Is it possible to remove the battery percentage on my Samsung S5? I have a Galaxy S5 running 4.4.2, unrooted.

In the top indicator bar, there is an icon of a battery, and a percentage of remaining battery life beside it (not inside of it, as I've seen other people mention).

I find the percentage being there kind of stresses me out. I look at it and wonder if the drop from 90% to 80% over the last little while is indicative of lots of battery use, and whether or not my phone will last the day.

Can I get rid of it? I'm okay with just a battery icon.

Ideally, a percentage would only show once I'm under a critical point, like 20% or so.

Here is what my battery settings look like:

Click image(s) for larger versions

Battery percentage is used by users to charge the device based on the percentage(if the charge <25 % then charge the device till 100% and if not less then 25 % then do not charge in order to extend your battery life)

The below steps are common for all the Android devices with version greater then Android 4.1(jelly bean) to the present Android 4.4 (KitKat) only with some minor modifications.

You can simply uncheck the Show Battery Percentage in the Settings.

Go  to the settings>Battery.

In that you can see that the Show battery Percentage is checked. You can simply uncheck that and the battery percentage will not be displayed.

If at all the check box is not under the battery menu then you might be having it under the Display menu.

Last but not the least please check if your device is available for the Update to Android 4.4.4 if yes then go ahead with the update.


Do I lose pixel information if I use landscape mode? I thought the camera sensor has a defined maximum resolution.

But in landscape it records a photo in 16/9 format, while in portrait it takes 3/4 ratio.

So is it better to force portrait mode and postprocess the pictures into landscape, if desired?

The orientation you take the photo doesn't affect the pixel information in the image at all. The camera still records an image of (for example) 3456x2304 pixels, whichever way up the phone is. It also sets a flag in the JPEG file to note the correct orientation of the photo. Then, when the photo is displayed, it's losslessly rotated when reading the file, so that it appears in the correct orientation.

A few years ago, this would lead to some image viewers showing the photo in the wrong orientation, because they didn't understand the flag, but almost all photo software (and even embedded software, such as in smart TVs and digital photo frames) can use the correct orientation today.

If you like, it's still possible to postprocess the image. A special tool (such as exiftran on GNU/Linux) can read the image and the flag, apply the correct rotation, and write out the rotated image. It uses a special trick to rotate the image without having to decompress and recompress the JPEG file: this way, there is no loss of quality.


Android AVD not displaying appropriate scale How do I fix the display on my android AVD? The UI is completely out of whack. I'm using the following command line options to launch the AVD, but nothing I do within the 'scale' and 'dpi-device' options helps fix the messed up display (see example screenshot). I'm running on Arch Linux with the latest Nvidia proprietary driver 346.35. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Command:

$ emulator -verbose -scale 0.9 -dpi-device 480 -noaudio -no-boot-anim -noskin -no-snapshot @lollipop -qemu -m 1536 -enable-kvm

Also, according to this StackOverflow post, I also did:

$ adb shell setprop qemu.sf.lcd_density 480
$ adb shell stop
$ adb shell start

Doing this has made no difference to the messed up display on my emulator.

Note that I have to use the -noskin option because it refuses to  launch the emulator for me otherwise.

I don't launch from the command line, but this question came up while I was trying to solve a similar problem.

I eventually solved it by replacing the hw.lcd.density value in the .android/avd/<avd_name>.avd/config.ini file with the value from this answer nearest to the value in the skin's hardware.ini file (in my case that's at <android-studio-location>/plugins/android/lib/device-art-resources/<skin-name>/hardware.ini).

In my case, I'm emulating a Samsung Galaxy S6, and the Samsung provided skin has an hw.lcd.density of 200, but the dimensions they provide are 1440x2560 and the provided background images are small, so they make the screen fit into a much smaller space (474x839), so the config.ini file has a hw.lcd.density value of 640. Decreasing it to 213 and restarting the emulator fixes the problem (but I guess it doesn't quite accurately emulate the screen appearance. I don't know whether it's better than just using a different screen resolution value).


How does S Pen (Samsung) show cursor on screen? I would like to know how does samsung android os show the pen cursor when I took the pen out and point over screen without touching the screen? It is a miracle for me. I cannot find any sources.

Break it down-How does the S pen work? offers a nice explanation along with a link to video too

S pen pulls power from the device wirelessly

  Electromagnetic field that provides power to the pen can also be used to calculate its position relative to the screen. This, along with information from the S Pen button and the nib on the end are what is used to determine what the user it doing with the S Pen.

Pressure sensitivity is built in the stylus
To summarize

  An electromagnetic field is generated from a circuit behind the screen. The S Pen picks this up and uses it to power itself and figure out its position relative to the screen. It sends this, along with information from the S Pen button and the nib at the end, back to the Note.

Edit: Video in linked post makes it clear ascend easy to understand


How to prevent phone operator from opening spam popups? My phone operator, Movistar Argentina, is sending a lot of spam. I managed to block most of the SMS, however it has now also started opening ad popups on my phone (see below).

I've looked at How do I block this (carrier) advertisement dialog? but I cannot find the "SIM Toolkit" app anywhere on my phone to disable it. Is there any other way to block this?

This generally seems to be done as a 'value added service' in the Andriod SIM Toolkit, as per  this question here.

However, in this case it may be a Cell Broadcast.

  Cell Broadcast is designed for simultaneous delivery to multiple users in a specified area. Whereas the Short Message Service-Point to Point (SMS-PP) is a one-to-one and one-to-a-few service (requires multiple SMS messages, as each message can only carry one phone number), Cell Broadcast is a one-to-many geographically focused messaging service. Cell Broadcast messaging is also supported by UMTS.

If you go to your SMS app and go SMS > Settings > Cell Broadcast and disable it, this should stop this popup.


Lowering the brightness of the camera flash I have a Samsung Galaxy S Duos (GT-S7562L).

The camera is good, but its flash is so strong that after the photo we have to wait for 1 or 2 minutes to our eyes be able to see all clearly - it is like to when you see the sun light directly.

So I would like to change flash brightness in some way: hardware or software.

The easier but ugliest hardware way is to use a semi-transparent sticker in front of lens.

Do you know any way to change flash brightness entering some hidden settings (common settings do not have that option) or using another settings app or camera app? The phone is not rooted, but I accept solutions in this way.

This question was asked over at StackOverflow HERE

Basically, the answer is No. The OS is limited to pretty much just FLASH_ON and FLASH_OFF. Though I have seen some flashlight/torch apps that have a 'turbo' mode that makes the LED even brighter (but that's not what you want and these types of apps usually require ROOT access).

Another workaround is to remove the back cover, put a small piece of tissue paper over the LED (make sure the paper is still big enough to be held in place with the back-cover back on) and put the cover back on.


Rooted, Encrypted Galaxy Note 8" stuck in bootloop! I am a noob.

In a nutshell, I poked at things I shouldn't have after rooting/encrypting my galaxy note 8" tablet (GT-N5110) and now it continuously loops through the boot up screen.  It gives me just enough time to see the "enter passcode to decrypt" screen after the samsung logo, then it re-boots.

I have clockworkmod installed, but I still can't factory reset since I can't unlock the encryption.

Help?

edit: This is a tablet, so no battery removal. I hadn't flashed any custom roms (except adding clockworkmod recovery), only rooted and encrypted the device. I accidentally erased the wrong thing when messing with a debloater app, which is why I am now stuck in a bootloop on an encrypted device.  No fastboot option, only clockworkmod--which can't help because encryption.

Things to try

I'd say take off the batteries, put them back, go to download mode, and reflash the ROM. Better off download it again to be 100% certain it's OK (even if it is, sometimes certain ROMs happen to work only after a couple times flashing).
Also read the documentation of the ROM in case it needed your storage to be in a different filesystem format (ext4 or whatever).


How can i root my Oukitell U22 smartphone the oukitell U22 is a new smarphone my elder sister got for me, i have been trying to root it, tried frameroot apk and others ...please help

here is the spec Oukitell U22 Specs

Your device has a Mediatek Chipset (MT6581A). You can try the Kingoroot app version or the desktop version. If it fails you'll need to try MTK Droid Tools
Follow the steps below (From MTK Droid Tools site, with some modifications).

Download MTK Droid Tools here.
Download the drivers (from the same link scroll down the page).
On your phone go to Go to “Settings” > “Developer options” > check “USB Debugging”. If you don't find the Developer options, go to About > tap 7 times on Build then go back to Settings you should now see the Developer options.
Connect the phone to the computer. Should install drivers. If not install the drivers from the above link.
Now run MTK Tools as administrator (Right click > Run as Administrator).
MTK Tools should detect the phone and display device infos at the left side.
Click “Root” at the bottom. You must grant any authorization when the phone prompts for.
A progress bar should appear and becomes gradually green.
Click “Backup” and create a backup before rooting.
Whne the backup process completes, click “To prepare blocks for flash Tool”. Follow the instructions that appear on the display and MTK Droid Tools will start rooting your MediaTek.


How to make an app behave the same way with screen off, as with screen on? Maybe the question should be - "how to keep the CPU awake with screen off", but I'm not sure yet, here's why:

I'm trying to use my android device as a DLNA player, that streams music to a DLNA renderer. The problem is that the playback keeps stopping with the screen off, using apps like n7player and doubleTwist music player. Logically, these apps should keep the CPU awake when the music is playing, but if they don't, I have tried the following to keep the CPU awake:

Disabling battery optimizations on these apps;
an Automate script without the "keep screen on" option;
This command - echo mylockname >/sys/power/wake_lock;

But these solutions didn't solve my problem, the playback keeps stopping after awhile, when the screen turns off. If the screen is kept on, by using the caffeine function for example, there are no issues, but I would like to keep the screen off to save some battery and maybe prolong the life of the device.

So if the solutions I have mentioned really keep the CPU awake, maybe there is something else that these players need to keep the playback going.

Update:
Screen backlight off app - this seems like the most promising approach and maybe works on some devices as expected, but not on mine (Samsung SM-T585 tablet). It should turn off the screen backlight and it does so by setting the brightness level to 0. Maybe some devices completely turn off the backlight in this case, but my tablet keeps emmiting very low light. So if anyone knows a way to completely turn off the backlight - please let me know.

So, the only way I have found yet, to stream music to a DLNA device with screen off, using these apps, is to disable Doze mode by using this command in terminal:

dumpsys deviceidle disable

followed by dumpsys deviceidle enable when I no longer need streaming.

Now just need to find the way to automate this with tasker.


Do I need to root my phone before installing CM on my S3 Previously I've needed to root my phone before flashing any ROMs on it. Now I have a new s3 and I'd like to install CM on it.

However, this installation guide does not mention the need to root the phone as other installation guides have in the past.

So do I need to root the phone before slashing this mod?

Technically no, you don't have to root your current ROM before you can flash CyanogenMod on your S3. Instead, you will simply gain root when you flash CyanogenMod itself.

This is due to the way in which Samsung's bootloaders work in comparison to the ones on other devices. Samsung devices effectively have unlocked bootloaders right out of the gate, but they don't have a way to use the fastboot utility that other devices use. Instead, you can use the Odin utility (and a third party, cross platform implementation: Heimdall) to reflash the device from its "Download Mode" at any time, as the CM installation instructions describe.

Therefore, since Download Mode is accessible to the end user without any sort of modifications to the device, you don't need to "root" beforehand in order to install a custom recovery (and, by association, custom ROMs). The reason why you need root on many other devices is because it's the only way to write to the recovery partition and get the custom recovery installed. Often this requires unlocking the bootloader in the process as well.


TWRP unable to wipe or format `Failed to mount '/system' (Device or resource busy)` I'm trying to install LineageOS and then GAPPS on my Pixel XL from TWRP recovery. I'll try to Advance Wipe the /systems directory and Format Data, but I continue to get multiple errors:

Failed to mount '/system' (Device or resource busy)

Failed to mount '/vendor' (Device or resource busy)

And

Unable to wipe 'System'

Unable to wipe '/system'

If I just continue with adb sideload lineageos.zip most of the time it stops about halfway (PowerShell shows 47%) through and then TWRP shell  shows:

Installing zip file '/sideload/package.zip'
Step 1/2
Step 2/2

I then try to sideload the gapps.zip file and get another error saying /system doesn't have enough space. I've tried sideloading several different gapps versions including their smallest pico zip fie of 91.39 MiB.

I am able to then boot into LineageOS, but no GAPPS show and I'm not able to run any new apps installed via APK without them crashing.

My assumption is that I need to fully wipe system and format it, but I've been trying for two days now and still get the above (Device or resource busy) errors. Any help would be much appreciated!

I fixed this by using an older version of TWRP (3.2.3.1), then I downloaded GAPPs from a different source and installed using adb sideload now all is working.


Determining how particular SwiftKey suggestions are generated Is there a way to determine how a particular SwiftKey suggestion got added to SwiftKey's dictionary of words? I'm seeing some weird suggestions pop up, and I'm pretty sure they're not words I've ever used in email or SMS.

Specifically, I wrote "Saturday," and then just started picking the strangest-looking suggestions I saw, and ended up with the following:

  Saturday, Konigsburg 45Ira Sleeps Over 157Nature's Children #Mike's Mystry 145BxcrChldrn #9Mntn Top 63Paddington

It's conceivable that I used the word "Konigsburg" at some point, and of course I've used "sleeps," "over," and "children," but I'm pretty sure I never misspelled "mystery" like that, and the others are just bizarre. I also find it strange that all of them are capitalized. Any ideas?

EDIT: To clarify, I'm not asking why these words popped up at this particular time; i.e., I don't want details regarding how SwiftKey selects the "best" words to display at any given time. I just want to know how these words got added as dictionary candidates at all.

An answer to this question is very implementation specific, and can in fact only be answered for sure by a SwiftKey developer, eventually. In general, word suggestions are based on algorithms that are fed by n-gram dictionaries that predict possibilities for the next word you're likely to type.

See Wikipedia's n-gram entry to get more insight.

2-gram or 3-gram dictionaries are likely to be used with SwiftKey, amongst other techniques.

Regarding the strange sentence you auto-typed in: This reflects common use of probable 2/3-grams, so blame your fellow users on the poor spelling, it's just what they actually use.


How to downgrade from Android 9 to Android 8 or Android 7 on LG V20? I am using LG V20, model number is LG-F800K. 2 days ago, I installed the official update to Android 9. However after the update, my phone became battery drained faster and worked slower than before. I have tried at least the following 3 ways to try to get back to Android 7 or Android 8:

https://forum.xda-developers.com/v20/how-to/guide-lg-v20-to-life-t3827732 -> "Download failed" error.
https://lg-firmwares.com/how-to-flash/#how-to-flash-new -> Unknown model.
https://lg-firmwares.com/how-to-flash/#how-to-flash-old -> Error "could not connect to server".

As of now, I really don't know how to reduce the Android version on this device?

I would appreciate your help.

I have downgraded the version successfully. You need to use LGUP DualMode in this case, it will help identify your device!

You can download it here (Copyright © by TecKnight): LGUP_DualMode.zip


Install GMail 4.9 on 2013 Nexus 7 with Android 5 "Upgrade" How can I install gmail 4.9 on my Android 5.0 tablet?

I just (ignorantly) upgraded to Android 5.0 on my 2013 Nexus 7. Unfortunately, doing so also upgraded my gmail to version 5.0, which I do NOT want (because the 5.0 layout gives me less information than the 4.9 layout, and there is no way to change it to the more compact and useful screen of 4.9).

I have downloaded to my tablet Gmail 4.9 (1271612) APK Download, but when I try to install it, I only get the message "App not installed". I have disabled gmail (evidently, there is no way to uninstall it), and I "Allow installation of apps from sources other than the Play Store".

There are two ways that I know of. The android package manager won't allow you to install a lower version of the same package.

Solution 1:
Root your device, install lucky patcher, open toolbox, choose "patch to android", and install the patch that allows the package manager install older versions of the same app

Solution 2:
Using the app ApkEditor, clone the 4.9 apk so that it creates a duplicate app that can be installed in parallel with the default Gmail app. This duplicate app also can't be updated from the Google play store.

If you want, I can provide you with a modified apk to install in parallel, though remember, you shouldn't be trusting a stranger on the Internet. Just comment below.


Alarm clock unlocking device I have a Galaxy S3 phone and a Galaxy Tab 4, both with the same issue. I'm using the Echo Lockscreen app (paid version) with a pattern unlock, which I'm happy with. I'm also using the built-in "Clock" on the phone and "Alarm" on the tab.

When the alarm rings and I shut it off, the phone/tab is unlocked - so it skips the unlock security. Using the stock Samsung lock screen, the lock works and I have to unlock the phone normally.

I'm not finding any settings either on the device or in the app - any ideas on how to fix this? I'd be willing to switch to a different alarm clock app, but I'd like to keep the lock screen unless there's something as good as this one.

I can switch Echo to use my system unlock method instead of its own, but the user experience is kind of crappy there - you have to unlock then also swipe away Echo.

If someone steals/finds my phone, I'd rather not have it unlock automatically for them if I don't remote-wipe it before 6am the next day.

EDIT I'll be getting a Galaxy S6 in a few days to replace the S3, but I'd guess it will have the same issue there as well - but I don't know for sure.

It sounds like you've found a security vulnerability in the Echo lockscreen app. You should contact their support and let them know about it as they will want to fix this.


Can the PIN-input be modified to not display the last character? Since today I have a new Nexus 4, with android 4.2.2. But when I type in my PIN, it always displays the last typed character in the input field. I think that is quite the security risk.  On my old android phone (gingerbread) I was able to turn this behavior off. However, I cannot find this option on my new device. So, is there such an option, and if so, where can I find it?

Start the Settings app. Choose Security from the Personal section. The option you want is called Make passwords visible.


New contact besides Google Contact Every-time I try to add a new contact, my Nexus S force me to put the contact under "Google contact from [my address]@gmail.com". Is there any way to change this? As I am concern on privacy. I do not want to let Google server to have every of my contacts.
After adding new contact, I have to go to "Display options". Under [my address]@gmail.com, there is a no name group (The first group with name is System Group:My Contacts). Is there any way I can assign name to the no name group?

You should get the option to add them unsynced.  Like this:


Dial 7 digits in an area requiring 10 digits My area code(402) is going to be requiring everyone to dial 10 digits soon because we're getting an area code overlay(your next door neighbor could have a 531 area code). However, at first everyone will have a 402 area code.

I would like to only dial 7 digits, and for the phone to see 7 digits and prepend 402. So I would tap buttons for 867-5309 and it would dial as if I had tapped 402-867-5309. Is there a way to make my Incredible do this?

Try the Dialer One app. It is a pretty good 'Phone' replacement app. Under 'Advanced Settings' there is an option to specify 'Phone prefix'. This prefix will be added when you long click the call button. I tested by setting the prefix to '402'. I typed '8675309' and then long pressed the call button. It prefixed '402' and the number became '4028675309'. You can press the call button again to call the number.


SIM card contacts take time to load after turning phone on Device: MMX A89
Android: 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich

Whenever I switch off the phone, then switch it on, SIM card contacts takes a long time to load. They don't load properly. In the call list, only phone numbers are shown and not the names associated with them.

How can I fix this problem?

That's normal behaviour for the SIM card phone book, not just for Android, but on older dumbphones too. I remember my old Nokia 3310 took about a minute after booting before the phone book (and other SIM card functions) became available. The problem wasn't really noticeable on early Android phones because they took so long to boot anyway. While the phones are a lot quicker now, the SIM cards are still the same old technology.

If you want to get at them more quickly, either leave your phone turned on, or copy them to the device.


Flashing a 'generic' TWRP Long story short, my phone (Pantech IM-100) does not have a device-specific TWRP and I wish to root with SuperSU.

Do I risk bricking my phone if I fastboot just any TWRP version? My impression was that the fastboot command differs from flash, hence it does not overwrite stock recovery and is only temporary.

Thanks.

It is highly recommended not to do so. The TWRP is a touch-based recovery, meaning that it needs to initialize touch screen (actually every related hardware) before showing the main menu. If you insist on flashing a 'generic' TWRP to your specific, non-matching device, you will end up getting stuck and your recovery will never boot until you flash another compatible one.
The same applies to CWM as it's button-based. Given that different devices often have different volume keys & power key mapping & signals, some devices can share their CWMs but not all of them.
You had better contact the TWRP dev team or do some searches in the XDA forum, with the hope that someone might have already adopted TWRP to your device.

Edit 1: Thanks to @AndyYan who pointed out a mistake in this post. Corrected now.


How do I transfer data from a android phone to a mac? I have a sony xperia z5, and I need to transfer five videos, from this phone to my mac, so that I can edit them. Problem is, I don't know how to.

You can send emails containing the videos on your phone and then download them on your Mac.

Or you can use bluetooth to share from phone to mac.

Or you can transfer with an app that can connect phone to Mac without USB.


Is Factory reset can fix my problem? I installed lucky patcher and and there's an option there says Install Modded Playstore
then I try what is that then after a while it prompts an error it says not enough space in \system and when I go back in menu I noticed that Play store has gone now Im asking is factory reset can help me in getting back of that play store?
Device:Cloudpad 700

A factory restore will likely not help fix your problem, as the error is within the /system folder, and a factory reset only wipes /data.

In Lucky Patcher, you should have an option to revert non-integrated patches of an app from Lucky Patcher > [App] > Open menu of patches > Remove ODEX with changes.

If that doesn't work:
You are going to have to manually reinstall the Play Store, which can be found here.


Check if emulator is using kvm in android studio I have followed all the instructions from here and here for enabling kvm for android studio to enable vm acceleration.

Still I suspect that when I start android studio it isn't using kvm because on starting it, in the Run box at the bottom the command executed is

  /root/Android/Sdk/tools/emulator -netdelay none -netspeed full -avd Nexus_5_API_21_x86

I don't see the -qemu -m 512 -enable-kvm option appended to it. Is there a way to check if it's actually using vm acceleration?

I just checked if the file /dev/kvm was opened before and after the emulator started:

sudo lsof -n | grep /dev/kvm


Nexus 5 Location has not updated for months? I have a Nexus 5 running on 5.1.1 but the location has not updated for the past couple months, traveled out of town but still in-state, then came back and the city never updated, so now Google Now doesn't display the current weather and things like Yahoo Weather show either the wrong location or no location.

Tried to find fixes online but most posts are out of date or about some other issue related to location, the phone's location simply isn't updating at all. This also makes things like Google Maps and Navigation useless.

Would appreciate any help, again it's just stock Android and I don't have a ton of experience flashing the OS or changing these settings.

Thanks so much!

Okay, just figured it out. For some reason I had Location set to "Device only" and the subtext below this says "Use GPS to determine your location." Seems like this should still update the location, but like I said in my question, it simply hadn't updated the current city for months.

SOLUTION:
Fixed it simply by switching to "Battery saving" mode. Obviously "High accuracy" would work too.

I'm not sure why the GPS feature under "Device only" wouldn't be able to find my location, maybe my GPS component is malfunctioning. Either way, it's fixed now.


How does Android OS do DNS name resolution? I am learning about how Windows does name resolution and need to know how Android does it so an app will work on my Windows laptop and from my Android Phone.

Borrowing from a post on superuser.com, the normal resolution method on windows is as follows:

  The client checks to see if the name queried is its own.
  The client then searches a local Hosts file, a list of IP address and names stored on the local computer.
  Domain Name System (DNS) servers are queried.
  If the name is still not resolved, NetBIOS name resolution sequence is used as a backup. This order can be changed by configuring the NetBIOS node type of the client.

I use dnsmasq to provide local DNS resolution so I can map my own made up hostnames to local LAN IP addresses. This also allows me to see, in the dnsmasq log file, the DNS query that goes from the client to the DNS server. While testing the website from my phone I could swear using the URL address http://mywebsite in a Chrome browser on the phone was loading the website and the dnsmasq log showed just that unqualified name - mywebsite - resolving to the desired local IP address the web server is at.

However that was a few days ago, now the dnsmasq log always shows that the DHCP server DNS suffix [home] has been appended. So I see mywebsite.home in the dnsmasq log even though I used the URL address http://mywebsite in the phones Chrome browser. I didn't change anything with the phone. It is still set up to get its IP address via DHCP, in practice it never changes.

So my questions are:

How does Android OS resolve domain names to IP addresses - what things does it try and in what order?
Any feedback on why Android seemed to be resolving the unqualified hostname in my browser originally without any DNS suffix being appended. But now the [home] suffix is always appended as reported in the dnsmasq log file.

Update 1

After some more testing I have again seen the scenario where the webpage http://mymovies loads from the Android phone but the dnsmasq log appears to show the name resolution happening on an unqualified domain name (bare hostname: mymovies).

The x's are my redacted routers public IP address.

Can anyone explain what dnsmasq is doing here?

Starting from 02:07:22 it initially seems to try resolving the name mymovies.home. This makes sense because the phones IP is dynamically allocated by the DHCP server and I can see on my laptop that the DHCP server sends the DNS suffix [home] as the connection-specific DNS suffix so it must be doing the same to the phone I guess?

The reason why it fails here is because I do not have an entry for mymovies.home in dnsmasq.conf - I commented it out. I DO have an address entry for mymovies in dnsmasq.conf and that seems to be why it can resolve mymovies to an IP address.
Is this a difference of name resolution in Android compared with Windows - that eventually Android OS WILL try to resolve an unqualified domain name (bare hostname) to an IP address?

How DNS queries made by a program are being resolved isn't specific to an OS, but depends on the resolver library the program is using. DNS resolvers have traditionally been part of OS's standard C library e.g. Bionic on Android, libcmt on Windows, glibc, musl, dietlibc, uClibc and others on Linux. Not all C libraries use the same approach to resolve host/domain names. While glibc and alike provide complicated but highly configurable mechanisms like Name Service Switch, others just rely on hosts and DNS queries to upstream nameserver as configured in /etc/resolv.conf. Android's resolver (1, 2) looks up cache, hosts and DNS:

"DNS lookups are centralized in the netd daemon to allow for system-wide caching, while apps call functions (such as getaddrinfo) in Bionic. The query is sent over a UNIX socket to /dev/socket/dnsproxyd to the netd daemon, which parses the request and calls getaddrinfo again to issue DNS lookups, then caches the results so that other apps can use them."

DNS server address is either received through PDP context on Mobile Data or through DHCP on Wi-Fi (also possibly to set manually) or the hard-coded value 8.8.8.8 is used. Since Android 9 Private DNS (DNS over TLS) may also be configured in Settings. It's also possible to set DNS and domain name using ndc resolver setnetdns command. See more details in How to configure DNS properly?.

dnsmasq log always shows that the DHCP server DNS suffix [home] has been appended

.home suffix is being provided by your DHCP server (router?) to Android as part of DHCP request (code 15). Android's DHCP client asks server for option 6 (domain name server) and option 15 (domain name), which are then forwarded to C library (_resolv_set_nameservers_for_net) through DnsManager, NetworkManagementService and netd.
On Linux DHCP client (e.g. dhcpcd) modifies resolv.conf itself or uses a program like resolvconf which is dedicated to manage resolv.conf. nameserver keyword defines DNS server and search defines search list for host-name lookup (DHCP option 119 or 15). Android uses default values hard-coded in different header files other than those received from DHCP or set manually.
Windows's DHCP client and DNS resolver support option 15. Additional configurations which are honored by DNS Client service (dnscache) and library can be made through Network Connections or Group Policy Editor or Registry Editor.

Is this a difference of name resolution in Android compared with Windows - that eventually Android OS WILL try to resolve an unqualified domain name (bare hostname) to an IP address?

As far as I have seen this is almost standard behavior for Linux libc's. Android's DNS resolver code is also based on NetBSD - another Linux-like operating system. A single-label unqualified name is first tried with DNS suffix appended, then tried without suffix 4 times (see "options attempts:n" for resolv.conf). For multi-label name the order is reversed while a FQDN (with trailing .) is never tried with suffix. On Windows you can append dot to unqualified name so that it's treated as FQDN. It's possible to set it as default behavior by adding dot (.) to "DNS suffix for this connection". See also for Multi-Label Name Queries.

I am learning about how Windows does name resolution and need to know how Android does it

As stated in the start, name resolution might not be persistent across whole OS. On Android, for instance, Firefox or Chrome will be depending on Bionic resolver while some busybox ping (or even some native libraries included with GUI apps) will be trying to read resolv.conf and make DNS queries directly.
Also network troubleshooting tools like ping and getent rely on OS's internal resolver libraries like NSS, while DNS diagnostic tools like nslookup, dig and host act as independent DNS clients - they don't read hosts file and may not honor resolv.conf in its entirety. dig provides commandline arguments to (not) use options set in resolv.conf, and similarly Windows nslookup has its own built-in resolver.
So even on same OS you can't expect same DNS resolution behavior when using different GUI/CLI programs because they could be using different libc and/or different resolver and/or different configuration.

RELATED:

How to ping a local network host by hostname?


Samsung Galaxy S GTI-9003 spontaneously reboots My Samsung Galaxy S GTI-9003 spontaneously reboots itself with different time intervals. The boot cycle does not complete and freezes at Samsung Logo.

When I take off the battery and switch it back on, all the data is gone, the phone is literally formatted.

I have tried several options like factory reset, changed the sim card, removed memory card but nothing is working.

Appreciate help from Enthusiasts

Are you familiar with adb tools from the Android SDK? What you'll need is logging from your device as a starting point.

The easy way

There are tools available (apk's) that can be installed from the Google Play store to read out the logcat. The 2 first hits on Google play look useful:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.jtb.alogcat

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nolanlawson.logcat

However this logcat is usually cleared on each reboot so that might not be your best option.

The better way

More information will be retrieved using command line tools like adb from the google Android SDK.

A quick step by step guide

Download Android SDK from http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html (If you're not planning to develop go for the "Download for other platforms" > "SDK Tools Only" option on that page)
Follow the installation instructions (download, extract)
Have your android device connected to your computer using an USB cable (check if drivers are needed for your environment)
Navigate to the platform-tools folder and execute the adb command with the following arguments:

adb bugreport > bugreport.txt

That should create a bugreport.txt file within you current directory. Post that information here (check for personal information first though).

For more information about the adb tools check http://developer.android.com/tools/help/adb.html


How to remove all Google-specific apps from a rooted Android? Some time ago I read somewhere that Chinese carriers are removing Google-specific software (Google Search, Google Play, etc) from Android devices they carry.

What I wanted to know is if this is difficult to do on already rooted Android tablets?

I know that I can log into a rooted Android tablet through a USB cable and delete packages, I am just not sure which ones can be deleted without causing dependency issues.

Is it sufficient to delete Velvet.apk, or do other ones need to be deleted to remove all out-of-the box Google apps?

You can install an app like Root Uninstaller or Link2SD and remove any unwanted system apps from there. It is typically safe to remove:

Cloud Print
Drive
Google Photos
Google Play Books
Google Play Games
Google Play Magazines
Google Play Movies & TV
Google Play Music
Google Play Store
Google Photos
Google Search
Google Text-to-speech Engine
Google+
Google Text-to-speech Engine
Hangouts/Talk
Translate
YouTube

Be careful, removing these may break some functionality:

Gmail (reinstalling as user app may break functionality)
Google Backup Transport
Google Calendar Sync
Google Contacts Sync
Google Maps
Google Now Launcher (do only if there's an alternate launcher installed as system app)
Google One Time Init
Street View

Do not remove these:

Google Account Manager (causes FC's if you don't remove other gapps)
Google Partner Setup (may cause unexplained crashes)
Google Play Services (causes FC's if you don't remove other related gapps)
Google Services Framework (may cause crashes if you don't remove other gapps)
Setup Wizard

You may want to disable these apps first (Settings > Apps > All > [Selected system app] > Disable) or Freeze using Link2SD to test functionality with those apps removed.

Thanks to user1261104's comment for contribution to this answer.


Touch lags in all apps, except keyboard I've noticed a delay of about a quarter of a second between tapping the screen and the app responding. Thud happens in all apps - it's most obvious in the game "aa", a fast, reflex-based game which is essentially unplayable with so much lag. The lag is also clearly visible in CyanogenMod's calculator app, where it clearly can't be attributed to complex or expensive rendering.

The only place I don't see the lag is the keyboard - keypresses register instantly.

Rebooting the phone in safe mode does not solve the problem.

I figured out the cause as I was writing the question - the "triple tap to zoom" accessibility feature was enabled. This means that the phone can't register any taps until waiting to make sure there isn't another tap.

Disabling this feature removed the delay.


How to Install Android OS on mobile I bought Android phone called KUBAO  (Chinese phones model)
Its says that it has Android Version 4.1.1
But its in Chinese Language in menu & when I change it to English language then its shows some items only in English version.

Now I need to install fresh Android copy on my mobile.
[ I mean like format PC and install linux or windows on my PC :) ]

I heard some words like root phone is it mean format phone.?

Please send me a link to download Android OS also if i'm following incorrect link.
I used this link for download Android OS

I have USB cable and SD card for use with phone, but haven't got an application like PC Suite. I downloaded MOBOROBO which I can use as a file explorer, but it doesn't have the permissions to create or edit files in Phone memory.

Here is a picture of the phone:

Please help me to sort out this issue. I use Google but I got only results for install android OS on PC :-) so I think here is the best place to resolve me problem

You can't install Android like Windows or Linux - every handset is a little bit different due to hardware and carrier changes.  You could call technical support for your phone to find out how to change the language (easy option), or find a ROM to install that has what you want (much harder option).


How to confirm WiFi data is being used, not data plan? How can I confirm that I am using data only on WiFi?

In other words, I am connected to WiFi at home and work, yet I get notices that I am close to hitting my data plan's max limit.  Is there a way to somehow confirm that my data is being sent via WiFi when at home/work?

When connected to WiFi, even if the signal strength is say 1% of the WiFi connection, it's my understanding that my cell data plan will not be used until the phone disconnects from the WiFi, correct?

I know there's a way to see the amount of data sent over WiFi and the Data Plan, but I'm wondering if there's a way to somehow confirm that I'm on WiFi and the data is actually being sent via WiFi, and not using my data plan at all (without turning off the Data Plan in settings).

I'm just basically trying to confirm that my data is all going over WiFi, and not Data Plan, when connected to a WiFi Router (with any signal strength).

I use a Galaxy S5 running Android 6 (Marshmallow) and my phone has different icons for wifi and data.

My phone also has little arrows that turn white if there are packets are being uploaded or download.

You can see data usage by app in the data usage setting.

And if you find that an application decides to use a lot of background without telling/asking you, you can click on it, and disable background data.


How can I install apps from unknown sources using my Google account on the web? I was wondering whether or not I can somehow remotely install applications from "unknown sources" i.e not having to copy the .apk file onto my device and then installing.

For example, using the Google Playstore on the web, I can manage all my apps using a browser on my laptop or pc. However those are in-store apps. How would I go about installing out-side the store apps remotely on my device using Google account (if that's even possible), or perhaps any other way without having to physically connect my device or having the .apk on my device.

Note
*Since it obviously isn't possible to do it from the playstore using a browser as it only allows playstore apps to be installed, any app would do. *

If your device is rooted, you can create Install Job in SureMDM.

Step 1: Create an free account here.
Step 2: Install Mobile agent here.
Step 3: Login to Web admin console here.
Step 4: Click on Jobs on Utility panel.
Step 5: New Job > Android > Install program > Job name > Local File path.
Step 6: Apply the job.
Step 7: You can verify the status of Install Job in the System Log.
It works


How to change the (permanent) MAC address on my android phone? In the past months, I've got 2 Chinese Android cells (Froyo) based on MTK6515. They work fine but we started having lot of trouble attempting access to internet, and after a while I found out that both phones they have the same MAC address, which causes connection problems. So, I'm looking for a procedure that could change the devices' MAC addresses and solve our trouble.

I found a method which involves changing the file at /etc/wl/NVRAM.TXT, but after referencing a couple posts around the webs, it turns out my phones do not have this folder (and thus the other files inside). Any clue?

Please don't tell me a pray about that MAC addresses are burned into a chip, at least not in these devices, because I've already lost their IMEI's too (by hard reset), but I've recovered them and they're functional now.

I found a tutorial on MAC address spoofing at XDA that might be helpful:

  REQUIREMENTS

  1) ROOTED PHONE 2) BUSYBOX INSTALLED 3) Terminal App

  OPEN UP TERMINAL AND WRITE

  :su :busybox iplink show eth0

  (THIS WILL SHOW YOUR CURRENT MAC ADDRESS)

  NOW TYPE IN

  :busybox ifconfig eth0 hw ether 00:11:22:33:44:55

  (INSTEAD OF 00:11:22:33:44:55, YOU CAN WRITE YOUR WANTED ADDRESS)

  CONGRATULATION, YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY SPOOFED YOUR MAC ADDRESS!

  YOU CAN CHECK YOUR MAC ADDRESS BY TYPING

  :busybox iplink show eth0

I don't think this is permanent however.  I did find another guide on Android Forums that seems to be permanent:

  After your rooted head into terminal emulation type su and go into
  /data/misc/wifi

  Look for a file called nvram.txt

  Copy it to your sdcard and then to your cpu desktop open it with
  notepad and at the bottom of nvram.txt is the mac address

  This i was able to verify and test on android Citrus Ciena

  Edit that mac address and save it as nvram1.txt onto sdcard

  Now go back to data wifi misc and copy nvram.txt to nvram.bak

  Head into gui and then settings then wifi then turn on the wifi but
  don't connect to any wifi

  turn off the wifi,switch back to terminal

  Copy the nvram1.txt to data misc wifi

  remove the original (make sure you got it backed up)

  Rename nvram1.txt to nvram.txt

  head back into gui and then settings then wifi

  Now for me it immediately stated unable to turn on wifi

  Ignore it and try to turn it on anyways

  When it turns on your newly edited mac address will take effect

  Connect to your AP

  NOW B4 REBOOTING YOU MUST CHANGE NVRAM BACK TO THE ORIGINAL!


Accidentally Deleted Voice-to-Text app for Samsung Galaxy SIII I was running out of memory on my phone, and so went through all my apps and deleted those I didn't use to create more room....apparently, by doing so, I deleted the app that lets me voice-to-text on text messages or even search by voice in google chrome.

Can someone help me fix this without resetting my phone to factory settings???

Not to wake an old thread but I was looking for the solution to this same problem and wasn't finding a solution. I had disabled my Google  app , turning it back on fixed my issue. Settings,applications,all and find "google app"


Why CM13 of Oneplus 2 resets itself Setting Show pattern dots? I found out that CM loses often its setting about the visibility of security dots in the lock screen.
This is frustrating because I am using 6x6 net with a difficult pattern. It is challenging to pass the login.
Cases where I have seen that CM forgets the setting

Install any app of unknown sources etc Amazon underground
Leave the setting of unknown sources open

I managed to pass the code without the dots after 20 attempts. The phone had reseted the setting Show pattern dots.
Other changes in the phone

I see only the dot pattern in the lock screen, nothing else; before, I saw Camera and Phone at the bottom bar in Fig. 1

Fig. 1 Lock Screen now, Fig. 2 Settings in Lock Screen View 1, Fig. 3 Settings in Lock Screen View 2

Phone: Oneplus 2
OS: Cyanogenmod 13

This issues was an internal issue in OnePlus with Android 6.


No Google Play Store on Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830 I have a phone, Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830, with an Android version of 2.2.1 Froyo.

I do not have Google Play app on my phone. Can I install Google Play app with this specific Android version?  If not, how can I do it?

I just don't want to use the manufacturer's product. There must be a way.

You can install a "minimal Google Play"

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1918484


Add fonts to Hancom office, Samsung Galaxy Note Pro I have a Samsung Galaxy Note Pro, which came with Hancom office.
I write many multilingual documents and the fonts that are available are just boring. I have many fonts, (.ttf and .otf) that I have downloaded but cannot use them.
Is there a way to use these fonts with Hancom's office for Android?

Font directory is /storage/emulated/0/.Hnc/HOffice9/Shared/Fonts.
To add additional user fonts, put the fonts in this folder.


Unfortunately Google play store has stopped working on one plus x After updating my One Plus X to Android 6,
unfortunately Google play store has stopped working error pops-up
and I can't open Google play store.

I tried all the methods. Please help me.

Disable Google +... Settings>apps>Google + and then reboot


Phone restarting over and over after rooting Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830i I rooted my Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830i from the link given below-
http://theunlockr.com/2012/11/22/how-to-root-the-samsung-galaxy-ace-s5830/

However after rooting it, it is restarting again and again.
I unrooted it but still the same problem exists.

I even factory reset my Android phone. But still the phone restarts!

If you have a bootloop (samsung logo looping), it is because you messed up the rooting procedure. I had this problem when I tried to root a relative's Ace.

Since you've tried factory reset and it doesn't work, enter recovery mode and do factory reset. (recovery mode: press and hold volume down + power button for 15 seconds, navigate up/down by volume button and power button to select). Reboot and see if it fixes the issue.

If it does not, there are two options: flash CWM from recovery (here's the CWM zip file to flash from stock recovery), then reboot to CWM and install a custom ROM. This is what I did, as I wanted to load CM7 anyway.

If you want stock, download Odin, get stock firmware from sammobile.com or XDA forums (look for Developmet section under your device specific forum) and flash it.


Install default Android 2.2 / 2.3 on Optimus One I have this LG Optimus One P500h and I was thinking about formatting and installing the default/original Android 2.2 (2.3 would be great) since LG modified the homescreen, keyboard and other stuffs.

Is this possible? Is this safe? Is this insane?

Thanks for your help

There's a "beta" version of CyanogenMod 7 for the Optimus One over at the XDA forums which you could try out. There also appear to be a couple of builds that are derived from CM but mix in different tweaks and patches to the kernel and whatnot (one such build here, also Gingerbread).

CyanogenMod - if you're not already familiar with it - is essentially a vanilla Android experience but with some nice additional settings and improvements. They build from the Android source code and then add some patches of their own. I think one of the few plainly noticeable differences is that they use ADW Launcher as a home app instead of the stock Gingerbread one, but I think the GB launcher is floating around on the Market somewhere. ADW is nice anyway, though.


Toggling USB mass storage on (or off) via adb commands Background: I have a USB stick Android device (e.g. RikoMagic) which I mostly run in "headless" mode. Among other things, I've already figured out how to shut it down via a combination of adb and the internal "am" command:

adb shell am start -n android/com.android.server.ShutdownActivity

I'm now trying to figure out how to turn USB mass storage support on and off. I've got as far as having the USB storage activity window pop up via the following command:

adb shell am start -n com.android.systemui/.usb.UsbStorageActivity

Unfortunately I haven't been able to figure out how to send the equivalent "intent" to actually "unmount" or "unshare" the shared volume (or "mount" or "share" it for that matter). The following command does nothing:

adb shell am start -n com.android.systemui/.usb.UsbStorageActivity -a android.intent.action.MEDIA_UNSHARED file:///mnt/sdcard

What am I doing wrong? What's the magic incantation to mount/unmount the internal storage of an Android device?

Note 1: I know there's the obvious Linux "mount"/"umount" command. However, simply mounting or unmounting the volume won't trigger system functions vital to, for example, restarting or stopping apps that have been moved to the SD card. A "umount" will probably fail anyway when an app in the SD card is still active.

Note 2: Apparently there's a "setprop" command that can enable/disable USB mass storage support UNTIL the next reboot. Again, this all or nothing approach isn't what I'm looking for but the ability to toggle USB mass storage on and off during a single session, as can be done by the touch interface.

adb shell setprop sys.usb.config mass_storage

Alas, the UsbStorageActivity doesn't use an intent to enable and disable USB mass storage, so there's no way to achieve this using am. It instead calls the functions StorageManager.enableUsbMassStorage and `StorageManager.disableUsbMassStorage to do its work. As these functions are hidden in the framework, it's not possible to write an app to do this, either. As far as I know, there's no existing command to do this.

It might be possible to write an app that offers a command-line interface and uses the bound system service MountService to call its setUsbMassStorageEnabled function, but that would be way off-topic for this site.


What is “logo” partition on lenovo phone? Don't remove this question please, it was previously removed from a programming board and I don't know where else to ask.

What is a logo partition and what is the format of it?

The header of the 8Mb partition:

00000000   88 16 88 58  C2 8A 0A 00  ...X....
00000008   4C 4F 47 4F  00 00 00 00  LOGO....

I guess it is a bootscreen picture, right ? What is the format of this image ?

1. What is “logo” partition on a lenovo phone?

The logo partition (based on my experience with Mediatek devices) contains :

The very first boot logo (not the Boot Animation)
Battery Charging Sequences (many png images).
Second boot logo (boot_logo file).
Battery charging digits and percentage sign (each digit or sign has its own image).
(For devices supporting Fast Charge) Fast charging sequences (many png images)

  2. I guess it is a bootscreen picture, right ?

Not the boot logo only, It contains many images.

  3. What is the format of this image ?

Not one image only, all of them are PNG files.

  4. Additional details

88 16 88 58 is the partition offset.

C2 8A 0A 00 is the partition size, this is little endian byte order.

4C 4F 47 4F is the partition name.

I can't confirm if this is Mediatek specific or not.

Mediatek MT65xx/MT67xx Logo Editor

If you wish to change the very first boot logo (not the boot animation) of your device based on MT65xx/MT67xx platforms. Try LogoBuilder.

LogoBuilder can unpack and repack your logo.bin file which contains :

Boot logo
Battery Charging Sequences.
Second boot logo (boot_logo file).

LogoBuilder is simple to use:

Unpack your logo.bin file.
Edit what you want.
Re-pack it.

The LogoBuilder can make an update.zip to flash your new logo.bin file with a custom recovery.

Edit:

While you're not satisfied with the answer, read about deflate compression  before spamming the forum with comments/questions.
For further reading, I suggest: The help vampire problem


How can I install an app directly on my SD card? I would like to install a 4.0Go app but my internal memory only has less than 1.0Go free. However, my SD card has 32.0Go free space. How do i install the app? I have a Motorola 2G

This is only allowable with certain apps, on a per app basis. if the app doesn't allow it, you can't move it to run/work on an external SD card.


How to manually disable or hide the system bar (menu bar) at the bottom of the screen? I am using an ASUS Transformer TF300 with Android 4.1.1, and there is an app that shows the playing cards at the bottom of the screen, and show the "Continue" button when the card game is finished.

But the playing cards are half hidden by the system bar, and this "Continue" button is hidden by the system bar mostly, except about 2mm is showing, so it is kind of difficult to press the button.

Is there a way to tell the system bar / menu bar to hide itself?  I also went to the settings and set the "System bar lock" to off, but somehow the bar is still showing.

this system bar is part of Android, and is used when the device doesn't have any hardware buttons to press.

As such, it cannot be hidden.

It shouldn't, however, impact upon gameplay - this is an issue with the app, and you should contact the app developer to have it fixed.


While using CWM recovery on my nook touch I foolishly used a tool that wiped my entire partition, how do I fix it? My nook simple touch has been bricked by a tool designed to wipe all partitions that I found on a deep google search.

I can still boot up into CWM and attempted to use the backup to restore my nook to previous conditions.

Its obviously a vain attempt at this point to try anything else as I was capable to mount my internal nook partitions onto my ancient laptop.

The nook's partitions show up as unallocated on gparted.

I fixed my problem by downloading a tool called noogie. You burn it onto the sdcard and on bootup you connect your working nook to a computer; preferably a Linux environment like Ubuntu and go to a program called Disks.

You create a disk image file saved to your preferable location. After the image is complete you safely disconnect the nook and boot up onto noogie on the bricked nook and flash the image with the dd command. Using gparted or disk will pinpoint the location necessary for the text command. I would not recommend using the burn image option on the disk program as it will launch errors.

After the image is complete use the dd command to burn the image to the bricked nook's location.

sudo dd  if=/location/restore.img of=/dev/nook_location

The link below will give you the recovery tools needed.

https://code.google.com/archive/p/nst-recovery/downloads


Unlocking from kids mode back to factory settings My grandkids installed and lock kids mode on my galaxy tab4. I however don't know the password.  How can I unlock this back to factory setting??

this link should help you under the : "Master reset using the hardware keys" part.
However be sure to backup all the data you want to keep before resetting.

Master Reset Steps


How To Make Android Based Smartphone Consume Less Mobile Internet Bandwidth? Control

I want to have full control over applications and have them ask whether or not i allow them to access mobile internet. I also want to disable automatic updates but enable updates notifications to i can know if update is available and deside to update or not.

Bandwidth Optimization

What is appropriate browser that consumes less bandwidth but at the same time still delivers satisfying experience and compatibility with websites?

Internet Usage Profile

Is there a way to set custom profile for smartphone when connected with specific connection method? Example:

1st Internet Data Plan

If i connect with Wi-Fi the apps and services are allowed full unrestricted internet access.

2nd Internet Data Plan

If i connect through mobile internet, everything has limited access - apps, syncronization, background services etc. And requires permission from me.

Droidwall is what you want! It allows you to control which apps can and cannot access the internet, and the new version (the one i linked) enables data types, so you can allow an app to access the internet all the time, just on 3g, just on Wifi, or never.


Free system information for Android such as Everest for Windows There is any apk that shows the system and hardware information about my Adroid phone??? I mean an aplication such as Everest (or msinfo32) does for Windows.

Try Android system Info.

You will me amazed how much information this application provides.


Android 4.2.1 - Operating System Storage is occupying too much space Dunno if this is a proper question to ask here, my problem is about the storage of my android on the internal memory. I have 16gigs of sd card, 16 gigs internal storage as well, but I am seeing this on my android's storage settings:

It looks so weird and I cant install apps, even though I choose sdcard for storage/installation location.

The brand is Coolpad 8903, possibly not on sale anywhere out of China, but this looks like os issue i suppose...

anyone knows how to fix this problem so i can free some storage?

That device is partitioned very oddly.  It looks like they took 4GB and left it to device storage, and then the other 12GB are partitioned for an internal SD card.

That's about the correct size that the Android system would be using - but what is troubling is that they only left ~1GB or so for user-installable applications.  I doubt there are any ROMs or recoveries available for your device, so I think the best solution would be to move as many applications as you can over to your SD card, therefore freeing up space to download more (and then subsequently move them as well).


Can I change the gmail account associated with google play store? When I got my android phone I had a gmail account, gmail-1, but have now created another account, gmail-2. Is it possible to transfer my play store info (i.e. app download history) from gmail-1 to gmail-2 and set gmail-2 as my primary email?

Google has this to say on transferring data between accounts.

It lists certain types of data that CAN be transferred and certain types of data that CAN NOT be transferred. Unfortunately Google Play Apps falls into the NOT category.

It's conveniently titled Moving Product Data.


How to debug boot loop? I have a boot looping Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini LTE (also known as GT-i9195 or serranoltexx – this is not GT-i9195i or serranoveltexx).

Current behavior: when the phone is off, pressing power button results to normal boot screen with usual yellow text in the top left corner about custom kernel ("Set Warranty Bit : kernel"). The screen stays in this view for around 20 seconds, turns to black, vibration motor runs for two short periods and the system reboots. I guess the system is failing to boot until hardware watchdog resets the system due timeout exeeding. If I boot with Volume down + Home + Power held, the phone enters into download mode as usual. And if I boot with Volume up + Home + Power held, the phone enters recovery mode (TWRP version 3.3.1.0) where everything seems to work as usual, too. I was running LineageOS 16 (Android 9.0) with SELinux enforcement enabled with June 2019 security patches. The system has XXUCOL3 modem firmware if I remember correctly.

In the end, I can successfully boot into download mode and into TWRP recovery. However, the system started to fail to boot to normal system after normal shutdown-restart cycle and the system was working okay before shutdown. Is there any way to diagnose and possibly fix the problem without wiping all the data?

Steps that I've already tried:

Wiping Art/Dalwik Cache, Cache partition and System partition and re-installing full system image via TWRP.
Removing battery
Booting with SIM card and sdcard removed

I really want to understand why this happened to avoid it in the future. I really don't want to have a device that randomly enters this state and the only way to fix it is to wipe the whole device. Being able to bring the current system to usable state without full wipe would be a nice bonus because it avoids reconfiguring all the settings and apps again.

And yes, I know this device is old and I had to previously replace motherboard due emmc chip failing but I really like the form factor and no vendor is nowadays providing similar device. If Sharp Aquos R2 compact didn't have notches on the screen it would be my next phone.

In practice, the only way to debug early boot loops is to read the kernel log as follows:
Minimum steps to get log if you have a working adb and TWRP:

When the device is boot looping, press and hold VOLUME UP + HOME until the boot loop repeats and you get blue "RECOVERY" text in top left corner (specific key sequence will differ depending on actual harware but above should correct for Samsung devices). The important part is that you have to enter the TWRP recovery directly after failed boot and exact steps to do this depend on the hardware. The above example should be correct for all Samsung devices with hardware home button.

Attach the phone to computer with an USB cable and wait for TWRP to finish booting (the order to attach the phone and TWRP booting is not important).

Extract the kernel log from failed boot. Run following on the host computer command line:

The required command for linux host:
adb shell cat /proc/last_kmsg > ~/Desktop/boot-loop-kernel-log.txt

The required command for Windows host:
adb shell cat /proc/last_kmsg > %UserProfile%/Desktop/boot-loop-kernel-log.txt

You'll end up with a file called boot-loop-kernel-log.txt on your desktop which contains the kernel log of failed boot.
This works because /proc/last_kmsg contains the memory contents of previous boot kernel log ring (this works because kernel keeps this log in known memory address and next boot saves the contents of that memory area before writing the new log in the same location). Some vendors put the previous boot kernel log ring to file /sys/fs/pstore/console-ramoops or cat /sys/fs/pstore/console-ramoops-0 so you may need to do
adb shell cat '/sys/fs/pstore/console-ramoops*' > ~/Desktop/boot-loop-kernel-log.txt

instead, but the idea is still the same. Obviously, if the hardware overwrites all memory with zeros on boot, this cannot work.
In my specific boot looping case the problem was caused by "Live Display" color correction failing during boot process if its settings had been changed from the default. With that specific problem, the workaround was to boot to recovery and execute following as root
rm /data/vendor/display/.displaymodedefault

Long version of instructions to acquire boot log during a boot loop: https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1520508


Gallery and Google Photo Syncing Samsung S5. I have Google Photos set to backup my Pictures folder when on WiFi and power.

Day 1: Take several photos. Backup takes place overnight.

Day 2: Take more photos and delete some photos from Day 1 from device. Backup overnight.

Day 3: All Day 1 and 2 photos are in the cloud. Those I deleted from the device are not/never deleted from the cloud.

How can I get Photos to sync with Gallery by also deleting photos I've deleted locally?

Depends on your Google Photos app version. As of v1.23, deleting local gallery photos should prompt you -- Read more about it here

As quoted in the article --

  Say you took a few photos on your phone and they're already backed up
  to Google Photos. Then you went through another gallery app (if you
  use the Samsung or LG or HTC Gallery apps or another third-party
  client) and deleted the ones you didn't want to keep. The images would
  still be backed up in your Google Photos account.

  Now, Photos is smart to realize that this has happened and suggests it
  removes them too. For example, you may want to do that for burst
  photos that you don't want in your account or for random shots that
  you only needed for a couple of days. But you don't want to do that
  for photos that you want to save but just removed because you're
  freeing up space on your device. That's why it's great that this is an
  optional card and not an automatic action.

You've set up google photos to backup over wifi and when charging. So the next day you delete the photos via a different gallery app, google does not have an idea that you've actually deleted them locally.

If you want to delete local copy while retaining the cloud copy, continue what you're doing now.

If you want to delete cloud + local copy, one of many ways would be to delete it from the photos app.

Open photos
Select the photos you would like to delete
Tap on the 3 dot overflow menu on the top right of the screen
Select "delete device copy"
Tap on the bin icon at the top to delete the cloud copy as well.


External keyboard for Galaxy tablet 2 7.0 I'm trying to use an external keyboard with my Galaxy tablet 2 7.0.

My tablet isn't detecting the keyboard, but it works when I plug it into my computer. This keyboard uses a normal USB male to connect, but my tablet uses samsung 30-pin to male. So, I bought a female-to-female adapter. I'm assuming this is the equivalent of a USB OTG adapter but still no joy.

How do I get this keyboard to work?

A female-to-female USB adaptor can't fill the role of a USB-on-the-go cable. A device that uses USB-OTG has the USB hardware and the drivers needed to act as a USB host or a USB peripheral. The wiring of the USB-OTG cable tells the device which role to act in. (The host side has two pins wired together, but the peripheral side doesn't.)

Most USB peripherals don't have the required hardware or software to act as a USB host. The Samsung Galaxy Tablet 2 7.0 does, but it needs a correctly wired adaptor so that it knows it's supposed to be acting as a host.

Samsung makes and sells a 30-pin to USB host adaptor, so you might be able to find one at your local electronics shop.


can't go to Recovery Mode i have a oppo neo 7 (android 5.1) that doesn't want to go to recovery mode. when i tried to go to recovery mode, it just goes back to normal restart. So i tried using adb, so i used fast boot mode, but it failed it says : wiping userdata...
Creating filesystem with parameters:
    Size: 838860800
    Block size: 4096
    Blocks per group: 32768
    Inodes per group: 7328
    Inode size: 256
    Journal blocks: 3200
    Label:
    Blocks: 204800
    Block groups: 7
    Reserved block group size: 55
Created filesystem with 11/51296 inodes and 6651/204800 blocks
target reported max download size of 134217728 bytes
wiping cache...
Creating filesystem with parameters:
    Size: 167772160
    Block size: 4096
    Blocks per group: 32768
    Inodes per group: 5120
    Inode size: 256
    Journal blocks: 1024
    Label:
    Blocks: 40960
    Block groups: 2
    Reserved block group size: 15
Created filesystem with 11/10240 inodes and 1705/40960 blocks
erasing 'userdata'...
FAILED (remote: unknown command)
finished. total time: 0.002s

One easy way to get to the recovery mode would be to press and hold all the buttons on your device. That would take it into recovery mode.
Using adb you can get to the recovery mode by the below command.

adb reboot recovery


Marshmallow Keeps rebooting. It seems a Stagefright bug. How to know which file causing the bug? So, my phone keeps rebooting when SD Card is inserted. Looking at the logcat, theres lots of:

"FFmpegExtractor" and "stagefright"

before the phone reboots.

What i suspect is that i have corrupted music or video that make stagefright crash and reboot the whole system.

any idea how to know which ones are the problematic file? In the logcat, FFmpegExtractor and stagefright did not list the file that they process :(

thank you!

07-16 22:27:59.603 263-263/? I/FFmpegExtractor: android-source:0xaee2c7b0
07-16 22:27:59.609 263-263/? I/FFmpegExtractor: adjust mime(video/ffmpeg -> audio/ffmpeg)
07-16 22:27:59.609 263-263/? D/FFmpegExtractor: suppoted codec(aac) by official Stagefright
07-16 22:27:59.609 263-263/? D/FFmpegExtractor: ffmpeg detected media content as 'audio/ffmpeg' with confidence 0.08
07-16 22:27:59.889 8571-8581/com.facebook.katana W/art: Suspending all threads took: 5.881ms
07-16 22:27:59.995 8571-8571/com.facebook.katana V/SplashScreenApplication: ceding control to main thread
07-16 22:28:00.007 802-1988/system_process I/ActivityManager: Killing 6810:com.mxtech.videoplayer.ad/u0a123 (adj 13): empty #17
07-16 22:28:00.312 263-989/? I/FFmpegExtractor: android-source:0xb5fa20c0
07-16 22:28:00.322 263-989/? I/FFmpegExtractor: adjust mime(video/mp4 -> audio/mp4a-latm)
07-16 22:28:00.323 263-989/? D/FFmpegExtractor: suppoted codec(aac) by official Stagefright
07-16 22:28:00.323 263-989/? D/FFmpegExtractor: ffmpeg detected media content as 'audio/mp4a-latm' with confidence 0.08
07-16 22:28:00.372 263-1152/? I/FFmpegExtractor: android-source:0xaee2c7b0
07-16 22:28:00.382 263-1152/? I/FFMPEG: [mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 @ 0xaf467200] stream 0, timescale not set
07-16 22:28:00.388 802-812/system_process I/art: Background partial concurrent mark sweep GC freed 107225(6MB) AllocSpace objects, 27(1804KB) LOS objects, 31% free, 34MB/50MB, paused 1.903ms total 174.519ms
07-16 22:28:00.396 263-1152/? I/FFmpegExtractor: adjust mime(video/mp4 -> audio/mp4a-latm)
07-16 22:28:00.396 263-1152/? D/FFmpegExtractor: suppoted codec(aac) by official Stagefright
07-16 22:28:00.397 263-1152/? D/FFmpegExtractor: ffmpeg detected media content as 'audio/mp4a-latm' with confidence 0.08
07-16 22:28:00.449 263-1151/? I/FFmpegExtractor: android-source:0xb5fa20c0
07-16 22:28:00.454 263-1151/? I/FFmpegExtractor: adjust mime(video/ffmpeg -> audio/ffmpeg)
07-16 22:28:00.454 263-1151/? D/FFmpegExtractor: suppoted codec(aac) by official Stagefright
07-16 22:28:00.454 263-1151/? D/FFmpegExtractor: ffmpeg detected media content as 'audio/ffmpeg' with confidence 0.08
07-16 22:28:00.777 264-264/? E/installd: cannot create dir '/mnt/expand/db59b29d-f2da-4ea1-8405-330ab4baae72/user/10/com.noodlecake.altosadventure': File exists
07-16 22:28:00.781 264-264/? E/installd: cannot create dir '/mnt/expand/db59b29d-f2da-4ea1-8405-330ab4baae72/user/11/com.noodlecake.altosadventure': File exists
07-16 22:28:00.784 2217-2217/com.google.android.gms.persistent E/ExecutionCriteria: Package unavailable for task: endpoint='com.google.android.apps.photos/.metasync.periodic.MetaSyncGcoreGcmTaskService'
                                                                                tag='PeriodicLocalMetaSyncTask' : [PENDING] u0
                                                                                Next execution: [early=5380s, expires=16180s], p=21600s/f=10800s.
01-01 00:00:00.000 0-0/? E/Internal: device offline

Turns out the adopted storage is corrupted. Fixed by running FSCK after unmounting it first from storage option menu/setting

fsck.f2fs /dev/block/dm-0


What to do when "Stop Supervision" does not stop supervision in Google Family Link I was using the "Google Family Link" parental-control software to supervise a device.  I wanted to stop supervising the device.  So, in the Family Link parent app, I tapped "stop supervision".

Google sent an email saying that I'd stopped supervision.  But Family Link continued to show a notification on the device saying that it was under supervision, and it still continued to forbid certain actions on the device.

Even rebooting the device didn't help.

What's the solution?

It turns out that the solution was simply to wait for several hours.

Within three hours, the notification disappeared, and it became possible to easily and successfully uninstall Google Family Link from the "child" device.

Edit

I'm not 100% sure, but it seems to me that, on the latest version of Family Link, it's unnecessary to wait even for a few minutes.  Instead, I think it may be enough to simply open the Family Link app on the "child device".  The app should do some checking and immediately realize that supervision has been stopped.


Need to give away Milestone that's rooted, what happens if I do Factory Data Reset? In Settings -> Privacy -> Factory data reset?

I don't mind giving it away rooted, but if it wipes out the Superuser application (hence allowing any app to enter root mode unchecked) would be very very bad.

If it erases that app while leaving it rooted, can I just re-download the .apk and reinstall it afterwards? Or does that procedure unroot the phone? That would be OK too.

It's a Milestone 1 with Motorola's official 2.2 update. I just rooted it so I could use the ClockSync and Screenshot apps.

Depending on the device (and root method), the su binary (which gives your device root) is usually located in /system/xbin/ or /system/bin/ directory, while the Superuser.apk (which acts as a gate keeper, presenting you with a dialog when apps request root permissions) is always in /system/app/.  The /system partition does not get cleared by the Factory Reset process, so it's safe to perform while still retaining root.


Help fixing odd AMOLED screen burn I just picked up a used Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ and when viewing light-colored screens, it's very clear that the keyboard is burnt into the panel with a pinkish hue.

What's the best (free/fastest) course of action to reverse this AMOLED screen's burn-in permanently, short of opening the phone and replacing the display assembly? Is there an app to try, or might inverting colors for a while help?

You have to replace the phone screen, Amoled is famous for not being able to fully recover, in most cases, from burning


Removing Cheshire Police virus scam My Android tablet is locked by a Cheshire Police virus scam ransomware.

How can I remove it? I am in safe mode as I write this.

From Naked Security by Sophos (it's detected as Andr/Koler-A),

  Booting into "Safe mode"

  Method 1

  (Reported to work on Google devices and various Android Open Source Project, or AOSP, derivatives like CyanogenMod.)

  Press and hold the power button as you would to power down or reboot.
  A menu will pop up.
  Tap and hold the “Power off” option.
  If nothing happens try the same with “Reboot”.
  A dialog should appear offering you to reboot in Safe Mode.

  Method 2

  (Reported to work on Samsung Galaxy S4.)

  Power down.
  Turn on and repeatedly tap the soft-button for “Menu.”

  Method 3

  (Reported to work on Samsung Galaxy S3 and others)

  Power down.
  Turn on, then press and hold Volume Down (Galaxy S3 and others), Volume Up (HTC One and others), or Volume Down and Volume Up together (various Motorola devices) when the vendor’s logo appears.

  If you have managed to select Safe Mode, you will see the text “Safe Mode” at the bottom left corner of the screen.

  To get out of Safe Mode, try simply rebooting.

  If that doesn’t work, try rebooting using one of the button-press options listed above, starting with the one you used to engage Safe Mode in the first place.

  What to do when "Safe mode" is active

  This variant of the malware installs itself under the name BaDoink (apparently the name of a well-known online porn service), like this:

  After booting into Safe Mode, third-party apps will no longer show up on the Apps page, as you can see here:

  Go instead to the Settings menu and choose Apps:

  This will bring up a list of downloaded (third-party) apps, including the Koler-infected BaDoink:

  Tap on BaDoink; this won’t run it, but will open up the program’s App Info screen:

  Tap on Uninstall, and you are almost home:

  Choose [OK] to uninstall and you are done.

  You may now reboot out of Safe Mode.

  Hope this helps!


Make me able to choose which images/videos received via WhatsApp to show in my Google Photos Gallery? I am having a problem that drives me crazy. Coming from iOS I had my Photo Gallery, and separated from that I had my WhatsApp App with its chats and images. When I wanted to save some of those images friends sent me, I tapped them and saved them to the Gallery. Now on my Galaxy Note 10 either ALL images received by ALL chats are also shown in my Google Photos App or none of them and within WhatsApp I am TOTALLY unable to safe choosen images manually to my Google Photos Gallery. They do not show up on the Gallery nor any Album.

This drives me crazy!!! Who would want all images one receives beeing shown in the gallery? And who would not be able to store some chosen images to the gallery? How comes Android completely rides aside an obvious desire of a common user?

Is there any solution to this?

Note: I am not talking about automatic download of media in WhatsApp. I am talking about selectively/manually showing/saving media to my Google Photos Gallery.

WhatsApp saves - all photos which are downloaded - to the WhatsApp/Media/WhatsApp Images folder.
The way gallery apps work on Android is that they scan internal storage and any folder which has media files in it are shown in the gallery app. So, similarly, the WhatsApp Media folder shows up for you in the Google Photos app.

Your few options are:

You can copy items from the WhatsApp Media folder and move them to
another folder.
You can manually stop media from certain chats from appearing in your Gallery app. You can set that in chat settings and WhatsApp will move these files to a folder with .nomedia attribute set. So, this media will not show in any gallery app (except file managers).
You can disable all media from all chats from appearing in your Gallery apps. In this case, if you need to specifically save some media items, you will need to manually copy those items from the nomedia folders to your main folder. You will need a file manager for this task.