found one SMS app that would install without the cellular hardware (I think called Messenger) and it spammed me with so many advertising Notifications that I had to uninstall it, The cure was worse than the illness.

I hope the community can help me find a solution, either by pointing me to a way to silence the Hangouts "SMS is no longer supported" notification, or by pointing me to a messenger app that will install on a WiFi-only tablet and stay nice and silent (which is ideal as I probably will never use it, I would only install it to silence the Hangouts notification).

Thanks.

I had the same problem and I also wanted to avoid installing an extra app just to get rid of a notification.

The only thing I could think of is Facebook messenger which I already use. After I downloaded it the notification disappeared and messenger was now the default app for SMS.

In case the notification doesn't disappear automatically go to:

Settings -> Apps -> (Gear Icon top right) -> Default Apps

and you should see 'SMS App' just tap on it and choose messenger(or any other app you want to try). My tablet has Android 6.0.1 so instructions may differ on other versions.

PS. Firstly I tried to revoke any SMS permisions to hangouts so I can clear it from the default app for SMS but it didn't work.


Get rid of the "wireless charging" announcement Is there any way to get rid of the useless little toast announcement informing me that I have put the device in range of the charger?

I would prefer a solution that works with the stock ROM (JB 4.1).  I do have root.

This answer works for the Galaxy S4, but it will likely work for your S3 as well.

Install the xposed framework, which is a soft-mod framework that lets you modify your current rom (including the original/stock rom) without permanently changing it (you can enable and disable modules at your discretion). The framework and modules, of course, require root.

After you install the framework, install the Nottach Xposed module. This is designed for the S4, but most of the features work on the S3 as well.

After installing the module, enable the module within the xposed app. Open the Nottach Xposed app (acknowledge the warning that it isn't made for your device), enable the checkbox for Framework->Hide wireless charging dialog. Finally, reboot the phone.

Your phone should now be able to charge wirelessly without having the dialog pop up every time. Many of the other options in Nottach Xposed will likely work, though obviously tweaks for things that only exist on the S4 won't work for the S3.


New phone: How to transfer game progress? I'm planning to buy a new Android phone and I'd like to be able to transfer the progress I have made at several games to the new device, so I won't have to play all the levels again from scratch.

I currently have an HTC Desire and will buy an HTC Evo 3D.

There's probably no simple/general solution to this.

But I was wondering if anyone did something similar and could provide some advice (e.g. where to look for files that might hold game progress information).

If you are on Android 4.0 or up, you can use the adb backup resp. adb restore command even without rooting your device. The syntax is:

adb backup [-f <file>] [-apk|-noapk] [-shared|-noshared] [-all] [-system|nosystem] [<packages...>]

To do a full backup, this would e.g. mean adb backup –apk –shared –all –f /backup/mybackup.ab (resp. adb restore /backup/mybackup.ab to restore the backup on the new device). But keep in mind this would mean "all-or-nothing" -- you cannot restore single apps this way. So you rather might want to include the package names of the apps to transfer. To find those, e.g. look up the apps on Google Play -- you'll find the package names in the URL (id=<package_name>). Your backup command then would look like:

adb backup –apk –shared –f /backup/mybackup.ab com.foobar.app1 org.foobar.app2 net.foobar.app3

Restore stays the same, as adb restore always restores everything from the backup file (no selection of parts available here).

For a list of available ADB commands, see e.g. here.


Need manual update for samsung s3 I9300 I am having Samsung Galaxy S3 I9300XXELLA (O.s JB 4.1.2). Its update not available throught phone. So can I manually download JB 4.3 of I9300XXU. will it work or my phone with I9300XXELLA.

I suggest you to go to http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/ and search for your device (i9300). There you can see all available firmware versions and download them. Please note that you need to register for an account to be able to see the download links (I don't know why).
If you don't like to register you may ask me to send you a specific link.


Factory resetting repeatedly I did the factory resetting of my galaxy grand repeatedly (2-3 times) due to hang- up problems.  Is it possible to recover the data which were in the phone memory before first resetting?

The short answer is no.

And the long answer is nooooooooooo.

But in a more serious tone, really, the answer is no. A factory reset resets the device to its factory state, as in before you owned the device and it still had that factory fresh smell. Unless you made backups of your files and applications, you will need to re-download/reacquire your information manually.


Can you screen save on a Nexus 4? I fly a lot, but never accept a mobile boarding pass as I need a decent signal to display it. My iPad allows me to save screenshots to the gallery. I find it incredibly usefull, but can't find it on my Nexus 4!!

If by "screen save" you mean a screenshot, yes you can :)

Just press both Power and Volume Down together and hold them for a second.


How to root the Samsung Galaxy S4 I9505 How can I root the Samsung Galaxy S4? Phone model: GT-I9505

Method 1:
Root Galaxy S4 and Install Recovery:

  Note: THIS WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY AND MAY BRICK YOUR PHONE. THE GUIDE BELOW REQUIRES WINDOWS. (FOR ADVANCED USERS: Extract the .tar and flash the img files with "Heimdall".

Download the PhilZ recovery for your device.
Download the latest SuperSU package and copy it to your phone.
Download the Odin tool and unzip it.
Download and install the Samsung USB drivers on your Windows PC.
Enable USB Debugging on your Galaxy S4.
Now turn off your phone and boot it into the 7. Download Mode by holding the Volume Down + Home + Power buttons together for 2-3 seconds. When you are prompted to press the Volume Up key, do it.
Now connect your Galaxy S4 to computer via USB cable.
Open Odin folder and launch the program as administrator.

  Note: Make sure the message box in Odin shows “Added!” text. If it doesn’t, reinstall the drivers, reboot the PC and the phone and connect it again.

Uncheck the Auto Reboot option on Odin (do not touch any other option).
Click the AP button on Odin and add the PhilZ recovery file with .tar extension.
Now click the Start button on Odin and wait till the installation is finished.
When you get PASS!/RESET! message on Odin, disconnect the USB cable.
Now long press the power button to turn off the device, or remove the back panel and pull out the battery for 20 seconds. Reinsert the battery and then hold the Volume Up + Home + Power keys simultaneously. When the screen turn up and you see the Samsung Logo, release the Power key. Keep the other two keys pressed until your phone boots into the recovery mode.
In PhilZ recovery menu, select Install zip option, navigate to the SuperSU update package (.zip file) and install it.
When you are done with installation, return to PhilZ main menu and select Reboot system now option.


How to get Android Market on Archos 70I I have an Archos 70i and am still unable to get Android Market on it. I want to get a flash player and other apps which I believe is available on Android Market. Can anyone help me in simple English, please? I do have Appslib already but this is lacking the apps i want.

You probably need to side-load a Market.apk file that's been hacked to work with your device.  This will require root.  You could also load a custom ROM with the Market already on it.  I recommend searching XDA.

That said, you won't be able to get Flash unless you have/get 2.2.  Flash requires Android 2.2+ as well as an ARMv7 or better processor.  The 70 series is supposed to have an A8 Cortex based on ARMv7, so that part's OK.


Nexus 4 Notification bar unresponsive My notification bar has suddenly become unresponsive. I have been unable to swipe down the bar no matter the orientation of my phone (regular and in landscape). I've played around with chrome to test the touch screen responsiveness and everything works fine. Is there a way I may have accidentally turned my notification bar off? Has anyone had this issue and know how to fix it? Thank you!

Try doing a hard reboot (Power off the phone and power it back on). I had this problem just two minutes ago and that seemed to resolve it. Cheers!


Finding ways to root my TWM Amazing X2 I want to root my new phone, TWM Amazing X2
But I can't find it anywhere, seriously. So I'm stucked here.
I've tried doing some google-surfing, bing, and all sorts of China softwares to root but none of it returned suceed.
Some infos:

  Phone: Taiwan Mobile Amazing X2 Model number: Amazing X2 Android
  version: 4.4.2 Kernel: 3.4.0 ZTE-kernel@Zdroid-SMT

At last, I've rooted my phone using the way on http://apk.tw/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=622501&extra=page%3D5


Updates filling internal storage I just bought a HTC desire626 not even a week ago . Seems like it updates all the time we'll now my internal memory is about full. Am I doing something wrong everything allowable to put on SD card but doesn't seem to work.

Try going to 'Settings' and then go to apps/applications tab then go to 'all apps' you can then select the apps you do not require and then select uninstall, if you had the app already but it just updated it, it will just remove the update, but have factory version. Hope this helps.


How to continue using an android system with a broken touchscreen? I have many working android cellphones with broken touchscreen but with a working screen and I would like to use them as computing device and/or additional screen. Is there a way to do that?

Provided your device has an unlockable bootloader and a custom recovery (I strongly advice against buying devices which are artificially destined to become useless, that should be prohibited by law), you should.

In any case I advice anyone worrying their device could break anytime to already have unlocked bootloader and activated wifi and adb (through network, if worrying about usb port breaking) at boot.
Remember that if you are unlocking your bootloader for the first time doing so WILL DELETE all userdata and if you are not in Europe it could void your warranty.

First of all, proceed to install fastboot and adb on your pc, connect the device to the pc and then

unlock fastboot (the bootloader) on the device and flash the TWRP custom recovery (if no custom recovery is available you could somehow extract your base recovery image and enable adb and root access editing its default.prop);
boot recovery and open a shell with adb shell;
find system and userdata (and probably boot) partitions with fdisk -l /dev/block/mmcblk0;
mount system with mount -t ext4 <system_partition_file> <mountpoint>);
enabling debug is unnecessary cumbersome if you didn't have already enabled it.

First try adding the following into system's build.prop:

ro.secure=0
ro.debuggable=1
persist.service.adb.enable=1

If that didn't work, you could try switching to 1 the adb_enabled setting in <data_partition_mount_point>/system/users/0/settings_global.xml.

If even that didn't work, then you have to rebuild your boot image, properly editing the default.prop file to enable adb and then switching the adb_enabled setting like above.

You can find information on how to do that here
(keep in mind that it will probably require device-specific information like kernel_offset, ramdisk_offset, second_offset and tags_offset so you have to find those somewhere first).

unmount system and mount userdata;
add your adb server public key (placed into ~/.android/adbkey.pub) into userdata's /misc/adb/adb_keys (with a text editor or any other means) to skip device confirmation;
umount userdata and reboot the device;

Now that you can connect through adb, install scrcpy on your operating system and use the device remotely from your computer.

And if like me you forgot your pin code, you can disable it by moving the files starting with locksettings from /data/system.
Remember that if you are using file-based encryption, moving or directly changing the pin in the sqlite3 database with

UPDATE locksettings SET value = '1' WHERE name = 'lockscreen.disabled';

will make your encrypted file inaccessible.

References

Obtaining root by modifying default.prop(ro.… | Android Development and Hacking
How to authorize and accept ADB RSA key with broken touch screen on Android - Stack Overflow
android - 'adb devices' says unauthorized in TWRP - Stack Overflow
Remove /Bypass Lockscreen With Recovery | Android Development and Hacking
java - Set lockscreen to "None" programmatically? - Stack Overflow


How can I boot my Epic 4G Touch into CWM? Rooted using http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EwEYVB_ut4 process. Boot in cwm and the enter button (power button) doesn't work or is locked. Long press of button will reboot the device though. Downloaded latest cwm via ROM Manager and hit "Restart into Recovery" from the ROM Manager UI. Power button still doesn't work in cwm, except for long press. Now though, the device will only boot into cwm. Pulled battery, start and same thing... cwm.

Reapplied http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EwEYVB_ut4 and still have the same issue, device restarts into cmw only AND the power button only works on long press so I can't wipe and install any other ROMs on my SD to try to get out of this.

You have to use the Home button on the device (yeah, the Led lit one, it doesn't light up, but use it).  The Power button doesn't work for selecting options in recovery....


TWRP Updated version for SM-G530T1? I have a Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime (SM-G530T1) and I would like to install a version of LineageOS onto it. This is the first time I have ever attempted something like this. I did manage to install TWRP v. 3.1.1 onto my recovery partition. It is able to "boot" into this, but when I go to install the LineageOS .zip file, TWRP says:

Updating partition details...
...done
Installing zip file '/external_sd/rr-oreo-j30_20180804_NIGHTLY-gprimelte.zip'
Checking for MD5 file...
Skipping MD5 check: no MD5 file found
Warning: No file_contexts
E3004: This package is for device: gprimelte,
gprimeltecan,gprimeltetmo,gprimeltetr,gprimeltevl; this device is .
Updater process ended with ERROR: 7
Error installing zip file '/external_sd/rr-oreo_j30_20180804_NIGHTLY-gprimelte.zip'
Updating partition details...
...done

I have tried Googling everything, and everything I see says to install a newer version of TWRP, but there is none released (that I can find). What should I do?

You seem to have downloaded the wrong ROM, if you are 100% sure this is the correct rom it might be a bug in TWRP.

You could possibly try to reinstall TWRP like this:

Download latest TWRP for your device (you already have)
Copy it to phone via OTG or SD-card
Select 'install' in your current TWRP
Select 'image' option
Choose the TWRP image file
Select the type 'RECOVERY' when prompted, and flash it.
Power off from recovery and boot it into recovery again and try to flash the ROM again.

Another thing you can try is wiping:

Boot your device into recovery mode
Select 'advanced wipe'
Check 'cache', 'dalvik cache', and 'data'
Wipe

Then after wiping try flashing the ROM again.


Wifi activity shows it's always on even though it's not on check out this screenshot i just made:

Why is the Wi-fi activity bar blue for the last 25 minutes, when my wi-fi was off for 23 minutes?

i have tasker which is set to turn off wi-fi when the phone's screen is locked. I know for sure it works because if I press the power button to turn on screen (but leave it locked) there's no wifi status icon

A credible source: AndroidPolice

tl;dr:
Google brought in an option (by default enabled!), which is a checkbox reading "Scanning always available" in WiFi -> Advanced.

The general purpose: "To improve location accuracy and for other purposes, Google and other apps may scan for nearby networks, even when Wi-Fi is off."

  To improve location accuracy

by geolocating your IP, matching it with GPS, probably seeing if you use a proxy

  for other purposes

IDK, peeking into your data maybe?

  even when Wi-Fi is off

why is there a Wi-Fi switch then?

Given, that Google has not a reputation for invading the privacy of users a bit too much, that is/was the general motive.

As said; you can turn this somewhat useless feature off (hopefully); and get some more battery life on your phone.

P.S. The fact that this option is not explicitly stated to the user when he/she begins to use the phone, and that this option is significantly hidden, concerns me.


What is this notification icon for Can anyone help me figure out what this icon is for???

I believe that icon indicates a new notification from Google Play Newsstand.

Edit:

Confirmed my assumption this morning when a notification popped up:

I don't know how to take a screenshot of the status icon bar, so you'll have to take my word that the icon appeared there too.


Android Chrome - shortcut icons shown on Chrome home page there are up to 8 shortcuts on the android chrome homepage. How do I specify which web pages I want them to link to?

You can't edit the shortcut manually. The workaround to add a shortcut is:

Step 1: Remove one that you don't want.
Step 2: Open a new tab, type/paste the URL of the webpage you want, and go to that site.
Step 3: Repeat Step 2 once or twice more. The next type you open the homepage, the webpage shortcut will be added/listed.


Quick Dial Shortcut with Skype Is it possible to make a desktop shortcut to dial a number with Skype?

There's a new widget available from Google Play Store that solves this issue:

Direct dial with Skype by sbice

  One Click Skype!

  Calling friends through Skype is no longer time consuming and complicated!
  With "Direct dial with Skype", it's simply just ONE CLICK AWAY!!!

  It's a widget installed on your desktop & help you speed dialing your friends with ONE CLICK!


How to access contacts from lost phone? I lost my phone and my sim card, but saved my previous contacts on my gmail account. How can I find them again.

Contacts stored on google will automatically be synced with any new android device you log into with your google account. You just have to head over to contacts to see them.

If you don't have an android device to login with, you could head over to Google Contacts page to view them. Google offers the option of exporting the contacts to view them on a computer offline. You could export them and open them in excel by clicking more on the left tabs then export>google csv format.

Note Since csv files are supported by Excel, you can just click on the file and open it in Excel. If however, you come across any problems in opening it, you can solve them by importing csv file into Excel. Choose the Data tab and the From Text option.After this, the Text Import Wizard will appear. It will lead you through several steps, one of which is choosing the type of delimiter. Once you’re finished, you’ll have a list of gmail contacts in your Excel document.


avdmanager hangs on "Loading local repository..." Linux Repro:

Headless Ubuntu 18.04 LTS VM (kvm note enabled)
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y wget openjdk-8-jre-headless libc6-i386 lib32stdc++6 python3-pip nginx unzip
sudo wget https://dl.google.com/android/repository/commandlinetools-linux-6200805_latest.zip
sudo unzip commandlinetools-linux-6200805_latest.zip -d /opt
sudo /opt/tools/bin/sdkmanager --install --sdk_root=/opt "system-images;android-19;default;armeabi-v7a" "platform-tools" "platforms;android-19"
/opt/tools/bin/avdmanager create avd -n arm -k "system-images;android-19;default;armeabi-v7a" -f

On step 7 in hangs with Loading local repository...

Notes:

Running the avdmanager as sudo doesn't help, and the image need's to be created by a user anyway.
Tried sudo setfacl -m u:username:rwx /opt/tools/bin/avdmanager didn't help
setting ANDROID_HOME=/opt and PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_HOME/tools:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools doesn't help
newer version of command line tools don't help ether.

What is the problem? How can I investigate? Have I missed something?

It happened because since version (6200805) Command Line Tools should be placed inside cmdline-tools directory. It should be created manually in ANDROID_HOME.

Please see this answer With the mentioned configuration everything works fine.


No more free storage space My Galaxy S2 plus (4.2.2 JB) keeps saying I only have 416 Mb of free space on my internal space despite moving all apps to external storage and deleting junk files. Any solutions for this persistent problem?

You can root your mobile and can use some partition tool or go through this link http://www.android.gs/increase-galaxy-ace-internal-memory/.


Mount /data partition without losing data In some new models, when installing a custom recovery, /data partition won't mount. To fix that I need to wipe partition. How can I fix without losing data?

Android M added support for /data encryption, and Android N made it mandatory.

Old custom recoveries' having trouble mounting /data is primarily because they aren't capable of decrypting it. Newer recoveries will prompt for a password (or pattern) before they attempt to access /data (or nothing if you don't have a locked lockscreen).

Solution: Give up that recovery and get another one, but this time make sure the recovery you're installing supports /data decryption (like TWRP).


Sync Multiple Devices Simultaneously With One Account I've got a question regarding maintenance/management with multiple android devices on a single account. For example:

A school has 30 android tablets.
Teachers need all 30 devices updated
The school has 1 account for all 30 devices

Is there a way to sync all of these simultaneously to the same account? iTunes U offers this functionality for iOS devices, but wanted to know if there are any similar services for android devices. Thanks for your help!

That very much depends on how you understand the issue -- and what is intended. In this case, using a single account for all devices definitly has one big advantage: Managing its apps (installs/uninstalls).

If the devices are defined as "school use only" or even for a single class, same applies to the calendar: all class specific events can be defined here (in the accounts main calendar), so noone can say he forgot to write it down. For personal events, each user can add his/her own calendar easily -- so no problem with this either.

The contacts/address book can be seen the same way: it could hold the classes contacts, plus the teachers (as far as needed/wanted) -- which would make it easier to organize team work. As with calendars, it should be possible for each user to access her/his personal address book additionally (I never tried this, so I cannot tell for sure).

So to summarize: If I didn't mis-interprete your question, the answer should be a clear "Yes". I use multiple Android devices with the same Google account myself, and never had any problems with that.


How can I get ADB to properly recognize an Alcatel One Touch 995 device on Windows/Ubuntu? The problem

I am trying to deploy a custom application to an Alcatel One Touch 995 running Android 2.3.6. I using Eclipse to compile the source code and push it onto the phone. The Android Device Chooser within Eclipse starts up and lists a device however it does not recognize the maker or model. The device shows up as question marks for the serial number (see screenshot).

I am able to install the application to a Samsung device. I tried the procedure on Windows 7 running Eclipse 3.7.2 and on Ubuntu 12.04. running Eclipse 4.2. The Android Development Kit is up-to-date on both systems.

I enabled "Unknown sources" and "USB debugging" in the application settings.

The USB driver attempt

I found a USB driver from Alcatel. The archive contains driver for different Windows versions. When I try to update the "Android USB Device" in the Windows device manager I am informed that the driver version is up-to-date. Here is a screenshot of the "ALCATEL Dream Composite ADB Interface" properties.

It seems as if this attempt was not helpful. I leave it anyways in case someone stumbles into the same situation.

The solutions

Windows:

Strange! I installed almost all available API Versions in the Android SDK Manager and now also selected the images for ARM, Intel and MIPS. The result is that the device is recognized on Windows.

I tried hard to undo the driver installation on Windows. To me, the most obvious is removing the "Google USB Driver". So I did and restarted Eclipse and the computer but still Windows remembers the maker and model. I further tried to remove other items without success. I will leave my experiments in this question for others to figure out the key installation module needed on Windows to recognize the device. I guess its "Google USB Driver" and the .inf file has been copy to the Windows system folder in the background.

Ubuntu:

Regarding Ubuntu, I like to grant the answer Flow (please put your comment as an answer). I configured a device rule as it has been explained by vsm and others. There is also an official guide entitled: Setting up a Device for Development.

Speculations

It could be that when I tried to update the Windows driver with the USB driver from Alcatel that it actually updated my system without telling me. All I received was the message "Driver version is up-to-date". I missed to check the version before I started. If anyone can verify this theory on a "clean" system I happy to hearing from you.

If that happens on Linux the reason is usually that the adb daemon is unable to write to the USB device in /dev. For more information see this answer on stackoverflow.


Changed my LG L70 (MS323) runtime from Dalvik to ART and my phone's not working properly. Help? I switched my LG L70 (MS323)'s runtime from Dalvik to ART, after it restarted and said "Android is upgrading..." and it optimized my 64 apps. After it finishes, I get an error message saying something like Unfortunately the system ui has stopped and then my phone restarts and the whole process starts over again. Please help.

ART is experimental at this stage, unless you're on android L (Lollipop) I wouldn't recommend using it.

If you are stuck in ART you can get back to Dalvik by following this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2707841

Your device should boot then.


How to fix /system/bin/sdcard process draining battery? After noticing a huge decrease of my battery life, I used the application GSam Battery Monitor to find the origin of the problem, and discovered that the process /system/bin/sdcard was using about 90% of the phone resources.
The problem persists even when removing the SD card.

How to fix this issue?

The problem was due to a folder on the internal phone memory containing several thousands of files, and causing the process /system/bin/scard to never end scanning the file system.

To find the exact directory causing the problem, I used the application 'Storage Analyser', which froze on the directory filmorago/.Log/uncaught.

Deleting the folder using the application ES Explorer took several hours due to the amount of files, and fixed the problem.


How to exit from an application which doesn’t exit on press back button? I am using Maverick application for GPS navigation. In previous versions the back button caused to quit the application. (Which is also correct behavior according to question:  What is the right way to close apps in Android?)
Currently I have Maverick 1.94 Lite. When I press the back button, Maverick only hides to background. (The same as if I pressed home button). I don't see anywhere in menu an option to exit.
I wish to avoid task killers, or switching of my phone in order to quit Maverick.

How do I exit from Maverick?

My phone is SK17i aka Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini pro.

If you go to Settings -> Apps and scroll to Maverick and select it there should be a 'Force stop' button. It's not really 'exiting' as such but it will definitely force the app to totally close down and stop running in the background.


PC no longer recognizing Android Device While I never had problems before with my Android phone, suddenly one day when I was connecting my phone to the PC via USB it stopped working. Both my PC and my phone didn't detect each other. Strangely enough, it can still charge with the USB cable connected.

I tried the following with no results:

I supposed the cable was wrong so I bought a brand new one, but still both the PC and the Android phone refused to detect each other.
Checked in every port of my PC (I tested the functionality of the ports with a normal USB stick, and they work perfectly).
Enabled USB debugging option in the phone.
Tried to update USB drivers through Device Manager. The problem here is that it doesn't even show any Android device or at least an unknown device connected to the USB port, so I can't even force the search for new drivers.

I also tested both cables with two other Android phones I have (suspecting it was the fault of the phone), but still no results.

I'm using Windows 7 64-bit, and my phone has Android 5.0. I tested with a Samsung, and LG, and a Huawei but neither worked.

Do you have any idea or advice on how to solve this?

That must be a USB Driver problem. Download the files in here and follow the instructions.


What is the process to install cyanogenmod to a galaxy tab 10.1? I am new to this flashing business for the Android tablets. I did some of those flashing on a PanDigital tablet previously, but it's been a while. My tablet is the standard 32G WiFi tablet, and it's been rooted. How can I get the cyanogenmod ROM installed, and how does this fastboot thing work ? I also have the recovery.img file.

BTW: How can I backup the existing ROM, so I can restore if something goes wrong ?

Thanks :-)

If it is a supported device, then this should basically be the process as it is the same for every supported device I have experienced.

Put the cyanogenmod update zip file on the device sdcard (or internal storage)
Also put the google apps update package that corresponds to the CM version on the sdcard
Boot the device in to recovery mode
You can create a backup in the Recovery image (probably clockworkMod recovery)
clear the cache and wipe the data
install zip from sdcard (selecting the cyanogenmod zip)
install zip from sdcard (selecting the google apps zip)
reboot the device.

If you have ROM Manager, a lot of this process may even be easier. With ROM Manager, which can also install ClockWorkMod Recovery if it is supported on the device, you can download CyanogenMod, the google apps package, clear the cache and user data, and perform the backup. It will then reboot the device and perform all those steps.

Now, as I said, I am not 100% sure that CM is supported on this device, so there may be other steps required to get an unofficial version working on the device. With that said, Samsung devices are usually pretty easy to get back to the Stock version if something goes wrong (soft brick). It is pretty hard to brick these devices, I have had a couple scares, but I have always been able to revert back to original stock ROM by using ODIN.


How to set network proxy for Samsung Galaxy Tab 2.0 7? I've already found this guide. It's for the Galaxy 10.1 though and my unit doesn't have the Wi-Fi settings option. Or at least I can't find it.

My apologies, I just found it. For the benefit of those who have the same problem:

It should apply to the other Galaxy Tab 2 models, too.


How can I delete a group in Viber? I made a group in Viber. I wanna get out all of members from this group. How can I do that?

Open Viber.
Go to the group conversation screen.
Swipe the group you want to leave.
Select 'delete' then select 'delete and Leave group'.


In Twrp recovery mode touch screen is not working on redmi y2 I wanted to root my redmi y2 device. I have unlocked my bootloader and successfully flashed Twrp recovery from adb however it's touch screen is not working, probably because my device doesn't supports touch screen in recovery mode as it also uses volume keys to navigate in it's stock recovery.

Is there any other custom recovery which uses volume and power keys to navigate or can I give command from adb or anything else to flash magisk in recovery mode with my pc only or just any other method to root my phone.

I have already wasted hours and hours serching on the web to resolve the issue, also I have tried different versions of Twrp but again no luck.
Please help me out, thanking you in advance.

Orange fox recovery should be flashed in case if you are using MIUI 11. Link to that can be found here. For MIUI 9 and 10 users this TWRP is working fine.


Is Mozilla Firefox for Android, Fennec, using same Desktop Firefox "Quantum Engine"? I have, up to now always thought that Firefox for Android (codenamed Fennec) uses much of the same codebase as the Firefox for Desktop (Linux/Mac/etc...). However this recent post on HackerNews makes me think I might have got this wrong.

  This marks the last Android release with extensions/add-on support.
  There will not be a 69 release of this edition of Firefox for Android
  ("Fennec").

I am of course concerned about the add-ons support, but also remain confused, to the best of my understanding Firefox on the Desktop systems has already been using the changed new Web-Extension API, has Fennec not supported this, and more importantly:

is Fennec something different (if so how) to the Desktop Version of Firefox (which I suppose is gradually becoming more Quantum).?

Fennec (<=68) is being phased out in favour of Fenix (>=69).
From that standpoint, Fennec will be "frozen" at version 68 and will not be updated to the engine used by the desktop version of Firefox 69.
Fenix will, at some point in the future, replace the current version of Firefox Android and is slated to begin at version 69, with some overlap with version 68.
Fenix features a largely rewritten architecture and engine and brings a lot of potential benefits, but the existing Fennec is pulling too much developer time away from it and causing problems in both camps. As a result it seems they want to draw a line in the sand, call an effective halt to Fennec and move over the majority or developers time.
Android Police have some more information detailing the change.
One of the things not currently supported in Fenix is extension support, and it is for that reason that the article you list states that Fennec is "the last Android release with extensions/add-on support."
It is currently unclear, as far as I can see, as to what the intention actually is with regards to extension support in the future. It may well be that if we choose to upgrade in the meantime that extensions are lost temporarily but, short of Firefox following Googles lead with regard to crippling the extension system, I would expect them to return at some point.
It does appear that there is still some discussion going on and that feature parity with the current version (Fennec/68) is intended.
The mobilisation of developer time might actually turn this feature from "nice to have but low priority" to being actively worked on.


Tried to root android tab 4 10.1 with Supersu and odin, now i think it's soft bricked so my android tab 4 10.1 with 5.0.2 android lollipop only wifi is so wrong atm.

What did i do? Try rooting with odin-supersu. Failed over 10 times it didn't work. I wanted to start it all over with a clean tablet, so i did a hard recovery with volume up, home and close button. Pressed boot and its stuck at SAMSUNG word. Can't turn off totally only by letting it out of battery. I can charget it, it shows that it is loading (by the big green bar).

What i want? Well obviously it to work like a new (or at least work).

I will probably try to root it after i manage to make it work again, do you know any reliable root?

Thank you guys in advance. Have a good day.

You might want to reinstall the stock firmware. That should make your device bring back to life. To do that, please download one of the available firmware images from sammobile.

Please note: I'm assuming your model number is "SM-T530NU". Check that again. If this is not your device model number, please don't try these steps without the correct files for your device. Use the latest available firmware and download it. To flash it, simply follow the instructions on the download site.

Extract (unzip) the firmware file
Download Odin v3.10.7
Extract Odin ZIP file
Open Odin v3.10.7
Reboot Phone in Download Mode (press and hold Home + Power + Volume Down buttons)
Connect phone and wait until you get a blue sign in Odin
Add the firmware file to AP / PDA
Make sure re-partition is NOT ticked
Click the start button, sit back and wait few minutes

Afterwards, you may want to try to root your tablet again. Please refer to this thread: How to root a 10.1 Tab 4 (T530/NU, T531, T535), also links for 8.0, 7.0. Thanks to user thisisapoorusernamechoice on XDA for providing such a detailed answer.

  Preparation: Read everything and make sure you understand. I attached Odin v3.09 and v3.10.6. I've always used 3.09 successfully but other users have had problems with it and used 3.10.6 successfully instead. Download the one you want and extract the zip to PC desktop. Also on the tablet enable usb debugging and mock locations in developer settings. Make sure you have the proper USB drivers for your PC. A quick note on file names: development code names for the Tab 4 series are as follows: matisse = 10.1, millet = 8.0, degas = 7.0

  Download the openrecovery-twrp-2.8.6.0-matisse_wifi_3g_lte.tar file  and save to PC. Download the superSU zip file and save to tablet storage. Obviously save the files somewhere easy to remember, and easy to navigate to.
  Power off tablet. Boot into download mode (hold vol-, home, and power all at once in that order), then hit vol+ to continue
  Run Odin. Disable the "Auto-Reboot" and "Re-Partition" options, this is critical to success
  Connect tablet via USB. Hit AP button in Odin, select the TWRP tar file
  Flash (click start). When it's done, the progress bar will be full and Odin should say something like "RESET!"
  Hold the power button to power down the tablet. Then immediately hold vol+, home, and power (all at once, in that order) to boot into recovery.
  [This must be done before rebooting normally!]
  Install the SuperSU zip file that is saved to your tablet (tap the install option in TWRP, navigate to the zip file)
  Reboot system (normal reboot). When android is booted, run the superSU app and follow the prompts; i.e. update the binary if it asks you to, choose normal install, be patient while it installs (takes a while) and reboot if it tells you to

If you have followed the steps correctly, your device should run a rooted Lollipop ROM.


Emergency Mode!! on LG P350 I am using LG P350 from long time as my backup mobile. Some how Emergency Mode!! has triggered. Please some one help me out solving this problem

Don't worry, you should be able to get out of it. It can commonly happen among Android users when a certain key combination is pressed on accident. You can refer to this link for causes and fixes.


What do I do when my phone is pitch black due the the dumb brightness system going all the way to 0 This has happened to me several times and this time I cannot get in turned back up.

Tell whatever voice assistant you have (Google Assistant, Bixby) to set brightness to %50 or such. There's no way to set a minimum brightness.


How to check if an APK contains native code? Is there a way to check if an APK file hosts native code?

There are many reverse engineering tools (e.g. apktool, androguard) from which you can reproduce the
source files of an Android app but I'm not sure if there is a de facto solution
which you can use to assure that an APK contains native code. Maybe someone can
search for ARM binary files in the source files of an app. But how to know which
directories to check?

Is there a more standard way to do this?

I think this StackOverflow answer should point you in the right direction:

  All of the native code for an app is stored in the libs/ directory in the root of the apk. It's compiled ARM or x86 code, or both. You can find it in libs/architecture_type/lib_name.so. You can dissemble the code with objdump or gdb. Decompiling is a much harder task, but you can find some software that might work for you.


Exporting a full WhatsApp chat to .txt So, I've decided to try and do some analysis on my WhatsApp chat history. For that purpose, the built-in export function would work quite well, but it is for some reason restricted to the latest 40.000 messages. Some of my chats go back way further than that, and I'd like to include those conversations in my dataset.
And that's where it gets complicated. Things I've tried so far:

A variety of recovery tools (drfone, BackupToolForWhatsApp,...) that invariably failed to connect and/or demanded a lot of money and/or contained malware

Finding the msgstore.db.crypt12 as a file on the phone and opening it as text with various apps (some people claimed that worked, it didn't though, everything just crashed or complained about the format)

Copying the msgstore.db.crypt12 onto my computer and there decrypting it with the key file, which led to the next problem, obtaining said key file.

A bunch of outdated and thus no longer functional WhatsApp key extractor tools which tried to either grab the backups off Google Drive, or temporarily install a legacy Version of WhatsApp with a vulnerability that allowed the key to be extracted. This failed because the tools haven't been updated in like three years and I'm not Java-savy enough to go digging in their source code myself. I actually downloaded a legacy APK to try and manually install that old WhatsApp version, but that only led to an error about the datetime of my phone (which was set to automatic and thus was correct) and no key.

Rooting my phone in order to get access to the directory where the key is hopefully located. This failed, perhaps because I did the mistake of updating my firmware to the July 2019 patch level, and so no root exploits seemed to work

Digging around in protected directories with tools that do not quite require root access. However, I wasn't able to locate anything that even looked like the place WhatsApp might store its key.

Reading through lots of forum posts on the same issue without any discernible results.

I'm using a Samsung Galaxy S8, model number SM-G950F, German localization, with Android 9.
My question is simple: What else can I do? It can't be that it's literally impossible to dig at the messages which WhatsApp is happily storing and backing up. I'd even be willing to buy some software as long as it's reasonably priced and guaranteed to work.
Also, what directory would I be looking for to get that key, assuming I'd somehow get root access?
Update 28.07.2020:
It seems that in some locales (specifically the EU?), the native export function was disabled in its entirety. The method detailed in my answer below still works excellently, however.

So, here's the solution I ended up using. Even though it's not ideal, it worked out, so I'll leave this here in case anyone else stumbles upon this.

The weak link in the chain is WhatsApp Web. Specifically, it's possible to write a tool that just scrapes the data WhatsApp Web receives, and someone on the Chrome Web Store did exactly that: The Backup WhatsApp Chats extension. It's like €3, so well within what I'd consider reasonable. However, I'd expect that anyone with more knowledge of coding than I have could write such a script themselves, because the messages in WhatsApp Web are apparently just displayed as plain HTML.

It's reasonably fast and extracts all the non-media data you might want in csv format that can be parsed pretty well by pandas.

I'll accept my own answer because this is a solution within the parameters I set out, but if someone knows a better way, feel free to post it and I'll shift the accept.


Why MP3 music files cannot be played on Note 3? ( It says, The music player does not support this type of audio file) Why MP3 music files cannot be played on Note 3 with the default audio player? (It says "The  music player does not support this type of audio file".)

This happens to some of my MP3 files when I try to play them on my Note 3. They were all fine when it was transferred to iPhone previously. They can also be played by my Windows  Player. I've tried deleting them from my Note 3 and transferring them back again which does not work.

I had this issue and restarting my phone solved it.


hosts file keeps reverting I run adb shell and append a line to /etc/hosts
using

echo IP DNSName >> hosts

It works for a some time and then reverts back to having only a single entry for localhost.

Any idea what could cause this?
I am using temp root using VISIONary and I am connecting my HTC Desire HD adbd via WiFi, because it refuses to identify my handset via USB.

No idea why it's doing it, but you could stop it by changing the permissions on the host file to read-only.

To set a file to read-only, log in as root via ADB (or use the Terminal application and log in as root) and then enter:

chmod 444 <path-to-hosts-file>

If you need to edit it again later on, enter:

chmod 644 <path-to-hosts-file>


PC from/to Android voice communication without Internet I want to call my PC using my Android phone (and vice versa) without internet. PC to Android or Android to PC, not just Android to Android. I think it is possible, but not sure if there is a program like that.

What apps do I need to install both on PC and Android phone?

OK, just use Linphone. That's the app the old answer recommended, as you can just use the same program on Win/OSX/Linux/Android/iOS. You don't need internet, but you do still need to have IP connectivity between the devices (if one can ping the other then you're good to go).


Locking Emails on Samsung Galaxy S3 I have a Samsung Galaxy S3. I use the build-in Email application to access my email from my internet service provider (so this is NOT gmail, outlook etc.).

I am often on the road and I need access to my emails. However, I want to maintain the confidentially of the emails i.e. I don't want anyone else to open and read my emails.

I know I can lock my phone but I prefer to only lock the email application. In this scenario, I have no problem with anyone accessing my phone and looking at photos etc. It is just that I don't want them to have access to my emails.

Is there a way to lock the email application only so that if I want to access my emails, I will have to provide a password etc.

The emails I am referring to above are business emails, so I need to keep most of them confidential.

There's lots of apps that perform the function of restricting access to other apps. Simply head to Google Play and search for "app locker".


How do I clear out some information recorded in Google accounts? I have a phone that is running Android. I have several Gmail accounts setup on the phone, many of which belong to my family members who are computer illiterate while a couple of the accounts are my own.

The only reason I have those accounts on my phone is to teach my family how to use email on their phones, which I am going to get them shortly.

Today I noticed for the first time that every one of those Gmail accounts record my mobile device under the "Android device" section of the dashboard. Every Gmail account has the rest of the accounts recorded. The market info too is common to all. Furthermore, they all show the same IMEI. That is plain wrong.

I tried removing all the accounts except my own from my phone but the information recorded still persists. Is it going to be updated after some time when the server cache is cleared? If not, how can I correct this?

Unfortunately there's no way to delete this info. I have accounts that were added and deleted from my device more than 2 years ago but the controll panel still lists my device.


Shortcut to particular document in Google Docs app? Is there a way to make a shortcut to one particular document? I frequently need one particular document from a secondary account, so it's always a pain to come out of current document, change accounts and load the required document. Any ideas?

Workaround - use Google Docs via a browser, and bookmark that page.


Connection Time Out error while accessing Google Play Store in Samsung I9070 Galaxy S advance I have bought a Samsung I9070 Galaxy S advance. Whenever I enter Play Store (Google Play Store Version 3.4.7), it displays waiting sign and then Connection Time Out Error is shown. I use mobile data connection to access the network. Please help me to solve this asap

Phone Details:

  Device: Samsung Galaxy S Advance
    Android Version: 2.3.6
    Baseband version: I9070DDLI1
    Kernel version: 2.6.35.7-1194396  dpi@DELL163#2  SMP PREEMPT Thu Sep 13 22:11:28 KST 2012
    Build Number: Gingerbread.DDLI1

I had the same problem after upgrading my Android version. I fixed it by clearing the Google Play store cache and data. Go to Menu Settings > Applications > Google Play Store and click  the Clear cache button and Clear data button.


Google Nexus 4 on Verizon? I currently own a Motorola Droid 3 on Verizon.

I wish to purchase a LG Nexus 4 directly from Google - will it work on my Verizon Network? Or would it be a waste of time?

It would be a wast of time (and money). The phone is not compatible with Verizon's network.

Verizon is a CDMA network, and the Nexus 4 from Google is GSM phone.

In the past Google has met-in-the-middle with Verizon and released the CDMA compatible Galaxy Nexus - this time there appear to be no plans on releasing a CDMA compatible Nexus 4 (possibly due to the slow turnaround time Verizon had on releasing updates to the Galaxy Nexus).


Bricked Nexus 7 in Recovery Mode I have a Nexus 7 2012 grouper in recovery mode (TWRP). I have wiped the /system /cache and /data partitions and believe it has wiped the /boot partition. When I go to file manager, it says the /boot folder is empty. I don't want to reboot the device because it may render it unusable. What should I do?

Download the factory image for your device here: https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images

Follow the instructions at the top of the page to flash. Note that the WIFI and Mobile versions have different images. Make sure to use flash-all otherwise the bootloader and radio will remain the same and the images won't flash.

Another option if you want to keep your ROM would be to download the factory image for the version you have on the device and flash only the boot.img using fastboot flash boot boot.img instead of flash-all. That should restore your boot but you have to know which version you have on the device.


How do I manage users on my HTC One with Android 5? I have HTC One (M7) with Android 5.0.2 (the unlocked ROM 7.17.1540.7 from HTC website). I want to set up several user accounts.

I've found two documented ways to do it:

The one concerns Nexus and consists of opening the settings and “ under 'Device,' touch[ing] Users.” There is no “Device” group, the only groups I have are “Wireless & networks”, “Personal” and “Phone”. There is no “Users” in any of those three groups.
The other one (also here) seems to apply to any Android 5 device, and asserts the following:

  Pull down your notification shade, and you'll see your user icon

There is no user icon there. At the very top, there is the name of the operator. Below, I can see the time and date at the very left, and a settings icon at the right. If I expand quick settings panel, at the left of settings icon a new icon appears, allowing to go to “Edit Quick Settings.”

In settings, there is “Accounts & sync” element, but it looks like it handles online accounts used by different applications, making it possible, for example, to associate my Google account with the device. This is how “Add an account” looks like:

What am I doing wrong? How can I create users?

Warning: This solution requires a rooted device.

Download the Xposed Framework installer by opening this link on your device: http://repo.xposed.info/module/de.robv.android.xposed.installer
Alternatively, scan this QR code.
Install and open the Xposed Installer app.
Enter the 'Framework' section, select 'Install/Update' then reboot your phone.
Once you've rebooted, open the Xposed Installer again.
Enter the 'Download' section, and search for 'Multiple Users'.
Select 'Multiple users for phone'.
Swipe right to the 'Versions' tab and select 'Download' on the newest version of the module (which will be shown at the top of the list).
Wait up to two seconds until a popup appears.
Select 'Install' and wait another two seconds.
Select 'Done' (not 'Open') and change from the 'Download' section to the 'Modules' section.
Tick the checkbox beside 'Multi Users'.
Reboot your device.
Open 'Settings' and go down to the 'Users' option, which will now be there.


forwarding calls using another sim (using dual sim android phone) Is there a way to do the following on a dual-SIM phone?

receive a call at SIM 1
forward the received call to a specified number using SIM 2

Most apps use call forwarding feature of the mobile network, so they use the same SIM card.

Most dual SIM phones are dual-standby only. When one SIM is "in call" the other is not available. Because of this I think the first issue is finding a phone with two separated active radios. After this it all comes down to software.


I've deleted Google Play Store. How can I reinstall it? I've been having an issue with my apps where an error "Package file is invalid" keeps appearing. I read a tutorial somewhere which told me to "uninstall updates" for the Google Play Store application. I was told doing this would uninstall the application, and then the device would automatically reinstall Google Play Store.

I did this, restarted my phone, but the application never reappeared.

I think tried downloading an .apk file to install this manually, but on install the application wouldn't load.

Has anyone done this before? How can I reinstall this application? I believe I need it for all future downloads and updates to my applications.

For the record, my phone is not rooted.

You cannot uninstall the PlayStore/GoogleMarket app without having your device rooted -- so as Shedo guessed, you probably just uninstalled the latest update. Which means, the original app included with your firmware takes over -- and probably is called "Market" (the original name of the Playstore, before some market specialists started toying with the name).

So look out for an icon with a green bag, labeled "Market", that's it. Go ahead and start it, browse a bit, leave it. The Play Store App should be forced back on your device automatically -- maybe not immediately, but it usually doesn't take long.


How to remove useless space after removing google now search bar? Please tell me there is a way to get rid of that blank space that was left after I removed the google now search bar from my Moto G running 4.3.

I managed to deactivate it via the apps' settings, and after a reboot the search bar was gone, but now my clock looks horrible being too low on the screen and the space where the bar was is completely useless now, it looks awful.

I really don't want to root the phone since I don't really need it, and I actually like the GUI the phone has so I don't think I'd want to change anything with a launcher as I've seen in another answers.

I'm assuming that you are talking about Home screen.
If yes ,
Press and hold on Clock Widget and drag it up.

I will answer more precisely if you post a screenshot.


Youtube preloading option not available Since I updated the Youtube app on my Nexus 5 to v5.6.31 I can no longer preload videos from my 'Watch Later' list. I have checked the settings and I can't find the option to configure this either.

Has preloading been removed?

Yes, preloading has been removed from version 5.6 (and above).

  To make way for some upcoming mobile features, we removed the
  preloading feature on the YouTube app for Android. We apologize for
  any inconvenience, and we look forward to bringing these new features
  to you.


Google Nexus 7 2013 (6.0.1) no longer works with All 4 streaming (UK) I have a venerable Google Nexus 7 2013 (OS 6.0.1) that I still use. It works well - or did, up until a few days ago.
One of the things I use it for is streaming - BBC iPlayer, ITV hub, All 4, youtube etc.
It has been fine up to now, when all of a sudden it will not stream All 4. It will stream everything else and all other internet connectivity is fine.
The local network is wifi (2.4/5GHz) connecting with a TP-Link ADSL router to Plusnet Fibre.
Initially I though it was a temporary All 4 problem. But other devices (Android and PC) on the same network stream fine.
First I restarted the app, then cleared the cache and data, then restarted the router, then I reinstalled the app, then finally I did a factory reset. None had any effect. The error is 'An error has occurred - Touch to retry'. Retry has no effect. Unfortunately I do not have access to another wifi network I can try.
I am completely out of ideas. It must be software, all hardware appears fine. The summary is:

Nexus 7 2013 running Android 6.0.1 (not rooted).
Will not stream All 4 (UK).
Will stream everything else.
All other internet connection is fine.
Other devices (PC, Android) on the same network will stream All 4.
Resetting everything had no effect.
Worked fine up to 7-10 days ago.

Any suggestion as to the cause of this would be welcome.

i had the same problem with my nexus 7, worked faultlessly with streaming vids ...untill the 2nd week in Jan 2021 when overnight could no longer get the vids to work, just got a blank screen. I think the reason is that that was the exact time adobe started blocking all computers and devices with flash player. since then ive not had a decent downloadable live streaming vid or web cam - i pay for many of the sites i use.
even my new win10 pc has problems with streaming video whereas before jan 10th and the adobe flash blocking all worked fine !!


How can I access lock screen Apps on Android like iOS 7 -- Galaxy S4 on Sprint I am a recent covert from iPhone. the one thing i miss, which is even more prevalent with iOS7, is the ability to access basic apps (e.g. phone, flashlight, wifi toggle) from the locked home screen without having to unlock/enter my security code. Even the 3rd party Android home screen apps that allow you "access" apps on the home screen, still require you to unlock your phone after you select the app.

How can i access apps directly from the a locked home screen?

For security reasons, you can't access normal apps from the lock screen: you can only access lock screen widgets. They're like home screen widgets, but the app they come from has designated them as suitable for the lock screen: they may have better ways to keep sensitive data hidden than normal home screen widgets.

Not all Samsung phones support lock screen widgets. For example, the Galaxy S III doesn't (unless you install a 3rd-party lock screen app, or a custom ROM), because its lock screen was designed before Google added lock screen widgets to Android. The Galaxy S4 does, though, so you just need to add the widget of your choice to it!


Rebooting into recovery using ClockworkMod Is there any big difference between rebooting into recovery using ClockworkMod and using Volume Up + Power button when wiping cache?

No, how you access Recovery Mode doesn't matter at all.  ROM Manager can pass arguments to CWM Recovery to (for example) automatically flash an update.zip file, but it's effectively no different than manually selecting that file to flash after entering recovery with the key combo.  Same deal when it comes to wiping the cache.


How to make Gmail in Android ask for user name and password as in laptop? In my Samsung Galaxy Grand whenever I select the Gmail icon, it automatically takes me into the inbox, it doesn't ask me to give credentials like we do in laptop/desktop.

So the problem is when somebody else wants to use my mobile, they are able to see my all inbox mails etc etc as soon as they choose the Gmail icon.

So I want it set so that when I access the Gmail icon in Android, it should ask me to give username and password everytime .

The solution to your problem is using an "App Locker", which lets you protect selected apps with a password (or pattern). Each time you want to open a protected app, you then have to first "unlock" it. There might also be solutions permitting you to keep the "unlock" cached, e.g. for a confugured time span or place (e.g. when home) -- but as I don't need any app-locker I never remember which app offered that.

Examples for such app-lockers are Smart App Protector(App Lock), supporting password, pattern, and even gesture unlock, and Smart AppLock (App Protector):

Smart App Protector and Smart AppLock (Source: Google Play; click images for larger variant)


Accidentally set radio to USA band Accidentally set radio to USA band
I was playing around with ##4636## and accidentally set the radio band to USA Band. Now there's no way of changing it back so now I can't even connect to a network, let alone use data. I've searched for this issue and it appears that there were other people with the problem but all of them didn't have answers. The only possible answer was to flash the ROM again, but there was no confirmation of it having worked. And anyway my phone isn't rooted, and I don't want to root, since it is new, as well as the fact that it's not an easy for the Moto G4+.

I guess, you have three options here:

Bring the phone to service center if your warranty is active. This is the most harmless way.
Flash the stock radio or complete stock image.
Hard reset the phone with ##786# code. However, you need MSL (master security lock) which you should obtain from seller/carrier, which makes this way a bit cumbersome. More on this here.


How to start video record from PC? is there a way to record a video just like if I would record with a normal camera app but with the difference, that I can observe the image on the PC? I've tried IP webcam and droidcam, but both created videos with very bad quality compared to normal camera recording, I guess due to streaming limits.
But streaming is not my aim, I just would like to have a preview and then simply start recording locally to the phone.

scrcpy is a free/open source project which allows you to mirror the Android device and control it from the Windows/MacOS/Linux. It does require the device to be Android 5.0+, and have adb developer debugging enabled.

Once running I was able to with a Pixel 2 and a MacBook Air:

See the Pixel 2 screen on the MacBook Air screen
Scroll on the Pixel 2
Click on the camera app
Switch to video recording in the camera app
Click record
Click stop recording

without touching the phone.

You would still need to get the video off the phone but the video quality is of the native camera app.


How do I disable a screen overlay I recently purchased a Samsung S7.  I placed it on charge last night and this morning when I went to check my messages I keep getting a popup/overlay displaying a playboy style icon with a close box and info box.  I just hit back up on the phone but it keeps re appearing.

Can anyone help, it's driving me mad.

Thanks in advance.

Richard

Try going in settings - apps - wrench icon - draw over other apps - deselect the app you think is showing the overlay.
I'd recommend you to uninstall the app after.


How to reinstall Gboard after an accidental uninstall? I accidentally uninstalled Gboard from my tablet. Now, since I can no longer type words, I cannot locate Gboard on the Play Store in order to install it again. Do you know of any work around?

Apologies if you've tried this already, but from a browser on a different machine (laptop, desktop, another tablet or phone) you can go to the Play Store (http://play.google.com/store) and log in to the Google account you use on the tablet, and then find the app(s) you'd like to install. You should be able to install the app(s) to your device from there. At least, I've done this for an Android phone.


Kindle Fire Power Adapter Specs I have misplaced the power adapter for my v1 Kindle Fire. USB charging works but is dog slow. What are the specs of its adapter, including any branding, as they're never labeled properly. Also, a photo would be very helpful, since it is likely in the box o' adapters in the basement.

According to this page the original stats are this:

INPUT (AC): 100-240V, 50/60Hz
OUTPUT (DC): 5V, 1.8A

Here's an image:

The newer charger is 9V and 1.8A.


Can an app call a phone without me knowing? The reason I ask is because I have gotten various calls from seemingly random numbers saying that I had called them. When I check my call log, there is no outgoing call to their number.

This has happened multiple times, but not very often, maybe once every two weeks. I am normally very careful with the apps that I download and have avg downloaded and scanning periodically. Could it be that someone else can use the same number to call?

An app with the appropriate permissions can not only initiate calls without you knowing, but also remove all evidence from your call logs:

CALL_PHONE: Allows an application to initiate a phone call without going through the Dialer user interface for the user to confirm the call being placed.
WRITE_CALL_LOG: Allows an application to write (but not read) the user's contacts data.

(Source: Manifest Permissions).

If your provider supports a full call listing on your bill: that's a place no app can touch, so there you would find evidence.

Though it is technically possible somebody else could fake your number, that's rather unlikely. To do this, one would need some privileges a normal phone connector doesn't offer; so this person must either sit at a provider's site directly, or at some (usually bigger) company with the appropriate privileges granted.

To help you isolating the possible culprit, there are several tools available. I'd suggest to take a look at something like Permission Explorer:

Permission Explorer (Source: Google Play; click images to enlarge)

As you can see, this app allows browsing by category, and nicely lists up all installed apps with a given permission. You can most likely skip system apps here, then see what's left and re-check playstore comments on suspicious apps. I also recommend checking on AppBrain, as they often point out malicious apps: Use their search page and see if the result for your app is "minimized", which already is one indicator. Also a good idea: try AppBrain Ad Detector, which does the same for apps on your device:

AppBrain Ad Detector (Source: Google Play; click images to enlarge)

Additional benefit of this app: it automatically alerts you when you install an app with suspicious permissions ("Live Detection Mode" triggers on app install).


Photos synch google+,picasa,gallery I'm trying to upload on google+ photos all my old pics so I have it backupped and ordered there, but unfortunatly I encountered some strange behavior.

Here is what I did:

Uploaded from my pc with picasa all my album to google+ (checked the date were correct)
On Google+ web everything is ok (date and order of the album)
On google photos app on my Nexus-4 everything is fine as well.
If I go on picasa web album some album have incorrect date (seems they have the date of upload instead the date when pics were taken, but it's the same album on G+!!!)
If I synch picasa album in my gallery on Nexus-4 pics have the same problem with date.

Anyone has the same problem?

Also, if I turn off google phots synch and I clear the gallery app data all the picasa album disappear but if I do refresh from gallery they appear again and I didn't turned on google photos synch.

Again anyone with the same problem out there? Any solutions?

Turned out that apparently on g+ the albums take the date of the most recent picture of that album, while on picasa web album there is a date for the album, I don't know why but sometimes the date for the album on picasa is the same as the one on g+, others times is simply the date when you created the album.

Anyway it is possible to change that date from the web interface of picasa by selecting an album and editing his property, It's a bit annoying if you have a lot of them but finally now I have all my picasa album properly ordered in my gallery on android. :)


Install google play on emulator How can I install google play on emulator? I start my emulator like this:

./emulator -avd my_custom_device_API_26 -dns-server 8.8.8.8 -writable-system

and I tried it this way but it doesn't work. Although I'm staring emulator as writable, I get:

remote couldn't create file: Read-only file system

Also I've bit different Apks as mentioned in that answer namely: PrebuiltGmsCorePix.apk instead GmsCore.apk and I can't find GoogleLoginService.apk. I have openGapps 8.1 pico version. I've also tired to install Apks but was unsucessful

For that you have to install Google play image from Android Studio SDK manager.But you can't get it for api level below 24


AdBlock on Android causes many timeouts and connection problems When I use the Android version of Adblock Plus 1.3 without root, everything seems to work fine. But now, I have a new phone that I'm not willing to root, and I like the idea of having AdBlock as a proxy to strip everything, but everything times out quite often. Sometimes it works, but others it just keeps timing out and creating all kinds of connection problems.

I updated recently to the latest dev version from here, but I still have the same problem.

I feel that this issue is happened because of power saving maybe? Some kind of deprioritization of AdBlock?

I have Galaxy Note 8.

Please advise.

Your question answers itself. The app you're using is run by a proxy server and it may slow down your webpage load time. I suggest you to block ad servers from hosts file and use the regular browser app as it's the fastest and most practical way of getting rid of ads.


How to force load desktop version of website? Mobile optimised websites are nice but it happens too often that they omit some crucial functionality.

Is there a way how to cheat the browser detection or force-load the desktop version of any website?

Open the web browser
navigate to about:debug (make sure you press the "go" button, not search)
nothing will seem to happen, but it did...
press the menu key and select "More"
Now select Settings.
Scroll down and you should see an option for "UAString" or "Change User Agent".


Does adb reboot recovery require unlock? I want to remove the LG G3 overshapening thing as instructed here:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/lg-g3/orig-development/kernel-chupachups-kernel-t2943339

To do so I need to reboot in recovery mode.
I've connected my phone to usb and enabled usb debugging and authorized.
When I issue adb devices I can see my phone.
When then I issue adb reboot recovery the phone reboots, the image of the robot with the open hood and a red triangle appears... nothing else happens. Neither the power button works. All I can do is to remove the battery...
So I'm wondering do I first need to unlock the phone?

What you are seeing is the recovery.  You've successfully booted into it.  It displays that image when it hasn't been told by the main OS what it should do (e.g. something like a system upgrade).

However, it's the the stock recovery that comes with the device, which isn't really useful for much besides doing factory resets.  When someone tells you to "flash the zip in recovery", they're assuming that you've replaced the phone's stock recovery with a custom one such as TWRP or CWM.  Installing one of those does require unlocking.


How to switch Google Japanese keyboard to romaji input instead of hiragana? I just got a new phone so I had to reinstall my Japanese IME and it has a kana layout kinda like a flip phone too. I heard that the Google IME will let you use romaji input like a regular keyboard, but how do I switch it?

Google Japanese Input currently supports 3 layouts:

12 keys: Mobile phone layout
QWERTY: PC keyboard layout
Godan keyboard: Romaji-dedicated layout

You can change it from Settings - Language & input - Google Japanese Input - Keyboard layout.


How do I disable Facebook's "Log in to sync applications" notification when the phone turns on? Every time I turn on or restart my phone, I always get this "Log in to sync applications" notification from Facebook. How do I disable this?

Using Titanium Backup, freeze the SNS x.x.x app with a Facebook icon. You can also disable this through the phone's Settings > More > Application manager.

Sources:

XDA
AndroidCentral


How do you turn off all cellular communication but leave things like bluetooth and wifi enabled? I'm going to be traveling overseas and don't have an international roaming plan.  I would like to disable my cellular radio while I am there but I'd also like to use bluetooth and wifi.  I don't think I can enable bluetooth or wifi while in airplane mode, though.  How can I do this without physically removing my SIM card?

You actually can enable both of those features while in airplane mode. They get turned off automatically when you first enable airplane mode, but there's nothing that prevents you from re-enabling them:


Android rooting from Ubuntu I gather that when it comes to rooting an Android device,

one needs a separate machine (e.g. a desktop computer) to carry out the rooting steps from;
the details of the procedure depend strongly on the specific hardware of the Android device.

I want to root a Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 tablet, and pretty much all the recipes I've found online for this particular hardware work only when the second machine (the one mentioned in (1) above) is running some version of Windows.

I have not been able to find instructions specific to rooting a Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 device from Ubuntu (or Debian, etc.).

Any suggestions?

(I know that some people have managed to root an Android device from a VBox running Windows, but I'd consider this the absolute last resort, since it adds a whole new layer of complexity to the problem.)

Have you tried KingRoot? It looks like the only non-Odin method, but I haven't tried it.

Install KingRoot (enable external sources to install)

Run KingRoot

Tap "Try to Root"

Check success with Root Checker app (available on Google Play)

link to download:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/devdb/project/dl/?id=13663

My source:
http://trueandroid.com/how-to-root-samsung-galaxy-tab-s-8-4-sm-t705-without-pc/
Here's some extra info on it: http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/apps-games/one-click-root-tool-android-2-x-5-0-t3107461


Clock off by 4 min even if "use network value" is on (probably due to an app) Few days ago i noticed that the clock on my phone was 4 min earlier than "real" time. I thus moved to "parameters > date & time" to check that automatic was "on" and indeed it was "on". I then unchecked/rechecked the box and every get back to "real" time ... but only for a few seconds ...  indeed just a few seconds later the clock suddenly shifted 4 min earlier!

I tried many things before finally discovering that if I turn off "data" connection, the clock remains at correct "real" time. So it is probably an application that for unknown reason is synchronizing to some server and then modifies the clock.

I have a HTC desire - Android 2.2.2 and I have installed no particular application that can make me suspicious to create such time shift (nor i tried to root my phone to any custom ROM).

Any idea for which application could do this or anyone else having same issue ?

Try disabling network time and set the clock manually. Network time relies on your mobile operator setting their clocks correctly, while it is usually a good bet, some misconfiguration on their side could mean that their clock is returning incorrect time. Another possibility is an issue in the database of time offsets in the device (this controls corrections for leap second, etc).

Try checking your time with http://time.is/.


Is the Websocket protocol supported on Android? I haven't been able to find much information on the state of Websocket implementation. Is it currently supported in the stock Android browser? If not, are there any browsers for Android that do support it?

Neither Gingerbread nor Honeycomb browsers support web sockets. However, Firefox Beta v.7 and Firefox Aurora (which is a nightly of v. 8) both support the current spec of web sockets off the box.


Turn on auto-correct when using a Bluetooth keyboard I have been using my Nexus 7 for schoolwork and I love it. One problem, however, is that when I connect to my Bluetooth keyboard I no longer get auto-correct suggestions. I then decided to install Swiftkey 3 and discovered that if I had SwiftKey set as the default I could see a prediction bar, but there was still no auto-correct/auto-completion.

How can I have auto-correct enabled when a hardware keyboard is connected?

Looks like it has been reported as a SwiftKey bug for the Nexus 10 as well.

Your best best is probably wait to get this fixed. I suggest you click the Vote button in their support site to increase the bug's priority. I just added 3 votes for you!

NOTE: I don't use SwiftKey. I use GO Keyboard.


How can I configure time zones on my Galaxy S? Yesterday I got a meeting email which I read on my SGS GT-I9000, which showed the time as:

  Wednesday, January 12, 2011 8:30 AM-9:00 AM (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)

But when I checked this on my PC in Outlook this was the time:

  Wednesday, January 12, 2011 7:00 PM-7:30 PM (GMT+05:30) Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi

How can I get my device to use the same time zone as my PC?

Seems to me that your PC and your Android are in different time zones. Since you've already mentioned that you're in India, I expect that your Android has the wrong setting.

Settings | Date & time

You may have to turn off "Automatic" so that you can set the time zone yourself.


boot loop with complete(write) faliure My phone has been rooted with custom ROM resurrection remix 5.8.4. it is a samsung galaxy s4 mini gt 19190. it is stuck in a boot loop in both normal and in twrp recovery mode. i tried changing my recover and my firmware but they show this complete(write) faliure

Go to Recovery and do "Wipe" or "Factory Reset"

it should solve the problem


I want to transfer Injustice Gods Among Us saved game from ios ipad to my android I have been playing Injustice: Gods Among Us on my iOS on the iPad and now I have an Android phone and I want to tranfer the saved game to my Android, characters, challenges, cards, money... all of that.

Is there any way I can do it?.
I have downloaded the game already, I only need the data.

If the game is using a platform independent way of saving the game (eg. Facebook) then connecting the game to that account is enough and it should ask you to restore your save state like in Clash of clans or Boom beach.