Recovery program only accesible via "adb recovery" but the program closes itself My tablet (a chinese SmartQ T10 with Android v2.3.4 unofficial Firmware) does not have custom recovery via power buttons combo, nor CWM recovery available to download. The only key combination  (Vol ++Power) that does anything, goes directly to firmware restore from a file named /mnt/sdcard/SmartQT10 (at SD Card) if this file exists.

But if I completely  start into Android, go to ADB on my computer and I do:

adb connect IPTablet:5555
adb shell recovery

It appears a fancy classic recovery program on the tablet's screen (full screen mode), as you can see:

Screenshot (click image for larger variant)

but with a strange behavior: this supposed recovery program lasts for only a few seconds, and my tablet get back to whatever it had just before on the screen (Android desktop, for example). After a few seconds, the recovery program gets back to screen, a few seconds there, and back to the desktop... and so on. The things stay like this until I press Ctrl+C on the ADB console of my PC.

If I touch any key of the tablet or press on the screen, the screen goes back instantly to Android screen and the recovery program disappear, so I can not interact with the recovery program. The recovery program is like any kind of "ghost" screen. And one more (don't know if important) detail: the selection menu of the recovery program moves down once each 2-3 seconds, just like if I were pressing any "down" key or so, a thing that I am not doing at all.

I must conclude that my tablet has any kind of recovery program inside, but it can not start for any reason.

This method:

adb shell reboot recovery

goes into firmware restoration mode, as I told before. This other:

adb shell reboot bootloader

performs a simple reboot.

Having this recovery program available would be great. Could anyone, please, tell me how could I do to keep it working? Or maybe there is any way to start it on boot, as I have seen in many others Android devices?

I see it shows some "can't mount" directory messages, as you can see in the capture, but I don't know how to solve those problems or if solving them would be useful to finally accessing the recovery program.

I don't know for sure if this is your only problem, but I'm posting it as an answer just in case. You seem to be confused about adb commands.

adb shell foo

is a command that tells adb to open a shell on the device, and run the command foo on the device, whatever you say there for foo. Therefore, the command you've been running,

adb shell recovery

doesn't tell the device to go into recovery mode: it tells the device to run a command named recovery, while Android's still running. From your description, it sounds like this is the same program that the recovery mode uses, but it's not intended to be run while Android is running. It's writing to the screen directly, without going through Android, which is why it keeps disappearing and can't accept input. It's actually pretty sloppy work on the part of the manufacturer that you can run this program at all from within Android.

In the same way, the command you want to use to reboot into the bootloader is

adb reboot-bootloader

(On newer adb versions you can replace the hyphen with a space if you like.) There's no shell in the command, because this is an instruction to adb, not a command to run on the device.


How to bind mount libunionfs? Samsung has introduced a feature in its stock ROM that moves content of social media aps (like WhatsApp) to SD card, and then links the two folders.

I ran the following command in Termux:

$su
#mount | grep -i "whatsapp"

The following output was returned:

libunionfs /mnt/runtime/default/emulated/0/WhatsApp fuse rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other 0 0
libunionfs /storage/emulated/0/WhatsApp fuse rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other 0 0
libunionfs /mnt/runtime/read/emulated/0/WhatsApp fuse rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other 0 0
libunionfs /mnt/runtime/write/emulated/0/WhatsApp fuse rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1023,group_id=1023,default_permissions,allow_other 0 0

I learnt from the net that libunionfs is a virtual file system. How did Samsung create bind mounts to this system? Normal #mount -o bind didn't work.

UnionFS does not bind-mounts, it's an independent in-kernel filesystem itself (though there is also unionfs-fuse). Bind-mount and UnionFS have different uses but can be considered alternative to each other in certain situations. So is OverlayFS and other similar implementations. These are stackable unification filesystems which unify the contents of two different directories. Files in lower directory are overlapped by files of same names in upper directory. All other files in lower directory are visible as normal files. A bind mount on the other hand completely overlays the contents of lower directory. Also see How does UnionFS work?

From your comment:

  The problem is, Termux says "no such device" if i use the option none in the mount command. How do i mention my phone as the device where mount should be done?

Yours seems to be FUSE based UnionFS (just the name, not related to actual in-kernel UnionFS). Android's storage framework works by dynamically changing file permissions depending on the privileges of apps accessing the files, which requires a phenomenon like FUSE or sdcardfs to set pseudo permission modes. FUSE mounts don't work by simply using mount command. You need a specific program which communicates to kernel through /dev/fuse and mounts the Filesystem in UserSpacE (FUSE). Mount is tied to that program.

I don't know exactly what's the executable name Samsung is using for FUSE mounts, you can see your running processes to find the executable binary. Then use that specific program by passing the required arguments, ownership, mode, SELinux context, source and destination directories.

However most probably the implementation would only be in a shared library to be accessed from Android framework. In that case you have to use some third party programs like unionfs-fuse. If you only want bind mount with correct permissions bindfs can also be used. For details see How to bind mount a folder inside /sdcard with correct permissions?

If you want real UnionFS, you'll have to rebuild kernel (probably with some patches). OverlayFS is a better choice, it's a part of mainliene Linux kernel (should've been built with CONFIG_OVERLAY_FS). You may ask a question if details required on a specific use case on Android. But that would be far more complicated to set up than a FUSE-based solution.


Confirm if apps have successfully installed from Google Play (Without looking at the phone) My girlfriend recently had her phone stolen and I'm trying to track it down by remotely installing apps on her phone via Google Play, but I can't tell if the apps are successfully installed.  For example, if I turn off my phone completely, and install an app on it from Google Play, it will still report "installed" even though my phone's turned off.

The answer to your specific question is, unlikely.  You can install an app that has an interface that you can communicate with.  Communicating with that interface can allow you to know.  But other than that, it's unlikely.  And you'd have to have confirmation on the android to accept the manifest of the app's requirement list.

You may not be fully lost, however,  Google does have a feature by default that you might be able to track your phone even if you didn't install an app.

These are some requirement which most people normally have:

- The android is connected with your Google account.
- Your android has access to the internet.
- The the Android Device Manager (ADM) to locate your android (turned off by default)
- Allowed ADM to lock your android and erase its data (turned off by default).

Try Google's Android Device Manager.


Why do I have so little unused RAM? Possible Duplicate:
  Are there guidelines on how much free RAM a phone should have - specifically Samsung Galaxy S?
  0 ram free on ICS

My device (ASUS TF201, unrooted, stock Firmware) is running on Android 4.1 and has 1GB of RAM installed. However I noticed that only 200-300 MB's are left and marked "unused". Also I know that does not necessarily mean that all "used" RAM is really in use. For example cached Apps may be held in RAM for faster start-up and this RAM may be freed by Android if more memory is needed. So I tried the following steps to get more unused RAM as I am experiencing Force-Closes from another App which (may) result from insufficient memory available.

I checked running apps and force-closed some of them but this gave me not enough RAM. Although this list contains Apps which may be responsible for almost 100 MBs of RAM but not for 600 MB. So I checked which Apps are cached, and closed all of them giving me also only a few MB's.
I rebooted my device but after start-up 600 MB's are already used.
I performed cold-boot still 600 MB's are already in use.
I pushed the reset button which immediately shut down my device, but after reboot 600 MB's are still in use.
I performed a factory reset and did not installed any other app (nor did I perform a backup-restore, as I hadn't specified any Google account so far). But still 600 MB's are used.
I applied all of those memory task killers which all performed badly and killed only those apps I could kill myself. Except one profiler gave me a hint: It sayed that 300 MB's are used by the kernel and 300 MB's are used by apps. It also provided me a button for killing all running apps. Directly after this still 200 MB's are in use (it says "kernel memory") but after 15min again 600 MB's in use (with again 300 MB's per kernel- and app-memory). Is that normal that so much memory is used?, I mean this is factory reset no additional apps were installed by myself!
I also tried to to force-close and disable almost all apps which are currently running and which I don't need but still around 600 MB's are in use.

As I fear to lose warranty if I open the back of the pad I cannot put off power. (But of course I could wait until no battery is left) But I won't think that this will help, as this should have worked with a hardware reset or cold-boot as well.

So what can I do?

A friend of mine told me, each app is running inside its own Dalvik instance (Sandbox) also apps may use additional libraries, but this memory is not shown in the list of running or cached apps. Hence the size given their must be interpreted carefully. He also said, that in case more memory is needed, Android should close some of these apps to free some memory.


Sending an application (apk) through NFC Is it possible to install the application to another device using NFC? The application is not in Google Play store.

If it is possible, how can I do this?

Assuming you have the app available as an apk file, you can use the app NFC Transfer to share it. It uses Android Beam to share any file (NFC is used to set up a Bluetooth connection to transfer the actual file).


Android 5.0.2: Import contacts from sim card Yeah, I know - it's not the first question. But others just don't answer my question!

When I go to Contacts -> Menu, I got the next options:

Call History
New Contact
Settings

Why I don't see Import from SIM card option? Where is it?

"I'm using Prestigio MultiPhone 3504 Muze. Finally I notice that it hasn't that tab at all, vut automatically import all contacts from SIM card. My broblem was that I haven't got contacts on SIM card.
"
 See images here: i.stack.imgur.com/eYu7w.png i.stack.imgur.com/NTpdP.png

It may be the case, contacts from sim card are imported only once, so the above menu fails to open, once contacts got imported.

But you can easily test the above,
selecting
Add New Contact
and saving it on your sim card.

That way you can try to open
Import contacts from sim card

menu again, not removing and reinserting sim card again.

BTW
My Contacts app crashes every time when I select and click a contact from Contacts to make a call.
\
Looking for a cure to remove that bug

"Android is Brutal and full of Zasadzkas"


no adb devices detected after failed revert to Android Just a few days ago I tried to revert my Asus Nexus 7 wifi back to Android from Ubuntu Touch Preview and made a mistake somewhere. To sum up, now my device has no OS on it so it will only show the bootloader, and it does not show up as an adb device but still shows on fastboot. Here's a summary

Downloaded Android 4.2.2 nakasi via https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images#nakasi
followed instructions from https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Nexus7/Installation#Returning_your_Nexus_7_to_Stock_Android
failed on step "writing 'radio'". Also got: archive does not contain 'boot.sig', archive does not contain 'recovery.sig', archive does not contain 'system.sig'
tried multiple times with the same errors.
got frustrated and restarted to try again
now I have a blank list of adb devices

Anyone have advice on where I can learn to fix this or want to help with some suggestions? Thanks for your help!

Just did all the necessary steps on my N7:

Download the factory image from Google
Unpack the downloaded file (e.g. by tar -xvzf nakasi-jdq39-factory-c317339e.tgz)
Boot your N7 into the bootloader (hold the power and both volume buttons)
Have fastboot installed (comes with the SDK or for Ubuntu, just install android-tools-fastboot)
connect it to your machine
Flash it using flash-all.bat or flash-all.sh (needs installed fastboot)

Here's the transcript (using Ubuntu):

me@localhost:/tmp/nakasi-jdq39$ ls
bootloader-grouper-4.18.img  flash-all.sh   image-nakasi-jdq39.zip
flash-all.bat                flash-base.sh
me@localhost:/tmp/nakasi-jdq39$ bash flash-all.sh
...
(bootloader) Bootloader is already unlocked
OKAY [  0.020s]
finished. total time: 0.020s
erasing 'boot'...
OKAY [  0.104s]
finished. total time: 0.104s
******** Did you mean to fastboot format this partition?
erasing 'cache'...
OKAY [  0.147s]
finished. total time: 0.147s
erasing 'recovery'...
OKAY [  0.106s]
finished. total time: 0.106s
******** Did you mean to fastboot format this partition?
erasing 'system'...
OKAY [  0.175s]
finished. total time: 0.175s
******** Did you mean to fastboot format this partition?
erasing 'userdata'...
OKAY [  1.401s]
finished. total time: 1.401s
sending 'bootloader' (2096 KB)...
OKAY [  0.286s]
writing 'bootloader'...
OKAY [  1.165s]
finished. total time: 1.452s
rebooting into bootloader...
OKAY [  0.020s]
finished. total time: 0.020s
archive does not contain 'boot.sig'
archive does not contain 'recovery.sig'
archive does not contain 'system.sig'
--------------------------------------------
Bootloader Version...: 4.18
Baseband Version.....: N/A
Serial Number........: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
--------------------------------------------
checking product...
OKAY [  0.040s]
checking version-bootloader...
OKAY [  0.023s]
sending 'boot' (4944 KB)...
OKAY [  0.654s]
writing 'boot'...
OKAY [  0.172s]
sending 'recovery' (5446 KB)...
OKAY [  0.712s]
writing 'recovery'...
OKAY [  0.193s]
erasing 'system'...
OKAY [  0.055s]
sending 'system' (471804 KB)...
OKAY [ 60.282s]
writing 'system'...
OKAY [ 23.357s]
erasing 'userdata'...
OKAY [  1.023s]
formatting 'userdata' partition...
Creating filesystem with parameters:
    Size: 14442037248
    Block size: 4096
    Blocks per group: 32768
    Inodes per group: 8176
    Inode size: 256
    Journal blocks: 32768
    Label:
    Blocks: 3525888
    Block groups: 108
    Reserved block group size: 863
Created filesystem with 11/883008 inodes and 96825/3525888 blocks
sending 'userdata' (137526 KB)...
writing 'userdata'...
OKAY [ 27.078s]
erasing 'cache'...
OKAY [  0.050s]
formatting 'cache' partition...
Creating filesystem with parameters:
    Size: 464519168
    Block size: 4096
    Blocks per group: 32768
    Inodes per group: 7088
    Inode size: 256
    Journal blocks: 1772
    Label:
    Blocks: 113408
    Block groups: 4
    Reserved block group size: 31
Created filesystem with 11/28352 inodes and 3654/113408 blocks
sending 'cache' (9052 KB)...
writing 'cache'...
OKAY [  1.751s]
rebooting...

finished. total time: 115.545s


I want to use market place on my cheap tablet Alright I'm cheap bought a couple cheap tablets for my kids. We have enjoyed alot of the apps ava on the Market Place but it will not work with the tablets. (Something about "Honey Comb".

My question is there a work around or someway to get the apps I want or upgrade my os so I can get the market place?

Android Market isn't a free service, it requires the tablet to be licensed by Google. Usually the cheap tablets don't have the license, and can't access the Market. There are ways to install it afterwards, but I think that they are usually model specific.


How to confirm if motherboard is broken This is in reference to my other question.

My phone was not working so I showed it to service center guy and he said the motherboard is broken and needs to be replaced.

I can flash custom ROMs to the phone but they are not also booting up.

So I just want to confirm does that really mean my motherboard is broken and needs to be replaced?

If it starts to boot (goes to the boot logo/animation) or Recovery/Download mode at least tries to load, then the motherboard is NOT damaged.

Your device is soft-bricked, and just needs to have a compatible ROM flashed, and your userdata erased for your device to be fully functional again.

The person is the service centre doesn't know what hey is talking about (I wouldn't trust those people - they just want your money).


How to get xposed framework on Lollipop (Samsung)? I am on Samsung Galaxy note 3 SM-n900 Android 5.0 Stock Firmware (API-21). I am able to install xposed framework easily on Kitkat and Jellybean, however, i want to be on lollipop and cannot figure out how to get xposed on my device. i flashed CWM recovery first, then i installed this file "xposed-v84-sdk21-arm.zip" via CWM and my device is stuck on samsung logo forever!
here is the link
I was able to flash exposed framework on Cyanogenmod 12.1 but not on samsung lollipop

For Samsung Stock ROMs (based on TouchWiz UI), you have to flash the Arter's Xposed for Samsung Lollipop 5.0.x deodexed ROMs or Wanam's Xposed for Samsung Lollipop 5.1.x/ Marshmallow 6.0.x ROMs, instead of the rovo89's Xposed which is basically for AOSP & CM-based ROMs.


Android x86 on VirtualBox - Apps cannot access internet I recently installed Android x86 through Virtual Box onto my PC. It runs mostly fine (except for some weirdness with the mouse, which isn't really an issue) but for the fact that apps cannot detect the internet connection. I can access the internet through the included browser just fine, so I know that the connection is actually getting to the VM, but apps cannot access it. I read here that because I am using NAT or virtual ethernet that some apps detect that there is no wifi or cellular and refuse to work. Is there a way to fix and/or get around this?

If it helps my host OS is Windows 10 Educational and I will do my best to provide hardware specs if that would help solve the issue.

I know it's an old thread but in case I was facing same issue well the solution is to change network adapter settings (virtual box or vmware) from NAT type to Bridge type that's it! and for the mouse issue you need to disable Mouse integration, if you don't want to change the network type there is another solution if your android vm is rooted which's rooted I guess you can install xposed framework and install fake wifi connection module worked on android 4.4 upto 5.1 if you have another version such as marshmellow (6.0+) then you need to install an apk from here https://www.mediafire.com/download/cbsu84p9496n70o , and after installing it you will be advised to install hack module from xposed so it can make the apk work well.


How can I sync Yahoo Calendar on my phone? I want to sync my Yahoo! Calendar on my phone. An article on Yahoo!'s help page seems to suggest that the only way to access it is by viewing their mobile website in a browser. I've tried adding the iCal link provided by Yahoo! Calendar in my Google Calendar account, but Google seems to be unable to fetch the contents of my calendar.

What other options do I have to sync my Yahoo! Calendar on my phone - either within the stock calendar app, or using a third-party application? (In case of a third-party application, it would be nice if it 'looks good' and/or comes with widgets.)

There are several ways you could use to sync your Yahoo! calendar with your android device.

Using a CSV file.
You can export your yahoo calendar to a CSV file and import it into your google calendar. This method is somewhat manual and you will have to do this each time you create an event in your yahoo calendar. More details
Use Yahoo! app for android
You can use the official app for android developed by yahoo inc. to access your yahoo calendar as well as your mail, news, IM, videos and more. Download from the Play Store
Use third party apps to calendar syncing
There are many apps in tur play store which can be used to do this. CalcSync is an app which syncs yahoo caoendar with the stock calendar.


The WiFi connection on my Dell XCD 35 (Froyo) times out I recently bought the Dell XCD35, one of the biggest issues I'm facing is that it keeps disconnecting from an established (and saved) WiFi network and I need to manually select 'Connect' for it to get on WiFi.

I don't have this problem with my Galaxy 3, which I'm also using. And the problem persists even on other WiFi networks that I've tried connecting to. I've checked the settings (WiFi sleep, etc.) Also downloaded WiFi Manager app but no difference.

There is no trouble while connecting, but the moment the screen times out, the Wifi connection does too! This is very annoying, because it used up precious network. Is there a solution or should I just junk this phone?

There is an application in Google Play named Blade WiFi Fix; it will solve your problem.


Enable framebuffer console in Android kernel source Is it possible to somehow enable the framebuffer console in android kernel sources from samsung, to see kernel messages instead of just the bootlogo?

You didn't really say what you were trying to do exactly-- but if I understand right, and you're any good with soldering, it sounds like you might want to find the UART pins on your device, then tap that and use a serial connection to your computer to read the bootloader output (via minicom or some other terminal emulator) and access the live console that way.  You may also be able to get serial data from the USB during boot.

Of course, if you are just stuck with a non-booting system and trying to recover a device, you might use odin/heimdall to reflash your boot image (including a new kernel) or install a custom recovery image and use that to flash a ROM with a good kernel.

It sounds like you're possibly deliberately messing with your own built kernels- maybe to upgrade to a new kernel base or something?  If that's the case, an alternative to seeing the kernel messages onscreen is to enable PSTORE (the file system-based replacement for /proc/last_kmesg), which will let you view the dmesg/kernel console + any panic messages after a bad boot on the next reboot (so long as the ram doesn't get overwritten).  Take a look at this example from the trlte (Samsung Note 4) kernel for how to implement it in the newer kernels.  (If it's an older kernel you may just need to turn on last_kmesg.)


GT-P5100 boot loop - nothing helps OK. I have tried nearly everything recommended on this site and on xda-developers to fix this boot loop issue, and nothing works.
This is a standard unlocked GT-P5100 running 4.0.3. It was running fine and then one day it started to boot loop. It was never used much, and it basically spasmed sometime around a year ago.
I have tried:
Deleting cache and factory reset from various mechanisms. They generally say that they work, but don't actually delete anything.
Using ODIN to install TWRP said it had succeeded, but nothing actually changed.
Using ODIN to install CWM said it had succeeded, but nothing actually changed.
I tried various rooters, Kingoroot being the last. It said it had worked, but I see no evidence of that
.
I successfully (apparently) rooted it via ODIN, but again, there's no evidence of that.
Flashing a new version with ODIN gives me the message:  "Complete(Write) operation failed.
 All threads completed. (succeed 0 / failed 1)"
I tried to re-flash the same version but nothing changed.
I managed to get an actual upgrade to a later version of Android flashed once, according to ODIN, but when  I checked I was still on 4.0.3.
Some issues that make it more difficult:
The re-boot cycle can be as short as 10 seconds, so I often have no time to do much. In upload mode it seems to last for as like as I like.
Changes I make don't stick. I can set the USB debugging switch on, but after the next re-boot it's gone. I have tried deleting apps, e.g. Chrome, to free up space, I shouldn't need to, of course, as I have about 8Gb free. I never succeed in deleting anything, although I get an Application Deleted message, and then an immediate re-boot.
So it looks to me as though something is smelly in my RAM.
There is nothing I need to keep, my wife just uses the toy to google the news while we are travelling, so if there's anything radidal I can do, by, for example running something brutal from the SD card, I would be happy to do it.
So. Any ideas, please?

You seem to have tried everything using various flashing methods, so possibly your problem lies elsewhere (hardware).
If your problem is rebooting loop, then it has to do with your power button being messed up...
Try taking the phone apart carefully (if you know how)
Then hold the power panel down for some seconds (like 15-20seconds). Note: Do this when the phone switch off before it restart.
But if your problem is the phone being stuck on boot loop, then flash using sp flash tool with your phone firmware.
Hope it helps


Is there some documentation how exactly does the Factory Reset Protection (FRP) works? Is there some detailed documentation how exactly does the Factory Reset Protection (FRP) on Android devices works?

I think much of this is intentionally kept "quiet"... in researching some of this myself a while back, this is the most I could find "in detail".

https://github.com/intel/kernelflinger/blob/master/doc/FRP.md

Bootloader Policy and Factory Reset Protection
Google's verified boot (GVB) specification and Google Factory Reset Protection (FRP) for AndroidTM define a set of security protocols for ensuring system integrity and dis-incentivising device theft, respectively.

There are legitimate reasons to unlock the bootloader without knowing the screen unlock PIN; specifically RMAs. An RMA processing center should be able to unlock device flashing restrictions in Fastboot and return the device to a factory pristine state without requiring the user to disclose their screen unlock PIN or potentially opening their user data to compromise.

This documentation describes the solution for defining a class A device and a mechanism that allow for unlocking a device for RMA regardless of FRP or class A status. It meets Google FRP security requirements by ensuring that there is no single skeleton key to unlock devices if all security considerations are implemented. It also allows devices to be provisioned so that the entity with unlock authority could be Vendor, the OEM, ODM, a carrier, or an enterprise organization.

Device User Experience
User boots the device to Fastboot
User obtains an action challenge
fastboot oem get-action-nonce force-unlock
User gives the challenge to the action authorization agent and receives an action authorization token file (details later)
User flashes the action authorization token
fastboot flash action-authorization token_file
Fastboot performs the authorized action
Implementation
The OEM action authorization protocol is a simple challenge response where the device's Fastboot generates a one-time-nonce, the OEM action authorization agent signs the nonce and approved action using its private override authorization key (OAK) to generate an authorization token, and then the device's Fastboot validates the action authorization token and executes the action.

Override Authorization Key
The override authorization key (OAK) is a public key that is set in the device during manufacturing and that is used to validate action authorization tokens. If an OAK is not set, then all action authorization features are disabled and default bootloader and Fastboot behavior specified in GVB and FRP is in effect. Since the OAK is capable of overriding the class A and FRP policies, it is important to ensure that it cannot be changed by unauthorized code, which would change the identity of who can override policy.

The OAK may act as a validation root certificate if the certificate authority attribute of the certificate is "true" -- standard X.509v3 certificate handling. This means that the OAK can be used to issue certificates that are also able to sign action authorization tokens. This is the preferred method of setting the OAK in cases where multiple entities need the ability to issue action authorization tokens without having access to a single key.

OAK is stored as the OAK time-based authenticated EFI variable under the Fastboot GUID of 1ac80a82-4f0c-456b-9a99-debeb431fcc1. The content of this variable is the SHA256 sum of the OAK certificate.

Bootloader Policy Mask
Bootloader policy mask (BPM) is a set of 64 boolean policy flags. If a BPM is not set, then Fastboot defaults to a policy matching a BPM value of zero. If a BPM value is set, a one bit indicates the corresponding policy is active.

The BPM is set in the device during manufacturing.

Policy Name Bit(s)  Description
CLASS_A_DEVICE  0   If set, the bootloader enforces the behavior defined by GVB for class A devices.
MIN_BOOT_STATE  1-2 Minimal boot state required to boot the device (0 for red, 1 for orange, 2 for yellow and 3 for green)
BPM is stored as the BPM time-based authenticated EFI variable under the Fastboot GUID of 1ac80a82-4f0c-456b-9a99-debeb431fcc1.

Generating One-Time-Nonce
The one-time action authorization nonce has the form "::<8 bit action id>:<16 client random bytes>" with all fields hex encoded. It is generated when the fastboot oem get-action-nonce  command is used. Fastboot saves the value for a limited amount of time before it expires. Each time the command is run a new value is generated and previous value is overwritten. The value is not stored persistently. If Fastboot is restarted, the old nonce is no longer valid.

The following actions are defined.

Name    Action ID   Description
Force unlock    0x00    Makes Kernelfliner execute the Fastboot flashing unlock command as if the "enable oem unlock" developer option is enabled. All standard GVB properties apply, including secure erase of the user data partition.
The version field is a one byte value. It must be zero for the current version.

Creating an Action Authorization Token
An action authorization token is generated by signing the action authorization nonce with the OAK. The token is a PKCS #7 signed document, where the body takes the form "::<8 bit action id>:<16 client random bytes>:<16 auth agent random bytes>" with all fields hex encoded. The auth agent random bytes added when creating the authorization is to prevent an attacker from mounting an attack by supplying known plain-text values.

The token must contain all certificates required to validate the signature chain of the token.

The action authorization agent must verify that the nonce is exactly in the prescribed format.

The action authorization agent must verify that the action ID in nonce is a recognized value.

If possible, the action authorization agent should verify that the serial number is valid.

Flashing the Action Authorization Token
The authorization token is sent to Fastboot using the special "action-authorization" flash target. Fastboot verifies that the token is valid, invalidates the current one-time-nonce, and executes the authorized action.

Fastboot must validate that there is no extra data after parsing the token.

Fastboot must verify that the signature's certificate chains to the OAK set at manufacturing.

Fastboot must verify that all values in the token body have the prescribed values.

Fastboot must verify that the value returned by the "oem get-action-nonce " command matches the value in the token body and the nonce has not expired.


How to Install OEM USB Drivers for my LYF phone? I'm a newbie. Recently, I have installed Android Studio 2 on my PC. Run my first "hello world" project on Emulator. But the Emulator is taking too much time to load. So, I thought I would directly install Apk on my Lyf phone [Model no: LYF_LS4006]. So I checkout this site https://developer.android.com/studio/run/oem-usb.html#Win7.
I don't where to find its drivers. Please help me.

I have a LYF Phone (LS-4005) which I wanted to connect with Android Studio to debug apps on real phone in place of emulator. So I searched for endless hours on Google Search for correct ADB driver of this phone but didn't get succeed because I was searching at wrong place.

  Google already facilitates developers to download generic USB drivers
  which are compatible with most of the Android phones through the
  Android SDK Manager itself which comes bundled with Android Studio

Below mentioned are the steps to get the drivers directly from Google.

So here is the step by step guide on how to connect any LYF handset with Android Studio for testing apps on original hardware in place of emulator:

[Please make sure that your LYF phone is connected with usb as Media device (MTP) before continuing]

Enable USB debugging on your LYF phone (refer to this post for how-to: https://developer.android.com/training/basics/firstapp/running-app.html)
Open Android Studio and go to SDK Manager (Tools > Android > SDK Manager)
Install Google USB Drivers by checking it if it is unchecked and click on Apply button.
Once Google USB Drivers are installed, open device manager (click on Start button and type: device manager, click on first search result) and follow these steps:

Locate and expand Android Phone (or Unknown Devices) in the right pane.
Right-click on Android Composite ADB Interface (or ADB Interface) and select Update Driver. This will launch the Hardware Update Wizard.
Select Install from a list or specific location and click Next.
Select Search for the best driver in these locations; uncheck Search removable media; and check Include this location in the search.
Click Browse and then locate the USB driver folder. For example, the Google USB Driver is located in C:\Users\{user}\android-sdks\extras\google\usb_driver. where {user} is your Windows User name.
Click Next to install the driver.

Now after installation is successful, you will see a prompt on yout LYF phone asking for permission to 'Allow USB debugging' request from computer. Simply accept it by clicking on 'ok' button and you are done.


WiFi won't stay on after factory reset I have PendoPad 7" tablet (PNDP5M7BLK) on Android 5.0.2. My wife reset it using factory reset, and the WiFi won't stay on so I can't connect to internet.

Any ideas?

Actually, I think I fixed it. I did another factory reset, and tried wi-fi, wouldn't work, tried reboot, didn't work. But I then turned off then turned on, and worked. Thanks for replying!


How to close "Location access" screen after enabling GPS? There's an application I use that prompts the user to enable GPS, but then I'm stuck in this screen not knowing how to close it:

As there's no check/OK button, how do I actually enable GPS and get on with it?

Thank you.

Just click Back (the sideways triangle at the bottom), it should take you back to your app and just work. Note that if you are on Marshmallow, some apps do not understand the permissions (Best Buy app is like this) and it can't locate you properly. The only fix for those is to have the developer update the app for Marshmallow.


How do I disable Instagram notifications? How do I disable push notifications for Instagram? As much as possible, I don't want apps to do any push notifications (except for MMS).

It's quite easy.

Go to Instagram app
Tap on your own name in stream (or the card icon) to go to your profile
Tap the 3 vertical dots next to your name
Tap Edit profile
Scroll down, tap Push notifications
Uncheck what you don't want. Voila!


Customize notification led color without app How can you customize the color of the notification LED (i.e. specify the rgb value) without using an app?

Does this require rooting? And if it does, what setting would then be used to do this?

Is there a way to manually control it? For example make it color cycle on demand for a neat effect?

There is no Android built in feature or setting to do this. There are public APIs for it. There are many apps for this.

Certain OEMs such as OnePlus (and Moto ?) allow customizing the LED color per app.

There may be diagnostics pages on certain devices (I remember the old Nexus S had something like that) where you can type in some code on the dialer to run them, then do some diagnostic related things. I don't know if such things are still being shipped. Either way it is for diagnostics purposes only and are quite well hidden.


Screenshots taken in the work profile are saved in the personal profile When taking a screenshot of any app in my work profile, the picture is saved to my personal profile.

Is this the default/expected behaviour ?

I'm not sure if it is or it should be the default behavior, but it is expected behavior.

Screenshots are taken (through command-line or key combination or tile) and saved by System UI (com.android.systemui) package which is part of stock Android. When deciding where to save the screenshot file, the path is decided (using getExternalStoragePublicDirectory API up to Android 9 or MediaStore on Android 10+) based on the current User_ID (not UID), which is 0 for device owner (personal profile) and 10, 11, 12 .... for secondary users/profiles.

Since profiles are not completely isolated users but associated to a parent user, separate instances of only essential apps and packages are run under new User_ID. All display related things e.g. notifications, lock screen, status bar etc. in secondary profile are handled by primary user's System UI process which is running under User_ID 0 e.g. with UID 10500. So the screenshot is saved to primary profile's storage i.e. /storage/emulated/0/Pictures/Screenshots/.

However Multiple Users are more isolated than profiles and unlike latter, two users cannot share user interface. When you create and switch to a new user (not enabled on all ROMs by OEMs/developers), a separate instance of System UI app is run e.g. with UID 1010500. So the new user has a separate lock screen and doesn't share notifications with primary user. Likewise a screenshot is saved to /storage/emulated/10/Pictures/Screenshots/.


Why alarms in "To-do" applications are shown as notification I am not sure whether my understanding about alarms is wrong, so I thought of posting this question. I keep forgetting tasks so I thought of installing the best "To-Do" android app. What I simply wanted from the application is this:

If I want to set a reminder, say on May 19th 2013, at 9.00 A.M and I want a a loud alarm that will keep ringing until I dismiss it or snoop.

Every famous app that I tried (Astrid, Wundrelist etc),  provide a reminder feature to be associated with Tasks, but these reminders to go Notification area. Some of the "to-do" apps takes the reminder date/time as alarms, but they again send these alarms as notifications. The problem with notification is that, it only makes a very simple sound (as if a message has arrived), that too only once. I want these reminders to ring as alarms not as notification. Do you know any apps that does this?. For example, the alarm that we can set in clock.( but clock doesn't provide a specific date/time)

Astrid has this functionality. Add a task by giving it a title and then clicking ADD A DUE DATE if you wish. This opens a page where you can tap a due date + time. Click OK after making the necessary changes. Click the blue + sign on the right to add the task to your list.

Now tap the task to edit it - Scroll down if you need to and select DETAILS and then REMIND WHEN DUE & OVERDUE

Choose the options as you see fit and ensure that the RING/VIBRATE TYPE is set to UNTIL I DISMISS ALARM.

Click ADD AN ALARM and choose when you want to be reminded.

To avoid this rigmarole in the future, you can choose to set by default that reminders should ring constantly until you dismiss them. Click SETTINGS > NEW TASK DEFAULTS > DEFAULT RING/VIBRATE and then select UNTIL I DISMISS ALARM

Also see REMINDER SETTINGS where you can choose a ringtone of choice.


Moto G 2014 without OS or any connection, stuck with fastboot and TWRP For a few days now, I've been trying to recover my phone. It's a XT1069 (a brazilian dual-SIM Moto G 2014 with 16 GB of storage and DTV). It had a Resurrection Remix ROM with Android 7.1. The battery died, and then whenever I tried to turn it on, it got stuck in Resurrection Remix's loading screen, for whatever reason. That wasn't really a big issue, in fact it was actually good, because it gave me motive to update my ROM, which I was planning to do.

Up until then, everything was working fine (although Resurrection Remix didn't boot). I downloaded Pixel Experience with Android 8.0, then I opened TWRP and transferred it to the phone through USB (TWRP supports it). I wiped the system partition (don't remember why - maybe I had tried to install it before and got an error, maybe out of space, I don't know) and tried to flash it. It gave an error, which basically meant I had to update TWRP.

But uh oh! I can't anymore. My PC won't detect the phone whatsoever! I tried using fastboot, ADB in TWRP, MTP in TWRP, but all I can do via USB is charge it (TWRP does display a "+" after the battery percentage, and it does charge). I was using Debian 9.0.0 when I did this, but I accidentally deleted all partitions in my HDD while trying to install Windows 10, managed to recover them, and finally actually installed Windows 10 (for dual boot - I couldn't dislike Windows more). In either Debian or Windows, it doesn't detect it anymore. Previously it would make a sound and display a notification. It doesn't anymore, in the same conditions (in TWRP, with MTP either enabled or disabled). ADB and Fastboot don't work at all, where they previously did. I already installed drivers in both OSes. Actually, before I even installed drivers, it worked. Even the SD card isn't being detected by the phone anymore. It doesn't mount in TWRP (no error, it seems it wasn't even inserted), and I can't access it in the Install menu (says it's 0 MB, and won't access it). It previously worked.

I've searched around a ton. Every solution is basically installing drivers, using MTP (can't do), disabling MTP to use ADB (can't do), using ADB Sideload from the Advanced menu in TWRP (can't do), restarting computer and/or phone, updating TWRP (can't do), SD card (can't do), USB OTG (I don't have an adapter, and buying one would require my parents' consent, which is a bad thing, and besides, considering the other options, it's not likely that it'll work).

I'm desperated. I don't know what to do anymore. Can somebody help me? What can I do to update TWRP, while my phone is in this state?

(Large question, eh. Well, I'm being as specific as I can. Please read it so you can understand the situation.)

I have had this exact problem with an XT1039. As you've deleted the system partition you'll need to restore to a factory ROM for the phone, which is on XDA.
Boot to recovery (power + volume down), and plug the phone in to your PC and you should have access to a minimal adb. Flash the factory image and it should then boot.

These instructions should help: https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2542219


retriving my contacts I restored my phone sonny xperia E5 to factory settings then after I sinned in with my google account but I am unable to synchronize my contacts please help me my contacts are saved in google account

Hi and thanks for your question on

How to Retrieve Lost Contacts from Google

I hope this screenshot I grabbed from Google will help you:

And here's a written summary of the steps:

Go to your device settings and choose 'Google'.
Under 'Services,' select 'Restore Contacts' (tap 'From Account' if you have more than one account and need to specify which you want to restore)
Then tap the device with the contacts to copy and select which contacts specifically you would like to copy
Lastly just hit "Restore" and wait til you see the "Contacts Restored!" message.  These will sync automatically.

For contacts in other apps like Outlook, you will need to re-download those apps and follow their procedures.

Again, I hope this helps!  Have a great day!


Alarm volume changes on its own Something keeps lowering my alarm volume. I keep it at about 70% because I can be a heavy sleeper at times, but I keep finding that it's been lowered to about 40%. This has been going on daily for months. (One time it turned itself to silent and I slept through my first class)

Any ideas as to what's causing this or how to fix it?

EDIT: I've realized that it would probably be useful to talk about some of my settings.
I have Do Not Disturb scheduled for "Priority Only" from 10pm to first alarm daily.
I keep my ringer on mute or the first/second setting.

So, I've had this problem for a while as well. What I came to realize was that my sleepy-brain would hit the volume rocker to adjust the volume of the alarm while it was going off. Usually, this was to adjust the volume of my music to a more bearable level to wake up to once my phone was in-hand. But this also had the side-effect of adjusting my alarm volume to a point where next time it goes off, it's way too quiet.

I fixed this problem by downloading an app called MacroDroid. I set up a macro that executes each night at 10 pm. The macro starts by setting the alarm volume to 80%, pops a notification up that says "Don't forget to set your alarm!" And when the notification is clicked, it takes me to the Clock app to set my alarm.

It's a bit of a workaround since it uses a third-party app, but it's been a huge quality-of-life adjustment for me so I figured I'd share.


Hangouts SMS: Keep same conversation when contact gets a new phone number I'm using Hangouts and a contact recently changed her phone number. Now I have one conversation with her old number and one with her name on it in my Hangouts. Is there any way to merge these conversations?

I'd prefer not to continue to have both numbers under the one contact for fear of accidentally dialing the old number!

The only way to merge the two conversations in Hangouts is to update/merge the contacts under your Google account - http://www.google.com/contacts


How do I change the password of my main Google account on a Droid X? I changed my Google Account password (on my computer).  I now need to change it on my Droid X.  I cannot figure out how to do this.

I Googled, and everyone says go to Settings > Accounts.  I did this, but there is nowhere to change the password there.  It only specifies four services that are syncing.  "Contacts" is throwing an error now, but, still, there is nowhere to change the password.

Go to Settings -> Accounts and sync -> username@gmail.com, press the Menu button, and click "Sync now"; it will prompt you to enter the credentials.


How to create complete image backup(Nandroid) of rooted phone if no cwm or twrp available for my phone I have a rooted phone and i need to do some change to buid.prop.
And if i got my phone bricked i need to recover it back. The thing is There's no CWM or TWRP roms available to my tablet(ZTE E7P(3G) running Kitkat 4.4.2).

Is there any way i can take a snapshot(Nandroid backup) of my currently running OS and restore it back if anything happen using default recovery mode(May be with ADB).

Simply what i want is to perform a Nandroid backup of my rooted tab and restore it without using custom recoveries like CWM or TWRP.

Provided your device is rooted, you can do that with simple dd commands. Trouble is just to find out what partitions you might need to backup: some devices have more than 20 partitions, and you will most likely not need more than 5 backed up.

This is where e.g. my little tool Adebar comes in which, amongst others, creates you a script for exactly this purpose: dd the relevant partitions and get them to your computer, giving the files recognizable names. The result for my LG P880 e.g. looks like:

adb shell "su -c 'stty raw; cat /dev/block/mmcblk0p3'" > "images/system.img"
adb shell "su -c 'stty raw; cat /dev/block/mmcblk0p4'" > "images/cache.img"
adb shell "su -c 'stty raw; cat /dev/block/mmcblk0p12'" > "images/cal.img"
adb shell "su -c 'stty raw; cat /dev/block/mmcblk0p9'" > "images/persist-lg.img"
adb shell "su -c 'stty raw; cat /dev/block/mmcblk0p11'" > "images/FOT.img"
adb shell "su -c 'stty raw; cat /dev/block/mmcblk0p2'" > "images/LNX.img"
adb shell "su -c 'stty raw; cat /dev/block/mmcblk0p10'" > "images/mpt.img"
adb shell "su -c 'stty raw; cat /dev/block/mmcblk0p5'" > "images/MSC.img"
adb shell "su -c 'stty raw; cat /dev/block/mmcblk0p7'" > "images/NVA.img"
adb shell "su -c 'stty raw; cat /dev/block/mmcblk0p1'" > "images/SOS.img"
adb shell "su -c 'stty raw; cat /dev/block/mmcblk0p8'" > "images/data.img"
adb shell "su -c 'stty raw; cat /dev/block/mmcblk0p13'" > "images/UDB.img"
adb shell "su -c 'stty raw; cat /dev/block/mmcblk0p6'" > "images/USP.img"

As you can see, this does not only include partitions mounted at the time the script was generated, but also all other "named ones".

Adebar is plain Bash + ADB, and reportedly works in Cygwin (as well as of course on Linux).


Fastboot unlock failed I have a Nokia 6 and whenever I try to unlock my device I am facing error.

The command

sudo fastboot oem unlock

The result

(remote: oem unlock is not allowed)

Any suggestions?

HMD has not yet allowed the bootloader unlock of Nokia 6, so you have no chance :(


Does rooting your phone always involve installing/using tools? I want to know if tools are the only mean to root an android phone ?
can it be done using only a root terminal ?

edit: by tools i mean apps to install like https://www.google.be/search?sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&tbo=d&site=&source=hp&q=root+android

Not to say a root terminal, most of such methods are utilising ADB (Android Debugging Bridge) to push root-related files and binaries into your phone to get it "rooted".

Sometimes, there are also methods where you are required to boot into recovery to "flash" zip packages that contains those files, but this method is mostly device specific.


USB-OTG vs portable Sdcard I have been in the market for an Android tablet. I have found a few within most of my desired specs. Specifically the Nexus 7. This device lacks expandable storage, as do other similarly priced devices  My intent is to root the device and upgrade to 6.0.1. I prefer external storage for various ROMs and backups where they are safe from accidental wipe. My question would be is a USB-OTG system a comparable alternative?

First thing is to verify if the device you propose to buy has USB OTG support. Apart from verifying from OEM specs, do see this How can I determine if my device has USB Host Mode (OTG) support? and also the listing  of supported devices by Chainfire. Saw your edit about Nexus 7. This post confirms OTG support on Marshmallow
For your stated purpose of storing ROMs and backups it should work well. If you are using TWRP recovery , this thread may help, TWRP Using USB OTG to backup?

I have seen my friends  use it thus but haven't used it personally- all my devices had external SD to store


gboard disable multilingual typing I have just bought a nokia 7 plus and I can't disable the multilingual typing. I tried going into settings for gboard under "text corrections" but the option to enable/disable multilingual typing isn't even there. How can I disable it? Please help!

Go to settings for Gboard → languages ↠ English (or the language you are having trouble with) and deselect "Multilingual typing"


What is the purpose of the 3rd on-screen button on a button-less phone? I haven't used Ice Cream Sandwich yet and as far as I know, some phones (Google Nexus perhaps) don't have capacitive or hard buttons. Now as you can see below, there's 4 buttons (this was an image I found while googling).

As far as I know, the buttons are (starting from the left):

Back button
Home button
???
Menu button

I want to know what the third one is? The one that has overlapping rectangles? My phone has capacitive and I have all the above aside from that one button. I asked this just out of curiosity.

That's the "Recent Apps" button. It's alternative of long-press physical home button.

If you tap this, a scrollable screen appears containing thumbnails of suspended or closed recent apps. You can tap thumbnails to switch to apps or swipe it to discard.


How to stop my phone from auto-correcting my writing? I have several Android phones, with different Android versions. I am writing short messages in several languages (Spanish, Catalan, English, German, Italian, ...) and I am really fed up with Android trying to outsmart me. A simple message takes me ages to write because I need to fight the auto-correction mechanism, or change the language, or whatever.

But if I disable all languages in the auto-correction settings, it still tries to auto-correct in English. Why?

Auto-correction is not for me. I do not want auto-correction, period. Not in English, not in any language. Is this possible?

It depends on what keyboard app you're using. If you're using Google Keyboard (the default on Nexus devices), go into its settings. Go to the Text correction section and click Auto-correction. Choose Off from the list.

If you prefer, you could install a keyboard that supports using multiple languages at the same time, such as SwiftKey.


App To Scan Hyperlinks|Content On A Web Page? The concept is same as scanning QR codes, but only hyperlinks and content. Is there such an app?

Sometimes i see long hyperlink on a web page that i would like to have copied to my smartphone.

Scanning a hyperlink on a page (visually, as QR code usually is) can be problematic.  After all, almost every link on the page you're reading does not present a full URL that can be used by the handset (e.g. http://www.google.com doesn't bring you where it says that it does).  In light of this, the Chrome to Phone extension for the Chrome browser can send  a page to your phone where you can bookmark it.  In addition, you get several other nice features (send a highlighted number to your phone's dialer from the browser or launch Google Maps links on your phone from a browser link). Very handy.

If you aren't thrilled with Chrome, Firefox even has an add-on


How can I remap my camera button to switch back and forth between two apps? For my work as a bicycle delivery man, I use the phone for navigation and thus often need to switch between the delivery app and Google Maps. I'd like to configure the camera key of my Cubot Quest Lite to do exactly that.

The functionality I want is exactly the one that happens by default when double-tapping the Overview button. Double-tapping is just annoying and hard to get right every time, so I'd like to switch this task to the mechanical camera button, since I don't use the camera anyway. I tried several remapping apps so far, including Button Mapper and Button Remapper, but none of them could override the camera function of the button.

From what I've read, rooting the phone should make literally everything possible, however I'd prefer to not mess around with this stuff as I don't feel confident. Is there anything else I could try?

I still don't know how to make this work, but I ended up using the app Full Screen Gestures instead. It lets you configure actions for when you swipe inwards from the screen edges, and I simply configured it to start my desired apps on swipe, allowing me to effortlessly switch between them.


Protect from theft at flash level There are a lot of apps that could block your phone in case of theft, take picture of thief remotely and such, but in case of reset any of this security methods will be useless

So I was wondering if there is such thing but at a flash level, shielded from simple ereases? An advanced user only could bypass this settings by re flashing. But regular thief could still be detected.

Yes, that sort of protection is available for Samsung devices: LoJack Device Compatibility

Explanation of what LoJack does:

  LoJack will be embedded in the Galaxy S4's firmware layer, where it
  remains dormant until you awaken it with a monthly subscription that
  becomes your theft insurance. This firmware situation is key -- even
  if robbers wipe your phone to the factory settings, LoJack is still
  active, and unremovable. -- CNET Article

It's difficult to find technical explanations for this software, but from how I understand it, LoJack is installed as an invisible system app, but a copy of it is also kept in the BIOS (pre-bootloader), and is re-installed to any ROM that is flashed. The app is what sends location, signed-in accounts, pictures via standard cell/WiFi protocols. LoJack guarantees to find the thief within 30 days or they send you a new device.

As of late 2015, there is also another type of security introduced with Android Lollipop/Marshmallow called FRP, which forces you to sign in with the previous Google account when you flash a new ROM. But this is hardly a security feature since it has been bypassed, but it is still a good step forward for Android.


How to restrict stranger messages in WhatsApp How can I restrict other WhatsApp users from messaging me, who are not in my mobile contacts. Me and my friend have given a try by simply deleting my fiend contact number from my mobile, and he's still able to send me message in whatsapp-messenger.

So, is it that, anybody can send messages to anyone in the world, provided if they know the mobile number? If so, where is the privacy? Is there a setting option?

Do I have only one option to block them? I would like to see only people in my contacts list message me.

There's no method of blocking messages

Ex:Let's say you receive a message on what's app from an unknown number not in your contact list.Whatsapp will undoubtedly display that message as it's functionality say's so.

Once you have received the number you are aware that the number is unwanted and you can block it.
Note:-Here you are only blocking the number from seeing your last seen,read,display picture,name but it will not refrain/stop the number from sending messages.

There is no feature in what's app to block any number from sending messages.The feature may be added in the upcoming updates


IMEI number got changed I have given my moto g(2nd gen) for sim slot replacement as it as not working and it was under warranty period but then they have changed my IMEI no as well. Do i need to worry about it??

No you don't.... There's actually no problem, if you don't feel very comfortable with the new IMEI, you can always change it yourself using the engineering mode.


SIM card not detecting and imei null after flashing recovery (intex aqua i5-not i5 HD) I wanted to flash custom ROM .

Before that I flashed a custom recovery img.
Then I tried flashing custom ROM zip file using flashify. It said

  flashing completed and reboot to continue.
  When rebooted, it didn't enter Recovery mode. So I installed CWM recovery for my model and tried entering recovery. It still did not enter into Recovery mode.
  Now I flashed TWRP recovery IMG and tried entering Recovery mode. A black empty box showed up instead of Recovery menu.
  Then I booted phone normally and there was no Sim card detection.
  I tried restoring recovery but sim card detection problem still persist.

  My android is rooted . I can enter into Safe mode easily but not able to enter Recovery mode nor able to Factory Reset my phone. Except Sim detection problem everything works fine. WiFi apps, movies everything. I need help.

It looks like ...the custom rom you have flashed doesnt had Modem binaries of your phone...
 A rom consist of many parts that operates the device the Modem binaries are responsible to operate network related operations...

You can download stock rom of your device then extract modem binary from it convert it to flashable file than flash only the modem binary in your device if that works than ok.

Else flash with your stock rom...the problem is not in ypur device ...the problem is in that custom rom binaries..

Good day..


Can I virtualize existing Android device? Is there any way to convert existing Android device into virtual machine?

I'm going to do factory reset and pretty sure that some valuable passwords etc. will be lost after it. That's why it would be great to have old data saved in virtual machine on PC so that later these forgotten info can be accessed.

Yes using BlueStack it will emulate an android on your pc so you can use your preferred method of backup and put it on BlueStack i would recommend titanium backup


How to take a screenshot on Android 4.4.2 on a Nexus 4? I read that you need to hold the volume down button and power button simultaneously to take a screenshot. I've tried this many times and I just can't get it to work. Most of the time the volume lowers, sometimes the screen locks.

Update: Sometimes it's very easy to take screenshots, but usually it's impossible. It's likely a hardware or software defect. Many times I'm also unable to unlock the screen on my Nexus 4. I'm confident it's not a timing issue.

If the buttons don't work, you could always try using ADB from a computer. Root is not required but USB Debugging must be enabled. Then just run:

adb shell screencap -p /sdcard/screen.png
adb pull /sdcard/screen.png
adb shell rm /sdcard/screen.png

These commands will produce a screenshot and save it in the sdcard directory (on some devices, including the Nexus line, have an emulated sdcard partition in the internal storage; so don't worry about this), pull to your computer, and then deletes it from your phone.

Unfortunately, one would think that this would be easier on stock Android. But that's why so many aftermarket versions or apps exist: to provide the missing functionality that people can cherrypick from and customize as they please. Below is an example of a simpler and nicer interface from which to take screenshots, which was added to stock 4.4.3 Android using GravityBox [KK] (root and Xposed required).


Can I use an USB Ethernet adapter to connect Sony Ericsson Xperia Active to a wired Ethernet LAN? Due to my profession I have to connect to wired-only LAN-attached devices (like managed switches, routers set-top-boxes, etc.) frequently to access their configuration interfaces via Telnet/SSH/HTTP. I am totally tired of carrying a bag with a laptop with me wherever I go.

Now I am planning to buy an Android smartphone and feel like I'd like it to be Sony Ericsson Xperia Active which is pretty tough (I need it very much as my phones fall from my hands/table/pocket hundreds times a year), reasonably robust and stylish.

It would simplify my life significantly if I could connect it to wired Ethernet networks.

Is this possible?

I don't mind using a hack or a custom firmware like Cyanogen Mod. I've already got a USB NIC based on ASIX AX88772 chip (which is detected by Ubuntu out of the box and, AFAIK, is also compatible with XBox, PS3 and Apple Macs).

Not an answer but a good alternative. Buy this inexpensive wifi powerbank.

This is practically a very portable wifi router. I bought and use one and so far its great. Can also be an inexpensive Mifi device using a 3G dongle, and a backup battery for your phone.


Alternative way to transfer many files between two Android phones with many restrictions I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 in terrible condition (charging port broke, power button broke etc). I am using a battery of another S3 to power it whenever needed. I have a whole lot of files to transfer (photos, docs etc) to my new phone Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (I guess it's not available where you guys are, but still).

I cannot use a USB cable. (Charging port broke.)
Bluetooth is WAY too slow for so many files, and drains the battery which cannot be charged while using the phone (it's another S3's battery).
I cannot use my laptop as a medium because my laptop does not have Bluetooth (my fault, long story).
Redmi Note 3 does not have NFC.
My Redmi does not have a SIM card yet.

I can't figure out what to do. Can anyone suggest anything?

try shareit application from playstore installing in both mobiles. it works on wifi and you can send your data very fastly. mobiles connect to eachother using wifi but desnot need to connect to any other wifi network so no need to worry about privacy


Is there any way to disable the repeated animation in the notification bar, for app update downloads? I've just acquired an Android 9 phone.  It is part of the Android One scheme, so the software should be really stock Android.  I do not currently wish to install a custom ROM, or otherwise mod the OS at a root level.

I've turned it on, and obviously it started catching up with updates :-).

I don't like that it keeps showing an animated download icon at the top of the screen.  I don't want my attention repeatedly drawn to this, thanks.  (I don't know why anyone would?)

I have set "Remove animations" in the accessibility settings.  However, the animation still keeps appearing.

Is there a way to disable this animation?

Presumably I could go in "Manage Notifications" and disable Google Play Store, but...

I happened to notice that in "Manage Notifications", if I click on "Google Play Store" (instead of the toggle button next to it), I get a detailed list of notifications which I can disable individually.  Some of these look important.  I don't want to disable notifications that critical security updates have been released for Chrome, Play Services, and so on!

I can see seven "categories" of notifications.  Does one of these cover the animated download icon?  If so, what else will it disable?

High priority
Account alerts
App updates available
Updated apps
Security and maintenance
Connectivity
Device setup

I don't have Android 9, but if some of the notifications are like on Android 8, then you can try the following:

Open Settings -> Apps & Notifications. Click on "See all apps", then the 3-dot and select Show system apps.
Look for Download Manager, click on it.
Click "App Notifications" or "Notifications", then disable "In progress"

Note: You may find 2 Download Manager. One of them will have the notifications' categories listed.


Nexus 7: Unable to install factory image, stuck in I want to restore factory android on my Nexus 7 2012 WiFi.

I'm following the official guide.

I start the device in fastboot mode by executiong:

adb reboot bootloader

This works well.
But when I run any command that uses fastboot the execution gets stuck, eg:

$ fastboot oem unlock
< waiting for any device >

The same issue with flash-all.sh.

I also noticed that if I run

adb devices

it doesn't list the tablet. However it gets listed if I run the same command after entering Recovery Mode (I have TWRP recovery).

More details/preconditions: I used to have CianogenMod on the device but I smashed it by mistake (I removed Android in recovery mode instead of simply wiping the data). I can't find the CianogenMod image anymore on LinageOS site (there is only Nexus 2013 available) so I'm trying to install at least what is available.

Well, the device is detected in ADB only, you probably haven't installed fastboot drivers. < waiting for any device > means that the computer is waiting for a device in fastboot mode.

Download the drivers from this page then install. fastboot oem unlock should work now.

Learn the difference between these two protocols (ADB and Fastboot).

This question may also help.


Why do some apps with no internet features require internet access? A couple of apps I've installed or considered say they require internet access even though they have no obvious internet features.  One of the most surprising ones was a simple compass app.

Why is this?

Usually apps require internet access for ads, analytical data, or for sending bug reports/stack traces back to the developer.

Other reasons might include using Google's licensing servers to validate legitimate copies of apps with Android market purchases (Google's licensing servers use the CHECK_LICENSE permission).  Similarly, some developers produce their own keys and license servers (prior to Google's implementation).

For instance, I am the developer of a tipping calculator app.  It requires the internet permission to send analytical data back to me via Flurry.  One day I plan to add this remote stack tracing program for more detailed errors (but I haven't yet because so far my app hasn't really generated any bugs/errors).  But the value of this information is worth asking for the internet permission.  I can see exactly how many users of what Android OS are using my app and what are the most popular phones using my app.  However, I also give users an "opt out" in the settings if they choose to not send me this information.


mobile homescreen lost I have downloaded 2 icon packs for android. Now my phone don't work anymore.
I am working with smart launcher.
I can not even get in to settings or apps. My homescreen is black, but I can see on top the task bar, with notification for emails and our and I have netconnection.
what can I do??

Try to go to setting by any way...

Like: in some launch screens you can get the settings screen via: options->Device settings or Drag the task bar ->Settings.

And then change the Home screen settings to previous home screen.

If these options not available, I think Factory Reset is the only option for you.


Removed profile photo still appears on my contacts WhatsApp I am using WhatsApp and have a profile photo set. I updated this picture several times. Now I noticed that on the phone of my first contact there is an old profile photo displayed. On the phone of my second contact there is an even older photo displayed. I removed the picture on my phone successfully though.

Solution attempt:

I restarted WhatsApp on my phone and the phone of my first contact.
I cleared the cache of WhatsApp on my phone.

Result: The old picture is still shown.

What am I doing wrong?

Profile picture is set to "My contacts" in

Settings -> Account -> Privacy -> Profile photo -> My contacts.

This is not a duplicate of this question as I want my picture to be removed from my contacts WhatsApp.

This almost always happens with me. Your contact's WhatsApp hasn't refreshed the changed profile photo from the Server and hence it is displaying the low resolution cache version of the old photo.

There's nothing you need to do on your phone. Try to refresh the contacts list on your friend's phone. That's best you can try as the problem is not on your side.


How to search contacts with T9 dialer on Nexus 4 I had a myTouch Slide 4g rooted and running Android 4.0. I was using the default dialer that came with CyanogenMod's Google Apps ROM. I recently picked up the Nexus 4 (not rooted and the bootloader is locked), but it doesn't search through contacts when I put in numbers. Is there a way to use the default dialer to search for contacts by name or number?

This is now a standard feature of Android 4.3, although you do need to enable it.

From http://www.android.com/about/jelly-bean/

  Autocomplete - just start touching numbers or letters and the dial pad will suggest phone numbers or names. To turn on this feature, open your phone app settings and enable “Dial pad autocomplete.”


Can Gmail be uninstalled on Android 5.1.1 (Lollipop)? Somehow the Gmail app has disappeared from my new Android phone (Motorola Moto G 3, Android 5.1.1 Lollipop).

I thought it was impossible to uninstall Gmail so I suspect a hardware failure or an Android bug.

A previous thread says that Gmail can not be uninstalled on KitKat:

How to (cleanly) remove Gmail app from KitKat? I have fully moved over to Inbox

But can Gmail be removed from Android 5.1.1 (Lollipop)?

UPDATE: To avoid confusion here perhaps I should add that I can not find Gmail in Google Play under "Installed" apps and not in "Settings -> Apps -> All".

UPDATE 2: Today Gmail is back on my phone. (Yes, I am sure it was not there.) So I guess this was the automatic uninstall + reinstall that Android uses when there seem to be some problem with an app. However I am not sure why this happened. It can be hardware problem or a bug in Gmail that was hit because of my huge amount of mail messages. Is there some way to get information about this from Google/Android?

If it's built into Android as a system app (built into the system, uninstallable by normal means), no, not unless you have root or unless your device has some rare functionality which will allow you to (I don't even know if such a device exists). If it's an app you installed yourself and isn't a system app, then yes.


Can't update Uber app I installed uber app from play store. But when i try to update it then it cant update and it shows error.

Follow below Step:

Go to Setting
Tap on Applications
Find the Uber app on a downloaded app
Tap on Uber app
Clear caches files and clear data storage.
Now open Play Store
Find Uber app, let see UPDATE button is visible


What is USB debugging? Can I keep it ON forever? Sometimes I need to transfer some music from my PC to my Galaxy S2 and must always activate USB debugging. Then I think, can I keep it ON forever? I mean, Keep it ON for ever can give me a problem (cost battery?) ? And what's USB debugging?

Enabling USB debugging essentially starts up the adb daemon on your device, which allows it to communicate with adb on another device to enable debugging commands. It's used when developing and debugging applications, and allows you (primarily) to:

Transfer data between a computer and your device (both ways)
Read log data easily from logcat
Debug applications, including breakpoints and heap monitoring
Install and uninstall applications
Access a stripped-down shell on the device, for command-line interaction.

Leaving it enabled all the time will have a negligible impact on battery, if any at all. Some other things to consider about leaving it on (or not):

PRO: If your device has a hardware problem that prevents you from accessing the screen, USB debugging could be helpful in recovering data (especially on a rooted device).
PRO: You can install applications, reboot your device, and generally do some other convenient things without having to actually interact with your device physically, even with the screen locked/off.
PRO: On a rooted device it may be possible to regain entry if you have forgotten the screen lock password/pin/pattern (also a potential CON, see below).
PRO: You can take advantage of port forwarding over USB debugging to use tethering apps like PDANet (I believe that's how it's implemented since it does require it).
CON: If your device is lost or stolen, an unscrupulous individual could attempt to steal data from the device regardless of whether or not you've got a screen lock. If you're rooted, they can get pretty much everything.
CON: I recall reading that some devices can have trouble with accessing the SD card as a mass storage device when USB debugging is enabled. I've personally never seen this issue, but I have seen people allege that it was a problem.

See also: Using Hardware Devices from the Android SDK documentation which discusses debugging applications on physical devices (rather than the emulator). There is also a documentation page regarding the Android Debug Bridge (ADB) which explains its purpose and its commands.


Why is my Samsung Galaxy S still on Android 2.2.1? I have tried by using samsung kies but it says there are no updates. i have even tried to update it within the phone (software update). Other people are on android 2.3 but i am still on 2.2.1 and it won't update

As you've got your device with a contract, this added a special barrier to updates. Short explanation how that goes:

Google (or rather the AOSP, Android Open Source Project) releases a new Android version. This is usually immediately available to Nexus devices -- but...
Device manufacturers need to adapt it to their hardware (drivers etc.) and, in many cases, their special "skinning" (HTC Sense, Samsung Tourchwiz, Motorola Blur, etc), which again at least delays availability of this update
Carriers using their special branding (boot logo, special apps, and more)

So if there's a new Android version released by the AOSP does not necessarily mean it becomes available for all Android devices. It might get stuck already in step 2 if a manufacturer decides to no longer support a device (in your case that happened after the 2.3 release, so 2.3 is the latest "official version" available to the device) -- and even if it passes this step, but you've got a branded device, it might get stuck in step 3 (which most likely is what happened to you).

The only way out if got stuck in steps 2 or 3 is checking for custom ROMs. As that "getting stuck" also affects developers, they often decide to build their own ROMs. Many times this is done by porting a ROM from compatible devices, adjusting the missing stuff (or leaving some gaps, so there might be things not fully working, which then is pointed out in the instructions).

So if you want to go the "do-it-yourself" way (after having t-mobile unlocking the device, if needed), check How do I root my Samsung Galaxy S? for how to root your SGS, and Where can I find stock or custom ROMs for my Android device? for fitting ROMs. The "how-to-flash" usually is described on the page you can download the ROM from.


Send Audio to Two A2DP Bluetooth Devices Simultaneously I was pleasantly surprised to see that I can pair & connect my Nexus One with two identical NoiseHush N550 Bluethooth headsets simultaneously.

Unfortunately however, only one of them (always the last to be connected) seems to receive actual audio.

Is this a known limitation in the Android OS (version 2.2.1)? Or is there a setting or workaround that allows sending audio to both devices simultaneously?

Update, 2017 Bluetooth 5.0

In summary, Bluetooth 5.0 comes with a lot of bandwidth, which allows the streaming to two speakers at the same time.

Speaking about the 5.0 Bluetooth in the Samsung S8, AndroidPolice writes:

  That extra bandwidth is required for the Galaxy S8's "Dual audio" feature. This allows the phone to stream audio to two Bluetooth headsets or speakers at the same time. You can also adjust the volume for each device independently. It's like sharing an earbud with your friend, except with fewer wires and less bacteria.

I think the bandwidth allows for sharing to two speakers at the time. I am yet to find out if any extra speakers could be added.

But there you have it. Bluetooth now evolved to support bigger bandwidth to support multi-streaming, Natively.

Any thanks? Give to the Bluetooth gods!

Old Answer:

Because this resource isn't as old as the current question is, I am sure it is the answer.

The limitation for sending output to multiple connected bluetooth devices is not about a feature. Its about how Bluetooth enabled communicate with each other.

Bluetooth, from day one, was designed for a one-on-one communication over short distances for short periods of times i.e sending an image, short video clip etc.

The use of Bluetooth has evolved and as such support for multicasting is much wanted.

Quoting from this XDA forum post:

  The reason why bluetooth doesn't support Multicast is because it doesn't have the bandwith to support High Quality streaming simultaneously no would the chips really having the processing power but that could be fixed, but the main limitation is the lack of available bandwith specified in the 802.11 standard for bluetooth.

... it is clear there's a limitation, and hopefully work is done in that regard to allow support.


Restoring contacts after X10 mini pro upgrade to 2.1 I just upgraded my X10 mini pro to Android 2.1 . As suggested in the instructions did I perform a backup which seems to have created an file (~ 160 kB) with extension .sbf in /sdcard/data/backup/ on the phone.

After the upgrade, I tried to restore from this file (using the same 'Backup & Restore' application which comes with the operating system). While it seems to remember which applications were installed (but I had to configure the wireless access again by hand...) I do not get the contacts back, although it claims to restore the contact data.

Unfortunately, I never exported the contacts separately to a file nor did I store them online.

Is there a way to get the contacts back ?

Or is there a way to read the contents of the .sbf file ?

Well, this Sony Ericsson sync tool seems to work, specially if you want to move contacts from another Sony Ericsson device from your new one (They claim you can also synchronize your data from other devices, as long es they support SyncML).

But I personally use Gmail's contact management, which is easy to use, practical and safe. Obviously is a good idea to auto-synchronize it, as you did, even if you weren't aware ;).

After reading your post I've been playing with the Backup & Restore tool, and I realized they warn something like:

  Contacts synchronized using other services are not included.*

*I don't know if this is the actual English message, cause my phone is in Spanish, but should be somehing like that, shouldn't it?

Regards.


Cyanogen dialer not working after flashing C-apps bundle Recently I installed CyanogenMod on my phone. I also decided to flash Cyanogen's new C-apps bundle.

After I did that, the new Cyanogen dialer keeps crashing whenever I try to make or receive calls. Does anybody know what's going on?

The wiki mentions that in order to use capps you need Cyanogenmod 12.1, what doesn't mention is that is not compatible with Cyanogenmod 13.

The wiki also comes with uninstall instructions. (You don't need to wipe and flash add I thought first).

Uninstall

Note: Requires Root

You will need to enter the following commands to remove C-Apps.

Connect your device to your computer and open a terminal or command prompt.

adb root
adb remount
adb shell rm /system/addon.d/01-cyngn.sh
Reflash CyanogenMod zip for your device

https://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Cyanogen_Apps


Startup and Wi-Fi problem with email, apps Had to grab a Samsung Galaxy Discover prepaid phone with 4.0.4 as a quick replacement.  Only problem is whenever I power up the phone, my Gmail and ISP's email accounts won't sync and my weather widget won't refresh.  Idisable Wi-Fi service and then everything starts working immediately.  I can then start Wi-Fi and it seems like everything works via wifi from then on until my next on/off.  No other carrier or Wi-Fi issues that I can see.

Any thoughts on the cause?

Not a real solution as to the underlying problem -- but a possible work-around involving Tasker (or a similar automation app which could do the same):

Condition:

On Startup
If Wi-Fi On

Task:

Wi-Fi Off
Wait 15 sec
Wi-Fi On

This at least should save you from having to do it manually everytime.


How can I have a separate birthday calendar without shoving all those contacts onto GMail? I have the HTC Sensation XL if that has any significance on the issue.

I'd like to have the birthdays of my contacts show up as appointments in my calendar automagically.

What I don't want is to put all those contacts on Gmail. I don't use gmail and I don't want Google to have them.

I would also prefer if they would not go into my default local calendar so I can toggle them on and off to reduce clutter. But this is optional.

Is there any way to do this?

Install my new open source app Birthday Adapter.


Can a thief unlock or otherwise access the data on my stolen Android device? If my Android device is stolen, will the person who ends up with it be able to get my data by plugging it into a PC and using some trick? Is there anything I can do to prevent this or make it harder?

If you used full-disk encryption, then your data will be accessible until the device unmounted the encrypted disk (e.g. by rebooting) and discarded the decryption key. If you store your sensitive data in encrypted container, then your data will be accessible until the application closes the container and discarded the decryption key.

If you don't use any encryption, then your data is naked in the wild. Many thiefs are simply interested to sell the phone to make a quick buck and so will simply reformat the phone; but if the thief has a specific intent to steal your data (e.g. corporate espionage, identity thief, etc), then you can assume that they can read all your unencrypted data.

If your phone uses SD card (instead of internal memory), then getting to your data in the SD card is trivial. Getting data in internal memory took a little bit more effort, but is still relatively easy. A turned off device with full-disk-encryption is -- for all practical purpose -- a useless brick for your adversary.


Can't change galaxy s4 lock screen wallpaper if security is in place If I use no security for galaxy s4 lock screen I can use a custom wallpaper for the lock screen. But if I use a Pin security then the lock screen uses the default wallpaper of a kid running with a bunch of balloons when entering my pin. Can someone confirm this please? Thanks

From what I've read this is a known "issue" with the S4.  When using pin security you can't change any lock screen widgets either.  If I was sure that my Fitbit Flex would continue to work with the S4 I'd have flashed CyanogenMod onto my S4 (they have been producing nightly versions for the S4 for a couple of weeks now).


Message thread with mute icon (speaker w slash through) My message thread to my GF has a mute icon (speaker w slash through) and it doesnt alert me when she messages, how do i get rid of that? Phone just recently updated to marshmallow > Galaxy S6

There's a drop down box for her number when you're inside the thread. If you hit that and then tap on notification settings you can turn notifications for her sms back on.


Phone calls - the other person can't hear me My phone has just started having a problem where on phone calls, the other person can't hear me. They just hear some static. I can hear them just fine. It's the same whether I call them or they call me. I tried restarting my phone, I looked at the settings and couldn't see anything obvious whereby I could have muted myself. I tried turning the call on Speaker and off again - no difference.

Any ideas?

If it's relevant, my phone is a Samsung Galaxy S running Froyo.

Check the microphone.  Can you record yourself with the Voice Recorder app?  If not, I would suspect you damaged it somehow.


ADB wireless :- problem with IP I use adb wireless tcpip connection but every time I connect my device to my router it assigns a new IP address to my android device which requires me to plug my phone again and restart adb in tcpip with the IP address provided, I dont want this to happen every time, I just want to enter the same IP address and put adb connect <ipaddress>:<tcpip_port> and connect to my device.
i tried to use static IP for the network using the mobile but due to some reason this restricted me to use  internet(it was connected to the modem but not able to use internet).
More info:
Android 10
MIUI 12
redmi note 7s
i use scrcpy and have created a bat file(.cmd file) which when clicked runs a series of commands to connect to my phone wirelessly using adb and mirror the screen and control it remotely but because my router assigns a different IP ever time i connect my phone i have to edit the bat file.
Even if I type the commands manually without connecting the device with USB cable (adb connect <ipaddress>:<tcpip_port>) it says: unable to connect to <ip addr>:5555: cannot connect to <ip addr>:5555: No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it. (10061) , then i have to connect it with USB cable and again start the adb in tcpip.
What is the use of adb wireless connection if I have to connect it to pc by USB every time (at the beggining) to make it wireless for that specific time.

IP address is not the problem here. reason is your phone is unrooted therefore the wireless app is unable to start adbd. so you have to plug in usb cable each time and switch to wireless regardless of IP address. This is fixed in android 11
however, regarding your IP issue you can use hostname instead (it is hard-coded here in %device%)

@echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion

set device=android-6cf1b33d5e54da8d

for /F "delims=[] tokens=2" %%f in ('ping -n 1 -w 1000 -4 !device!') do (
  set client=%%f
  echo %%f | findstr /r /c:"\<[0-9][0-9]*\.[0-9][0-9]*\.[0-9][0-9]*\.[0-9][0-9]*\>" > NUL 2>&1 && goto connect
)
echo !device! device not found
pause
goto end
:connect
adb connect !client!:5555
scrcpy -s !client!:5555
:end


Force all emails to display only the text/plain part HTML mail is a pain to read on a phone. The screen is too narrow and the images take too long to download. Typically without the images the mail is just useless.

HTML mail is only slightly less of a pain on my desktop, but there I can use Mutt and just read the text/plain part if it exists. Is there a way to make my mail client default to reading the plain text part of the mail rather than the HTML part? My mail is on an IMAP server, so I use the default Android mail client. I looked at K9 Mail too but it doesn't seem to have a way to do this either. I don't use Gmail and for a variety of reasons I have no interest in using it even if it solves this problem. Any other suggestions welcome, thanks!

On my device (Samsung Galaxy S3 with Jelly Bean 4.1) I could change this by setting the "Size to retrieve emails" to the minimum (2kb here) on the account settings in the email app.


Kies is not working after flashing cyanogenmod on my Samsung Android phone I have flashed my samsung android phone(GT-I5510) to CM7 and everything is fine with it exept that kies has stopped working with it..i.e when I connect my phone to laptop, it doesn't show the option for kies mode.
Please help me with how to enable it.

Samsung's Kies software only works with Samsung phones running official Samsung ROMs.

The only way to get Kies working with your phone would be to put an official Samsung released OS version onto it again.


Google Play asking 100 TIMES the real size of the app So... i wanted to download this app "ZenUI marshmallow theme" it was 2 megabytes. It prompted me - there isn't enough space to install this app. 207MB needed. YES! TWO HUNDRED FREAKING MEGABYTES! It's 100 times the size! Why i this happening?!

Because memory is used for cache and data of all apps on the phome not just for installing apps, on most phones when free memory hit number of ~500 mb they show message 'insufficient-memory' when try to install some.
I doubt that theme need 200mb, no theme require that much space.


galaxy s3 mini - notifcation sounds -how to turn off. I have the default notification sounds set to silent but every few minutes a bell sounds. Does anyone know what is causing it?

There are several ways to chase this down.

I would start by checking the notifications bar to see if it will tell you what app is trying to get your attention.

If that doesn't lead you the culprit, take a look through the settings > sound area.  You may have inadvertently turned on screen lock sounds or dialing sounds or keyboard sounds.

If neither of those work, head over to settings > accessibility and look through the options for possibilities.


My IMEI was deleted, but I wrote down the number. Can I restore it? Possible Duplicate:
  How can I restore IMEI code after factory reset?

I have an SGS2.  During an OTA update the IMEI was deleted.  I didn't have a backup of the EFS directory, as the phone wasn't rooted.  However, I copied down the IMEI on paper beforehand.

Is there any way to restore the IMEI if I have the number?

I've a Samsung Galaxy S1, but it will probably also work for you...

What I did, I flashed a Stock ROM via ODIN with Re-Partition enabled. (Don't know if it's necesseary) The stock ROM automatically regenerated my EFS-Folder and my IMEI... (See the Thread here)

This worked for me, but this might also help you.

I don't know any way to restore your IMEI, just because you know it. (It's written behind your battery anyways) The EFS-Folder which stores the IMEI is encrypted.