Diagnosing Angry Birds Crash I have a Samsung Captivate running Cyanogen Mod 7 beta (Gingerbread).  I am using Launcher Pro and have AdFree if that matters.  Everything has been working fine for a while, I had Angry Birds and Angry Birds Seasons working.  Then I installed an update yesterday (1.5.3), along with about 20 others.  I believe I had the previous updates as well.

Now, when I play Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons, or the recently installed Angry Birds Rio, the game will randomly crash after a couple of minutes.  Usually when I am interacting with the touch screen, but I have had a bird freeze in mid flight while I did nothing.

The crash happens where the game locks up for a few seconds and then the screen goes back and returns me to the home screen.

I had never experienced this before.

Any ideas as to what the cause is or how to fix it?  Is there a crash dump/log file somewhere I can check?  Any similar issues anyone has?

You can use ADB and run logcat by typing the command adb logcat > logcat.log.  Alternatively you can use an app like aLogcat.  That will give show you your systems logs but then you'll have to figure out what it all means.

I have to agree with Matthew Reads comment that it's probably related to CM but there are so many moving parts and different factors it's hard to say.  Unfortunately diagnosing through trial and error will require you removing CM to see if it was the cause.  I would recommend removing AdFree and seeing if you still have crashes because it could be caused by that.  If I were an app dev that relied on ads to fund my company I'd probably make the free flow of ads in my app a requirement for my app to run properly.

Also, I doubt it's launcher pro.


How to remove an app that is a persistent device administrator I received a Samsung GS5 as part of a program from Samsung in exchange for their recording device statistics through an app I installed. The program is over, and I have been notified that the app can be removed, but whenever I try to uninstall it I'm told that the app is a device administrator and therefore can not be removed.

I tried to remove the administrator status from the app (it's called Samsung Insights) but the option is greyed out. Does anyone have another method of removing admin status or uninstalling apps that have admin status?

Go into your phone's Settings and open Security. From there, tap Device administrators, and you should be able to turn it off from there.


How can i change text vibration on my Galaxy S3? I want to change sms vibrations on my Galaxy S3 but I can only change it for incoming calls.
Can someone tell how to change notification vibrations for sms on my Samsung Galaxy S3?

Thank you in advance.

PS : I am using Hangouts.

Edit : If possible, I don't want to install an app to solve my problem.

In Android each application can control the notifications itself. So if you turn off vibration for calls, texts will still have the option, and so on.
In the case of Hangouts:

Open the application.

Swipe from the left to open the menu (technically it's a navigation drawer).

Tap "Settings"

Tap "SMS"

You can enable/disable vibration here:

(source: techcovered.org)
If you wish to change the intensity/duration/pattern of the vibration you either need an SMS app that supports this feature or root access to your device coupled with a custom kernel that allows this feature.
Alternatively (though you specified you don't want to) you could try an app like Vibrate tools and see if that fits your need. I have not tested this app.


Where does APKMirror.com get its apks? APKMirror.com hosts complete split apks, containing not just the base.apk but also many languages/multiple architecture support/vr apks etc. Take for example the contents of this chrome split apk:
https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/chrome/chrome-88-0-4324-93-release/google-chrome-fast-secure-88-0-4324-93-5-android-apk-download/
.
├── autofill_assistant.apk
├── autofill_assistant.config.en.apk
├── autofill_assistant.config.ja.apk
├── base.apk
├── cablev2_authenticator.apk
├── chime.apk
├── chime.config.en.apk
├── config.ar.apk
├── config.de.apk
├── config.en.apk
├── config.es.apk
├── config.fr.apk
├── config.hi.apk
├── config.in.apk
├── config.it.apk
├── config.ja.apk
├── config.ms.apk
├── config.nl.apk
├── config.pt.apk
├── config.ru.apk
├── config.th.apk
├── config.zh.apk
├── dev_ui.apk
├── extra_icu.apk
├── image_editor.apk
├── image_editor.config.en.apk
├── stack_unwinder.apk
├── test_dummy.apk
├── vr.apk
├── vr.config.en.apk
└── vr.config.ru.apk

Where are they sourcing these from?

ApkMirror.com just accepts APK uploads from users. Anybody can extract APK files from their device and upload them to APKMirror.com. However it is not guaranteed that every upload is published. For ensuring security of uploading APK files each upload is automatically checked regarding it's cryptographic signature if it matches the signer of other versions of the same app.
The APKMirror community has set-up some rules about what APKs are getting provided for download and which not. For more details see their FAQ.
Therefore to answer your question the uploaded APK files can originate for any source. Some are extracted from devices (e.g. originally downloaded via Google Play Store), or the APK files are extracted from alternative app stores, web-sites.
In case of complete split APK bundles most likely they have been downloaded by PC based tools from Google Play Store (e.g. Raccoon4) and then uploaded to APKMirror.com. This can work because the Play Store protocol just provides links to all split files and the download client decides which parts to download.


Installing android firmware from default recovery mode via sd card I have an extra phone i.e samsung sgh i997 at home. A while back i installed clockwork recovery and installed cynogenmod rom on it. Then somehow out of stupidity or accident it went back into the recovery mode and everything on the phone was wiped. It even deleted clockwork recovery and i guess that even the factory firmware isn't there anymore.

Now everytime i turn on the phone, it automatically goes to the default recovery mode with 4 options

reboot system now
apply update from sd card
wipe data factory reset
wipe cache partition

I have tried switching it to download mode and connecting it with my laptop but the drivers are not recognized. I also tried installing kies, which i thought would help with the driver issue but it didn't. I guess there isn't any firmware inside that the driver would connect to.

Now the only way left to somehow copy something to the phone is via sd card. I tried copying several different android firmwares and mods to the sd card, but i think the default recovery mode doesn't use the external sd card but the phone's internal sd storage, which i why everybody is using clockwork recovery instead of default.

I am really tired searching for any solution to this issue, if anyone out there has done something similar or can somehow show me how to go into the shell i might be able to find my way. Thanks in advance.

If you can connect it through adb then install modified 3e recovery from this post.

After it you can also install cwm

But if you are unable to connect via adb then download stock signed zip of stock rom and place it in your sd card the try update from sd card.

Edit: you can try placing cwm update.zip in sd card and update from sd card. I know this can look weird but in some old Samsung mobiles I have done it because they did not check signature of zip while flashing.


LG Optimus L5 e610 randomly reboots I have got the phone of my sister in law. It is a LG Optimus L5  e610. While trying to flash CM it has been bricked. It is constantly rebooting after media scanning. It reboots even in the bootloader (CWM 6.2.8). The bootlaoder shows that the sdcard can't be mounted. The time the phone stays in android is to short to use adb.

The phone has been rooted using this guide. This guide has been used to flash CWM.

Well hence I can neither use adb to replace anything in the filesystem nor use the recovery to install a zip.

Is there any way to get this phone back working?

The problem was the difference in unlocked bootloaders between e610 and e612. Finally I ended up using the few seconds before the reboot to write the backed up bootloader and recovery back via dd. Wow I hardly often do backups, but this time it was quite helpful.


Is there a good USB debugging toggle widget for Android? Can you suggest me a widget for toggling usb debugging mode for Android? Or could you code it and upload to market, please?

(I need it because of HTC Desire and HD's init process consuming 100% cpu bug. When toggled, it resets to 0)

Here
installer for easy installation or
 widget only for manual installation

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTION

Prerequisites:

You must be rooted
You must be able to write to /system/app/ folder. USB Debugging is a "Secure" setting, so this widget must be installed as a system apps. It will not work if you install to the standard install location even in rooted device.

Easy Instruction (Recommended)

Nico have written an easy-to-use installer to automate installation to /system/app/; download it here and run the installer app.
Add the widget to your home screen like regular widget.

Manual installation

If the easy instruction doesn't work, try the manual installation:

Download ADBWidget.apk and save it to your computer
Copy ADBWidget.apk to /system/app

Method 1 -- Using Android Debug Bridge (ADB)

Remount /system/app to read-write (see Additional Instructions section below)
adb push ADBWidget-x.x.apk /system/app/ADBWidget.apk (replace x.x with the appropriate version number)
Remount /system/app to read-only

Method 2 -- Using Recovery's update.zip (have not been tested yet)
Method 3 -- Using Root Explorer (have not been tested yet)

Add ADBWidget to your home screen

Upgrade Instruction

If you're upgrading from a previous version, you do not need to do all of the above again. You can simply install an update on regular application directory by using regular installation methods (e.g. opening the apk from a file explorer). As long as there is a previous version of the widget in the /system/app directory with the same signing key (i.e. my key, if you used the apk download above), Android will give the updated version in /data/app the same permission.

USAGE INSTRUCTION

Click on the widget to toggle USB debugging. Blue USB icon means that USB debugging is inactive, red USB icon means that USB debugging is enabled.

UNINSTALL INSTRUCTION

Since the widget is installed to /system/app, you cannot remove it using standard application uninstaller. So, simply delete the .apk from /system/app.

su
remount /system as read write
rm /system/app/ADBWidget.apk
remount /system as read only

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTION

Remounting /system/ as read-write

Open "Terminal Emulator" or "adb shell"
Get root permission, type su
Get the device name, type mount | grep /system
You should see something similar to:

/dev/<device-name> on /system type rfs (ro,codepage=utf8,vfat,fcache(blks)=128,xattr,check=no)
Take note of the <device-name>, and type: mount -o remount,rw /dev/<device-name> /system

Remounting /system/ as read-only

Step 1, 2, 3, 4 same as above
type: mount -o remount,ro /dev/<device-name> /system

TROUBLESHOOTING

Sometimes the widget froze and do not responds to clicks. If this happens, removing and re-adding the Widget usually will fix the problem.

NOTE

Don't complain about the ugly default icon and widget button, but if you can send me a better icon/widget image, I'd be happy to add it. Now we have an icon, thanks to @Jay.
Do not trust strangers that asks you to install an application to /system/app
Tested on Samsung Spica i5700 SpicagenMod Froyo.


HTC One detected as CD Drive I am experiencing a similar problem as described there: Whenever I connect my HTC One to my Windows 8.1, it is recognized as a CD Drive.
So I tried the solution proposed by Macha's answer, but I cannot perform the step "Select Standard USB main controller" as I get only CD-Drives proposed int he selection no matter what.

Does anyone here have a hint how to solve the issue?

I tried to deactivate/activate USB Debugging without any success, but noticed, that whatever I select, the MTP still keeps running (at least my HTC says so). Furthermore I realized that in the device manager I see the "HTC Android Phone USB Device" in DVD/CD-ROM drives section and "MTP" in "Other Devices". Tried to update the drivers - either cannot find any appropriate drivers or does not change anything. Tried to disable MTP -> phone is not anymore connected as CD, but cannot see it in Explorer at all anymore.

Though, I cannot find any options to disable MTP. With my previous laptop (Windows 7) everything worked properly.

Does anyone have an idea how to solve the problem and again be able to see the phone as a storage device, access it, and to synchronize/exchange data with the PC back and forth?

Thank you so much in advance!

These Chinese originated ROMs have a Win installer in them, if you tap the CDRom icon on ur PC it will install a " partner" Win app on your PC.
Just ignore it! When you connect your Phone to PC under the ADB settings notification just tick connect as USB storage and the next time you reconnect ur phone ( depending on the ROM) it will appear as another 2 or 1 additional USB drive.
Mine is a home cooked Lenovo Vibe 2.0 ROM (S939) and Lenovo has in most of its ROM this Win app installers. But I don't use them because they are cumbersome Chinese chracters only app. I used MOBOROBO if you happen to transfer file a lot from external sdcard.


Is Adobe Air available on sony ericson xperia mini pro I'm planning to buy a Sony Xperia Mini Pro, with the physical keyboard, not the x10 mini, but the latest one.

The sony xperia mini pro is not listed on Adobe's flash compatible devices list

I plan to use it for development and I also plan to develop apps in Adobe AIR, can somebody with a Sony Xperia Mini Pro confirm they are able to download and install Adobe AIR from the market, and run AIR and flash apps on this phone?

Thanks

The official Sony page says it has Flash preinstalled (look on the "In business" tab, "Fast and full Internet" section).

The Xperia Mini Pro meets the specs for Adobe Air, so I see no reason to believe you couldn't download Air as well.


Is it possible for a virus to be embedded in a image and can this image execute on Android Oreo by just opening the image? I am aware that on Windows this is very much possible. But is it possible on Android (latest OS with all the security updates)? Can you install a virus/malware/spyware by just clicking on an image? Suppose the image is sent via WhatsApp/any other messenger?

Your comment about Windows is probably referring to WMF images, which aren't exactly 'normal' image files.  They can contain actual natively executable code, including being able to make some very low-level calls directly into the graphics drivers.  Most other image formats only contain actual image data (and usually some metadata about things like what color correction to do, what time the image was created, etc).

In theory, it's still possible to exploit normal image files though.  There have been a number of vulnerabilities over the years in various image handling libraries that could be used as starting points for actual ACE exploits (though the full exploit is likely to be platform specific).  These all just required an image to be processed by the library (so, displayed in an application that uses the vulnerable library).

However, it's a pretty unlikely attack vector for any realistic malware.  Coding an image that can exploit these issues and doesn't immediately arouse suspicion (either due to the size of the file, ro the lack of any content) is pretty hard, and given that these bugs tend to get patched very quickly, probably wouldn't be worth the effort long-term.


How can I prevent hyphens causing text input to break in the Android Browser? I have a Verizon Motorola Droid Pro (Android 2.3.3), and a persistent aggravation with the browser application.

Whenever typing in an input field and using a dash - that is adjacent to its preceding character, the next character I type is placed before the dash, and then the cursor placed before the dash. That is, assuming I'm trying to type android-browser:

I type android- At that moment, the cursor is correctly after the dash.
I type b The b is placed before the dash, and the cursor is now located after the b, before the dash. So if I kept typing I would end up with androidbrowser- with the cursor still before the dash.

This only happens in the Browser application, when I am inserting a dash that is adjacent to its preceding text. So if I were trying to type android - browser it would work fine. In order to get around this, I have to type android- and then manually move the cursor (although the end location is exactly where it already is at the end of the text!)

This happened before the Android system update a few months ago too, and I had hoped that the update would fix it... but, no dice!

I've considered that an alternate browser could be a solution, but I'd prefer to stick with the Android browser, I think.

It seems that, as noted in the comments, changing my keyboard app has solved this. I was having trouble with my default kb app going to 100% cpu when entering text lately, so that prompted me to try a new one, finally.

I have tried multiple times while typing this answer to get the behavior to occur again, and it won't. Yippee!


How to test my Device's capability to support WiGig? Well, how do I test if my Device supports WiGig? My device manufacturer claims that the device supports WiGig but, I don't have a WiGig network, or at least I am not aware of that! Is there an application in Playstore which can do it for me?

From what I can tell WiGig exists, and is part of the Wi-Fi Alliance. Running in the 60 GHz range means line of sight so streaming to VR headset appears to be a common use case.

While do you don't mention which Android device you are referring to that page does link to a list of WiGig Certified Devices which appears to be chipsets, no routers or mobile devices.

Even if you had such chipsets on your device, it doesn't mean that the antennas or firmware is configured. Given the lack of consumer hardware supporting WiGig, without more detail, I suspect it to be "marketing enthusiasm" rather than a useable feature.

Update

So from the comments, OP has a ASUS ROG II which does market itself to have WiGig, primarily to use the ASUS WiGig Display Dock which makes sense for high-bandwidth video streaming. Companies like ASUS will add in unique features/capabilities to sell devices.

The lack of "WiFi Certified" branding to me seems that while the ASUS ROG II can use WiGig with the ASUS Display Dock, that may be the only thing it is capable of pairing with, at least until you can test with other consumer WiGig devices, if and when they come into the market.


Android japanese with romaji inputs On PC, you have your standard romaji keyboard, and when you enter "ka" it automatically converts it to the corresponding character, instead of having straight hiragana keys.

Can one do that on Android ?

Found it. It's possible by installing Google Japanese Input app. Switch keyboard to QWERTY in the settings.


Configuring wired network connection with WiFi still enabled I have a Nexus tablet and a USB-OTG + USB/ethernet connected. I have proved the hardware works by disabling WIFI and ifconfig'ing up eth0 with

netcfg eth0 dhcp

ping, traceroute all work as expected.

If instead I leave WIFI enabled, but then do a simple

ifconfig eth0 172.16.100.1 netmask 255.255.0.0 dev eth0

and connect the wired ethernet to a machine configured at 172.16.100.2 I cannot ping it.

# ifconfig wlan0
wlan0: ip 10.1.10.238 mask 255.255.0.0 flags [up broadcast running multicast]
# ifconfig eth0
eth0: ip 172.16.100.1 mask 255.255.0.0 flags [up broadcast running multicast]

# netcfg
<snip>
p2p0     UP                                     0.0.0.0/0   0x00001003 da:50:e6:2d:b2:14
eth0     UP                                172.16.100.1/16  0x00001043 50:1a:c5:fd:83:dc
lo       UP                                   127.0.0.1/8   0x00000049 00:00:00:00:00:00
wlan0    UP                                 10.1.10.238/16  0x00001043 d8:50:e6:2d:b2:14

# cat /proc/net/route
Iface   Destination     Gateway         Flags   RefCnt  Use     Metric  Mask            MTU     Window  IRTT
wlan0   0000010A        00000000        0001    0       0       0       0000FFFF        0       0       0
eth0    000010AC        00000000        0001    0       0       0       0000FFFF        0       0       0

traceroute seems to show the packets are still routing through 10.1.0.1 (wlan0)

# traceroute 172.16.100.2
traceroute to 172.16.100.2 (172.16.100.2), 30 hops max, 38 byte packets
1  10.1.0.1 (10.1.0.1)  1.648 ms  1.220 ms  1.526 ms
^C

Manually replicating the -net 172.16.0.0 route makes no difference.

What have I missed to set up the routing correctly?

Is the p2p0 interface interacting in some unexpected way?

In systems with two interfaces (such as this Android device with wlan0 and eth0), routing is not automatically setup to use two gateways. This is why 'traceroute' shows that the traffic that you'd like to go out on `eth0' is actually going out on 'wlan0'.

Another way to confirm this is:

# ip route get 172.16.100.2
172.16.100.2 via 10.1.0.1 dev wlan0 <snip>

The solution is to configure multiple default routes by adding a new routing table for traffic on 'eth0' and then adding appropriate rules to the routing rule set. See this article for an example. (Even though the article describes a Linux system, the two commands you need to use, namely 'ip route' and 'ip rule', are available in Android.)


Can 4.3 update notification be removed? I just got a new 2012 Nexus 7 16 GB Wifi tablet today & setup it up. It is originally running 4.2.1. In a few minutes, I got the message that System update downloaded (4.3 Jelly Bean) & that I should touch to install it. Can I make the notification about the system update downloaded disappear? Unlike other notifications, this doesn't seem to go off when I try to slide it to the right.

Reason: There are various reports that screws up your Wifi - and my Nexus 7 is Wifi only (no 3G). I don't want to risk to install this by accident.

Update: I think another new update arrived and was downloaded (probably KitKat 4.4.3). And the notification showed up and didn't disappear even if Show Notifications was unchecked in Google Services Framework. Had to this uncheck 'Show Notifications' in 'Google Play Services' to make the notification disappear.

Try disabling the notification then restart your tablet and see if it reappears:

  Go to Settings > Application Manager > All > Google Services Framework and then uncheck "Show notifications".

Are you rooted? If so, and if disabling the notification doesn't work, try freezing or uninstalling the update apk:

  Use Root Explorer or ES Explorer and go to phone memory system/app/ and delete or rename UpdateCenter.apk. Alternatively, you could freeze this application in Titanium backup application.

You could also try modifying your build.prop file to trick the tablet into thinking it's already updated (root required). This was also mentioned in an answer to a previous question.

  To prevent the update notification, you will probably just have to
  change the build.prop values. So, change:

  ro.build.description=voles-user 2.2.2 FRG83G 91102 release keys to

  ro.build.description=voles-user 2.2.3 FRK76 185902 release keys

  and

  ro.build.fingerprint=verizon/voles/sholes/sholes:2.2.2/FRG83G/91102:user/release-keys to

  ro.build.fingerprint=verizon/voles/sholes/sholes:2.2.3/FRK76/185902:user/release-keys

Note that this quote is referring to old software versions and that the ro.build.description and ro.build.fingerprint lines will need to look different for you than those quoted. Check out this answer for more information on making such a change.

For me and my 2012 N7 I just lived with the notification until I couldn't stand it any more, then I just upgraded anyway.


About Android Device Manager My phone is lost and I have locked the phone with the app Android device manager.

Is it locked even if the device is without internet connection?

No its not. It requires internet connection for ur command to reach to your phone.


Debug APK with Android Studio without breakpoints I'm trying to reverse engineer a newspaper app.
I've decompiled it with apktool v2.4.1 apktool d APK_NAMEadded to android:debuggable=true in AndroidManifest.xml and changed one boolean method's return value to always true.
Then I recompile it apktool b APK_FOLDER -o APK_NAME I don't know if it signs it and if the signing issue causes the problem.
Then I go to Android Studio -> debug or profile an apk and USB debug it with my mobile device connected. After the app runs un my mobile i using it's UI when I go to the section I changed and press to read an article it suddenly loops and jams. I don't know what causes that loop so I don't know where to put the breakpoint(s)
What I need is to see the running code while the app runs or better to see the stack trace while the loop occurs. is that possible?
I'm running the whole thing under Kubuntu Linux 20.04 x64
Thank you

Android Studio is not designed to work on APKs you don't have the Java source code of.
When it comes to debugging apps without sources I recommend to check out the tool Frida. It allows to manipulate apps at run-time.
Using frida-trace you may be able to identify what methods are called when the app "loops and jams".
For advanced manipulation you can also checkout the tool "Objection" which bases on Frida.
On a non-rooted device you may have to include the frida-gadget (a special native library) into the app to be able to connect to the app:
https://fadeevab.com/frida-gadget-injection-on-android-no-root-2-methods/
Alternatively Objection provides an "APK patcher" that does this injection for you: https://github.com/sensepost/objection/wiki/Patching-Android-Applications


Unable to click Next button when sideloading an APK First of all my device isn't rooted. I use this device for development purpose: installing apps using ADB, starting activity, and more. What has possibly gone wrong?

When I click on Next button nothing happens. But Cancel button works fine.

(Click image to enlarge)

It's LG G4 International version.

Ok I got the answer. Looks like any screen color filter apps mess up this thing. Use CF.Luman to use installation feature or if you want to use the current application, disable that app for a minute to install apk to your device.

For complete info look at this thread: Why can't I press the Install button when installing applications from unknown sources?


What does the LOST.DIR folder contain? Whats the use of LOST.DIR folder actually?
why does is automatically appear after every reboot?

The Lost.dir is a system folder. Its a place where the Android OS places files that were recovered during a system boot up.

lost.dir in android

What is the folder for?

  Its quite evident that there is no application named LOST.DIR
  installed on your device. At times the folder's size can range in
  gigabytes. In such situations one may wonder about the contents of the
  folder and its use, and whether it is safe to delete the folder to
  save memory.

Can I delete the contents of LOST.DIR ?

  In order to save precious memory space its completely normal to delete
  the contents of LOST.DIR as it only acts as a recycle bin. You can
  also delete the LOST.DIR folder itself but it will reappear the next
  time the system boots up. When your Android system throws up a message
  saying 'Preparing external SD card' its actually checking the contents
  of LOST.DIR, and if it fails to locate the directory, it creates one.

ref :
All you need to know about LOST.DIR folder on Android devices


HTC One M7 Stock ROM Installation My HTC One M7 phone is S-OFF, has the latest firmware 7.19.401.2, and has nicely installed "ViperOne+9.0.0-fix", the Recovery is TWRP 2.8.6.0.
Everything works very well, except that the proximity sensor seems erratic, and when I have a call the ear seems to press different programs on the touch-screen.

I would like to return to complete HTC Stock ROM, so that I assure myself the proximity sensor works well enough (or does not).
Do I have to downgrade the firmware to be able to install the Stock ROM?
I have downloaded, but seem to be unable to install, from TWRP the Stock ROM:
PN07IMG_M7_UL_L50_SENSE60_MR_HTC_Europe_7.19.401.2_Radio_4T.35.3218.16_10.33Q.1718.01L_release_421790_signed.zip

Or maybe the only way is via fastboot? With the commands:
1.) htc_fastboot oem rebootRUU
2.) htc_fastboot flash zip RUU.zip
3.) htc_fastboot reboot-bootloader

Can someone more experienced give an advice, please?

OK so I have a One m8 but I think the process should be about the same. You'll want to find the right RUU for your model. I'm not certain which model/carrier you have so here is an overview list: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2428276.

To relock your bootloader (necessary for RUU), make sure you have adb installed, connect your phone to your PC. Then type the following commands:

adb devices
adb shell
su
echo -ne ‘\x00\x00\x00\x00’ | dd of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p2 bs=1 seek=33796
exit
exit
adb reboot bootloader

When that is done, simply run the RUU exe that you downloaded from the first link. If you found the right one, it should restore your phone completely to stock.


Phone starts playing podcast for no apparent reason This started yesterday, and I have no idea why.

I noticed my phone was playing a podcast. I've been using BeyondPod for a while, which is sometimes a bit wonky, but never had this kind of problem.

I tried playing and pausing, no dice. In fact, BeyondPod just played over the currently-running podcast. They played simultaneously. Same for any other music stuff, whereas usually when I start e.g. Pandora, the podcast or Music apps will pause themselves.

And it gets weirder. I restarted the phone. A few minutes later, podcast starts playing. Exact same podcast, playing from the beginning. I turn the phone off and on and it's good for a while, but then an indeterminate amount of time later, I notice the podcast playing again in my pocket (loud room, so I don't know how long it had been going).

It's also worth noting that the podcast plays from the phone's speakers, but if I plug in headphones it plays from them in addition.

I check my running services. I stop literally everything I can. I check battery usage. Nothing. I uninstall BeyondPod, and that doesn't help either.

The only change I've made to my phone was recently switching to ADW Launcher from the default. But even there, I reverted back to the original home, and I'm still having the problem.

Any ideas? This is getting really aggravating. It always plays the same podcast, always starting from the beginning.

I was having trouble with the original pre-installed "Music" app on my Droid X randomly playing music even though I never used the app.  I tried factory resets, updates, cache wipes, data clears, everything I could think of.  The only fix I found was to root the phone and use Titanium Backup to "Freeze" the Music app so that it no longer functioned.

It's possible that Music has latched on to one of your podcasts the same way that mine latched on to a song.

Note: this is not the new Google Music service and app that uses the cloud.  This was the original  Google Music app that came on the android phone.  Shame on Google for re-using the same name for two different apps, and both buggy.


How to backup&restore Android device? i have a new Nexus 4 (i.e. Jellybean 4.2.1), and i want to backup my current Nexus 4 and restore it onto the new Nexus 4. How can i do that?

i've tried going into Settings -> Backup & reset -> Back up my data to ensure my phone is backed up. When the new device is first setup it automatically tries to restore settings from Google's Servers:

Screenshot (click image to enlarge)

Except that not everything was restored. Amongst the things that are not restored are:

applications are not restored (a new version is downloaded from the store)
application settings are not restored
pictures, videos, camera, videos, saved files are not restored
wallaper is not restored
unlock pattern is not restored
preferences are not restored
icon layout is not restored
Messaging conversations are not restored
Talk conversation history is not restored
recent calls are not restored
custom ringtones are not restored
custom notification sounds are not restored

i've tried downloading an application called App Backup & Restore. But because there is no external storage on the Nexus 4, there is no way to copy the backup off the phone.

Also, App Backup & Restore cannot backup app settings for me. From the web-site:

  Notice: App Backup cannot backup data or settings of apps for you

Neither can Quick Backup.

So my question remains:

  How can i backup and restore my Nexus 4?

Note: i have no interest in rooting my phone, as that is now a criminal offense in Canada. And even if it weren't illegal; i'd still prefer the option that doesn't void the warrantee, risk voiding the warrantee, is irreversible, has the possibility of being irreversible, or changing the phone away from the original, stock, intended version of Google's own Jellybean.

As I already pointed out in multiple places, the integrated "Google Backup"...

does not backup everything (apps have to explicitly support it)
is unrelyable on restore (sometimes it works, sometimes not at all, when it gets interrupted e.g. by a network outage it cannot be resumed...)
not everybody likes to have personal/sensitive data backed up somewhere in a cloud

In no way this "Google Backup" can be counted as a complete solution.

At least with Android 4.0 and higher, there is a possibility to do complete backups (and restore them successfully) -- see Full Backup of non-rooted devices. But this also has some disadvantages:

You can do a full backup -- but then you only can do a full restore (not selectively pick parts)
You can do "selective backups", but if you want to do that for all your apps etc. separately, it's not an easy task (but rather excessive work)

Other options for complete backups require root access on the device, e.g. Titanium Backup as the best and most famous variant. Same applies to other full backups like Nandroid via a Custom Recovery (such as e.g. ClockworkMod Recovery, mentioning the most famous example) -- and again, these can also be restored only completely (except you use just mentioned Titanium Backup for restore, as it also can read Nandroid backups).

All other solutions are not complete, but only cover parts. There are lots of apps to e.g. backup/restore single components like SMS, call logs, contacts. There are also apps which claim to create "full backups" -- but without root, that is impossible for an app. Still, one might succeed finding solutions for the most important data without requiring root access on the device.


Create new label in Gmail My wife has an iPhone, she goes to hamburger and "create new label".

I have a Google pixel, I don't have this feature. Or do I, and I'm just being blind?

No you are not being blind.

From: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/118708?co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid&hl=en

In the Android tab of:

Create labels to organize Gmail

Section named:

Create, edit & delete labels

  On a computer, open Gmail. You can't create labels from the Gmail app.

I would suggest sending feedback from the app.


Least harmful way to disable APN temporarily? I installed Quick Settings and turn off my mobile internet with this app. I have a motorola milestone with 2.1

However, that causes some trouble sometimes. When disabling it I lose more often my wifi connection. Android seems to try switching to APN when going to sleep. Turning on APN also does take a lot of time occasionally. Worst thing happened to me a few months ago: I had my APN turned off through Quick Settings. This app got an update and all of a sudden I couldn't connect to the internet over APN anymore. I had to do a full reset of my Android because of that.

Can you suggest a way to turn off APN in a less harmful way? (I still wonder why Android doesn't include that.)

I really like APNdroid and haven't had problems with it at all. However, I've got an HTC Dream that's unlocked and running on AT&T so it is pretty much guaranteed that I'm not getting OTA updates.

You can always access your APN settings directly, so even if an update broke your APN settings, you should have been able to go in through Settings >  Wireless controls > Mobile networks > Access point names -- I have the option of manually adding one or more APNs and a "reset to defaults" button that will restore the T-Mobile APNs my phone shipped with.


Can't create folder on device using mac Android File Transfer app When trying to create folder on Samsung Galaxy TAB 2 using the Android File Transfer app from my mac computer, I get an error alert:

Could not connect to device. Try reconnecting or restarting your device".

What could be the reason of this problem?

I had the same problem and a reboot did the trick for me.


Set calendar events to available/busy I now have Lollipop on my phone, I wish I hadn't as it seems to have messed with the way I set my phone up. I am using the calendar for mine and my children's appointments, so some events were set up as busy and some as available. During the busy events my phone would be silenced, during the available events my phone wouldn't be silenced.

I might be wrong but I seem to be unable to do this and now all the events put the phone into silence. I do not want have my phone silenced when my children are at Tae Kwondo, but I want to be able to use the calendar to keep track of their busy social lives.

Solved it. I had to share the calendar with my other email to activate the busy/available option. I don't know if it is because of the way my two emails are connected or if you just have to share the calendar.

I know that the public/private option is deactivated if the calendar is fully private (which make sense). I don't know why the busy/available option would be deactivated as well.


Google Search Bar Widget is gone from Galaxy S5, it is not in the widgets section anymore My Google Search Bar went missing (I did not delete it). Every fix says to hold down the home screen and re-add it, however, it is NOT in the widgets section anymore. It is completely missing.

I've tried finding it in Play Store (not there), I've tried using a different launcher other than Touchwiz (Nova), etc. I just want the bar back and have it Google Voice enabled.

The same thing happened to me and here's what worked:

Go to Application Manager and keep rolling right until you get to the "Turned Off" header. My Google Search was there. I simply had to turn it back on and then it appeared back in the widget options and I was able to pick it up from there and move it to the home screen.


Android devices don't show up on Chrome's "send to your devices" I'm trying to share a link between my desktop and Android, I'm using Chrome on both and am fully synced.
On my Android, when I tap the link -> Share -> Send to your devices, I only see my laptop whereas I want to open a link on my desktop.
In Chrome History, under Tabs from other devices, the list appears to be empty.
Why is it not there?

After re-installing Chrome, issue was gone.
But at the uninstallation, I had to check the Also delete your browsing history data? option (I tried without and it didn't work).

HTH


Using another phone's GPS signal as location I have an android phone (Device A), and an android tablet (Device B). Device B has a decent GPS, but Device A's is pretty much unusable. I would like to use Device A for navigation, but to do so I need a GPS quality only Device B has.

Is it possible to make Device A accept Device B's location as an external GPS signal (i.e. with the usage of mock location) while none of them being rooted? If not, does rooting Device A help?

I am interested in a general answer, but also in a more device-specific one if it is better:
Device A: Prestigio 5517; Android 4.4
Device B: Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.4 WiFi; Android 5.0

As a test confirmed, this is possible via corresponding apps:

on the device providing the GPS signal ("B"), you will need an app to Use your Droid as BT-GPS Mouse. An approved candidate would be Bluetooth GPS Output for this.
on the device where you want to access that "external GPS" from ("A"), you'll need an app to Use an external GPS mouse. Approved candidate for that is Bluetooth GPS.

As you yourself found out, another approach is tethering GPS with an app like TetherGPS Lite – which you write "sounds more efficient since it can be more optimized". As this waits your approval, please approve below this answer then :)


Network Connectivity in GSM/WCDMA mode I am using a Samsung Galaxy S Duos S7562 with Android 4.0. Whenever I disconnect a call, the network vanishes for a few seconds when the phone is in GSM/CDMA auto mode. The network is fine in GSM only mode. Please share any reasons and solutions for this.

In GSM/CDMA auto mode, the mobile uses its energy to keep updated on the network that surrounds you. That's why many people complain heavy battery useage when on GSM/CDMA auto mode. In finding a CDMA network it would try to switch to that network. And at this moment you experience a disconnection for few milliseconds.

The ideal way would be to manual switch between the two. GSM when you're on calls and CDMA when you're performing heavy data operations. If you got rooted phone you can use cyanogenmode controls to setup this effortlessly.


Root hboot 2.18.0001 without computer (HTC EVO 4G) My EVO 4G's charging port is broken and I am trying to gain root access on my device. Is there anyway to do so without using the USB port to connect to the computer?

There is currently no way to do this. The only way to gain root on HBOOT 2.18 is to use the HTCdev tool to unlock your bootloader which requires a USB cable to work since it uses fastboot commands. Revolutionary and other methods only support HBOOT versions up to 2.16.0001 on the EVO 4G.


Intrusive Google Play Store advertisements appear as soon as I start charging my phone I get these types of full screen ads as soon as I charge my phone:

I don't even have to unlock the screen, the ad sound starts playing as soon as I plug in my phone. In order to get rid of it, I installed a third party app called Blokada and it worked and if I see which all ads are popping up, the app says that the ads are:

app.adjust.com
mobile.pipe.aria.microsoft.com

So I guess these ads are responsible for those intrusive popups. I have tried multiple antivirus applications but none of them showed that I have any virus/malware. Is there anyway I can remove these adwares from my phone ?

It isn't a Virus. So, no anti-virus or malware scanner will catch this.

It is just an app which adds lockscreen ads to your device while charging. These ads are set so that they only appear while charging. Some apps even advertise that this makes the device charge faster.

Such ads are included with many free apps and you need to find out which app is showing them on your lockscreen. The most usual culprits are - Avast Anti-virus (Yes!), ES File explorer (the probably stopped now), UC Browser, Xender, Clean Master, and many other so called device booster, battery booster, CPU booster, memory booster type apps.

I'm sorry but you'll have to figure it on your own from this point. It is impossible to pin-point a particular app because there are just so many of then which do this.


Any voice recorder app for Nexus S? Possible Duplicate:
  Is there a way to easily record a phone conversation in-progress?

I've seen Android call recording apps, but they don't support call recording on Nexus S.

Anyone know of an app that will work on the Nexus S?
Thanks

"Working call Recorder" works on any android device, outgoing calls only.

It works by calling an intermediately calling service, which calls your other party with your caller-id. The recording is then emailed to your email box.
The recording is in high-quality, as it is done on the telephony level, and not through the mic.
The application only works for US and Canada.

Disclosure: I am the developer of this application.


What exactly is the VPN mode IPSec Hybrid RSA? I've been going through the VPN options on my Moto X running 4.4, trying to decide what to setup to be able to reach home (home being an Ubuntu server behind a NAT).

I understand most of the options, but I can't seem to find any information about what IPSec Hybrid RSA is, or how it compares to IPSec Xauth RSA (which I'm currently planning to use). Can anyone shed any light on it?

In the regular XAuth/RSA authentication scheme both client and server are mutually authenticated using RSA certificates during Phase 1 of the  Internet Key Exchange protocol (IKEv1) that is used to negotiate IPsec connections.  In a second authentication step the client authenticates itself using XAuth (e.g. with username/password, but there can be other credentials), which is desribed in draft-ieft-ipsec-isakmp-xauth and an extension on top of IKEv1/ISAKMP (often called Phase 1.5 as it comes, together with Mode Config, between Main/Aggressive Mode and Phase 2, Quick Mode).

With the hybrid XAuth/RSA scheme, which is described in draft-ietf-ipsec-isakmp-hybrid-auth, the client does no authentication during Phase 1 of the negotiation. Only the server does so during that phase, allowing the client to verify that it is talking to the right VPN server when it continues to authenticate itself using XAuth.  This simplifies deployment as no client certificates/keys are required.  And compared to the commonly used XAuth/PSK scheme it prevents man-in-the-middle attacks, which are possible there due to the publicly known pre-shared secret (at least in larger deployments).


KitKat uninstalling app from device I ran into a weird issue on my Nexus 7 running 4.4.2. If I uninstall an app from the device, it still shows up in Settings -> Apps -> Downloaded at the bottom, and it says not installed. However, it prevents me from installing an apk via adb, reporting the app was still installed.

I had to do an adb uninstall and that completely removed the app.

What changed? What's the proper procedure to remove an app? The only thing that changed that I'm aware of is that now I'm using user profiles, but the app in question is not used in any other profiles.

Thoughts?

I've seen something similar when an app is installed in someone else's profile but not my own, so make really sure you don't still have it installed in any other profiles.


Can't access internet in Chrome, Internet Browser The problem is little weird, I'm unable to access internet via Chrome and Samsung's default internet browser.

The error that appears is : Connection Refused. Whereas I can easily access from other Apps like Opera and UC Browser. Everything else is working fine.

For example -  When I open facebook in app it works fine whereas when I try to open in Chrome/Browser. I get this error. This happens both on WiFi and mobile data.

Please help.

Device Information -  Samsung Galaxy S4 - I9500, Ozcan ROM, 4.4.2.

I guess the problem is with the adblocker, try uninstalling the adblocker services and try restarting the device, and open Google Chrome to see if that works out for you !


Is it possible to make developer options inaccessible via tapping build number 7 times? I want the developer options can only be accessed through a shell, please explain how to do it

To disable developer options:

Go to Settings and scroll all the way down to Developer Options.
If you manage to identify a button (toggle) next to Developer Options, go ahead and tap it. All the options inside the tab will be grayed out, meaning they are disabled.
Open the Settings menu of your Android device.
Scroll down and tap on Apps (Applications). On Samsung, you need to go to Apps > Settings > Applications > Application manager.
Make sure you have the ALL apps filter selected.
Scroll down and tap on the Settings app.
Tap on Storage and hit Clear data and confirm by tapping Delete.
Go back to the Settings menu and check to see if Developer options is gone. If it’s still present, restart your phone and check again.


Apps got weird names and icons -> virus? So, for instance one of apps renamed itself to "Content on this profile might be inappropriate for those under a certain age" and displays that message (and "Stopped.") in a MessageBox when started. Its icon also changed (to a grey heart; another changed to a grey edit-pencil). It works again after reinstalling it though. And my VLC player app is now called "_".

Do you think my phone fell victim to a virus? I got the Kaspersky virus scanner installed and when doing a full scan it finds nothing. I guess it's probably just some bug.

Maybe someone else had the same problem?

Edit: it appears that moving apps from my phone to the SD card was causing the icon-problem. The icon of Firefox changed to some grey icon after doing so. It changed back to the proper icon after I restarted the device. Not sure if that was also causing the app-names problem and I think it's unlikely to have caused that soundcloud-app-problem.

I haven't experienced the same issue myself but it definitely sounds like something caused by third party app(s).

What I would suggest is to boot your phone up in safe mode and systematically go through your apps, uninstall and install them until you have identified the offending app.

Example:

1. boot into safe mode
2. remove app1
3. boot up normally
4. check if resolved
5. if not, reinstall app1
6. repeat process for app2

If you have an approximate idea of when this happened, refer to your app installation history so you don't have to do this for all your installed apps and save some time!


SafetyNet vs MagiskHide: what's the status now in mid 2020? As widely reported on different sites, and also discussed on this site (here and here), earlier this year, Google made changes to SafetyNet so that it could detect bootloader/verified boot status even with MagiskHide enabled. The developer of Magisk, John Wu, at that time tweeted that because Google was using the Trusted Execution Environment (TEE), its check on bootloader status could not be defeated. For example, he wrote:

this new update utilizes hardware-based key attestation. It will send an unmodified keystore certificate to SafetyNet servers, verify its legitimacy, and check certificate extension data to know whether your device have verified boot enabled (bootloader status)
Unless there is serious implementation bugs in your ARM TrustZone (or security co-processor like Google's Titan M), you cannot break the cryptography.

He basically concluded:

Let's face it. Fun is over guys.

Yet, on March 14, John Wu tweeted:

So apparently CTS is just passing again out of nowhere? Maybe Google is still testing things out?
I'm over it anyways. Google is apparently willing to use key attestation for detection. Since MagiskHide is still there, people can still always use it as usual.

And another tweet from him on April 3 that I didn't quite understand:

THE BIG GOOGLE HAMMER IS BACK!
Say bye bye to SafetyNet, we'll (not) miss you...

Did that mean Google would somehow be removing SafetyNet, or at least not utilizing its capabilities to detect bootloader status?
So there was some doubt beginning to surface in mid March. In my own test in late May 2020, with MagiskHide not enabled, SafetyNet failed, but with MagiskHide enabled and targetting my test app, SafetyNet passed, meaning that MagishHide could still defeat SafetyNet. The test was run on a Pixel 3 with android 10.
So, Google may have the capability to detect MagiskHide, and it was working out in the field with real devices, but they have somehow stopped doing that? Does anyone know what is going on with SafetyNet? Was the feature temporarily reverted? Will it be coming back to SafetyNet, and if so, when?

(29 June 2020) It looks like Google is just being cautious, and preparing a new field in the SafetyNet response.
According to the SafetyNet API Clients Team

We have started rolling out a new feature that will provide developers with insight into the types of signals/measurements that have contributed to each individual SafetyNet Attestation API response.
Our JWS responses now have a new optional field named evaluationType.
The value of this field will be a list of comma-separated string tokens, where each token represents an enum-like value.
Currently, the following string tokens may be indicated::

BASIC  - When we use typical signals and measurements along with reference data during our evaluation.
HARDWARE_BACKED - When we use the available hardware-backed security features of the remote device (e.g. hardware-backed key attestation) to influence our evaluation.

Examples of field values that you may expect:

{“evaluationType”: “BASIC”}
{“evaluationType”: “BASIC,HARDWARE_BACKED”}

We’re currently evaluating and adjusting the eligibility criteria for devices where we will rely on hardware-backed security features. So please do not use the presence or value of this field as a signal by itself (for now).
Note that this feature has not been officially documented yet. Presently, we’re only communicating it to this announcement-list to collect feedback.
We encourage you to use our feedback form based on your experience with this new feature as well as the overall service.
Thanks & Regards,
SafetyNet API Clients team

So once testing for this new feature is completed, it looks like hardware-backed key attestation will be put in place. Which means, from then on, SafetyNet would be able to detect bootloader/verified boot status even with MagiskHide enabled.
John Wu is still fighting back
(updated on 29 June 2020)
John Wu is trying to persuade Google to not blindly apply SafetyNet hardware-backed attestation across the board. He tweeted:

I advocate
@AndroidDev
to restrict hardware-backed SafetyNet evaluation to "real" security sensitive apps. Developers should go through an application process to qualify this level of API access. It is ridiculous for McDonalds to refuse to run on a bootloader unlocked device.

Meanwhile, it appears that the SafetyNet checks will still fail even if the bootloader is re-locked, as we see here, tweeted 3 July 2020

Bad news: it is confirmed that for those who wants to re-lock their bootloader with self signed images (possible on Pixel devices), SafetyNet with HARDWARE-BACKED evaluation will still NOT pass CTS check.

(Updated on 13 Dec 2020) John Wu now tweets

Let me get this out of the way: since I have a full time job now, I don't have much time for Magisk; I need prioritization. HW based evaluation is impractical to "hack" (except tricks to make it fallback to basic), and I lost all interest in improving the current way of hiding.


Phone ringtone does not play M moto G 2nd gen is not playing default phone ringtone. Even if I try to select the tones from the list they don't play the sound. Rest all the tones are working properly.

First thing to do is ensure your phone ringer is not on silent or that your volume is not set too low. The next thing is to check if the file itself is corrupted. Use your File Manager to play the sound directly from storage. If it plays there but still won't work as a ringer, you should backup and format your phone. Good luck.


Power and volume down menu... What kind of trouble am I getting into? Model ZTE N9500
Carrier:　Sprint

Messing around with various button combinations I found this one and up popped a very interesting menu my question is. What are the respective purposes / consequences of each choice .

1 ) reboot( self explanitory)

apply update from external storage.

3 wipe data/factory reset.

4 wipe cache partition

5 apply update from cache

6 md5 check

7 wipe carrier/data/factory reset.

Thanks in advance,
Chris

What you have found is the recovery mode (or recovery in short) which is useful for manipulating the OS of your phone.

Options 2 and 5 take a .zip file of a specific format and update the OS of your phone with it. This is called "flashing". Stock recoveries (most likely you have a stock recovery if you don't know what this is) usually verify if the .zip was signed by the vendor of your phone - so you can't flash homemade .zips using this and so this option is pretty useless for you.
Options 3, 4 and 7 erase various pieces of storage in your phone. 3 erases all of your data but preserves the OS, which is useful if you want to sell your phone or it has become unusable and unfixable from inside Android. It essentially resets your phone to the state it came from the factory in. 4 does no harm, it erases temporary files which help speed up Android. These will be regenerated at the next boot, and the phone will be a little slower for a while. It can help in some cases when apps crash. I do not know what 7 does, but the "wipe carrier" part seems dangerous enough for me to not try it ever. Best case, it does a factory reset, like 3. Worst case, it makes your phone unable to connect to the carrier and make or receive phone calls.
6 seems harmless enough, it seems to do an integrity check of some sort, maybe on update packages, maybe on the phone. You may as well try it, I don't think it does anything harmful or interesting whatsoever.

If you're interested, you can search for and install a custom recovery which will replace this menu with a much better one. This will allow you to install custom OSes to your phone, make and restore backups and much more.


Why can't I run adb via udev? I am writing a bash script that will run upon plugging my Android 6.0.1 phone into my Ubuntu 16.04 laptop. I am stuck at the point where the script runs fine when I execute it manually from a terminal session, but it fails when I try to have it automatically run via a udev rule.

The content of /etc/udev/rules.d/99-android.rules is:

ACTION=="add", ATTRS{idVendor}=="04e8", ATTRS{idProduct}=="6860",MODE="0666", RUN+="/data/personal/backup/backup_galaxya5_start"

The content of /data/personal/backup/backup_galaxya5_start is:

#!/bin/bash
sudo -u marc echo /data/personal/backup/backup_galaxya5 | at now

The content of /data/personal/backup/backup_galaxya5 is a whole heap of things, but it essentially boils down to:

adb start-server
adb push /data/download/rsync4android/rsync.bin /data/local/tmp/rsync >> "$LOGFILE"
adb shell chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/rsync >> "$LOGFILE"
adb shell 'exec >/data/local/tmp/rsyncd.conf && echo address = 127.0.0.1 && echo port = 1873 && echo "[root]" && echo path = / && echo use chroot = false && echo read only = false' >> "$LOGFILE"
adb shell /data/local/tmp/rsync --daemon --no-detach --config=/data/local/tmp/rsyncd.conf --log-file=/proc/self/fd/2 & >> "$LOGFILE"
adb forward tcp:6010 tcp:1873
rsync -av --exclude .thumbnails/ "rsync://localhost:6010/root/sdcard/DCIM/" "$TARGETDIR" > "$RSYNCLOGFILE"

As I said, running this when the phone is plugged in from a terminal works without any problems. However, when I plug the phone in to have the script run automatically, the following happens:

The udev rule picks up the fact that the phone was plugged in and executes /data/personal/backup/backup_galaxya5_start.
That file uses the at command the schedule the actual backup script to run.
The actual backup script runs and starts the adb server.
The backup script is then unable to copy the rsync.bin file to the phone.
The subsequent adb commands are failing as well.

At some point I even changed the script to pickup the failed "adb push" command and then do a "adb kill-server", however this also did not help.

I would like to know what I am missing in order to make this script work when called from the udev rule.

I've given a try to http://www.joescat.com/linux/android_rules.html
but it failed to start adb server, don't know why

In "/etc/udev/rules.d/51-android.rules":

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="18d1", ATTR{idProduct}=="4ee7", ACTION=="add", RUN+="/usr/bin/rehtet"

/usr/bin/rehtet (nohup and & and disown won't work, "at now" work):

#!/bin/bash
echo "/usr/bin/adb shell ls >/tmp/rehadb.log" | at now

And the last 3 lines in the rehadb.log showed:

...
socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, IPPROTO_IP) = 3
bind(3, {sa_family=AF_INET, sin_port=htons(0), sin_addr=inet_addr("127.0.0.1")}, 16) = 0
connect(3, {sa_family=AF_INET, sin_port=htons(5037), sin_addr=inet_addr("127.0.0.1")}, 16

Finally, I fixed it (maybe there are bad side effects):

edit "/lib/systemd/system/systemd-udevd.service", change "IPAddressDeny=any" into "IPAddressDeny="
run "systemctl daemon-reload"   "service udev restart"
to enable udev script (gnirehtet / adb) to access 127.0.0.1:5037


How can you remove notification of new Messages chat features A few updates ago on my Samsung Galaxy S10 added new "chat features from Google" and a notification of this new feature was flagged with the standard "N" icon:

Clicking the N icon brings up the Messages Settings

and clicking on "Chat settings" comes up with

I click on use without chat features and annoyingly the new feature notification N icon stays there.
I now know about the potential new features I don't want so the N icon should be gone.
How do I get that removed without accepting the new chat features?

You can downgrade the application
Download any earlier version of the app from here. Don't download any beta version.. use stable ones.


Can my Android device replace a heart monitor watch? Can my Android device replace a heart monitor watch? Maybe there are good apps out there for monitoring heart rates?

Many people use special watches, so I wonder if their phone can do it already instead.

I use an app called Instant Heart Rate which uses the phone's camera to measure your pulse.


Samsung Galaxy S5 Active no SIM Card I tried rooting my device with towelroot only to find out it didn't work. I went to bed before doing this, and when I woke up my phone said no SIM card, please insert in the notification bar. I got rootchecker from the playstore and it said my device wasn't rooted. I tried removing the SIM card, and then re-inserting it, which didn't seem to work. I then tried to factory restore my phone. It still didn't seem to work, so then I googled the problem. I checked my "about device" and everything seems ok. I then went to status and it seemed alright, I had IMEI number is there, but my mobile network type is unknown so is my service state, mobile network state, phone number. I have no idea how to fix it, so I thought I would make a thread of my own before I go into AT&T and try to talk to them about it. I can't call, access my mobile data, or text. Basically just an iPod with wifi.

Model Number : SAMSUNG-SM-G870A
Android Version 4.4.2

You have destroyed your gadgets mother board while trying to root your device with towelroot. Now the only solution is that you have to change the mother board
of your device.


Does an android phone unroot itself on factory reset? If you root your android device, and then factory restore it... does it remain rooted?

Yes. you need to Root after Factory Reset

also, and if you want to unroot then remove busybox, remove files in /system/xbin folder, and in SuperSU application in Options, Choose Uninstall


Can't do wireless tethering. HTC Hero with 2.2 ROM Recently a friend of mine showed be his Desire HD, and it has an option on the Wireless settings section, which is something like "USB and Portable Tethering". So when it's activated, it creates a wireless network.

He also has Android 2.2 (not a custom ROM). I've searched every option in my phone, and I don't have "portable tethering" only usb.

I tried downloading an app called "Wireless Tethering", but it creates an ad-hoc and it doesn't work very good.

So, can I do something, or I have to change my ROM to another 2.2 or even 2.3?

I don't think there's much you can do beyond trying other wifi tether apps.  You could also try using CyanogenMod (for the GSM version of the Hero, or the CDMA version).


My LG is indicating low storage space My LG is indicating low storage space. I cannot install new applications. I still have more than 7G free space. Please what can i do?

Its a good tactic to reboot the phone clear up useless apps and move your pics or whatever to another place(may be sd card?).you should check the storage options in settings and that will tell you whats causing the error.


Google Authenticator for Gaia Online So, I hooked up an Authenticator to my account on Gaia Online. My phone did a factory reset, so I lost my codes, and now I've lost everything.
I can't get back into my account and so much effort went into it.

What can I do? Can I get the codes back?

I wrote a ticket to the staff, but they haven't gotten back to me and it has been a while.

You could use recovery token they are supposed to give you, if they didn't, yell at them for not giving last hope tokens.

You can also contact support, as you already did.


Moving big apps to SD card on 4.4.2 My Android is 4.4.2, Phone model: Panasonic eluga s.

I have a 32 GB SD card in my cell. Please tell me how to shift big apps to SD card. I also have root access. There is no option of move to SD card on Settings › Apps Manager Any app chosen.

u can use some apps such as
Move app to SD card
App Memory SD Card Transfer

and you can follow this url
http://techgage.com/article/moving_your_non-movable_android_apps_to_an_sd_card/


What's the difference between Google Plus Instant Upload and the new Google Photos? Google Photos is a newly launched application from Google that now backs up all your photos for free (as long as you're ok with their being 16MP and 1080p). But I also have Google Plus with Instant Upload enabled. Are these two completely different services, and is there any way to get my Google Plus Instant Upload photos (which is a lot) into Google Photos?

Google Photos is basically just a rebrand of Google+ Photos. Same data, different apps handling the backups.


How to stop speech recognition download? http://postimg.org/image/qyxwjj2f1/

Here is a picture of the screen.
It says Downloading English (US) Offline speech recognition data 108%.

When the download started itself I lost the internet connection so it never succesfully downloaded. Now even after I restart I still get "Downloading..." in the status bar but nothing happens (even when connected to the internet).

I just want to clear the status bar of this stuck download.

Tap and hold , then a window will appear, "App info". tap on it, it will bring you to the app manager, then tap on "Force stop"


AVD is not able to launch I am a newbie to android development. I am trying to run emulator and I have got few errors on console of Android Studio version 1.2.2 IDE.
As per the instructions given on numerous android tutorials, I had created a profile:

Name      : Nexus6API22
Resolution: 1440 x 2560: 560 dpi
API       : 22
Target    : Google APIs
CPU/ABI   : x86
Size on Disk: 1 GB

when I tried to invoke the AVD. I got the following error messages-

HAX is working and emulator runs in fast virt mode
Cannot set up guest memory 'pc.ram': Invalid argument
Error accepting connection, aborting

When I run this another AVD Profile:

Name      : try2
Resolution: 720 x 1280: xhdpi
API       : 22
Target    : Google APIs
CPU/ABI   : x86
Size on Disk: 1 GB

It gave following errors/output

 ..tools\emulator.exe -netdelay none -netspeed full -avd Nexus6API22

emulator: WARNING: Requested RAM size of 1536MB is too large for your environment, and is reduced to 864MB.
    emulator: device fd:584
    HAX is working and emulator runs in fast virt mode
    Cannot set up guest memory 'pc.ram': Invalid argument
    Error accepting connection, aborting

However I have executed msinfo32.exe command at command prompt to verify the actual RAM status. I have got the following output.

Installed Physical Memory (RAM) : 4.00 GB
Total Physical Memory           : 2.64 GB
Available Physical Memory (RAM) : 1.17 GB
Total Virutal Memory            : 5.27 GB
Available Virutal Memory (RAM)  : 2.21 GB
Page File Space                 :  2.64 GB
Page File                       : %\pagefile.sys

Does it meant, that, there is insufficient RAM availability in machine or something else to execute AVD?

What could be solution to this issue?

You need to reduce the RAM size of your emulator. Even if you have enought memory it is recommended to have 1GB or less than 1GB memory. As it automatically allocates 864MB edit your emulator in the AVD manager and reduce the AVD's RAM.

Open AVD Manager and select your device and click "Edit" button.

Then in "Memory Options" find the RAM parameter and set it to 512 or 864 for example. Click OK to save the current configuration and restart your application or AVD.

You also should not provide a RAM size for your emulator which exceeds your HAXM allocated memory. Since you are running the emulator in HAXM mode it will run faster than normal. So you don't have to worry about your devices' RAM.


mp3 files from samsung s6 edge to whatsapp I have tried the attach icon on whatsapp to send a file of over 1 hour. I also tried to send it from audio in my files but i got an error message saying the file is over 16m...What do I do? Is there a settings change?

In general, a lot of texting services, including whatsapp, have limits on the filesize of the files that you can send. These kinds of limits are also present in emailing attachments. The only way I can think to get around it is to split it into less than 16 minute chunks. Perhaps you might be able to compress it, but I am not sure if the 16 minutes will increase.


In superuser app what does force user do and what are there meanings I'm using a Samsung Galaxy tab Pro 10.1

I have rooted my device and I have general knowledge  but I am not an expert on tablet settings and controls so I would like to ask the following question's.

In the Superuser Pro App, what is "Force user" and the following actions mean.-  :  Nobody, Net_BT, Net_Raw, Net_BT_Admin, Inet, Root, Radio, cache, shell, Media, Install, ADB, Compass, Graphics, Camera, Mount.

What are they used for, or does it depend on what app the superuser is granting access to? Some of the abbreviations I know, like Install means Install an app, or Camera means use camera, but the rest I don't know there meaning and what they do,or when they should be enabled in " Force User "

Could anyone please explain what the meanings are and when you should use these actions in "Force user"?

Net_BT, Inet and so forth, are special users called AIDs (Android IDs). Those users are each in charge of a particular component of your device. The Force user option, when coupled with one of the abovementioned AIDs, lets an app act as one of those, granting it full power over the AID's specific domain.

If you think about the AIDs as kings, and root as a god, then there's usually no need to impersonate one of the AIDs, for root has power above each of their domains.


Google Now says it's not available in my country On my Xiaomi M2A, Google Now complains that it's not available in my country.
I know for a fact that Google Now is available in the Netherlands, because it works fine on my Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet.

So apparently, Google Now thinks it's in some other country (possibly China, since that's where I ordered this phone). But the phone has been configured to use the Dutch settings everywhere I could find. (Silly enough, the message is actually in Dutch).

So where does Google Now get the idea that it's somewhere else? And (more importantly), how do I tell it that it is, in fact, in the Netherlands?

Since Google Now isn't actually available in my country, I did some looking around, and found this "hack" in a blog :
http://thenepalidroidguy.blogspot.com/2014/02/how-to-enable-google-now_6.html
In case that the link dies, these are the steps described there :

  Make sure you have an active internet connection and follow all the
  steps below carefully.

  Step 1: Turn on Airplane mode in your device. Now turn on Wifi and
  connect it to your Wifi network.

  Step 2: Go to Settings>Location  & switch to "Device only" mode

  Step 3: Install this app from Playstore (Fake gps - fake location)
  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fakegps.mock

  Step 4: Open the app and set the location to "Miami" (I chose Miami
  but you can select any other places in the USA which would get
  guaranteed Google Now support). It might ask you to enable mock
  location first, do that from the developer options in the settings.
  Now go back to the Fake gps app and set the location to Miami by
  searching Miami and hitting Play icon on the bottom.

  Step 5: Go to Settings and tap in "Google" under Accounts. Then select
  "Search". Go to Accounts & privacy> Google Account and sign out.

  Step 6: Go to Settings>Apps>All and look for Google Play Services. Tap
  on it and Disable it. It may ask you to uninstall updates and restore
  to factory version, do it. You might have to deactivate Google Play
  Services form the Device Administrator first.

  Step 7: Go to Settings and tap in "Google" under Accounts. Then select
  "Search". Go to Accounts & privacy> Google Account and sign in to your
  Google account.

  Step 8: Google Now setup screen should come up. Select I'm in. (It's
  obvious).

  Step 9: Now it may prompt you to Re-enable Google Play Services, do it
  and an update might be available for Google Play Services, update it
  from Playstore. Then Turn off Airplane Mode. Uninstall Fake gps app
  and choose the location service mode of your choice under
  Settings>Location.

  Step 10: You did it. Enjoy Google Now!


Is it possible to adb connect android via wifi without configuring port on android? I can connect via wifi by typing these codes in android terminal -

setprop service.adb.tcp.port 5555
stop adbd
start adbd

and connect ip:port on PC adb  .. it is connected
.. Is there any possibility to access without configuring on android !I mean looping port no:. Can it be possible ? kindly suggest me please !

No. What you're doing there is not just setting a port number away from the default: setting the number at all is what causes the device to start listening. Before you run the steps in the question, the device isn't listening for adb connections on any port at all.

For this reason, there's no "default port" to connect to without setting anything up on the device.


how do I disable my screen lock pin on my galaxy tab 3? I added a screen lock pin number on my galaxy tab 3 but my children play the games and I am not always around to enter it.  How do I disable it?

If it's running standard firmware, you should go to Menu > Settings > Security > Lock Screen > Screen Lock > None. For the Galaxy Tab, I'd presume it'd be something similar to that.


Restrict permissons when app is in background Is there any app, tool, ROM, etc. for Android that lets you restrict selected individual permissions of an app, ONLY when it is in the background?

This should function similarly to the "Restrict background data" feature that help reduce mobile data usage by preventing background apps from using network resources.

For example, you may want an app to have access to your location when you're actively using it, but you don't want it to keep the GPS on in the background, either because it drains the battery and/or is tracking your movements.

Same thing with other permissions like accessing the microphone and camera; because it is very rare for most people to intentionally record audio/video/photos from a background app. Other examples are: send SMS, reading/modifying contacts, write to internal/external storage.

If you haven't rooted yet, go to your sercurity and see the permissions
If you have rooted, just use Rom toolbox


How do I get rid of the two lock screens on my Galaxy Grand Prime? Today I woke up and noticed I have to swipe not just one but two screens. The photo is the new screen that is completely unwanted.

After I swipe on that one, I enter my normal lock screen and have to swipe and put in my code like I do usually.

I have only Snapchat, Facebook and Facebook messanger apps. The rest of the weird apps android comes with have already been disabled or uninstalled and I haven't made any changes since I got the phone. Which was like a week ago.

How to I get rid of it. I do not know where it came from. It is super annoying have to swipe two screens and plus it have this black square on the first screen and it won't go away. Please help.

Thank you.

I had similar issue and it turned out to be a launcher that I installed to change wallpaper. Needless to say I uninstalled it. Lol


How can I integrate and manage SMS from many phones? I'm looking for a way to integrate SMS messages from my two phones and manage them online using a web site.

I mean that I will be able to send and receive SMS by web, and search my SMS by text.


How do I perform a  Print Screen on a Galaxy Ace? I looked at my gallery one time and I saw that I accidentally print screened an image. I was wondering if you guys know how I did that? My phone is a Galaxy Ace, and I have no app for that. It just happened.

On the Samsung Galaxy range of phones, running Samsung's TouchWiz enhancements to Android, you can take a screenshot of the screen by holding down the Back button and tapping Home.

This doesn't work in some apps that take an action immediately when you press Back, but as most apps don't carry out the action until release the Back button, this will work for them.

See also this previous question: taking a screenshot of an android phone?


android access in some countries Possible Duplicate:
  How do I use the US Android Market

Hello
I would like to ask if there is any way to get android market in syria cuz it's not allowed
Thank you

If you have a rooted phone, you can try using Market Enabler to spoof the Market into thinking you're accessing it from a country where the Android Market is available.


Problem with Samsung Galaxy S2 Driver on Windows I updated Kies today and my Samsung Galaxy S2 phone doesn't connect to my pc via Debug Mode any more.

Below is the screen shot

When I uninstall that and try to reconnect I get an error saying driver install failed.

Right-click on that "SAMSUNG_Android" and select Uninstall.  Then make sure the Delete the driver... option is checked, and click the OK button.  This should clear out the old drivers from the system.  Now unplug the phone and try uninstalling and re-installing Kies.  Reboot the PC and try plugging the phone in again.

If you are on Windows 7 64-bit, you may be able to bypass Kies software by installing this driver (remove the "SAMSUNG_Android" from Device Manager again before installing the driver.)


How to avoid the screen turning on for each notification? Problem

I have a Nokia 3 with stock Android installed, not rooted. Whenever the phone receives a notification, the screen turns on. I wish to change this, mostly because it drains the battery and causes me to activate the camera in my pocket.

In fact, I would appreciate if the screen only turns on when I press the power button.

Edit As was said in the comments, the Nokia comes with Android 7 (Nougat) installed.

What I have tried so far

Just for the record, I did browse through the settings of the phone looking for an obvious choice, and could not find any way to turn it off.
I have tried every possible setting for lockscreen notifications to no avail.
There is no Ambient display option in the Display section of my settings.
There is a screensaver option there, but whether it is on or off makes no difference.
After reading this, I tried using another text message application than the default. That also did not help.

I Googled around and am afraid this is the default setting for Android 7. People from all over the Internet are complaining about this. You can't simply turn it off.

However I found this trick working by entering Do Not Disturb mode. In Settings -> (Modes) -> DND there's a switch named Block visual disturbances. Turning it on and putting your phone into DND mode should work. As a side-effect, some other things are also changed in DND mode.


How can I access EPST on the Motorola Droid 1 (Verizon)? I've tried "##778#", "##778 send", and "##778# send" but every time it dials the number giving me a "Welcome to Verizon..." message instead of opening the provisioning screen (except for option 1 which does nothing).

This may not be what you're looking for (I can't find any options for EPST in this menu) but give ##7764726 a try.  The password is 000000 (six zeros) and it should bring up a menu with 9 different options.  Maybe what you want is in there somewhere.

I know that using option 4 and setting EVRC-B will make your call quality better.  Normally it's set to EVRC.


Android phone has Wi-Fi troubles after subnet change I just moved our network access point to a different subnet (which has a different default gateway).  After the change, all the laptop computers adjusted without much issue (some XP computers needed the "repair" option run on the connection).  However, none of the Android phones have Internet access anymore.  They can connect to the wireless access point without a problem, but they can't access the Internet.  This only seems to happen on the Android phones.  I am wondering if maybe it remembers the old settings and isn't picking up the new default gateway?  What can I do to fix this?

Turns out it was a problem with the DNS servers my DHCP was serving up.  The first two were local DNS servers.  I don't know why they weren't working for android (they worked fine for the laptop computers), but as soon as I replaced the second local DNS server with a remote DNS server, things started working.  It also appears that android only pays attention to the first two servers given by DHCP since I had other servers listed after my local server.

It seems kind of fishy that only the android phones had problems with the local DNS server.  I wouldn't mind finding out what the underlying problem is, but changing the DNS servers is an acceptable workaround.


Can I use these chargers interchangably? I happen to own two android devices, a Huawei P30 Pro and a Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e. Both devices came with a charger, the specifications can be seen here

I'd like to charge both devices with one charger, is this safe to do and which one should I use? Does it make a difference?

Both tablets support fast charging, which means they are capable of charging faster than the earlier standard USB charging of 5V,2A.

"Samsung uses "adaptive fast charging", while Huawei uses "super charging". They are proprietary technologies of respective OEMs, with specifics not made public (how fast can your device charge has become a selling point) . OEMs always advise that one uses the charger supplied with the device only, because fast charging is a complex interplay between the charger, device, battery level and cable. Using them interchangeably is  not recommended. It's not likely to cause an explosion or something like that if you use the same charger but it would not charge with the same speed as designed. If this is fine with you, I would suggest using Samsung charger for both devices since it has a lower maximum power rating (approximately 15 Watts = 9V x 1.67A) compared to Huawei rating of 40W (10V x 4A).

However, if fast charging is not a priority , it is  perfectly safe if you charge at 5V,2A. To do this, you would need to buy or use an old 5V 2A charger from pre-fast charging era and use that for both devices. It will charge much, much slower. Alternatively, see if Huawei P30 has a setting to disable fast charging (Samsung devices have this option from Android 6.0 onwards). I couldn't find it on internet but it may well be available. You can disable fast charging on both devices and use any of these two chargers to charge both devices safely.


Link2SD Mount Script Error. [4]: can't create /system/etc/init.d/11link2sd: > Not a directory I want to move some of my apps from my internal memory to my extsdcard. I followed this to do so(I'm not using Marsh Mellow so skip the first part of the guide). When I installed Link2SD and rebooted my device it flashed an error saying:

  "Mount Script Error. [4]: can't create /system/etc/init.d/11link2sd:
  Not a directory"

I searched for this error and landed on this page. The solutions provided here do not seem to work for me and I wonder if it'd be dangerous to manually delete the file "init.d" and create the directory that Link2SD has been trying to create. But before I do so I want to know what exactly is this file for and would it be safe to delete it?

Bonus Question: Even if I delete it, would it be created again after I reboot my device?

Link2SD couldn't create folder "init.d" in /system/etc because there existed a file with the same name. I deleted the file manually by browsing to the location, launched Link2SD and selected the "Recreate mount script" option. It worked for me. I feared that something might go wrong with the device when I'd reboot it but everything is fine.


Bluetooth Keyboard + Facebook Messenger loses focus constantly With a Galaxy Note 8, Android version 8, latest of Facebook Messenger. I am trying to use my Keyboard K780 in Messenger and the focus is lost constantly after typing one letter.

The only way I got it working is by putting focus in the textbox on Android, switch to another computer (F1), switch back to Android (F2) then the focus stays in the box.
Not quite the best experience to start typing on Android. Any clues? settings?

When the text box is at the bottom of the screen press and hold in the text box until "Auto Fill" appears. You can then enter text from the keyboard.


How can I undo the “Do Not Ask Again” for using my home screen wallpaper as my lock screen wallpaper as well? I use an app called "Live Video Wallpaper" or LVW which is basically a live wallpaper that allows you to select a video as your live wallpaper.

I have no problem with it but I accidentally checked the "Do Not Ask Again" option when I was asked whether or not I'd like to use my home screen wallpaper as my lock screen wallpaper too before I pressed no.

Now I have the problem that I can't set my home screen as my lock screen as well. Before, I used LVW as my home then set my Galaxy S2 to use it as my lock screen wallpaper as well but now with the option set to "NO" and the default set to "Do Not Ask Again", I can't do it anymore since live wallpapers normally cannot be set as lock screens (LVW was my way to get around that).

Is there a way I can "Unset" that "Do Not Ask Again" option for using my home as my lock screen wallpaper as well? Sorry if I'm redundant.

Try resetting the default wall paper setting by following these steps (described for Samsung's 4.0; see also this question):

Menu | Settings | Applications | All | TwWallpaperChooser | Clear defaults

If you also want to reset the settings of your wallpaper application follow these steps:

Menu | Settings | Applications | (said application) | Clear data


Unable to send a text message When I try to send a text message why does it go to drafts? And I still cant send the message even from drafts.

Sounds like you actually did type up your message, but hit the back key by accident, or, did not supply the number for the intended person to receive your text, which gets saved in drafts.

When you go into Messaging, you should see "(Draft)" by the message, go into that message and there should be a 'Send' button beside the text entry box where you compose the message, tap that, it should go straight away.

Try it and let us know how that goes for you. :)


Change default storage location of Screenshots I have been able to change the storage options for the camera (e.g. from internal storage to external SD). However, I have no idea how to change that setting, or even control in which format the screenshots are saved. Moving the "screenshots" folder to external storage manually had no effect.

I have Jelly Bean 4.1.2.

You can achieve this using Foldersync app.

Add folderpair and select account: SD CARD.
Then you can select source by finding your screenshot dir and select target dir on your SD.

It also has full range of advanced options if you don't like how default options work so everything is covered.

Bonus tip: this app can also do backups of your SD (or internal) card to remote storages such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Owncloud, etc.


Would it be possible to use the SD card as the root filesystem This may sound stupid to someone who knows more about Android, but I don't and it it has been bugging me for some time now.

Since Android is at its core a Linux system, shouldn't it be possible to directly boot from a different storage device (like the SD card) the same way I can boot my computer from a thumbdrive?

This would (in theory) enable the to use a (big) SD card as system memory instead of the (in my case, which is a Wildfire S) ridiculously small real system memory.

So, is this possible?
If yes: How? And are there links/howtos?
If no: Why? Which meachanisms prevent that from happening? Or has just nobody tried to do it?

The boot.img that is responsible for booting up Android, has their init scripts embedded in the RAM Disk of the actual boot.img which mounts the partitions into the respective /data, /cache, /system mount points respectively.

By altering the init scripts to hit on the SDCard, could lead to an unstable system, furthermore, reducing the life of the SDCard via wear and tear of the SDCard - why?

The kernel when booting, is loading from the / which is within the same partition as the boot partition - hence the need for the RAM Disk to be present along with it. It is that, which gets loaded into memory - a temporary file-system, in order for the init scripts to be read in and executed. Once the mount points are established, then the RAM Disk gets removed and thereby, the temporary file-system a lá RAM Disk, gets "flipped" over to the real partitions at a later stage during the bootstrap.

This is where the RAM Disk comes in - only temporarily, it is through that, the whole process of booting can happen.

The chicken and egg is this - the kernel prior to boot, has no idea what partitions are there!

Not alone that, by hard-coding the SDCard into the kernel's init parameter, which is a specific option that can be passed into the kernel upon boot in which it alters the kernel's processing of the environment.

The wear and tear of the SDCard would be significantly increased, not alone that, the entire Android ecosystem would drastically change, the API's have defined internal storage and external storage - so it could lead to confusion in where to store their own content providers for contacts etc, "Are we sitting on a external storage or internal storage?" from the perspective of Android itself, bear in mind, the content providers itself are housed in internal storage and from an overall picture, its one of de-facto standard convention for Android's file-systems involved.

So to sum up, I do not think that's possible, not ruling out its impossible either but if it can be done, chances are it will be tied intimately to the handset itself, give or take, what manufacturers put in there from a perspective of partition format types (yaffs, emmc, LinusStoreIII, and more importantly, the SDCard handling mechanism from the kernel/hardware viewpoint will be different - am talking about different IO addresses here) and not alone that, differing sizes of the partitions also, this would make the whole concept of Android - not exactly portable either due to non-standard scripts found within the RAM Disk itself.


Load images only on wi-fi? Can I somehow tell my phone to load images in (for example) browsers, gmail, twitter, etc. only when connected through a wi-fi connection? Mobile internet is pretty expensive in my country so I don't want images to spend more bandwidth than needed.. Or do I have to manualy turn it off for each app I'm using at the moment?

if it means anything, I'm using android2.2

thanks

There's currently no way to set a system-wide policy for this.  Some apps do support doing things on WiFi only, however.  Here's some info on the apps you mentioned:

You can go into the browser settings and uncheck Load Images.
GMail does not load images unless you view a message and click a button to display them.
I believe the Touiteur Twitter client allows you to disable images.


How do I run Windows or Linux as a virtual machine on Android? I would like to run Windows XP as a virtual machine on my Android tablet.  Since Android is based on Linux, is it possible to compile VirtualBox to run in Android?  If not possible, is it possible to run WinXP as a virtual machine in any way on an Android tablet?

VirtualBox uses virtualization, which isn't possible when the host device (Android tablet) uses a different CPU architecture than the guest device (x86 PC running windows XP). Since your android tablet almost certainly has an ARM CPU, the x86 CPU would have to be emulated, which is massively slower than virtualization. It doesn't seem like it would be practical at all.


Add a screenshot as attachment in Gmail android 5 How can I use a screenshot as an attachment in android 5?
I really don't get why this is so hard, I can only select files from my drive.

To find the screenshot I had to go to Photos -> menu -> device folders -> screenshots (what?)
Here I can't move the image to my drive folder
And no I don't want to enable auto backup for my screenshots
(even if I do I can't find this auto backup folder in my drive)

How can I fix this?

In your Gallery app of some sort, locate the screenshot image you want to send. Then there will be a share button and a dropdown list of applications. Find the app that says "Drive" and your image will then be uploaded. From there, you can go to your email app and select your newly uploaded image from your drive for you to send whomever


Send email/notification to device A when receiving a call on a device B I have a work phone, and I am not always able to answer the calls coming in.

I would like to set up a system where I receive a notification (email or otherwise) on my main device, even if I am away from my work device.

For example:

Notification on Device A:
Device B received a call from 555-2345 at 10:38AM.

Does anyone know of any apps that offer this service?

You can achieve this through IFTTT.

Look at this recipe to send email notifications on missed calls. You can find similar ones or create on your own, the learning curve isn't very high.


Reverting LG GT540 to its old interface I just tried to install my LG GT540 with a KDZ file that I downloaded from a site, hoping that my problem with the Android Market would be fixed but nothing happened.

My problem is that I can't revert the phone back to its original interface. It now has a Vodafone on the background screen.

Any idea on how I can revert it back?

If you're on Globe, then I assume you're in the Philippines. (Same here)

Check this out: http://www.droidevelopers.com/f236/11721-%5Bdownload%5D-%5Bfirmware%5D-lg-optimus-gt540-original-roms.html. It has a ROM for Philippines, and instructions on how to install it.


How can I prevent android apps from reformatting my SD card? I have a 32GB micro SD card, and some of the apps I use state that they have permsisions to modify sd card memory. I have a lot of personal files on my card, and the other day, some app, I don't know which one, had practically wiped out over 15gs of files from my card!

How can I block apps from wiping out my sd card? I don't see what possible good can come out of an app that can wipe out all my personal files. I backed up my pics when a guy at work told me an app had re-formatted his SD card. Sure enough, the same thing happened to me. I was able to back up my files BEFORE it happened, but how can I prevent this from happening again?

I've never heard of an app that formats the sdcard. The permission to modify the sdcard is so the application can "read/write" data to the sdcard.

If you have an app that formats your sdcard, I would report the issue to the developer, plus to the Android Market.


Installing "xyz firmware" vs Rooting on "xyz firmware". What's the difference between rooting on a particular firmware and installing a particular firmware?

Does that mean to root on "xyz" you must have installed "xyz" on your device?

As it says:

"root on XYZ" means XYZ is a pre-condition for this rooting instructions (so yes, it must already be on the device)
"install XYZ" means, well, to install XYZ (whether it already was on the device or not).


How do I lock phone phone with OK google? Unlocking a phone with okay google is useful. However, how can I lock it again using okay google. It's very handy being able to talk to my phone whilst working on the laptop but in the interests of battery power locking it again would help. Particularly if I'm using bluetooth and the phone is in my pocket. Time out is set to 15 seconds but a lot can happen in 15 seconds.

Unfortunately there's no command for this. Google needs to see the use for this and add it obviously